Page 54 of Wolf Queen Ruin
“It’s…painful,” I said, hedging.“But I’ve endured worse.”
Luna shot me an exasperated look.“Will itkillyou, Damien?”
“Unlikely.But without intervention, it could incapacitate me for several days.”
She nodded once, already cleaning the puncture site.“Hold still.”
I remained motionless as she administered the anti-venom.Her touch was gentle but confident, yet each brief brush of her fingers against my skin sent heat through me that had nothing to do with the venom.
“You were speaking in your sleep, you know.Something about running.”
Her face flushed.“Just a dream.About shifting.Not that it matters.I haven’t been able to shift in over three years.”
“That doesn’t mean you don’t remember.Or miss it.”
She fell silent at that, and I knew I’d unintentionally struck a nerve.The quiet between us stretched, something I didn’t remember it ever doing before.
“You have experience with snakebites,” I said.
Sometimes I amazed myself at my skill level for stating the obvious.
She shrugged.“Two weeks in the Amazon basin tracking down the Obsidian Mirror,” she explained without looking up.“Five in various parts of Asia for the Dragon Scrolls.You pick things up along the way.”
I studied her face as she worked—the slight furrow of concentration between her brows, the way she tucked her lower lip between her teeth when focusing on a delicate task.Small details I should not have been cataloging, but I couldn’t ignore them either.
“Thank you,” I said.
“You’re welcome.”Luna finished bandaging my arm, her eyes finally meeting mine.“You know, for someone who’s supposedly superhuman, you’re turning into a lot of work.”
Despite the burning pain in my arm and the dense weight in my chest from the two phone calls, I smiled.“I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”
“Apology accepted.”Luna studied me for a moment longer then shook her head slightly.“Get some rest.I’ll take second watch now.That anti-venom might make you drowsy, vampire metabolism or not.”
She was right.Already I could feel my body responding to both the venom and the counteragent, a heaviness settling into my limbs.Under normal circumstances, I would have resisted and maintained my watch regardless of my physical discomfort.But here, in this place where all normal parameters had been suspended, I yielded.
As I settled on the cot, Luna positioned herself at the perimeter of our small camp, her profile outlined against the deeper darkness of the jungle, watchful and determined.
The weight of the doctor’s news still pressed upon me, the knowledge that I might fail Elliot after centuries of loyalty.And the second phone call… I touched the strange warmth of my engagement ring and flexed my hand into a fist.
I would deal with the repercussions of that phone call later.
But as consciousness began to fade, I found myself focusing on only one troubling possibility—that completing our mission successfully, finding all five pieces of the Shadow Fang, might mean never seeing Luna Rookwood again.
Why that prospect disturbed me as much as failing my maker was a question I wasn’t prepared to answer.
Chapter seventeen
Luna
WhenDamienwoke,mostof his legs dangling off the cot, he fixed his gaze on the surrounding jungle and then turned his head toward me so quickly that I jumped.
Watery morning light filtered through the canopy, casting marbled patterns across our small camp, but I could still see the strain in his features, the slight hollowing beneath his cheekbones, the tightness around his eyes.
“There’s not a polite way to say this, but you look like hell.”I reached for my water bottle.“The Wolf Queen’s magic worked you over pretty good, didn’t it?”
“I should stabilize once we’re deeper in her territory,” he rasped out.
“Or get worse,” I said, stretching my stiff muscles.“You don’t actually know.”
