"I wasn't going to come here at all."
Verd's voice was soft, a quiet husky rasp, achingly familiar.
"Neither was I." David couldn't help laughing; it ended in a cough.
There was movement in the room, and the bed sank under Verd's weight. Strong fingers supported David's neck, cool against his overheated skin, lifted his head while Verd held a glass of water to his lips. David took a few sips, fumbling weakly to get his own hands on the glass, but Verd took it away before he had a chance to get hold of it.
"So how've you been," David said when he got his breath back. Verd eased him back against the pillows, but Verd's hand still cupped the back of his neck, showing no inclination to pull away. "You catch up on Game of Thrones? I think you'd like it."
"The dragons were not to my taste. I preferred the books." Verd sounded distant. He picked up one of David's hands in his strong, cool fingers and turned it over.
"Yeah? I'm a 'movie before book' guy, myself." David looked down, as best he could, at his own arms in the sweater Tess had helped put on him. Verd had turned his hand over and he knew he shouldn't have been surprised to see that the black signs of corruption showed on his palms now.
"Your oreiad said—"
"Her name is Tess," David interrupted. "She's my wife."
"She said that one of my kind did this to you."
"That's not quite accurate—" David began, but Verd had already pushed up his sweater sleeve. There was no hiding it now, the tattoo on the inside of his wrist, a rod and a snake inside a circle.
"You joined them," Verd said. His voice was flat. "You joined the dragonslayers."
"That's not what they do. Look, you and I both know there are dangerous things out there in the world." David huffed out a breath and jerked his hand out of Verd's loose grasp so he could push himself up in the bed. He couldn't have this conversation lying flat on his back. "Basilisks, wyverns, hellhounds, all kinds of things. People don't know. They're in danger. And I knew enough about it to be useful—"
"Things I told you. Things you decided to use to hunt my kind."
"They're not—Look." David blew out a breath and ran a shaky hand through his hair. "I'm not even with the Hunters anymore, okay? It was a ... a rebellion thing, I guess. I was young and reckless, and angry at you—"
"So you ran off to hunt dragons."
Verd's voice was still flat, but there was a sharp edge of pain in it.
"Look, I'm not going to deny I hooked up with the Hunters for awhile, or even that it had something to do with being angry at you. But there, I could be useful. I could use what I knew to help people. To protect people."
"Protect humans, you mean."
"Protect everyone," David said, anger flaring now through the sick weariness. "That's how I met Tess. There was a basilisk on her mountain, poisoning the land, making the dryads sick—and yea
h, there are still dryads in Greece, a few of them. That was about the time I quit the Hunters. I've been freelancing off and on, since then. Helping out where I can."
"And hence ... this." Verd traced a finger down the back of David's hand, sending a shiver through him. "What did this? Another basilisk?"
"No. I don't even know what it was. It was dragonlike, but it was something I'd never fought before, in the American Southwest. There are a lot of things in the Americas that aren't in any of the old-world lore. I'm sure the locals knew what they were and how to deal with them, but ... well. That's what happens when you come in and kill off most of the people who knew how the local magic worked."
"It's not—"
"Magic. Yeah. Whatever. Anyway, this happened awhile back, about two years. It's been slowly getting worse ever since, until ... this. You see what it's like now."
Verd was quiet, still stroking the back of David's hand; David wasn't sure if he was aware he was doing it. Finally he said, "And so you come here, bringing your oreiad—"
"I told you, you stubborn jerk, her name is Tess, and she brought me."
"In the belief that I could help you."
"Yeah." In spite of knowing better than to get his hopes up, and in spite of the strain between them, David couldn't help asking, "Can you?"
There was the soft whisper and click of a key-card in the door lock. Verd jerked away and all but leaped off the bed as the door opened to admit Tess, carrying a tray.