From Beyond the Darkening © 2008 by Kerry Allen
Chapter Seven
”We have company.”
Nate’s low-pitched words against her ear pierced through layers of sleep and brought her to instant alert. No threat of imminent attack presented itself to her, but she trusted the guy who could hear a heart beating a quarter mile away.
He eased off the bed and picked up the gun. “Take the keys to the van. The first chance you get, run.”
She retrieved the shirt from the floor and jabbed her arms into the sleeves. A blind vampire armed with a gun he couldn’t aim didn’t stand much of a chance against a mob of genocidal zealots. “I’m not leaving you again.”
A key grated in the lock. The knob turned.
”Fine, then. Take off the shirt and draw their attention.”
Her fingers stalled over the buttons. “Are you serious?”
”If I could see, I know where I’d look.”
The door swung open. He raised the gun.
The man filling the frame held up his hands. “I come in peace.”
Nate pointed the gun toward the floor. “Dammit, Leo, don’t you know how to knock?”
”I should learn. I’m tired of seeing you naked, although I will give you credit for some improvement in the company you keep.” He turned his attention toward her. “A pleasure to see you again, Amanda.”
She edged closer to Nate. The civil tone conflicted with the venom in his gaze. Leo Hilliard lived by the directive, and that look promised she would pay for violating it.
Oblivious to his brother’s silent rage, Nate laid the gun on the bedside table and reclaimed his jeans from the floor. “How did you find us?”
Leo’s eyes shifted toward the gun. “The SPH in this region is in an uproar. A call from Daniel Tessler led me to believe you two were the probable cause of that uproar.”
Her breath caught. Dan would have realized much sooner than she had that he’d been thrust into harm’s way by the contact. Preserving his own safety would have been his priority. He would have been miles from home before he stopped to notify Leo—she hoped. “Is Dan okay?”
”He’s safe for now, if not particularly happy.”
That grim, unenlightening report in no way reassured her about her brother’s circumstances.
”Since you kids have never been subtle in your escapades, your trail wasn’t hard to find. Fortunately for you, the SPH gives you more credit for being clever. They’re looking in less-public hiding places.”
Nate zipped his fly. “Confounding the enemy with illogic is its own brand of genius.”
”Your genius hasn’t bought us an infinite amount of time. Let’s go. You can spend some quality time with a doctor while Amanda is debriefed.”
To her ear, Leo’s tone remained bland, even bored. Nate heard something that prompted him to grab the gun and step in front of her. “I won’t let you hurt her.”
Leo bared his fangs. His disciplined facade was intimidating, but watching him lose control of it turned her knees to pudding. “She has exposed an operation it took thirty years to put in place. Her inability to follow orders has jeopardized every operative in the field.”
”Nothing you do to her is going to change that. Bend a rule for once in your life!”
The expressionless mask dropped back into place. “What are you going to do, little brother, shoot me?”
”You voted to leave me to die, so spare me the brotherly love crap.”
Leo stepped forward. “Nothing personal.”
”Nothing ever is with you, which makes it a lot easier for me to choose. She’s mine, so she’s off limits.”
Leo took another step. One more like it and he’d be close enough to snatch the gun from Nate’s hand. He’d also be an unmissable target at point-blank range. “Domestics are immune from being snacked on, not from being sentenced for endangering our entire race.”
”I’ve never taken her blood.”
The declaration stung Amanda. Leo sneered. “Bullshit. Even if you found someone else to feed from for the last forty-eight hours, when you screwed her, you had to—”
”Never.” Nate’s voice carried a note of menace she’d never heard from him and never wanted directed at her. The intimidation gene hadn’t skipped him, after all. “Mine. Off limits.”
Leo subjected her to another stare that conveyed the intent of invisible hands squeezing her throat. “I’m finished with her, then. Keep her out from under my feet this time so I’m not tempted to crush her.”
She didn’t believe for a second he would let her off that easily, but Nate visibly relaxed, the aggressive set of his shoulders loosening. “Trust me, I’ll be keeping her as far away from you as possible.”
