Chapter 18
Chapter
Eighteen
They were still trying to figure out where Kami and his damn mate had disappeared to—he thought it was the keep where Mercury’s former lover had taken him somehow—when the alarm went up from the residential area.
Talon! Reno! Your mates are here! That was Boone’s mental shout.
He and Reno glanced at each other and then took off at a dead magic-infused run for their apartments.
Frankly, he wasn’t sure which one they were supposed to be going to, but it didn’t matter.
They would just follow Boone’s mental shout.
They were pretty much on top of each other, so it didn’t matter.
Holy shit. That was Durango’s mental voice. They brought a whole hoard with them.
What the hell did that even mean? He put on a burst of speed coming out of a stairwell onto Kami’s floor because that was where everyone else lived. The only ones who didn’t live in the same basic area were Triton, Cerran, and Elowyn, who had their own fancy-ass place with a terrace and everything.
Reno was panting on his heels, and he burst into his own apartment, looking to see if that was where they were. But no one was in there, so he turned and shoved Reno back out the door. “Your place.”
He flew across the hall and down the way to slam his own door open. Sure enough, when they piled in the door, Kami was on the floor holding Mercury, who was passed out cold. They were surrounded by jewels and gold, silver metal in huge piles, along with a dragon he’d never seen before.
Talon roared, going to snatch Mercury up into his arms so that Reno could grab Kami. “What the fuck happened?” he shouted.
Kami blinked, his teeth chattering still. “So c-cold.”
Mercury felt cold as well, freezing in fact, and he wondered how long it had taken them to slide back.
The head snapped up when the dragon across from them made a small sound. “Who the fuck are you?” Whose head is this?
His eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed on the floor, much like where Mercury had been a few minutes ago. Mercury wasn’t awake yet; he was just not on the floor anymore.
“Oh fuck, somebody get a medic. Somebody call Cain. Somebody call Jack.” Reno grabbed Kami, and Durango wrapped them both in blankets.
“Kami, friend, what happened?” Talon tucked Mercury in, close to his chest.
“It was my fault.” Kami’s teeth were clenched now to stop the chattering.
“I was thinking about finding this stone, and I grabbed his hand, and then we were gone. It was totally me. I didn’t mean to, but anyway, we were there and we had to find the stone.
And then we found the stone with this dragon, and the dragon said he was going to eat us.
We convinced him we could bring him and his hoard here, and Mercury said he could do it.
” Kami’s eyes were wide as saucers. “And then Mercury did, but it took so long, it just took forever. We were out in that nothing forever.”
“You’ve been gone three hours. Tops.” Three of the longest hours of his goddamn life. But three hours nonetheless.
“Yeah, well, it took us maybe half an hour to find the stone and that guy.” Kami waved a shaking hand at the dragon on the floor, who Boone was covering with blankets.
The new doctor, a bright blue dragon, with amazing feathers, came in, her eyes sharp, looking over all three of them—Kami, Mercury, and the weirdo.
First she pointed to the new dragon, who was almost clear. “All right, that one down to med bay. Get him on IV fluids and nutrients. Also, get the psychic healers in; they’ll be able to help.”
Kami got a quick once-over and a nod. “He’s shocky. Keep him warm and get him tea.”
Then she looked at Mercury and frowned deeply. “I don’t want him doing that sliding thing while he’s pregnant. I’ve spoken to Rowan about this.”
“Well, I didn’t realize it would happen when I touched him.” I’m so sorry, Talon.
It was an accident, friend. Breathe.
“He can’t spend the rest of his life not being touched. There’s got to be an answer. Where is Cain?” She was a demanding dragon, wasn’t she?
“Busy, Dr. Bonne.” Little Anemone stood there, smiling, “But Mercury and I have been working together, and I’ll be able to help, I think. I’ve been doing a lot of research and talking to both Cain and Skye. We’re trying to find a simple grounding that helps him choose when he slides.”
“Why has he never learned to do that before now, do you think?” Talon asked. He went to sit down, Mercury on his lap, taking the blankets and wrapping them both up.
Anemone came to peer down at Mercury. “Because he never had to. He was locked away where he couldn’t even slide. His old keep feared him and worried about him bringing down censure on them, so they didn’t even let him out of the tower. How would he ever learn to control it that way?”
That made as much sense as anything. He stroked Mercury’s cheek, hating how cold his skin and scales were.
“Can you hear him at all?” the doctor asked. “Try contacting him.”
Mercury, love, can you hear me? You’re home now. You and Kami and this dragon that you helped out.
