Recovery

by Layla Heart

  “Definitely.” She gently pulls me out of the chair, to the door, into the hallway, and resolutely closes the door behind us, letting out a happy sigh.

  I realise that the house is remarkably quiet, even though the light outside tells me that it can’t be that late yet. “Where is everyone?”

  Litha laughs, looking at me like I asked a really silly question.

  “What?” I have no idea what’s so funny.

  “Rune, Kit and Phoenix are shopping. We needed more food, fresh food. Bane is...” She looks around. “Somewhere.”

  “I’m here, my queen.” His voice comes from upstairs, drawling a little. “Come on up. I’ve found the best view in this whole world.”

  Litha starts pulling me up the stairs and I follow her easily, letting her decide what to do, since I’ve not had much time with her this week and I’ve kind of been missing her. None of us really have had much time alone with her. We’ve all been working on the research and other things, trying to find anything to help us. And at the end of the day, we were usually too exhausted and just fell asleep, all at different times and on different schedules. I don’t think I’ve even talked to Bane or Rune much in the last days, that’s how different our sleeping schedules were.

  Upstairs, the door to Bane’s room is ajar and when we step through it, he’s got his windows open, his bed pushed against them and outside the window are the garden and the forest beyond. The early evening sun is bathing everything in an orange glow. It’s very soothing to watch, almost magical.

  “Come on.” Litha walks back as she pulls me with her. “You deserve some time off.”

  I roll my eyes as I climb on the bed, staying upright, until Litha pushes at my shoulder. The next moment, I’m on my back, sprawled out between her and Bane. Ehh...

  But before I can say anything, Litha is kissing me. Fast and hungry kisses, her fingers in my shirt, her body pushed close to mine.

  I reach up, wrapping my arms around her, to keep her against me in a way that’s most comfortable, so she doesn’t bump against the wound.

  We’re making out, in Bane’s bed, while he’s sitting right next to us... Not really what I was expecting...

  Bane laughs as he moves a little. “Don’t mind me, dude. I get a great view of her ass from here.”

  “Hey,” Litha mumbles against my lips, but when I slide my hand down to her ass, she seems to have no trouble pushing back against my touch.

  I guess I could use a way to get my mind off things, especially in a way that’s so... tempting.

  10

  In the last week, we’ve mostly been living past one another, we’re all there in the same house, but we’re not really living together, just near each other. Which means that while I’ve been sleeping in other people’s rooms and beds, I’ve not really been having any fun with them.

  But, since Rune, Kit and Phoenix are taking a break from it all with a trip to the nearest town, it seemed like a great time to get Finn’s mind off things too, he’s been working way too hard. I know that he’s still recovering from the stabbing, but that shouldn’t prevent us from having some fun times, especially not if we’re careful.

  I slide my hand down his side, trying to get my fingers under his shirt, wanting to touch him, needing to touch his skin. He shivers against me and then takes my hand in his.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” His voice is low and I push myself up, looking down at him. His eyes are way too serious.

  “Of course, it is. Why not?” It seems that distracting isn’t going as well as I’d hoped...

  “If you’re worried about condoms, don’t be. I’ve got some here.” Bane throws a strip of them next to us on the bed, and I smile at Finn, who rolls his eyes but then takes a deep breath, smiling back at me. Bane knows how to turn awkward situations weird.

  “I guess that this should be okay... Just... The bandage and all... Just... Don’t be scared by it.” His voice is anxious now I get why he’s trying to keep my hands away from under his shirt.

  “I won’t be.” Heck, Rune looked much worse last time, and that didn’t stop any of us.

  Fully smiling, he pulls me down for a kiss. This time he’s coming on much stronger, making my head spin.

  Then, I feel Bane’s hands on my back, sliding under my shirt upwards, before he laughs. “I should have known...” He trails his nails down my back, sending delicious sensations through my body.

  “What?” Finn’s hands move too, sliding up my shirt from the front, taking my boobs in his hands. “Oh, that. I like that.” He smirks against my lips. “I like that a lot.” His voice is raspy, sexy. Then he kisses me again, hard, so very hard.

