“It’ll be okay. They can fix you.” I shot a questioning look at Gray and Murdoc, who were frowning down at their friend in concern. Both inhaled and blew out fresh streams of white smoke, cocooning Stuart in a blanket of their magic.
I held my breath, waiting and hoping. My skin prickled, and I realized the new arrivals were all staring at me, even Stuart, whose gaze burned into me with pure-white fire. Glancing up, I met Tate’s moss-green eyes. His nostrils flared, but he tore his gaze away with a soft curse. “Impossible,” he muttered.
“It’s true, isn’t it?” Stuart whispered. “You’re the convergence from Gray’s message.” He squeezed my hand. “You’re bleeding magic, you know.”
“You’re just bleeding,” I said with a shaky laugh.
The smoky blanket gradually faded from his torso, and the wounds held closed, but just when he started to take a breath, they split wide again. Stuart let out a cry of agony, eyes clenched shut as he bucked back into the pillows. I held tight to his hand, shifting close to brush his pale blond hair off his sweaty forehead.
When Gray and Murdoc leaned in to try again, Stuart’s hand shot out, stalling them. “No, it won’t work. I want her to try.”
“Me?” I squeaked. “I can’t heal!”
“Bullshit. You’re overflowing with earth magic. Just channel it into me. You can do it.” His eyes pleaded, and I rested my free hand against his sternum, not sure where the hell to begin.
He took my hand and placed it over one of the cuts, his jaw flexing as he endured the pain. I grimaced, hating that he was hurting and completely out of my element in the face of such carnage.
“The power’s inside you,” Tate said in a gruff voice. “And if your scent is any indication, you’re literally bursting with the magic. It’s as if you’re in estrous, which is insane since you aren’t even ursa.”
I swallowed and cast a quick glance his way, smiling sheepishly. “Actually, that’s exactly what’s happening to me. How do ursa women stand it?”
Chayton’s gaze turned molten as it slid over me. “They have us.”
“The point is that you can channel that power,” Tate said, narrowing his eyes at Chayton. “With a neophyte, it’s trickier. It takes training to manually direct the flow because the magic wants to go one direction by its very nature. How long have you had to practice?”
“She just learned what she is last night,” Gray said. “There hasn’t been time for practice. But she’s done it before. April…when you planted the seeds in your sculptures and made them grow, you infused them with power. Do you remember a thought, or a feeling you had during the process? Or when you were working with the metal and glass, the act of coaxing it into form infused it with power too. It’s the magic of creation, Gaia’s magic, that flows through you.”
“So you want me to think of his skin as a sculptural medium? I can try.”
I focused on Stuart’s shredded torso again, wincing at the smears of blood that covered what was otherwise perfectly white, smooth skin. I’d worked with marble before, but his skin wasn’t exactly stone, no matter how much it visually resembled the stuff right now. Maybe if I thought of it as clay, it would help.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, glancing at him. I tossed my protective pillow to the side to have room to maneuver and bent over him, gingerly resting my fingers to either side of one gash. The sides of the wound met, and I made myself focus the way I did when I worked, pretending the cut was merely two thin slabs of clay I wanted to merge together.
Stuart tensed, then hurriedly whispered, “Don’t stop, I think it’s working.”
I stared at the wound and slowly, carefully rubbed a thumb down the crease of it, as if all I was doing was rubbing the clay smooth. A line of blood gathered beneath my thumb, along with a faint greenish glow, and when I let up the pressure, only unmarred skin remained behind.
“It worked!”
My face fell when I looked at Stuart, whose eyes had gone glassy, and his aura flickered dimly around him. That couldn’t be good.
“Keep going,” he said.
“No. You need time to recover. That had to have hurt.”
“No time. I’ll bleed to death.”
“Or you’ll die from shock.” I turned to look at Tate. “You said the magic naturally wants to go in one direction. Can I just, I don’t know, let it? Let it do its thing? Show me the easiest, fastest way to channel it into him.”
Tate cleared his throat. “Well, it’s fertility magic, so there’s only one direct way to do that.”
My face went molten as it hit me. Of course, that was how it worked. It’s why I was such a sex fiend lately. The magic literally sought a way out through my sex organs. When I recovered my composure, I took a breath and set my gaze on Stuart again. His brow glistened with sweat, and my hand had gone numb from the force of his grip.
“You don’t have to,” he wheezed. “They can dull the pain while you keep going with your hands.”
“Will it really be easier for you if I do it the fast way? Don’t lie to me!”
He grimaced but nodded. “Yes.”
“Can you even get it up though?” I darted a glance at his groin and the impressive, yet completely flaccid cock that lay against his naked thigh. As if in response to my look, the thing twitched.
Stuart chuckled weakly. “I’m a dragon. Nothing could keep me from being ready for a fuck.”
“Well, all right then,” I said, unable to tear my eyes away from the now completely rigid column of flesh standing up between his thighs. My core pulsed with a fresh wave of heat, the familiar aching twinge flaring for the first time since lunch. The need to just climb on nearly overwhelmed me, but I restrained myself long enough to look around at my audience. The three other newcomers all stared at me with ferocious, hungry looks that only made the need burn hotter. My fingertips tingled with the compulsion to stroke their beards, to open up their flannel shirts and explore what I imagined were the epitome of beefy lumberjack bodies.
Gray was first to move, standing and motioning to the others. “Let’s give them some privacy, guys. We’ll work up to a full introduction to you three. Don’t suppose you managed to grab supplies, did you? Eh, doesn’t matter, I’ve got food downstairs, and there are a couple freezers full of beef and venison, so we won’t starve.” He ushered them out the door, and Murdoc followed, giving me a wink of solidarity as he shut the bedroom door.
I almost objected to their departure, ready to insist they could stay, when Stuart yanked on my hand so hard I fell flush against him. I yelped, but the sound only got halfway out of my mouth before he tangled long fingers into my hair and pulled me into a harsh kiss. My body thrummed with a fresh surge of arousal that I was beginning to realize wasn’t just me being epically turned on. I was actually filling with magic whenever one of these men touched me, and the fuller I became, the harder it was to hold onto the power.
“Need you,” Stuart murmured into my neck as he nuzzled me, breathing heavily.
“I’m here,” I whispered back, pushing up and pausing long enough to look him in the eyes. “Sorry we couldn’t introduce ourselves under more pleasant circumstances.”