Leo kept an eye on the gun, still in Nate’s hand but no longer trained on him. “At least you’re not sticking it in your pants like gang banger and future eunuch. Was it necessary to point that toy at my head?”
”I’d be happy to wound you, but I’m in no condition for precision shooting.” Nate plucked at the scarf covering his ruined eyes.
”Is that what that’s for? Here I thought you were indulging your gay pirate kink.”
”My hearing is still good, so I was aiming at your mouth, a target so huge, I couldn’t miss it at a hundred yards with a slingshot.”
”I’ve seen you shoot. You couldn’t hit this building at a hundred inches with a cannon.”
”My cannon is reserved for prettier targets.”
Her gaze bounced from one to the other as they traded insults, volleying back and forth as if it came naturally to them. She expected this sort of behavior from Nate, but Leo had never displayed any outward evidence he possessed a sense of humor—and still didn’t, his familiar stoicism firmly in place even as he took a cheap shot at his brother’s manhood. “With a cannon that small, you must have to tell the target when you’ve hit her.”
Her instinct to call him had been right. He did care, even if he had a twisted way of expressing it. He wouldn’t have let them kill Nate. His responsibilities didn’t permit him to charge in with guns blazing, so he relied on his operative in the facility to make the extraction. He’d told her to do nothing, knowing she wouldn’t obey that order.
If she’d done exactly what he wanted, threatening her with retribution was all for show, but for what purpose?
He had every right to be furious. Because her cover had been blown, the SPH would be examining all its members under a microscope. Other operatives might be exposed, tortured, executed. Any who survived would have to tread lightly to avoid renewing suspicion. The flow of inside information would cease, perhaps for years. Someone would have to pay the consequences for failure of the mission.
If not her, the handler responsible for her. “Oh, Leo…”
”Shut up. I said I’m through with you.” He didn’t so much as glance at her. “If you don’t want that to be your homecoming outfit, I suggest you put some clothes on.”
She didn’t know what to say to him, and he didn’t want to hear it anyway. She retreated to the bathroom, collecting her underthings on the way. She used the toilet, splashed some water on her face, and rinsed out her mouth before squeezing back into the dress. Broken elastic threads poked out of the cheap fabric, ensuring it no longer adhered to her like sausage casing. The horizontal expansion came at the expense of lengthwise contraction, however. She tied the sleeves of the flannel shirt around her waist, knotting it at the side to achieve a semblance of coverage for her lower half.
She pulled Nate’s shirt from the shower rod, still damp and stained but no longer crusted with blood, and rejoined the men. “This is as good as it gets,” she responded to Leo’s double take. “You can criticize my fashion choices on the move.”
”I’ll leave that task to someone better qualified.” He reached for the doorknob. “Keep an eye on Fumbelina and let me deal with everything else. Clear?”
”Yes, sir.” She grabbed Nate by the hand and hooked her arm around Leo’s.
His body went rigid. “I need that arm free.”
A few minutes earlier, she wouldn’t have had the nerve to touch him. If by some accident she had, his chilly remark would have inspired her to release him and scuttle away, squeaking an apology.
She tightened her grip. “You’re a lefty. When that arm’s broken, you can have this one back. Until then, we’re sticking together. Clear?”
He glowered at the door and released a measured breath. “Any chance you’ll get sick of her in the next five seconds and agree to leave her behind?”
”None at all.” Nate squeezed her hand. “His reputation as an unfeeling bastard is in shreds. Let the man have his dignity.”
”What the Hilliard dignity does best is drive people apart.” They had all fallen victim to its divisive power in one way or another. “We’re going to try unity instead, whether he likes it or not.”
~~~~~
”If there’s not a doctor in this room in thirty seconds, I’m going home.”
Amanda elected not to remind Nate he could have gotten immediate attention if he hadn’t refused to be admitted. He’d made his feelings about having his clothes taken and being tagged with a wrist band abundantly—violently—clear upon their arrival at the hospital over an hour ago.
