Page 185 of Hunters and Prey

“How’s Cowboy?” I said. “Are things good with the two of you?”

She gave me an incredulous look. “Miri––”

“I don’t want to talk about Black,” I said. My voice grew warning. “I don’t want to talk about Nick. I don’t want to talk about teleporting, or waking up naked in strange places, or whether or not Black was too hard on me in that conference room.”

Swallowing, I forced myself to hold her gaze.

“I don’t want to talk about Zoe, Ange.”

She narrowed her eyes, her full lips pursed.

I didn’t try to read her in any way, but I could feel she really wished she was the seer right then, and I was the human. I could also feel her thinking Black was right about me.

I didn’t get details on what Black was “right” about, but I got the gist.

They all thought I was checking out.

“Look,” I said, forcing an exhale. I sat back on my stool, fighting to acknowledge that they were probably right. “Look,” I said again. “I get it. I am checking out. I think I hit a kind of brain overload thing when I saw Zoe like that. If I were being honest, I haven’t even let myself feel it yet. I hadn’t let myself feel the Nick thing, either.”

“Black thinks you’re still under the effects of the venom,” she said, her voice more subdued. “Have you been to the medical techs today? Black says Nick pumped you so full of venom when he attacked you, that if you were human you’d probably be dead.”

She hesitated at my silence, then went on.

“…He also said there’s a kind of halo effect with venom. He said it stays in your system a lot longer than they first believed.”

Biting her lip, she added,

“He said Nick might still be able to feel you, because of it. Maybe not your actual thoughts, but your emotions. Your state of mind.”

I stared at her.

I couldn’t help it.

“When did he say all of this?” I said after a beat.

“Yesterday,” she said promptly. “You were being checked out by the medical techs, and a bunch of us were in the waiting room. He talked a lot, maybe to process all of it, or maybe to not think about what happened. He gave me, Cowboy, Dex, Manny, Mika, and Yarli this whole impromptu debrief from the lab guys, in terms of what they’ve learned about vampires. I guess they’ve been going through all the research stuff from the Pentagon with a fine-toothed comb.”

I nodded, thinking.

It made sense. That I’d still be venomed, that is.

I definitely felt pretty out of it.

“How long did he say it lasted?” I said. “The venom?”

Sighing, and now giving me a faintly guilty look, she stroked the hair back from my face, pushing it off my shoulder so it fell down my back.

“Maybe a few weeks,” she admitted. “Maybe longer. Like a month or even two. I’m actually surprised the lab guys haven’t been breathing down your neck, trying to use you as some kind of test subject.”

I shrugged, picking up the cheeseburger out of the box.

Taking a big bite, I shrugged a second time, glancing at her as I chewed.

“Maybe they wanted to,” I said, speaking through half a mouthful after I swallowed. “Maybe Black won’t let them.”

Frowning, she nodded, her arms still folded.

Again, I could almost hear her thinking.

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