Something touched his forehead. He was cold and sweaty and the touch was warm and soft. Inviting. And he was already pulling it into him, reaching for the light inside that touch and grabbing tight. The touch on his forehead stopped, frozen in shock and wonder and tingling with pleasure. This was a playful light and he got the sense that it thought this might be a game.
There was another light nearby it. Only the faintest thread connected them Wilburn yanked on it. He followed that light to a loud, familiar voice, and grabbed that light too. The voice stopped talking—he had no idea what it had been saying—and pulled it, along with the first new light, into his pile. They were his.
The pain all but dissipated.
Wilburn opened his eyes.
He was laying in his bed in his bedroom, naked save for a cold sweat and a tangle of sheets around his legs.
He wasn’t alone.
A young woman he’d never seen before gazed down at him. She was perched beside him on the bed, looking at him with bright green, adoring eyes. She had a smattering of freckles and the second wildest red hair he’d ever seen.
He blinked. There was a beautiful red head sitting next to him in his bed stroking his forehead. He had no idea who she was and he was naked and still covered in dried fluids from his earlier lovemaking with Zuha. All of this initially began to register very slowly, and then more quickly.
Wilburn launched himself backwards and out of the bed. The sheets caught around his legs and instead of the energetic leap he’d intended, he flew bodily into the wall hard enough to crack the sheetrock. Slamming a hand out to steady himself, his fingers went through the wall like it was papier-mâché, grinding the sheetrock into a fine powder and spilling it over his hand up to his wrist.
“Damn,” said the girl. “That’s one hell of a grip.”
Boisterous laughter sounded from the doorway and Wilburn’s head whipped around to face it. Buddy stood there, leaning against the doorframe. “Damn man, I’ve never seen anyone move like that!”
Wilburn’s eyes flit from wild tangle of red hair to wild but stylishly managed red hair, a sense of recognition dawning. “You’re siblings.”
The girl’s eyebrows went up. “What gave it away?”
Wilburn took a deep breath. His whole body ached like he’d been run over by a Zamboni machine. That was a definite improvement from what it had been before. He was about to ask what they were doing in his room when he noticed that Buddy’s sister’s eyes were riveted on his torso.
He looked down and at first could only be grateful that the tangle of sheets had successfully protected his modesty, if only just. Somehow when he’d jumped he’d torn them nearly to shreds. After that brief sigh of relief, however, he did a double take.
The body he was looking down at was not his own. He wasn’t a softy—all his practice with the unicycle had given him a descent core and thighs, but not a six pack. With the sweat he’d woken up in giving his skin a sheen, he looked like he’d leapt off the cover of a fitness magazine. Each of his muscles was swollen and defined. Ripcord lean and chiseled, he tightened his abs just to make sure they really were his and clenched his jaw shut when they obeyed.
A slight whimper from the bed drew his attention back to Buddy’s sister. Apparently she’d appreciated the show.
“You like showing off, do you?” Buddy asked from the door, sounding as if he was stifling another laugh.
“Not really,” Wilburn said. “What’s going on? What are you doing in my room?”
“Aw, you’re not happy to see me?” the girl asked, pouting. She hopped up from the bed and for the first time, Wilburn got a good look at what she was wearing, and the figure beneath it.
She was clad in short denim shorts and midriff baring halter top that struggled to contain a pair of breasts that should have been too large for her frame. A small silver chain dangled from her belly button. Everything about her attire was meant to attract attention and she certainly had his.
She knew it too, because she grinned at him. “Like what you see?”
“Siobhan is visiting from out of town and wanted to go clubbing,” Buddy said, coming to his rescue, though he seemed to be enjoying Wilburn’s plight as much as Siobhan. “Thought we’d invite you along.”
Siobhan got a mischievous smile across her face. “Heard you fell asleep after you had a lady over. I thought it might be fun to see how far I could tease you before you realized I wasn’t her.” She brought her thumb up to her mouth and bit her nail. “’Course, now I’m hoping you might not care.”