  Their hands on me, touching me, feeling me, it’s... it’s heady. I’ve missed this, I’ve missed them, I’ve missed them close to me, skin to skin, giving each other sensations.

  I sit up, pulling my shirt off and throwing it to the side. I think I was wearing one of Phoenix’ shirts this time, since I woke up in her bed this morning. I like wearing the others’ clothes because it makes me feel closer to them, and my own clothes are kind of boring... Then I reach out and undo the buttons on Finn’s shirt, revealing him bit by bit, exposing his skin to my touches.

  He’s still wearing a bandage over the stab wound, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have enough other places where I can touch him, where I can love on him.

  When his shirt is open, slid down to his sides, letting me see him fully, I look up at his face and he’s staring down at me with eyes dark from lust, his breathing hard.

  “Fuck,” he groans, sliding his fingers over my bare shoulder. “You’re beautiful when you’re focused on something like that, when you look at me like that.” Then he slides his finger up, to my jaw, to my lips and I take it into my mouth as I slowly slide my hands down his body, until I’m covering his hard cock in his jeans.

  “Hell.” Bane moves next to us, and when I glance to the side, he’s got his hand in his jeans, probably trying to make himself more comfortable.

  Finn stills, but his cock swells under my touch. He may not be so sure about if we should be doing this, but he seems to be okay with Bane here with us. I use this moment to open Finn’s jeans, tugging them down a little and that’s when I realise he’s not even wearing any underwear, he’s going commando. Wow. I let out a breathy laugh.

  “Forgot them when I took a shower this morning,” Finn explains, but the last word disappears into a moan as I wrap my hand around his cock, slowly pulling.

  “I don’t oppose easy access.” I lean over and swirl my tongue over the head of his cock, which makes him grasp onto me, moaning loudly. Hmmm, I definitely like this.

  “Litha.” He gasps, his fingers tightening.

  I glance at his face, but he seems pretty happy right now. So, I try to take more of him in my mouth, taking him deeper, and by his moans, it must be good for him. His body is all tight under me, thrumming with pleasure.

  Then I grab one of Bane’s condoms and unpack it, slipping it onto Finn’s cock quickly. This makes him stop me.

  “Are you sure?” He looks... almost vulnerable, and then I remember what Rune said that first day we met. Finn hasn’t had any sexual experience with anyone. Us doing this together, this is his first time.

  I nod. “Are you sure?” Because this must be scary for him, or, at least, pretty nervous-making.

  He slowly nods as he lets go of me. I climb off the bed, taking my shorts and thong off, before I climb back on.

  Bane is sitting to the side, his jeans pushed down his hips, just like his boxer briefs, and he’s now openly jerking off. He winks at me as he sees me watch him. “Private porn show, not saying no to that.”

  “Bane...” Finn groans, grinning, and smacks his knee. “Only you can make this sound cheap and obscene at the same time.”

  I laugh as I slide my hands over Finn, up his legs and thighs, until they’re wrapped around his cock again. My insides are squirming just thinking about taking him inside me. For som
eone who had never had sex until two weeks ago, I seem to like it a lot. But maybe it’s because these guys, and of course Phoenix, are all different. They all give me different experiences, which makes it all the better. I climb over Finn’s hips, holding his cock in my hand as I slowly lower myself onto him.

  Fuck. This feels good. I close my eyes and Finn grabs hold of my hips, his fingers tight. I slowly slide down, my breathing harder, my whole body focused on where we join, every part of my energy focused on us.

  “Fucking hell.” Finn moans as I’m fully seated on him, filled by him.

  Then there’s movement on the bed and the next moment, Bane’s hands and lips are on me, kissing my shoulder, touching me wherever he can, one of his hands slowly sliding down, between my legs, sparks shooting through my body, my pussy clenching around Finn, whose moans go even deeper.

  Between Finn’s cock and Bane’s fingers, it’s hard to stay in the now, but I reach out, wrapping my hand around Bane’s cock, wanting to give him pleasure too. He scrapes his teeth over my shoulder, hiding his moan, but it still vibrates against my skin.

