2. ~Orpheus~

2

~Orpheus~

“Motherfuck,” I grunted as I came to, my head pounding.

That sensation that rarely plagued me, but which I hated, was all over me.

Fucking weakness.

“It’s all right. You’re okay now,” a familiar voice spoke.

I blinked hard a couple of times, and then I looked to see Cornwell sitting at my bedside, his hand on one of mine, stroking comfortingly.

Bedside?

I fought to get my bearings and it took me a while, just making me more pissed to be like this—off my fucking game.

Ugly beige walls. Bland single beds. Medical equipment.

Realization hit and I identified where I was.

The Infirmary.

I knew it well.

Xavier and I had spent far too much time in here during our early days at Electi Academy on behalf of Talon. All his fire episodes had landed him in here a lot.

“What… what’s going on? What happened?”

“Because of what you did, you ensured nobody else ended up in here alongside you.”

I frowned and thought for a moment. “Constantine… he came for the Academy.”

“Yes.”

“Fuck, I need to… I have to…”

He pressed a hand to my bare chest. “He’s gone. For the time being, at least.”

“Even so, he’s still out there. And my father… he’s…” I collapsed back down almost immediately, my body permeating so much weakness, the strain had me gasping.

“You need to rest.” He fingered my pecs and gestured there with his eyes.

I looked to see black veins spread all over like a dark spider web. “Black magic,” I breathed.

“Not to worry, it’s leaving your system. The Healers here confirmed as much. But it will be a few more hours until it’s gone completely. Until then, you’ll feel exhausted with very little energy. The more you rest, the quicker the infection will take its leave. Until then, the injuries you sustained from the blunt force trauma of being tossed into that oak tree won’t heal properly.”

“That’s what that pain is in my ribs?”

“Two are broken, yes. You also sustained a lot of bruising and scrapes over your face, arms, and legs.” The corner of his mouth turned up. “You’re something else, aren’t you? Truly. The fact you didn’t notice it the moment you awoke, nor when you just attempted to get up, says a great deal.”

I lifted a shoulder. “My father taught me how to overcome pain in battle.”

He inched closer in the chair and started stroking my chest sensually, making me moan out. “Is this what you need in order to rest, pretty prince?”

He tried to lock eyes with me, but I looked away.

An uncomfortable feeling betook me.

It felt… worrying… while I was incapacitated, while I was without my power.

“I…”

He slid one hand beneath the covers at my waist, cutting my words off.

I couldn’t think straight.

Things were too… blurred.

“Just relax for me,” he whispered at my ear in a soothing tone.

His fingers slipped beneath the waistband of my boxers and trailed over my flaccid cock.

“Cornwell, I don’t—”

His mouth crashed down on mine.

And then he was rubbing my shaft up and down in soft and easy measured strokes, working me up strategically until I was in a semi-hard state.

His tongue ravaged my mouth, his desperate need exploding all over me.

At a time when I couldn’t handle it.

At a time when all I could be was submissive.

Against my will.

I didn’t want that, not all the way.

If I played that way with him so I could blow off some steam, I always needed to know that I had the true power.

And right now I didn’t.

The sound of a door creaking open caught my attention, just a second before Cornwell was suddenly ripped off me.

A loud thud sounded and I looked to see Talon there, his eyes literally aflame with his phoenix fire as he held Cornwell against the wall.

“I fucking warned you, you piece of shit!” he roared.

“I was comforting him. He’s hurt.”

“Yeah, he is hurt! You think he wants a fuck while he’s suffering from those injuries? Come the hell on, you sick fucker! He needs to rest. He needs peace and , above all, he needs to feel fucking safe! Not taken advantage of!”

“That’s not what—”

“Come on, the one and only time you could have him really submissive and not just playing the role for you… yeah, you couldn’t resist taking that, could you?” He yanked him off the wall, only to slam him back against it again, rattling his bones. “Or trying to, until I walked in!”

“Talon,” I called, hating how weak it sounded. “Stop.”

He looked over at me, his grip wavering.

“Ore.”

“Not now.” I felt like absolute shit, the last thing I wanted was having to deal with this.

With a grunt, he roughly released Cornwell and stepped back.