“Damn, sis, I do not need to hear that,” Buddy said, clapping a hand over his face. “Lalalala, I’m not listening!”
“Okay, both of you step out of my room and let me get dressed,” Wilburn said. His ears were burning again but his tone was firm and steady. Commanding.
Siobhan gave a little shiver and hurried to obey and Buddy closed the door behind her. Before Wilburn could breathe a sigh of relief, however, Buddy called through the door, “Invitation to come clubbing still stands.”
“You know what,” Wilburn called. “Thanks, but I’m not feeling to good. I’m going to clean up and stay in tonight. Maybe play some videogames.” His cousin Stacy would be online tonight, he was pretty sure. It would be good to catch up with her. And he wasn’t sure that going out was a good idea, in large part because he could sense Buddy and Siobhan standing outside of his door. He knew they were there just as surely as he could feel Belinda and Bernard across town and Zuha rocketing through the air miles away. He hadn’t been able to do that before visiting his mind palace. Just what had happened there at the end?
He wanted to find out—needed to actually, but what if by revisiting he somehow set off all that pain again? He wasn’t sure his psyche could handle it.
Moving from his spot against the wall was an interesting experience and he tripped over several times as he relearned to walk. It was a lot like the difference between riding a bicycle and riding a motorcycle. Both required a certain similar balance and skill, but one had a lot more power.
Eventually he made it to door of the bathroom he shared with Mitch and tumbled in. The hot water washed away the sweat and soothed his aching muscles but with that pain diminished he was able to focus on how hungry he was. Starving, in fact. Staring at his new muscles, he could only surmise that they must be the cause. Spontaneous muscle growth had to work up an appetite—the proteins had to have come from somewhere.
Stepping out a short while later, he dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, both of which were more than a little tight on his new body, he grabbed his phone and wallet, intending to call a pizza place to deliver. Stepping out into the shared living room, he froze.
A vaporizer had been set up near the couch and a pot cooking on the stove filled the living room with the aroma of chicken noodle soup. Buddy stood over the pot, stirring while his sister sat on the couch, a blanket folded over her lap and a small jar of something held in her hand.
She held up the jar. “Here, Wil, lay down and I’ll put VapoRub on your chest.”
Chapter Twelve
“I thought you guys were going clubbing?” Wilburn asked, a little uncertainly.
Siobhan shrugged. “We were, but you’re not feeling well. You complaining?”
“Little weirded out,” Wilburn said, eyeing the VapoRub. “Look, really, I’m just after a quiet evening. I’ll probably play videogames online with my cousin or something. There’s no need to, uh, take care of me.”
“Might as well have some soup,” Buddy called from the kitchen. “This stuff’s good and you didn’t have to pay for it.”
That last part was true. Wilburn may have only been a college student a short time but he’d already learned that no food was as good as free food. And Buddy’s soup did smell really good.
“Where is everyone?” Wilburn asked, glancing around for his roommates.
“Oh, they’re out at the clubs,” Siobhan said. “We s
ent them ahead.”
“Oh, I see. You’re planning to catch up later then?” he asked.
“Not really,” she replied, apparently without a care at all.
Something wasn’t right here. Wilburn’s eyes cut back and forth between the siblings. “Siobhan, where’d you say you were from?”
“San Francisco,” she said brightly. “Dual major in theater arts and nutrition.”
Wilburn wasn’t sure which was weirder, the way the siblings were taking over his apartment, or the fact that being a nutrition major was apparently a real thing.
“So, why are you making your brother cook then?”
Siobhan grinned at him. “You want me to cook for you, Wil?”
Wil had never had an expression that salacious thrown at him before. He met her gaze and held it. “I’m missing something. What’s going on?”
“Not sure what you mean, Wil,” Buddy said. “But the soup’s ready if you’re hungry. Are you feeling up to eating? I went ahead and put the hospital on speed dial just in case whatever you’re feeling is some kind of relapse.”