Talon felt a stirring in Mercury’s mind, but he couldn’t hear anything. It was as if Mercury was deeply asleep. What he could hear, though, was the baby, clear as a bell, little voice ringing out with laughter.
“The baby’s fine. I tell you that much. Mercury is still pretty out of it, but I know he’s in there. I could touch his mind; he just wasn’t ready to talk to me yet. He’s hiding a little bit.” One way or the other, Talon felt better. He wasn’t so scared now.
“Hmmm.” The doctor nodded. “Monitor him when he wakes up. Make sure you give him something warm to drink and plenty of food. Contact me if he doesn’t start acting normally in about an hour. You—” she pointed at Kami again—“You rest. You understand?”
Kami nodded, his eyes shadowed with exhaustion and worry. “Aye, aye, no problem.”
Reno growled. “Don’t be flippant. He’s going to rest, and he will have warm drinks and food too.”
“Good deal. I’m going to go see to my other patient in the med bay, then.” She lifted a hand briefly, and then turned on her heel and strode out. She was quite the force of nature.
“What do we do with all his horde?” Boone kind of looked over everything with wide eyes, and shook his head. “There’s got to be some way to contain it so that he can have it when he gets up.”
Durango nodded and went for Reno’s house phone. “I’ll call down for some boxes. That’s the least we can do to help box stuff up and store it. That seems only reasonable.”
Kami chuckled softly. “I wasn’t being selfish. I wasn’t being daring.” He met Talon’s eyes and pulled out a box from his clothing, handing it over.
Inside was a beautiful, perfect amethyst.
“This is for the baby—your baby. I didn’t know that he would slide. I didn’t know this would happen.”
“Of course you didn’t know.” Talon figured Kami had just made up with Mercury.
Reno growled softly. “It doesn’t matter now, you’re safe and home.”
Anemone stayed perched on the sofa, smiling at both of them, but there was a little worry in her expression. “We can figure this out. It’ll just take a little bit now that I know that we’re supposed to be working on.”
He smiled at her. “Thank you, sweetheart. You’ve been very good to us.”
She nodded and shrugged. “The world hasn’t been very good to Mercury. I’m glad that we get to be now.”
Yeah, no shit. “I think I should probably take Mercury home, get him cleaned up and wrapped up in his bed.” He looked around. “Where’s my goddaughter?”
Reno smiled. “Lake has her.”
“Oh, well, that’s good. This would probably be a little dramatic for a little one, right? Thank goodness she wasn’t here when they slid.”
Kami hid his head in Reno’s body. “I’m so sorry.”
Yes, and he imagined Mercury was too.
“There’s no reason to be sorry. You’re magical, the two of you together.
You can go anywhere and find any stone and then come home, but Mercury has to be able to control it a little bit more.
He has to get stronger physically so that he can do this without eating up all of his energy.
” Anemone smiled gently, so much like Cain all of a sudden that he blinked with surprise.
“How do we do that?” Talon asked.
“Well, I will work with him. It’s really a matter of practice.”
Talon made a frustrated noise. “How can he practice if he can’t slide while he’s pregnant?”
Anemone shook her head slightly. “No, he practices not sliding. Saying no, first to himself, and then someone else.”
“But—”
“I get it.” Kami nodded. “He’ll start in his own apartment, right? And with you, Tal. You tell him you want to go to the bedroom, and he says fuck off, you can walk there.”
Reno kinda scoffed. “Would that even work?”
Anemone gave Kami an approving smile. “It’s exactly the kind of baby step he needs to work on his resistance. And being pregnant will be a help, I think, as he’ll want to protect the baby, so it will be easier to say no.”
Talon pondered that, and it almost made sense. But cradling Mercury, limp and cold in his arms, he just wanted to take his hailee and hide. He really didn’t want Mercury to have to deal with anyone accidentally taking him off somewhere and then not being able to get back…
A knock came to the door, and Boone went to open it, Triton striding in. “What has happened, brother? I heard a ruckus.”
Talon looked down at Mercury. I need your strength, brother. I need him to wake up. Together we can give him some energy. Gods, he was grateful his brother was there.
Well, of course. Triton came to him immediately, no question. His brother’s hands covered his own scarred ones. For all that Talon slashed through the world, Triton was way more like a hammer—a big, pointed, iron-clad war hammer.
And the blow of energy into Mercury after they joined hands was enough to make him gasp and his eyes fly open. “Well, hello!”
Then Mercury looked at Triton and grinned, and his brother just smiled back, the look weirdly angelic.
“Hey, Mercury, welcome home!”