Page 74 of Transfiguration
He blinked, his skin coated in sweat, and realized he had a warm body wrapped around him.
Dark hair? He turned his head to find Sam wrapped around him, both of them in their bed at the Rou house. Sam smoldered, literally smoldered, the heat scorching the sheets beneath them.
Con flinched. Was his fire power going nuts? And if he was that hot, why wasn’t Con’s skin burning?
“Sam?” Con called, moving slowly because he hurt.
Sam stirred, blinking a half dozen times before turning his face Con’s way. No revenant in his eyes, which was a good sign, but why the heat?
“Babe,” Con said. “You’re smoking.”
Sam frowned, like Con’s words were hard to understand. Then he pulled away, sucked in a deep breath, and the fire went out. “What the fuck,” Sam said. He looked at Con. “You okay?”
“I hurt like a truck hit me.” Con said. He tugged on his wind power, finding his reserves only half filled, and activated a few healing runes. The pain subsided.
“Your runes prevent Seiran and Kelly from healing you. They keep turning on. Even when I turned them off. They refill me too and maybe I’m taking too much. I’m not sure how to stop that, sorry.”
Sam could turn them off? Wait. “I’m your Focus now?”
It was a question that didn’t need to be asked. Con could feel Sam. It was hard to describe the connection, but not really all that different from his tie to the wind, like it was part of him.
“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “How do you feel about that?”
Necessity was a bitch, but it wasn’t like Con hadn’t thought about it a million times over the last decade. “What about Luca?”
“He’s still in the ground.”
Con grunted. Was he though? Would he come back? Would he be sad that Con wasn’t his Focus? Not that Con thought one person could be a Focus for more than one vampire. Then he remembered Hart. “What the hell happened to Hart? He went nuts…”
“Rou forced him to ground where Luca was. Page said he needed me or Luca near him? I don’t know all the details yet. Gabe had that inky darkness over him, but it slunk into the ground. Drawn to Luca?”
Con gasped.
“He didn’t wake, and I couldn’t sense any change,” Sam blurted. “I freaked out for a minute, too. The stuff wouldn’t stick to me… I have a lot of questions.” Sam stretched. “Last thing I remember is passing out.” He paused, blinking for a few seconds as if his vision went funny. “This Focus bond is a trip.”
Con ran his hand over Sam’s bare chest. “You don’t normally run warm.”
“Maybe it’s the bond?” He leaned over and pulled his cell phone off the side table, checking it. “I don’t know how much time I lost. But I’m thinking there are probably some witches downstairs we can ask.”
Con slid his arms around Sam and hugged him tight, just needing to feel him for a minute. Tears stung his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. He’d been on the verge of losing everything. Failing everyone. Bella was still missing. Luca gone. But with Sam back, maybe there was something left for him?
Sam hugged him, curling himself around Con and weaving one hand through his hair. “It’s all right, babe. We’ll figure it out. We’ll get Luca back. Find Bella. Save the world. It’s what we do, right?” Sam’s tone was teasing, but not a lie, even when sometimes saving the world meant taking out a bunch of monsters. His words echoed Con’s thoughts. Was that part of the Focus bond?
Con drew in a shaky breath, savoring the scent of Sam’s skin, even slightly slick with sweat. It was grounding. He was never meant to be alone. “I should have accepted the Focus bond a long time ago. I guess I worried Luca would be upset. In the back of my mind, I knew someday he would transition.”
“Therapy says we don’tshouldon ourselves or others,” Sam said, not letting go. “And I need to fill you in on a few things. Our lives have been chaos for the past few weeks, but we wanted your return to be a few calm days at home…”
“Not your fault someone attacked us.”
“No,” Sam agreed, hedging a little. “But Luca started to transition the day after you got home. He was having trouble keeping food down, and my blood tasted bad to him. We tried Hart’s blood, and Gabe’s, but both only gave him a few hours.”
Con frowned. “But he seemed normal…” Okay, Luca had been quieter than usual. Normally he was a chatter bug when Con got home from being away for a few weeks. Con had thought it was because of Bella.
“Yeah. We planned to talk about stuff…”
“Fuck,” Con said, not letting Sam go. “I want to go back to how we were… but want Bella safe, too.”
“Yeah,” Sam said. He sighed. “I am sweating like a pig, what the fuck… Let me jump in the shower and we’ll go see a witch about some answers.” He kissed Con’s cheek. “Bad morning breath too. Probably from drinking your blood, then sleeping?”