I touched the side of my hood. "Hey, are you there?"
"Of course I am. Looks like all of you fared pretty well. A couple of injuries in the civilians but no deaths. Are you calling me to tell me how wonderful I am?"
The grin on my face was impossible to shutter away. "I'm calling to tell you that you're the reason we don't have those things back at home. And that I'm all beat up because of you. I think we could've taken those Kipas if you'd given us a chance."
"Chance or not, you could have been killed. All of you could have. They were bringing more in and when those explosions went off, they fled," Edwin said.
I pulled my hand away from the unit. It would keep connection for a little while. "Which doesn't make any sense. They weren't running from Izzy's concussive force."
"Yeah, because they could see her. They can reason that much; there's a threat, there's what we target. But they didn't understand the drones and they had no idea what I could do with them. Besides. You're just jealous that I got to do the superhero thing for once."
There was a faint break in his voice. Aww. I was busting his balls and all he wanted was praise. I ran my finger over the surface of the white linen bedspread. "You did do pretty great, Edwin. I'm really impressed."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
He paused and I was pretty sure I heard a sniffle. Edwin had helped when Izzy had gone nuts but he'd been taken out of the fight pretty early on. Maybe taking down those Kipas was some sort of a redemption for him, in his own mind. It was certainly in character for him. "Thanks, Cassie."
"Mm. You going to bring that big brain of yours down here and teach me a thing or two about how cool you are?" I asked.
Edwin's chuckle was a dark thing that promised all sorts of things. "Am I allowed to?"
"If you bring the boys, I say you are. And I don't really care what the rules are about visitors or after-hours or whatever. See if Nishelle's available, too? I need to be held for a while as we work all of this disaster out."
"Is that an order?"
"Do I really have to give you a fucking order to come down here and cuddle me?"
I hated to be so vulnerable. I sounded pathetic in my own ears, but Edwin wasn't going to figure it out if I didn't ask him; not from such a far distance away. His microphone clicked off and my stomach fell. Had I pissed him off? Was he going to ignore my weak call for snuggling in the dark, cold, lonely night?
Because that didn't impress me very much if he was.
Alone and in that too-bright room, I pulled up the sheets and curled up on my side. As the minutes ticked by, my need grew stronger. Every part of me wanted to be engulfed by Nishelle and the guys. I'd gotten spoiled coming home the past few times to people who gave a shit about me and being completely without them? It took some getting used to.
The numbing spray was wearing off, too. I squirmed, reached out, grabbed one of the Tramadols James had left me and swallowed it own. I wasn't exactly in pain, but it was a nagging and uncomfortable feeling that just kept tugging at my mind. I kicked my sore leg out, jiggled it, and tried to get it to shut up. But it just wouldn't.
My door popped open and in came a cavalcade of people. Edwin was in the pink of health, perfectly fine and dandy. Why wouldn't he be? He'd been playing support and they rarely got physically hurt. Adam had been cleaned up and was out of his supersuit, his pajamas covered in duckies and clearly second-hand. Nishelle and Nate were still costumed and I ran my eyes over that skin-tight wear, resisting the urge to bite my lower lip like some kind of romance novel heroine.
But maybe one tooth slipped out and nipped down on top of it a little bit, okay? I'm not completely beyond hope, but I have my flaws.
In one hand, Nishelle had a simply enormous carafe of orange juice. She offered it out to me and the smell of vodka almost knocked me out of bed. I coughed and shook my head. "Tramadol. Not a great idea to get drunk with that in my system. God, could that be stronger?"
"It could, if I'd found any more booze laying around," Nishelle beamed.
Nate sat down beside me and, carefully, pulled me into his arms. "She thought about pouring a little Listerine in to really top it off, but I convinced her we'd all go blind. And a drink or two won't hurt you. Heavier pain killers, yeah. Not tramadol. It'll just make you loopy."
"Like I need any help," I muttered. "You sure it won't do anything to screw with me too much?"
"Nothing we won't do in turn."
My brows went up. Oh. Oh, no, I'd only meant to settle in with them but as I looked around at my troop of lovers, I saw a certain gleam in their eyes. "Guys, I don't know if I'm up for this."
"I don't know if I am, either," Adam said, settling down across from Nate. "But Izzy's asleep and safe. And I'm happy to give it a try."
They converged on me as one and I squeaked. How much did I owe all of them? In moments, I had no idea which way was up. I was stripped, kissed, my battered skin stinging as they
