Page 80 of Chaos & Carnage

I nodded, stifling a yawn. “I’m really tired. And cold.”

“Wanna call it a night?”

I nodded, grabbing at the hand he held out for me, and we wandered back to our little tent in the Kings’ camp. The air outside was even icier, stabbing through my layers like a thousand tiny, freezing pin pricks. The difference between the cloudless night air and the minimal heat in the marquee must have been nearly twenty degrees Celsius. The darkness felt even darker in the cold. Hostile. Threatening.

It didn’t take long to reach our tent, Cade finding the right one. The zip ground loudly in the thin atmosphere, Cade standing aside to let me in. I yanked off my shoes, leaving my jeans and all my jumpers on and half crawled, half slid into the double sleeping bag Cade had made from both our singles earlier. He slid in beside me, wrapping his arms around me.

And now all I could do was shake uncontrollably. It would stop soon, though, once I finally fell asleep. I wouldn’t notice the cold anymore.

For a little while, I drifted in and out of sleep. Short little bursts, growing colder each time I woke. Nothing I did got me any warmer, no matter how much I snuggled against the man beside me.

“Are you ok, Al?” He asked, eventually. “I’m sure this whole tent is shaking.”

“I…I…I’m sorry,” the words vibrated off my teeth. “I…. s…s…. so cold.”

He reached out of the sleeping bag, a bright speck of light suddenly assaulting my eyeballs, the light from the torch on his mobile blinding me.

“Shit, Al. You don’t look so good.”

“I th… think I h… have hypothermia.”

“I think you actually do. We need to get you warm, babe. Do you trust me?”

“Y… yes. Why?”

“Stay here.”

The zipper growled again, Cade wriggling out of the sleeping bag, pausing at the entrance of the tent and then pushing through the swishing fabric. I could hear low voices behind me, and then he was back. And someone else was with him.

“Caleb is gonna get in the other side of you.”

“Wh…what? N… n… no.” I protested.

“You said you trusted me. I, we need to get you warmed up. Will you let him get in with you?” Cade asked again, and this time I nodded, desperately cold. So cold I was at the point I would do anything, including sharing a bed with Cade and Caleb.

Caleb stepped in behind me, carefully edging himself in.

“Shit, kitten. You are cold,” warm breath tickled my ear. “This isn’t going to work. We need her clothes off. She’s way too cold.”

“What? N…no!”

But in the light from Cade’s mobile phone, I watched him agree.

“Carnage is right. We all need to be naked. Skin-to-skin. It’ll raise your body heat quicker.”

“N… no.”

“Please, Al. Your lips are turning blue. We need to get you warm. Will you let us, please?”

Blue lips? And I couldn’t feel my fingers or my toes. I was so, so tired.

I took a breath. “Ok,” I agreed.

I glanced around me, watching the brothers pull off their hoodies, then their t-shirts, then tugging their jeans down their legs.

“You can fucking leave those on, Caleb,” Cade pointed at him, and I peered over my shoulder to see his thumbs tucked into the waistband of his boxers.

“Ok, ok,” he grumbled, wrenching them free,