AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She blinked, realizing that though her skull still throbbed, the grogginess of before was gone. “Yeah, I…think so.” If she could stop being an idiot and gazing into his eyes like some lovesick teen with a crush. Jeez. Dee fumbled for the ice pack. Her fingers tangled with his. “I’ve—I’ve got this.”
His jaw locked.
Okay, so maybe she wasn’t being the most gracious victim.
Good southern manners had never been her strong suit.
Simon’s hand fell away, and she pressed the frigid pack against her head. “Don’t worry…about me,” she managed. “I’m a fast healer.” For a human, anyway. She dragged her gaze away from him and scanned the room. Bare walls. No photos, no paintings. A TV, some tech. Not much else. “Ah, your place?”
A grim nod.
The ice shifted beneath her fingers. “Look, Simon, I appreciate you trying to come to my aid?—”
“I saved your ass, Dee, again.”
True, though she was a bit sketchy on the details. “I don’t…I can’t remember what happened after I left the alley.” The vamps had jumped her. She’d fired her gun. Run out of bullets. Started staking.
Too many of them.
They’d knocked her down. Her head had thudded into the ground and?—
“I woke up in her blood.” She didn’t even know the woman’s name. Another vic. So many nameless faces.
Simon began to ease back. Dee’s left hand grabbed for him. “I didn’t kill her.”
His head cocked. “Thought you just said you didn’t remember.”
Dee swallowed and hoped she was telling the truth. “I wouldn’t kill a human.”
“You had the stake against her heart last night.”
“To scare her, not to kill her!” Oh, bad idea. Shouting made the throbbing much worse. “Simon, trust me, I-I wouldn’t kill a human, not after what happened to—” She broke off, clamping her lips together. So, what? A bump on the head had made her super chatty?
“You want me to trust you?” he asked.
Dee realized her fingers were digging into his wrist. With an effort, she unclamped and nodded.
“You tell me why you’re so passionately against the vamps and make me believe you’d never stake an unarmed woman. Then we’ll see about talking trust.”
The ice had begun to melt. A trickle of water slid down the back of her neck. “My story’s not so different from yours.”
He didn’t speak.
Fine. He wanted her soul naked—that was the way it would have to be. Because right now, she needed him. Until I can find out what the hell is happening. “When I was fifteen, I came home to find a bloodbath at my house.”
Mom? Mom? Where are you?
Dee ignored that soft voice whispering in her head. The voice of the girl she’d been a lifetime ago.
She cleared her throat and said, “My date dropped me off at the door. My first date.” He’d wrapped his sweaty palms around her shoulders and given her a kiss. Wet, sloppy, but her first kiss. Then he’d hightailed it out of there when he heard a thump from inside.
Vince had thought her dad was coming. The ex-marine, tough as nails guy who’d been cleaning his gun before they left.
“Dammit, I loved him so much,” she murmured. That stupid gun. She’d begged him to put the thing up before Vince arrived. People didn’t really do things like that, but he’d?—
“The boy you were?—”
“No. Forget it.” A hard shake of her head. No, she’d never loved Vince. But her father had been her hero. She swallowed. “The lights were on when I went inside, but I couldn’t find anyone.” Though she’d smelled a thick, hard odor.
