Chapter 6 #2
“Snap out of what?” My now free hands looped around his neck as I continued to try to nuzzle against him, absolutely loving how he felt against me.
“Cy.” A familiar rough voice had the nightmare on top of me freezing as his head snapped towards the door. I didn’t bother doing the same. In fact, I was rather frustrated that anyone was interrupting us to begin with.
“I know. I fucking know.” His voice was dark and frustrated. More so than I had ever heard it, in fact.
Razar appeared next to the bed, looking down at me with concern as I offered him a sleepy smile.
“Get out.” Razar’s voice was firm and commanding as he looked at Cy. “You have to. Now.”
I tightened my grip on Cy and scowled. “No.”
“Sorry, pixie,” Cy murmured, his forehead dipping to mine and making me let out a pleased hum. Why was he apologizing if he was staying?
Then he was gone. My eyes immediately began to water, and my chest hurt at the acute sense of loss I felt. What the hell was going on with me? The door slammed shut as my breathing went rapid, making me feel panicked and filled with anxiety.
Razar’s scent should have calmed me as he easily pulled me from bed and nuzzled against my neck, but instead I just felt so…
sad. I felt almost withdrawn and distant.
Depressed. My eyes watered, tears dripping down my lashes as my neck sparked from where Cy’s tongue had left a hot, shiver-inducing trail.
I felt like I was coming down from an awful high, and I began to push against Razar.
“Where is he?” I whimpered, my entire body wracked with shivers.
“Shit,” Razar groaned, his fingers brushing at my neck and making me jump at the feeling of his magic against Cy’s mark. Hot tears continued to pour down as I worked myself up enough that I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“Arabella.” Razar grasped my shoulders as I felt his magic filter through me, making my body slump against him. Everything seemed to grow heavy and dark, the electrifying feeling against my skin disappearing as darkness seemed to flood in around me, violently taking me under.
I had no idea how long I was out for, but time seemed to be moving at fast and slow intervals, familiar voices breaking up the moments but not making a lot of sense.
“It was his venom. He didn’t realize it would have that effect on her. Unless he’s attempting to kill someone, it shouldn’t have done anything, let alone that.”
His venom? Cy’s venom? A whimper tried to break from my lips as I realized that was who I was missing. Cy. Why wasn’t he here?
“He’s out at the training grounds with Saint, fucking furious at himself—”
Who was furious at himself? I struggled with unconsciousness, but the more I fought it, the more it seemed to tighten its hold on me.
“We are going to have to leave soon, should we wake her up?”
Those words had my eyes opening, the haziness dropping away as energy flushed through me, causing me to fling up in bed.
I began coughing as a spinning sensation rode me hard, making me groan as I pat around the soft surface I was on, searching for something to stabilize myself.
A familiar pair of muscular arms wrapped around me.
“Bella.” Zain’s smooth, relaxing voice had me melting. “I need you to just breathe. Open your eyes and look at me.”
“How the hell did she break out of that?” a voice demanded. My brows dipped in realization that it was Blackwell, and he sounded concerned.
Break out of what?
“No idea,” Damian murmured.
When I finally stopped coughing, I found myself looking into a pair of electric blue eyes whose magnetic power caused me to let out a shaky breath.
After a few moments of trying to even out my pulse and breathing, a pair of silver-framed glasses were slid onto my nose, and I refocused on the world around me.
I could feel Razar behind me as Blackwell and Damian stood next to the bed, making me wonder where the others were. Where were Saint, Amun, and… Cy?
Oh. Oh, crap.
“Shit,” I muttered in realization, putting the pieces together of what had happened exactly. That was when the guilt hit me. Hard.
I knew that every time I teased Blackwell, Saint, or Cy, that I was courting possible danger.
Even if they didn’t have similar emotional feelings to me, the three of them, I could confirm, were attracted to me…
and that could be potentially dangerous for a human.
It didn’t scare me, though, and I knew my reactions to their magic didn’t always make sense, let alone the fact that none of it ever caused me to worry about my actual safety.
What had happened with Cy today had not only been more unusual than normal but also something he would no doubt blame himself for. Which was ridiculous.
How would either of us have known how I would react to his venom?
I mean, the man didn’t exactly walk around licking or kissing my neck all the time.