Wilburn could have smacked himself in the forehead. Here he was getting all weirded out because Buddy and his sister were being nice to him and they had a more than perfectly good reason. They weren’t even far off in guessing that the reason he was out of sorts had something to do with his recent stay in the hospital. He didn’t think a ‘relapse’ was in order, but there was no way he could legitimately explain away growing enough muscle to make an Olympic athlete jealous over the course of a few unconscious hours.
Buddy was just straight up the kind of guy who went the extra mile to look after his friends. Thinking back, Wilburn remembered their first encounter—Buddy thinking he was protecting Wilburn’s roommates from some asshole imposter. He’d loaned Wilburn the keys to his apartment without a second’s hesitation right after that so he could rest.
“Buddy, you’re a good man,” Wilburn said.
“What about me?” said Siobhan, arching up off the arm of the couch so that her breasts were prominently displayed. “Am I a good girl?” She smirked. “Good woman?”
Buddy rolled his eyes, sparing Wilburn the need to answer. “Whatever, Sis. Save it for the clubs. Get your soup while it’s hot. What game you playing, Wil?”
“World of the Sundered,” Wilburn said, finding a bowl that wasn’t dirty and ladling soup into it. “My cousin plays. It’s how we keep in touch.”
“Is he as cute as you?” Siobhan said, sidling over.
“She, actually,” Wilburn replied, then glanced at Buddy. He wanted to ask if Siobhan was always like this but couldn’t think of a way to say it that wouldn’t be offensive. His glance earned him a noncommittal shrug from the red haired giant and a sigh from Wilburn as he took a seat with his soup, followed by Siobhan.
“So is this like some kind of kid’s game or are you both just uber-nerds,” she asked.
“It’s pretty graphic,” Wilburn said. “But she’d probably get ‘uber nerd’ on a t-shirt. She’s way more serious about gaming than I am. She livestreams a lot of her playing and has a big following on YouTube.”
Siobhan’s brow wrinkled and it had the effect of making her face look almost feline. “People actually get into watching her play videogames?”
“Oh yeah,” Wilburn said. “Personally, I’d rather play them, but the way Stacy comments—she’s pretty funny.”
They ate soup together, Siobhan moving around to sit next to him while Buddy took her spot.
“Why don’t you show me your character?” she said, scooting even closer to him.
Wilburn resisted the urge to scoot away. It wasn’t that she wasn’t attractive—she was—but something wasn’t quite right. If being next to her didn’t feel as good as it did he’d probably have found an excuse to leave, no matter how sore he was feeling.
“Sure,” he said, then eyed Buddy.
For his part the red-headed giant shook his head and grinned and asked his sister, “Since when do you care about videogames?”
“Since when do you know how to make chicken noodle soup?” she snapped back.
Buddy held up his smartphone. “Since I got Google. What’s your excuse?”
Siobhan pouted and moved closer still to Wilburn, her bare thigh rubbing up against his jean-clad leg. “Since this evening. Your friend’s an interesting guy.”
Buddy snorted. “You just want him for his body.”
Siobhan got a wicked grin. “That definitely helps.”
“Look, can you at least wait to come onto him until after I’ve gone home?” Buddy asked. “Seriously, it’s weird watching you fawn all over him.”
Siobhan’s cheeks turned scarlet. “I-I—I am not fawning over anyone! You made him soup.”
“That’s just being neighborly,” Buddy said. “I take care of my friends.”
“He’s my friend too,” Siobhan snapped, then grinned at Wilburn. “Right?”
Before Wilburn could say anything, Buddy interjected, “You do not get to put him on the spot like that. Seriously, what is wrong with you?”
Wilburn wanted to ask what was wrong with both of them. No one had ever bickered over his company before. Was this what it was like for popular people? Somehow, he didn’t think so. Something felt more than a little off about this whole thing. Something that went a long way past just making sure he didn’t relapse and end up back in the hospital.
Domination, Might, and Fire.
