Chapter 28

The road to happiness is peace in your soul.

Holy shit, he had more of that in the past eight hours than he had in years.

He sat up in bed, certain that he was dead. He had to be, because the pain was almost gone. If he searched for it, he could find a slight hint of it, but nothing like last night, where his body had literally rattled. Had he finally offed himself? Looking around, he realized he was in his quarters. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t dead, but what the fuck was going on?

It came rushing back to him, and he crashed back onto the pillow as if he had just been run over by a locomotive.

Beverly.

Ah, sweet Jesus.

Last night had been…incredible. Absolutely incredible. Beyond incredible. Fucking fantastic. He thought about it, a full-blown color movie playing itself through his mind.

They had sex six times throughout the night. Six glorious times, each a new adventure, each time felt better than the time before. He couldn’t get enough of her, and based on the fact that she had woken him three of the six times, he guessed she felt the same.

Of course, there were obstacles that needed to be dealt with because of his injuries, but he and Beverly had found their way to absolute bliss over and over again throughout the night. Their bodies moved in harmony together, a perfectly orchestrated, erotically beautiful dance.

While they recouped, they talked about everything from working out, to favorite foods, to difficult pasts. He had told her about Iris, leaving out the details of how the carnage of his heart had taken place twenty-seven years ago, because hey, he looked thirty at the oldest, not fifty.

No use screwing with her head or letting on to what he was.

And he also left out the part about how he was barely getting along in life because of that carnage, but she pretty much put that one together.

“And just to clarify, Iris was the reason you were going to commit suicide?”

He had thought about lying, but as he stared into those green eyes, he couldn’t do it. Besides, she had read his letter to Noah. “Yes.”

Beverly had nodded. “I can’t imagine loving someone that much that you would feel the need to end your life. Obviously she was everything to you.”

Everything, and then some.

And then some more.

He looked over at the empty pillow next to him and wondered where Beverly had gone.

He stretched and couldn’t believe how good he felt, and noted there was still a slight glimmer of his SR44 form still on his skin. He certainly wasn’t in love, so he didn’t have to worry about losing his SR44 form, but damn, Beverly had sure rattled his bones enough to make the damn thing do the shimmy on his skin. He checked his clock, and saw it was seven. Beverly was an early riser.

He liked her scent on him, so he would forego the shower. After splashing water on his face, he looked over his torso in the mirror and decided that his stitches looked okay. The shimmer from his SR44 form was now completely gone, so he slipped on a pair of sweats, took out his contacts, and decided to go wake Cohen.

He rode the elevator up to floor three, then knocked on the door.

“Go away,” Cohen grumbled.

“Can’t do that, man. Open up.”

He heard some cursing, and then Cohen opened the door. He rubbed his eyes and studied Hudson. “Jesus, you got beat with the ugly stick,” he said.

“Fuck off,” Hudson said, pushing past Cohen into his quarters. “You asleep? Not that I care much.”

“Yeah, I’m asleep. Jetlag’s a whore and a half. Maybe even two of ‘em. It’s nice to see you, too.”

Hudson looked around the room. Done in black and rust colors, it was dark, yet comforting in a way.

Turning to Cohen, he said, “I am glad to see you, Cohen. Glad you’re home safe, man.”

They did a quick guy hug, a slap on the back, and knocked fists.

Cohen nodded. “Heard what you did for us. That this,” he glanced at Hudson’s face and bare chest, “was protecting us. We owe you.”

Hudson stared at Cohen, who was in a pair of boxers and a black silk robe. He hated the fact that his fellow Warriors thought they owed him, but for some reason he hated it a little bit less now that he had when Rayner, Talin, and Noah had said it.

“Yeah, you owe me,” he said with a grin. “So fix me, Cohen.”

Cohen eyed him a moment, nodded, then told him to lie down on the bed.

Hudson lay down and got ready. He had been on the receiving end of Cohen’s special ability many, many times throughout the years. Knife wounds, gunshots, broken bones, concussions, and a truckload of bumps and bruises. So, yeah, he knew the drill better than he knew the English language.

Rule number one: focus. Rule number two: do what Cohen said. Hudson wasn’t big on rules, but Cohen’s rules were pretty easy to follow, especially since he knew he would be on the bonus end of it all.

“All right, Hudson. You know what to do because we've sure as shit done this enough. Do what I tell you, and you’ll be out of here in no time, and I can go back to sleep.”

Cohen kneeled on the floor by the bed and put his hands on Hudson’s abdomen. With a slight warming and a mild jolt, Hudson felt Cohen’s spirit enter him. He took a deep breath to relax and focused on Cohen’s words.

“No organs damaged,” Cohen said. “That’s good. We’ve just got to repair the cuts. Focus on your stomach,” he said, gently placing his hand over Hudson’s belly button.

