“Yes,” I said.
He shrugged. “Then I should be thanking you for being interesting to watch.”
“Me being interesting… is that why you claimed I belong to you?” I asked.
Considine looked away from me. “I believe I hear some of your coworkers coming, so I’m going to bow out. Happy hospital stay.” He waved and disappeared through the door.
“Wait—your dagger…” I held the weapon out but Considine was gone, his footsteps quieter than Gisila’s had been.
This is an unexpected complication.
It didn’t mean much to me—Considine saying I was his didn’t give him any legal grounds over me, so it really was a protective move. Butwhy, when he’d gone through such lengths to trick me? Being a source of entertainment would only get me so far, so what was this?
My family is going to go off like a grenade when I tell them about this.
I doubted any member of my family or any slayer resources, would help me puzzle through this, either.
I heard more hurried footsteps outside, so I wasn’t too surprised when my doorway was suddenly crowded.
“Never fear, Blood, we’re finally here!” Juggernaut jumped into my room and locked his legs so he went skidding across the floor, skating past my bed.
“Blood—you’re okay!” Brody stood in the doorway, bracing himself as he sniffed the air.
Grove crouched and poked his head through the space under Brody’s arms. “I brought potions! Extra special ones—very potent with absolutely no poisonous materials mixed in. I wasthatworried for you.” He pushed his way into my room, his leather satchel close to bursting.
Sarge placed his hand on Brody’s muscled shoulder. “Brody, could you go in or get out of the way?”
“Ah—sorry. It just smellsweirdin here.” Brody took a few steps in, then sneezed.
Sarge, followed by Captain Reese, stepped into my room.
“Blood—glad to see you’re awake.” Sarge folded his arms across his chest and nodded awkwardly at me. “You seem… cognitively sound.”
“I’m, I’m,” I stammered under the scrutiny of so many people, so I paused and took a deep breath. “I’m okay. A bit banged up but doing fine.” I shifted in my bed, then remembered I was still holding Considine’s dagger, which was red with Gisila’s blood. “Uh…”
“Gisila was here.” Captain Reese tapped her nose. “That’s what you’re smelling, Brody: dragon shifter.”
I nodded, and Captain Reese eyed my borrowed dagger. “I take it she is also the recipient of a fresh stab wound?”
“Yeah,” I said. “She didn’t hurt me—she didn’t get the chance. Considine Maledictus warned her off.”
Sarge rubbed his forehead. “I’d be surprised by his actions if I hadn’t received a phone call from Killian Drake himself to tell me where you were and what your condition was—which was a good thing. Tetiana was going crazy, as she knew Considine had you but didn’t know where he took you.”
“What happened with Gisila?” Captain Reese asked.
“Ah-ah—no.” Grove shook a finger at our boss’s boss and set his satchel down on my bed with a thump that I felt through the mattress. “Potions first, questions later. We must make sure that weird goth bat didn’t do anything to her.” Grove turned his attention to me, then curled his hands in a fist. “Blood. How many fingers am I holding up?” He shouted at me.
Brody slapped his hands over his ears. “Bro—warn a guy before you use that volume!”
Juggernaut shook his head. “She hurt her head, Grove, not her ears.”
“You can’t know that—she didn’t answer the question.” Grove flipped open the flap of his satchel and started digging around in it.
Captain Reese turned her back to the chaos that was my teammates and studied me. “Are you really okay? You’ve been through a lot tonight. I can clear the room.”
“I’m okay,” I assured her. “I don’t know what happened while I was out of it, but I feel a lot better now than I did after the fight.”
“From what His Eminence says, Considine poured a fortune’s worth of potions on your arm so I imagine that helped you a great deal,” Sarge said.
