Blade Song - By J.C. Daniels Page 0,43

place, or a blanket, or pillow. At least here, I had those…and safety.

Not to mention the psychotic cat sleeping out in my living room.

I woke to hear my phone chiming.

Shit.

I hadn’t thought to bring it into the bathroom with me.

If it was Linc…

Muscles shrieked and protested as I climbed out of the tub and stumbled into my room.

Damon was already standing in the doorway. Storm-cloud eyes studied my face as I snagged my cell from the bedside table. It wasn’t Linc. Good. That was good.

Colleen.

Call me.

Okay.

I’d call her. But caffeine first.

Knuckling at my eyes, I headed toward the door, only to stop a foot away as I realized the bane of my existence was still standing there. Balefully, I lifted my eyes and glared at him.

A faint smile, there and gone, twisted his lips and he stepped aside.

Coffee.

Cyanide.

For me. For him—he said it would take a tank load, but maybe Colleen could work up something that would work. It was possible, right? Had to be.

Five minutes later, I was thinking clearly.

Clearly enough to realize he wasn’t hovering at my back.

Nor was he in the living room where he normally slept. He’d already made up the bed—thank God he was fairly neat. His clothes had already been packed away, which meant he’d been up for a little while. A T-shirt was draped over the back of the chair close to me, along with a towel, so he must have been in the guest shower when the text woke me up.

But he wasn’t out here now and he wasn’t in there—

Storming into my room, I found him leaning against the wall just outside my bathroom, staring inside.

“You slept in the bathtub.”

“Yes.” I cradled my coffee and took a drink, burning my tongue. Didn’t matter. I had caffeine. That immediately made the day a little bit easier to face.

Storm clouds flashed in his eyes as he shoved off the wall and faced me. He crossed his arms over his chest and I briefly found myself distracted by the way muscles played under his golden-brown skin. Pretty—

No. No. Not pretty…asshole. Capital asshole.

“Why did you sleep in the bathtub?” he asked, a growl edging into his voice.

“Because I didn’t want to talk to you and you wouldn’t leave me alone. I figured you’d at least give me five minutes to pee in peace and quiet and when you didn’t barge in immediately, I thought maybe that would be the ideal place to sleep.”

A muscle jerked in his jaw. “I left you alone because I figured you wanted to be left alone. You weren’t in there pissing or anything else. You could have come out.”

“Oh, like you’ve been so respectful of my privacy or anything else.” Another drink sent more caffeine pulsing through me and I imagined I could see the cobwebs blowing away. Jude. The dream. South. And those kids had said something about the Everglades…

“I left you alone last night, didn’t I?” he snapped.

I took another drink. “A fluke. Although if you’re really trying to grow some manners, you could always leave me alone again. I need to change.”

I needed forty-five minutes in my gym. I needed to call Colleen, but I had to work that dream out first or I was going to go crazy.

Such a little weakling…

Yeah. Better to work it out now, than lose my mind later.

I’d much rather work out alone, but that wasn’t going to happen. At least he was busy over the weights he’d had delivered. They had shown up on the second day of our not-so-ideal arrangement and half of my space was surrendered to his equipment.

I would have hauled the crap onto the front lawn if I thought it would accomplish anything.

It took a good twenty minutes before I managed to clear my mind enough to fall into my routine. Sweat dripped, muscles burned, and finally, my mind felt clear.

The sword that felt like a part of me sliced through the air.

Everglades.

Groups of them—

Just kids.

Children—

Child. Weak, ignorant child—The crack of a whip slicing through the air. If it kills me, I’ll make you something stronger.

My breathing hitched in my throat.

Hold that weapon steady, Kitasa—useless waste. Oh, dear. You dropped your guard—

I stumbled as her voice rang through my mind and I remembered the sickening, wet crack of my bones breaking. The ghostly ache danced up my arm.

“Shit.”

I stopped in the middle of the floor and brought my hands to my face. My right hand still clutched my sword and I squeezed it, tighter, tighter.

Get out of