Chapter 50
Serenity
Hunter’s voice led me out of oblivion. I smiled, feeling his fingertips tracing my face.
“Serenity,” he murmured again, lips dotting kisses along my cheeks.
I blinked my eyes open, heart fluttering with a feeling of immense gratitude I hoped never faded. I’d almost lost everything. Each day that I woke up with everything I’d ever dreamed of, should be celebrated.
Taking his head in my hands, I drew him down for a kiss, then pulled back just far enough to ask, “Any word on Seb’s status?”
“He’s here,” Hunter murmured against my mouth.
“Really?” My giddy gasp pulled at the scar tissue on my stomach, and I reached under my cotton pajama top, fingertips gingerly following the narrow, raised line left by Conrad’s blade lines.
When they’d found me, the medics said my wound had been cauterized.
That had stopped me bleeding out and becoming Conrad’s final victim. I’d saved myself from him.
“Yeah. They just got our guy settled in his room.”
I gripped Hunter’s shirt. “Take me to him. How does he look?”
Hunter tried to hide it, but my roving eyes noted the strain at the corners of his smile. “He could use some TLC, I’m sure, but he’s all right.”
The tightness in his tone only solidified the thoughts that had kept me awake into the wee hours last night. I’d made up my mind.
“Come on.” Hunter flipped back the covers and tucked his arms under me. “Let’s go see him.”
“You don’t have to carry me everywhere. I can manage if I go slow,” I protested just for show as I rested my head on Hunter’s mammoth pec.
No one had let me lift a finger since I was discharged. They ought to be careful, or I might just get used to it.
Hunter kissed my forehead with soft lips and a hint of scratchy scruff. “Maybe I like carrying you around?”
Cradled in Hunter’s arms, nothing could hurt me. My past couldn’t touch me. My future was sunny.
Conrad was dead. My guys were safe and—mostly—sound. There was just one obstacle left between me and an idyllic life that would’ve seemed an unreachable fairytale not two years ago. And I intended to burn through that obstacle today like I’d burned through Conrad.
Seb needed me. The catastrophic injury he’d sustained protecting me had nearly killed him.
He was stabilized, but his vamp healing had slowed in the days I’d been incapacitated.
The hospital staff had tried giving him blood bags, but while they kept him alive, they were more like bandages when he needed sutures.
They kept his heart pumping but didn’t trigger his accelerated healing.
I, on the other hand, had made a miraculous recovery, sprinting away from death’s door in a matter of days.
I still wasn’t entirely clear on all the details, but I knew the fire phenomenon and my newfound almost-paranormal healing had to be tied to the loves of my life.
The bonds we’d woven channeled strength in all directions.
I didn’t know exactly how mate bonds worked, but whatever I’d forged in making love to Bryce had saved my life.
A perfect symbol of the harmony shared when we’d made our bodies one.
Last night, as I’d tossed and turned, worried about Seb, I’d wondered if the fire in my blood was Bryce’s mark. The twins and Seb had mentioned marks, too, but they’d held back because the process for shifters and vampires required bites.
The idea didn’t scare me anymore.
I wanted to be theirs forever, and I was ready to take Ceci’s advice and embrace the strangeness. Every new experience with them had brought me nothing but pleasure and happiness and a feeling of home. Why should their marks be any different?
Hunter crossed the hall and nudged the bedroom door open with his knee.
Seb’s smile blazed like a star in a wane, grayed face. He pushed his glasses up his nose, and the shine in his eyes eased the needling sting of worry in my chest.
I missed you, Superman. Tears tickled my lower lash, heart swelling.
You have no idea, he groaned back. For a second there, I worried I’d never get to see your face again. In this life, anyway.
He worked to sit up, and the sheets slid down to reveal his heavily bandaged midsection.
Oh, that looks painful, I sympathized when he grimaced and held his middle.
I’m fine, now that you’re here. Are you feeling better, beautiful?
Much. Not sure how much it has to do with the no walking rule, but I’m not complaining.
Dagger stood from the chair he’d pulled up to the bedside and fluffed Seb’s pillow to help him sit straighter. In the far corner, Bryce rose from a lazy boy at the sight of me. “Morning, angel. Seb voted for pancakes for breakfast. Any protests?”
I tried to take a snapshot of the moment in my mind. All of us here together.
“No. That sounds great, but…”
I thought you might need a pick-me-up for your other half, I told Seb.
Hunter gave me a gentle, playful jostle. “Hey, if you’re gonna talk, talk out loud, missy.”
I stuck out my tongue at him. “I was just saying I’m getting used to having a servant to carry me around like a queen.” I kissed his lips and teased a finger along the smooth, tan skin of his collar bone. “If you keep it up, I may never want to tire myself out with walking again.”
He exhaled through his nostrils, trying to look stern, but his smiling eyes and quivering lip line gave away the game.
“Reverse psychology’s not gonna work on that bookworm. He’s too smart. Probably read ten books on it,” Dagger teased.
I laughed, drinking in my bad boy’s tender smile.
Apparently, at the Glasshouse, it was Dagger who’d gotten my location out of one of Conrad’s fleeing clansmen. Dangled him in front of Hunter’s hungry jaguar. The twins had come for me along with a convoy of emergency services, while Bryce life-flighted Seb to the best hospital.
No one in this family got left behind.
A sudden, intense wave of emotion washed across my chest, coating my head in delightful tingles. I had nothing to fear.
“What I was really saying was, I think Seb should feed straight from me—from my wrist.”
