Chapter 20

Things I will not judge you on: Sexuality, religion, or race. Things I will judge you for: Not signaling while driving, how you treat others, and what direction you place the toilet paper.

-Fact of Life

Brooklyn

The room we were in was white.

White walls. White ceiling. White bed. White linens.

Where in the hell was I?

A moan from my side had me turning, painfully, to face the other occupant of my bed.

“I fan’t feel my fongue,” Nikolai said.

I giggled, then my head exploded with pain.

“Owww,” I whined. “What happened?”

The bed shifted on my other side, and I gasped, turning to see who else was in my bed.

“Blythe?” I asked. “Why are you in bed with us?”

A moan from her, and from someone across the room, had me sitting up in confusion.

Then the door opened, dragging my attention from the other bed in the room housing Skylar.

“Glad to see y’all are all awake,” Ian said with annoyance. “I can’t keep fucking doing this.”

“Doing what?” Nikolai and I asked at the same time.

“Jinx,” I whispered roughly. “You owe me a Coke.”

My mouth felt like I hadn’t partaken of a liquid in about a week.

He snorted.

“Taking care of y’all. It goes against the grain,” he grumbled. “And I’ve had to do it for everyone that’s a fucking dragon rider or somehow bonded to a dragon rider.”

“Why weren’t you affected?” Blythe moaned.

“Because someone had to take care of y’all, and I had the least to give, according to Keifer,” Ian shrugged.

Blythe gasped, standing up on the bed and staring at Ian with sudden terror.

“My babies?” she asked.

He held up his thumbs in the universal sign of ‘they’re good.’

“Thank God,” she sank to the bed. “Why am I naked?”

It was then we all looked at Blythe, who’d hastily taken the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around herself.

“Because it was either take it off you, or leave you in blood. So I chose to take it off of you underneath the blankets. But thanks for the show,” Ian jeered.

I tossed the pillow at him that was under my head.

“So what…happened?” I asked, checking to make sure I had clothes on.

I did.

Nikolai rolled out of the bed, coming to his feet like a panther.

“Fuck, but I have to pee. How long were we out?” he asked, walking to the bathroom.

Then he proceeded to pee for, at least, seven minutes…maybe longer.

Blythe and I looked at each other, and a grin played at our mouths.

“My head hurts,” Skylar said in protest from the other bed. “Why are we in the sun room? My hands feel like they’re nailed to the bed.”

The funny thing was, that they were above her head as she looked at them in front of her face. Opening and closing them into fists, trying to work the circulation back into them.

“It was either the sun room or straight outside,” Ian boomed. “My powers work best during the light of day,” he said. “And Keifer decided to heal every single one of the babies in the NICU as well as you.”

His eyes were pinned on Blythe.

“What?” she asked. “What are you talking about?”

“From what I can gather, which isn’t much since I haven’t seen Keifer yet, nor spoken to him, is that he healed you,” he answered her. “He felt your life force slip away, and he drew almost every ounce of power from nearly every person that’s connected to him. And then he funneled that into you.”

We all blinked, but Ian continued before we could ask him anything more.

“When he had the excess that he didn’t need, he gave it to all the babies that were in the NICU. They’re calling it a divine miracle,” Ian said, tossing a paper onto the bed.

On the front page headline it read: Christmas Miracle. All babies ready to go home, happy and healthy.

“Holy cow,” I said, leaning forward. “They’re all okay?!” I asked.

Ian nodded, then picked up a TV changer and pressed the big red button in the middle that turned the massive thing on.

I didn’t remember any TV or beds being in here, but that was a question to save for a later time.

“They’ve been running a continuous loop today about all the babies and their parents’ stories,” he said, stopping on Channel 3.

“How long were we out?” Nikolai asked, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Four days,” he said distractedly.

“Four days?” Blythe shrieked, climbing out of the bed and running away. “I need to go see my babies!”

Then she was gone, a long white sheet trailing in her wake.

“You’re taking her, right?” I asked Nikolai.

He shrugged.

“Guess I’m going to take about fifteen people. Hope Perdita’s ready to be a packhorse,” he teased.

I think not. Perdita replied primly. You’d be lucky to get me about two feet off the ground at this point. Your king zapped me just as good as he zapped you.

Nikolai smiled and he grabbed my hand to lead us into the main part of the house, then even further to the bedroom that he and I shared.

It felt like years since we’d been in the room, even though it was less than five days ago.

“You want the shower first?” he asked.

I gave him a look, one that said I clearly didn’t want the shower first.

“You want me to take the shower first?” he guessed wrong again.

I shook my head, then I stripped off my clothes and walked into the bathroom, turning the shower on, then stepped back and waited for it to heat.

It didn’t take long, and by the time my feet were hitting the cool tile, I could feel Nikolai’s heated gaze on me.

“Better make this quick,” I said huskily. “She won’t wait long.”

His hands went to my hips, and he didn’t waste any time, picking me up around the waist and impaling me on his cock.

It was an impressive show of strength as he supported me with his upper body alone.

I moaned and threw my head back, my long hair tickling my ass as Nikolai pumped into me roughly.

He took me at my word, making it quick.

In the next second, when I felt his orgasm start to rise, mine followed.

The push and pull of his cock as it dragged deliciously along the walls of my sex had me bracing for my orgasm before I’d even had a chance to enjoy the feel of him inside of me.

“Hurry,” he said roughly against my neck, his tongue snaking out to run along the length of my throat.

My hands clenched in his hair and I started to squeeze my thighs around his trim waist to help slam myself even harder down.

Then, like a tsunami to my soul, my orgasm rolled over me, pulling Nikolai under with me.

He growled and latched onto my neck with his teeth, holding me in place while he pumped me so full of his release that I could already feel it leaking out of me.

Long seconds passed as we stayed tangled together, our breathing returning to normal.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he said against my neck.

I clenched around him, causing a growl to erupt from his throat.

“You guys!” Blythe said from outside of our bedroom door. “I want to meet my babies! Stop fucking or I’ll chop y’alls’ privates off!”

Chuckling, he pulled out of me, and I immediately waddled to the toilet to ensure no leakage got onto the carpet.

“You’re so messy,” I muttered to myself, grabbing a wash rag from the top shelf in the closet and wetting it down.

I looked up and saw the hot pink box of my tampons directly in front of me, and I froze.

“Son. Of. A. Bitch.”