“Keifer and Nikolai,” I said, pushing him back down.
“You’re not going to go out there?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“No,” I said. “Not until I get you ready for your stitches.”
He ignored me and got up, easily pushing me aside.
“You’ve received a local antiesthetic and pain reliever,” I said to him. “You won’t know if you’re doing any damage because you can’t feel it.”
My words fell on deaf ears as he walked out the door, grabbing a folded up sheet on his way out the door and pressing it to his side.
I followed behind the stubborn man.
Every single one of the dragon riders I’d come into contact with were exactly the same.
Hardheaded, stubborn as hell, bad asses.
Blythe caught up with me once I’d made my way about three quarters of the way outside, her pregnant belly leading the way.
She was enormous, too.
At a little over six months pregnant, she was easily twice the size of normal, not that anyone would actually say that to her.
She was sensitive.
If I hadn’t done the sonogram on her myself, time after time, I would’ve said she’d be delivering a freakin’ toddler, not a small baby.
But the baby was growing to size…she was just carrying…big.
She hurried to my side, coming from the prisoner’s ward, and most likely going to get her ass spanked when Keifer found out where she’d been.
“Did he say anything more?” I asked.
Blythe and I, as well as Skylar, traded off going into the prisoner’s ward…or just room number eight that was the furthest way from the rest of the general population.
The prisoner was named Merrick Brown, a dragon rider turned enemy.
Not that I really thought of him that way.
He was actually a pretty intelligent guy…until you tried to ask him why he’d done what he’d done.
Then he clammed up like a…well…a clam.
He was also fucked up beyond belief, and not healing at all.
The wolf bites he’d sustained, on top of something else that’d been done to him before he’d tried to take me, combined with no healing powers whatsoever, meant he was really fucked up.
He had broken bones on top of broken bones…he wasn’t healing correctly…and no one could figure out exactly why.
And when he was asked, his mouth was as tight as one could be.
“Not a word,” she said. “I can tell, though, that he wants to…which is why I keep going back in there. I hope that he’s ready to talk, but he never does.”
“I can’t ever get him to talk, either. I’ve noticed a pattern,” I said as we pushed out the door.
“Oh?”
We walked out into the courtyard where games were usually played, but today served as a makeshift fighting circle.
There were about thirty people there, milling about as they watched Kiefer and Nikolai fight.
And it wasn’t just any fight, this was a no holds barred, I’m going to fucking kill you, kind of fight.
In other words, normal for Nikolai and Keifer.
In fact, this was at least a once a week occurrence since Keifer had come home four weeks ago.
“Yeah,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “Have you ever tried to ask him about his family?”
She pursed her lips. “Yes…yes I have.”
I nodded. “And when he closed up…was it by choice, or by force?”
She opened her mouth to reply, but just as suddenly snapped it shut and placed both hands on her hips.
Her eyes were facing forward, and she was looking at the fight between Keifer and Nikolai, but not actually seeing it.
“Shit,” she said finally. “Shit.”
I nodded.
“I’ve had a discussion with Nikolai about it…and if my guess is correct, that’s what they’re fighting about,” I guessed.
Blythe pursed her lips.
“That shithead is so freakin’ stubborn headed,” Blythe growled.
I snorted, and then her eyes went wide.
She grabbed my hand and pressed it to her stomach, and my eyes widened to resemble saucers.
“The fuck is that?” I gasped.
She shook her head. “An elbow? A knee?”
I giggled, jumping up and down. “I won!” I exclaimed loudly. “Fuck you, Keifer Vassago! You owe me five hundred bucks and a trip into town.”
Keifer’s brows furrowed, but he was too busy trying to beat the snot out of my mate.
I moved my hand to the other side of Blythe’s belly and concentrated, practically willing the baby to move…and I did something.
Something incredible.
I gasped as my mind disappeared and I was suddenly transported into…something.
I opened my eyes.
They were hazy.
Like I was underwater.
And the area around me wasn’t dark…but nearly.
It was like I was in a hole with light shining through a blanket.
I looked at my hand…and it was most definitely not my hand.
It was way too small.
And my knees were up by my chest.
And so was my ass.
Not my ass.
Someone else’s ass.
A tiny ass...but an ass nonetheless.
“Sweet, baby Jesus,” I whispered to no one in particular.
I wasn’t sure anyone could even hear me.
Or see me.