“You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” His eyes were fading, the light dimming. “I shared my body with others, but I was as a virgin with you, for my soul had been given to no one. You alone … you alone have me …”

A machine started beeping.

“Someone better fucking start CPR here!”

Tohr came over in an instant, and as he formed a fist of his combined hands, he said, “Breathe for him! Breathe for him!”

Even though Layla’s heart was pounding out of control and she felt like she couldn’t stand, she sealed Xcor’s lips with her own and blew a great breath of oxygen down deep into his lungs. And then Tohr set about pumping.

“Breathe! Now!”

She dipped down again and exhaled everything she had.

And still the alarms continued to go off …

“Again!” Manny yelled as his bloodied, gloved hands worked fast with sutures and a needle.

SIXTY-SIX

When Qhuinn came back around, for a minute, he thought he had returned to the beginning of the nightmare, that fantasy of Blay sitting across a hospital room in a chair presenting itself once again.

“Oh, thank God.”

“What?” Qhuinn mumbled.

Blay jumped up and rushed over even though he had one arm in a sling and was limping like someone had dropped a toolbox on his foot.

Qhuinn was about to ask if the male was okay when those beautiful lips were on his and that familiar bonding scent was in his nose—and oh, fuck, this was so much better than that fantasy—

“Ow!”

As Qhuinn let out the holler, his arm flopped back down on the bed and pain, red hot and deep as an ocean, lit off along his entire right side.

Blay pulled back and smiled. “Look at it this way. You finally got that shoulder fixed. When they stitched up that knife wound, they went in and took care of your bursitis.”

As soon as he could, Qhuinn returned the grin. “Two for one.”

“BOGO.”

Except then he got serious. “Did we lose anyone?”

“Not from our people, but we got a lot of healing up to do. This was nearly a massacre.”

“What about theirs. The Bastards.”

Blay looked away. “Xcor’s not doing so good. And if you’ve got anything to say about that you better keep it to yourself. He was the one who got Tohr and Wrath out. And Layla is in the corridor feeding people, FYI—and I don’t want to hear about that, either. This is an emergency.”

Qhuinn closed his eyes.

“I’m so glad you made it,” Blay whispered. “I would have died along with you if you hadn’t.”

Popping his lids, Qhuinn blurted, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I don’t know.” He nodded to a piece of machinery by the bed. “Is that a morphine pump?”

“Yup.”

“I think I’m babbling, then.”

“It’s okay. Babble all you like.”

Blay sat on the edge of the bed gingerly, and as Qhuinn felt his hand getting taken, he squeezed back.

They stayed like that for the longest time, just staring at each other. And yes, eyes were watering and throats were scratchy … but hearts were full, oh so very full.

“I don’t ever want to be without you again,” Qhuinn said. “Nothing is worth that.”

Blay’s smile was hauntingly precious. “I couldn’t agree more.”

The male leaned down again and they brushed lips once. Twice.

“Mmmm, you know what I can’t wait for?” Qhuinn murmured.

“Peeing without a catheter?”

“Makeup sex.” Qhuinn lowered his lids. “I want in you right now, as a matter of fact.”

The blush that hit Blay’s face was a criminal turn-on—when you were hooked up to an opium dispenser. “Then rest up,” the male drawled. “And take all the fluids you can. You’re going to need them.”

· · ·

Vishous opened his lids and wondered for a moment where he was. The white ceiling above him didn’t give a lot away, and—

Jane’s face, right above his, was such a surprise he jerked back into the pillows.

“Hi,” she said in a wavering voice. “You’re back.”

“Where did I go—” Goddamn, his throat hurt. Had they intubated him? “What happened?”

And yet even as he asked, that goatfuck scene in the warehouse came back to him … him falling and hitting his head, and then lying there paralyzed as guns had continued to go off. Given the distribution of pain all down his body, he concluded a couple of things: one, he was not, in fact, paralyzed; two, he had been shot in a couple of places, having clearly caught some of the crossfire; and three—

“We almost lost you,” Jane said, her forest-green eyes shimmering with tears. “I’ve been in this room for the last two hours praying you were going to come around.”

“Two hours?”

She nodded. “As soon as I was finished operating, I came in—” She frowned. “What’s wrong? Are you in pain? Do you need more morphine?”

“Why—”

As she brushed under his eyes, he realized he was crying—and the moment that registered, he sucked up his emotions and slapped them into submission. No crying. Nope. He was not going there.

“Here, let me call for Ehlena.”

Jane was across the room and at the door leaning out faster than his heart was beating—which actually wasn’t saying much. And as he heard her demand more meds for him, and then start answering questions about other people, all of his aches went away.

Except for the one at his sternum.

And that was the one that, yeah, wasn’t going to respond to any kind of drug.

He watched her tilt even farther and nod to someone, and then step all the way out. Just as the door was easing shut, she looked over her shoulder, her eyes full of worry.

“I’ll be right back.”

No, he thought, I don’t think you will be.

And sure enough, five minutes later, Ehlena came hustling in with a vial and a needle for the IV.

“Hey,” she said with a warm smile. “Jane’s just checking some dressings. She didn’t want you to have to wait for her.”

“It’s okay, and I don’t need that.”

“She said you’re having breakthrough pain.”

With a grunt, Vishous sat up and swung his legs off the side. As he started to remove his IV, Ehlena recoiled.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m checking myself out. But don’t worry, it’s not AMA or anything, because I’m pretty much fully trained at this point. Now I’d like some privacy, if you don’t mind. Unless you want to watch me take my Foley out?”

“How about I go get Jane?”

As the female started to head for the door, he said, “There are more patients out there than you guys can handle, so I’m guessing you could use this bed. And my vitals are stable, I’m already healing, so some Chosen had to have been through and fed me. I really think you need to be critical-pathing your time rather than waste any of it trying to talk me out of leaving—or bothering Jane when she needs to be with more important patients.”

Right on schedule, Manny poked his head in. “Hey! Check you out all nearly-vertical. Listen, Ehlena, I need you, right now.”

V shot the female an I-told-you-so. And then he gathered by her curse and disappearance that she bought into his unassailable logic.

Getting the catheter out was a bitch. His cock hadn’t been used much lately and it really didn’t appreciate the disrespect when he finally did touch it again.

Shifting off the hospital bed and onto his feet, he held his hospital gown together in the back and walked out.

All of the Bastards were in the corridor, and all of them were injured. He didn’t see any of his brothers, but he could catch the lingering scents of their blood, and inferred that they had gone up to the mansion to recover.

Or at least the ones who were not in hospital beds had.

Jane was nowhere to be found.

As he started walking, he nodded to the Bastards, shaking hands that were offered up and pounding knuckles, the battle they had all shared in aligning them more than any formal oaths or bended-knee shit ever could.