snow melt, but that didn’t bother me and didn’t appear to bother Heath. I worried, though. Vampire bites had the tendency to heal slowly due to something in their saliva. Pulling the shirt back to see the bite, I watched blood push out of the punctures with each of Heath’s heartbeats, which were steadily getting faster. For the first time since I had met him, something leaked into his scent he probably didn’t want anyone noticing.
I ignored it and pressed the shirt back to the wound. I could ponder what it was later. It wasn’t important. The lack of control was interesting from him but considering his injuries and the last two nights we’d had, I was honestly impressed he still had so much control.
“Hold it,” I ordered softly. He reached out and pressed it down. “It’s slow, but it hit something because it’s not clotting yet. It might take time, and we might have to wrap it. Let me find my shirt—”
“Clean mine off,” he said huskily, pulling it back off his neck.
“It won’t dry if I dump it into the stream,” I explained. “We need dry bandages for your neck. The rest will heal without a problem. Same for me.”
“None of it will scar,” he added to my explanation. “None of it was caused by silver, so none of it should scar.”
“Yeah, I know. Are you worried about going home with battle wounds?”
“No. You.” His eyes drifted down to the older gunshot scars I had. Scars I had gotten in the line of Duty protecting Carey. Scars that showed the frightening story of how I died once.
“You have some scars of your own,” I pointed out softly. It was so faded, I had missed it when I first saw him shirtless. The bite mark on his shoulder and neck from the vampire was right next to the bite mark from a werewolf. “When you were human?”
“The bite that Changed me,” he explained. “Fatal in most cases, a werewolf needs to bite down on and puncture the jugular or very close to the heart, so as much of our saliva gets into the wound as possible.”
“Same for werecats,” I said softly. “And yes, fatal in most cases, but when it’s not, the bite closes up immediately as the body accepts the curse. I’ve just never seen it scar.”
“I was unlucky, I guess,” he said, chuckling softly. “Fuck, my head is spinning.”
“Let’s get back to the fire.” Mine just ached but I could function. My injuries weren’t bleeding, but everything ached. I helped him to his feet, knowing he was right about sleeping, but I still worried so much. It was funny because I had more of a chance of problems going to sleep than he did. I knew better than to try to sleep after being hit over the head, but I wanted the nap as much as he did. Blood loss, his problem, generally made someone a bit out of it, weaker, and tired.
I got us to the fire and leaned him against the wall. His eyes drifted closed immediately, and I went to steal Jabari’s extra shirt, remembering he had it at the last minute. My brother looked up and saw me but made no comment when I used it to wrap Heath’s neck.
I touched my own after, glad to feel scabs where I was injured the first night. They would be gone by the end of the week as long as no silver got into my system.
“Thank you,” I whispered to Jabari.
He just nodded, sitting in the mouth of the cave. I caught him looking back at me for a moment and saw a frown on his face I didn’t want to deal with. I sat down with my back to the same wall as Heath, letting my body’s need to heal take over.
“You…”
My eyes were closed, and I was fast asleep before he finished.
24
Chapter Twenty-Four
I woke up to something being dropped on my lap and jumped.
“Good morning. You forgot to get dressed,” Jabari said as I looked up at him with a glare.
He was clothed, thank god, because the angle was terrible. I looked down at myself and noticed what he was talking about. In my haste to pass out and let my injuries begin healing, I had forgotten to get dressed, naked as the day I was born. Behind Jabari, Heath was squatting next to the fire, poking it with a stick. There were no fresh logs on it, and I realized that meant