  I keep rocking between my guys, the whole room filling with magic, with our energies.

  Each time I’m intimate with them, the experience is different, and each time it’s just as good, if not better than before. I can’t imagine ever being without my lovers, without any of them at my side, in my bed, giving each other pleasure and love and caring as much as we can.

  Finn’s cock grows inside me, sending new sparks through my body, and it’s like there’s a flash of light behind my eyes, shutting the whole world out for a moment. Then he does it again, changing the angle a little, and this is even better.

  Without having any control over it, I come, my mind blanking out. My whole body buzzing with energy, with magic, as my orgasm rushes through me.

  Finn moans, and I can feel him come too, the pulsing of his cock making the sparks inside me even stronger, like I could come again so close to having already come.

  What the...?

  Bane’s gasps are close to my skin, close to my neck, and as he scrapes his teeth over my neck, his fingers between my legs still moving fast, I come again, right as he comes too, making all three of us moan out loud.

  Wow. Fucking wow.

  Even though I’m still dazed, Bane quickly cleans his spunk off my side with his shirt, before he helps me off Finn, carefully helping me to curl up next to him.

  I close my eyes, still buzzing with energy, with magic, but this time, it’s calmer, warm magic, magic which makes me feel sated and just filled with warm feelings...

  11

  Finn is smiling all softly at Litha, a softness I’ve never seen on him before, and it makes my heart beat a little faster, to know that there is this side to him. Since Finn is not only wounded, but also turned into a puddle of goo, I efficiently get rid of his condom.

  He’s about to stop me, but when he can barely move, he seems to think better of it. It’s weird, taking a condom off another guy, but I guess, if we survive this whole ordeal, I’ll get used to it at some point... Probably.

  After getting rid of the condom and throwing my shirt in the laundry, I join Finn and Litha on the bed, curling up behind Litha, my nose in her soft hair, relaxing as I take in her scent.

  “I think you broke me,” Litha murmurs. “I don’t think I can ever move again.”

  I laugh, kissing her neck. “I’m pretty sure that you’re exaggerating. I bet that if I wake you up in half an hour, you’ll be ready to go at it again.”

  She lets out a low and sexy laugh, which almost makes my cock hard again. Almost, and not for lack of trying... “Maybe, but not yet.”

  “If you want to go again within the next three hours, I’m afraid you’ll have to use Bane’s cock first.” Finn chuckles. “I’m afraid he may not wake up before then.”

  Litha moves closer to him and as I watch, she plays with her fingers over his hip. “Are you sure about that?”

  Finn gasps, taking her hand. “Let’s not try. I’m going to be sore enough as it is.” Then he brings her hand up to his lips, kissing her fingers. “But I’ll be at your service again tomorrow morning.”

  “I can live with that.” Litha puts her head on his shoulder, then she reaches behind her and pulls me closer. “As long as I can spend the rest of today here, right between you two.”

  “Of course.” I kiss her shoulder. “We’ll be right here with you.” I grab behind me and pull a light blanket over us.

  The sun hasn’t even set yet, the orange light floods my room, but here, by the open window, in the warm late-summer breeze, I’m ready to fall asleep.

  Right now, I can almost believe that we’re here for fun, and not for other reasons. I can almost believe that everything is right and not totally wrong.

  Almost.

  Someone is moving on the bed, which wakes me up. It’s still dark in the room, but the grey light of the almost-rising sun allows me to see Finn sit up in bed.

  “Morning.” My voice is rough from sleep.

  “Morning.” He laughs softly, before he winces and moves again. “Got hungry. We never did get dinner last night.”

  “True.” I nod. My own stomach is also letting me know it would like some sustenance. “I thought the others would wake us up by the time they returned.” But the fact that they didn’t wake us up and it’s already this late, makes me anxious, my heart starting to race. I sit up quickly, looking around, and finding a note stuck to the headboard of the bed, calming my heart some.

  ‘You were sleeping too sweetly. There’s dinner/breakfast in the fridge. Phoenix’

  Ah... Seems they did get back, they just didn’t wake us.

