“If he can’t handle his rage, all the healing sexytime we might do will only get us so far. Before his curses get bad again.” Mikkel lifts an eyebrow at me, his gaze hard now as the coldly calculating Proprietor side of him comes out. “Talk with him, Rikyava. You have to get to the bottom of why his rage is returning, and what made him bury it long ago, rather than deal with it. You’re his life-mate. Because we’re all going to pay the price if he can’t master his inner darkness, and you know it.”
“I do.” I heave a hard sigh now as I settle back against the prep table,crossing my arms. Though Mikkel’s blunt, I know he’s right, as he points out just how deadly this situation still is for all of us.
And that we’re out of time to face it.
Just then, Lærke returns, pushing in through the kitchen doors. She sees us and makes a beeline for where we stand by the food—filling herself a plate and wolfing it down as she eyeballs us.
“Good. You’re both here.” Lærke nods at her brother, then pins me with her fierce violet gaze as she eats. “I got Baldur’s curses to recede a bit, but not all the way back to where they were. It’s bad. He’s tired, and sacked out immediately after Ström, Bjorn, and I found a bed and pulled it in there for him to sleep. He needs food to at least get some energy back. Fucking madman should have stayed in stasis. Not woken up and followed you all the way to that library hall like an idiot, wasting what little he’s got.”
“Energy isn’t his problem right now, sister. Control over his inner demon of a dragon is.” Mikkel snorts as he opens a fresh bottle of the lavender beverage, pouring for all of us now.
“Energyishis problem, brother,” Lærke says, pointed as she slugs down her drink. “Baldur doesn’t have enough physical energy right now to contain his dragon’s incredible metaphysics. And that big cosmic fucker wants torage. If it gets to, it’s going to go Berserk against all of us. Before any of us can shift, getting the mickey drained from us at all hours, thanks to the Black Dragon’s curse work.”
Lærke’s observations are on-point as I draw a deep breath and smile, appreciative of her. Even more than her brother, Lærke’s mind-power controls the body; she knows all the ins and outs of physical magic, and what it does to a dragon. Mikkel’s magic has far more control over the conscious mind; I see him cede to his sister’s expertise now, as he nods.
“Did Baldur make any progress with the scrolls?” I ask Lærke now, curious.
“No.” She shakes her head, then shoves another forkful of food in hermouth. “He set the mirror-stone to rotate through each document once a minute, then conked out.”
“Interesting.” As I tune in to Baldur now through our bond, feeling him asleep in the mirror hall, I feel how he’s gone back out to the Void again. Rather than put himself in stasis now, however, he’s put himself there in dreams as he sinks into a natural sleep, recovering.
I feel him still processing my Ancestor Hedda’s scrolls as he sleeps, though. As if he’s lucid dreaming, I feel a part of his mind and his dragon watching the scrolls as they shuffle upon the ancient mirror-stone. Despite his exhaustion, he’s still working on them. It’s insane, and I shake my head now, glancing at the twins.
“He’s studying them while he sleeps. Lucid dreaming, kinda,” I tell them.
“Really?” Mikkel’s eyebrows rise in astonishment.
“He should just be sleeping.” Lærke grumps, setting her pretty mouth in a hard line before waving a hand at her brother. “Mikkel, come with me. We need to get a fucking huge portion of this food to him, stat, for when he wakes. I’m not risking another snarl-fest in that hall, because I have no clue what me using my paralysis powers on him might do right now.”
“I can’t drain him with my Bloodwalker magic, either,” I agree with Lærke as I lift an eyebrow at her. “It might make his curses go ballistic, devouring right back into his heart again. I don’t want to take that risk.”
“I don’t think I can mind-master him, either.” Mikkel scowls as he glances at me. “I tried when we were about to throw down earlier, and it failed. His Berserk dragon is too strong for that right now.”
“If we can’t drain him, or restrain him, then Lærke’s right: we need to boost his physical energy so he can regain control of his dragon.” I look at both twins. “Get him some food. I need to find Ström and Bjorn and chat with them about all this. I’ll come to Baldur when he wakes, though, so we can hopefully talk all this shit out.”
“You know the best way your Bloodbond regains physical magic,” Mikkel says then, and I glance at him.
“What?” I frown.
“Sex.” He lifts an eyebrow pointedly. “If I were you, I’d eat, then fuck, then sleep. Then do it all over again. With as many of us drakes as you can, continuously.”
“Great.” I cross my arms hard now, not awesome with being a fuck-bunny on rotation, even with my drakes.
“There may be a better way.” Lærke looks at me now, sensing my vast discomfort with Mikkel’s suggestion, though her look is wary. “For many dragons whose magic requires a harem, group sex gives them an exponential amount of recovery, as compared to single-partner sex.”
“Maybe. I really don’t think we’re there yet, though,” I say slowly now as I give it some thought. Because Lærke’s right; many harem-oriented dragon magics, including mine, refill better when group nookie is involved.
With so many strong alpha drakes in my bond, however, two of them brand-new and not well oriented to the rest of the group yet, it feels so beyond our capacity to manage right now.
Especially mine.
“You need to think about it, Rikyava.” Mikkel sets one hip to the table, his dark eyes intense. “Ström and I are no strangers to group sex; though we covet you, we can share long enough for all of us to get our needs filled. And Baldur strikes me as strongly bisexual, though I don’t know that for certain; if you propose it, I’m sure he’d be game. Only Bjorn’s the problem.”
“Bjorn doesn’t like to be touched by men in bed. Or share me.” I heave a deep sigh now, feeling like this could be our best option, though it feels so far out of reach. “He’s got a lot of training in controlling his rage, but the bedroom thing has been an issue before—long before you and Baldur were involved, Mikkel. Not to mention that Bjorn and Baldur have some kind of deep rivalry already, which feels like way more than justswinging their big dicks around. Some resonance of their magic, maybe… though Bjorn has supported and amplified Baldur’s magic when it counted—a few times now.”
“Bjorn has talents you haven’t evendreamedof yet.” Lærke lifts a dire eyebrow at me. “He pulled a portal out of his assde novo, right in the middle of a life-or-death battle, by usingsomeone else’s magic, which was nearly drained right into the fucking Void already. Not to mention he countered two strong Bone Mages, plus a curse from the Black Dragon Knights Council, all by his little lonesome for an entireweekwithout diminishing mentally or physically, much.If I were you, I’d be exploring the extent of Bjorn’s as-yet-unknown abilities. Because bonding you has made him one helluva drake, Rikyava. He’s your First Drake for a reason, and you know it.”
“I do know it,” I breathe as I digest Lærke’s evaluation of Bjorn. Because she’s right, with her military-security focus on all of Bjorn’s surprising recent attributes.
