Chapter 996 - 996 Chapter 181- Reece – What Happened (VOLUME 5)

996 Chapter 181- Reece – What Happened (VOLUME 5)

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Reece

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Griffin and Lana checked on me a little more, making sure that I was indeed in perfect health now. Their magical scans were painless. In fact, they didn’t even tickle. You couldn’t feel it at all. At least I couldn’t. Once they were done, they said that I could go back to my room and get cleaned up. They were sure that I was going to want to rest for the night. They would check on me again in the morning.

“Do you need help getting to your room?” Griffin asked as he stepped closer to the bed.

“No. I will help him.” Vincent stepped away from the wall and offered right away. “I will make sure he gets in there with no issues.”

“I am sure that I can walk.” I assured them both. “I am sore, but I am not incapable.”

“You don’t know how bad the pain will be until you try to stand. It might be even worse than it is now.” I knew that Griffin had a point when he said that, but I wasn’t going to let that deter me. The pain meant that I was alive. That I was here. And that was not something that I was going to regret.

“I will be fine.” I assured him again.

.....

“Reece, let Vincent help you.” Trinity pleaded with me. “I will make a door to our room. I just want to make sure that you are OK. Please.” She still looked so worried about me, even after all that had happened since I had woken up.

“Alright.” I said as I shifted and moved to sit up. Her hands, as well as Vincent’s, shot out to steady me when I winced from the pain.

“Careful, Reece.” Trinity warned me.

“Are you OK?” Vincent’s concern was thick in his voice. He was just as worried about me as my family had been.

“I’m alright.” I told them in as easygoing of a voice as I could manage at that moment. They weren’t convinced at all.

Vincent and Trinity made sure that I was steady on my feet and that I wasn’t going to fall before my Little Bunny stepped away. Vincent kept a hand on my back as if he was ready to grab me the second that I started to fall.

Little Bunny was standing a couple of feet in front of me when she started to open the door to our room. This was a handy little trick of hers, especially at times like this. It really was painful to be on my feet, but I wasn’t going to tell them that.

The door was opened, and my Little Bunny stepped back to me to wrap an arm around my waist on the right side. Vincent, on my left, pulled my arm over his shoulders and wrapped his arm around me as well. Together, the two of them, under the watchful eyes of Griffin and Lana, helped me through the door and into my room.

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Vincent and Trinity walked me through the room and over to the armchair that was near the fireplace. It was large and would fit both me and my Little Bunny. It was a place that was meant for us to cuddle together when we wanted some time alone with each other. For now, though, it was a refuge that I didn’t tell them that I needed.

“Are you doing OK?” Vincent asked as he stepped away. “You’re a little pale.”

“I almost died, Vincent. I am sure that I will look pale for a little while longer.” I played it off as if nothing was wrong.

“Yeah, I guess. I was in pain for a while after I almost died though, so I know how hard it can be. Don’t do too much right away, alright? Ask Trinity or someone else to do things for you. Don’t be ashamed to have help, Reece. We all know that this won’t be easy on you right now. There is no reason to martyr yourself.” He was lecturing me without being stern. And he seemed to know just what I was thinking and feeling.

“I really am fi-.”

“I know what you’re doing, Reece.” He glared at me. “The pain that you’re feeling, you don’t want it to go away right now, do you?”

“What? Why not, Reece?” Trinity looked appalled and scared at that.

“You think that the pain is a reminder that you’re alive. That you’re still here. I felt the same way, Reece. I know what you’re feeling. But I also know that, if I could go back, I would take the pain meds. I would make the pain stop. I was alive. I could see, feel, hear, smell and taste, I had the people around me that were showing me day in and day out that I was alive. There is no more reassurance that you will need other than that.” He seemed to truly get what I had been thinking. I should have known that he would. He had almost died many years ago, during the battle with the dark Fae. If it weren’t for Trinity, he would have died, and we would all live like mortals, like we had done before. It was that night that had made us near immortal. It was because of not wanting to lose him that Trinity combined the three celestial beings inside of herself.

“Thank you, Vincent.” I gave him an apologetic look. He accepted it graciously.

“Take a bath, Reece. You’re filthy. And the hot water will do you some good. Though, rinse in the shower first. No one needs to be soaking in a blood soup right now. Trinity, you should soak with him. He needs you to be there with him right now.”

“I already planned on it.” She assured him.

“Good. I will see myself out.” He lowered his head for a moment, and then left through the door that Trinity had made, back into the clinic room that I had almost died in.

Trinity went to get the shower started and the bath filled. I was thankful this was a magical castle. The water pressure never depleted, and we never ran out of hot water. That was a blessing I had never known I had wanted before the castle was built.