Those lights that he’d felt more than seen before waking up, the slight connection between them—it was the siblings! He’d claimed them somehow without even meaning to. Like how he’d bound Zuha to him, only they didn’t have a primus’s resistance to fall back on and he was much, much more powerful now.
Especially if his new physique was anything to go by. He must have successfully leveled up his mind palace. His base power, especially in those three areas, should be pretty damn strong right now. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in a position to check on them. In fact, the very idea of going back to visit his mind palace and risking that pain again made him a little nauseated.
His towers must have grown and opened proportionately, or at least the power put into them. But that didn’t mean he was any closer to knowing how to use the abilities they granted with any finesse. He must have grabbed a psychic hold on them while he was awakening. Those lights…it had felt especially good to pull them to him and add them to the others.
But were they really his? Only one way to find out. Taking a deep breath, Wilburn cut into their bickering in the best commanding tone he could muster. “Knock it off.”
The siblings, who had been arguing the whole time he’d been thinking, abruptly stopped. Their expressions put him in mind of puppies who had just been told “no” for the first time.
“I’m going to ask you some questions,” Wilburn said, still keeping his tone firm and sure, despite the trepidation he felt. He was half convinced that at any moment the siblings were going to blow up at him for not accepting their care and being rude, but they watched him with quiet, rapt attention. “And you’re going to answer completely honestly. Understand?”
They both nodded.
“Why are you really here? Buddy you go first.”
“Because you’re not feeling well,” Buddy said.
“But why does that matter so much to you? Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the soup and everything, but I didn’t think you knew me that well.”
Buddy grimaced. “I really don’t. I just know…you need to be taken care of. That’s all. If you’re happy, I’m happy. And it’s….um, it’s good to be around you.”
Wilburn gave a slow nod. “Thank you. That was very good.”
Buddy beamed at him and visibly sagged into his seat with relief.
“Siobhan?” Wilburn asked.
“Kind of the same,” she said. “I was just wanting to mess with you at first, because your roommate said you were kind o
f a dork, but when you woke up…it was….” She blushed brighter red than Wilburn had ever seen, but she pushed forward. “It was like out of a fairy tale. You’re so…so…everything. And it’s good to be near you. I just…want to make you happy.”
“Okay,” Wilburn said. “Okay, thank you. Your honesty made me very happy.”
Siobhan practically radiated pleasure at his words, straightening up in her chair and beaming.
“I need you both to do something for me now,” Wilburn continued. “I know you want to be around me, but I need a little bit of space to think. Why don’t you go keep your original plans? Enjoy the club scene. Have fun. We’ll catch up tomorrow after my head’s cleared.”
They both looked put-out for half a second, but they agreed and after a few minutes cleaning up and gathering the few things they’d brought over, they left.
Wilburn didn’t know what to think. He had famulus now. But these weren’t like Bianca and Bernard. If Zuha was to be believed, those two had grown up knowing what they were or were going to be. The siblings didn’t.
He needed to turn his brain off for a while and let everything that had happened to him process. A few minutes later he was seated on the couch, his headset on and a controller in his hand, logging into World of the Sundered.
Welcome back, Burngrave92, the screen said, then showed an incoming call from Un!c0rn69.
He answered it. “Hey, Stacy.”
“What’s up fuckweed?” His cousin asked in a voice that sounded like it belonged to a twelve-year-old on helium. Despite Stacy being almost three years older than him, her voice always made her sound like a child. Or, as he’d sometimes teased, a chipmunk. “Suck any cock today or do you just suck at all of life?”
He grinned. “Good to talk to you too, dumbass. What’s new?”
“Got some sponsorship for my videos,” she said. “Some fucktard came out with a new controller add on and if I play with it and show it off like a good little whore they’re going to throw money at me every month. So that’s fucking cool. Also, got the key to the Fortress of Infinite Torment. Figure we could raid the shit out of that place together later.”
Psychic Awakening: A Dragon Shifter LitRPG Harem Psychic Thriller (Primus Vitae Book 1) Page 8
