Page 19 of For Love and Blood and Fury

Zuri laughed, pressing a kiss to Elena’s shoulder. “What? Did you challenge him to a duel?”

“Something like that.” Elena’s lips curved into a wicked grin. “I was sailing from Havana to New Orleans when we were attacked. You should have seen this asshole when he came onto my boat, all beard and bluster. The way people smelled then, Z, you can’t possibly imagine it.” Murder always brought out a certain terrifying glint in Elena’s eyes. “But he had good taste in jewelry.”

Zuri traced the intricate filigree patterns on the ring, imagining Elena facing down a bloodthirsty pirate. It was easy to picture her, fearless and fierce, taking what she wanted. She’d seen her do it a hundred times before. But it didn’t mean Zuri didn’t know the story was absolute bullshit. She’d probably found the ring among her many pieces of jewelry and made up a story to amuse her.

“Keep it,” Elena said, slipping the ring onto Zuri’s middle finger. “It suits you.”

Zuri admired the ring, the garnet glowing like a drop of blood against her skin. It felt warm, alive, as if it held a little piece of Elena herself.

“I love it,” Zuri whispered, unwilling to stop the tenderness blooming in her chest.

Elena leaned in, her lips brushing against Zuri’s. “I love you,” she whispered back, her voice a low, seductive pull igniting Zuri’s skin.

In that moment, surrounded by the warmth of Elena’s body and the intoxicating scent of her skin, Zuri believed her. Believed that their love could conquer anything. Believed that they would be together forever. But forever didn’t mean the same thing to both of them.

“Hospital?” Candela’s voice ripped her out of the memory. “The fuck is a vampire doing in a human hospital?”

“Raiding the blood supply?” Avani guessed.

Zuri’s eyes snapped open. Elena’s ring had landed on the open map of Miami before Zuri missed the weight of it in her hand. It pointed to the largest public hospital in Miami.

Elena hated humans. She much preferred witch blood to human. Why the hell would she be in a place teeming with people?

Zuri’s jaw clenched, her pulse quickening as a wave of conflicting emotions washed over her. Worry, anger, and a deep, unsettling fear twisted in her gut. She should walk away. Let Elena deal with her own shit. But the thought of Elena, alone and maybe even vulnerable... It was unbearable.

Long after Avani and Candela had left, Zuri was still staring at the map. Still deciding what she should do. Well, that wasn’t true. She knew exactly what sheshoulddo. She should tell Elena’s pets where she was and walk away from a mess she hadn’t made.

But Zuri couldn’t bring herself to do it. Everything about their situation was wrong. Elena couldn’t just disappear without a trace. And for her nest of dedicated killers to just be sitting there lifeless instead of out searching for her… Something wasoff. There was something she wasn’t seeing, and the only person she trusted was herself.

“Fucking Elena,” she muttered to herself before deciding to go to the hospital alone. To do the same stupid thing Elena would do if it was her who was missing. Well, not exactly the same. Elena wouldn’t have wasted time pretending she wouldn’t dismantle the building until she found her.

Chapter Twelve

“Well,Jane Doe can’t stay in the ER forever.” The voice was male and unfamiliar, filtering into Elena’s ears through closed curtains and the discordant beeps and groans of her hellish prison.

Closing her eyes, she strained to hear Marisol’s reply. The act of listening shouldn’t be so depleting. “We should run more diagnostic?—”

“She's already been here for over twenty-four hours. And just like I told you at the end of your shift yesterday, she should be in a skilled nursing facility. There is nothing we can do from a medical standpoint without a diagnosis. There is nothing to treat, Lopez.”

“So then admit her,” Marisol shot back.

Even from the other side of the ER, Elena felt Marisol’s ire like an earthquake. Marisol didn’t want to let her go. She was even jeopardizing that reputation she cared so much about. Amused, Elena kept an ear trained on Marisol’s argument. She wasn’t backing down. A surprising deviation from the sweet persona she projected.

With the disposable lighter she’d pilfered from the daytime nurse, Elena went back to melting the end of a plastic toothbrushinto a fine point. Old memories had returned to her. Not in clear pictures, but vague senses that she couldn’t look at too closely or they’d disappear. The more she recalled, the more acutely she felt the wrongness of being on her own. She was injured and cornered and alone.

There was a violence in being severed from her kind. She felt it in the deepest recesses of her soul. Knew it to be true even if she couldn’t remember her clan. There was more missing than her memory and strength, and she had an overwhelming need to be complete.

Unsure that she could fight with nothing but her fangs and upper body, she’d busied her mind and hands with creating sharp weapons out of the hygiene kit that had been dropped next to her untouched plate of revolting human food.

It had been a long time since she’d eaten food, but she didn’t remember it being so… gelatinous. And why was it all so beige?

After adding the toothbrush to the comb and plastic knife already secreted in her hideous and insulting no-slip socks, Elena tried to listen for Marisol again. She couldn’t hear her. Had she won her battle? Elena didn’t have time to wait and find out, but she imagined Marisol’s freckled cheeks flushed with indignation while she addressed some superior.

How far would she push to keep Elena? The thought filled her with an unfamiliar tenderness she shoved aside.

The tray of food next to her bed made it impossible to stop thinking about feeding. She wasn’t hungry, but blood might help her body fight whatever was slowing her healing. Leeches had also crossed her mind, but they’d fallen out of favor so long ago. She didn’t expect to find them in a human hospital. A shame. She’d always loved what they did for her skin.

With as much effort as it had taken the first time, Elena endured the agony sparking up the left side of her body and got to the wheelchair. This time, she’d been able to bear the slightestamount of weight on her right leg. Enough that she landed in the chair when she tumbled out of the bed rather than the floor.

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