Rocked by Love (Gargoyles, #4)(38)
Okay, that eased her panic. A little. “Fine, but they still need to be untied before they wake up, right?”
“I can see to it in a moment. First, I need to know if you sustained any injury.”
Confused and impatient, Kylie shook her head. “I’m fine. King David—A broch! King David!”
Kylie tore away and flew back to the office, heading straight for the closet where the cat had been thrown. She found him struggling to free himself from a tangle of hoodies she had stacked inside for cold days. She reached for him, earning herself a sharp hiss, followed by a plaintive mewl when he realized who she was.
“Oh, bubeleh, I am so sorry,” she crooned. “Come here, boychik. Let me see what that mean man did to you.” The sudden dimming of the area told her that Dag had followed and stood in the doorway, blocking the light from the room. “The tech threw King David in here after he jumped on his face and nearly clawed his eyes out. I need to get him to the vet and have him checked out. If he’s hurt, I’m going to rip that nishtgutnik’s putz off and feed it to him.”
She finally managed to untangle the cat and picked him up, cuddling him briefly to her chest. He endured the affection for a moment, even head-butting Kylie’s chin and purring before squirming out of her grip and dashing toward the nearest exit.
“Bubbee, wait,” she called after him, scurrying to follow. Dag put a hand out to stop her.
“The cat seems fine. It moved with no sign of pain or stiffness and easily covered the distance to the door at a run. I believe it objects to the idea of a physical examination. Much like someone else I could name.”
Worried and irritated, Kylie snapped her reply. “I already told you I’m not hurt, stone face, so lay off. I really don’t think now is the time for you to decide you’re ready to play doctor.”
Dag stiffened beside her a split second before the unintended double meaning to her words registered with Kylie. She felt her cheeks go hot and shouldered past him to return to the captives in the dining room.
She cleared her throat. “What I mean is, the guy barely laid a hand on me. I jumped out of the way as soon as I saw the look on his face, not to mention the wire in his hand. And King David attacked him before he was able to do me any harm. So I’m fine. No need for a physical exam. From a doctor. Or anybody else, really. I’m good. All systems go.”
“You are babbling,” Dag observed, his words thoughtful. “The idea of an examination makes you uncomfortable? This makes me believe you are being untruthful about your lack of injury.”
“No, really. I’m not bleeding, I’m not limping, my pupils are evenly dilated, and I’m having no trouble breathing. Satisfied?”
“You cannot see your own eyes react to changes in light, so how can you be certain about their dilation?”
Kylie ground her teeth together. “Do you really think I got a concussion from running and screaming?”
“You are the one who raised the possibility, not I.”
Oy gevalt! God give her strength.
She took a deep breath and tried not to push it out with all the hissing force she had built up. “For the last and final time, I am unhurt. If my status in this regard should change at any time, I promise on my grandmother’s life that I will inform you immediately. Without passing go, without collecting two hundred dollars. Now, if you don’t mind, I think the more important task at hand is to untie the guys in the other room before one of them wakes up and thinks they’ve been kidnapped by the crazy Jewish lady and the big scary guy who talks like he’s definitely not from around here. Mmkay?”
Without waiting for his reply, she spun on her heel and marched down the hall and the devil take the hindmost. Her mouth twisted into a frown as she patted her hip and realized she had left her phone back in the office so she couldn’t check the time. She needed to know exactly how many more hours it would be until Wynn arrived.
Then she needed to go online and see if there were any liquor stores in the greater Boston metropolitan area that either delivered, or were staffed by employees open to a little judicious bribery. This jailbreak/bitchfest was going to require something a whole lot stronger than the couple of bottles of wine she had stowed in the kitchen.
Like vodka, maybe.
Or tequila.
What was rotgut, anyway? Kylie had always been curious.
Or, hey, did anyone in Boston sell moonshine?
*
As soon as the workers had been freed, Dag found himself battling against the need to disappear somewhere far, far away from his little human female. He needed space, lots of space, and time away to deal with the reaction he had experienced when he realized she had been attacked once again.
The sound of her scream of mingled fear and anger would echo inside his mind for the next thousand years. At least. He had stood beside the male human, watching as he marked and cut the opening to install the high-tech security control panel near the house’s main entrance. One moment, he had felt nothing but boredom and the restless need to hurry this process along so that he could clear the premises of the strangers he had been forced to allow within his territory. The next, his ears had registered Kylie’s scream, and his mind had exploded in a white-hot lightning storm of rage and terror.
Someone was threatening his female. The creature would have to die.
For the first time in his existence, his change had taken him by surprise, muscles and tendons stretching and snapping as his body reshaped itself into his natural form without his choice or consent. The human at his side had uttered a hoarse cry, then promptly passed out at Dag’s feet. The action had been enough to remind the warrior to first secure the area, but taking the three minutes required to capture and secure the three workers had nearly cost him his sanity. The moment he dumped them in the empty dining room, his instincts would no longer be denied. They drove him immediately to Kylie’s side.