“No, I don’t think so.” He touched his cheek and winced again.
Doctor?
I kept my notes short and sweet. It was easier than writing long, winding sentences.
He frowned at the word, teeth bared. “Hell no. I don’t have insurance and I’m not giving those jerks the satisfaction.”
My lips curled in amusement.
They’re dead. No satisfaction.
He snorted, but it sounded suspiciously like a laugh. “Yeah, guess they are.” He stared at me a little longer, shuffling closer until his knee touched the one I’d rested on the cushion between us. “Do you kill often?”
What could I say to a stranger? Nothing. I wasn’t an idiot, but he already knew too much. If I was worried about him, I’d have to take him out. Something curled inside me, a warm trust that I was silly to believe. Yet, I did. Itrustedhim.
I shifted again, rising to get the first aid kit. I pulled out a bandage, small and thin, and peeled off the back. I laid the Band-Aid over the cut on the bridge of his nose.
“Are you going to ignore me now?” His gentle voice made something coil in my stomach. I didn’t know what it was about him, but a sense of excitement I usually got from killing grew out of it. I pulled away from him and the fresh smell of soap. He’d reeked before, like anyone who hadn’t showered in a while, but now all I could smell was lavender.
“You are.” He puffed out a long exhale. “Don’t blame you really. I ignored people on the street when they asked questions.” He fell against the back of the couch, dark brown eyebrows dipping low. Ezra’s hair hung around his chin, andit looked much softer than it had before he’d showered and washed it.
“They always asked a lot of questions. Where are you from? How did you end up on the streets? It’s none of their fucking business. But I finally understand the curiosity because I want to know who you are.”
I smiled as I ripped out the notes I’d written before and threw them into the fireplace. The crackling flames ate at them as I wrote on the notepad.
Samael.
Ezra chuckled. “Yeah, you said that. You got a last name, Samael?”
I nodded. The only answer he’d get for now.
“Okay.” He took a deep breath and stared in the direction of the fire. “This place is really warm.” Sliding off the couch, he crawled toward the flames, pert ass in the air.
I watched him, intrigued and unable to look away. Why hadn’t he walked?
He sat down in front of the fireplace and raised his palms near the flames. His eyes closed, breathing deep. “I missed this.”
“Fire?” It hurt to talk. It felt like someone had shoved a knife into my throat. Even twenty-three years after the injury, the pain never stopped. The doctors couldn’t explain why, but they assumed it was all in my head. Trauma, they’d said.
Ezra glanced at me over his shoulder and smiled. “Heat.”
I cocked my head and raised my chin in question. I expected him not to comprehend, but an unspoken conversation passed between us and understanding flashed in his eyes.
“If you’re not gonna tell me about yourself, why would I tell you about me?” He turned his back on me again.
I laughed, or at least, attempted to. My version of a laugh was short bursts of exhales, with an added noise in the back of my throat. But he got the point because he chuckled.
Ezra folded his legs under himself and sat still in front of the fireplace, eyes remaining closed as pleasure settled on his face. The calmness of his posture made me feel at peace, too. A comfortable silence wrapped around us.
I’d always hated the quiet because it meant loneliness to me. I didn’t have anyone to share my life with, no one who made me want to risk the pain of talking just so I could say something to them. Then he came along, and I’d not only attempted to speak to him, but I’d killed for him. No matter how I rearranged it in my head, from them college bullies deserving death to the fact I was eager to kill again, what it came down to was the expression on his face that I saw from the upstairs window when the prick smashed him with his fists.
Ezra had wanted to die. Wanted it to end.
I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Rising from the couch with my notepad, I took a seat on the floor next to him. I patted him on the shoulder and smiled.
It’ll be okay.
