Page 46 of For Love and Blood and Fury

“You know if she can’t heal you, you’re never going to get the hell out of here.” Zuri crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the kitchen doorway. “So you should look a little less like you’re on vacation.”

Elena’s shit-eating grin didn’t dim. She wasn’t showing nearly as much urgency as she should. For a moment, Zuri considered whether Elena would have done this to herself, but the woman couldn’t tolerate weakness. She wouldn’t… Would she?

“Maybe I don’t want to leave,” Elena said after a beat, dark eyes dancing with dangerous light. “Maybe I’m in paradise.”

Zuri laughed. “Oh, yeah, being trapped away from all your overpriced toys is truly the dream.”

“Maybe I’ve got all the toys I need,” she said, gaze fixed and daring.

“You’re going to owe me so fucking big,” Zuri said before turning around and retrieving the glass from the freezer. She had to get away from her arrogant energy. The one making her question too much. “So many zeros,” she shouted over her shoulder.

Elena laughed, reminding her that she knew Zuri didn’t give a single shit about money. She slammed the back door for good measure and walked into the tree line.

On the blanket, Marisol was stretched out, hands on her chest and eyes closed.

“Corpse pose?” Zuri joked, hoping not to scare the shit out of her if she was asleep. Using her power drained her batteries and she guessed it was probably the same for Bambi… even if she hadn’t managed to access it.

Marisol propped herself up on one elbow. Hair pushed back away from her heat-flushed face, her eyes were dazzling in the streaky sunlight. The lightest sheen of sweat covered her skin. God, couldn’t she at least have the decency not to be radiant?

“Here.” Zuri gave her the glass before sitting across from her.

Caught in a beam of sunlight, Marisol’s hazel eyes were a tapestry of green vines and the reddish brown of autumn leaves. “Thanks,” she said softly, like Zuri had given her a kidney rather than a simple glass of water.

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

“Do you think your grandmother knew about your ability?” Zuri asked, gaze on a mango tree across the clearing rather than on Marisol. “We can’t count out your sperm donor parent, but ifyou’re anything like witches and vampires, your gift would have traveled along your matriarchal line.”

“She used to tell me a lot of stories about the women in her family,” she replied after a beat, fingers going immediately to her pendant. “A lot of nurses, midwives,curanderas, that kind of thing.”

“And your grandmother?”

Marisol’s energy brightened, her eyes crinkling when she smiled and making it impossible for Zuri to tear her attention away a second time. “She was the home remedy queen.” Her lips eased into a broad smile. “She had a cure for everything.”

“She might not have known either,” Zuri said half to herself, “but she may have inadvertently passed on bits of knowledge handed down to her. They may be in your memories.”

Understanding turned Marisol’s expression serious. “So you want to do to me what you did to that guy in the hospital?”

Zuri shook her head. “No. It won’t feel like that. It won’t be scary, but you will experience the moments again. If that’s too?—”

“And you think there could be, what? Like, clues?”

Unable to withhold the unfortunate truth, Zuri set it free. “I don’t have any other ideas, Bambi. I don’t know how to teach you something when I don’t even understand it. There’s no?—”

“Okay,” she said before scooting close and sitting crossed-legged in front of her. “Do it.”

Zuri wanted to tell her that she couldn’t be so trusting. Marisol didn’t even know her and she was agreeing without understanding what she was subjecting herself to. How the hell hadn’t she been kidnapped by a stranger with a van?

Marisol set her empty glass aside. “What do you need me to do?”

Taking a deep breath, Zuri prepared herself to regret her idea. She shook out her hands and dried her palms on her thighs.She crossed her legs, knees bumping against Marisol’s when she shifted as close as possible.

“Close your eyes and give me your hands,” Zuri demanded but her stupid voice was too gentle.

Marisol obeyed without the slightest hesitation.She must own every timeshare ever made.

“Relax and think about the strongest memory of your grandmother you have.” Zuri closed her eyes too.

She doubted she’d find anything useful on her first attempt, but she was going to have to get comfortable inside Marisol’s mind if she hoped to find what they needed. She was going to have to know it as well as she knew Elena’s—a price she’d begrudgingly pay because she was a Class A simp who never learned her damn lessons.

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