“I said no.” I am on my feet before I finish the sentence, my body between Kade and the bed. “I will not have her waking up with the blood of a vampire in her body. She is Bouda, and she is mine. She heals on her own, or I tend to her myself.”
Kade holds my gaze, jaw tight, then rolls her sleeve back down without argument.
“Fine.” She lifts both hands, palms out. “Your mate, your call. But if that cheekbone is fractured, she’s going to be in pain when she wakes up.”
“Then I will manage her pain.”
“With what, your winning personality?” Kade smirks, but she steps back from the bed. The teasing is back, and that is how I know she trusts me to handle it. She only goes quiet when the situation is beyond saving.
I settle back into the chair and crack one of the ice packs, wrapping it in a strip of gauze before pressing it gently against the swollen cheek. She flinches in her sleep, a small sound escaping her lips, and my Bouda loses it. The whine that tears through me is so loud I have to close my eyes through it.
Easy, brother. She is here and breathing, and we will fix this.
Kade watches me work from the foot of the bed, her head tilted. I can feel the question forming before she speaks.
“Do you even know her name?”
My thumb strokes the curve of her jaw, holding the ice pack steady. Her pulse flutters under my palm, quick and warm. I watch her eyes move beneath closed lids, her mouth twitching, her brows pulled tight. She is dreaming, and the dream is not kind to her.
I do not know her name. Where she was born, what makes her laugh, what she eats for breakfast, whether she sings when she thinks nobody is listening. All of it is blank.
But her scent is already burned into me. The sound of her heartbeat, how she sprayed that chemical at a man twice her size and told him no with a gun pressed to her head. Nobody fights like that unless life taught them to. My Bouda wants to tear apart every lesson.
“Not yet.” My voice comes out wrecked. I did not expect that. “I will learn everything about her when she wakes. Every scar and every story behind it.” I adjust the ice pack, and the crease between her brows smooths out. “And then I will spend the rest of mine making certain she never has a reason to run from me again.”
Kade is quiet for a long time. When I glance at her, the grin is gone.
“Alright, Kojo. It looks like we’re going to be traveling in this storm. I’ll grab the truck and be back in an hour.” She points at me. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
When she turns to Aiden, her tone shifts.
“She’s not going to understand why she’s being kept here when she wakes up. Just try to keep her calm and don’t let her leave.” She flicks her gaze to me, then back to Aiden. “Kojo will leave a trail of bodies through this city to keep her close. You understand what I’m saying?”
Aiden swallows hard. “Yeah, I understand.” Then Kade teleports away again, and Aiden coughs and fans away the fading trail of black smoke she leaves behind.
I set the ice pack aside and take her hand. Her fingers are small and cold, nails short, no polish. Working hands. I close my palm around hers and let my heat seep into her skin, watching the color return to her fingertips.
She is going to be furious when she wakes,my Bouda observes. I know. She will scream, curse, try to run again. I know that too.Good. I like her fire, and a queen should have fire.
I press her hand against my chest, right over the place where the bond burns hottest, and I wait.
