Page 28 of Legendary

I mentally counted to ten before I made any attempt to move or even just open my eyes.

“You are all a bunch of fucking babies; he’s going to be fine.” Elise’s snarky voice rang out clear as day.

Next, I heard Reese’s frustration fueled tone. “He’s unconscious. He would be fucking awake if it wasn’t for you and your flailing appendage.”

“Me! I didn’t start that fight! Lilith and her little blonde bitch did.”

Their arguing sounded like someone was continuously punching me in the side of the head. Fuck, Elise’s venom really did hurt like a bitch, and I hated imagining someone getting tortured with it for hours on end. I hadn’t felt it immediately when it sliced through my stomach, but when the pain did hit, it was brutal. The hit to my face was what stung me the worst. The paralyzing feeling of it, but then the burning,fuck, the burning had me tripping over my own feet and then everything went black.

“Maybe you guys should lower your voices just a smidge.Unconscious people can probably still hear you.” I could tell Beetee was trying to mediate between them. I would have easily told her that was a lost cause.

“Well maybe Nicholas should be aware of how much of a whiny little shithead his friend is,” Elise fired back.

“Shithead?!”

I decided that now was the best time to release a groan and let everyone know I was okay and could hear them perfectly. There were a few sharp intakes of breath as I slowly started to open my eyes and realized I was lying on my back, looking up at the ceiling. It took a moment for me to get the room to stop spinning. I turned my head to the side with pain that had me clenching my teeth together noticing three sets of eyes staring at me.

Beetee clapped her hands, letting her palms close softly together, which I assumed was to try not to startle me with supremely loud noises. She was overly considerate, compared to the two jackasses next to her. She took a few steps toward me.

“Hey, sleepy head. How do you feel?” Her nose wrinkled with concern.

I took a short breath in and blew it out, licking my extremely dry lips. “I’m good, just, uh…I feel like shit.”

Elise snorted. “You look like shit.”

“Ellie!” Beetee scolded, swinging her head around to look at her friend.

Reese shoved Elise out of the way, while Beetee stepped to the side to let him by. “Do you want to sit up?” His blonde hair was tied in a bun, but was flopping over to the side a bit, as if he did it in a hurry.

I nodded as best I could and let him gingerly wrap one hand around my right shoulder and then reach towards my left as he helped me up. I tried to not twitch with pain at each minuscule movement. He reached down and carefully swung my legs around so that I was sitting up with my legs swinging over the bed. Reese placed both hands on my biceps, tilting his head down so he could look me in the eyes, his own hazel ones searching my face.

“Are you good to sit up on your own?” he asked, keeping a strong hold on me.

“Yeah, I’m good.” I looked down at the tattered parts of my shirt. The inky black stains on the ripped ends. Forever remnants of Elise’s tail venom.

Reese let go of me and I wobbled but maintained my balance. I placed both my hands on either side of my legs, taking three long breaths in and out before lifting my head and looking at them. They were all staring at me expectantly, probably wondering if I would start asking a million and one questions or just pass out on the floor. Either was an option at this point, although I only had one question on my mind. One simple question thesecond the blackness peeled back from my mind, and I could think at least a fraction clearly.

“Where’s Dani?”

I remembered the fight for the most part. I remembered Isabel appearing, causing us issues once again. And I remembered Dani’s face. The same lost look in her eyes. Eyes that were as black as midnight and she had this almost suffocating tension around her that should have pushed me away, but it didn’t. It never did. Not when she was torturing Cullen and not during that fight. I wasn’t scared of her, but that darkness she harbored worried me. She had so much more of it compared to the angelic part of her.

Reese scoffed. “Seriously? You just woke up from being bitch slapped by a tail and that’s your first question?”

I bit my lower lip and simply nodded. I peeked over at Beetee whose smile was so wide it looked like it hurt. Elise looked over at her and rolled her eyes. “What are you smiling for?”

Beetee shrugged, hiding her smile as best she could. “Oh nothing, nothing at all. I called for one of the Enchanters who stays here to mix you up something. It won’t be as fast acting or probably as great as the tonics you have in Oculus, but we do our best.”

I gave her a grateful smile, but then looked back over to the others. “Is someone going to answer my question?” I didn’t like to think of myself as an impatient kind of person, but this was an answer I really wanted to know.

“I’m right here.” All eyes were on her when her voice broke through the small silence. Dani leaned against the door frame casually as if what had transpired in the last two hours hadn’t happened. She had changed into leggings and a slouchy black crop top that slid off of one of her shoulders. Her hair was draped over her shoulders, each curl more defined than the one next to it. I found myself letting out an audible breath of relief when she appeared.

“See look, she is fine,” Elise pointed out.

Dani stepped further into the room, making sure she had space between her and Elise. “Isabel made sure to let me know that Lilith saidwelcome home.”

“She does know that a simple flower arrangement is a good welcome home present as well, right?” Reese joked, rubbing his forehead.

“If she sent flowers, I guarantee they would be poisonous,” Elise mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. “My question is where the fuck did Isabel even come from? One minute she’s not there and the next she is. Honestly, for a minute it looked like you were just fighting air.” She cocked her head towards Dani, who narrowed her eyes at her former friend.

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