Chapter 8

I’ve previously woken up in various states of duress. The worst case was one of my girls demanding a sexual favor that I didn’t have the time to do right. This was the first time I woke up in sheer agony.

My whole body felt like someone had used a two-by-four on me. The worst parts were my left shoulder and right wrist. I tried to open my eyes, but something covered them. I reached up to take it off, but one thing held my left arm close to me and something else tugged at my right arm.

A floral scent covered the potent scent of antiseptic. “No,” said a soft female voice. “Relax.” She pulled my hand back down to my chest.

“Where am I?” I asked, still half-panicked.

“You’re in Medical City Arlington,” she said calmly. “You were in a car crash.”

Then I remembered riding with Shondra. She was trying to tell me something to do with House Ursae. We got side-tracked when she mentioned me doing something I didn’t know how to do. Then a trash truck came out of nowhere.

“How’s Shondra?” I asked. I still needed to know what she knew.

“Who?”

“The woman I was with,” I said, trying to relax.

“Oh, the driver,” she said. “I’m not sure I should be the one to tell you.”

My panic spiked. “Did she die?”

“Oh, no. No,” she said.

I relaxed back into the bed. When did I half-sit up? “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to panic.”

“You’ve been through a traumatic experience,” she said. “It’s understandable.”

“How long have we been here?” I asked.

“Only a few hours,” she said. “I’ll tell the duty doctor you’re awake when I’m done here, but it’s three in the morning. You should try to rest.”

I nodded, shifted around to get comfortable, and took stock of the pains in my body. Everything ached. Maybe the car tossed me around, even though I was wearing my seatbelt. I could move all the fingers of my right hand, but my wrist throbbed with pain when I tried to bend or twist it. I finally realized that my left arm was in a sling. My left shoulder hurt more than my wrist. Turned out my arm was in a sling. Then I shifted my legs and felt pain shoot through my left hip.

Concern for myself flew away when I thought about Shondra. The truck hit her side of the car. The nurse said she was alive, but there was no doubt she would be in worse condition than I.

Movement made me realize the nurse was still there. “Who are you?” I asked.

“I’m the duty nurse,” she said.

I hummed acknowledgement and said, “What’s your name?”

“Tia,” she said.

I shook my head. “I can’t see anything. What are you doing?”

“I’m recording your vitals,” she said. Then I felt the cuff on my upper right arm tighten. I was certain my blood pressure would be elevated now that I was awake.

When the cuff fully deflated, I asked, “I feel pain in various spots. Is anything broken?”

“Thankfully, no,” she said. “But you should wait to talk to your doctor. Try to get some sleep. I’ll be back in an hour.”

I nodded. “Thank you,” I said.

The only thing I didn’t understand was the blindfold. My eyes didn’t hurt. Not like my shoulder, hip, and wrist. I needed answers, and even the doctor wouldn’t be able to tell me everything.

Another thought hit me. Did anyone else even know we were in the hospital? I thought about my different Stirpi. Everyone was asleep except for Jordan and Angela. Angela sat on a bed reading a book titled “The Submissive.” Jordan sat in a dark room with beeps that reminded me of my own. I realized it was a hospital room and said aloud, “Jordan?”

She looked up, spun around, and left the room without saying a word. She moved down a hallway, turned a corner, and entered another room. I heard her enter while watching her. “Seth? You’re awake.”

I nodded and held my hand out to her. She gently took it. “How do you feel?” she asked.

“Like that trash truck ran me over,” I said in half-jest. “How’s Shondra?”

“She survived, but she’s in critical condition,” she said. “Doctors have her in a medically induced coma.”

“Damn,” I mumbled. “How did you find us?”

“Dana called,” she said. “She said you two had been gone way too long and was worried something happened.”

“Yeah, something happened,” I said. “Bad timing, too.”

“I’m just glad you’re awake,” she said. “I talked to Emma. She said she knows a spell you can cast to help yourself.”

