Page 83 of Roman

“Watch yourself,” Luc chided mildly.

“Am I wrong?” Danny was on a roll now. “You want to know if your person could still be out there. I get it. But if you kill me before Roman gets here, he’ll kill you, and you’ll never find out for sure.”

“If I kill you, and it turns out they’re not real, I’ll be glad to let him.” Luc said the words so quietly Danny almost didn’t catch them.

And there it was. Luc was still desperate for a mate.

“If you let yourself go completely, become feral, it won’t matter if they’re real. You’ll be lost before you ever find yours. Is vengeance really worth that?”

Luc cocked his head, but maybe he heard something outside the warehouse, because he only seemed half-focused on Danny. “You’ve got a point there.” He paused a beat longer, listening to something Danny couldn’t hear. Then he smiled, fangs glinting, and focused back on Danny. “Still, I should give Roman one last little gift, hm?”

Then Luc was on him, and the world around Danny blurred. A sharp sting, and then Danny felt like his blood was boiling. Like he was being burned alive from the inside out. He tried to scream, but all he could manage was a whimper.

The last thing he heard before the world turned to black was a cry of rage.

It sounded like heartbreak.

twenty

Danny

Fear.Worry.Guilt.Worry.Rage. Worry.

Danny opened his eyes. He stared at the ceiling above him slowly coming into focus, much lower than the one from the warehouse. And he was no longer on a hard cement floor but in a comfortable bed. His own bed—he could smell the familiar scent of his detergent, as well as hints of himself and Roman.

Danny felt…different. He was having a hard time coming back to himself. How had he gotten here? He tried to remember.

Danny could remember…pain. First the sharp pain of traumatic wounds from the crash. Right, he’d been in a car crash. That was coming back to him. But that earlier pain was overshadowed by the last moments he remembered, after Luc had pounced.

“Danny.” Roman’s voice, husky and strained, broke through Danny’s remembrances.

Roman was here.

Danny sat up quicker than he should have been able to, turning to look to the side. Roman had a chair pulled up to the edge of the bed and was leaning forward, hands clasped tightly together on his knees. Looking at his vampire, Danny realized he had never seen Roman look truly miserable before. The vampire’s normally pristine suit was wrinkled and covered in dirt and other sketchy bits that looked suspiciously like dried blood. His straight dark hair was mussed, and his blue eyes were rimmed in red.

Had Danny’s vampire been crying?

“Hi,” Danny greeted a little lamely. He’d expected his voice to come out as a croak, but he didn’t sound even the slightest bit hoarse. Danny sounded…refreshed. Taking mental stock, hefeltrefreshed. Which was odd. His whole body should have been one big ache. He should have been in the hospital, especially after Luc had…had…

Luc hadbittenhim.

Asshole.

Danny lifted a hand to his throat, pressing his fingers along the side, but he couldn’t feel anything unusual there—no gaping wound, no tender, bruised skin.

“Where is he?” Danny asked.

“He’s…contained. You’re safe.” Roman didn’t have to ask who Danny meant by “he.”

Danny eyed Roman, trying to see any obvious injuries, resisting the urge to leap out of bed and into his lover’s arms. Roman sounded worried. He looked worried. Hefeltworried. The demon inside him was restless, concerned about his mate—concerned about Danny.

Hold up.

Danny really couldfeelRoman’s worry. He closed his eyes and focused on the strange sensation, a part of Danny but also not. Worry. Anger. And love. So much love for Danny that it was overwhelming in its intensity.

Danny opened his eyes in time to see Roman looking momentarily stunned by the wide grin Danny suddenly couldn’t help. “I can feel you,” Danny explained, awe in his voice.

Roman nodded, and there was a spike of another emotion—shame, maybe?—flaring up through their connection. “I can feel you too, little king. It’s an effect of the mate bond, I think. Now that it’s been…solidified.”

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