Chapter 13

Of course you can trust me…unless it’s alone with cake.

-Brooklyn’s secret thoughts

Brooklyn

Life went back to ‘normal.’

And I say that lightly.

Mostly because my new normal was different than my old normal.

We were able to come out of the sanctuary as long as we had at least two dragon riders in our party.

It also didn’t happen as often as I’d like, and I hated asking because it meant that someone had to drop what they were doing because I wanted to leave.

I took up a job with Blythe on one side, and Skylar, Nikolai’s sister, on the other.

Over the next few weeks, more and more of the dragons came home. Which meant the staff that’d been let go had started to slowly trickle back into their previous jobs.

Of course, this was only after they were put through an extensive truth sense by Jean Luc.

Jean Luc was able to get anything out of anyone…except for the man who’d attacked me at the hospital and made an animal attack Nikolai.

Speaking of that pesky wolf, it was now Nikolai’s shadow.

His best friend.

It was a big beast, but it was becoming common for me to see the two of them together.

Nikolai’s fairy dragon, Percy, was also always with them. They, along with Perdita, had become as thick as thieves.

It amazed me that such difference in the food chain could get along as well as they did, but the four of them managed it.

Speaking of Percy, he came fluttering up to me and landed on the bed beside my hand.

I was currently treating a training injury that Dorian, another dragon rider, had suffered as he’d fought with Ian.

In fact, anyone who had the balls to fight with Ian ended up getting hurt.

Keifer and Nikolai were one of the only exceptions.

But it wasn’t often that anybody deigned to work with Ian. He had a perpetual bad attitude and didn’t like anybody.

I wondered why he was there…and it’d been something that I’d been asking Dorian when Percy had showed up.

“What’s going on, Percy?” I asked the little dragon.

The dragon didn’t ‘talk.’ He spoke in my head like the other dragons.

But it was so natural, like I was talking out loud to anybody else, that I didn’t notice that nobody else heard him.

There’s a fight in the yard between Nikolai and Keifer.

I blinked at what Percy said.

“He’s what?” I asked. “Why are they fighting?”

Dorian straightened, wincing only slightly.

“Who’s fighting?” Dorian asked worriedly.

Blood was pouring down his side from the sword wound that Ian had given him.

I’d been in the middle of cleaning it when Percy had flown in like his tail was on fire.

“Keifer and Nikolai,” I said, pushing him back down.

“You’re not going to go out there?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“No,” I said. “Not until I get you ready for your stitches.”

He ignored me and got up, easily pushing me aside.

“You’ve received a local antiesthetic and pain reliever,” I said to him. “You won’t know if you’re doing any damage because you can’t feel it.”

My words fell on deaf ears as he walked out the door, grabbing a folded up sheet on his way out the door and pressing it to his side.

I followed behind the stubborn man.

Every single one of the dragon riders I’d come into contact with were exactly the same.

Hardheaded, stubborn as hell, bad asses.

Blythe caught up with me once I’d made my way about three quarters of the way outside, her pregnant belly leading the way.

She was enormous, too.

At a little over six months pregnant, she was easily twice the size of normal, not that anyone would actually say that to her.

She was sensitive.

If I hadn’t done the sonogram on her myself, time after time, I would’ve said she’d be delivering a freakin’ toddler, not a small baby.

But the baby was growing to size…she was just carrying…big.

She hurried to my side, coming from the prisoner’s ward, and most likely going to get her ass spanked when Keifer found out where she’d been.

“Did he say anything more?” I asked.

Blythe and I, as well as Skylar, traded off going into the prisoner’s ward…or just room number eight that was the furthest way from the rest of the general population.

The prisoner was named Merrick Brown, a dragon rider turned enemy.

Not that I really thought of him that way.

He was actually a pretty intelligent guy…until you tried to ask him why he’d done what he’d done.

Then he clammed up like a…well…a clam.

He was also fucked up beyond belief, and not healing at all.

The wolf bites he’d sustained, on top of something else that’d been done to him before he’d tried to take me, combined with no healing powers whatsoever, meant he was really fucked up.

He had broken bones on top of broken bones…he wasn’t healing correctly…and no one could figure out exactly why.

And when he was asked, his mouth was as tight as one could be.

“Not a word,” she said. “I can tell, though, that he wants to…which is why I keep going back in there. I hope that he’s ready to talk, but he never does.”

“I can’t ever get him to talk, either. I’ve noticed a pattern,” I said as we pushed out the door.

“Oh?”

We walked out into the courtyard where games were usually played, but today served as a makeshift fighting circle.

There were about thirty people there, milling about as they watched Kiefer and Nikolai fight.

And it wasn’t just any fight, this was a no holds barred, I’m going to fucking kill you, kind of fight.

In other words, normal for Nikolai and Keifer.

In fact, this was at least a once a week occurrence since Keifer had come home four weeks ago.

“Yeah,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “Have you ever tried to ask him about his family?”

She pursed her lips. “Yes…yes I have.”

I nodded. “And when he closed up…was it by choice, or by force?”

She opened her mouth to reply, but just as suddenly snapped it shut and placed both hands on her hips.

Her eyes were facing forward, and she was looking at the fight between Keifer and Nikolai, but not actually seeing it.

