house. Good thing stains made the poor bastards cheerful; otherwise Fritz was going to be pissed.
Following the line of drops to the head of the great staircase, he descended to the foyer along with them.
The mess went right out into the vestibule.
“Sire, good day. Do you require anything?”
Tohr turned to Fritz, who was coming through the dining room with some floor polish. “Hey, yeah. I need to get some food. But what’s up with the paint? You guys doing something obscene to the fountain out there?”
The butler shuffled over and frowned. “There is no one painting anywhere in the compound.”
“Well, someone’s pulling a Michelangelo.” Tohr sank down on his haunches and dragged a finger through one of the little pools…
Wait a minute—not paint.
And the shit smelled like flowers.
Fresh flowers?
In fact, it was the scent that had been in his room.
As his eyes shot to the door to the vestibule, he thought of the shower of bullets he had walked into. And worried that a miracle hadn’t been the reason he wasn’t dead, after all.
“Get Doc Jane, stat,” he barked to the
Ah, yeahhhh, Lassiter thought as he rolled over on hot stone and started to sun his bare ass. That’s what’s up.…
All things considered, it had been a good day to get shot at.
Well, night, rather.
Make that season.
Thank the Maker it was summer: Lying on the front steps of the mansion, the brilliant July megawatts beat down on him, the rays healing his bullet-ridden body. Without it? He might well have died again—which was not the way he wanted to meet up with his boss. Indeed, the sunlight was to him what blood was to the vampires; a necessity that he really enjoyed. And as he bathed in the stuff, the pain faded, his strength returned… and he thought of Tohr.
What a dumb-ass, pulling a move like that in the alley. What in the name of all that was holy had the fucker been thinking?
Whatever. There had been no way he was going to let that bastard walk into all that gunfire without protection. The pair of them had come too far to crap out just as progress was being made.
And now, thanks to his having turned himself into a pincushion, Tohr and No’One were having sex.
So all had not been lost. He was, however, seriously thinking of punching that Brother in the balls as payback. For one, that shit had stung like a motherfucker. For another, if this had been December? He might not have made it—
The sound of the heavy front door swinging open brought his head up and around. Doc Jane, that fantastic healer of theirs, burst out like she’d planned on having to run some distance.
She skidded to a halt so she didn’t trip over him. “There you are!”
Oh, look, she’d brought her fun box with her, the little red cross denoting emergency supplies.
“Helluva time to get a tan,” she murmured.
He rested his head back down, his cheek lying flat on all that warm rock. “Just takin’ my medicine like a good little patient.”
“Mind if I examine you?”
“Will your mate kill me if you see me naked?”
“You are naked.”
“You’re not looking at my business side.” When she just loomed over him without further comment, he muttered, “Fine. Whatever—but don’t stand in my sun. I need it more than I need you.”
She put the box down next to his ear and got on her knees. “Yeah, V told me a little about how you work.”
“I’ll bet. You know, he and I have had our go-arounds.” The SOB had even saved him once—which had been a miracle given how much they hated each other. “We’ve got history.”
“He mentioned that.” Her words were spoken with distraction, as if she were checking his holes out. “You might have some lead left in you—do you mind my rolling you over?”
“The lead doesn’t matter. My body will consume it—provided I get enough sunshine on my shoulders.”
“You’re bleeding badly still.”
“It’s going to be okay.”
And he was beginning to think that wasn’t a lie. After it had all happened, he’d kept himself invisi and had hidden in the passenger seat of the Mercedes that had taken Tohr back to the clinic. Minute he’d arrived at medical central, he’d stolen some bandages and gone mummy on his own ass so he didn’t bleed all over the place. There’d been no reason to hurry outdoors—there had been no sunlight available at that point—or at least not enough to make a difference. Besides, he’d thought he’d just walk it off.
Nope. It was shortly after he’d gone up to that bedroom with Tohr that he’d recognized he was in trouble. Breathing got harder. Pain got hotter. Vision started to fritz out. Fortunately, the sun had fully risen by then.
And he would have had to leave about the time No’One showed up anyway—
“Lassiter. I want to see the front of you.”
“That’s what all the girls say.”
“Do you expect me to roll you over? ’Cuz I will.”
“Your mate’s not going to like this.”
“As if that’s going to bother you?”
“True. It actually makes it worth the effort.”
With a groan, he shoved his palms into the shimmering silver pool of blood beneath him, and flopped over like the side of beef he was.
“Wow,” she breathed.
“I know, right? Hung like a horse.”
“If you’re really nice—and you live through this—I’ll promise not to tell V.”
“About my size.”
She laughed a little. “No, that you assumed I’d look at you in any fashion other than professionally. Can I bandage any of these?” She touched him lightly on the pec. “Even if I leave the bullets in, maybe it would slow the bleeding?”
“Not a good call. Sunshine and surface area are what it’s about. And I’m going to be fine. As long as we don’t cloud up.”
“Should we be getting you a tanning bed?”
Now he laughed—which made him cough. “No, no—has to be the real thing.”
“I don’t like the sound of that rattle.”
“What time is it?”
“One twenty-six.”
“Come out in another thirty minutes and see where we’re at.”
There was a period of quiet. “Okay. I will. Tohr will want an—” Her phone went off, and she answered it with, “I was just talking about you. Yup, I’m with him, and he’s… bad, but he says he’s taking care of himself. Of course I’ll stay with him—no, I’m good on supplies, and I’ll call in another twenty minutes. Fine, ten.” There was a long pause and then she took a deep breath. “It’s—ah—it’s a lot of gunshots. In his chest.” Another pause. “Hello? Hello, Tohr— Oh, good, I thought I’d lost you. Yeah—no, listen, you gotta trust me. If I thought he was in danger, I’d drag him kicking and screaming into the foyer. But to be honest, I’m watching him heal as we speak—I can see his internal bruising dissipating with my own eyes. Okay. Yup. Bye.”
Lassiter didn’t make any comment on all that; he just stayed where he was, eyes closed, body solar-paneling its way back to health.
“So you’re the reason Tohr got out of that alley alive,” the good doctor murmured after a while.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
