Which freaked me the fuck out, and explained the grayness to my face as I thought about how much I wanted to touch it.
But Skylar didn’t know that…nor did Keifer.
They just thought I had a phobia…a nice, normal phobia.
Oh, how wrong they were.
“I’ll be fine,” I hedged.
And I was.
All the way up until she removed the tracking device.
The moment it was removed, my hand found Brooklyn’s unconsciously, and I willed the wound to seal.
I hated seeing her in pain, even if she wasn’t actually ‘feeling’ it.
And, before my eyes, it did heal.
My hip, though, burned.
And I hissed in response, jerking slightly and pulling my shirt up.
Skylar had frozen at my inhalation, and she watched in awe as blood started to drip down my hip with a precise incision in the exact same spot as Brooklyn’s had been only moments before.
Then, as if it were magic, the wound sealed…and the tattoo fully appeared.
Not just on me, but on Brooklyn, too.Chapter 1Vegetarians live up to ten years longer than the rest of the world. Ten long, horrible, bacon-less years.
-Nikolai’s secret thoughts
Nikolai
“I need you to stay back. Watch the sanctuary…and Brooklyn,” my brother, Keifer, said to me.
I blinked.
“So, let me get this straight…,” I said, turning around in my computer chair to face him. “You’re taking, not just you, but your pregnant mate, our mother, sister, and entire fucking sanctuary, sans two people. Me…and Brooklyn. The girl who had a fucking transmitter pulled out of her stomach that probably told the entire fucking world where we were located…do I have that correct?” I replied carefully.
My brother gave me a blank stare.
“Yeah, that’s what I fuckin’ said,” he answered tightly.
I pinched the bridge of my nose with my fingers as I said, “And what if something happens to Brooklyn? What am I supposed to do with her? I’m not a fucking doctor.”
“She’ll be fine. I’ve told you over and over again that there’s not a thing wrong with her. I think she’s just…sleeping to sleep. Like her body is keeping her in a dream state because her mind’s so traumatized,” my sister, Skylar, offered her two cents.
I rolled my eyes.
She’d told me that before, but I didn’t believe her.
Nobody stayed in a coma for over two months just because they needed to recover.
I was fairly sure there was something else going on, but the two of them wouldn’t listen to me.
Apparently, medical science outranked my gut feeling.
“Fine,” I snapped. “It’s not like I can really stop you, now can I?”
Was I pulling off the nonchalant attitude like I was intending to?
I sure as fuck hoped so.
Keifer grinned. “It’ll be fun if you’d at least try.”
Keifer was officially the King of Dragons, as of less than twenty-four hours ago.
Used to be he was a prince, just like me.
However, that all changed when he met his mate, Blythe.
Blythe started a chain reaction that all boiled down to Brooklyn’s uncle, and the man that killed our father, actively trying to assassinate not just my brother, but the entire dragon rider race that served directly under Keifer.
Although he was unsuccessful, we’d lost six dragon riders and three dragons.
Immortal dragons.
We were still trying to figure out just what the man had that made the dragon’s link to the Meridian rendered invalid.
The Meridian was what gave dragons their life force and also gave them their ability to be almost immortal.
As long as they stayed within two hundred square miles of one of the six hearts of the Meridian, then they’d thrive. But if they moved too far away for too long of a period, then they’d slowly lose their immortality and age just like any other living being.
But when we were attacked, it was like the Meridian ceased to exist…and the laws of magic I’d grown up with didn’t exist, either.
“Are you even listening to me?” Keifer growled in frustration.
I stood up, careful to keep my shirt down, and turned to face Keifer.
“Yeah, I fuckin’ heard you. You’re leaving. I’m to stay here and take care of the sanctuary. You’re taking everyone. I’m all alone and the sole provider for our unconscious houseguest that shouldn’t even be here, and I need to keep an eye out for any bad people. Right?”
I was sure the sarcastic edge to my words came out nice and clear if Keifer’s face was anything to go by.
“I’m not leaving you alone, and not for long,” he grunted.
I raised a brow at him.
“If you weren’t leaving me for a long time, why take everyone?” I countered.
He sighed. “I can’t risk everyone. We’re going up to Anchorage for two months only. That should be enough time to figure out if whatever threat we had was actually a threat or not.” He sighed. “And I need to read up on dragon history; now’s as good of a time as any, I suppose.”