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“Jade!” Davian lunged forward and wrested the handle from her grasp.
The pain in her hand radiated throughout her body. It was excruciating, a fact that never failed to astonish her. Her suffering was tenfold, or more, what it should be. Even a pinprick felt like a brutal stabbing. And the emotional wounds were worse. Michael pulling away from her years ago had made her feel as though she’d been run through with a sword.
She gripped the wrist of the bleeding hand as her body trembled. Davian’s fingers closed around her biceps and he tried to direct her to a chair.
“Sit,” he demanded.
“Just wait,” she ground out as tears flooded her eyes.
She fisted her hand and rotated it several degrees, so the blood squeezed out and streamed to the stone floor. A few minutes passed and the flow became a trickle. Her breath still came in harsh pulls, but the pain ebbed into a more tolerable and less debilitating sensation. A good ten minutes slipped by until not a single drop fell. Unfurling her fingers, she extended her palm to him again.
Davian stared at the healed flesh in shocked amazement. He asked, “Where’d the rest of the blood go?”
Her flesh should have been covered in crimson. She said, “I absorb any blood on my skin. Part of the regenerative cycle, I guess.”
“That’s extraordinary,” he muttered. “You’re human
. But are you mortal?”
Her laugh was a hollow one this time. “Not that I’ve tested the theory—nor do I care to—but, yes. If I sustain enough injuries, I won’t be able to concentrate on healing myself.”
He studied her hand a few seconds more, then released it. “You rapidly heal, yet I could see how agonizing that cut was, more so than it really should have been.”
“I can’t explain it, other than to surmise it’s some sort of internal checks and balance system. As though my ability to fix my body in an abnormally short amount of time is offset by the intense searing of the injury. Like it’s a cosmic penalty for possessing such a gift. The pain is sometimes unbearable, but if I can rise above it, the wounds heal.”
“Do they really?” he questioned in a dark tone.
Jade wiped tears from her cheeks. “I have an acute reaction to pain, yes. But if I can separate myself from it in a sense, I survive.”
“That explains so much,” he mused, deep in thought. “I understood the toll your parents’ deaths took on you. But the heartache you felt with your friend, Michael… You were so young to feel that emotionally devastated. Honestly, I found it horrific to experience.”
“That’ll teach you to head-hop.”
“Indeed.”
She’d meant the comment as a flip remark, but he clearly took it seriously. And a step further.
“Tonight,” he said, “when you’re alone in your cottage, you’ll think of your friend Jinx. Won’t you?”
Jade nodded as emotion crept in on her. “Of course.”
“And it’ll be close to intolerable for you.”
She stared up at Davian. His expression was a compelling, yet beleaguered, one.
“What does it matter to you?” she quietly asked. “You’re the king. I’m a commoner. A mere mortal. My people have been besieged by fear and famine and fatality, as much in the pre-war years as in the post-war ones. Your kind doesn’t suffer the same trials and tribulations as humans.”
Angst flittered in his eyes. “We have our own crosses to bear, Jade. Demon life isn’t all roses and sunshine.”
The sudden raw edge to him caused Jade to take his word on that.
“At any rate,” she said, getting back to the current issue, rather than getting caught up in his emotional turmoil, “the gifts I showed you today are the ones I’ve always had. Nothing new here, other than a heightened awareness of knowing when someone’s hot on my heels.”
Davian frowned. “This is definitely a new power I’m sensing. And it’s incredibly strong. But you’re right,” he contended. “I’m not getting that signal now.”
They both seemed to draw the same conclusion in the next instant.
“Damn it,” the king said as he pounded a fist so fiercely on the desk, the legs shimmied. “There’s a certain mystique around you, but it’s not coming from you. It’s someone else who watches you, someone else who stays close to you. Someone I haven’t detected.”
