I realize that all the guys are freshly showered and dawning various lounge worthy clothing. I’m sitting on the edge of a silvery bed, wrapped in a silk robe with the back cut out for my wings. I don’t even remember getting out of the shower.
The shakes are setting in, either because Iceman’s touch is cold, or maybe the shock and adrenaline are finally wearing off. I suspect it’s the latter.
“I’m sorry,” I say as I bring my hand down my face, wiping away the tears and catatonic frustration.
“You don’t have to be sorry, Jeter,” Crux tells me as he sits down on the bed beside me. “We just want you to talk to us.”
“And to stop shaking,” Jerif says with a scowl, as if my shivers are personally offending him. I give him a wry look as he makes the flames in the fireplace roar three times bigger and start putting off some major heat. Iceman sidesteps away from the flame.
“Thanks,” I tell him, grateful for his surly ass. “How long will it take my wing to fully heal?” I ask the room.
“Not long. A few hours, I think. You could be healed instantly if you stepped into Nihil, but I suspect you don’t want to go to Hell right about now,” Iceman tells me.
“You’re right about that,” I mutter. The only demons I want to see are these four and Taz.
I look over my shoulders and give my wing a soft stroke. It seems to sigh against my back at the touch. The pain is still there, but it’s cold and throbbing, slightly numbed again from Iceman’s handiwork.
When I look back at the guys, they’re all giving me strange looks. “What?” I ask.
“I thought you hated your wings,” Echo muses, giving my hand that’s still petting my feathers a pointed look.
I narrow my eyes and drop my hand. “We’ve seen some shit together now,” I reply. “They tried to get me away and got broken in the process. That’s some ride or die shit.”
Echo and Crux chuckle while I scoot back on the bed, feeling suddenly exhausted. “How long do you think until Taz or Nefta wake up?”
Iceman shrugs. “Could be hours, could be days. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
“Fuck, I’m tired,” I admit. “Is that normal?”
“We haven’t seen or fought against anything of this magnitude before. We’re all completely wiped,” Iceman confesses.
I look over at each of them and notice the exhaustion etched in their features. Their eyes are hollow and their bodies in desperate need of sleep. It feels weird to want to crash after all the insanity that just happened, but I feel so run down that I can’t even process anything properly. I’m sluggish and overwhelmed, but there’s so much to do. We have to figure out how to protect ourselves and pinpoint what went wrong.
I just don’t know how.
“Sleep, Maverick,” Iceman offers, as though he knows I need encouragement. “Strut will come get us as soon as Nefta or Tazreel are awake. We’ve all been through a lot, and we can’t solve it right now at this moment, especially if we’re dead on our feet.”
I nod in agreement, but I still feel weird about the need to just shut down and deal with everything later.
“Our problems aren’t going anywhere,” Echo assures me, and with that, I finally let loose the yawn that’s been building in my throat.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so exhausted in my life. I crawl into the bed and almost moan at how warm and inviting it feels. I want to worship the shit out of it, sing its praises with the snores of deep sleep, and give it drool offerings in trade for good dreams where all the snakes in the world die.
I look over at the guys and notice they’re kind of awkward and fidgety in a sloth-like I’m about to fall asleep on my feet kind of way.
“What?” I ask with budding apprehension.
“We should rest, too,” Iceman says carefully.
“Okay…”
Crux scratches the back of his blond head. “Ah...do you want to sleep in here alone, or…”
Brow furrowed, I look at the four of them with confusion until realization dawns on me. They all want to stay with me, but they aren’t sure how I feel about that. I think they expect me to pick one of them and kick three of them out. Fuck that.
I know we haven’t discussed this, or really any part of our unique relationship, but the last thing I want is to be separated from any of them right now.
I settle, becoming one with the mattress, and then pat either side of me. “Will you guys stay with me?” I ask.
Echo and Crux are already in the bed before I can finish my sentence. I laugh as they both aim for the same spot on my left, running into each other in the process. They shove and elbow at each other, trying to get the upper hand as giggles rent through me, my spirits feeling instantly lighter.
“Easy with her wing. Don’t jostle her,” Iceman says as he comes around on my right side.
Echo and Crux immediately stop shoving each other. Echo uses Crux’s pause to his advantage and slips onto the bed at my left, blocking Crux with a cocky grin.
Crux rolls his green eyes and then stretches out on the bottom of the bed on his back, picking up my feet and laying them on his muscled stomach. He starts to massage the arches, making me groan. “Oh man, that feels so good.”
Crux snorts, giving my arch another squeeze. “Hmm, I think you said that to me before…”
I kick him playfully, earning a little, “Oomph.”
Iceman settles on my right, moving his leg beneath mine to tangle together comfortably, while Echo’s arm gets slung over my middle. I trace his pale skin, noting that all of his tattoos are gone. It looks strange to see him
