RB Chapter 84 Night

"We could allow them to follow us..." Chloe said after sometime. They had all been staring into the dancing flames after a filling dinner.

"What do you mean?" Eric asked calmly. He didn't shout at her. he knew what she was asking.

"Let's say, the larger the group, the safer we will be." A glint appeared in her eyes.

"Oh! Cannon fodder!" Eric's eyes lit up.

Both Elena and Leah shuddered at the two's conversation.

"Anyway, you two sleep. We will stand guard for the night. This is also a privilege for today only." Eric said seriously. He didn't want to baby these two girls. If he became soft, they might die when he separated from them.

"Okay " Leah answered while Elena simply nodded. For now she wasn't being unreasonable.

"I will be outside. I don't want to stay in the same room as these cowards." Chloe left behind that statement and went out.

Eric checked the patch at his wrist and saw that it was still early, just a few minutes past 7pm.

"I guess you aren't yet in the mood for sleep?" Eric asked.

Leah had brought her knees up and was resting her chin on them while staring into the flames in a daze. 

"So...tell us more about the things we should take note of while in the wilderness." Elena suggested.

"All I can tell you is that...you have to alert all the time! If your concentration lapses even for an instant, you might die!" After finishing that, Eric abruptly vanished from his position only to appear on the right side of Leah.

She was so startled by his appearance that she flinched. 

"You see? You might have died if I hadn't reacted this fast." He said while looking at something in his left palm.

It was something long and black, struggling in his vice grip but couldn't escape.

Leah's face morphed into one of terror when she saw it. She hadn't even detected when it had snuck up on her!

Eric stood up and went out of the room leaving her trembling. But she violently stood up and started looking around on the ground using the weak light coupled with her heat vision to see whether there were any other critters around. Elena too did the same.

"That was the only one."  Eric said when he saw them frantically searching around. He held back the urge to laugh at their ridiculous antics.

"Wow!" Elena exclaimed in surprise upon turning around and locking eyes with him. 

"They are like gems!" Even Leah commented with a hint of envy.

"What are you surprised about?" He asked, puzzled.

"Your eyes...for a moment they became violet, like gems. They were beautiful." Leah praised sincerely.

"Ah! They turn like that when am using a certain ability." Realisation dawned on him. They must have caught the violet shade when he triggered his all spectrum eyes for a split second.

"Let's get back to the topic at hand." Eric avoided the topic. He didn't want to expose his secrets. They were not at the level he could trust them.

"As I was saying, you should always be alert for any danger even in sleep! Its going to be hard for you, but as your cells acclimate to the wilderness, it will become easier. Besides, even if you stayed in the city, it would have happened. The barrier has been removed."

"What has that got to do with anything?" Elena asked curiously.

"Baguma once told me that there are still super cells floating in the air. I think the ten clans activated the barrier to prevent the people of the city from being exposed."

"...the cells currently floating all around us have adapted to the wilderness, while yours haven't. The more they come into contact, the more they will spur your cells to evolve." Eric continued after a pause.

"How do they influence our evolution?" Leah asked with glowing eyes.

"Hmm...I don't know, but what you need to know is that they will need plenty of energy so we have to have food at all times."

Eric left them with that and waited for the information to sink in.

"I know that the three of us are the youngest and also the most emotionally unstable...the two of you are probably in this to accumulate enough power for revenge." The two shuddered.

"So I am right. I am also in this for almost the same thing. I found out how weak I was in the wilderness. Right now I am still in the process of thinking about what I can get from the organisation. You too should also think...what can the Black Diamond Group aid me with?" Eric offered another piece of advice.

-------

A few hours later, around 11pm, Eric was still seated near the burning fire occasionally adding more sticks to prevent it from growing out.

"Information..."

"Connections..."

"Protection..."

"But binding..."

"There are many advantages to joining the Black Diamond Group but that one disadvantage is too great for me." Eric was mumbling while his eyes were reflecting the burning flames.

"I haven't seen any signs of grief on the others. Its either they don't care or, they have masked it. That makes it harder to speculate about what they want in the Black Diamond Group."

"It isn't surprising as there was a lot of competition in the ten clans. Even fathers didn't fully trust and live their children."

"Mom...mom...mom...mom..." A soft voice, like a whisper, entered his ears.

Eric directed his gaze towards the origin only to see that it was Leah. She was facing the fire and fine beads of sweat could be seen on her forehead. Everytime the call left her lips, she squirmed. She pushed out her hand as if she wanted to grasp something or someone...

Eric stood up and went near her. As he gazed upon her tiny face, he could see that she was frowning and tears had even rolled down her eyes.

'What should I do?' Eric was panicking. He was sure that she was having a nightmare, but touching her was inappropriate.

"Oh! Chloe!" He raced outside the moment the name left his lips.

"Chloe!" He called out softly. He shivered when the night breeze caressed his face. The room had been warm and the abrupt change in temperature had stimulated a shiver out of him.

"Why are you so urgent? I don't sense any danger." Chloe looked around with her glowing light blue eyes.

"There is no danger. Its just that Leah is having a nightmare. You are a woman and Elena is sleeping, so the task of taking care of her falls to you " Eric calmed down when Chloe appeared in front of him. He felt as if a burden was lifted off his chest.

"Okay I will go in. You watch the outside." She said before vanishing from in front if his eyes.

'Shit! Such a minor thing caused me to panic? What's wrong with me? I hope she doesn't make fun of me later.' Eric wanted to tear out his hair. He was embarrassed by his unsightly behaviour.

He leaped up onto the roof and sat down, calming his tgoughts, and activating his all spectrum eyes causing a bright scene to enter his eyes. This time he didn't limit them to just one wavelength, instead he cycles through all of them, scanning all the terrain around him including the sky.

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"She is a pitiful girl." Chloe sighed while patting Leah's head. Right now she was holding the hand that Leah had tried to grasp something with.

The moment she had taken her hand, Leah had calmed down and was now sleeping peacefully like a kitten.

"I can't understand your feelings as I didn't lose anyone of importance, but seeing how Eric was coping with his loss, I began to understand him."

"Sleep peacefully tonight, tomorrow you will have to wake up to that same reality, that your mother isn't around." She sighed once again before standing up and moving to sit herself on the other side directly opposite the sleeping Leah.

'Eric, do you also have such nightmares?' She wondered while looking upwards to the ceiling. She was sure that he was atop the roof.

'I wish you would tell me all your troubles, but you always want to face them alone. I don't want you to break down. But I'd not know how to approach the subject.' Chloe was sighing many times just in this one night.

-----

"Heh! That woman is once again engaged in sex? How much does she want it. She really is a slut." Eric picked up a faint moan with his ears causing him to turn towards a certain direction.

His violet pupils turned red as he activated his heat vision. He caught three heat signatures entwined in a certain house. The moans were coming from out of it.

He also caught sight of one man occasionally taking glances behind himself even though he was supposed to be on high alert.

The three figures were Dora and her other two guards. She had only brought along three guards and two of them were indulging in carnal desires with her. The other one must have been aroused and wanted to enter but, he had to do his duty causing him distress.

'I wonder if I will also get to...' A tent was created in his pants as he fantasized.