Page 14 of Primal Bonds

“No,” he agreed. “No one will worry.” And for a moment that seemed so fucking sad. He tightened his jaw. Hell, in another minute he was going to be tearing up like a girl. “I’ll leave in the morning.” By then he should be well enough to slip away without anyone being the wiser.

“Okay, sure.” Her relief was clear, but she hurried to add, “If you feel up to it, I mean.”

“I’ll leave,” he repeated grimly.

Evie took out her phone. “You mind if I play some music?”

“Go right ahead.”

She tapped the screen and set the phone on the coffee table. Music filled the room, a soothing mix of nature sounds, flutes and drums that sounded like something he’d heard coming out of a yoga studio in downtown Baltimore.

His lids drifted shut.

“Go to sleep,” Evie said. “You’re safe. Kyler didn’t see anyone outside.”

He nodded. No sense explaining that a night fae could blend into the shadows even better than a fada. Because the night fae was gone for now—Jace’s skin would’ve been crawling if he were near. The assassins’ orders would’ve been to get in and out quickly, standard operating procedure.

Besides, the remaining night fae—because he suspected there had been three altogether—had to remove their fallen comrade before he was found by a human, or worse, by one of the local fada. The Rock Run alpha would be furious to find a night fae in his territory—dead or alive.

Evie grabbed a laptop and sat in the easy chair at the foot of the couch. She folded her legs tailor-style and frowned at the screen.

Jace studied her profile through half-open eyes. She was…fascinating.

Thin but sturdy, with clearly defined muscles on her upper arms. Her platinum hair was cut short as a man’s and she had those strong dark brows, but her cheek had a soft curve that could only belong to a woman. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, but her earlobe was pierced by a delicate gold hoop from which dangled a silver disc.

Evie touched the screen, scrolling through a document.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Writing a paper for my biology class.” She started typing. “It’s due next week.”

“You’re in school, then.” He swallowed a touch of envy.

No one in his clan had been to a human college, but it wasn’t unheard of. As a teenager, Jace had already been studying the clan’s quartz technology, and he’d have loved to major in physics and IT at one of the local universities.

But the clan had been in the midst of the Darktime, the bloody internal war that had come to a head in his late teens. He’d been too busy surviving to even think of going to college.

“Yeah. I just started back, but I’m going to be an LPN.” She slanted him a grin. “I just thought of something—you’re my first patient. You can’t die on me. That would be too effing wrong.”

He stared, entranced, at the dimple that winked to life in her right cheek. Just as quickly, it was gone. He wanted to keep watching her, but his eyelids drooped.

Outside, rain was falling again, a soothing patter against the windows.

“I’ll do my best,” he muttered and slid into sleep.

Evie glanced at the sleeping shifter. His color looked a little better now, and he seemed to be breathing normally.

Relieved, she turned her attention back to her paper. When you worked two jobs and went to school, you learned to focus whenever you could snatch the time. In fifteen minutes, she had the first couple pages written.

Kyler returned to report that he’d washed down the whole area behind the house, even the alley as far as the hose could reach. “Of course, Mrs. Linney came outside and asked what I was doing washing the steps in the rain.” He flopped down on the floor and took a gulp from a can of soda.

Evie shut her laptop. “You didn’t tell her—”

“Yeah, right.” Kyler gave her the kind of look only a teenager could give. “She’d broadcast it to the entire frigging block. I told her I spilled my soda and you’d be pissed off if I left it until morning. Ants, you know. And then it started raining harder again, so I probably didn’t need to bother.”

Evie gave him a thumbs-up. “Quick thinking, squirt.”

“I hate it when you call me that,” he grumbled, but she could tell he was pleased at the compliment.

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