Page 77 of Silver Claw

He grinned. “Lucy left you a plate on the stove. She and Sam went into town. Joe told me about the ghost you trapped before he went to sleep.”

I carried my heavy plate to the table and sat across from him. “Did he tell you the ghost was a vampire?”

He stared. “You’re not serious.”

I unconsciously rubbed my shoulder, and his eyes tracked the movement. “Vampire ghost,” I murmured. “The only one I’ve ever seen. I need to tell Bastien.”

He leaned forward, his hair sliding over the side of his face. “He bit you,” he said flatly. “Kait, did he bite you?”

I swallowed hard, unsure why I was so reluctant to admit that to him. To anyone, other than Joe. I hadn’t even told Jared. “Yes.”

“Can I see?”

“There’s nothing to see. It didn’t leave a mark. He was a fuckingghost.”My laugh just sounded bitter. “Daywalker bite on the back, vampire ghost bite on the front.”

“You felt him,” he said. Zach was a vampire hunter from way back. He’d grown up in a family of vampire hunters. After he was taken by Frederick Axton and held captive long enough to fuck up his head and nearly kill him, he’d declined to get back in touch with his people once he was free.

It wasn’t my business.

I yanked down the neck of my T-shirt. “Have a look if you want.”

He didn’t hesitate. First he ran his fingers over the back of my shoulder. “The daywalker bite scarred,” he murmured. “Even though you’re a wolf and should have healed it.”

I nodded. “It aches sometimes. Like he left something bad in there. Sometimes I think I should have Doc Hayes take a scalpel to it and see if he can dig anything out.”

His fingers were gentle as he traced the scars. There was no pain. Then he moved his hand over my shoulder and to the front, peering intently at the spot where the ghost had sunk his fangs into my flesh.

“Does it hurt?” he asked.

“Not as badly as it did,” I told him, “but yeah. I still feel some discomfort.”

Ash watched us intently, wagging his tail when I looked at him. “Good baby,” I said. Then to Zach, “You can’t see anything?”

“No. But I can feel something.” His fingers were soothing as he stroked the invisible wound, his brow furrowed.

I said nothing more, because obviously Zach was lost in his thoughts and in the feeling of the injuries, and I was a little curious. His touch became a little firmer as he impatiently pulled the neck of my shirt out of his way, then began wiping at my skin like he was taking a squeegee to shower doors.

Eventually I stretched my shirt enough to take my entire arm out, giving him access to my shoulder without the fabric getting in the way. And when I looked up at him, there was something in his eyes I’d never seen before. I didn’t know what it was, but it looked like Zach wasn’t in there anymore.

His stare was distant, almost blank, and a fine sheen of sweat covered his face. He was exerting himself, but not his body. Not his muscles.

His magic.

I closed my eyes as I remembered something about Zach. Frederick Axton had said that Zach had the mad seer Kaloni’s magic inside him. That was one reason he’d wanted Zach back so desperately.

I’d believed that bad magic had dissipated with the vampire master’s death. His spark was surely needed to keep it alive.

Wasn’t it?

I wanted to ask him what he was doing with those bites, but I kept my silence and let him work. Chances were good that not evenheknew what he was doing. I’d gotten the sense that he was working entirely on instinct and something not-so-natural inside him.

He was drawn to bad vampire magic, but I wasn’t pointing that out. He’d been through enough.

I stared down at my plate of food, thinking about eating while he worked, and just when I reached out to pick up a fat French fry, the slight pain and throbbing of the injury began to change.

I frowned and forgot about the food, a little nervous. “Zach? What’s happening?”

He didn’t respond. I didn’t think he even heard me.