Page 64 of Dance for the Dragon
Kohl swallowed hard and pulled his hands away from his face. “I’m no good for her.”
“Forget all that for right now, man. You can save her.”
“Why didn’t you do it?” The instinct to claim her had him baring his fangs even as he made the suggestion.
“And have my best friend come in here and rip my head off the moment he smelled my blood inside of her? Or worse?” Hawke laughed without humor. “No thanks.”
“I wouldn’t have done that.”
“Ha! Who the hell do you think you’re fooling? This is me you’re talking to. And this girl is yours, whether you like that idea or not.”
Oh, he liked the idea. He liked it a whole hell of a lot. But… “So you were just gonna let her die? What if I didn’t come back?”
“Then I would have saved her. Of course.” Hawke slapped him on the shoulder. “What the hell are you standing here arguing with me for? Go do your thing. I’ll leave you two alone. We’ll talk after you’ve dealt with this.”
“With her,” Kohl said.
“What?”
“With her,” he repeated. “She’s not some…situation to be dealt with. She’s smart and she’s strong and she’s important to me.”
Hawke gave him a grim smile. “I know she is. That’s why I risked my ass to help her.” He picked up his jacket from the end of the bed. “Come find me when Devon is doing better.”
After he left, Kohl went to her, sitting carefully on the edge of the bed. “Dev. Wake up, honey.” He brushed her hair back off her face. “Come on. Don’t do this to me. Wake up, Devon.”
Her eyelids twitched, then blinked open. She stared at the wall for a few seconds, then slowly turned her head. A smile turned up the corners of her colorless lips. “Hey. You’re back. And you’re okay.”
The woman was half alive and she was worried about him. He released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, bent over, and pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead. Relief flooded through him. Relief so overwhelming, for a few seconds he thought he was going to end up passed out beside her. “I need to ask you something,” he whispered against her soft skin. It was cool and clammy to his lips.
“What’s that?”
Kohl sat up just enough so he could focus on her face, not quite believing he was doing this after everything that had happened, but knowing it was the right thing to do. She deserved to have a choice. He glanced down at the visible bite marks on her arms, glad to see Hawke had washed away most of the blood.
“Kohl?”
He met her tired eyes.
“What did you want to ask me?”
She tried to roll over onto her back, and he scooted over a bit to give her some room, then took her hand between both of his. Bringing it to his mouth, he kissed her fingertips. “I need to ask you what you want me to do.” Words caught in his throat, but he forced them out. “I can take you to a human hospital right now. They’ll be able to help you there. Give you blood. Treat your burn. And you’ll be okay. I can drop you off there and then go get Frank to come stay with you.”
“And what about you? Where would you go? What’s going to happen with your coven?”
“I don’t know,” he told her honestly. “But you would be safe and healthy, and that’s all that really matters to me.” He felt her eyes on him, but he kept his own focused on her hand, so slender and humanly fragile between his own.
“And I wouldn’t see you again,” she deduced.
“No, probably not. If that’s what you wanted.”
“And what’s my other choice?” Her voice broke, and she coughed. “What’s the other choice, Kohl?”
He did look at her then, and he didn’t try to hide from her. Instead, he allowed everything he was feeling in that moment to show through on his face. All of the hope. The longing. The wanting. The dragon stirred deep within, and Kohl didn’t fight it. She needed to see it, too, so she would fully understand what she would be agreeing to. “You can stay here with me, and I can give you my blood. It will heal you. It will more than heal you.”
“And I will stay with you? After?”
He gave her a nod. “And you’ll stay with me.”
“For how long?”