“I’m gonna fucking report you,” he seethed. “That’ll make damn sure you’re kept well away from him.”

Cornwell scoffed as he fixed his suit jacket. “You’re posturing. And feebly at that. You know very well that you can’t report me. Not with everything I know of all of your exploits under the Obsidian banner.”

“Callum,” I growled. “Leave us.”

“You better deal with him.”

“I will. Go.”

He gestured the length of me. “We’re not done there. You owe me one.”

I gritted my teeth.

“The fuck, he does. He’s not your fuck doll.”

Cornwell grinned. “You have no idea, phoenix.”

“Get the fuck out!” Tal roared, flipping his palms down, his phoenix fire flaming wildly. “I’ll do it, I’ll melt your goddamn dick off, and all this will be settled in an excruciating few moments. You want that? Because I’ve got no qualms, motherfucker!”

Cornwell couldn’t hide his fear completely, but he tried, the proud bastard.

“Soon, pretty prince,” he said, before glaring at Talon, then storming out of the room.

Tal kicked the door shut, then walked up to me, seething, “Shithead’s got a death wish, I swear to fuck.”

“He has a gift for getting under people’s skin. He can sense their points of vulnerability.”

He perched on the edge of the bed beside me. “Like he did with you?”

“No. That’s not what happened. It just—”

“I get it, all right? He’s hot, he’s got a hard-on for your princely title, and he worships your dick.”

“It’s not that superficial.”

“Then what?”

“It’s… it’s solace. When the world gets too loud, he’s there.”

“To soothe you?”

“In a way. Although, I don’t like that terminology. I’m not weak.”

“Never said you were. I’d never even think it. No one would, in fact. But the guy’s positioned himself in that way on purpose to get into your boxers. As a mentor, somebody you turn to. You know this is your daddy issues, right?”

“The fuck it is.”

“Oh, it is, Ore. Big time.”

I scrubbed my hand over my face. “Can we not? Not right now.”

“We’ve already started at least. And we will finish it once you’re better. We’ll also get into you manipulating Alena right from the start.” He blew out a breath. “All this fucked-up shit… fuck, Ore.”

“Fine,” I muttered. “But leave Cornwell be in the meantime. It’s a complicated situation, like he said, because of Obsidian.”

“Yeah, I’m getting that.” He shook his head to himself. “The four of us clearly need to have the exclusivity talk now I know this is going on.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be any longer.”

“Really? You’re gonna tell him it’s over?”

“I already did, but I had to strike a deal to… extend it… a little further.”

“Because of all that Obsidian stuff?”

“Yes. To protect us.”

He looked absolutely sick with it. “This is disgusting. Tell me you recognize that from him?”

“It’s just coming across that way. It’s not that bad.”

“Shit, Ore. That response is really fucking worrying.”

“You know what’s worrying me? Things that actually matter. Not this bullshit. Things like Constantine now fucking free and coming at us.”

“He’s been pushed back.”

“No thanks to me. I should’ve been ready, should’ve been better.”

“It was a bitch sneak attack, Ore.”

“Even so,” I muttered. “We should’ve been able to respond better than that.”

“Are you kidding? What you did… it was another level.” His eyes lit up with pride and a whole lot of arousal too. “You held your own against Constantine Vale!”

“Talon,” I groused.

“No. You need to accept what a major deal that is. Only a handful of beings in the whole of the supernatural world have ever done that.”

It hit me then.

Through all of the intensity with Cornwell and him, the confusion, and trying to get my bearings, I hadn’t thought of it sooner.

And I should have.

Fuck.

Alena was one of those few beings.

“Where is she? Where’s Xavier?”

“Abigail showed up just after Constantine teleported out with his minions. She took Alena with her, along with Xavier. I came to as she was about to head out and I saw X was hurt. She wouldn’t tell me what it was. I’m not sure if she even knew, but she said she was gonna have him seen to by one of her top Healers. I asked about Elliot Sabre and apparently he was hurt really badly too trying to stop the acolytes from freeing Constantine. Probably why she took X instead of sending one of her Healers here, so he could see his dad.”

“Motherfuck,” I uttered, scrubbing my hand over my face.

