"The other one is loose too," he said around her fingers, which she had pressed against his lower lip to get a better look.
"I can see. The gum is swollen on that side too." She withdrew her hand and met his eyes. "How fast will the fangs come in?"
"I don't know. I have no information on this. The immortals on this island transition at puberty, and I'm more than twice that age. Not that I know how fast it happens for them. I could ask Dave, though."
She frowned. "The fangs are not really noticeable in their dormant state. They only elongate in response to triggers, which you might be able to avoid, but the problem is the in-between. You can't walk around with missing teeth." She chuckled. "If it had happened right after the fight, we could have claimed that they'd gotten knocked out."
He shook his head. "Adults don't regrow teeth. How would I have explained having new ones?"
"Right." She smiled sheepishly. "I don't know if they even have a dentist on the island, although I assume that they do. You couldhave asked Dave to compel the dentist to tell everyone that he pulled your teeth and you're waiting for implants."
"Well, that's all hypothetical because the tooth didn't fall out during the fight."
As Mattie leaned against the doorframe and chewed her lower lip, Dimitri rinsed his mouth again and spat.
The bleeding had stopped, and the socket was already shrinking, but the phantom taste of blood remained.
"We need to keep you out of sight," Mattie said. "At least until the fangs are fully in. It shouldn't take more than a few days."
"I was thinking the same thing. I could claim to be sick and stay up here in the room. Humans get sick, so it would reinforce the perception that I'm still human."
"It might take more than a week."
"Then I'll have to be very sick."
"That will look suspicious. Nobody stays in bed for a week with a cold without someone sending for a doctor." She paused, and her eyes widened. "I have the perfect solution."
"What?"
"A surgical mask. My friend Adele wore one when her crown fell out, and she couldn't get a same-day appointment with a dentist. People just assumed that she was sick and didn't want to infect anyone. You could do the same."
They had plenty of good masks on hand for when he and Petrov were handling chemicals that they needed to avoid inhaling.
"We have masks in the lab, but I usually don't wear one all day."
"You do if you have a cold." She straightened up, her eyes brightening. "You can tell everyone you've caught something, and you're worried about infecting Petrov and me. My immune system is probably compromised because of the trauma I suffered, and Petrov drinks so much that he probably has the constitution of a damp sponge."
He laughed. "I'll tell him that you said that."
"Go ahead. It's true, right?"
"Normally, yes, but Petrov is incredibly resilient. I don't remember him ever getting sick."
She laughed. "Maybe all that vodka kills any virus or bacteria that dares to get near him. Anyway, back to the mask. You wear one until your fangs are out and look like normal teeth. Just remember to sneeze and cough occasionally to reinforce the effect. The best part of it is that it makes you look more human, not less."
The simplicity of it was brilliant.
"You are a freaking genius, Mattie." He pulled her to him and kissed her.
It wasn't the careful, gentle kisses he'd been giving her since the attack. This was hard and urgent, born from relief and admiration.
She made a surprised sound against his mouth, and then her good arm came up around his neck, and she kissed him back with an enthusiasm that suggested the conversation about his dental emergency had just dropped several places on her priority list.
When they broke apart, her eyes had that particular spark in them, the one that raised his core temperature to dangerous levels.
"You know," she said, her voice husky, "since we're both awake, and it's still early…"
"Mattie."
