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"You're awake." Dagor's face filled her field of vision. "Thank the merciful Fates."
He looked haggard, his usual cocky confidence nowhere to be seen, his expressive blue eyes full of worry, even fear.
Frankie's throat felt dry as she tried to speak. "What's wrong? You look like someone has died."
"You almost did." Dagor clutched her hand. "You lost so much blood, and I was afraid the doctor wouldn't reach us in time."
She remembered the shooting and Dagor covering her with his body, and then there was pain and then nothing.
"I got shot."
"Yes."
"How? How did it manage to get to me?"
He swallowed. "The bullet went through my arm and into your side. Thankfully, it slowed it down enough so it didn't kill you, but it could have." He swallowed again. "I'm sorry. I did a shitty job of protecting you."
As the implications of what he had told her finally sank in, Frankie's eyes widened in horror. "Are you okay? I mean, your arm? Were you hit anywhere else?"
He'd been shielding her with his body, and if one stray bullet found its way to her, she could only imagine how many more he had stopped from hitting her.
He let out a short, humorless laugh. "I'm a god, remember? My body heals incredibly fast. It expelled the bullets and mended the flesh and skin. But you... you're human. I never want to go through that with you again for as long as I live, which is forever."
Forever.
What had he meant by that? Did he want her by his side for as long as he lived? Or was she reading him wrong, and all he meant was that he didn't want to experience seeing a human he cared about getting hurt?
The way he looked at her, his haunted expression, the slight tremor in his voice, it was so unlike him that it was jarring. The only thing that could explain his reaction was that he loved her, but he hadn't said so explicitly or implicitly.
She wanted to ask him if he did, but she was afraid he would give her an evasive answer and shatter her hope. The question lingered in her mind, but even though the answer shone in his eyes, she couldn't bring herself to voice it.
He would tell her when he was ready.
Perhaps if she closed her eyes and opened them again, the emotion in his gaze would be gone, but she was afraid to put it to the test, because first, she wasn't sure she would be able to open her eyes again, and second, she didn't want to lose what she saw in his expression.
Frankie's eyelids were so heavy, though, and keeping them from dropping down was as much of an effort as it had been lifting them in the first place. She felt woozy, and there was a dull ache where she'd been shot, but she wasn't in any real pain, which meant that the doctor had pumped her full of painkillers, and she was thankful for that.
The downside was that staying awake was a struggle.
Dagor leaned closer to her, and his hold tightened on her hand. "I'm going to tell you something that's a big secret, and I need you not to freak out. Can you do that for me?"
He was so serious that she couldn't help but let her sass come out to play despite the shitty state she was in. Feebly squeezing his hand back, she mimicked his serious expression. "That's okay, Dagor. If you are pregnant, I will marry you and make an honest man out of you. We will raise the child together."
He frowned. "Are you delirious? Should I call the doctor?"
She rolled her eyes. "It was a joke. You looked so solemn, and usually when a girl tells a guy that she has big news and asks him not to freak out, the news is that she's pregnant."
He still looked like he didn't understand. "That's not what I was about to say. The big secret is not me being pregnant, although that could have been huge, but it's something that I can do to make you heal much faster."
"Oh, right. Your venom bite." She looked at all the wires and tubes connected to her body and grimaced. "I bet that I look as sexy as I feel, but if you can close your eyes and imagine how I am when not recovering from a gunshot, maybe you can get your fangs and venom going."
He let out an exasperated breath. "I wasn't referring to the venom. My blood can do for you even more than the venom can, and all it will take is a tiny transfusion."
"Really? What will it do?"
The way he looked at her made her heart race. "You'll heal faster, much faster than normal. Instead of weeks, you might be healed in hours, and there will be no scars left."
That got her attention. "Then what are you waiting for? Is it dangerous? Are there side effects?"
