His jaw clenched as my stomach did.
“Abel,” I forced out, and he came back to me.
“Last thing I knew, she was raising it over her head. Thought she was gonna embed it in my heart.”
“She didn’t?”
He shook his head. “Have no clue. I passed out.”
My brows drew together. “Wouldn’t you know?”
“Heal fast, Lilah. By the time I came to, was still lying close to that parking lot, but someone had dragged me into some grass away from the lot, the cars, the lights. Felt a sting in my face but knew it was healing. Felt nothing else. Got myself home, confused as fuck. I healed, but it left a scar. Had my share of dings and dents, nothin’. But whatever she used on me fucked me up.”
“That’s insane.”
“It…” he started, but stopped and I felt every inch of his big body stringing tight.
But he said no more.
“Abel?”
He blinked and looked down at me. “It happened a week after Ming died.”
“Ming?”
“Jian-Li’s husband. We were in Dallas. He was stabbed during a mugging. They took his wallet. A week later, that shit happened to me and it was too much for Jian-Li. We moved. The boys were young so we were all gone in a day.”
“Okay,” I started hesitantly, “but you just had a moment.”
He nodded. “Bad luck can come at any time. It doesn’t discriminate. But Ming gets dead and some bitch at a bar knows how to roofie a werewolf vampire and uses a blade on him that scars, never thought about it. She did not smell like me. She was human. I just thought she was a cunt. But now…” he trailed off.
“Holy shitoly,” I whispered, understanding what he was saying to me.
“She sunk that blade in me, I’d be gone.”
I slid my arms around him and held tight. “Baby.”
He looked over my head, muttering, “Why would they go after Ming?”
“Are you sure they did?”
He looked back at me. “Could be a coincidence. But I’m having some issues with coincidences, waiting for you for what feels like an eternity and then running into werewolves and vampires for the first time in my life when you hit town.”
“So you think, for whatever reason they want us gone, someone tried back then?”
“That’s what I think,” he confirmed.
Marvelous.
“Why do you think she didn’t do it?” I asked.
“Right now, I don’t think she didn’t do it. Right now, I’m thinking that someone stopped her from doing it. She took me down because she drugged me. But she was petite and slim. No way she could drag my ass thirty yards when I was dead weight. That said, the bar I was in was rough. I’m a werewolf vampire, but I’m a biker. That’s the kind of place I hang. Could have been someone walked out, saw her, stopped her, dragged me to safety, but didn’t want to get involved by phoning the police, or maybe they didn’t want to bring trouble to the bar by doing it or having me found in the lot.”
“I’m not liking this, Abel,” I informed him.
“Not likin’ it much either, Delilah, because I can’t die. But with what it did to my face, I know that knife would have been the end of me.”
My head jerked on the pillow. “You can’t die?”
His eyes gentled as they looked into mine. “Bao bei, I’m a werewolf vampire. I’m immortal. Don’t know for certain, but do know since Jian-Li’s great-great-great-grandmother found me, I’ve lived two hundred years.”
Was he serious?
“What?” I cried.
His head tipped to the side. “Thought I made that clear.”
“You…did…not,” I retorted.
“Delilah, I told you I waited three lifetimes for you, and that’s only three because I was at one point a little kid, even being what I am, so I didn’t know I had a hankering for green-eyed temptress, biker bitch pussy for a coupla lifetimes.”
I ignored the biker bitch pussy part and snapped, “I didn’t know you meant literally.”
“Well, I did.”
“That’s also insane,” I hissed.
“Any less insane than anything else you’ve learned the last coupla of days?” he shot back.
I clamped my mouth shut.
He grinned.
I unclamped my mouth. “Don’t you grin at me, Abel. Remember that thread I was hanging by?”
He kept grinning as he answered. “Yeah.”
“Well, you’re supposed to keep it strong, not unravel it.”
He dipped his face closer again and asked, “How do I keep it strong?”
I bucked up against his body in an annoyed way and answered, “I don’t know. You’re supposed to figure that out.”
“Thinkin’ I’m done drawing from you, I won’t numb you with my mouth.”
My head tilted sharply on the pillow again. “What?”
He didn’t answer.
He slanted his head the other way and kissed me.
Our first kiss.
It had tongues. It was slow. It was long. It was sweet. It was gentle. Then it wasn’t. Then it was rough and consuming and fucking unbelievable to the point that when he broke his mouth from mine, I was panting and clutching him to me with arms and legs.
“You okay now?” he asked, and at my words coming back to me like that, my stomach dipped.
“Better,” I said snippily, but that was all for show and he knew it, since it was also breathy.
He gave me another grin.
Then he gave me another kiss.