“I’m fine.”
“You are not fine.” She reached for his middle, but he grasped her wrist.
“I said I was fine.”
“Let me.” Georgie moved in and Isabelle stood.
“I’m okay, really.”
“What happened here?” Georgie asked.
“I shot him. With a laser.”
Georgie lifted her gaze to Isabelle, then back at Dalton.
“It was an accident,” Isabelle added. “I didn’t mean to.”
“It’s okay,” Dalton said, his voice calm and even. “I’m going to be fine.”
Georgie turned to her. “I’m going to bring him in the house. Go grab a pot and boil me some water.”
Isabelle nodded and ran inside to start filling the pot with water, the whole time lifting up on her toes to peer out the window to see what Georgie was doing. She had Dalton on his feet and was helping him to the door. Isabelle ran to open it. They came inside, and she was heading toward the bedroom when she noticed they weren’t following.
“In the kitchen is fine,” Georgie said.
She didn’t understand this. The wound was the size of both her hands. He should be in the hospital having major surgery, not sitting at the kitchen table.
By the time Isabelle had dragged the pot out of the bottom cupboard, washed and rinsed it and filled it with water, then set it on the stove, Georgie had removed Dalton’s shirt and was inspecting the wound.
“I need more light, Isabelle. Can you find me a lamp?”
“Sure.” The kitchen only had an overhead light, so Isabelle pulled the lamp from the living room and set it on the table, plugging it into one of the floor outlets in the kitchen. Georgie was bent close over Dalton. Dalton was watching Isabelle. He actually looked pretty good, all things considered. He should have been in shock, and pale, but he looked dark. Tan. Normal. Completely different from how he’d looked before she’d run up to get Georgie.
The water was boiling, so Isabelle took the cloths Georgie gave her and soaked them, pulled them out with tongs, and set them on the clean cutting board to cool a bit before handing them to Georgie.
“This isn’t bad at all,” Georgie said after washing Dalton’s stomach.
“Are you serious? That hole was huge. It was a laser blast and he was only a foot away from me, Georgie. I had to have hit major organs.”
Georgie looked up at her. “No, Isabelle. It’s not that bad.”
Georgie stood and went to the sink to wash her hands. Isabelle leaned over the table, then frowned as she examined the hole.
There … was no hole. It was closed, a small puckered wound the only evidence of what she’d done.
“You don’t even need stitches,” Georgie said to Dalton with a satisfied smile, then handed Isabelle a tube. “Keep it clean, put this antibiotic cream on it to ward infection away.”
Still puzzled, Isabelle nodded, then lifted her gaze to Georgie. “I don’t understand. It was much worse. Did you-”
Georgie laid her hand on Isabelle’s arm. “No, che
Isabelle shook her head. She didn’t understand this. Not at all.
Georgie gathered up her supplies and left, but before she did Isabelle saw the frown Georgie had cast at Dalton.
Throughout it all, Dalton had stayed quiet. After Isabelle saw Georgie to the door, she walked back into the kitchen and pulled up a chair across the table from Dalton. Less than an hour ago she’d blown a hole the size of both her hands in his stomach. Dalton had looked near death.
Now, the hole was closed and he looked plenty healthy.
“You want to tell me what’s going on?”
He shrugged. “I heal fast. I told you I was going to be okay.”
She cocked a brow. “You must think I’m really stupid.”
“No, Isabelle. I don’t think you’re stupid at all.”
“Then do you want to tell me what happened out there?”
He reached for her hand. “Maybe
Okay, fine. They’d go there first. She owed him that, since she was the one who’d shot him. But then she wanted answers. “I don’t know. I had the rifle in my hands. Then I heard Tase’s voice. He told me to shoot you.”
Dalton leaned back in the chair. “So you did?”
“No! I fought it off.”
“Fought what off?”
“Him. The urges. His influence.”
“What influence?”
She inhaled, sighed. “It’s hard to explain unless you’re the one feeling it. But I’ll try. It’s like he crawled inside my head and became part of me.”
“Like he was controlling you?”
“Sort of. He kept talking to me, telling me to shoot you, to kill you. That I shouldn’t trust you, that you were going to hurt me.”
Dalton frowned. “Then what happened?”
“I saw you step in front of me, right in front of the barrel of the rifle. And I heard Tase’s voice behind me. I was so frustrated and so afraid I wanted to make him go away. So I turned around and fired. I thought I was aiming the laser at him.”
“I was behind you.”
She looked down at her hands, then swept her gaze back up to him. “I know that now. I didn’t then. I saw you in front of me, not behind me.”
“He manipulated you.”
“I know.”
“Tase wasn’t really there. I didn’t see him.”
“He’s in my head.”
“And he’s making you see things. He’s messing with your mind.”
“I guess I’m not getting stronger. I’m getting weaker.” Defeat hung like a weight around her neck, making it hard to breathe. She was beginning to think she wasn’t going to win this battle.
“He’s a strong demon, Isabelle. He’s hard to fight.”
“And I’m not powerful enough.”
“Between the two of us, we are.”
“How can you say that? Look what he just did to me, what he made me do, how easily I fell under his spell. And he’s not even here. What happens when he finds us, Dalton? It’ll be just like Sicily all over again. He’ll make me his.” She stood and turned away, paced, her mind awash in things she didn’t want to think about, but could no longer deny.
Dalton came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “I won’t let that happen.”
She pulled away and turned to him. “Oh, really. And how are you going to stop him? Tase is a demon, Dalton. So am I. You’re only a human.” She paused and stared at him.
“Or-are you human? Does a human recover from an injury like what you suffered today?” She reached out, traced her fingers along his stomach, where there was barely a visible scar now. “Even as we’ve been talking you’ve healed further. In another hour you won’t even be able to see that wound.” He didn’t respond.
“Dalton. No one heals like that. I thought you were going to die.”
He tilted his head and gave her a disbelieving look. “I think maybe you panicked. It wasn’t that bad.”
If there was one thing she hated, it was being patronized. “You had a huge hole in your middle. I could see inside it. You should have been unconscious. You needed major surgery.”
