Page 23

“Is it spreading?”

He looked down at his hand. “Slowly.”

I wished I knew what to do. I could ask questions, but that was about it. I didn’t have any answers. No medicine to give him, no therapies to recommend. And the two other women, who clearly knew more about aliens than me, didn’t have a solution either. Except for the blood-drinking thing that I tried not to think about.

Pam had disappeared into the kitchen and was talking on the phone, attempting to arrange dinner for four humans and two very large aliens. Joseph was unloading our luggage while Cairn had gone outside to help him. That left Georgie sitting beside the fire and watching me examine her mate’s best friend.

Apparently, this was a perfectly normal weekend for her. Maybe I’d be the same once I’d spent some more time around aliens.

Wait, was I already accepting this as my new normality? This was all a little too crazy – and I’d worked in A&E for years where you saw the most ridiculous, absurd, mind-blowing things.

I crouched beside Sten and held my hand above his without touching him. “May I?”

He nodded.

I took his hand between mine. His fingers were colder than before, and the skin felt harder. Warmth gradually returned beneath my palms, but not as quickly as it had at the castle.

“His body will be exhausted,” Georgie said. “Cairn kept turning back to stone whenever he was tired or injured. Being close to me helped, but sometimes it wasn’t enough.”

“And that’s when you tried the blood?”

“Yes.”

Sten pulled his hand from mine. “We are not doing that.”

“I haven’t offered.”

Although I was close. Both because I wanted to help him and because I was intrigued. I’d written way too many vampire novels in my time. I’d swooned over Edward, Eric, Selene, Lestat and many others.

“Good.”

I stood and looked at the bandage around his wing. It had shifted during the drive, but adjusting it could wait until I’d changed out of my wet clothes.

“I need a shower.”

Sten’s attention sharpened. “How far away?”

“The bathroom is through there.” I pointed towards the bedroom at the other side of the room.

“That is too far.”

“We don’t know that.”

He growled softly. “I know.”

I took a few steps towards the bedroom. Sten’s eyes followed me, but his head didn’t move. When I changed direction, his gaze shifted before I did as if he knew where I was going.

I stopped. “Can you always tell where I am?”

“Yes.”

“Even when you can’t see me?”

“The connection moves with you.”

That was both fascinating and deeply unsettling.

“Can you tell what I’m thinking?”