As per usual, Lucian was prepared, and everyone else he relied on was not. He did suppose, however, with the absence of sleep from his schedule of late, the vampire did have more time than most to accomplish his tasks.
The older vampire had already checked that their horses were ready, that Jerel had all necessary paperwork to run the castle, and negotiated a new contract with Aniyoh all before breakfast. Honestly, he was already tired. He could hear Ender conversing with Aniyoh in the kitchen and Mara rousing Caroline upstairs, so the vampire planted himself in the great hall with a book and awaited his friend's arrival. At least, Lucian considered the group to be the closest approximation to friends he had in a very long time.