If making him wait was a delaying tactic to give him time to calm down before sending in a doctor, it had backfired.
”You have to get through me first.” Leo stood sentry near the door. “I’ve done worse than sucker punch a blind man, so I suggest you stay put.”
Nate stalked the far side of the room. The pacing hadn’t discharged his agitation. If anything, his tension grew with every step. “I hate this smell. Stainless steel, vinyl, and antiseptic. Can’t they pump air freshener through the vents to cover it up?”
Vampires abhorred artificial fragrances, which impaired a sense that collected much of the data on which their survival depended. Requesting a shot of Glade signaled his distress as clearly as a scream.
”Quit your whining. You can survive it for an hour or two.”
”He’s been breathing it for two weeks. It will stir up bad memories for the rest of his life.” She stepped into Nate’s path before he started climbing the walls.
He caught her in a rib-bruising hug and buried his nose in her hair. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to laugh this off,” he whispered, his voice hoarse.
His racing heart and labored breaths against her ear suggested a panic attack in the making. She rubbed his back in long, soothing strokes. The unsympathetic guard at the door deterred her from agreeing to skip the checkup in favor of taking him somewhere he could feel safe. “You’ve been through hell. You’re not meant to make light of it, or forget.”
Ever the strategist, Leo said, “Surviving makes you smarter, stronger. Use it.”
A harsh laugh escaped Nate. “I’m done fighting the good fight, and so is Amanda.”
”You say that as if I’d want either of you after this farce.”
”You said it yourself. We’re smarter and stronger, more valuable resources.”
”Some resources, a sightless vampire with PTSD and a poorly dressed human who can’t follow orders. Valuable? You’re absolutely priceless.”
She wasn’t eager to have Nate sent back to the front lines, but she wouldn’t tolerate his family’s favorite pastime of making him feel useless. “Leave him alone, Leo.”
”Little brother’s insistence to the contrary, I’d like nothing more than to be rid of both of you.”
Nate’s muscles knotted under her hands. “None of us would be here now if you hadn’t recruited her in the first place. How could you? You knew what they’d do to her if she got caught.”
”She was the best person for the job. She never would have gotten caught if someone with an axe to grind hadn’t fingered her as a spy.”
She appreciated the vote of confidence, even if she didn’t follow his explanation for her downfall. “I’d swear on my life my cover was perfect until Nate showed up at the lab, and nobody cared enough about me to get so angry they’d invent a story that would get me killed.”
”It had nothing to do with you, other than being in the right place at the right time to be used as the weapon of Vivian Cole’s vengeance.”
Nate cursed under his breath. “That’s the blank I couldn’t fill in myself.”
She rifled through a mental file, trying to put a face to the vaguely familiar name. It snapped into focus, that of a beauty queen several decades past her prime and bitter about it. She’d given her little more than a perfunctory greeting when a VIP tour traipsed through her lab about a month ago. “Spencer’s aunt?”
Leo acknowledged her deduction with a nod. “I only recently learned her pedigree myself. As a rebellious teenager, Vivian delivered a slap in the face to her uptight, vampire-staking family by running off to become our father’s domestic.”
Nate had never been willing to discuss that subject in detail, so she hadn’t recognized the name when she heard it. Her welcome at the Hilliard home never extended beyond the doormat, so she’d never gotten a glimpse of the human who acted like she owned the place.
Apparently the woman had glimpsed her. “Why is she hanging out at an SPH facility, or anywhere outside the community, for that matter? Isn’t keeping your mouth shut about vampire business part and parcel of the domestic arrangement?”
”Father disappeared months ago. Mother decided to presume him dead and evicted her unwanted tenant with nothing but the clothes on her back. Since one party disregarded the terms of the agreement, the other felt no need to uphold her end of it.”
Nate had been lured, captured, bled dry, and tortured as a result of… a fit of feminine pique? She released him before her claws tore through his shirt and claimed her own corner of the room to stalk. “Any particular reason she chose him to go after?”
