Page 40 of My Funny Demon Valentine
“Tell me.”
She sighed. “After that shooting at the club. I thought I handled it okay, but I guess I didn’t.”
Ash frowned. He’d heard of humans having adverse psychological reactions to traumatic stimuli, but he hadn’t considered that she’d find what had happened at that nightclub traumatic. No one had died. There hadn’t been a single decapitation.
Well, besides that gargoyle, but Eva didn’t know that.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I... I think I hallucinated some weird shit.”
“Oh.”
“I shouldn’t have told you that,” Eva said quickly. “It’s just, my mom gave me this huge lecture on how I should be honest because that’s the way to build a strong foundation for a relationship— Not saying we have a relationship or anything! Wow, I’m really putting my foot in it here. But she said that since you were there, you might relate to what I’m going through, but really, please forget I said anything—”
“It’s okay. I don’t know if I can help though. I didn’t hallucinate anything.”
She laughed weakly. “I figured you didn’t. You seem like a pretty unshakeable guy.”
“I’ve seen a lot.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” No way was he elaborating on that. “So, what did you hallucinate?”
“You’re going to think I’m crazy.”
“Probably.”
“Then I’m definitely not telling you!”
“Crazy is good, Eva. I like crazy.” Shit, he really sounded like a sap.
“Yeah?” But her tone had softened, so it was worth it.
“Yeah. So, tell me.”
“Don’t judge me, okay?”
“Spit it out.”
“Fine. Here goes nothing. Remember how you carried me outside?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I could have sworn I saw you get shot first. Like a bunch of times. I even remember seeing blood all over you.”
He winced. He had been shot a bunch of times. And there had been blood all over him. But thanks to his curse, he hadn’t felt a thing, so he’d been able to ignore it easily. And he wasn’t about to explain to Eva that he could get shot a bunch of times in the back and keep running. Then she’d know for sure he wasn’t human.
Really, the worst part had been when Meph had picked the bullets out of his back later that night. He’d talked the whole time, and it was annoying as hell.
“Oh. Uh, that’s weird,” Ash said lamely. “Pretty sure I’d know if I’d been shot.”
“Yeah.” She snorted. “I doubt you’d have just kept running either.”
“Probably not.” But now his head was spinning as he tried to recall what had happened. The gargoyle-in-human-form had opened fire on him, so he’d scooped Eva up and gotten the hell out of dodge. He remembered leaping off the bar and walls to clear the crowds of scrambling humans.
Shit.She thought she had hallucinated all that, and he wasn’t about to tell her otherwise. Oh well. Humans loved going to therapy. Eva would probably benefit from it somehow. She’d be fine.
