Page 15 of Loving Nightmares
And it was more than entertaining to hear Eve argue with Saint about little things, making me think that a little pettiness may have been a family trait. I had mostly tuned them out though, far more focused on Ashur as his words from the meeting room echoed through my head. Our magic would be bonded, and that waseverythingto him.
I needed to tell him that it was everything to me as well, that magic or not, I wanted him around. Needed him around. The connection between Ashur and me wasn’t one that I questioned.
“Hey,” I whispered, taking advantage of the others’ distraction.
“My moon.” Ashur brushed a kiss over the top of my head in a gentle caress.
“It’s everything to me too,” I said, turning into his embrace. “I want to be connected.”
The lightning in Ashur’s eyes intensified, jumping around violently in a way that sent my heart pumping. I wasn’t sure if the exhilaration I felt near Ashur was a primal response to something deep inside of me, a part of me that wanted him to chase me and pin me down, or if it was because of the affection and giddiness I felt around him. Maybe a bit of both. Either way, I absolutely loved it, and I rolled up on my toes easily, brushing my lips over his in a gentle kiss.
Ashur didn’t let it stay gentle, though, his fingers sliding up the back of my head and intertwining in my hair, loosening any semblance of a hair style I had there. He deepened the kiss, and I let out a small moan that I knew would get me in trouble considering the size of this elevator.
“Blackwell—” Damian said, his voice tense. I let out a surprise sound as I was suddenly tugged back from Ashur and pulled into Blackwell’s embrace. Ashur’s expression held the threat of violence as he held Blackwell’s gaze, the two of them having some type of silent conversation.
“Hey.” I looked up at Blackwell, tilting my head all the way back. “That wasn’t cool.”
“What wouldn’t be cool, love,” Blackwell said, nipping my ear, “is several nightmares fighting over the honor of fucking you right now, and considering you have six mates in here and smell like fucking perfection, you are seconds away from having that happen.”
Oh. I swallowed and before I could stop myself, words I didn’t expect slipped out of my mouth. “Why does it need to be a fight?”
My cheeks flamed red as Damian barked out a laugh, Saint turning and flashing me an amused and heated look like I’d genuinely surprised him. The elevator doors opened at thatexact moment and I slipped past Cy and Zain, my cheeks flaming as both of them just stared at me.
It wasn’t like I wasn’t normally blunt when it came to these things, but I suppose what I was implying was a bit extreme…or maybe it wasn’t. I feel like I could eventually handle six of my mates or even more, although it’d probably be better to start slow, maybe with three or even two…
“Why is precious bright pink?” Amun asked. He’d gone up with the other group and was waiting by the healing center with Razar, Slater, Keres, Eros, and Drive.
I scowled. “I’m not pink.”
“As pink as her hair,” Keres agreed, looking mildly amused.
“It’s nothing!” I insisted as I turned, shooting all of my mates a look. Eve nearly snickered, reminding me that she’d been in the elevator with us and had been privy to the whole thing. At least she understood where I was coming from. I mean, Saint had mentioned she had multiple mates, so maybe I needed to ask her how she made that work. I think I had the emotional aspect down, but physically…I mean there were only so many positions, right?
Not to mention only so many places—
“We ready to go in?” I interrupted my own thoughts, not allowing my brain to delve further into ideas that would only get me into more trouble. A trouble I would love but couldn’t be allowed when there were literal lives at stake.
“Yes,” Razar said, eyeing me curiously but opening the door. We walked through together, my mood almost immediately sobering. The healing center was large, and right now it was filled, almost all the beds taken. After surveying the room, I strode straight down the main aisle towards the back where the largest group of healers was huddled around a bed, figuring that they must be tending to the nightmare who’d been hit by the poisonous bullet.
I knew when people noticed us because suddenly the conversations around us turned to murmurs, and I heard the words ‘director,’ ‘daughter,’ and ‘god terrors’ all floating around. The healers almost immediately moved out of the way as I approached the bed, and my heart squeezed in pain as I caught sight of the patient, a woman around my age.
Or appeared to be around my age.
“Arabella.” Meredith, one of the healers I was familiar with, stayed near the side of the bed. “I didn’t expect to see you out of bed so soon—we had healers in your room less than two hours ago.”
“Yes, I’m healing faster lately,” I said, not explaining further. I looked down at the unconscious woman, whose shoulder pulsed with a blue light, almost like an orb had gone through her skin. Inside of the orb, her skin was inflamed and angry-looking.
“She was hit with the new bullet,” Meredith explained solemnly. “One of our healers has been able to create a ward bubble to contain the poison, but it won’t remove it—right now it’s just keeping it from spreading throughout the body until we figure out how to get rid of it for good.”
“You’ve extracted the bullet?” Razar asked.
“Of course.”
“Any progress on an antidote for the poison?” I asked. I think I knew the answer, but before I stepped in, I wanted to confirm my assumptions.
“We have antidotes to a number of poisons, but none of them are working. There’s something different about this one. It almost changes its chemical structure as it goes, never staying completely the same.”
“That would be my fault,” Keres said, her brow furrowed. “I knew he was developing a weapon, but when he asked me to alter a chemical that changed its molecular structure in a chaoticfashion, I didn’t realize… I should have asked what he was using it for, but I just wanted him to leave me alone.”