  Finn climbs out of bed and pulls his jeans closed, before buttoning his shirt back up. “You want something to eat too?”

  I sigh, nodding, and then climb out of bed. “Seems like a good idea.” I pull the thin blanket over Litha further, and then hunt for a pair of jeans and a clean shirt. When I’m done, Finn is still staring at Litha, that dreamy look on his face. “Dude, food?”

  He blinks, turning to me. “Yeah. Food.” Then he leaves the room ahead of me.

  The house is quiet. I suspect that everyone else is still asleep. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to have the house to ourselves for a bit. Everything is dark, until we walk past the research room, and there’s light from under the door. There’s still someone awake at this time? Or awake again, like us?

  I stop Finn, too curious to let this pass, and then open the door.

  Inside, Rune and Kit are bent over some pages, while Phoenix is scribbling something on a couple of pieces of paper. She’s just about to stick them to the wall, when she notices the door is open and lets out a squeak in surprise, which makes the others look up too.

  “I thought you’d be asleep by now.” I step inside, my eyes going over everything we’ve stuck to the walls, all the pages and pictures. We’ve done a lot of work in the last week. “Have you been working all night?”

  Rune shrugs as he puts the stack of papers he was reading down. “We got back from our trip, found you asleep, had dinner, you were still asleep. And then we kind of just got back to work here.” He stretches and looks at us. “Litha still asleep?”

  “Yeah.” Finn steps past me, going over to Phoenix, frowning. “What did you find?”

  Her eyes shoot to the other guys, and then to me. “We, ehh... We suspect we found the father of the queen’s dragon child.”

  What? I stare at them. “That’s great. Right?”

  Rune shakes his head. “We only suspect it. We’re not sure yet. But if he’s the guy... It’s not a good sign.”

  “Why?” I step inside the room, closing the door behind me, don’t want to accidentally wake Litha up.

  Finn meets my eyes, holding up the paper Phoenix was scribbling on. “Because he was also an alchemist. And he was working on some elixir or something that could take all our powers away, turning us basically into humans.”

&
nbsp; “No.” My stomach drops. “That... A dragon wouldn’t do... Right?” That makes no sense. “A witch queen wouldn’t help...” This makes no sense with what I know about our own history, or what I know about the witches’ history.

  “Yeah. It makes no sense.” Phoenix shakes her head and then throws up a hand, motioning in the direction of her laptop. “Everything I know about our last queen, even notes my family has kept from all that time ago. It just doesn’t add up. Her being involved with this doesn’t make any sense. But then...” She sits down behind her laptop.

  Kit sighs. “It is this guy’s research, part of it anyway. And fit together too neatly for it not to be him, he’s a fire dragon, he spent time at the queen’s court and he left when everything fell apart. And if the witch queen was involved with the making of the dragon-specific shift-suppressing elixir and she gave birth to a dragon, a fire dragon, who couldn’t shift, then it just adds up to this.”

  I sit down at the table too, my head spinning. It makes sense, even if I don’t want it to. “How did you find this guy?”

  Phoenix pushes some pages to me. “I looked at the people who were at the court at the time that the queen got pregnant and went missing. We knew that we were looking for a dragon guy, specifically a fire-dragon, and then we ran into him. He’s the only fire-dragon on the list, male or female.”

  My eyes go down the list, I don’t know why really, just to see if I recognise any names, and then my stomach churns, making me sick, definitely no longer hungry. There, on the list, is a last name I recognise all too well. Someone of my mum’s family was at the court at the time this happened... “Kit?” I push the paper to him. “Have you checked the list?” I’d expect Litha and Phoenix’ family names, but to see Mum’s family name there, it’s strange, and makes me feel uncomfortable.

  He shakes his head, frowning a little. “Why?”

  “Can you take a look?” I push at the paper again.

  He nods and takes the paper. As he reads the list, his eyes go wide and he lets out a light gasp. “Fuck.” He holds the paper out to Finn, who’s standing next to him. “Read it.”