After a while, she took her attention off of Thane and looked at us.
"And who have you brought with you?" she asked, giving me a big smile as she spoke. Thane stood up and walked over to my side. “Mot- I mean Lania, I'd like you to meet my mate, Ella," he said, wrapping his arm around my waist and walking me towards his mother. She stood up off her pillow and held out her hand. "It's so wonderful to meet you, Ella. My, you are a lovely girl. Just the kind of girl I could see my Thane marrying someday."
It took me a moment to remember that I looked nothing like myself, and a pang of sadness hit me that I may never get the chance to have Thane introduce me as myself.
I clasped her hand in both of mine. "Lania, it's a pleasure to meet you. Your Thane sounds like a lovely boy."
That must've been the right thing to say, because Lania launched into a million stories about Thane as a young boy. I listened in rapt fascination, hoping that they were real stories and I was getting more clues into my mysterious mate’s past. I knew he would never tell me these stories himself.
She was in the middle of a story about when Thane had tried to capture a Khonsu by himself at five years old, then she suddenly stopped talking. She began staring off into the distance as if she could see something else in the room other than us.
With a high-pitched scream, she began to thrash and moan. Her words were garbled and nonsensical, and she leapt at Thane with her hands outstretched like claws as if she was going to tear him apart with her bare hands.
"Lania," Thane said soothingly as he grabbed her, holding her hands to her sides as she thrashed and screamed in his arms. Tears streamed down my face as I watched Thane. His hands were trembling, and there was pure agony on his face as he held down his mother. The door behind us suddenly opened and a stream of Vepar clad in white doctor’s coats rushed into the room. One of the staff, a Vepar male close to the same size as Thane, with dirty blonde hair and two small, lime green horns on his head, pulled a syringe filled needle out of his pocket as he approached Lania.
"Is that necessary?" Thane asked brokenly.
"Her episodes have been getting worse as of late. The only way to calm her down is to knock her out," he answered stiffly.
I hated seeing them administer the injection. It reminded me of all the times that a syringe had been used on me.
The medicine worked instantly, and soon she went limp in Thane’s arms. He helped the staff move her back to bed and tenderly pulled the blankets up to her chin. The staff left as quickly as they had come in. Alone again, Thane patted his mother's shoulder gently, pressing a kiss to her forehead softly. "Sweet dreams, mama," he whispered, and his pain was so tangible it was like I could see his heart breaking.
I wanted to give Thane a hug, but I could tell it wouldn’t be welcome at the moment. Thane liked to grieve privately, and he probably hated that we were in the room to watch him right now.
“Should we go?” asked Derrial calmly, as if nothing had happened.
Thane nodded and stepped away from his mother, taking one last look back at her as we left the room. I finally couldn't help myself, and I grabbed his hand in both of mine. I brought them to my lips to give them a gentle kiss in an attempt to provide some comfort.
His sad eyes looked at me, and I watched as they briefly warmed at my touch.
We had just taken a few steps down the hall when a door to the left of us opened. A Vepar with a yellow stump on his salt-and-pepper flecked hair walked out of the room accompanied by a staff member. Looking closer at him, I realized that it looked like his horn had been sawed off.
When he saw us, immediate recognition lit across his features. I didn’t know how this was possible since we were disguised. From the stiffening shoulders of my mates, it was clear that they recognized him as well. Derrial suddenly grabbed me around the waist, as if we were going to have to run at any moment.
"Still using the same disguises, are we?" the Vepar sneered at us. I looked at him in shock. How would he have seen these disguises before? He didn't look at me, he only had eyes for the guys.
"Nice to see you all walking around free, while I’m stuck in this hellhole," he spat at us. We had all stopped in the hallway, facing each other. The staff member was looking back and forth between us confused.
The Vepar finally glanced at me. "And who do we have here? Is this the human bitch that you betrayed me for? It’s a nice Vepar mask she has on. I would love to see what she really looks like," he snarled.
My eyes widened and I rubbed a hand across my face, making sure that my disguise was still in place and you couldn’t see it pulling away from my skin or something.
Derrial started to pull me down the hallway, away from the altercation taking place.
"I did everything I was supposed to for you," he yelled angrily. "Did you find her and decide that you wanted to keep her from the Council? Is that why I’m stuck in here?" he asked.
I stopped and pulled away from Derrial, who had still been trying to urge me forward. What was this man talking about?
He saw my confusion and began to laugh, an eerily crazed laugh that fit in with this place perfectly.
"You must be something special." He leered at me. "The other girls we harvested for the Council didn't make any of these assholes so much as blink."
At that statement, the staff member gripped his arm firmly. "That's enough now," he barked, beginning to drag him away from all of us.
"Did you ever find out what the Council was doing with all those human women, or do you still not care?" he cackled. "Because I did," he said, beginning to laugh uproariously. The laugh echoed down the hallway until he was out of sight, leaving us alone.
I stood still for a moment, struggling to put together everything he had just said with what I had been told and learned before this. I finally looked at them. "Were you the ones that brought women like Bruda to the Council to be their slaves?" I asked, horror freezing my insides.