Sebastian nodded and turned to the other two squires. "I have a few ideas if you are able to help."
Hal had already started to clean up after breakfast. "You just try to keep me out of that kitchen. I have a few dishes I need to make for my Vivi too. They will help with eye fatigue and anxiety."
"You're too good to me," Vivi blew him a kiss.
She looked at Meryn who was still munching away on a cinnamon roll. When the room got silent Meryn looked up. "What?"
Vivi frowned. Shouldn't the small human be doing something? "What are you going to do?" she asked.
Meryn laid out a cloth napkin in an empty basket and started placing cinnamon rolls in its center before folding the sides up. "I'm going to my bat cave to give the twins some cinnamon rolls and let them know their morning lessons with Kendrick are cancelled. He can swing by to get them later for lab work." She scrunched up her nose. "Then I'm going to see what I can do to create a PA system. I'm sure Magnus will want to put out some sort of general announcement fibbing about how everything is 'under control' and those pin message boards they use now on each level suck."
Vivi blinked. She hadn't expected for her to have thought that far ahead. "You're doing very well in staying so calm."
Ryuu coughed and Meryn snorted before giving her a droll look. "I'm not really a people person. I don't know anyone who is sick, so why would I be upset?"
Vivi had no idea what to say to that. Usually, people weren't so blunt about not caring about their fellow man. She found it surprisingly refreshing. "Good luck," she finally said. Meryn waved and headed out the door.
Ryuu turned to Sebastian. "As long as Meryn stays in her bat cave, as it were, you can count on me in the kitchen. I need to prepare her a more healthy snack for later to balance out the obscene amount of sugar she ingested for breakfast."
Vivi turned to Etain. "Can you stay with Meryn on guard duty? If Kendrick makes his way back to the lab he may need Law."
Her mate frowned. "I would rather stay with you, but, unfortunately what you suggest is the best course of action." He turned to Law. "Nothing better happen to my mate under your watch."
Law gave Etain a flat look. "You mean I shouldn't hand her over to the ferals with a bow wrapped around her neck?" he asked sarcastically.
Vivi smiled when her mate's face darkened. When he moved toward the witch, she intercepted him. Wrapping her arms about his waist, she stepped up on tip toe to kiss him. His arms tightened around her, and she enjoyed his embrace for a moment before stepping back. "I'll be perfectly safe in the lab," she paused. "Though I can't say the same for you with the little human. If she throws anything...duck."
Behind her Law chuckled as Etain leaned down to kiss her forehead. "I will do my best to stay out of her way." Reluctantly, she stepped away from her mate and headed toward the lab.
Once in the lab, she went immediately to the refrigeration unit where she placed the previous night's donations. When she opened the door, she was disappointed to see that the stone was only a dark gray. The blood would be ready when the stone turned pitch black. After the stone was finished processing she would remove the bags, and it would need to recharge. They would have to wait until it lightened from black to light gray for it to be used again.
She turned to Law. "We still have some time. By the look of the stone maybe another hour or so. Then we'll have to slowly bring the blood up to temperature."
"Does it normally take this long for the blood to be processed on the stone
?" he asked.
"No, at least it has never taken this long before. I can only assume it's because we are using older blood. There's a lot more potency to it."
"So, what do we do in the mean time?"
"We can prep the injectors. I use jet injectors because they are needle-free, so we should be able to administer quickly once the blood in finished processing."
"Sounds like a plan."
When she checked the blood a half an hour later, the stone was ink black. "We're good." She pulled both the bags of blood and the stone from the refrigerator. She carefully returned the stone back to its case to recharge.
She placed the bags of blood into a water bath unit and set the temperature to one hundred degrees, hotter than a human, but just about right for a shifter. It would cool in a bit in transit, but should still be warm enough to be used.
Placing a sample of each donor on a slide, she observed them carefully under the microscope. In vampire blood, older red blood cells were slightly larger than their younger counterparts, but not by much. In fact, she discovered that it was nearly impossible to measure the differences from a scientific stand point. She was simply going by decades of experience to ensure that no one blood strain overpowered the other causing a bond to form. It was a tedious process, but a necessary one.
Together with Law she filled the long cylinders of six injector guns. When they were done she stepped back. "Time to call Marjoram."
Law handed her his walkie-talkie. She looked at it. "Do I just press the button?"
He shrugged. "The little genius gave us call names and said we should use proper walkie-talkie etiquette, but I think you'll be fine if you just call out for Marjoram."
Vivi pressed the side button. "Um Marjoram?"