Chapter 26
ADRIAN
Soon after Tyrel left my room, I felt myself drifting.
I'd had difficulty focusing all day, but nothing as bad as that.
At some point during the afternoon, I couldn't tell anymore whether I was dreaming or awake.
Everything felt kind of fuzzy around the edges.
Kind of unreal. The nurse came in… or did she?
To tell me I was running a fever. I think.
I really can't remember much from that time, except for the fact that I was worried.
A little bit about myself, but mostly about my babies.
If there was something wrong with me, that couldn't be good for them either. If I was sick, they could be, too.
I tried to lie back and take it easy, but visions of a horrible future intermingled with my reality and scared me. And so I pressed my face into the pillow and refused to look up again, stuck in my own head.
It's going to be fine, it's going to be fine, it's going to be fine.
I heard voices around me, from time to time, but I couldn't make sense of what they were saying and so I decided they weren't as important as the conversation I was having with myself.
Until a voice that sounded almost like mine but not quite broke the chorus in my head.
"Look up," it said.
I felt strangely compelled to follow that command, my heart beating faster before my brain even properly processed what was happening.
Tyrel.
I was so happy to see him I almost broke out in tears. I didn't know how, but he would make this go away. He sat on the edge of the bed, one hand in my hair, and now I registered that touch, too. I leaned into it, needing the connection to anchor me to reality.
"I'm going to take you outside, okay?"
I wanted to nod, but didn't because the motion would have made me feel dizzy. I managed to croak something that sounded vaguely like yes, though.
Tyrel rewarded me with a reassuring smile, though he couldn't completely hide the worry from his face.
He stood and pulled my covers back and disconnected something from my arm—a drip?
I wasn't really sure. The fuzziness hadn't completely worn off.
The only thing that was in focus was Tyrel, lifting me up into his arms like I weighed nothing even though I felt like a whale.
There were some ups to dating a dragon.
I pressed myself against his chest, closed my eyes and nearly fell asleep until I felt a light breeze going over my skin where it wasn't covered by the thin hospital gown.
We were outside?
I opened my eyes. The sun was starting to set over the horizon, painting the sky in shades of red and orange and for a moment, that was all I could focus on.
"I'm going to set you down," Tyrel said. "And then I'm going to shift. Don't be afraid."
He put me down and I sat on the grass, looking up at him, not entirely sure of his plans or why we were out here, but willing to do whatever he said.
"I'm going to have to…" He paused. Shook his head. "It might hurt a little."
I could tell that he needed a response, so I made myself speak. "Okay."
He leaned down to kiss my forehead. "I love you," he whispered, like it was a secret, even though it wasn't—I could feel it in his gaze when he looked at me, and I wasn't afraid of anything he might do to me.
Before my eyes, he changed into his dragon form, which was just as amazing the second time around as it had been the first, even when everything was a little blurry.
He sat behind me and spanned his wings around the both of us, as if to shield me from view, to protect me.
It was this gesture more than anything that let me know that this dragon was still Tyrel, still the man I loved.
As awe-inducing as this creature was, it wouldn't harm me.
I stretched a hand out to touch one of his leathery wings and found it warm.
Take off your gown.
I did as instructed.
Lean forward a bit. This part might hurt. I'm sorry.
I rested my head on my knees, exposing the bare skin of my back to him without hesitation. I bit my teeth together when I felt one of his claws sink into my skin, waiting for the bite of pain as he dragged it down, but it wouldn't come.
Instead I felt some weird tingling all over my body, not just the part where he was marking me. He moved quickly, writing something from my left shoulder to my right, just below my neck.
When he was done, he hesitated.
The babies kicked in my stomach as if the tension was killing them, too.
"No hurt," I mumbled, guessing that this might spur him into action.
I guessed correctly.
Shortly after I'd spoken, I heard him take a deep breath, and then a warm flame enveloped my body.
The sensation was completely unlike anything I'd ever felt.
I could see why he'd been reluctant to do this, but there was no pain, no burning.
Instead, my skin tingled, especially the spot below the back of my neck, where he'd put his writing.
After a moment, I felt as if I was glowing. I had no other word to describe it. Suddenly my body was humming with an energy that hadn't been there before, and ever so slowly, my vision became clear again.
Behind me, Tyrel turned back into his human form.
"What did you do?" I asked.
He pulled me against his chest. "I bound you to me. Or me to you." He nuzzled the back of my neck. "Told you I'd leave marks on you that wouldn't fade, didn't I?" A weak laugh followed his words. "Are you okay?"
I rubbed my face. "I think so. Is this that fate bonding thing you talked about earlier?
" I pressed myself closer to him. Something was different in the air between us now.
It was as if I could feel what he was feeling if I just listened hard enough.
At this moment, the emotions radiating off him were relief, love and exhaustion, in that order.
"Yes, it is. I wasn't sure that it would work, but I had to do something."
"I'm sorry if I scared you."
"You don't know how much I can't wait for these babies to be born." He rubbed my belly. One of the babies rose to the occasion to kick him.
A little laugh escaped me. "They'll be with us soon enough." I leaned into him. "Do we have to go back inside?"
"Yes, we do. I'm not taking any more chances. You're staying in that hospital bed until you're not so Goddamn pregnant anymore."
I laughed louder because it was still so weird to hear him curse. The day must really have been too much for him. "Fine." I turned around and kissed him on the nose. "I'll go before you have an aneurysm."
"Alright. But before you do that…" He pulled me closer and kissed me on the mouth.
I don't know if it was because I'd just been doused in his fire or not, but I melted into him almost instantly.
After a day of slowly descending into madness, my world was finally right again, and nothing had ever felt so right as kissing him.