King's Gambit (15 page)

“At least you didn’t destroy the entire estate,” said Khalil.

He had arrived less than a minute ago and already had his arms crossed as he stared at the rubble in disapproval. I ignored him in favor of gathering up Zhen’s ashes and mourning the loss of a perfectly good pair of heels. I mean, the dress was a goner already, but those shoes were practically new. Next time an evil sorceress asked for my clothes, she was getting old shit.

Khalil looked around. “Where’s the other woman?”

“In the house,” said Alex. “I wonder how the king is going to react when he finds out another member of his inner circle was assassinated.”

“To be fair,” I said, coming over to stand with them, “Zhen’s people assassinated Robert, so…”

“So?”

I thought hard, then shrugged. “I have no freakin’ idea. I’ve been electrocuted so badly my heart stopped, had half my face torn off, my blood drained, and summoned up a mini blizzard – I think that buys me a few loony points.”

“How do you explain your behavior the rest of the time, then?” Alex and Khalil asked at the same time.

I looked between them. “That was creepy. And rude. You know, no one is going to notice two more piles of ash in all this mess.”

Khalil smirked. “Would you really burn such a pretty face?”

“Look at my face,” I said flatly. “Do you think that’s going to stop me?”

“To be honest, I’m trying not to look at your face,” he said. “No offense, my dear, but that looks rather nasty. Can you heal it?”

“It’ll be fine. I’d rather not drain any more magic than I need to. Anyway, without a magical advisor, the vampires will probably need to
CSI
this shit up, right? What are the chances this’ll come back to haunt us?”

“It won’t,” said Khalil. “The boss will take care of that tomorrow night. Now, however, we should return to Manhattan before the sun does to me what you just threatened to do personally, though I’m still certain you couldn’t bring yourself to destroy such a fine specimen.”

12

We sat on my couch as Alex held my charred arm, turning it around to fully inspect the damage. The marks that had been deep gouges in my skin were now healed, leaving light pink marks criss-crossed over my forearm.

He twined our fingers together and kissed my temple. “You know, after hearing about how you broke into Wright’s safe, I'm beginning to think you have an addiction to this kind of stuff.”

“Sticks and stones, whips and chains.” I gave him a wink. “I think I’m building up a tolerance. That’s always good, right?”

“Don’t the nerves regenerate to new? I don’t think that builds a tolerance.”

I tapped my temple, and he pressed another kiss to the spot, making me giggle. “I mean it’s a mind over matter situation or something. Because that’s totally how it works.”

“I don’t like it when you get hurt,” he said softly. “If I’d been faster–”

“You would have been able to dodge a super-fast knife thrown from someone standing a foot away?” I scoffed and pecked his cheek. “You’re impressive, but not that impressive. I don’t like seeing you hurt, either, you know. Especially since
you
can’t regenerate. Leave the fatal injuries to me, okay?”

“How about neither of us get fatally injured?”

I pouted. “That’s no fun.”

“Morgan.”

“Fine,” I groaned good-naturedly. “On one condition.”

“I’m afraid to ask,” he said with a soft laugh.

I grinned, butterflies fluttering around my stomach at how wonderful, how
normal
, this was. “Then don’t ask. My condition stands, though.” The smile left me and I turned to face him head-on, cupping his cheek. “You were hurt. Really hurt. All healing magic does is speed up the body’s natural healing process, and it doesn’t extend to mental exhaustion. You still need to rest in order to fully recover. Hell, even
I
need rest to restore my mind after being injured.”

It was a longer version of what he’d said to me back in Dovesport after I’d exhausted myself healing my father, and I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a feeling of smug satisfaction at being able to throw his words back at him. I’m petty that way.

“Morgan–”

“No,” I said firmly, waving my index finger at him for good measure. “Exhaustion seeps into the soul. You know those days when you can’t even pull yourself out of bed? My magic heals the physical, not the mental.”

“There are–”

“No.”

“But–”

It was cruel, but I poked his chest right where he’d been stabbed. Alex reeled back with a pained grunt as I pushed him to lie on his back. “I think I’ve made my point.”

“Yeah,” he groaned. “You’re mean.”

I peppered his face with kisses to appease him. He made a half-hearted attempt to bat me away before pulling me flat against him and kissing me senseless. I shrieked and spent about three seconds trying to push him off before giving in.

“I feel like I got hit by a bus,” I said when we finally pulled apart for air. “And I’m in the midst of super-healing.”

It was true. Alex’s presence made everything a thousand times better, but physically, I felt like crap. There were angry stripes on my leg that matched the wounds on my arm, a giant bite mark covering my neck and shoulder, and a litany of other scrapes and bruises over the rest of me. Despite that, I’d gladly suffer through three times the pain if it meant I could take his away.

He ran his hands up and down my sides. “You said your heart stopped.”

“The first time I saw you,” I said with another wink. “No. Well, yeah, but that’s not what I meant. When Zhen hit me with her electro-whip, the world went blank. Like, everything stopped. It felt like death, or what I imagine death to feel like.”

With a heavy sigh, he hugged me to his chest, the rhythm of his heart soothing to my ears. “You must be…exhausted.”

“Is that really the best word you can think of?” I chuckled. “Kind of, I guess. I feel stronger than before. Not now, just in general. A few months ago, that much damage coupled with all the magic I used would have knocked me clean out, but here I am. I could lie here, put a movie on, and stay up for another hour or two. I don’t know, it’s not like I didn’t face this kind of shit before. I wonder if I’m stronger than I used to be or if I’m back to the way I was and just don’t realize it.”