“Shit,” she said finally. “Shit.”

I nodded.

“I’ve had a discussion with Nikolai about it…and if my guess is correct, that’s what they’re fighting about,” I guessed.

Blythe pursed her lips.

“That shithead is so freakin’ stubborn headed,” Blythe growled.

I snorted, and then her eyes went wide.

She grabbed my hand and pressed it to her stomach, and my eyes widened to resemble saucers.

“The fuck is that?” I gasped.

She shook her head. “An elbow? A knee?”

I giggled, jumping up and down. “I won!” I exclaimed loudly. “Fuck you, Keifer Vassago! You owe me five hundred bucks and a trip into town.”

Keifer’s brows furrowed, but he was too busy trying to beat the snot out of my mate.

I moved my hand to the other side of Blythe’s belly and concentrated, practically willing the baby to move…and I did something.

Something incredible.

I gasped as my mind disappeared and I was suddenly transported into…something.

I opened my eyes.

They were hazy.

Like I was underwater.

And the area around me wasn’t dark…but nearly.

It was like I was in a hole with light shining through a blanket.

I looked at my hand…and it was most definitely not my hand.

It was way too small.

And my knees were up by my chest.

And so was my ass.

Not my ass.

Someone else’s ass.

A tiny ass...but an ass nonetheless.

“Sweet, baby Jesus,” I whispered to no one in particular.

I wasn’t sure anyone could even hear me.

Or see me.

I reached out with my hand and touched the other hand.

There were three that I could see, one of which wasn’t mine.

And I realized then where I was.

I was in Blythe’s stomach.

“Oh, holy shit. Holy shit on a stick,” I said. “Oh, my God.”

I was being super intelligent…but I couldn’t get my brain to work right.

“Can you hear me?” I whispered.

The babies didn’t react.

And yes, I said babies.

Woman? Nikolai whispered in my brain. What are you seeing?

I didn’t know how to let him know what I was seeing.

It was obvious speaking wasn’t getting through, but I tried telepathically anyway.

I think I’m in Blythe’s uterus.

There was a long, silent pause, and then Nikolai replied with, that sounds interesting.

I think…I think I’m somehow doing this…in reverse of what you do. Can you do it, too? I asked.

There was a moment of silence, and then a frustrated reply.

I can’t. What did you do?

I thought about what I did, sending him what I’d done exactly.

Then he was there, too.

You can see? I asked.

I don’t know whether we were occupying the baby’s mind…or just using her eyes. I didn’t know any of it, but I could tell that the other baby—the boy—didn’t like it.

Not at all.

They’re twins, I whispered.

Settle down, Dragos. We’re just making sure you’re okay, Nikolai’s voice whispered.

The boy baby settled down, staring at us…the girl…in suspicion. But he wasn’t actively freaking out anymore.

We were pushed out when both of our hands left Blythe’s stomach, and we were left standing there with a confused looking Blythe, a pissed off and bloody Keifer, and the rest of the onlookers staring at us.

“What,” Keifer said, slightly breathless. “The fuck was that?”

I grinned, then I pushed what I’d seen into his mind.

He froze.

He stared off into space, his mouth going slack, and then he paled as he got to the part where he saw three hands.

Then impossibly more when he got to the part where Nikolai joined us and we pissed the boy baby off.

“Twins,” he said roughly. “Oh, fuck.”

“Twins?” Blythe asked. “What are you talking about twins?”

Nikolai did the same thing that I was doing for Keifer, and Blythe swayed.

Nikolai caught her before she could hit the ground.

“But…but…I had a sonogram!” she wailed. “There weren’t two in there!”

“Apparently,” I teased. “One was hiding.”

Blythe flipped me off.

“Shut up.”

I grinned. “Congratulations, Daddy and Mommy. You’re having twins.”

“I hope you choke on a dick,” Blythe said, patting her stomach. “And you do know, right, that twins are determined by the father’s genes, not the mother’s. You could be having twins yourself.”

“I’m not pregnant,” I denied. “And shut your mouth.”

Blythe bared her teeth at me like a feral kitten.

I bared mine right back.

“Well, at least we’re not the only ones,” Keifer said.

We both turned to him.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

He pointed to the both of us.

“We were fighting with our fists. Y’all are fighting with your words. Same thing,” he said.

Blythe punched him.

“No, it’s not the same thing. We’re fighting because we’re trying to relieve stress. Y’all are fighting because y’all are stupid and don’t want to listen to what the other thinks,” Blythe shot back.

“And what,” Keifer asked. “Does he have to say that I don’t already know?”

“How about the fact that the prisoner you have in the infirmary isn’t able to talk; yet you continue to treat him as if he can,” I said sharply.

Keifer froze.

“You say can’t…,” Keifer said.

I nodded. “He can’t.”

“How do you know?” Keifer challenged.

I started walking back towards the hospital, knowing that he’d follow.

He didn’t disappoint.

As I made my way back into the infirmary, and into the ‘prisoner’s’ room, I stopped beside his bed.

“Hey, you,” I said, tapping his shoulder.

Nikolai’s arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me back so I could no longer reach the man in the bed.

Merrick opened his eyes, and when he got a load of the entire freakin’ compound in his room, his eyes flared.