Page 115 of Love Bleeds
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Iwoke up to the sound of a crying baby. Nix. It had to be. I blinked my eyes open, trying to orient myself. My head felt as if it had been split open and stuck back together with duct tape. The rest of my body seemed fine, though, as far as I could judge. I wiggled my toes, flexed my fingers. Everything was in working order. I was in my room at the safe house, lying in my bed. And I wasn't alone.
My gaze darted to Crimson and the fast eye-movement caused a painful twinge in my head. I ignored it, focusing my attention on Crimson instead.
Thank God he was okay.
He sat in a chair by the side of the bed, hunched over, eyes closed. I made myself sit up and reach out to nudge him. His eyes flew open, as if some part of his brain had been on high alert even in his sleep. "Luke! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I think. My head hurts," I admitted. At least Nix had stopped crying, which helped.
"I can get you some pain killers," Crimson suggested. "Caspar said you forced your system into shock by using too much magic too quickly without giving your body any time to get used to magic at all."
"Caspar?" I frowned, trying to process everything that Crimson was saying even though the gears in my brain weren't spinning as quickly as they usually did. "Has WAFFER been here? Wait, I don't care about that. Did we kill Nicolai? Did we do it?"
"Caspar and Morgan have been here for a while," Crimson said, speaking more slowly than I did. "Downstairs. And yes, Nicolai is dead." The beginnings of a smile showed on his face as he said that, as if he wasn't sure yet that he could let his guard down and be happy, but he'd bought a ticket to the ship that would get him there. It was probably a rocket ship too.
I let myself smile as I pictured Crimson on a rocket ship. My astronaut, finally freed from the tethers that were holding him down. Relief washed through me so intensely I forgot about my headache for a heartbeat.
And then Crimson spoke again. "The witches are concerned about the explosion and who's going to be blamed for it."
"You think the vampires are going to sue us?" I asked. I'd meant it to come across like a joke, but no one was laughing.
"It's all politics and I don't really understand it," Crimson said. "But they're making it sound like we might have kicked off an avalanche."
"You mean I kicked off an avalanche." It had been my bomb after all. "I'll take full responsibility."
"Like hell you will. You only did that to save me. Whatever happens from here on out, we'll tackle it like a team, the way we've always done."
I wanted to protest that this wasn't like preparing for a quest in a pen and paper game, but then I stopped with my mouth half-open.The way we've always done.The way he'd said that, with such easy nonchalance... He remembered, on a level that went deeper than the surface memories he'd gleaned from kissing me before.
Before I could comment on that, though, Crimson rose from his chair. "I'll get you those pain-killers," he said. "Anything else? Are you hungry?" After a short pause he added. "Collin recommended you drink some blood once you're awake."
It should have disturbed me that the thought ofdrinking some blooddidn't turn my stomach, but I was beyond that now. Drinking blood had allowed me to protect Crimson, after all. "I guess I can take the pills with some blood," I said.
Crimson nodded and left the room. I laid back and stared up at the ceiling, wondering what the future was going to bring and if I should build more bombs, just in case. If maybe I should start practicing with my magic once the headache went away.
I didn't get more than a moment to myself, though, before my brother came in. Collin. I glanced at him, not really bothered by the intrusion--or by the fact that he hadn't knocked. Growing up with five older siblings, I'd gotten used to the idea of never being truly alone.
"Good to see you awake," he said.
"How long have I been out?" I asked.
"The better part of the day, since last night." Collin sauntered over to the chair where Crimson had been sitting and lowered himself into it. He was carrying his son in his arms and the infant was chewing on something. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a ring-shaped teether-toy. My nephew attacked it viciously with his fang. "He's growing his second one," Collin informed me when noticed me watching the baby. "I hope that's all the fangs he's gonna get. We're going through too many of these toys already. He's got quite the bite."
"Can I hold him?" I asked.
"If you're feeling up to it."
"I'm okay." The headache was receding a little more with every minute I spent awake, and I wanted to hold my nephew because he was one of the few undeniablygoodthings that had happened to my family over the last couple of months. Looking at him stoked my hopes that there were more good things to come, even in a world that seemed to turn progressively darker by the day.
Carefully, Collin handed the baby to me and I cradled my nephew against my chest. He looked up at me with those wide blue eyes of his that looked so much like Collin’s. I kissed the top of his head as he tried to take his latest toy apart. Sure, he wasn't an entirelynormalbaby, but so what?
"You were right," I said to Collin. "His fangs are kind of cute."
"Of course they are. Just look at them! They're so tiny and so sharp and he's just a baby. It's hilarious, and it's cute as hell. He looks like his daddy when he smiles."
I didn't have to ask which daddy.