He answered himself. “You fillet whichever fish takes the bait you drop in the water.”
Something that might have been pain flitted across Leo’s face, vanishing before it had a chance to take root. “I told you to stay here. I told you I’d take care of her.”
Nate sat on the examination table, clearing a longer stretch of floor for her to pace. “Knowing you were handling it would have been good enough if you were talking about anyone else. She’s too important to entrust her welfare to anyone, even you. I had to be there.”
”I forgot what it’s like. I’m sorry.”
She never thought she’d see the day when Leo apologized for anything. Misjudging Nate’s personal interest in protecting a girl he’d dumped six years before seemed a paltry wrongdoing to regret. He had less to feel guilty about than the others who had played a part.
Their father, a tyrant except when it came to controlling the hostilities in his own home.
Their mother, who wouldn’t forsake tradition for her son’s happiness but cast it to the wind for her own benefit and nearly got him killed.
The selfish woman who sold out a boy who had grown up within feet of her because she’d been cheated out of a lavish lifestyle she’d bought with her blood.
He would never hear an expression of remorse from any of them. If she gave in to her urge to hunt each of them down and make them scream using pliers in ways not recommended by the manufacturer, all she would accomplish would be her transformation into one of them. Nothing would erase they’d done to Nate. The SPH would carry on with business as usual, getting away with its atrocities while their victims were lucky to get away with their lives. All their sacrifice and suffering was meaningless, accomplished nothing…
On her next pass in front of Nate, he caught a handful of her shirt and pulled her against his chest. “Let it go.”
A scream of frustration built in her throat. “The monsters are winning, and you expect me to let it go?”
”Not for long, because you’re too good-hearted to laze around with me while the rest of the world goes to hell.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “But put off righting the world’s wrongs for a day or two so I can enjoy the only thing I give a damn about.”
Her fists bunched against his thighs. A second later, they flattened out, her fingers acting on her need to confirm he was warm, real. Alive. She couldn’t pretend the rest didn’t matter, but it didn’t matter as much as having his arms around her. “All right, saving the world is postponed until further notice.”
The door opened, admitting a burst of chatter from the hall along with a man wearing several days’ growth of beard and lumberjack attire covered by a white lab coat. “Sorry for the delay. I was told Leo brought in a psychopath and a cheap hooker, which sounded like a party I was in a big hurry to miss.”
She quickly recovered from her shock. “Danny!”
He endured her hug and gave her a brief squeeze in return before holding her at arms’ length and subjecting her to a critical once-over. “What kind of undercover work have you been doing, exactly?”
”Don’t be such a square. This is what all the kids are wearing.”
”All the kids standing on street corners at 3 a.m.” He gave her the lab coat to wear and directed his attention to Nate. “Well, aren’t you pretty. For future reference, missing your beauty sleep is no excuse for throwing a clipboard at a nurse.”
A dull flush suffused Nate’s cheeks. “I apologized for that.”
”And I suggested she not give the next patient wearing a blindfold a stack of insurance forms to fill out, which went over about as well as your apology.” Dan crossed to the sink to wash his hands. “Are the stitches another fashion statement I’m too out of touch to appreciate?”
A vampire’s wounds ordinarily sealed up on their own in less time than it took to remove suture supplies from the packaging. Amanda recounted the drugs she’d administered, leaving the real doctor in the family to infer the side effects.
”Did you know before you poisoned him how much damage you were doing?”
”It had to be done,” Nate said before the weight of her guilt drove her through the floor. “I would have killed her if she hadn’t given me a jumpstart, and I wouldn’t have gotten far without her. Get off her case, Doctor Dan.”
”Sure thing. I’ll jump on yours instead. Lose the blindfold.” He lifted the ophthalmoscope from its holder on the wall and pried open Nate’s left lid with his thumb. He aimed the beam of light at various angles before offering his assessment. “Corneal scarring. Huge coloboma of the retina. Atrophy of the optic disk. This can’t be salvaged.”
”You could pop it out and see what grows back,” Leo suggested.
