Page 13 of Primal Bonds

“’Kay.” He heard Kyler’s footsteps move into the kitchen.

Evie touched Jace’s arm. He pried opened his eyes to see her holding another glass of water. “You need liquids—you’re burning up. Unless that’s your normal body temperature?”

He shook his head. “Water…good.”

“That’s what I thought.” Again, she slid an arm beneath his shoulders and held the glass to his lips.

After drinking his fill, he rested his head against her shoulder and let his eyes close again. She’d changed into a dry T-shirt—gray with a purple star in center. She stilled and then to his satisfaction, remained where she was. She was a sturdy little thing—the arm around him had a lean strength—but the spot between her shoulder and her breast was soft and comforting. He inhaled deeply, filling his nostrils with her sweet, womanly scent.

His breath sighed out. Tomorrow he’d be embarrassed at how weak he was acting, but right now, he didn’t fucking care. Because he needed this.

“Do you want any more?” The glass nudged his lips.

When he shook his head, she lowered him carefully to the pillow. His cat whined, but both of them were too weak to do anything about it.

Evie came to her feet. He watched through slit lids as she stretched. The hem of her T-shirt rode up to reveal a tan strip of skin above her waistband.

She glanced down and caught him looking, and her eyes flickered. She unhurriedly brought her arms down and straightened the shirt.

“I’m going to see how Kyler’s doing. You’ll be all right for a few minutes, won’t you?”

He nodded. His cat wasn’t happy, but the man told the cat to suck it up.

She touched his shoulder. “Try to rest. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

He listened as her footsteps moved down the hall to the kitchen.

He drew a slow breath. With Evie out of the room, the effects of the iron seemed worse. He touched his abdomen. The salt had neutralized the iron so that it wasn’t still feeding into his bloodstream, but he felt like he’d been run over by a frigging semi.

He’d live, as his soldier mom used to say, but he was in for a rough night while his body worked to eliminate the small amount of iron that had entered his bloodstream. The best thing was to sleep and let his body’s natural healing abilities take over. That would also give his quartz time to reenergize so he could call for help.

He trusted that Evie and her brother would do their best to keep him safe—and trust didn’t come easily to Jace. Even so, he instinctively sized up his surroundings, noting the exits.

The living room ran the length of this side of the narrow house. He was on the single couch, which backed up against an inside wall. The two windows behind him faced the alley, their blinds closed. An air conditioner hummed in one window, which was good, even though his animal preferred fresh air.

Closed windows meant that he couldn’t be scented from the outside. Fae didn’t have any better sense of smell than a human, but they could be working with a fada.

On the other side of the living room, two more windows looked onto a narrow front porch. If he lifted his head, he could see the front door to the left of the windows. The room itself only had a few pieces of furniture. Other than the couch, there was an easy chair, a sturdy oak coffee table, and a bookcase filled with books, DVDs and other knickknacks, and crowned with a large green fern.

Evie returned. She sat on the edge of the couch, careful not to bump him.

“Is there anyone we should call?”

Jace considered that. He shared a den in Baltimore with a handful of other unmated men. They were friends, but they didn’t keep tabs on one another. He wouldn’t be missed until tomorrow morning at the earliest.

Adric was alpha of the Baltimore clan now. He’d be pissed off when he found out Jace was hurt and hadn’t tried to contact him, but the night fae clearly didn’t know where Jace had gone to ground. In fact, calling for help might lead the bastards straight to this house.

“No,” he told Evie.

“Not even your mate?”

“No mate,” he said firmly, and then wondered why he’d told her. As a fada, he couldn’t tell a lie without making himself violently ill, but that didn’t mean he had to answer the human’s questions.

“That’s good.”

He watched, fascinated, as she pinkened. His clan was mostly brown skinned. He hadn’t known someone could blush that easily.

“I mean,” she added, “no one will be worrying about you then.”

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