She opened dazed eyes to find Travis, softly glowing, staring down at her. “Now Logan.”
She frowned. If Tyr felt like that, what would Loki feel like?
Before she could say no, Logan slapped his bloody palm to hers.
Travis watched as Logan shared blood with Jamie, bonding them for all eternity. She’d already received his gift. Her skin and hair glowed from it with a shine no beautician could imitate, her innate power amplified by his unbreakable connection to her. I have to see about finding a mage willing to train her. From that little display when she’d dimmed his light he knew she was one of those rare instinctive human mages. He had no idea how his and Logan’s powers would react with hers, but—
She gasped, her back arching impossibly high off the bed, her body going into intense convulsions as Logan’s blood coursed through her veins. That pale light that infused her skin turned bright red. “What’s happening?”
Logan backed off, shaking his head. His expression was horrified. “I don’t know.”
Please don’t let it be the power mix. He’d heard of reactions like this where the bonded had wound up dead due to some sort of psychic shock. It was so rare that it was practically myth. He couldn’t lose her now. Not now, not ever.
Her face was set in a rictus of pain, her entire body thrashing from side to side, her heels drumming against the bedding. He quickly grabbed a pen from the side of the bed, holding her tongue with it as she continued to convulse, worried sick that she’d swallow it or, hell, bite it off.
“Kir!” Logan raced for the bedroom door, nearly colliding with Jordan and Jeff. “Kir!”
The desperation in Logan’s voice frightened Travis almost as much as Jamie’s whitening skin. Even her light was beginning to dim. “God damn it, Logan, what the fuck is going on?”
“I don’t know.” Logan shouted back, moving out of the way for Kir. Kir held Gungnir in his hand, and his eyes had taken on their inhuman aspect. Outside the bedroom window, lightning flashed, followed swiftly by thunder.
“Holy fuck.”
Travis looked over to find Jeff staring at Kir. Kir’s hair was moving in an unseen breeze. He glowed with a faint green light, like sunlight through leaves. A spring storm flashed across his eyes, blues and whites being rapidly swallowed by grays and blacks. He laid his hand on Jamie’s forehead, his own creasing as his eyes closed.
Jamie gasped, settling down against the bed, her eyes unseeing as she stared up at the ceiling.
The silence was deafening, broken only by the sound of the rain. His heart pounded with terror.
“Jamie?”
“Too much, too soon.” Kir’s voice was deep, reverberating through their chests with an undeniable power. “Travis and then Logan, one after the other. It was too much for her body to handle.”
No. Travis pulled her out from under Kir’s hand, cradling her unresponsive body to his chest. No. He buried his face in her neck.
He didn’t even realize he was shaking his head until he felt Jordan touch him. “It’s okay, Trav. Look, she’s breathing.”
He looked, blinking rapidly to clear the tears he hadn’t even known were there.
She was breathing.
“It didn’t hurt me when you and Logan did this. Why did it hurt Jamie?” Jordan was being held in Kir’s arms. Baldur was once more sleeping. Kir looked like his normal self, though still slightly worried.
Gungnir was secure on the chain around his neck.
“We did it days apart, remember? Besides, I don’t think anyone expected this reaction. This wasn’t exactly a common occurrence way back when.” Logan flopped down onto the bed with a relieved sigh.
“She’ll be all right.”
Travis studied the woman in his arms. Her eyes were closed, her breathing normal. She was sleeping, her features peaceful. There was even a slight smile on her face, a face now almost completely free of bruises.
He pressed a kiss to her lips, laying her down on the bed as gently as he could.
“Take her cast off.”
Jeff frowned at Kir. “Why would we do that?”
Kir smiled softly. “She doesn’t need it anymore.” He pulled Logan to his feet, took Jordan by the arm, and tugged his lovers out of the bedroom.
“Can I change my mind and take the blue pill instead?” Jeff shook his head. “What the hell just happened?”
“I’m not sure.” He checked every inch of her body he could see, the smile growing and growing until he was grinning like a loon.
It had worked. Logan’s crazy gamble had paid off. She’d gotten Logan’s ability to heal.
“Where are her bruises and scars?”
“Gone.” He picked up her hand, staring at the cast on her wrist. “Get me a pair of scissors or a knife or something, will you?”
“Yeah, sure.” The frightened awe in Jeff’s voice barely registered. He came back with the scissors, and together they got the cast off Jamie’s wrist. She barely twitched.
Travis put the scissors on the nightstand and shooed Jeff away. “Go on back to bed. Everything is going to be fine now.”
Jeff nodded, averting his gaze, but not before Travis saw the other man’s lips curling into a grin.
“Night, Trav.” Just before he closed the door, he leaned back in. “Nice ass, boss.” He shut the door before Travis could respond. Travis could hear Jeff’s laughter moving down the hallway.
He looked down, groaning as he saw his ass hanging out of the sheets. He covered himself up, pulled Jamie into his arms, and buried his face in her curls.
It took him a long time to fall asleep, the memory of her convulsions haunting him. Thankfully when he did it was dreamless.
Grimm stared in satisfaction at Tyr’s house. He sat in Rina’s car, his eyes glued to the house. Rina’s blonde head bobbed in his lap, almost distracting him from the task at hand. He had to admit, she was a world-class cocksucker. He hadn’t yet found anyone else who equaled her, though some came close. He clenched his fist in her hair, slowing her movements, hissing as she laved the head with her tongue. He wanted to savor this moment. It was such a small thing, compared to what he wanted to do, but it was the first step in their plan to regain Gungnir.
Tyr would hardly be able to ignore this. He would be forced out of hiding to deal with the damage, and when he did, Grimm would have him.
Grimm could feel his balls tightening, his muscles clenching off and on as Rina’s talented tongue edged him closer to orgasm. He laughed as his orgasm raced through him, erupting out of his cock and into his lover’s willing mouth.
He sighed in satisfaction as the last of his come was sucked out of him by Rina’s warm mouth. In the distance, the windows of Tyr’s house were an inch thick in ice, glittering beautifully in the streetlights. He could just barely hear the first of the pipes bursting inside.
Rina lifted her head from his lap and nibbled gently on his neck. She practically purred against him.
“Nicely done, my dear.” He nipped her ear, savoring her shudder. “I must say it was a pleasurable addition to such a simple spell.”
He could feel her smile against his neck. “I live to please.”
The strange thing was she was telling the truth . Grimm hadn’t fed an apple to Rina in over a month.
Any effects they might have had over her were gone. Instead of diminishing her passion for him, she’d become even more devoted to him.
She’d even come up with a way to pay Val back. Her errant son was in for a world of hurt when his pissed-off mother got a hold of him.
Grimm pulled Rina off his neck. “Time to go.”
“And then time to come?”