His voice sounded strangled. She frowned, adjusting her leg slightly when it pained her. He groaned and tightened his hand on her ass. She looked up into his face.

The heat in his gaze threatened to burn her. He propped himself up, rolling her over in the process, and proceeded to take her mouth in a kiss so fierce their teeth clashed.

She moaned when his hand stroked her side, taking her breast, weighing it in his palm before his thumb stroked over the aching tip. She arched up against him only to pull away, gasping. Pain wracked her body and she gritted her teeth. Every muscle in her abused back had begun to spasm all at once and the agony was blinding.

“Logan!” Travis’s shout echoed off the walls, sounding like it came from everywhere at once.

“Shit! What?” Logan threw the door open and rushed to her side. “What did you do to her?”

Travis scowled at Logan. “I moved.”

“Maybe you should go back to sleeping on the couch.”

Travis snarled, “Fuck no.”

“Boys.” The two men turned to her. “Ow.” She really wanted to be a man about it, but the pain was excruciating. She couldn’t stop the tears that dripped down her cheeks.

“Sweetheart.” Travis stroked her hair back from her forehead. “Do you need to go to the hospital?”

“Fuck that.” Logan left the room, returning swiftly with a knife. “Give me your hand.”

“What?” She stared at the knife in his hands, wondering what he had planned. Cutting off a finger?

Give her some other pain to focus on, perhaps?

Maybe he was just really crazy.

“Are you sure about this?”

Logan was staring at her, ignoring Travis. “Trust me, Pita. Give me your hand.”

Travis sat up, balancing on his stump. He grimaced when she groaned as even that careful movement jostled her. “If we’re doing this I’m going first. No argument.” He held up his hand, not even wincing when Logan sliced his palm.

“Now you.” Logan took her hand, ignoring her feeble attempts to pull free. He sliced her palm. The pain was minor compared to the one in her back and leg.

Logan took her hand and placed it in Travis’s, palm to palm, wound to wound.

The pain receded as warmth raced up her arm from her palm, straight into her chest. She felt filled with light, glowing inside, surrounded, protected by the light in a way she’d never before experienced. The glow suffused her skin, embracing her in its warmth, wrapping her in a cocoon of comfort and strength. It was the same sensation she got when Travis pulled her into his arms; warmth, comfort and that little tingle of awareness only he gave her, amplified. It was like she was breathing his living light.

She opened dazed eyes to find Travis, softly glowing, staring down at her. “Now Logan.”

She frowned. If Tyr felt like that, what would Loki feel like?

Before she could say no, Logan slapped his bloody palm to hers.

 Travis watched as Logan shared blood with Jamie, bonding them for all eternity. She’d already received his gift. Her skin and hair glowed from it with a shine no beautician could imitate, her innate power amplified by his unbreakable connection to her. I have to see about finding a mage willing to train her. From that little display when she’d dimmed his light he knew she was one of those rare instinctive human mages. He had no idea how his and Logan’s powers would react with hers, but—

She gasped, her back arching impossibly high off the bed, her body going into intense convulsions as Logan’s blood coursed through her veins. That pale light that infused her skin turned bright red. “What’s happening?”

Logan backed off, shaking his head. His expression was horrified. “I don’t know.”

Please don’t let it be the power mix. He’d heard of reactions like this where the bonded had wound up dead due to some sort of psychic shock. It was so rare that it was practically myth. He couldn’t lose her now. Not now, not ever.

Her face was set in a rictus of pain, her entire body thrashing from side to side, her heels drumming against the bedding. He quickly grabbed a pen from the side of the bed, holding her tongue with it as she continued to convulse, worried sick that she’d swallow it or, hell, bite it off.

“Kir!” Logan raced for the bedroom door, nearly colliding with Jordan and Jeff. “Kir!”

The desperation in Logan’s voice frightened Travis almost as much as Jamie’s whitening skin. Even her light was beginning to dim. “God damn it, Logan, what the fuck is going on?”

“I don’t know.” Logan shouted back, moving out of the way for Kir. Kir held Gungnir in his hand, and his eyes had taken on their inhuman aspect. Outside the bedroom window, lightning flashed, followed swiftly by thunder.

“Holy fuck.”

Travis looked over to find Jeff staring at Kir. Kir’s hair was moving in an unseen breeze. He glowed with a faint green light, like sunlight through leaves. A spring storm flashed across his eyes, blues and whites being rapidly swallowed by grays and blacks. He laid his hand on Jamie’s forehead, his own creasing as his eyes closed.

Jamie gasped, settling down against the bed, her eyes unseeing as she stared up at the ceiling.

The silence was deafening, broken only by the sound of the rain. His heart pounded with terror.

“Jamie?”

“Too much, too soon.” Kir’s voice was deep, reverberating through their chests with an undeniable power. “Travis and then Logan, one after the other. It was too much for her body to handle.”

No. Travis pulled her out from under Kir’s hand, cradling her unresponsive body to his chest. No. He buried his face in her neck.

He didn’t even realize he was shaking his head until he felt Jordan touch him. “It’s okay, Trav. Look, she’s breathing.”

He looked, blinking rapidly to clear the tears he hadn’t even known were there.

She was breathing.

“It didn’t hurt me when you and Logan did this. Why did it hurt Jamie?” Jordan was being held in Kir’s arms. Baldur was once more sleeping. Kir looked like his normal self, though still slightly worried.

Gungnir was secure on the chain around his neck.

“We did it days apart, remember? Besides, I don’t think anyone expected this reaction. This wasn’t exactly a common occurrence way back when.” Logan flopped down onto the bed with a relieved sigh.

“She’ll be all right.”

Travis studied the woman in his arms. Her eyes were closed, her breathing normal. She was sleeping, her features peaceful. There was even a slight smile on her face, a face now almost completely free of bruises.

He pressed a kiss to her lips, laying her down on the bed as gently as he could.

“Take her cast off.”

Jeff frowned at Kir. “Why would we do that?”

Kir smiled softly. “She doesn’t need it anymore.” He pulled Logan to his feet, took Jordan by the arm, and tugged his lovers out of the bedroom.

“Can I change my mind and take the blue pill instead?” Jeff shook his head. “What the hell just happened?”

“I’m not sure.” He checked every inch of her body he could see, the smile growing and growing until he was grinning like a loon.

It had worked. Logan’s crazy gamble had paid off. She’d gotten Logan’s ability to heal.

“Where are her bruises and scars?”

“Gone.” He picked up her hand, staring at the cast on her wrist. “Get me a pair of scissors or a knife or something, will you?”

“Yeah, sure.” The frightened awe in Jeff’s voice barely registered. He came back with the scissors, and together they got the cast off Jamie’s wrist. She barely twitched.

Travis put the scissors on the nightstand and shooed Jeff away. “Go on back to bed. Everything is going to be fine now.”

Jeff nodded, averting his gaze, but not before Travis saw the other man’s lips curling into a grin.

“Night, Trav.” Just before he closed the door, he leaned back in. “Nice ass, boss.” He shut the door before Travis could respond. Travis could hear Jeff’s laughter moving down the hallway.