When he returned to the living area with a can of high-test Coke, Ryan had muted the TV and switched his focus to Dane.
“For a doctor, you’re pretty damn bloodthirsty.”
Ryan lifted his mug and took a sip of what Dane figured was strong black coffee. The guy had an iron stomach and never had a problem sleeping, no matter what he ingested.
“You forget I’ve got fangs and claws occasionally.”
“I never forget that.” Ryan’s eyes narrowed and Dane’s back automatically tried to straighten. “I kissed her but you know that already.”
Dane sank into the chair across from the couch and forced himself to relax. “Yeah. I knew. I did too.”
Ryan nodded, his gaze steady but the hint of a smile played around his lips. “So how are we going to play this?”
“I don’t want to play this.” Dane tried to keep the frustration out of his voice. And failed miserably. “This isn’t a game.”
Ryan’s tone never varied from calm. “I know that but that doesn’t answer my question. I saw how you looked at her.”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
Ryan just shook his head as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Yeah, you do. I’ve never know you to be a coward, Dane, but you’re acting like you’ve got your tail tucked between your legs right now.”
“Fuck you, Ry—”
“No.” Finally, a little heat crept into Ryan’s voice. “No fucking way, Dane. You don’t get to dismiss this. Not now. I know why you brought me here. Christ, I know exactly why I’m here. You want her. You’re fucking dying for her but you can’t get past the fact that she’s not lucani. You think if we share her, that’s not the same as having her yourself.”
“No, that’s bull—”
“No, it’s not. I’m right. I even get it. Kind of. I’ve met your mom. I get it. You call me in and it gives you the freedom to call whatever happens with Evie a fling. It allows you to pull away whenever you want, knowing I’ll be there to pick up the pieces. I’ve seen you do this before. I know you.”
Ryan stopped to draw in a breath and Dane would have refuted everything he’d said. If he could.
He knew he couldn’t. And Ryan knew it too.
“But if we fuck this up,” Ryan continued, “she gets hurt. And if you didn’t have that stick shoved so far up your fucking ass, you’d realize that this girl is something special. And not just for her blood.”
“Tinia’s teat, Ryan. I’m not going to bleed the girl.”
“But I know you, Dane. I know you’re just dying to figure out what’s going on with her and Grace Bell’s kid. I can’t believe you haven’t been using her already.”
Anger began to build, even though Ryan hit closer to some home truths with every jab. “I’m not some freak-show mad scientist who’s going to carve her up in the name of science.”
“Then why haven’t you talked to her about your ideas? What the fuck are you waiting for? Alex Bell isn’t getting any better. Are you going to let him die when you know there’s something you can do to help him?”
“Fuck you, Ryan. You know I won’t do that.”
It went against everything he believed as a doctor to let a little boy suffer.
Still… Evie had been abducted by Grace Bell and subjected to tests without her consent. She still had nightmares, not to mention the fact the magical powers she hadn’t known anything about had been triggered by those tests.
Yes, he’d been hesitant to approach Evie about using her blood to help Alex. Vaffanculo, who wouldn’t?
“Yeah, I do know that.” Ryan sank back into the couch, his gaze steady. “What I don’t know is what the hell you want. If you really want me to help you seduce Evie because you can’t loosen your tight ass enough to do it on your own, I’m in. But I’m telling you now, I like her. And I’m not going to let you stomp all over her because like it or not, she has feelings for you.
“And if I decide to do this, if I decide to throw myself behind your plan, I’m gonna make damn sure she feels the same for me. Are you sure that’s what you want?”
Dane looked Ryan in the eyes. “Yes.”
Chapter Three
Evie was dressed and ready to run again by seven-fifteen.
With her hair pulled away from her face with an elastic band, she figured she looked pretty damn bad. She’d only gotten about four hours of sleep and that had been spotty.
She’d been tempted to call Ryan and tell him not to bother but that was the coward’s way out.
And she hated being thought of as a coward.
So when Ryan pulled up in his yuppie SUV, dressed in a long-sleeved shirt that fit like a second skin and running shorts, she stepped out onto the porch.
The sun was barely over the horizon and it had to be even colder than last night.
“Good morning, sunshine. Sleep well? Great time for a run. ”
Wow, that smile. It might almost be too much this early in the morning. She eyed him cautiously. “You’re one of those people who like getting up at the crack of dawn, aren’t you?”
His smile widened as he walked closer. “Ah, babe, it’s the best time of the day. Most of the assholes are still asleep.”
Without warning, he bent to kiss her, as if he’d been doing it for years. As if he had the right.
It wasn’t a sexual, stick-his-tongue-down-her-throat kiss. It was a “Good morning, really nice to see you” kiss.
And she couldn’t have been more shocked if he had stuck his tongue down her throat.
She was so used to not being touched. To being carefully avoided so she wasn’t upset. Upset meant she lost control. And that was bad.
Bad meant inanimate objects could become flying objects at any moment, although that hadn’t happened for at least a month.
She stilled, waiting for the fallout. For something to happen, a tree limb to fall on his car, the porch light to blow.
Nothing happened.
“Hey, you okay?”
Ryan cocked his head to the side, waiting for her response.