Once the shower was hot, Trinity and I stepped inside of it, after she had helped me to remove the little amount of clothes that I had left, which was a shredded shirt, tattered pants and, oddly enough, fully intact boxers, socks, and boots. She had knelt before me to help me strip them off and I felt the love that she had for me.

We washed in the shower, not talking about anything, just cleaning and staying close to each other. We didn’t say a word until we were out of the shower and soaking in the tub, Trinity resting on my lap, her breasts pressed against my chest as she hugged me gently but firmly.

“I thought that I lost you.” She spoke quietly, but I heard it with no problem.

“I thought that I really was going to die.” I admitted to her. “While I was unconscious, I was in a sort of limbo. A place between life and death. I had to either give up or get back home. I chose home, even though that road was harder.”

“I’m glad that you did choose home.” She lifted her head and looked me in the eyes. “I don’t want a life without you in it, Reece. I can’t bear that at all.”

“I feel the same about you, Little Bunny.” I kissed her forehead and tucked her wet hair behind her ear. “I would never leave you or the kids. Not if I had a choice in the matter.”

“That is good to know.” She settled her head back on my chest and sighed.

“How did you do it?” I asked her in a hushed tone. I don’t know why, but this topic almost felt taboo.

“Do what?” She lifted her head again and gave me a bemused look.

“Defeat the monsters? Kill the boss? End the battle? How did you do all of that?”

“Well, to be honest, it wasn’t me.”

“What?” I was the one that looked bemused now. “If it wasn’t you, then who was it?”

“It was Talia. She conjured her own weapon, a scythe if you can believe it. She saw you disappear and wanted to go after you, but then Alexio called out to her, he was protecting her from one of those monsters that she had wounded but not killed. He almost died tonight as well. He lived, but he was on the brink of death as well. With you and him gone, or so she thought, she went a little berserk. She flew on her dragixie, by the way, Angel is way more powerful than I ever thought she was. Anyway, she leapt at the leader of the Ancient Ones and tore his soul out of his back. She really is like a Goddess of Death.”

I was floored. How the hell had this all happened? And, dammit, why couldn’t I see it? That sounded badass as all fucking hell, and I missed it. FUCK!

“It sounds like our little girl is quite the powerhouse.” That was all that I had to say. I was still trying to process all of the details that Trinity had just given me.

“She really is.” Little Bunny nodded at me. “And I am interested to see just how much stronger she will get as time moves on. She is still young, and her powers are still growing. Oh, and another thing, Talia’s powers seem to have changed colors.” That seemed like it was a thought that popped into her head at the last second.

“Really? What color are they now?” I had an idea, but I wasn’t sure since I wasn’t there.

“Instead of pink, her magic is now purple, like her wolf.”

“Well, of course they are.” I grinned and shook my head. That was what I thought she was going to say. “She really is changing, and quickly too.”

“They all are.” My Little Bunny sounded so sad at that moment. It was like she was not happy about what was going on. I wouldn’t guess that she was. What mother wanted to think about her kids growing up so quickly?

We talked a little more about the battle and what had happened after I was gone. Trinity told me how she had spoken to most of the people that had been present at the battle, and how she wanted to hold another meeting tomorrow. She wanted to tell them all that I was safe and that I wasn’t going to die, but I stopped her. It was late and most of them were likely asleep already. It would be rude to wake them after the night that they had endured.

We dried off after the bath, which had helped with my pain quite a bit. After we dried off, we dressed for bed and climbed between the sheets and blanket. I wanted to hold my Little Bunny for the rest of the night. I wanted to feel her warmth, her presence, and her love. I felt like I needed to keep reaffirming to myself that she was there. I was really here. And I was truly still alive.

I didn’t sleep that much after we laid in the bed. I was lying there awake, holding my mate in my arms, and thinking about all that had happened. Not just about almost dying, but about everything. I thought about my family, my friends, my people, and the future that we all had before us. I thought about how scared I was to close my eyes and go to sleep, just in case all of this that had happened since I came back to life was just a dream, or a vision of sorts. I thought about how I might actually be dead, and this was all just an illusion that the Gods of the underworld were showing me as my form of heavenly bliss. I worried about all of that and so much more.

And just as I was falling asleep, I thought about how something was tickling my sense of smell. Something that I should recognize, but that I was too distracted to think about. What was it? What was that smell? I couldn’t figure it out though, sleep had finally come for me and pulled me under into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The dreamlessness of that sleep was almost enough to scare me, but it didn’t. I kept my Little Bunny in my arms the entire night. I held her close against my chest and felt her beating heart. It was her warmth, her life, her sheer presence that kept me calm all throughout the night. She was my rock, my lifeline, my beacon of hope. She was the one thing that kept me grounded, just like she had done for all these years now. And hopefully, many, many, many more to come. My Little Bunny, my reason for living, my fate.