He smiled at his laptop.“You are positively pale in my experience.”
She snorted and then gripped her ribs.“Ow.”
He was up, holding her wrist a moment later.“Breath shallowly until the muscles relax.”
She nodded and slowly relaxed against the pillows.“Been stabbed a lot?”
“A time or two.It’s better that you got it taken care of so it has less chance of leading to a herniation.”
“Oh.Ick.”
He smiled and squeezed her hand.
She twisted her lips and blurted out, “Why do you have a different energy signature than the other dark elves?”
He crinkled his eyes.“Oh, that.Give me a moment.”He released her and walked out of the room, returning with what must have been the guard.“This is Samsor.”
“Same signature.”She cocked her head.
“Deltas.”
She blinked rapidly as her brain rebooted.“Oh, right.”
Samsor was staring at her.“How did you get out of the house that injured?”
“Practice.I also felt that the damage was bad enough that I couldn’t just be patched up and dismissed.The blood trail out the window and across the lawn was a nice touch.Learning to army crawl helped.”
Echel stared at her.“You left a blood trail.”
“Yes.Don’t tell Duran.Plausible deniability.I was injured, I was dying, I did die, I think.That would explain the chest pain.”
Samsor blinked slowly.“You have dramatic injury marks, including old ones.”
“I do.This was not the first or even the fifth time.”
He asked, “What was different?”
“I didn’t beg.”She shrugged.“They broke me.I was done, so I didn’t beg.”
Echel walked over to her and held her wrist.
Samsor nodded, and then a slight smile crossed his lips.“Under what circumstances would you beg?”
She stared at him, catching his interest.“I don’t know.Every moment of every day since I was sixteen has been accounted for or watched.No opportunity to learn begging.”
He blinked and nodded.“Right.”
“So, what’s your actual day job.You don’t have the bodyguard vibe?”
“Private investigator.”
“Ah, that explains the nosiness.”
Echel chuckled and kept working.
Samsor smiled.“Even helpless, you attack like a kitten.Claws out.”
“Oh, was that too snarky?I could have said that undressing me with your eyes only works while my body is a fingerpainting canvas.That peering through one hospital gown wasn’t a challenge for those red eyes.”
