Deathtrap (Crossbreed #3)(65)
He smiled weakly. “I always look good.”
Wyatt sighed and took off his beanie, rumpling his hair with one hand as he looked at Christian. “When you called for backup, I thought maybe you were outnumbered by two or three guys. Four tops. Half a city? Now that’s a twist I didn’t see coming.”
I leaned back and shut my eyes, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in my hand, my sore jaw, and my aching muscles.
“Why the feck did you bring my car?” Christian spat.
Wyatt snickered. “Because you drew the short straw. Plus, we couldn’t all fit in mine. It’s not as if we had time to contemplate anything. We hauled ass to get here.”
“Grand. Now what are the odds that I’ll never see it again?”
Claude gripped my right arm. “Let me see your other hand.”
I held it up, a bullet having pierced through the palm. “Sorry, but this is one injury you won’t be licking. Lie back and rest. It sucks to be a Mage in winter, but I’ll find a drop of sun if it kills me.”
Niko chuckled. “Apologies. I’m laughing at the truth of it.”
Some of the bullet holes around the van let in narrow strips of light, but it wasn’t the direct sunlight that I needed to heal.
It didn’t matter anyhow. We were almost home.
Chapter 20
Every lantern and candle in my bathroom was aglow, bathing the stone walls with an ethereal light. I had a magnificent bathroom located in the room behind my bed. There wasn’t a door, and as you walked in and turned left, you faced a standing shower and small window farther ahead. Lanterns were affixed to the left wall on each side of the oval mirror above the sink. Next to it, a toilet. The best part about the bathroom was that against the opposite wall sat the most glorious claw-foot tub. It was large and tucked inside the partially recessed wall. There was even a nice ledge in the wall where I could set my candles or toiletries.
I stood inside the dry tub with every intention of drawing a hot bath, but I ended up sitting down with my clothes still on. Exhausted, I reclined back, my injured left hand hanging out of the tub and my knees drawn up.
Sometimes it just felt good to slow down and gather my thoughts. As crazy as things had gotten in the Bricks, it was a good thing I hadn’t killed Cristo. Working for Keystone meant curbing my impulsive instincts, and we still had a baby to rescue.
“That’s an interesting way to wash up,” Christian remarked.
I glanced left where he was standing in the doorway, arms folded. “Did you have fun today?”
Christian swaggered to the mirror, where he proceeded to admire his dark beard. He raised his chin, studying the rogue hairs that grew below his jawline.
“There’s a razor if you want to give it a whirl.” I gestured toward a plastic one on the sink.
“I don’t mess with perfection.”
“How’s Claude?”
“Receiving affection from all the ladies in the house. Is that what it takes to get dinner in bed?”
I reclined my head, my thoughts nebulous. “This guy is really pissing me off. How could he have known we were following that woman if you scrubbed her memory?”
Christian pivoted around and stepped inside the tub, making himself comfortable at the opposite end by mirroring my position. “She must have been a Blocker.”
“I thought that was a Mage gift.”
“Never assume. A Mage Blocker can thwart other Mage gifts. But there are those in the Breed world who also have a natural blocking ability against other Breed gifts. There aren’t many out there, and most of them don’t want others to know their secret.”
“I’m guessing that means Vampire gifts don’t work against her.”
“In her case, no.”
“Why didn’t she just lie about Cristo?”
“Because I was looking her in the eyes, and she knew I would have caught her lying. Afterward, she sent a text. He could have sent a message back and told her to leave, but I bet he had a grand time conceiving a plan to do away with us by staging an attack. Criminals in the Bricks look at murder as a recreational activity.”
“Swell.”
“How’s your hand?”
I held it up and turned it so he could see both sides. “Have you ever had a ripped cuticle? Imagine that times a thousand.”
“What about Niko?”
“He’s tapped out. Poor guy. He went straight to bed and probably won’t wake up for hours. That was really something he did for Claude.” A quiet moment passed as I reflected on how selfless Niko was. He could have kept his gift a secret when he joined Keystone and let every man fend for himself. “We might need to think about relocating to Florida. Isn’t that the Sunshine State?”
“Just be glad we don’t live in Washington.”
I shuddered at the thought. Even when it snowed, the sun in Cognito poked out from the clouds every so often, so I couldn’t complain. It just required patience. I was fortunate to have learned how to heal from sunlight. For years, I’d had to hide until my body healed naturally.
Then again, I wasn’t exactly getting shot up and attacked by forty men back then.
Christian began unlacing my boots and pulled them off one at a time. “We need to keep the blood sharing a secret,” he said quietly. “If Viktor knew what we were doing, he’d break us apart.”