Emma was my first Stirpe. She was also a fully practicing doctor and heart surgeon. She had told me stories about some of her patients and how she had helped them. In fact, she came after me during the Lockdown, intent on taking my power because I was immune to the Lockdown and she desperately wanted to help her patients. I had learned a lot from her for healing spells. “Is there nothing she can do directly?” I asked. “Especially for Shondra.”

“Most of the spells she knows will only work on or for the heart,” Jordan said. “But she has learned self-healing spells you can perform.” Then she ran a hand over the bandage on my eyes. “Too bad you’re blindfolded. That nurse of yours is hot.”

“While I don’t doubt your assessment, what does that have to do with the self-healing spell?”

“Because there is a very specific component needed for the spell,” she said. “Sex with a nurse.”

I frowned. “You’ve told me some strange, yet logical, requirements for spells. Why does this one require that?”

“It’s something like gaining skills from your Stirpi,” she said. “Only this affects you directly and does the work for you instead of giving you the knowledge.”

“So, I heal while having sex?”

“Yes.”

“And how am I supposed to convince her to have sex with me when she probably pities my condition, barely knows me, and knows, thanks to her training and experience, sex for me could make things worse?”

I felt Jordan lean over me. She didn’t put any weight on me, but her lips were close to mine. “I have faith in you, Lover. You are intelligent, sexy, and possess a massive fuck rod to please her with.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s going to impress her. Me lying here with a hard-on the size of a flagpole.”

She ran her hand over my chest, down my abs, and groped my crotch. “You fail to realize one other thing: you are a Magus. Your magic will help you. Allow it to happen.” She kissed my lips and then said, “Why do you think you’re wearing the blindfold?”

I frowned and said. “I don’t know. She didn’t tell me, and my eyes don’t hurt.”

“The doctor ordered your eyes covered because every time one of the female staff met your eyes, she tried to strip down. It was amusing to watch.”

“Wait, you’re telling me I had this ability all along?”

“It only awakens when you’re hurt as badly as you are. You may have been knocked around before, but now you’ve been hospitalized. Now that you have been, your power is trying to help you heal.”

“So, if you take off my blindfold...”

“No, it is very much a subconscious act. I don’t fully understand it, but now that you’re awake and in control again, you have to seduce her.”

“Fuck,” I said under my breath.

“Yes, I would,” she said with a soft giggle, but then she sobered and continued with, “but I can’t help you with this. You have to seduce a nurse on your own.”

I sighed. “Right.”

“Just relax, focus on your goal, and be your normal charming self.” She kissed me again, gave me one last firm squeeze, and then pulled away.

I listened to Jordan leave. Sure, I could call her back to me, to keep me company until the nurse returned, but why? She couldn’t help. As late as it was, having her here might upset the nurse. The last thing I needed was for the nurse to think she had competition.

Was that what I really thought? Was I someone to compete for? I needed the nurses’ help to heal, but I couldn’t tell her that. It was going to be bad enough for the nurse to have sex with me and possibly see me heal while we fucked. What would I say then?

For a few minutes, I stewed over what to say to the nurse. My thoughts inevitably turned to the women I already enjoyed having sex with. Katrina, Sammi, Lisa ... Damn. What would Lisa think about this? We hadn’t been here a day, and I was in the hospital. I wanted to check on her, to make sure she was okay, but she was one of my Fonti, not my Stirpe. I couldn’t see her like I could my Stirpi. Besides, she was most likely asleep.

My focus on Lisa turned into something similar to when I saw one of my Stirpi. She was sitting on a couch with Danielle and Olive. Danielle was telling her and Olive about the day we met. Hearing her side of it was arousing, because — at the time — she was under the spell of my Initiation. Lisa nor Olive looked jealous. It was as if they were happy for Daniell and beamed. Lisa, specifically, appeared to be proud of me. I wished desperately that what I saw was real. I needed that kind of support.

But it was three in the morning. Those three wouldn’t be awake right now, even if they knew I was alive but bed-ridden in a hospital.