Page 131 of Blood and Reign

“It’s still early but you’ve been asleep a while.”

I frown, looking back at the window. A while? “How long have I been out?”

“Three days…” My eyes jump to him.

“Threeverylong days…” Kai wraps a hand around me, pulling me closer until I’m snuggled into his chest. He breathes me in before kissing my forehead.

“I’m sorry.” They must have been worried.

Kai shakes his head, kissing me again. “You’ve nothing to apologize for.”

“Where are we?” I glance around at the large bedroom. It’s similar to Kai’s old one, the color scheme gray and black, including the dark wooden dresser and drawers, but the layout is completely different. The bed is a bit smaller and in a different direction with the window to its left. And there’s a more of bare, modern city feel to it than the cozy one from the penthouse.

“Jersey City. Between the five of us, we have a few apartments here. It’s not as big as the penthouse but it’ll do until we can get back on our feet.”

Kai shifts to look at me, his soft eyes full of warmth. “This floor, the one below it, and the basement are all for our personal use. The other three levels used to be a security firm that worked for us. They shifted to Manhattan a while ago, but they’ll have to work from here until everything gets rebuilt.”

I can’t believe most of Manhattan is gone. Even with the help from supes and other communities, it’s still going to take months before we start to see some progress.

I glance around the room again, I guess this is where we’re staying too. At least for now.

Looking back at Kai, I ask him as much. “Us too?”

Kai smiles. “Us too.”

We lie there for a moment, just lost in the comfortable silence and each other’s warm embrace. I smile to myself, feeling at peace for the first time in a long time. It’s like I can take a full deep breath, letting it go as every muscle in my body relaxes, instead of being in a constant state of fight or flight.

And then there’s the future. Something I never thought I would have. Not only do I have a future now, but I have one surrounded by people I love and care about.

I glance up at Kai. He gazes down at me, that soft look still in his eyes.

“Where is everyone?”

Kai moves my hair behind my ear, brushing the back of his hand against my cheek. “They’re out helping with the aftermath. We have portals all over the city, but they’ve all been in and out checking on you.”

“You didn’t hav—”

“We wanted to. None of us wanted to leave you, but there’s one hell of a clean-up. A lot of the surrounding cities have taken in most of the supes but we’re already working on getting it cleared to rebuild.”

“Is Jazmyn—”

“Jazmyn and her men are fine. Draven and his people are helping with everything.”

“How bad is it?” The last time I saw it, most of it was completely level ed with fires everywhere.

Kai sighs, his expression turning sad. “A lot of the area has been cleaned up, but we’ll need to rebuild everything from scratch.”

I know he doesn’t really care about the buildings or what will need to be done to get it back to the way it was. He’s thinking about the people who lost their lives.

I swallow hard. So many people joined the fight to help us. How many of them made it? “A lot of lives were lost…”

Kai tilts my chin up to him. He waits until I look at him before speaking. “It’s not your fault.”

“I know, I just… feel like maybe I could’ve done more or… If I’d been faster…”

Kai shakes his head. “We did everything we could and because of that, many survived. A lot of supes worked together. The demons and witches from Staten Island worked alongside those here, the Colorado dragons, the wolves… So many supes that normally stick to their own kind joined together to help one another and because of that, the damage wasn’t as bad as we expected.”

Wait… “The wolves joined? As in, Luka and Jax’s sperm and egg donors?”

---