Now things were different, and not just because he was whole.
Not just because… Nadya seemed to be healing as well.
“Old female,” he murmured. “I think I made the right choice—”
The rear doors of the ambulance swung open and Nadya leaned out. She had pale blue skintight gloves on her hands that were covered with fresh blood and there were specks of it on her clothes.
“I think we’ve done it,” she said with an exhausted grin. “I can’t believe it, but I think we’ve saved him.”
Kane was out of his lean and going to her before he had a conscious thought, and as he captured her face in his palms and brought her mouth to his, he had the sense that her news validated his version of what was ahead for them.
All good things.
Only good things.
As he pulled back from her, he stared up into her face. “I am so proud of you. Sodamnedproud of you.”
When she flushed, and turned to the blond human woman and the gray-haired human man behind her in their blue uniforms, he let her tell him that it was really the experts. But the respect that the medicsshowed her as they discussed their collective patient told him so much more than her self-effacement allowed.
Then again, he already knew how good his female was at what she did.
“Listen,” she said, dropping her voice. Then she glanced back and urged him a little closer. “They actually opened his wound up—and repaired the damage. The artery had begun to regenerate by the time we got in there, so Lucan played his part, too, likely because he fed from Rio. But he’s not totally out of the woods. I want these two to stay overnight here. They have monitoring equipment that will help ensure we know what’s going on, and their skills are materially better than mine.”
“Whatever you think is best. Whatever you want.”
“I think we can concoct an excuse in their minds. I know that it can be dangerous to tamper with memories other than short-term ones, but—”
“We’ll make it work. Okay?” He kissed her. “I will make it work for you.”
The tension eased out of his female. “Thank you. I don’t want to lose him now, not after everything we’ve done.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Kane murmured as he pressed his lips to hers once more.
And then he did it again. Just because he wanted to.
Just because he could.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
It was sometime during the early hours of daylight that Nadya felt comfortable enough to go down to the subterranean bolt-hole and use the loo. The two human medics were sound asleep in the front seats of the ambulance, the fact that they could rest so easily sitting up and facing the inside of a garage testimony to exactly how tough-minded they were.
She especially liked the woman, who had been the one to operate.
There were things still to learn, Nadya thought as she flushed. And wasn’t that wonderful.
As she cleaned her hands with an antiseptic wipe, a quick glance around showed a lot of messy clothes strewn about, as well as provisions and survival equipment. The chaos didn’t bother her. It was going to take so much more than some wrinkled shirts and upended boxes to dampen her spirits. She felt like she could fly, even as her feet stayed on the ground—
Nadya froze. Then she went forward on numb legs.
Across the way, hanging from a hook, a flat pan with a high finish was facing bottom out, and it just happened to be angled toward her.
The reflection in it was fuzzy, nothing like that offered by a mirror, but it was enough.
Dearest Virgin Scribe… it was enough.
As Nadya stared at herself, she thought surely there was some kind of distortion at work, some sort of…
With a shaking hand, she reached up and touched her face. Then she furiously felt around her cheeks, her jawline, her forehead. She went up and touched her hair, feeling the growth that had come in, the length—