“Notallof theirblood.
“You have seriously come down here to ask me, first thing in the morning, if I will let ademonI just met drink myblood.”
I shrugged. “At least you’ve had your coffee. So, willyou?”
“Dammit,” hemuttered.
“She’s a nice demon,” I said, giving him a hopeful smile. “She won’t try to kill you oranything.”
He muttered something too low for me tohear.
“What’s that?” Iasked.
“How much blood?” he said, but only a tad louder. “How much blood would she need to drink in order toheal?”
Ding, ding, ding! That was when I knew I had him. Of course, now I would have to convince Lilith to put aside her attraction, or embarrassment, or whatever it was, and actually drink from theguy.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “Probably not a lot. I know Lilith would never drink so much that it would harm someone. You seem to be a good judge of character. I’m sure you can see the samething.”
He let out a heavy sigh, tipped some more instant coffee beans into his mug, and splashed some cold water on top. “Alright. This is going to require anotherespresso.”
* * *
Despite the factthat they probably wanted some privacy, we all gathered in the living room to watch Lilith drink Rourke’s blood. And by all, I do meanall. His entire crew—all six of them—hovered in the living room with skeptical looks on their faces. The fallen angels didn’t look much different. Only Lizzie looked kind of excited about the wholething.
“Erela,” Lilith said through clenched teeth. “Why is Rourke going on about blood sharing? I thought I made it clear that I would not be drinking any of this human’sblood.”
I gave her a sheepish smile. “I know, but I didn’t actually ask him or anything. He came to the conclusion all by himself. He wouldn’t be standing here if he didn’t want tohelp.”
I was kind of bending the truth, but only a little. Rourke had figured out what I wanted to ask him before I’d had a chance to voice the words. And hedidwant to help. Maybe if Lilith thought this was something he really did want to do, then she’d be okay withit.
“Rourke, I’m sorry,” she said, twisting away from me. “My friend here means well, but she’s gotten the wrong end of the stick. I don’t want to drink fromyou.”
“Don’t you need some blood to heal? Won’t the angels have a better chance of succeeding if you go with them to get thatamulet?”
“Yes,but—”
“Butwhat?”
“Well.” Suddenly, Lilith looked very flustered, something I’d never seen from her before. “Truth is, Rourke, I just...well, I don’t just go around drinking fromanyone. I guess I’m just picky about it. We’ve only justmet.”
He nodded and clenched his jaw. “I see. You don’t want to drink fromme. Maybe one of the other guys here will suityou.”
“Sure, I’ll do it,” one of his crew members said, raising his hand with a shy smile. “I mean, it could be kind of fun,right?”
Lilith sniffed and turned away. Rourke clenched hisjaw.
“Oh, for goodness sake,” I said, throwing my hands into the air. “Everyone out. Rourke, go over to Lilith. Lilith, stop being shy and drink from this nice man. We have a damn amulet tofind.”
* * *
Strangely,everyone listened to me, though I didn’t stick around to see what Lilith and Rourke would get up to when no one was around to watch them. I figured it was best if they didn’t have an audience, despite my curiosity. The blood sharing seemed kind of personal to Lilith and maybe even sexual? Like I said, they needed some one-on-one alonetime.
While we all—minus the human crew members who sauntered back to their rooms—stood out in the hallway, waiting for the results, I felt Az’s eyes on me. I turned and met his gaze. His dark eyes were hot, burning me up from the inside out. I swallowed hard and shifted on my feet, my core tightening, despite the fact that I could also feel Sam watching the both ofus.
“Have I done something to annoy you, Az? You won’t stop glaring atme.”
“This gaze is not a glare, darling,” he said in a long drawl before shooting me awink.