“I don’t know what you were like before,” he said, “but you’re certainly formidable now. And if you’re stronger, well, that’s not really a bad thing, is it?”

“I guess…” I tugged gently on his hair; introspection could wait. “Please rest. For me?”

Alex looked at me for what felt like an hour before speaking in a gentle voice. “I know how to take care of myself. You have a really hard time trusting people, you know that?”

“Yeah,” I said with a rueful smile. “And water’s wet, geese swim, and so on. We’re trained to operate on our own, and with all my baggage…”

“You’re not that bad.”

“I have a mysterious uber-sorceress mother who vanished when I was four, a father I’ve been estranged from for eighteen years who I just started to get to know again after thinking he sent me away because he hated me, a werewolf half-brother, a creepy vampire who looks like my mother and wants to unleash literal Hell on Earth–”

He kissed me. “So, your life is a little complicated.”

“A little?”

“…On a grand, cosmic scale. I’m here for you, though. You don’t have to carry all that baggage alone.”

My teeth dug into the soft flesh of my lip as I fought back tears. “Jerk.”

“Is that shorthand for ‘I love you’?”

“Maybe.” I stopped my tugging in favor of running my fingers through his soft strands, watching with a smile as the night’s events took their toll and Alex’s eyes fluttered shut. “I love you,” I whispered, rolling off him as gently as possible.

My phone vibrated on the table just as I finished covering him with a blanket, and I hurried to grab it. What was the point of a “silent” mode if the damn thing went off like an earthquake?

“Hello?”

“It’s Khalil, dear. Just checking in.”

“We’re okay.” I climbed halfway up the stairs and sat down. It was far enough for me not to disturb Alex, but close enough to be able to keep an eye on him. “Tired, though. You? Is everything taken care of?”

“I’ve informed Sir Castinus. He should have a cleaner there first thing tomorrow night.”

“Marcus still has cleaners on his payroll?”

“Not the official ones. Freelancers,” he said. “I also visited Elise to give her the samples.”

“Tell her I have a half-charred shirt and some ripped jeans with Zhen’s – and Julia’s – blood on them if she wants.”

Mirth colored his words as he spoke. “I’m sure she will.”

“Have you two known each other long?”

“Since Sir Castinus hired me. Almost three months.”

“Do you get together often?”

“Is that jealously I hear, my dear?”

“That rhymed, and so I cannot take it seriously,” I said, rising as Alex stirred. He settled down a moment later, but I stayed standing up just in case he needed me. “I was just wondering how well you two knew each other, is all.” See, this is why I didn’t make small talk – even my cooking outranked my speech stat.

“Well, I
am
Dorian’s father, so…”

I dropped back down. “What?”

Khalil’s laughter filtered into my ear. “Of course not. Dorian wasn’t even
born
. At least, that’s what Elise said the one time I managed to coax her into speaking of it.”

I crept back downstairs despite the protests of every bone in my body, and rummaged around for the alcohol Alex hid. Okay, “put away.” Whatever. “When you say ‘wasn’t even born,’ do you mean he was created? Or is this some weird kind of space-time anomaly situation?”

“How would I know, dear? That was all Elise ever said about the boy. Ask her if you want to know more,” he said. I imagined that conversation and shuddered, taking a swig of whiskey straight from the bottle. “That reminds me, how did you know – Julia, was it? – was one of the assassins that attacked Franklin?”

“I didn’t
know
. Until she attacked me, then I was sure.” Another swig. God, this shit is good. “She was limping and appeared to have an abdominal injury. Also, she looked like I kicked her puppy. Or her, I guess. It wasn’t a big shock; I knew something was off about Zhen.”

“Really? You found fault with the dragon lady?”

“Your intense sarcasm is noted,” I said, glancing over at Alex’s sleeping form. Aw, I forgot how cute he is when he sleeps.

“And how did she go from glaring at you to stabbing your lover?”

“She said something to Zhen in Mandarin, then she threw the knife. Then, she died.”

“Has anyone told you how riveting a storyteller you are?”

“No.”

“Good.”

“Jerk.”

“Such cruel words,” he said. “Do you know what Julia said in Mandarin?”

“No, sorry.” I shook the bottle, frowning at the last inch of liquid inside. A bottle in two sittings. Probably not a good thing. I downed the remains before continuing. “It was strange. Zhen implied that she had other people living with her, but no one else joined the fray.”

“Were two opponents not enough for you?” he joked.

“Compared to some of the fights I’ve been in these last few months, two is negligible.”

“I’ve heard some people collect stamps, perhaps you should try that instead.”

I laughed, immediately clamping a hand over my mouth so as not to wake Alex. “Knowing my luck, I’ll end up attracting the attention of a psycho, half werewolf, half fae stamp collector who’ll end up going on a killing spree throughout the city.”

“Fae,” he said, and I could practically hear him shudder. “Nasty creatures. Might I recommend moving before that happens? Or letting me know so
I
can move.”

“You’ll be first on my list,” I said dryly.

“Splendid. Now, as lovely as this has been, darling, I can feel the pull of the sun tugging at my bones. I’m afraid I must bid you adieu. Do make sure to visit Elise tomorrow and see what she’s found. Not too early, though – she’s rather grumpy when she first wakes up.”

“I know the feeling,” I mumbled.

“Um… How are you?” I asked, looking at the child across from me with unease.