Page 51 of Midwinter Night's Prince

“Whatever I do, her blood goes back to the exact state it was in to begin with.”

Seth wished he’d paid more attention in biology. Although that might not have helped keeping up with the most educated healer in the entire world.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake.” Alexius shook his head in disgust. “She’s immortal, you idiot.” After a moment, he added, “Well, as I said, I’d need to conduct further tests. There’s a chance the situation’s temporary, I suppose—but Chloe still has nanocytes from Jack’s father, and it’s been almost two years. There are concerns; I see other changes…” he trailed off. “That I should discuss with Blair first, you understand.”

Concerns. There were concerns. And Alexius wasn’t telling him.

“I think I hate you.”

The ancient laughed. “Dude, I’m your only friend, and you know it.”

Seth flipped him the bird. “Eat your food, asshole.”

27

MORTALLY DIVINE

Five more minutes. She could stay in peace five more minutes, then she'd open her eyes. The prospect of reuniting with Seth's incredible bathtub and his array of scented bubble baths and salts made the thought of greeting the day a little less painful.

“You snore.”

She groaned into her pillow before peeking over her covers.

Seth was lounging on the same armchair he'd claimed the previous day, his annoyingly fast fingers solving and scrambling a Rubik's cube faster than her eyes could discern. Show off. Velvet happily lounged at his feet, the traitor.

"What time is it?" She had no clue when they'd arrived the previous day—sometime in the morning, presumably. She'd gone to bed in the early evening, but she'd be hard-pressed to guess for how long she'd passed out. It could easily have been an hour or three days.

Closer to three days, if the smell in her mouth was to be believed.

He glanced at his watch. "Nine. Alexius analyzed Velvet yesterday. He's quite healthy, but it's unlikely he'll ever grow any bigger, at least without spells. If you want to alter his appearance, Greer might be your best bet to try to concoct something."

Blair sat up and shook her head. "If he's healthy, that's all that matters." She stretched with a yawn. "What did I miss?"

"Greer ironed out the kinks of the spell she'll use to link us in the middle of the night—Alexius forced her to go to sleep before attempting to perform it. She said she'd text when she's up."

It made sense; performing magic while exhausted was a terrible idea. Blair was glad not to have missed it. "She doesn't have my new number." Blair frowned. "I need to see if I can reconnect my old phone."

The administrative problem felt incredibly mundane. She was looking forward to a time when all she had to worry about was her mobile phone subscription.

"She doesn't have mine, either." After a moment, he added, "Alexius wants to speak to you; he finished analyzing your blood, too."

Blair caught a change in Seth's voice; she zeroed in on him. "Anything bad?"

"He hasn't told me much; he wanted to respect your privacy. For now, your cells seem to regenerate like mine would. Aphrodite provided you with protection—potentially more. He didn't say anything else." Seth unfolded his legs and got up. "I'll run you a bath, shall I? We can make our way to Alexius's lab. Greer's most likely conducting her research there in any case. We can be there when she wakes up."

Blair finally dragged herself out of bed. "I can run the bath. Thanks, Seth."

He nodded and left the room, taking some of her peace with him.

Blair felt safer when he was close by. More comfortable. It had to have to do with the part of his soul inside her; it recognized him and mourned his absence.

She had no other reason to want him close. Seth had always unsettled her, and to an extent he still did. She'd gotten to know him a little better, but what she knew was intimidating.

Seth was the son of Zeus. There, she'd allowed herself to spell the it all out, if only in her mind. She'd seen him burn his way through half a dozen vampires in a fraction of a second. That sort of power was larger than life, incomprehensible, even after witnessing it. No one should be that strong. The thought of him at Aveka's service petrified her, and she was the one thing in the world who could prevent that fate. But then what? If all went well and Aveka was finally vanquished, Seth would still exist and represent a threat like no other to this world.

If Seth ever wanted to wipe out a country for fun, he could.

She lowered herself into the bathtub, her mind turning over all the ways this vampire-demigod was a threat to life. What if he got high someday? What if he grew bored and went insane in a few centuries, like most immortals eventually did?

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