Seb’s eyes bulged, exaggerating the sallowness of his cheeks. “Serenity, you don’t have to,” he croaked. “I’ll heal just fine if Dagger does the blood draw like—”
“It’s about more than that,” I said, voice going husky. “I want to. I want to feel that close to you.”
I want to be your mate, and that means bonding with both sides of you. I smiled at the two pointed pearls that slid below his top lip as his pupils expanded in wonder and desire. I’m not afraid of your fangs. I wouldn’t let Conrad claim any part of my life, especially not my relationships.
Seb’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “I’d never hurt you. I’d kill anyone who tried.”
I know.
He patted the bed beside him.
I rubbed Hunter’s scruff. “Can you set me down, handsome?”
As he walked me to the bed and laid me beside Seb I asked, “Have you got any candles?”
Hunter’s brow scrunched, but Bryce grabbed a scented candle off the dresser. “Here.” He lit the wick with one red fingertip.
“What exactly do you need it for?” asked Hunter as Bryce set it on the nightstand.
“Oh, I just want to be sure about something before Seb feeds.” The last vamp that had sunk his fangs into my skin was now a pile of ash. The volcanic sensation had long vacated my veins, and I was no longer steaming, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious.
I held my wrist close to the candle and studied the flame. It flickered on the wick, plump but placid. There was no heat rising, no raging inferno inside me. I felt completely at peace. The candle’s mellow glow reflected my inner contentment.
That made sense. I’d always wished Conrad dead with all my soul. But in the places where sheer evil had made me rage, Seb sparked nothing but love and adoration.
Everyone was watching me.
“I promise, we’ll have a talk about the new trick Bryce gave me over breakfast, but let’s get some medicine in Seb.”
I stroked Seb’s hair as both he and Hunter ran caring palms across my neck and arms. He took my forearm gently in his caress and stared hungrily at the faint blue lines crisscrossing just beneath the skin.
Then he looked up, his scarlet-tinged gaze soft, controlled, despite the appetites I knew had to be rumbling inside him.
“I’ll be gentle. Just a pin prick, then nothing.
But let me know if you feel anything different. The venom should do its job.”
I clasped his scruffy cheek, rubbing my thumb in soft patterns. “I know. I’m ready.”
Seb’s breath hitched. “Me too. But you tell me to stop any time, all right?”
“She knows the deal, Clark Kent,” said Dagger, rocking his chair back on two legs and giving Seb an encouraging tip of the chin. “Quit worrying and take your medicine. We need you in tip top shape for that dungeon crawl tonight.”
“Yeah, and I need you two slackers back in the office,” Bryce said around a dry smile.
Seb never took his eyes off me, but at the guys’ urging, he took hold of my arm. Even in my head, his voice trembled. I need you to understand how much this means to me. I never imagined I could have this. And I was perfectly content with that, really, but you giving me this gift, it…
You’re giving me something I never thought I’d have either. I never thought, after the den, that I’d feel this brave or this accepted or anywhere near this happy. I brushed back his dark hair. So please. Drink.
Seb exhaled slowly, shakily, then moved his lips over my wrist. I watched his fangs descend and felt no jolt of fear, just a slight sting, lighter than a needle, and then noth—oh. Wow. Seb had only been half right about how I’d feel. Because I was feeling something.
My body was warm, fuzzy, as I stroked his hair and Hunter did the same to me.
I closed my eyes and drank in the sensations that tingled up my arm and across my chest, enveloping my head in a delicious drowsiness.
The comforting sensation grew as he fed, his mouth, his clasp, both so tender.
I let out a long sigh and eased against the pillow’s cotton.
What’s happening? I asked as ecstasy crackled up my neck and burst in colorful fireworks inside my head, its light obliterating every horror from the feeding den still lurking in the deep recesses. It feels amazing, like I’m still half in a dream.
It’s because you’re mine and I’m yours. My venom is more powerful. Here, have more.
Oh damn. The warm glow grew. An invisible cocoon around me, it wrapped itself snug and silky, protecting and reassuring. Pure euphoria.
His enraptured sigh echoed in my head and caressed my skin on his exhale. God, I can taste your soul, and it’s heavenly just like I imagined. You really are my Lois Lane.
I chuckled.
Words began to fail me as I took a handful of his hair, massaging his scalp, then moving down his neck as Hunter’s hands did the same to my shoulders, relaxing me so much I thought I might float away.
When I’m better, I’m going to worship every inch of you.
Lust rippled down my spine. Then you’d better suck harder and get all you need.
His mouth still on my wrist, he massaged my thigh and drank deeper, surging the beauty of his soul through me.
Thank you, Seren. You’ve given me life. And now mine belongs to you.
The adoration washed through our mental connection and fuzzed my brain. I couldn’t answer.
Seb lifted his head slowly and licked his lips clean.
Dagger leaned over and dabbed at my wrist with a tissue. “How do you feel, Cowgirl?” he murmured. “You look ready to drift off.”
“I’m perfect,” I sighed.
“That’s put some color in your cheeks, angel. Not just his. And look at that smile,” Bryce said softly.
I opened my eyes to my personal heaven, all of them surrounding me, their eyes gentle. Seb’s had lost the red branches through the whites, and all that color had gone into his face.
“How do you feel?” I asked him.
He stroked up and down my forearm, propping himself up on the pillow with ease and not a trace of a wince. “Amazing. Thank you, beautiful.”
I kissed him, lingering on his mouth, letting my tongue barely trace his upper lip, feeling the fangs behind it. Then I rolled onto my back and extended my arms up to Hunter, wearing an ornery grin. “Carry me to my pancakes?”