Page 35 of Blood Bearon
The huge stranger bent over her. “What is it?” he asked as the fireman returned to the truck to grab something for her.
“You owe me some answers,” she said, giving him her fiercest stare.
“I know,” he whispered.
Then blackness reached out and claimed her at last.
18
“Khove. Why are you brooding?”
“I’m not brooding,” he grumbled, looking out the rain-streaked window as buildings passed by.
“So the dark look to your eyes and the constant unfocused stare out the window are just what then? Resting bitch face?”
Khove shook his head, the humor not penetrating the gloomy cloud that had settled around his head. How could he laugh at a time like this anyway? There was no humor in the situation.
“Seriously? Are you going to have this much of a downer for the rest of the day?”
He didn’t respond. Howcouldhe? There wasn’t much to say. It was all fairly self-evident, and he was surprised that Rachel hadn’t seen it all yet. After all, it was plain as day to Khove thathewas the one responsible for all her injuries. His failure, anyway.
Rachel had awoken in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, having only been unconscious for a few minutes at most. The medics had tried to keep him from coming along in the same vehicle as her, but when Khove had stood up and dared them to stop him, they’d caved.
Once there, it had been a fight to keep Rachel in their care. Both Khove and the nurses were insistent she stay the night for observation. After her initial protests had died down, she’d fallen asleep fairly quickly, as he’d expected she would. The lack of sleep and constant work, combined with what the two of them had been through, had left her drained. As soon as the adrenaline faded, she was out like a light.
Khove had stayed there with her, in her room, awkwardly slumped against the chair. He’d slept fitfully, his worries and guilt growing darker the longer he sat there and looked at her beautiful face peacefully resting.
There were cuts everywhere, and bruises now starting to form. Not all of them were from the blast either. Some of them, especially a welt on her ribcage, were from Khove, when he’d tackled her out of the way of the bullets. Knowing that he’d inflicted this on her, that he hadn’t been able to get her out of the way of the blast in time, ground away at him.
He was a bodyguard, dammit! A protector. That was his role. He should have found a way to go in the building first, or to get Rachel to understand thatheshould have been the one confronting the goons. He could have taken all three of them out without issue. With a bit of grumbling and a little more effort, Khove could have even ensured they lived through the experience.
Instead, he’d blindly gone along, and the detective had been hurt because of it. Because ofhim. Part of Khove was well aware that she’d not suffered any serious injuries because of him. Not even any stitches had been necessary, but it didn’t matter. Even one scratch was too much, and Rachel wascoveredin them.
The bruises on his back pulsed with pain, a reminder that he hadn’t exactly escaped unscathed either. If hehadn’tbeen there, things would have been much worse. It was all well and good to know that, but it didn’t change his current demeanor. Not as he was beginning to realize there was something forming between the two of them. A partnership that neither had seen coming.
“Khove.”
He blinked as Rachel said his name sharply.Here it comes, he thought.She’s finally going to tell me that I need to do a better job. That she doesn’t want to work together anymore.
After all, if he could barely protect her from Korred’shumanminions, what was he going to do when the crazed magi unleashed his Fae servants, or if the two of them ever encountered Korred himself? What then?
“Khove!”
He looked over at Rachel. “Yes?”
“What are you brooding about?”
He growled to himself. “It’s my fault.”
Her eyebrows went up, then she focused back on the road—Khove hadn’t even bothered trying to tell her she wasn’t alright to drive after she’d been discharged. He wasn’tthatcrazy.
“What’s your fault?”
“Your injuries,” he said matter-of-factly. How could she not understand that?
To his complete amazement, Rachel didn’t nod and agree with him. She didn’t try and tell him he did the best he could. Instead, she started to laugh. In his face. After a moment, she pulled off to the side of the road and continued to shake.
“This fucking hurts,” she complained through the tears, holding her stomach as her face turned red. “Ow. Ow. Please, don’t make me laugh, okay?”
