Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
“Not usually.” Graylan’s dark eyes betrayed nothing as Slath ran hot water and turned to shoo Graylan away, aiding him in undressing. Stained trousers hit the floor, and Varis’s mind went fuzzy.
“Tail out, and I’m going to walk you through a partial shift of a type.
We have large eggs and it might help if things were more…
interestingly…shaped.” Graylan rubbed his hands together, fire flicking over them before he reached out to touch Varis’s belly.
With Slath’s help, he stood, hands on the edge of the tub, and Graylan put hands where only Ghreid’s belonged.
The sensation, strangely muted, sent shivers down his spine until his tail shifted free, the appendage flicking sharply.
“Into the water you go. I’m going to be honest and tell you there’s some internal tearing. It’s not unusual, but it will lengthen your healing time and make this a bit more unpleasant.” Graylan gave Varis an apologetic stare before a quick glance to Slath.
Slath aided Varis in sliding into warm water that brought pleasant sensation into his taut skin and buoyant belly.
The transition into water seemed to flip a lever in his body, warming and welcoming his backside, cradling his belly as the world around him dimmed.
He opened his mouth to comment about the rightness of it, but the breath squeezed free of his lungs as the sensation he’d been waiting for circled his midsection and clenched like a fist. His belly hardened—as if it wasn’t hard from the eggs within him in the first place.
As it clenched him so tightly, only a whimper could escape his lungs.
“Varis? Varis!” Ghreid came barreling in and flailed, his feet slipping from beneath him as he fell back and straight onto a knee in an awkward sprawl right into Varis’s spilled blood. “Fuck!”
Varis gasped, the breath in his lungs thin. A fall like that surely wouldn’t incapacitate him? Right? “Ghrei—”
The pain in Varis’s midsection redoubled, and with it came a burning sensation that had him on his hands and knees, clawing to rest his arms over the side of the tub.
“S’blood everywh—Varis…” Ghreid clawed around at the floor in confusion before looking up at Varis, eyes wide and wild. “Love?”
“I don’t see him having much energy to speak right now.
Come, hold a hand or something.” Graylan rolled his pant legs up over his knees, removed his shirt, and hoisted himself into the tub where he strategically placed one hand on either side of Varis’s hips and squeezed.
As if some great dam burst within him, his backside flared with pain, a violating sensation stretching him as all the dulled feeling roared to life for a singular moment.
Everything went silent in the room, a ringing sound hanging in his ears like nails on a chalkboard. Not even the splash of water made it over the deafening whine. Varis’s lungs burned, aching, and as he thought to say something, the ringing and silence, he realized, was his own scream.
“Well, that’s interesting.” Graylan’s calm voice broke through with muffled interest.
“Whoa.” Slath stared into the water as Varis doubled over and clenched to the side of the tub, vision blurring as white marble and gold accents were replaced by golden scales and worried eyes.
“Will it harm the eggs?” Slath’s question earned a response that Varis couldn’t hear or see, but the expression on the male’s face softened as Graylan’s voice floated about, words muffled and metered as if giving an educational lecture.
“Good to hear.” Ghreid nodded and leaned in to kiss Varis’s lips. Worried eyes widened and closed, tears pooling in the corners. “Please be strong.”
The roar of pain ebbed, and for but a moment, Varis caught his breath, the heaving pants sawing out of him. “Wha—”
“Common for water dragons. Fire isn’t an element for them, so their attacks aren’t particularly oriented orally. There’s water effects at skin and hand level. He’s too young really to have worked his magic through, but—” Graylan’s voice muttered on.
“But you’re certain that it won’t boil them?” Slath stared at the pool, drawing Varis’s attention. Head almost lolling as he turned to witness the pinkened water bubbling viciously. Graylan, for his part, seemed unfazed.
“Not in the least.” Graylan busied himself, fluttering about in the water with gentle splashes and hands in places, moving back and forth between Varis’s hips and entrance.
Varis had many questions that petered away as that searing pain down his side flared up once more.
Graylan squeezed his hips, and as the silence rang in Varis’s ears, the world drowned out by his involuntary scream once more.
Everything in him jerked, collapsed, his insides flopping in the most violating way before everything dimmed, sound muffled while his lungs burned.
Only then did Ghreid’s frantic gaze stray from his face.
“Oh.” The soft way the word trembled from Ghreid’s lips made Varis’s heart swell.
True silence filled the space, highlighted by the thick steam in the air, the comforting burn lapping against his flesh.
Splashing water, strained breath, but no words, no cries, or harried noises.
Ghreid stared over Varis’s shoulder and leaned up and to the side, arms open as Graylan’s too-red hair flittered just out of Varis’s full sight.
Dark nails, brushing hands, golden scales.
All the flashes of movement took ages, it seemed, for Varis to process until the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen came into focus.
An egg. An egg of such vivid gold and violet, the likes of which he’d never seen, a swirled beauty.
Varis so much wanted to hold it, but the moment was destined to be fleeting, it seemed, as the pain ramped up almost immediately.
“One more. You’re almost done. The worst is over.” Slath’s harried whispers silenced as Graylan muttered something grave, and Ghreid stared up, eyes wide and open.
“No.” Ghreid’s face paled, and Varis, mentally begging for relief to be able to speak, to ask, to understand, could only sob and scream as he bore down with his instincts.
He pushed again, and again, he burned, stretched, belly shifted, and Graylan shoved a hand in a place so intimate that Varis feared he’d never forgive the male.
Impending murder aside, Varis pushed. Again, all those sensations roiled through him, pain and pressure, widening, body shaking uncontrollably.
Steam rose fast and hard, water boiling harder around him as Slath worked to turn the taps on.
Condensation clung to every surface as Slath pulled away to grab towels and throw the windows open.
The growing fog crowded his vision, and he pushed, begging the fates to let him pass out and sleep.
The open windows revealed a dimming sky outside, where it had been morning only but a few minutes ago, hadn’t it?
Varis couldn’t piece the time together as he stared at his firstborn egg and swore.
The burning ramped up, and the moment he swore his egg was free, everything over, his stomach redoubled, knotting up as if the egg had slid back, progress lost.
He screamed.
He pushed.
And between one blink and the next, the sky outside was dark, and the struggle was over.
The water drained away from his sides as warm hands traced his body, circled to rest atop his belly. Graylan’s encouraging words soothed as much as the tingling magic he pushed into Varis. “You did so well.”
“Tired,” Varis said. Despite breathing humid air and sitting in water, his throat cracked as if he were raw, dry, and broken.
A warm towel draped his shoulders, and his body lifted and rested in strong arms, surrounded by Ghreid’s spicy, masculine scent.
Gold, fire, smelting furnaces, and rich cardamom.
Expensive. Varis found he liked it and couldn’t remember ever taking the time to appreciate it so much. He inhaled deeply to savor it.
“Where’s the other egg?” Varis had seen the first one, but things had been hectic.
Ghreid shushed him and placed a kiss to his temple. “Rest. You are so amazing.”
“Rath is having the records searched to see if there was another,” Asha, who Varis hadn’t recalled being there, said as the comforting fold of silks surrounded him.
“Where’d all the blood—” Varis struggled with a breath, his body heaving as he wanted nothing more than sleep.
Ghreid’s warm body folded around him. A blanket covered them both and whispers silenced. A few muttered congratulations slipped into the ether.
Varis glanced up, eyelids so very heavy, sinking back to sleep with his last memory being that of Baltheir’s hastily painted erection.