Chapter 97: The Lakes of Carleone

Florence turned her face away from Dion and toward her son; the lively red was still burning hot across both her cheeks when she finally spoke again.

"I meant a skill," she said. Her voice had gone smaller than it had been a moment ago. "I have experience with medicine to help those people out there who are sick. That’s what I was offering."

Dion didn’t say anything for a moment, then he simply laughed at himself a little internally.

’I really did put my foot straight into that one.’ He laughed off his internal grimace faintly to himself before he spoke again.

"I understand," he said. "I’m sorry."

Still! What was with his head and body?! All this involuntary decadence was what had driven his thoughts down into this deep abyss.

’Figuring about my Sangour a bit has put me in the right direction to understand what was going on with my so-called maturation, but really...’

Dion glanced away from Florence, and he silently thanked his body for the fact it wasn’t possible for him to look like he was feeling a little ashamed of himself.

He had to internally remind himself that he had only been a vampire for just about a day or so.

So much had happened that it seemed otherwise, but it was the truth.

’Patience...’ He gave himself the mantra.

Florence nodded faintly, her thumb still moving in small circles over Julian’s shoulder, and the flush stayed on her a while longer, fading slowly while she kept her eyes fixed on her son instead of him.

Julian finished the pie within the next few seconds, and was licking the filling off his fingers one at a time, wiping his hands down the front of his shirt before reaching for the bag of crisps he’d already torn open and half eaten.

Right as he dragged it closer to himself the stuffed bear sitting in his lap tipped off the edge and before it could hit the floor, a faint gust of wind brushed between them.

"Ah..." Julian jolted a little, looking down.

His eyes only widened a little, glittering as he saw how Dion had caught it before Einstein could hit the floor.

The bear was small and brown; its fur looked quite clean, if not for the fact that the bear was still damp from the rainwater that had gotten into it.

One of its eyes had a different colour thread used to bind it in, clearly having been stitched back.

"Thank you..." Julian muttered in a rather soft spoken voice, far unlike what Dion had heard from him when the bear had been in danger of being lost earlier.

Dion smiled faintly at him, "Don’t worry about it... Jule—Can I call you Jules too? Or no?"

As he set the bear down over the table, Julian looked at him with a very strongly pondering look.

He remained silent for a few discomforting moments, his head briefly looking up to Florence, and then back at Dion.

And finally he gave a strong nod. "You can call me Jules."

Within moments of him saying that, Jules looked at the bear, then at Dion, and picked it back up only to hold it straight back out to him.

Dion looked at it, not quite sure what to do with the offer.

"...Please hold Einstein for me," Julian said, and there wasn’t a shred of uncertainty or shyness in it, the flat little certainty that kids have when they’ve already decided something and can’t understand why the grown-up in front of them hasn’t caught up yet or done what they wanted.

Dion took the bear from his hand, and the boy had already turned back to his crisps as if the whole exchange was settled and done with.

Florence was watching the two of them. The flush had gone out of her face by then, and whatever had replaced it was quieter.

She looked at the bear sitting in Dion’s hand, then at her son, and her lips parted slightly.

"He doesn’t do that, you know? He never lets anyone call him Jules so easily, and definitely never hands over Einstein just like that," she said, giving a slight smile and laugh.

Within moments of her saying that, with his mouth full and crunching through his crisps without looking at them, Jules said, "Bro Dion is special. He reminds me of the lakes back home."

Dion smiled a little wider at that, and his eyes drifted up from looking at the boy to Florence, his brow slightly raised.

"Home?"

She nodded a little, "He means in Carleone."

Dion nodded a little and gave a more relieved, faint laugh, "He has good instincts."

The corner of Florence’s mouth lifted into a more apparent smile, and whatever tension in the room since his mistake loosened enough for her to straighten and face him properly again.

"I used to be a nurse for a few years in emergency at Spedale di Santa Maria della Luce, in Carleone. I might have left them about five years ago, but I still remember what I learned."

"Oh? Why haven’t you said anything before now?"

Florence gave a bit of a wry look at how he raised his brow at her in surprise.

"Partially because nobody asked or needed to know before now." Then she glanced down at Julian to say, "And partially because the moment I tell such a big group of people with sick families that I used to be a nurse, when everyone is struggling as much as they are, I become the person they expect to save them."

Dion watched as a glum look flickered on her expression.

"I have to take care of him. I don’t have the freedom to be looking after other people right now."

Then, she glanced up at him and said, "But at least right now, I can give you information that might help them. Sooner or later they will need medication from outside after all. "

Dion nodded a little, and she continued: