“A cartoon ghost. Never mind.” She smoothed her t-shirt over her thighs.
Shaking his head, Nik crossed to the dresser. Glasses tinkled, then he returned, a tumbler with brownish-green liquid in his hand.
She eyed the goop suspiciously. “What is that?”
“It will aid you.” His stare slowly glided over her face like a caress, and all her nerve endings perked to attention. Boy, oh, boy. “Your temperature’s still high.”
That’s because of the way you look at me.
She hurriedly took the glass and gulped down the thick liquid. “Holy mother—” She choked and coughed, the awful-tasting goo sticking in her throat.
He rubbed her back.
Ugh, how would that help? Now she couldn’t breathe with him so close.
Chest heaving, eyes watering, she shoved the crystal at Nik. “What the heck is this? It tastes like tar.”
One corner of his mouth quirked, revealing a single, masculine dimple slashing deep into his left cheek, making her want to reach out and trace it…with her lips. At the devastatingly gorgeous immortal in front of her, her heart tripped painfully in her chest.
Figured it would take something that madeherutterly miserable for him to smile.
“It’s a potion to mend injuries like those on your sternum,” he explained, his mirth fading. “The demon marked you to make locating you easy. So, finish the potion, get that wound to heal faster, and the bull’s-eye off you. It’ll take a few days.”
Tolvi hadmarkedher?
Of course, he had. Damn demon.
Well, then she would stay away from the garage, but she had to warn Nate. And Eddi.
Shadow forced herself to drink the rest of the foul potion and grimaced.
Nik took the glass from her, then he nodded to her chest. “How did the wound happen?”
Fear tightened her throat, just remembering. “I don’t know. Everything happened so fast when they grabbed me.” But guilt twisted her insides for not revealing the entire truth. “All I did was pray…”Pray?Right. Like those were ever answered. “Then they let me go. I guess it’s because they knew they could find me.”
“I should have made sure you were protected, instead of taking on those damn demons—”
“Hey, no need for the blame game. They had to be killed. Or too many innocents would have died. I’m just one person—”
“You value your life so little?” he demanded, staring down at her, eyes like green ice. “Those fuckers would have hauled you straight to the Dark Realm.”
“Since when have the homeless ever been important to anyone?” she countered, watching the nerve pulsing on his jaw. “Naturally, we are more expendable.”
His lips thinned, and he prowled to the window as if trying to remain calm, then pivoted. “Those nodes on your chest?”
And there it was.
She brushed her tangled hair away from her face and had to force out words of an attack that still haunted her. “Blood demons attacked me a few years ago. I-I was dying. To save me, I was given blood. The nodes appeared soon after.”
He paced back to the foot of the bed, eyebrows tipping together. “Otherworldly blood?”
Darn, he was persistent.
“How would I know?” She slid her legs on the bed and leaned against the headboard, pulling the covers over her bare thighs. “I was unconscious. When I came to, I was in too much pain to care.” Hell, she’d been so hungry, with no idea why, and she’d attacked Nate. Her stomach heaved at the memory. “Besides, I don’t think us humans would be compatible with something like sharing blood with Otherworldly beings.”
Their saliva can heal you.Recalling him licking the wound on her breast, heat flooded her face, making her warm and twitchy. She wanted to press her thighs together. Nope, not with him watching her like a hawk, as if he could see into her soul for the truth. Shadow drew her knees up.
“No. It has to be Otherworldly…” His brow creased as if trying to work a puzzle, but he didn’t have all the pieces. “If blood demons left you dying, you would be dead. Human plasma wouldn’t save you. It has to be a powerful demon or an angel to counter that effect.”