Hudson felt the skin knitting from the inside out.

A few minutes later, Cohen said, “Now your chest,” as he moved his hand over Hudson’s heart.

Hudson remembered Beverly’s hand there the previous night. Well, there and a lot of other places. God, she felt so good against him.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking about, and I don’t care. But whatever it is, toss it, because I need you focused here.”

Right.

The healing.

Not sex, not Beverly. He knew which one he would like to think about, but he had to get healed.

He redirected his thoughts to Cohen’s hand.

About twenty minutes later, Cohen pronounced them done.

Hudson looked down at his torso. Gone were the angry welts and stitches. All that was left were slightly pink scars, and those would be gone in a couple of days.

Sitting up, he rolled his neck, and Hudson noted how tired Cohen looked. Well, the guy had only been back a couple of hours, and Hudson had barged in interrupting his sleep.

“I’m sorry for waking you, man,” Hudson said.

“It’s okay. As my buddy John Lennon said, ‘you get tired for fighting for peace, or you die.’ I’ve been fighting a long time. But anyway, just get out of here now.”

Hudson nodded. “I’ll tell everyone you’re off limits until you say otherwise.”

“Thanks, Hudson,” he said with a smile. “I love you like a brother from a different mother, but get the hell out of my room.”

Hudson chuckled and went back down to his floor. He decided since he was ahead of the whole how-much-pain-can-Hudson-withstand-game, he would go workout. He grabbed his Nikes, slipped into a pair of running shorts and a tank top, and hit the gym at the bottom floor.

When the elevator opened, he heard AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” blaring, and he thought about how Beverly had done exactly that to him all night long. Based on the music, he fully expected to see one or more of his fellow Warriors in the gym, although it was a little early for any of them. He opened the doors and was surprised to see Beverly working out when he walked in. He had thought that maybe she had gone back to her room or something, and this was the last place he expected to see her.

Dressed in a spandex workout shorts, a tank top, and some running shoes, he felt his cock twitch as he admired the way her body moved. She might be too thin, but she was strong. Watching as she went through a routine of squats, weights, push-ups, and knee raises, he realized she was doing the tried and true ten, eight, six, four circuit. That entailed doing ten of each exercise without a break, resting for a short period of time, then starting all over to eight and doing it all again. It was tough, and he admired her as she pushed through it.

He watched for a few minutes and moved into the room. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Noah. The male was doing bench presses exceeding three-hundred-and-fifty pounds, and judging by the excursion, he was doing it to let off steam. Hudson guessed that Noah had pissed off Abby, and walked over to find out.

“So what did you do?” he asked.

“None. Of. Your. Business,” Noah said, pushing the weight up with each word.

“Okay. Is she going to forgive you, or did you fuck it up completely?”

“I. Don’t. Know.” On the last word, Hudson watched as Noah’s arms began to shake, and he moved behind Noah to spot him.

The up-and-down routine with the barbell went on a couple more times, and Noah finally could do no more. Closing his eyes, his arms gave up on a big push, and Hudson grabbed the bar to put it back into its holder.

Noah sat up, breathing hard, sweat rolling off of him in buckets. “I’m done down here,” he said, his words barely audible above the music.

“Go make up with Abby,” Hudson said.

Noah nodded, staring at the floor. “You set?”

Hudson didn’t know what he was supposed to be set for, but whatever. “Yep. I’m good.”

Noah nodded again and slowly walked to the door, never meeting Hudson’s eyes. Whatever he had done was weighing on him heavily.

Hudson turned and caught Beverly’s stare in the glass across the expanse of the room. She gave him a small smile, but then he watched her eyes get darker.

He knew that look. And based on that look, he knew she was thinking about last night, such a short few hours ago.

Turning her back to him, she hit the floor for more push-ups. As he walked over, he admired her ass as it moved up and down from the floor. When she pushed herself to the top of the push-up, he wrapped his arm around her waist, lifted her up off the floor, and pulled her back to his chest. She fought him for a moment, and then went limp against him, laughing.

“Good morning,” he said into her neck.

She threw her head back and laughed. “Morning? Just because you slept all day doesn’t mean it’s morning to the rest of us.”

Hudson felt ice form in his veins. Oh, shit. If his clock didn’t say 7 a.m. that meant it was seven in the evening when he woke, which meant it was terribly close to the summer sundown. He quickly tried to do the math of how long he had been with Cohen, and how long he had spent helping Noah. He remembered Noah had asked him if he was set. At the time, Hudson hadn’t understood or cared, but now he realized Noah was asking him if he had his contacts in that would mute the blazing yellow of his eyes when the sun went down.

“What’s wrong, Hudson?”

He turned to the mirror the same time Beverly did. Both watched his eyes slowly turn to a bright, vibrant yellow.