I felt my eyes widen and Kade winked. “We’re both Hyenas, remember? It’ll work.” His eyes softened. “Trust me.”
I found myself nodding. “I do.”
“Good.” Kade snatched another bell pepper from the tray and slid it closer to me. “Better eat up. We’ve got places to go and blood to absorb!”
I shook my head. “Seriously. Such a dork.”
ChapterThirteen
Kade
With several hours before the doctor was expecting us at the hospital, I found myself at odds deciding how to keep Jeremy’s mind off the bad news. He’d already slept a ridiculous number of hours and finally looked like he could walk without passing out, so I had to agree when he’d slapped his hand on his hip and proclaimed himself plenty rested.
With the clean STD panel, my next option, of course, would have been to drag him back to bed tonotsleep for a bit. Unfortunately, without knowing what potential risks there were for him related to the anemia, I wasn’t comfortable with that.
“Kade?” Jeremy’s voice broke through my inner musings as I packed the leftover snacks in plastic bags to toss in the fridge.
“Hmm?”
“You got really quiet all of a sudden.”
“Sorry.” I dropped the dirty dishes into the sink and turned to face him. “I was just wondering what we should do now that you’re caught up on your sleep.” I held up a preemptive hand. “And don’t suggest sex. We need to see what the doc says about the anemia, first.”
Jeremy snickered. “Killjoy.” He reached a hand out to me and let me pull him up from his chair. “Why don’t we watch a movie on your tablet?”
Okay. Maybe things weren’t as complicated as I’d tried to make them.
Sinking onto the couch, I tucked Jeremy under my arm, covered us with a blanket, and passed him the tablet.
“What are you in the mood for?” he asked, scrolling through the directory. “Action? Comedy?”
I just shrugged and nuzzled my cheek against his hair. I had everything I wanted right there, anything else was just frosting on the cake.
~*~
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Jeremy’s muttered question barely carried to my ears as we made our way through the labyrinth of hospital hallways to the room number that Doctor Gonzales had texted me.
“As sure as I can be,” I said, glancing down the empty corridor to our right with a sigh. “Doc says you need blood and it’s not like we can just grab some at the corner drugstore.”
Jeremy grumbled under his breath, but I knew he understood.
“You don’t have anything to worry about,” I tried to assure him.
“I thought you said there might be other people trying to collect on my bounty since you haven’t told my sister that you found me.”
“It’s pretty much a given,” I agreed, squeezing the hand that held mine. “But Ihavefound you and if there is one thing I can promise, it’s that no one is going to take you away from me.”
Jeremy glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “Promise?”
“That I do,” I assured him as we came to a nondescript gray metal door nearly at the end of the hall. “Here we are.” A quick rap on the door and it swung open.
“I’m Paul.” The man before us was slight, a little blond thing with big brown eyes and a nervous habit of wringing his hands. “You must be Jeremy, yes?”
“He is,” I agreed, stepping past him and bringing Jeremy with me into the small office. “Is the doc here?”
He shook his head, sending his hair flopping over his face. “Not yet. She asked me to have you settle in and tell you she’ll be here shortly.” He took a couple of steps away and turned back to face me. “If you’d follow me?”
Jeremy fell in behind me without a word, gripping my belt with one hand. It was the perfect way to to assure me that he was still there while still leaving my hands free to defend against any potential risk, almost as if we’d discussed it in advance.
