Page 117 of Edge of Darkness (Night Prowler 4)
His beautiful face crumpled. He sank to his knees next to the bed and buried his face in the blanket over her stomach, gripping her so hard he shook.
Ember was overcome with emotion. She lifted her hand to stroke his hair and blinked when she saw it was wrapped in a gauze bandage. As was her entire right arm.
“You were burned,” Asher explained gently. “Flash burns from the explosion, first and second degree, mostly on your right hand and arm and your lower legs. There’s bleeding and swelling in your lungs from the pressure of the shockwave, and your intestines, well, they’re not going to be working right for a while. The doctors said you were lucky you weren’t in an enclosed space, and being in the water helped shield you from a lot of the debris fallout. The worst was the brain swelling, though…”
He swallowed, and Rafael glanced at him and squeezed his hand. Asher whispered, “They had to do surgery to relieve it. We thought…we didn’t know…the doctors weren’t sure if you’d remember much…if you’d be…you…”
She touched her hand to her head and felt skin, a bald patch where the hair had been shaved, a ragged row of stitches. Christ. With her broken nose, shaved head and burns, she probably looked like the bride of Frankenstein.
Christian lifted his head and stared into her eyes. His own were wild and searing. “Do you?” he asked hoarsely. “Do you remember?”
She smiled at him and watched his eyes spark with hope. “As if I could ever forget a single moment with you,” she whispered.
And there it was again, that look of transformation she’d come to know so well. His gaze was so intense and burning, so filled with love, she thought he could light them both on fire with it. There was a surge of heat in the atmosphere and he leaned over the bed and kissed her, passionately, his mouth pressed hard and hot against hers.
It hurt.
She winced and protested with a weak, “Ow.” Christian instantly pulled away with a whispered apology, and there were relieved chuckles from Dante and Asher and a nervous twitter from Rafael.
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“We should let you rest,” said Dante, wrapping his arm around Clare’s shoulders and drawing her close. As if on cue, a wave of fatigue swept over her, and she felt as if her body weighed a thousand pounds.
“I don’t need to rest, I want to talk to everyone,” she said, but it came out garbled. Her eyelids drooped.
Asher reached out and squeezed her left hand, whispered, “See you later, knucklehead. Love you,” and led Rafael to the door. Analia and Allegra said their good-byes, then so did Dante and Clare, who added a kiss on her cheek and one from Peter Parker.
Then she was alone with Christian.
He lowered the metal bar on the left side of the bed and crawled in next to her, moving the clear tubes that were stuck in her arm and neck carefully out of the way, tucking his arm under her neck and gently cradling her. He began to croon to her and pet her, smoothing her hair off her forehead, lightly trailing his fingers over her face. He seemed proprietary and overly cautious, sober and vigilant, as if at any moment she might disappear in a puff of smoke.
“How long have I been here?” Ember asked, soothed by his ministrations. Her lids closed and she sighed, filled with quiet joy.
She was alive. Christian was alive. Caesar was dead.
Everything was going to be okay.
“Too long,” he whispered, brushing a feather-light kiss to her temple. “Five days that felt like five thousand.” He chuckled. “And the doctors are getting pretty sick of me. I’m sure they’ll be glad to see you’re awake so they can send us home.”
She cocked an eyebrow at him, and he said, “I haven’t exactly been patient with them. The terms ‘overbearing’ and ‘maniac’ have been used on more than one occasion.”
And why didn’t that surprise her?
His stomach rumbled a loud complaint and Ember weakly scolded him, “When was the last time you ate?” Only it came out as, “?’En ‘as th’ las’ time y’ate?”
“Don’t know. Doesn’t matter. All that matters is right here in my arms, right now.” His voice dropped. “And if you ever try anything so stupid again I’ll kill you. I can’t live without you little firecracker—don’t make me.”
“Mmpf.”
He petted her a while longer in silence until he murmured, “Dr. Flores called me.”
Ember’s eyes flew wide open. She glanced at him and he was staring at her with stern adoration.
“We’re going to work on your issues together, you know that right?”
It was useless to argue, she knew that. So she simply nodded and tucked her head beneath his chin, burrowing into the space between his neck and shoulder. She inhaled, smelling his wonderful mix of warm spice and skin, and thought home.
Only she must have said it aloud because he chuckled again and whispered, “Wherever we’re together, that’s home, angel. Though, if you’re open to it, I’d like to go back to Sommerley so the three of us can have a real home. Leander and Jenna really want to meet you, and I want you to meet them. And everyone. You’re something of a legend with my kind now, the human who risked her life to save us all…”
