He could actually feel Phoebe rolling her eyes against his chest. “So where were you heading just now?”
She pulled back to glare up at him. “You’re not really going to lecture me, too, are you?”
“Of course I am.”
“Don’t make me rack you. I’m a lot closer to your balls right now, buddy.”
“Well, if that’s what it takes to get you to touch them …”
She gaped at him. “You did not just go there while we’re arguing.”
“I’m a man. Of course I went there. And it’s not my fault, anyway. You’re the one who brought my balls into it first.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I did, didn’t I?”
“Yeah.” His voice dropped an octave. Not that it was his fault. Unlike him, she could eat real food and take transfusions for her blood cravings.
Since they’d started seeing each other, he’d stopped feeding from anyone other than Phoebe. And since he couldn’t see her every day, it meant that when he did get to see her, he was starving.
Like now.
Phoebe bit her lip. “I have bad news, by the way.”
“What?”
“I have to share a room with my sister in the new apartment. It’s tiny.”
That was bad news.
“But …” She jerked her chin down the street in the direction she’d been headed. “I found a hotel nearby.”
“So you did have a destination.”
“Of course. I’m notcompletelystupid. I am a Peters, you know? Armed with a credit card and ready to charge like a demon.” She winked. “Checked in earlier today.” She pulled the key out of her pocket and handed it to him. “Room 1452.”
“All right. I still worry about you.”
“Good, ’cause I worry about you.”
When he went to drape his arm around her shoulders, she gasped. “Is that blood?”
Too late, Urian realized he’d left a little Dark-Hunter DNA on his sleeve. “Um … maybe.”
“Yours?”
He started to lie, but she was the one person he didn’t want to lie to. “No.”
Her eyes flared with fury. “Who was she? Huh?” She shoved him back.
Now there was a place he hadn’t expected her mind to go. Stunned, he gaped at her accusation that reminded him a lot of one of Xanthia’s irrational rants. “She was a he, and he tried to kill me on my way over.” He pulled the ID out of his pocket to show it to her. Now he was twice as grateful he’d gone to the trouble of getting it. “A huge Dark-Hunter bastard.”
“Was he really six foot nine? Three hundred pounds?”
“Sounds about right. Though that was muscle weight. He had arms like tree trunks.”
“He could have crushed you!”
“Trust me, I know. I had a brother about his size. Ophie used to sit on me for hours just to piss me off when we were kids. Him and Archie both would take turns slinging me around the yard like a rag doll.”
