Chapter 25 #3
Your vitals are concerning me. You’re overexerting yourself. Rest and fucking rest now. It won’t be as bad as last time with that nasty transplant, but you still do need to give it a couple of days of acclimation following the restoration spell.
Heed my words or we’re all in some deep fucking trouble.
Sleep tight—and long.
No more strenuous fucking for a few hours.
Chill with the magic for a couple of days, just small spells, nothing more.
Your current cockblocker, but caring friend and fellow know-it-all,
Kai.
“Well, he certainly has a way with words,” Cassius commented. “And clearly also impeccable timing should what he’s warning of prove to be true.” He eyed Sylas expectantly.
Velra slapped his arm. “Sylas! Seriously?”
“What?” he asked, moving to flick away Kai’s note with his magic, until Cassius leaned over Velra and took care of it, giving him a disgruntled look, because Kai had seriously just warned Sylas to chill on the magic usage—and everything.
“I’m fine.”
“Huh. Thought you hated that word,” I said.
He tickled under my chin. “Only when you use it when you’re clearly not fine in the least.”
I batted his hand away.
Although, honestly, fighting past allowing that to distract me was a hell of a feat.
Especially when we’d been on the on-ramp toward some more mind-blowing fucking.
Jeez. It was a really good thing I had full control over both my wolf and my vampire side now. These tests to my control… shit.
“Your vitals are actually fine, though. Your heart rate isn’t irregular, there’s no sluggishness or vascular pulsing, no strain in your lungs.
” I stared intently. “And you’re not feverish.
” Then it hit me. As I shot a look at Velra and Cassius, it seemed they’d come to the same realization.
“You’re masking it with magic? That’s what Velra was getting at. ” I slapped his chest.
“Ow!” he cried. “How is that going to help the situation?” He rubbed the site where I’d slapped him. “Do you know how hard you hit? That’s gonna leave a bruise.”
“Well, then, good thing you’re using your magic to hide everything, isn’t it?” I shot back.
He held up his hands as Velra moved to speak and back me up. “I just… finally being restored… after everything… I just wanted to revel in it with the three of you. No negativity. No constraints. Just for a little while.”
Dammit. “Shit, you don’t even need to pout.”
“To tug at your heartstrings?” he queried.
“Yes, you maddening bastard.”
He smiled.
And then a brief flare of his crimson glow radiated the length of him.
Him dropping the magic he’d had in place, a glamor.
Then I heard it—his irregular pulse, the strain with his breathing.
He saw us registering the shift in him—as if the sweat beading his brow and over his chest that was now visible wasn’t enough of a giveaway as it was.
“I had a time-release on it. Twenty minutes from now it was going to drop and I was going to clue you all in. I just didn’t want it ruined… just wanted some time for us that wasn’t marred by external factors, this war, other players, any of it. It wasn’t intended as one of my secrets.”
Velra, Cassius, and I exchanged a look, a lot being said without words.
And then Velra told Sylas, “Okay.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Okay? Just like that?”
“Yep,” she confirmed. “You’ve been doing well with that lately, drawing on us, pulling together instead of lone-wolfing it. I mean, there are some things that—”
“Requital.”
“What?”
“Requital is what me and Ry are calling the proposal that will bridge the gap between the Guardian Movement and The Shadowed.”
“Yeah?” she asked, excitedly, with him so easily sharing.
“Yeah,” he said, grinning. “Want to know the whole deal?”
“Of course. Just one thing first.” She crawled over me and Cassius to reach him, getting an ass rub from me along the way that had her giggling.
And then she settled cross-legged in front of Sylas and took his hand and stroked the Nexus Band ring still there on his finger.
It didn’t work anymore.
She’d given it to him to monitor his wellness, but with him having his magic bound for a while, then the interference of the transplant, it had broken the connection, rendering it as just a ring now.
She tipped her head up to look at him.
He nodded, getting it. “With the coming battle, you need peace of mind. Go for it.”
“And you won’t alter it, or redirect it to focus on somebody else this time?”
His eyes flicked to Cassius. “You told her?”
“That you had it focus on Vorzyr’s wellbeing, switching the frequencies of his Nexus Band and yours when you and Cassius went on that Puritas cell massacre mission?
” Velra spoke. “No. He didn’t. I figured it out myself after the two of you revealed what you did and I realized I hadn’t felt you being in danger, but I did feel a flicker of Kai Hunter’s magic.
Then knowing Vorzyr has a Nexus Band also, I put it together. ”
“I love it,” I said, laughing, and holding my wrist out that had the forest-green gem bracelet she’d made for me months ago.
“Such a good boy,” Sylas grunted at me.
I flashed him a shit-eating grin, which only widened as Velra reached back with her free hand and stroked my cheek.
But then she was grabbing my wrist. “Come here, naughty little wolf.” Her lip curled. “And rambunctious vampire.”
I moved beside Sylas as she had hold of my wrist, specifically my bracelet.
And then as she held both that and Sylas’ ring, her power sparked—purple Dark Fae, shadows, and even frost, enveloping the bracelet and the ring.
I watched as a Nexus Band ring appeared on the index finger of her right hand.
“What… what are you doing?” I asked, already realizing, but needing her to say it.
“Now it works both ways. I can feel your wellbeing and you both can feel mine. I’m sorry… I should have done that in the first place, but my possessiveness and all that survival mode trauma heaviness got the best of me.”
Cassius came over and wrapped his arm around her, then held out his hand that also had a Nexus Band ring on his finger now.
“I adore it, little shadow.” Although with the Soul Brand they didn’t need any sort of extra wellbeing monitor between them, this meant that Cassius could now clock me and Sylas.
“Well, shit, this really works well with the paranoid, possessive, abandonment issues ridden makeup of our group,” I commented.
That earned a whole lot of laughter.
“Come on,” she said, easing Sylas and me down to the bed with her as Cassius urged her. “Let’s rest like Sylas needs.”
As we all settled under the covers, I told Sylas, “Telling us about Requital can be our bedtime story. From the look on your face when you brought it up, it sounds like it has a happy ending, so I’m good with that.”
“A very happy ending,” he confirmed, nuzzling against me, as we all drew closer together and sank into one another.
Just the way it was always going to be with us.
Fucking perfect.