“I know,” he said, grimacing, his pain as acute as mine that Xavier was hurt. Not knowing how or what it was just made it all the worse.

“And Alena? Why didn’t Abigail let her stay here?”

“We didn’t get into that. She was already short with me and stressed out about Constantine being back. The only reason she told me the rest was because I told her she owed me one for my parents. If I had to guess, though, I’d say she took Alena because she unleashed a mass amount of power. Probably calls for a big-time mother-daughter convo.”

“Was there a timeframe?”

“No, sorry.”

I cursed under my breath.

“I’m sorry, Ore. It was the best intel I could get out of her.”

“It’s not your fault. You got a good amount.”

“Yeah, at least we know they’re both safe.”

“We need to go to them.”

“What?”

I shifted in the bed and managed, through a lot of pain and effort, to pull myself up into a sitting position. “We need to go to them, bring them back, reunite our foursome. Now, more than ever, we need to be together.”

“I get it, for real. I do. But we can’t be doing that. We’re gonna have to do what you hate more than most things—wait.”

“The fuck we are.”

He laid his hand on mine and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Ore, before Abigail left with them, she put up another ward, another dome. Like an uber dome, really. All angel magic. No one can bring that down or even make a hole in it to get through. Only her.”

“Or Alena.”

“Who isn’t here,” he pointed out. “So, we’re stuck here without them for now, all right?”

“So we just really wait?”

“Not just wait. We go to classes, do our thing, you know, the usual.”

“I can’t do that. My father is missing. No, scratch that, he’s been kidnapped. Constantine confirmed to me that he’s responsible. I can’t go about my collegiate life knowing that. I can’t just wait on Exemplar to get their act together and find him for me.”

“You’re gonna have to. You’re in no condition to go anywhere. We can run down leads from afar, all right? But nothing more involved or dangerous than that.”

“Tal—”

He slammed his fist into the bed, and thundered, “Stop! Just stop! You don’t know what it was like seeing you take those blows from that maniac! Seeing you hit the ground and stop moving! You could’ve died! You could’ve been lost to me forever, Ore! For fucking ever!”

His anguish cut at me and into my stubborn determination not to be basically benched, even for a little while.

Seeing this from him now, though, it seemed that was exactly what he needed from me.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m okay.” I patted the bed and managed to inch over enough to make a space for him.

He climbed on and slid into the covers beside me.

“Come here,” I said, lifting my arm.

He did, nuzzling against me. “I can’t lose you. I can’t, Orpheus.”

“I’m not going anywhere, baby bird.”

I’d make fucking sure of it.

The only way to do that from what I’d now seen of Constantine in action was to take it all the way when it came to the dark.

I’d held back and he’d seen that, taken full advantage of it, then used that in it had given him to hit me with black fucking magic.

Tal didn’t know, no one did, but I had a magical wall up against black magic.

If it had hit my father, he would’ve been able to absorb it, but I’d spelled myself so that I’d hate the feel of it, so that it would hurt me. It was why it had hit me so hard and managed to put me out of the fight. It hadn’t been the blunt force trauma of hitting that tree. I remembered losing consciousness as I’d hurtled through the air, before even making contact with it.

I’d been worried about crossing over to the fucked-up side of things like my father had long ago. And that would have been detrimental to my plan to rule differently from him, to turn things around once it was time for me to take power over the Dark Fae Realm. It would have fucked up everything.

Because I wasn’t afraid to feel the dark. Not like Alena was, where she didn’t think she could handle it.

I was afraid that I’d like it too much, that I’d be able to handle it far too well, and become addicted to the usage.

I hadn’t told her that. And maybe I should have, especially when we’d been discussing her issues with it.

But I didn’t like to speak about it. I didn’t like to even admit it to myself.

And up until now it had been different, my denial hadn’t impacted me or anything else.

Until earlier.

Until that motherfucker had put it front and center.

I must have been tensing up from my thoughts, because Tal lifted his head. “Ore?” he asked, worriedly.

“Nothing, baby bird, I’m fine.” I stroked his cheek. “And we’ll continue to be fine. I swear it to you.”

No matter what I have to do in order to make it so.