Page 25 of Severed By Magic

Her fingers ran along my chest and down my stomach, outlining the muscles. “It was fine, much less work than yours. No one needed help today, so Gloria went over the pack’s calendar and upcoming events. There’s a bunch of winter solstice activities to prepare for, so that’s our focus for the next few weeks.”

“That sounds fun.”

Knowing she would spend her days with tutors, training, and planning parties was a relief. I wouldn’t have to worry about her as much as I did back at the Academy.

“It’s not healing people,” she huffed.

I tilted her chin up so our eyes met. “You’re bringing people happiness and helping them make memories. That’s important.”

She smiled and leaned forward, kissing me. When she didn’t immediately pull away, I slid my hand to the back of her neck and deepened the kiss. We hadn’t had a moment like this in so long, and I wasn’t going to waste it. Her tongue teased along the seam of my lips, and I let her in just as the bathroom door opened.

We pulled apart, and I tried not to get annoyed with Niall. He couldn’t help our lack of space or privacy.

“How long do you think we’ll have to live in here?” he asked, as if he was just as bothered.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

Niall sunk onto the loveseat, kicking his feet up and hanging them over the arm.

“They can’t expect the five of us to live in a single room forever, or even more than a few weeks. I’m hoping they’ll have a house for us, but even a few bedrooms would be nice.”

“You don’t like living together?”

Saige sounded hurt, and I glared at him. He better answer carefully.

He looked away. “No, I love that we’ve been able to be together these past few days. I wouldn’t have wanted you, or any of us, to be separated. We needed that time to settle in and reassure ourselves and each other that we were okay, but this isn’t enough space for all of us. Not for the long term.”

She settled back. “You’re right. Our apartment was a good setup. Maybe there’s something like that available if there isn’t a house. I’ll go ask Nancy.”

“I’m pretty sure she’s down in her office. She said she had a few more things to do when I left,” Niall said.

“Perfect.” She leaned over and kissed me, then went to Niall. She gave him a peck before hurrying out of the room.

I let out a sigh when the door shut and dropped my head back.

“How did vampire tutoring go?”

I wanted to ignore Niall and fall asleep but gathered my energy to respond.

“The other vampire works at the clinic, so he said he’s going to fit in tutoring as he trains me. We didn’t get into much today, just how to use our powers to sense injuries.”

“Through blood and touch?”

“Yeah, there’s not much to teach. It’s mostly instinctual.”

“I’ve never tried with blood, but I can usually figure out what’s wrong as long as I can touch the affected area.”

That he managed to learn that without exposing himself was impressive. No wonder he spent so much time at the Academy library. Now, I could teach him something.

“Next time one of us is hurt or sick, I’ll show you how to taste blood and diagnose. It’s about the same with touch. If it’s severe enough, I don’t have to know the specific area to figure it out. That’s only happened a few times.”

“That would be cool to learn.”

“I’ll try to show you, but it might not work.”

“Why?” Niall asked.

I leaned forward, giving up on resting. “I have a theory about hybrids.”

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