Page 5 of Bad Medicine

“What the hell happened inhere?”

“I encountered a savage angel.”

He stood and went to mydoorless closet, then returned with a soft, thick hoodie, which he proceeded todress me in. “An angel.” He wasn’t even shocked. He’d been around me too longfor that.

“Yeah. Apparently one who losthis halo a long time ago.”

“Demon blade?” he asked.

“It hurt him. I think he wentoff to heal. I don’t think I killed him.” His blood had still been on thegleaming blade when I’d tucked it into the drawer. “They’re flesh and blood tome,” I told Rick. “I can feel them, see them, hear them.”

He held out a hand and helpedme to my feet. “Them?”

“There’s a female, too. She’smy…friend.”

We fell into silence, standingface to face. At five ten, I was nearly as tall as him. “How’d you know I wasin trouble?” I asked, finally.

“Lucy called me. I got here asfast as I could.”

Funny. I’d expected her to callJared. He’d have come, just as Rick had come. In the not so back corner of mymind was the lingering knowledge of how very sad it was to be alive. Thefutility of life, really, and the dark depression that came with thatknowledge. Yes, I’d given it to Nicole, but I’d taken it from her, as well, andthough it wasn’t as crushing as it had been, there was still the memory of it.And it was harsh.

I was torn between desperationto forget and a grim realization that nothing really mattered, and I wasterrified that whatever it was I’d plucked from Nicole would never completelyleave me. It was that desperation that made me lean forward, raise my face tothe detective’s, and press my lips to his.

It was a tentative kiss. Maybeit wouldn’t have mattered who it was that stood there. Maybe I’d have kissedwhoever I could have touched, seeking life, seeking forgetfulness. Seekingsomething pure.

Maybe.

He ran his hands up my arms tomy shoulders and held me there as he tilted his face and moved his lips againstmine, slow and quiet, like a dance, and the shadows inside me began to meltaway beneath the sweet heat of that kiss.

The heavy sound of footstepshurrying through the house didn’t cause him to pull away, but they did me. Hekept his hands on my upper arms as we stood silently looking at each other, andthere was something in his eyes that said he wasn’t sure what was going on, buthe didn’t give a damn. He wasn’t going to complicate a kiss with useless worry.

His eyes sparkled, and thecorners of his lips lifted just a little. Just enough. “I might need that angelto come kick your ass again,” he murmured.

I returned his smile as Joestomped into the room, followed by Lucy and Ash. “It’s a sad fucking day,” Joebellowed, “when I leave for one damn minute and you get yourself beat up by aghost.”

And finally, Rick dropped hishands, though his stare lingered. “She’s good, Joe.”

“Kait will always be good,”Lucy said, but there was something a little sad in her voice. “Mostly,” sheadded.

“I haven’t had breakfast yet,”I said, as Ash barreled into me almost hard enough to knock me over. The littleguy was getting chunky. Then he trotted over to my bedside table and begansniffing at the closed drawer, drawn by the scent of angel blood on the blade.

“The neighbors called thecops,” Joe said.

“And they’re full ofcomplaints,” Lucy added.

I nodded. “We’re going to haveto move. Now everybody out so I can get cleaned up and get some food in mebefore I pass out.” I wondered if they heard the lingering tears and pain in myvoice.

They stayed a few minutes more,no one asking questions but all of them peering at me and threatening to callDr. Hayes. Really, though, they’d all seen me in bad shape, and as long as Iwas standing unassisted and talking about food, they knew I was okay.

Finally, I stood in my bathroomand stared into the full-length mirror at my battered body, cataloguingspreading purple bruises and tender lumps and dull pains as I unbraided myhair. I gazed at the bite mark on my breast, but that wasn’t from the angel.That was from the alpha, and it would remain there forever—unless he diedbefore I did, or rejected and banished me as he had Lennon. He’d marked me asI’d marked him, each of us claiming something from the other. Forever? Maybe.But it wasn’t going to be a normal forever.

Two alphas couldn’t have anormal forever.

Nothing about my life was evergoing to be normal, and I was okay with that. The awful depression had liftedand the memory of the futility of life had eased and gentled to a manageablelevel. It would soon slink away and hide in the deep shadows where I wouldn’thave to look at it again.

I groaned as I climbed into thewarm wetness of the shower stall, sighing as the water caressed my aching bodyand relaxed my sore muscles.

I’d fought an angel and I’d notonly survived, but I’d sent him back to his mysterious heaven without Nicole. Shewas my angel, and I was her wolf. I’d protect her as well as I could, even ifthat meant fighting the brutal angel who wanted her.