Page 49 of The Fate of Black Hearts

Dom didn’t respond when she shook him. He was out.

She glanced up. “Help me get him to the car where I can bandage this.”

“Helping him any further is a bad idea.” Efrem crossed his arms.

“He’s coming with us.”

She reached down to pick him up, but Efrem moved her aside to hoist Dom onto his shoulder. “I’ll get him. You can barely walk.”

“I’m fine,” she gritted out as she limped behind him.

“The hell you are. Everything about this was the height of stupidity.”

Efrem practically threw Dom in the back seat.His glare threw more bitter attitude her way than she’d ever received from him.

He tossed their emergency bag at her. “Bandage him quickly. Then clean up your foot.”

Once done securing Dom’s wounds, she climbed into the passenger seat next to Efrem and worked on her foot. Her natural healing ability had already stopped the bleeding, but it was a nasty wound. Poison always took longer to heal.

“Where are we dropping him?” Efrem asked. “I want him out of our car and out of your life once and for all.”

Evie bit her lip and stared at Dom. That creature in there had kicked his ass and almost killed him. Did this happen often? Her heart wept for the solitary pain he must endure. “We take him home. It’ll be okay.”

“Home? As in our home? Since when do we bring home unknowns like this?”

“He’s not unknown.”

“Things like him like to kill creatures like us.”

“That was two centuries ago when lycans fought mages. He helped us before.”

“Why did he help us? What’s going on, Evie? You don’t play with a pit viper unless you’re okay getting bitten. I’m dumping him somewhere.”

“No.”

“What will he do when he wakes up somewhere unexpected?” He gripped the steering wheel so hard she worried he’d leave finger indents. “Tell me why your life is interwoven with that mage. I don’t trust him.” He glared at her.

She scowled back.

“If we take him home, he will be waking upalone just in case he wakes up poorly. I’ll be in the hallway with all my weapons trained on him and ready. If he so much as twitches wrong, I’m vaporizing him. I won’t allow him to kill you inadvertently.”

“He wouldn’t hurt me. We just saved his life.”

“We did enough for him today. I almost got spiked to death by some mystical serpent creature. You almost lost a foot.”

She shifted to focus on Efrem, who looked atypically ruffled. His hair was even out of place, when he never allowed the strands to deviate. “I’m sorry I dragged you into this.”

Without shifting his gaze from the road, he took her hand in his. “What is it with you and this guy?”

She wondered at his tone. Jealousy wasn’t normal for him. “There are some things I can’t easily explain and don’t understand yet myself. He’s one of them.” She squeezed Efrem’s hand. “Tell me your concern doesn’t indicate a shift in your preferences. Assure me this isn’t about sexual attraction. As in between you and me.”

“I do love you, you know. Why else would I put up with your crazy?”

“You love my kind of crazy. You thrive on it. Tell me nothing has changed.” She massaged her forehead. “We’re too old for awkward sexual shit. If things have changed and you’re feeling the urge to get naked with me on the full moon, we need to discuss it.”

He smirked. “My cock still only rises for creatures with dangling bits, love. Although at your ripe old age, those breasts of yours may start todangle.”

She whacked him in the shoulder. “You’re jealous of Dom.”