"Of course we will. Now eat, before he goes all fangy," Gav said, not quite under his breath. He picked up his own fork and dug into the food. Even Ax was eating, not nearly as much as either Gav or she had on her plates, but he was eating with them.
She did just that. She began to eat and watched her men as she did so. This was going to be a very, very interesting life that they would lead together, and it was one that she looked forward to. She happened to really and truly love the idea that they would all be able to be together in this.
Chapter Ten
It was day ten of her treatments and being treated like she was made of spun glass and having food shoved into her mouth. But it was almost done, almost over, almost cured. The boys were at the counter, leaning over some more blood work and muttering to one another. All the while she sat there, eating instead of working, yet again. Artaxias hadn't been kidding about the meals and snacks. She was fucking eating nearly every hour, on the hour. Okay, maybe not quite that much, but damn it, it sure felt like it sometimes.
Shooting yet another dark look to her men, she lifted an eyebrow, "Well?" She demanded. "Please tell me that it's close, or else I might have to hurt you two." She was so over being stuffed with food that it wasn't even funny. She was about to hurt someone, truth be told, and that wasn't even a joke.
Both looked toward her, then one another and then back at the results. After another minute, Artaxias straightened up and nodded. "We're about there. Best we can figure is treatments today, maybe tomorrow, and you're good. We'll do another blood test tomorrow morning." He came around the counter to where she was sitting and touched her cheek lightly. "You're almost there, Lilly. Just a little more to be absolutely sure we beat this. Okay?"
Lilly leaned into Artaxias and closed her eyes. "Okay," she whispered. "I trust you." She did. She trusted them both. "Let me finish eating, and then we will get back to the files we are working on. Have you found out anything more from the tattoos on our John Doe?"
"A bunch more, but finish eating and then we'll talk. You, my dear, cannot do two things at once without creating havoc. I'll grab everything and then we can sit and discuss it all. Eat." He leaned in and kissed her gently.
"I'm eating, I'm eating," she muttered and then lifted her face to his. Smiling, she licked her lips. "How about you kiss me again?" She loved sharing kisses with her men. She loved being able to have them hold her, kiss her, and touch her, and since they couldn't make love yet, she was damn sure going to get as many kisses as she could.
Pressing another kiss to her lips, he pressed her mouth open and slid his tongue in to tease hers. His hand was at the back of her head, fingers in her hair, holding her to him. When he moved in closer, she could feel his heat all down the front of her body.
When he pulled back, Lilly shuddered and licked her lips. "That's what I needed." She moaned. "Felt so very good," she admitted softly. "I never want you to stop giving me kisses like that, please." She looked to Gavriel and smiled. "How about you, Gav? Gonna kiss me?"
"Always." He smiled at her. Coming around the counter to her other side, he cupped her face and leaned in. His lips were on hers in the next moment, his kiss softer and yet no less powerful than Ax's. His tongue teased hers for a long moment, stealing her breath, and then he drew back. "Eat."
Taking a moment to breathe, she nodded and licked her lips. "God, I love when you boys kiss me," she admitted. "I really think that you should kiss me often. I mean it. No matter where we are, I think that you should both kiss me at any moment in time."
"And we will," Gavriel told her, moving back to the folder. "Now eat, dark-and-toothy is looking a little grumpy. You're messing with his schedule, darling. So finish your meal, and then we have some business to take care of."
That had her laughing, "Yeah I know." She loved messing with Ax and his schedules sometimes. She loved it because when she did, he generally would spank her bottom. Yes, her clothes would be on when he did it, but it felt so good all the same.
"We also need to go and see Briar at some point, as she's got the results back on that body from the other day," Ax told her. Another body with another tattoo that had made her try and claw out her guys' eyes in the need that had gripped her to get to a landline phone. Thankfully they'd seen the problem coming, a little late unfortunately, but had been ready for her actions. They'd subdued her and distracted her just fine. But seriously, it was starting to get real old, real fast.
"I think that the next body that comes through, I should not go to see," she whispered. "I hate that it's getting to the point where it's harder and harder to pull me out of the trance or whatever these things put me into."
"We're going to figure this out, Lilly," he said, looking to her. She turned to look at him and he smiled. "We will. And when we do, Gav is going to get that compulsion broken. Plus, once we're mated, it will be easier for us to help you through the compulsion. I'm not saying it will be easy-easy, but definitely easier, since we'll be connected to you on a level we aren't right now."
"Good. I trust you. I trust you both. I know that you will do whatever it takes to not only ensure that I am able to defeat this disease of mine, but also that we will defeat this programming that someone put into place on me."
Artaxias got up from his seat and moved to her slowly. "We will," he said quietly, his words a promise. "Come and join me on the sofa. We can go over the findings from the tattoos. I think this may actually help us figure out how to break the program, Lil."
"Sounds good to me." She rose and moved to the couch with them. Anything to snuggle up between her two larger-than-life men was good for her. She would do whatever it took. Settling in between the guys, she rested her legs on one lap and leaned against the other man's shoulder. "All right, boys, show me what you have found so far."
"The patterns are distinctive, from what everyone could see. Mark said that once he got digging around, he found that a lot of the symbols that make up the tattoo were used as subliminal messages during the fifties and sixties of your world. Hidden in commercials to promote more buying at stores, suspicions about the communists and things like that. He told me"-Ax continued as he stroked her hair gently-"that on their own, they would mean absolutely nothing to you. But in certain combinations, they would make you do specific tasks. The way the one was layered on the bodies made you go into a trance and try to get to a phone. But he says, too, that they literally could make you do anything. The only caveat to that is, it can't go against your core being."
"In other words," Gavriel said, taking up that point. "If they sent you a subliminal message to shoot one of us, you'd never do it. You'd push through the programming enough for us to help you stop. But a phone call, or driving somewhere. We do that on a daily basis, so it's nothing that would go against your core self."
"Which is very true." Lilly chewed her lower lip and added, "I also make weapons daily. Deadly ones. It's nothing for me to create something new and test it out. What if I thought that I was testing it in the safe zone of my lab, and instead it was an office or something? Could they do that? Make me not see what was around me and make me think that I was somewhere safe?"
"Maybe, but highly doubtful. Because those people would be yelling at you, shouting for your attention. I just can't say for sure, Lil." Gavriel squeezed her calf lightly. "It completely depends on what the base programming was. How far ahead they thought. What they believed you'd need to do."
"Well, let's hope that it's just the phone thing. Although, why they would want me to call them is beyond me, but that's all good." A very bad thought popped into her mind and had her asking, "What if the phone call is to receive further orders? To solidify the preprogrammed response and turn it into something more?"
"That, too, is possible," Artaxias said, looking down at her. "But really, I'm betting from your urgency to make the call, and the fact that when we pull you from the fugue you have no memory of making the call, they want you to give them information. You gather everything up, make the call, and then never remember the need to make the call, the call itself, or the information passed along. I'd also bet it's to a voice mail service of some sort. They couldn't know when you'd be triggered, if you'd be triggered, or where they would be when you were triggered. Plus, with a recording, they can review it endlessly."