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I conceded, “That would be a date ender.”
“And don’t forget that you didn’t exactly give me the whole story. You didn’t tell me you were Wainwright’s granddaughter, or a witch, or anythin’. You gave me that bullshit story about coming from Boston.”
“Technically, that’s true. And really, you’re going to criticize the white lies I told to protect me from you?”
“Not when you put it that way,” he said. “After I took it from you, I wanted to give that stupid plaque back to you so badly, but then I would think of my parents and all of my younger cousins who are just now going through the changes. I’m sorry, I had to put them first. What would you do, to help your family?”
“Damn it,” I groused. “If you hadn’t said that, I probably would have been able to stay pissed at you—which I still am, by the way, and will be for a while yet.”
I lifted his wrist, inspecting the burn mark on his forearm.
“It still hurts as bad as it did the day you gave it to me,” he said, wincing. “Not that I didn’t deserve it.”
“You really did,” I told him.
I was tempted to leave his arm in that state. I hadn’t been able to heal Zeb earlier in the evening, after all, and it felt as if Zeb deserved my help more than Jed did. But hearing Jed’s explanation seemed to shift the energy within me. I felt I was back in balance and might be able to make my energy follow my intentions in ways that would help him.
I curved my hand around the burn mark and closed my eyes. However irritated I might be with Jed, that mark was my fault. I needed to fix it. Nana had told me to think of the healing magic as if my cells were reaching out to the other person’s and fixing all imperfections. I put my hand over the burned skin and pictured it bright and pink and new as a baby’s. I saw cool, soothing waves of energy flowing over the burned tissue and taking away the sting. And when I opened my eyes, I was relieved and grateful to see that his skin indeed was pink and healthy.
I would visit Zeb’s hospital room as soon as I could.
“Thanks,” he said, twisting his hands and admiring his newly repaired flesh.
“That thing I can do, healing you with my hands? If the Kerrigans get the Elements, that goes away. My whole family’s magic goes away.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”>I whacked it again like a big monster piñata.
“Stop hitting me!” it yelled. “That hurts!”
Wait, I knew that smooth, honeyed-whiskey voice. “Jed?” I cried.
The creature struggled to its knees, glaring at me with glassy black eyes. I raised the shovel again. It held up its paws. “Truce! Truce!” it yelled.
With the doorknob smashed, the Jed monster simply nudged the back door open and limped into the kitchen. Mouth hanging open, I choked up on the shovel handle and followed. The moment the creature lumbered across the threshold, out of the moonlight, the shape morphed back into human Jed. His face bore a purpling bruise where I’d whacked him, along with a sheepish expression.
“Hi.”
It took several moments of shocked silence for me to process what had just happened before my very eyes. And I once saw my Aunt Lizzie set fire to her own eyebrows with a curling iron. After the sheer spectacle of Jed’s shape-shifting passed, I found my voice. And my voice was pissed off.
“You arsehole!” I shouted.
“Drop the shovel!” he yelped as I advanced.
“You stupid, no-good arsehole!” I yelled, smacking him repeatedly with my shovel-free hand. “What is wrong with you? You lie to me. You lead me on. You trick me into giving you information. And now you’re an armadillo monster?”
“Stop!” Jed grunted as I struck out at him. He smacked the shovel out of my hand, knocking it to the floor with a clatter. He caught one wrist, but I managed to poke him in the eye with the other hand. He cornered me against the counter, pressing his hips against mine and catching both of my wrists. I wriggled an arm loose and popped him on the chin.
“Ow!” He hissed, cradling his injured face. “What is wrong with you? Were you raised by freaking ninjas?”
“I have protective uncles,” I growled. “Lots of them. But I’m sure you knew that already, didn’t you? Didn’t you get that information in your Kerrigan spy orientation packet?”
“I’m sorry about that.” He groaned as I dug a knuckle into the sensitive hollow between his armpit and his ribs.
“What the hell are you?” I demanded as he finally released my arms.
“I’m cursed,” he said, and when I didn’t respond, he added, “I’ll make some coffee.”
Jed stepped away from me, and his eyes widened at the sight of blood on my shirt. Apparently, he hadn’t been able to see it in the dark. He pulled my arms away from my sides, looking for damage. “What happened?”
