Chapter 48

 

I felt like I was whole again as sleep slowly lifted. There were hushed voices coming from the other side of the room and I stayed there with my eyes closed not sure if I wanted to see who was in here with me.

The bed moved beside me and I heard a soft chuckle I was beginning to recognize. “You may as well open your eyes. We’re not going to go away.”

Lifting my eye lids, I looked up at Chase. He was grinning and it didn’t take me long to figure out he could feel the moment I had regained consciousness. “How do you feel?”

I moved slowly up on the pillow and then stopped when I could feel the air on my skin. Looking down, I watched as he pulled the sheet higher and realized I was naked under the bedding. Flicking my eyes to him, he lowered his lashes and to hide his thoughts from me.

“Daxx.”

Chase sat up so I could see past him to where Quinton stood a few feet away. “Hey.” I could barely manage more than a whisper. I wanted to sit up but due to my naked state I decided I would just have to stay put for a little longer.

Quinton strode over and knelt beside the bed. “How are you doing?”

I tried for a smile, but wasn’t sure how it came out. “A little rough, but better than I was.”

“Quinton was wondering if you might be more comfortable in your own room on the other side of Alterealm.” Chase’s voice was casual but through the connection we now had I could feel frustration that was bordering on anger.

I looked from the hazel eyes that were watching my own carefully over to the brown ones that were filled with concern. “I think I’ll just stay here for a little longer. Things might be sealed up, but I don’t know how moving around is going to be just yet.” I looked around the room. “How is it there’s only you here, Quinton?”

He shrugged. “Chase has limited your visitors to one at a time for the day, so the others are home grabbing some rest before they come over.” Motioning to the table beside the bed, he grinned. “Mitz volunteered me to bring you over some food.”

“They don’t cook here?”

Chase chuckled. “Yes, we cook here. My guess is Quint was driving everyone crazy so Mitz sent him here to see with his own eyes that you were doing better.”

“Oh.” I tried to move up again without revealing that I had nothing on under the sheet. With a silent look to Chase, he stood up and went over to a dresser on the far side of the room. He pulled out a large white shirt and held it up.

Coming back over, he glanced at Quinton briefly and then to me. “She needs to drink more juice after the amount of blood she lost.”

Quinton stood up. “I’ll go get it.” He looked down at me and then moved quickly out the door.

“He’ll run the whole way,” Chase whispered as he leaned over the bed. Reaching under me he sat me up slowly, watching my face the whole time. With one hand against my back, he held out the shirt to me. “I didn’t want to put you in bed in wet clothes.”

Doubting I would have noticed didn’t seem to be the right thing to point out, so I just took the shirt and worked my arms into it. Every muscle in my side hurt as I raised my arms and lowered it over my head. When I was finished, he helped me sit up straighter on against the headboard. Taking a minute for the spinning to stop, I bunched up the blanket at my waist and moved it off of my left leg. I hadn’t seen how it looked last night and the dull ache told me it must have been bad enough.

Bending my leg so it was out of the blanket I looked down to see a good four-inch red scar along the top of my thigh muscle. It didn’t look as healed as I remembered the one across my side looking. Reaching down I ran my fingertips along it to feel it was still very sensitive.

“Troy focused on the other injury, figuring that one wasn’t as life threatening.”

I looked from the mark up at him. Certain pieces started to fit together. Chase saying his saliva didn’t heal, the sensation along my side when he was trying to get me to take some of his blood. My cheeks warmed when the image of one twin over me without his shirt while the other one licked my side filled me head. I looked down at the blanket.