Page 121 of Reaper’s Curse

In a moment. In a moment, I’ll curb her actions.

More recently, my rushed attention to less important details had me leaving my shirt only half buttoned. My need to cover my ever-shifting tattoo no longer governed my actions. Today was no exception. Something I was utterly grateful for as Raven’s fingers skimmed from my shirt to my skin and slid beneath the fabric. Her hand stopped over my heart and pressed, palm flat, against my sternum.

My heart beat a frenzied rhythm, and I sucked back a sharp breath. Not because her hand was cold, although it was, but for the sheer closeness of her. The contact.

“I just needed to make sure this is real,” she murmured. “That you are real, and I’m not hallucinating.”

“I’m real.” My voice snagged on the dryness in my throat, and I swallowed hard.

The memory of our kiss in the street crashed to the forefront of my mind. The heat and feel of her beneath my skin. The way my body responded to her. The mere thought of her.

In general, I didn’t like to be touched. Unless I was the one initiating contact. But with her, things were different. Not only did I not mind, I craved more.

I blinked my thoughts clear. Here and now were not the place and time for such thoughts to be entertained.

“I healed him, Chace,” she whispered, her voice small, her hand retreating.

Gods, I didn’t want her hand to retreat, but to remain forever touching me.

“For once, I gave life instead of taking it.”

A reaper, giving life. Such an unexpected turn of events. But Raven had given life to another before Earl. I now saw her in a way I had not seen her before. Definitely not before we’d set out on this reaping venture. Her beautiful soul wanted to give to the extent that she forsook self-preservation.

I leaned in and brushed my lips against her temple, and her eyes fluttered shut.

I’d always known her to be alluring, breathtakingly gorgeous. Why hadn’t I realized before now how extraordinarily beautiful her soul was?

I closed my eyes for a breath, then gazed at her once more. Truth was, I’d always seen her beauty, inside and out. But because of family influences, I’d refused to acknowledge her true desirability, to allow it to sway my actions. And now I could see I’d clearly underestimated the depths of her beauty…on all levels.

I dabbed the wet cloth to her brow, then the line of her neck, sweeping away the glisten of perspiration. My focus temporarily fixated on the steady pulse along her carotid artery.

What if the child healer can’t help her? What if she tries to heal another and the toll upon her body is even worse? What if…

I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead, shifted, and placed another at the bridge of her nose.

“Black Bird…” I whispered.

Her hand fit perfectly to the curve of my cheek. “It wasn’t so bad,” she said. “All I needed to do was bleed.”

A breath hissed between my teeth, and I jerked my body away to better gaze upon her.

“Raven. No.” I cupped the sides of her face. “You can’t give them your blood. If you do, they’ll keep taking and taking until there’s nothing of you left.”

“But I⁠—”

“Please, Raven.” I crushed her to me, my arms tight around her frail body, and pressed her cheek to mine. “Black Bird.”

Closing my eyes, I inhaled her scent, memorizing it, and holding it close to my soul. Everything about her personal perfume called to me. Even now when she was battered and torn.

“Promise me you won’t give them any more of your blood.”

“But—”

“Two healings are enough.” I spared the first woman Raven had healed a flicker of a thought and shook my head.

“Eight. Nine if you count Winter. But I think…” She heaved a breath. “I think he was somehow different.”

I jolted, then shuddered. “What?”