This time she didn’t have to force a smile. It came naturally. “I’m fine. You ready?”
“Absolutely, doll.” He waved a hand with a flourish. “Lead on.”
She started out at a slow pace, not wanting to wear him out in the first mile. She’d been a runner in high school. At least until the drug addiction made it impossible but after rehab, the running had helped keep her head clear.
But when she realized Ryan wasn’t struggling to keep up, she increased their speed.
“It’s beautiful out here,” Ryan said once they’d gone about a mile down the lane. “And you gotta love having no traffic. In Philly, it’s like running an obstacle course.”
“I was born and raised in Reading.” Though not as large as Philadelphia, it had the same pros and cons as every large city. “When I moved out here, the silence got to me. All those birds singing in the morning and the crickets at night. Creepy.”
Ryan laughed, the deep, rich sound raising goose bumps definitely not due to the cold. “My first visit to Dane’s place, I met the lucani king. And Dane’s parents. Talk about surreal.”
“I met Cole once.” Evie smiled at the memory. “I liked him. Still don’t know exactly what a king does, but I guess he does it well. Everyone seems to like him. My brother does and he’s a good judge of character.”
“I haven’t met your brother yet. John, right?”
“Yeah. He and his girl—mate, his mate will probably be over this morning. He stops almost every day unless he and Kaine are out on assignment. They’ve been on assignment the past week so I’ve had a reprieve.”
She heard Ryan give an amused exhale. “I gotta say Kaine always scared me a little. So damn quiet and she can kill you with one hand tied behind her back. Strong woman.”
“Yeah, but she’s different with John. They make the perfect couple. They both smile more around each other. It’s nice to see.”
“Hard to take all that happiness sometimes, huh?”
She slid Ryan a brief glance and nearly stumbled when she got caught in those too-pretty blue eyes. “I thought you were a vet, not a psychiatrist.”
And there was that perfect smile again. “Minored in psych. Always had an interest. Plus, it helped. With the addiction. Not that I thought I could cure myself but I had more of an understanding of what I was feeling. It came in handy.”
They ran for a while without speaking, an easy silence that surprised her. She’d expected to be nervous around Ryan but the guy just didn’t do nerves. Maybe he was magical after all. A great big magical chill pill.
Which would explain why he and Dane were friends. Dane needed to chill even more than she did at times.
For the rest of the forty-five-minute run, they talked about nothing important and by the time they got back to Evie’s borrowed home, the sun shone bright and her brother’s car sat in front of her house.
“Speak of the devil.” She muttered the words under her breath but she knew Ryan had heard when he laughed behind her.
Which made John, standing deceivingly at ease on the porch, narrow his eyes and give Ryan the once-over.
She loved her brother more than anyone else in the world. But his timing sucked today.
Every internal wall that hadn’t snapped into place yet this morning flew up with an almost physical jolt. She stiffened, drew in a deep breath and prepared to face her brother’s onslaught of questions.
Which Ryan cut off by walking up to John with his hand extended.
“Hey, you must be John. I’m Ryan Maguire. Nice to meet you.”
John’s eyebrows made a slow slide upward and, for a brief second, Evie thought he might ignore Ryan’s hand. But even though he’d become overly protective of her recently, John didn’t have an arrogant bone in his body.
“John Simmons.” His eyes narrowed. “You’re Dane’s friend, right? Kaine mentioned that you were visiting. I didn’t know you knew Evie.”
“We met last night. Dane and I were over for dinner.”
Now John’s expression showed almost comical shock and Evie sighed though she really wanted to laugh.
It was going to be a long morning.
She stepped up onto the porch and kissed her brother’s cheek, eliciting another shocked look. She hadn’t been much for public displays of affection lately and John knew that. “I hope you didn’t drink all the coffee, bro. I have a feeling I’m going to need a gallon.”
* * * * *
“How are you feeling today, Alex? Any changes since we talked Monday?”
The little boy in the wheelchair managed a smile for Dane but only barely. His blue eyes held a dull sheen but his hair shone like vibrant copper under the bright lights in his room at the holding facility.
Dane wondered why the sicarii, the lucani king’s assassins, didn’t just call it a jail, considering that’s exactly what it was.
A jail holding one little boy and his mother.
“Still achy but not as bad as it was before, when it rained. Momma says that’s normal though. To feel achy when it rains.”
The boy looked over his shoulder at the closed door then at Tamra Rossini. Tam had become invaluable to Dane in the past few months as the only trained nurse living with the lucani. Her mate, Kyle Rossini, was the lead sicari.
When he finally turned back to Dane, he leaned forward. Dane did the same, knowing the boy wanted to tell him something but was afraid his mother would overhear from the next room.
Grace Bell had fought bitterly against allowing her son to meet privately with Dane at first and honestly, Dane could see her point. She’d been raised to believe the lucani were ravening monsters.
Of course, her demands hadn’t counted for anything. The sicarii had simply locked her in another room where Alex couldn’t hear her screams.
“Is there something else, Alex?”
Today, Grace was on the other side of the door. She’d learned how to play the game. No more screaming.