Although I was very much okay with that concept, just saying.
I hadn’t minded the euphoric, almost high-like reaction at all.
Hell, despite Razar trying to remove it, I could still feel it against my skin, almost like a marker.
“Where is he?” I stood up, swaying slightly as all of them offered me concerned looks. I jolted as my hand came to my neck again, feeling a slightly smoother texture than normal on my skin. I walked across the room towards the mirror, now immensely curious what reaction my skin had to his touch.
“Holy shit,” I muttered, tilting my neck as I examined the almost iridescent silver and green scales that marked my skin.
I would have said it was random, but this was a legitimate mark that was perfectly circular, so obviously it was created by magic.
I arched a brow, wondering if I was going to end up with a bunch of marks on me if he continued to do that…
I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed, but that still felt like something we needed to talk about.
“He shouldn’t have marked you,” Razar rumbled.
“I don’t think he meant to,” I pointed out.
“Bullshit,” Blackwell immediately shot back, making me almost smile. I didn’t want them to realize just how pleased him marking me made me, so I tried to control my reaction.
“Where is he?” I asked again.
“Training grounds,” Damian admitted, and Zain nodded in confirmation. Blackwell shot both of them a look as I walked out of Cy’s bedroom, across the dorm suite, and towards my heels. I slipped them on, feeling Razar very close behind me, before grabbing my badge and exiting towards the elevators.
My guys didn’t feel guilty about a lot of shit.
It wasn’t in their nature. However, I had to admit that when it came to me, that guilt seemed far more present.
Like the time that Zain had pulled me out of the way of some nightmares who were fighting and had nearly crashed into me, which probably would’ve killed me on impact.
He had accidentally left a bruise on my wrist, which, to be fair, was pretty easy to do with how pale I was.
I hadn’t cared at all, but he had panicked and apologized a ton, worried that he had somehow permanently damaged me.
It had been somewhat adorable, and I had spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies with him just so he was positive that I was perfectly fine.
I mean, they were nightmares, and insanely strong…
What did they expect? I wasn’t exactly playing in the minor leagues here. Plus, he’d been saving me!
I don’t know, maybe I was a bit messed up, because the idea of them leaving any mark on my skin was extremely attractive. This Cy thing was a perfect example. My little dark heart was thrilled that he’d marked us.
Which was why I needed to make sure that he didn’t feel guilty at all.
“Arabella,” Razar rumbled, “this is probably not a good idea.”
“This is Cy we are talking about,” I reminded him as I pressed the elevator button and turned to offer all of them a knowing look. “He’s fine, I’m fine. This is all fine. I just don’t need him distracted and feeling guilty about any of this, especially with a mission to focus on.”
I knew they all wanted to talk about what had happened, and more specifically ask how it had gone down, but I had no idea how to explain it to them without turning ten shades of red.
I knew they were concerned, but I wasn’t going to be able to comfort them until I knew how Cy was feeling.
Then we could talk about the trippy reaction my body had to his touch. More specifically, his tongue.
Damn. Or maybe we could test it out again. This time with his teeth, though.
Letting out a slow exhale to shake myself of the surge of desire, I stepped into the elevator, and all four of them joined me.
I hit the button to take us down to the main floor and looked down at my shoes, practically smiling because I knew that one of them was going to break.
There was no way they were going to be patient enough—
“He shouldn’t have put you at risk like that, not without knowing how you would react,” Blackwell stated, his voice softer than in the bedroom but still very firm.
I frowned at him. “Don’t. There was no way he could have known without it happening, so that is impossible.”
“Then he shouldn’t have done it at all,” he grit out, a low rumble breaking from his throat as he ran a hand over his face, seemingly very tense.
I felt bad for how worried he was, but blaming Cy was not the solution. Not only had he put his lips on me in small ways before and we’d never had a problem, like a kiss to the forehead and stuff, but there was no way we could have known his venom would have done that to me.
I winced slightly, remembering very clearly how needy I had been acting in bed and the word ‘please’ that I’d used in reference to wanting that and more from him. A sleepy Arabella really made risky decisions sometimes. Wonderfully dangerous, risky decisions.
“What?” Razar demanded, obviously noticing my wince.