”Ordinarily I would, but not with the blood thinner in effect and his immune system out of whack. If he rejects the new eye like a foreign body, he’ll end up with a raging infection that could spread to his brain and result in his gruesome death. But it’s up to you, Nate.”
”Pass, thanks.”
”Excellent choice. How do you like being blind? I mean, other than slicing your face open while shaving.”
”To tell you the truth, Doc, I like the attention, but it would be nice to be able to see your sister, if only so I’ll know when to duck when she takes a swing at me.”
”Then I’m going to pause for a second to pray the other one isn’t material for one of the my-patient’s-more-fucked-up-than-yours stories doctors tell around the water cooler.”
Her stomach dipped when Dan bowed his head and covered his eyes with one hand. He once told her he’d burn in hell before he prayed to God because if such a being existed, it got a sadistic kick from trashing lives and leaving the mess for lesser beings to clean up. The sole purpose of the breather was to buy him a few seconds to steady himself for the mess he expected to find.
His obvious dread made it no easier for her to put the ordeal behind her and not look back. “Why did they take his eyes?”
Dan cast a furtive look at Leo, who took a sudden interest in a water stain on the ceiling. Nate ducked his chin, as if she’d forget he couldn’t see the shoes he appeared to be studying. None of them was forthcoming with the answer all of them clearly knew. “Come on. I was right in the middle of it for six years, and I’m the only one in this room without a clue?”
”There was no point giving you information that would make it harder for you to go to work in the morning,” Leo told the ceiling.
She lacked the creativity to imagine anything that would rattle her more than a standing order to maim and kill whoever she had to in order to fit in with her coworkers. “Dan, what are they doing with the eyes?”
He tapped the scope against his knee. “They’re playing Doctor Frankenstein out in Nevada, trying to build a better human through genetic grafting and integration of superior parts farmed from nonhumans.”
His certainty suggested he’d given that succinct reply many times before, but his explanation made no sense. “They’re pursuing their agenda of preserving humanity by making it less human?”
Dan shrugged off the contradiction. “Look what we do to wolves, sharks, any creature higher on the food chain with the gall to attack us. There are some species we can’t hunt to extinction because they’ll retaliate, and they’re better designed for the hunt than we are, stronger, faster, keener senses, and the reasoning to apply their advantages. The only way for humans to claim the top rung is to build a better hunter.”
The scientists involved probably weren’t losing a lot of sleep over the ethical dilemma of genetic tampering, considering their method of acquiring the organ upgrades, but they should have seen the huge, glaring flaw in the plan. “But the hunter is on the top rung then.”
Leo tsked. “Silly girl. Everyone knows pets never attack their masters.”
Except in countless books and movies and twice a week on the news with enough leftovers to make a long-running TV series. The world would be a safer place if academic types watched a little cable once in a while. “Tell me they’re not having any success developing this thing.”
Her request met with deafening silence.
They were building—or had already built—a monster, an apex predator that threatened everyone on the planet. She couldn’t do nothing while the thing went on a rampage. “Put me to work, Leo. I’m too conspicuous in the field now, but I’ll file and answer phones if that will free up someone else to get out there and do something to stop them.”
”No. I don’t trust you.”
Nate snorted. “You don’t trust anyone. It’s never stopped you from using them.”
Leo glared at him. “Her place is taking care of you.”
”In a couple weeks, he won’t need taking care of, at least not in any way that’ll take up much of her time.”
Leo shifted the glare to someone with the sight necessary to fully appreciate it. “You want your sister at ground zero in this war?”
”No, but since there’s no stopping her from being involved, I’d rather she was involved in something organized by you. The mortality rate in your unit inspires more confidence in your leadership than anyone else’s.”
”Nice one,” Nate said in a stage whisper. “Appealing to his ego always works.”
”Not always, but having a valid point improves the odds. Now that your problem doesn’t seem like the end of the world after all, let me take a look at it.” Dan examined Nate’s right eye with the same care as the left. “Better than I expected. Cornea’s clean. Pupil’s reactive to light. Can’t do a retinal exam, since it shrank to a pinprick. How’s the vision?”
