“Hey!”I said.“Get a room!”
Deagan paused.Closed his mouth.Seemed to remember that I was there and I was human.“Ah, yes.Of course.We’ll just be a minute.”
“More than a minute!”Thordis grabbed a handful of his coat and yanked him toward a hallway.
“Careful with the embroidery, wild one.”
“What happened to this being an emergency?”I called out.
My question was met with the thunk of a door shutting.Jaw clenched, I collapsed onto the couch and tried to extinguish my reaction to his magic.At least I wasn’t battling the pheromones oftwovampires.Deagan had come to Jared’s aid after I’d conned Arcuro into releasing him.That exchange of blood had beenpotent, and it had taken me by surprise.When I didn’t have a chance to prepare for a paranorm’s magic, it was much more difficult to resist it.
And with one specific paranorm, it was difficult to resist even when I braced for it.
I shot up from the couch before Blake could invade my thoughts again.I thought about going outside for fresh air, but I didn’t want to attract attention from the neighboring homeowners.They probably already had questions about this seemingly unoccupied house.
I just needed to move and to not think about sex.
While I was filling a glass full of water from the fridge, my phone vibrated.
You better be on the way.
It was Carrie.
I chewed on my bottom lip.Her apartment was only twenty minutes away, and I wouldn’t have to stay long.It would be efficient if I helped with whatever Deagan’s maybe emergency might be, made it to the bank and electric company, and then also fulfilled my promise to Carrie.
A rhythmic thumping began behind the wall across from me.I glared at it.Maybe I should go run my errands now.
I wouldn’t tempt fate that much.
Grinding my teeth, I dropped down on the couch and grabbed the TV remote.I was beginning to regret my decision to take Deagan’s “emergency” seriously.His definition of urgent was probably a wardrobe crisis.
I scrolled until I found an over-the-top action film, then turned the volume up high to drown out Deagan and Thordis.
Chapter Eighteen
Thordisemergedfromthehallway a millennium later, arms over her head, stretching like a cat soaking in sunlight.She wasn’t dressed in the leathers she typically wore.She’d topped her black pants with a slightly loose tank top, which did nothing to hide the three visible bruises she bore like trophies, one on each curve of her neck, the third on the swell of her left breast, just barely peeking out above her shirt.I knew how good that must have felt.I’d been bitten by a vampire exactly once, and after the initial pinch of pain, Jared’s magic had seeped into me.I would have been lost to it if not for the mini-me in my head kicking my brain until I clawed my way back to reality.
I shook the memory from my head and noted Thordis’s bare feet.Her toenails were paintedpink.Bright pink.Valkyrie painting their toes at all seemed strange—they tended to spend their time fighting, training, or screwing—but pink was absolutely the last color I would have guessed she’d choose.
She plopped down beside me on the couch, then set one naked foot on the coffee table, then the other, crossing her legs at the ankles.
“Did you lose a bet?”I asked.
Her contented smile vanished.I didn’t point out her toes.She didn’t look at them, but she did grumbleyesand took her feet off the table.She then sat crisscross so she could hide the damning evidence underneath a decorative pillow she placed in her lap.
“I think they are charming.”Deagan sauntered into the living room, shirt unbuttoned and untucked, fancy coat nowhere to be seen.
“You look better,” I said.I hadn’t noticed the lack of vibrancy in his steps before, the lack of color to his skin.White vampires were always on the extremely pale side of the spectrum, but they didn’tlookdead.Now that he’d been properly fed, he looked like he had a heartbeat again, barely there and measured in beats per hour rather than per minute like a human’s.
“All because of you, my dear.”
“Hey.”Thordis slung her lap pillow at him.He caught it and tossed it back.
“You certainly helped,” he said.“But Kennedy is the reason I still exist.Now, I am sure I told you to wait outside.”
“Youaskedme to wait outside,” Thordis replied.“I chose not to.”
Deagan began to button his shirt.“I must speak with Kennedy privately.”
