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A warm feeling bubbled in my stomach—he cared. Maybe not much, but my neighbor had noticed I was hurt.
At least I have one actual friend here!“It was a rough night,” I, losing my head in my elation, volunteered way more than I should have. “Things got exciting at the Curia Cloisters.”
“What happened?” He stopped in front of me, his eyes tracing me from head to toe, taking in my tan trousers and flower blouse.
The intensity of his eyes jolted me from my euphoria.I need to answer him very carefully.
“A supernatural new to Magiford visited the Cloisters,” I said carefully. “And picked a fight. The task force had to step in.”
“Aren’t you asecretary?” Connor asked.
“Yes.”
“How could a secretary get involved in a fight?” Connor’s lack of a smile removed that veneer of charm he wore, and between his dark red eyes and bunched eyebrows his darker side was burning through.
Feeling extra gleeful—it hadn’t been a fluke, he really did care, I finally had a friend in my apartment building—I patted his arm. “I was collateral damage,” I said. “It’s fine. The situation was taken care of.”
Next time we go out somewhere I’ll let Connor pick,I decided—the most generous thing I could think of as I had a four-page-long list of all the places in Magiford I wanted to visit with friends.
Connor narrowed his eyes. “You got help at the Cloisters?”
I stared at Connor, feeling much like a bunny facing down a wild but weirdly judgy wolf. “Um…” I tried to throw him off by finally searching for my keys.
I can steady my heartbeat so I lie believably to vampires, but I’m not sure my skills are up to a lie of this size.
Connor rolled his eyes. “Humans. You’re sofrailbut you never take care of yourselves. Do you have a first aid kit or the necessary cleansing agents in your apartment?”
I pulled my keys out of my backpack and zipped it shut. “Yes,” I confirmed—I had a whole shelf in my cabinet devoted to first aid kits.
“Then open up.” Connor sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair. “I’ll help you treat your injuries.”
“Oh, I’ll manage,” I protested.
“Dessert,” he deadpanned. “You’re injured.”
“Yeah.”
“You need treatment.”
“Yes,” I slowly said—I couldn’t tell Connor I’d planned to take a potion. Most fae potions were deadly to humans since they couldn’t take that much magic in their bodies. Potions that were watered down enough to make them safe for human consumption were so weak they didn’t do much of anything.
“And despite all of your well-meaning but inarguably fumbled attempts, you are not close enough with any of the humans in this building to ask them for something like this,” Connor said.
I scowled. “You don’t have to rub it in.”
“I’m making a point,” Connor said. “Open the door.”
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
Jade
Istudied Connor, taking in the irritated slant to his eyebrows and his sharp frown both of which were slightly softened by the odd light to his red eyes.
Well, I was going to try and wrap my shoulder and knee anyway, even after taking a potion. As Nan says, don’t cry over spilt milk.
It was a risk to invite a vampire into my apartment, but I kept all my potions and weapons out of eyesight in the fruitless hope that one day I’d need to invite one of my neighbors into my apartment without any preparation. It was ironic that the situation was happening, just with a vampire.
It wasn’t like Connor posed any kind of threat. If he went crazy and tried to bite me, he’d die. But he was too controlled for something like that to happen, and he wasn’t acting. His reaction was genuine.