She pinched her lip, waiting for the verdict.
Nate blinked a couple of times before turning his gaze her way. In contrast to his bruised lids, the green of his eyes appeared as intense as emeralds. “I see… spots.”
She checked to verify she’d left the lab coat unbuttoned. “I hope you’re referring to the genuine faux leopard print plastered across my chest.”
”As long as your brother’s wielding that migraine-inducing laser beam, let’s say I was admiring your freckles.”
”Good call.” Dan returned the scope to its holder.
”But I don’t have freckles.”
He ignored her. “The fluid level usually stabilizes in a day or two, which will relieve some of the pressure and clear up any residual blurriness. You’ll be a lot happier if you avoid anything brighter than candlelight for a couple weeks.”
”How romantic.” A grin spread across Nate’s face as he continued to watch her. “Damn, you look trashy.”
”Perfect time to take her home to mama.”
Her teeth grated against each other at Leo’s mention of the woman. “Giving her a stroke isn’t the way I wanted to get her off Nate’s back about his domestic situation.”
Dan washed his hands again. “She’ll outlive Nate, and now I have to agree with her. Any one of those drugs would have destroyed his liver. He can’t filter out street funk on his own anymore. He’ll need a clean, reliable blood source.”
”Maybe she really has been in cahoots with Mother all this time, in a more elaborate setup than anyone could have predicted. Looks like they’ll force a domestic on you yet.”
Nate shot his brother a withering look. “No wife of mine will have to share her home with another woman.”
She assumed he referred to the little woman in his future. He couldn’t be so adamant about protecting an existing wife from an uncomfortable living arrangement but not give her a second thought while rolling around in bed with another woman.
The fact that he was thinking about her at all just a few hours after they’d kissed and made up smarted a little bit—okay, a lot—but she might as well get used to the eventuality. “I’ll feed you. No contract, no allowance, and you don’t have to keep me in the guest suite.”
”I’ll drink bagged.”
She had quietly endured rejection for the last time. “You want to explain to me why my blood isn’t good enough for you?”
”I’m sure it’s exquisite, but I’m of the unpopular opinion that after you’re weaned from mother’s blood, you never use a loved one as food.”
A lovely sentiment, except it wasn’t in keeping with the fundamental makeup of a predator, which—American Express card and college education notwithstanding—he would always be. “When you have an available, willing food source, you don’t take on the risks of hunting.”
Leo cocked a brow. “She understands your nature better than you do.”
”We’re not animals. We can choose to overcome our nature.”
”Suit yourself. I have no intention of going hungry when I’m surrounded by sacred cows.” Leo jerked the door open and departed, his tolerance for unity exhausted.
”Hard to believe he’s still single, isn’t it?” Dan also headed for the exit. “I have another patient to check on. Before I get back, resign yourself to the idea of giving me a blood sample. If you give me a hard time, I’ll let the nurses take it, and they have ways of hurting you.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. Alone at last, and all she wanted to do was shake some sense into him. “You think it’s healthier for our relationship if you starve rather than feed from me.”
”I made up my mind twenty years ago. If you stay with me, it won’t be because I need you.”
She threw up her hands. “I don’t mind being needed!”
His hand shot out and pulled her to him with speed that left her breathless. He hadn’t seemed much impaired during the past couple of days, but now she realized how slowly he’d been moving—closer to a human pace—without the sureness of sight. With even partial restoration, he would be more adept at… everything.
His hands slipped under the lab coat and brought her further into the V formed by his legs. His lips hovered an inch from hers. “Wouldn’t you rather be loved?”
That proposition caused an ache in her chest. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted, but I think your wife would object to that more strenuously than a live-in donor.”
”I don’t know why you’d mind.” He shook his head when the most articulate response she could muster was an owlish blink. “Of course I mean you. Who do you think I’d rather spend the rest of my life with than the woman responsible for saving it?”
