He handed her the stone, pointing to a spot with the tip of the little knife. There might be something there. She shifted the stone into the palm of her hand just as he scraped the long edge of the knife against it.
“No!” He hissed the word as the blade slipped from the stone and sliced into the palm of her hand.
Both stone and knife fell to the ground unheeded.
Abby gasped, staring at the spot where the skin splayed open, feeling strangely removed as the crimson of her own blood oozed out and the sting of the wound registered in her brain.
It had all happened in the blink of an eye, and yet it was as if time had come to a stop, the sound of her own heartbeat echoing loudly inside her head as if heralding some momentous occasion.
Thub-Dub.
“No,” he denied on a whisper, clasping her hand between his own as if he could undo the accident.
Jonathan held her hand fast in his, her strength no match for his when she tried to pull away. Murmuring a string of unintelligible apologies, he lifted her palm to his lips.
Thub-Dub.
Shock stiffened her body when his tongue stroked over the wound in her palm an instant before she felt the unmistakable pressure of his sucking against the site. Their gazes locked in the moment and a second shock tingled down her spine, this one tinged with an unreasonable fear, strangely reminiscent of the way she’d felt in the dream she’d had the night before she’d gone to search for Colin.
Thub-Dub. Thub-Dub.
His eyes, usually masked to hide whatever he felt, glittered now. The green of his irises seemed to sparkle with some emotion she couldn’t begin to identify.
Thub-Dub. Thub-Dub. Thub-Dub.
She tore her gaze away, focusing instead on the little gold knife he’d dropped at their feet. She stared first at the silver blade, a streak of her blood covering its edge, and then at the fancy little letters engraved on the handle, as if memorizing the scriptedF.D.A. could somehow transport her away from this moment in time.
“Jesus, what happened? Snakebite?” Mackenzie stooped to retrieve the knife, her shrill voice bringing the ordeal to an end, thankfully releasing Abby from the horrible spell she’d felt herself under.
“No. I’m afraid my penknife slipped as I tried to clear a bit of dirt from a stone I was showing to Abigail.”
Jonathan’s voice shook in a way that left no doubt he was upset by what he’d done, and yet she simply could not bring herself to meet his eyes again. Whatever emotion it was she’d seen there before, she knew only that she didn’t want any part of it.
“Oh, well, for crying out loud. That’s why we don’t use things like this.” Mackenzie closed the blade on the knife and handed it to Jonathan, her irritation evident. “Put that in your pocket and keep it there. And you don’t suck the blood out of knife wounds, okay? Honestly, Jonathan. Do you have any idea how many germs live in the human mouth?”
“Sorry,” he murmured, his eyes glazed. “I didn’t mean to—”
“Look,” Mackenzie interrupted. “I know this is your project, okay? But nothing is running to standard here. I know you’re a researcher, okay? A paper-and-pen and stacks-of-books kind of guy, okay? So please just leave the field work to those of us who know what we’re doing. You should go get yourself a bottle of water from the cooler and rinse your mouth out, too. Gross.” Mackenzie jerked Abby’s hand from Jonathan’s grasp, sparing him a glare before peering down at the cut. “That’s not so bad. You’ll be fine. It doesn’t even need stitches. Come on over to the van. There’s a first aid kit in there and we can wrap you up. After we clean it out.”
Abby nodded mutely, trailing gratefully along behind her bossy younger coworker.
A glance back over her shoulder revealed Jonathan unmoving, as if in shock. She should probably say something to him, tell him she was fine and not upset with him at all.
But she couldn’t bring herself to lie to him, not even to save his feelings. She wasn’t fine. She was rattled as hell. Whatever had just passed between her and Jonathan frightened her.Hefrightened her. All she wanted was to get as far away from him as possible.
Turning back, she fixed her gaze on the young woman marching ahead of her. She might have considered Mackenzie a pain in the ass from the first day they met, but that all changed as of right now. Having Mackenzie within eyesight just might be the smartest thing she could do as long as Jonathan Flynn was around.
Flynn breathed in deeply, slowly, waiting for his equilibrium to return. The Magic had hit him hard, flooding his body with its own sweet tang.
It had all happened so quickly. An accident, to be sure. But then, as the blood had oozed from Abigail’s wound, the Bloodlust had taken hold and he’d been unable to resist touching his tongue to that magnificent nectar. Once he’d done that, he was lost, desperate for more.
It was glorious.Shewas glorious.
He watched Abby walking away from him, unable to tear his gaze from her. To the eye, she was little more than an everywoman, certainly not a classic beauty by the standards of this time. And yet, everything about her called out to him and he wanted her more desperately than he’d wanted any woman in a very long time. He wanted all of her. Her body, her blood, her Magic.
That glorious Magic!It rippled through him like a burst of electricity.
He’d been right about her. The blood of the Fae flowed in her veins, and along with it the pure, sweet essence of his beloved Magic. Even now its power tingled through his body, sparkling in the synapses of his brain like fireworks.