The boy nodded and his voice dropped to a whisper. “I didn’t want to tell my mom but my stomach doesn’t feel too good either.”
“Does it hurt?”
Alex shook his head. “No. I just feel like I’m gonna throw up all the time. And I’m really tired, Dr. Dane, but I’m afraid…”
The kid was afraid to go to sleep. His nightmares starred wolves who hunted him through a dark forest. And something even worse in the shadows… Something he couldn’t see but knew was stalking him.
Out of sight of Alex, Tam shook her head, her mouth compressed into a flat line. She’d grown close to Alex these past few months as much of his day-to-day medical care fell to her. And he needed a hell of a lot of care.
Between Grace and Tam, they managed to keep him relatively comfortable. Relatively being the operative word.
According to Grace, the boy had never been healthy.
Dane nodded, though his chest felt as if someone were compressing his lungs. A ten-year-old boy who only looked about seven shouldn’t have to deal with nightmares that were real. “I understand. How bad is it? Are you getting any sleep at all?”
From the looks of him, Dane didn’t think so.
The boy shrugged and dropped his gaze. “A little but… I don’t feel as good I did last summer.”
When Grace had been taking Evie’s blood and making serums to keep her son healthy.
Vaffanculo. “All right, Alex. I understand.” Then he put his hands on Alex’s shoulders and waited until the boy looked up at him to do something Dane never did. “We’re going to make you better, Alex. I promise. Don’t worry.”
The boy’s smile split his face. “Okay, Dr. Dane. No worries.”
As he stood, he caught Tam’s gaze over the boy’s head. She looked shocked, which was no surprise. He never made promises he couldn’t keep and, with Alex’s situation, there were no guarantees.
“I’ll see you tomorrow. Tam, I’m heading back to the labs.”
He knocked on the door leading to the front of the building, avoiding a confrontation with Grace. He didn’t want to talk to her today. Didn’t want to argue with her again.
Because she was right.
He’d been avoiding the obvious solution until he couldn’t ethically do so any longer.
He didn’t speak to anyone as he made his way out of the “holding facility”. The young lucani female who served as Alex’s guard nodded his way but didn’t say anything and he left without running into either Duke or Nic, the sicarii in charge of the facility.
The walk back to his office took a few minutes and the bite of the cool air helped clear his head so, by the time he walked through the door of his lab, he was ready to get to work.
Dane knew one thing that would make Alex feel better. And it was time he acted like a doctor and did what needed to be done.
* * * * *
“So, how was dinner?”
Cat sat on what Evie was beginning to think of as the girl’s perch.
On the kitchen counter, a mug of hot chocolate in her hand, Cat watched Evie practice a simple incendiary spell.
All of the streghe in the boschetta, including Cat, had specific areas of expertise in the magical arts. They called them Goddess gifts.
Cat had an affinity for plants and healing, same as her mother. Nica healed with her hands. Ralisa manipulated metals. Tira and her mother, Su, saw the future, which wasn’t much of a gift, if you asked Evie. It’d nearly driven Su crazy and had almost cost Tira the lives of her lovers, Nic and Duke.
Evie had yet to figure out what exactly she specialized in but she figured it wasn’t fire. She’d yet to make the wick of this damn candle do anything other than sputter and die.
In the background, ABBA sang about some guy named Fernando. Cat had decided ’70s pop would help Evie get in the spell-working mood.
So far, not so much.
> “Dinner was…interesting.”
“That sounds cryptic. Wait— Hold up a sec. You’re not holding the spell long enough for it to catch.”
“No, I just can’t seem to make it strong enough.” She sighed and shook out her hand, which tingled from being held outstretched for so long. “And I’m not being cryptic. It was interesting.”
“Try closing your eyes when you say the spell. Sometimes that helps me to focus the energy. Try and hold that energy in before you release it to spark the wick. Interesting how?”
With a sigh, Evie shook her head. How much did she tell a seventeen year old about her love life?
Which wasn’t really much of a love life?
She’s kissed a guy. Okay, she’d kissed two guys…
And that wouldn’t shock a girl whose parents had been in a ménage when she’d been conceived.
Cat groaned. “You’ve got that look on your face again.”
Evie blinked and consciously cleared her expression. But she knew it was too late. “What look?”
“That ‘How much can Cat handle look?’” The girl huffed and narrowed her gaze at Evie. “You do know I’m seventeen years old and I wasn’t raised in a nunnery, right?”
“I know, Cat. I’m sorry, it’s just this thing with Dane and Ryan has me all…” She shook her hands in front of her. “I don’t know.”
“Well, I know you’ve always had a thing for Dane. And now you’re attracted to Ryan and that confuses you. I get it. But you know it doesn’t have to be an either-or deal, right? It’s not like Ryan and Dane haven’t shared the same girl before.”
Evie’s mouth dropped open but she couldn’t produce a word. Her brain ground to a halt.
Cat’s eyes widened. “Oh. You didn’t know. Oh, shit, my bad.”
Evie barely heard Cat’s wincing apology as she considered all the implications of Cat’s revelation.
Evie was far from innocent though she’d never been involved in a ménage. Had never met two men she’d been attracted to at the same time.
And now that she had…
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