”Pretty much anybody, unless I gave you brain damage along with the bad eye and broken liver.” She took his face in her hands. She’d gladly give him anything, if he would quit being so stubborn. “I don’t want you have a diet of sterilized, plastic-flavored blood for the rest of your life.”
”I never want to wonder if you’re with me out of obligation because the parasite will die without its host, and I don’t want you to ever have the opportunity to wonder if you’re nothing more to me than food. We’ll avoid a lot of wondering on both counts if your blood remains yours.” He tightened his grip on her hips. “I’m being heartfelt here. What’s so funny?”
His stern mouth implied outrage, but his eyes sparkled in anticipation of sharing the joke. “I was thinking about the division of assets in the prenup your mother will insist on to safeguard the family fortune. In your column, an obscene amount of money, stocks, and real estate. In mine, twelve pints of O-positive. That’s the sum of my worldly possessions after I burn these clothes.”
”No way. I like this dress.” His fingers scaled her thigh until he found the hem. “In fact, I’m certain it will play a crucial role in my rehabilitation.”
”It’s all yours. You couldn’t look any more ridiculous in it than I do.”
His hand curled around the back of her thigh, hot and possessive. “I’m not laughing about the way you look. You’re even more beautiful than I remember. I want to stare at you for hours, until I’m over this gut-wrenching reaction to the sight of you.”
If he kept that for a few decades, she wouldn’t complain. “What else do you want?”
”I want my best friend back to batter my ego and make me laugh about it. I want to see if you got my name lasered off or if you kept that reminder of me with you this whole time. I want to wake up with you in my arms. I want you to stay with me, and I want the whole official production so no one mistakes you for a meal ever again.”
It came as no surprise her spoiled vampire had a whole list of demands. “Is that all?”
”No, but it’ll get you started. I’m going to be one of those high-maintenance husbands.”
”Good idea to acclimate me gradually. I’m particularly looking forward to brutalizing your ego.” She picked up the discarded blindfold. “Time to take you home.”
”Don’t I need to be poked and prodded some more?”
”I’m sure Dan will make a house call for his future brother-in-law. In the meantime, I have the lab coat. We can play doctor. I’ll test your visual acuity by making you look for my tattoo.”
His gaze dropped to her navel. “On your… back, wasn’t it?”
”You could start the search there.” She’d prefer it if he did. She looked forward to a thorough inspection of every inch of unmarked skin while he worked his way around to the ink.
It had been a stupid thing to do, scarring herself with a boy’s name at fifteen, but at the time, she’d known they would be together forever. Every time she considered having the reminder removed, it triggered memories of Nate agreeing to that silly panda on his arm, holding her hand when her turn came and it turned out to hurt a lot more than he’d let on, begging her parents later not to send her away, staging a prison break from her boarding school when they did, and so many more. The majority of her good memories involved him. She couldn’t bring herself to erase part of their history because he also starred in the worst.
Now they had a second chance. Despite a rocky start and the obstacles looming in their immediate future—facing his mother foremost among them—their bond was strong enough to hold them together this time.
And if he tried to wiggle out of it again, she’d wrestle him to the ground and sit on him until they cleared up any misunderstandings. She refused to lose another six years with him—or six minutes, for that matter—while she nursed hurt feelings.
She covered his eyes with the scarf.
”I don’t really need that.”
He didn’t resist, though, when she tied the ends behind his head and smoothed a lock of hair that stuck out at an odd angle. “I know.”
”Am I so grotesque you have to conceal half my face?”
He was gorgeous—Clipboard Nurse hadn’t made such a pest of herself because she had a burning interest in his insurance coverage—but he had asked for an ego beating. “I have a pretty strong stomach.”
”Ouch.” He’d worn the exact same smile when he objected to being pinned to the mattress. “So what’s the blindfold for?”
She led him to the door, where she stood on tiptoe to whisper in his ear, “It heightens the anticipation.”
.
From Beyond the Darkening © 2008 by Kerry Allen
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