Micah - By Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,46

but lucky me, I didn't catch anything."

"Don't you get it, Blake? I'm telling you that you did catch it. It's floating around in your veins right now. But you aren't a lycanthrope, are you?"

I shook my head. "No."

"Why aren't you?"

I shrugged again. "Honestly, Doc, I don't know."

"Well, if we could figure out how to put this into other people and not make them shifters, we could make people pretty much indestructible."

"I'd tell you how it works if I knew."

He stared down at me with that hard look again. "Why don't I believe that?"

I smiled. "If I could tell you something that would help millions of people, I would. But I think I'm sort of a metaphysical miracle, Doc."

"I read the papers. I watch the news," he said. "I know you're the human servant of the St. Louis Master of the City. Is that what makes this kind of healing possible?"

"I honestly don't know, Doc. Not for certain."

"Does being a vampire's human servant help you heal like this?"

"It helps me be harder to hurt," I said.

"And the lycanthropy?"

"That I can't answer, Doc."

"Can't, or won't?"

"Can't," I said.

He made an impatient sound. "Fine. You're fit, well enough to go home. I'll get the paperwork started." He moved toward the door. He turned with his hand on the door. "If you ever figure out how the healing works, I'd love to know."

"If it's something that can be duplicated, I'll share," I said.

He left shaking his head.

I looked at the nurse, and she wouldn't meet my eyes.

"I need to take out the IVs." Debbie hesitated, then said, "A little privacy, maybe?" She said it like she wasn't certain. Why was she so nervous?

Micah and Nathaniel glanced at me. I shrugged again. Nathaniel smiled at me, and the smile had a touch of mischief in it. Micah shook his head, smiling as well, and they left.

Debbie was as gentle as she could be. It actually hurt more for the tape to come off than the needle. When she had my arm free of all the paraphernalia, she said in an almost embarrassed voice, "Which one of them is your boyfriend?"

"You mean, Micah and Nathaniel?"

"Yes," she said.

"Both of them are."

She gave me a look. "Mr. Callahan told you to say that, didn't he? They've been incorrigible, teasing all of us."

"Teasing all of you?" I made it a question.

"Saying that you lived with both of them, then trying to make us guess which of them is your boyfriend." She actually blushed. "There's a betting pool, so whichever of us was here when you first woke had to ask."

"A betting pool for what?"

"Which one is your boyfriend. Some people even bet that they both were. Some even said neither." She looked almost painfully embarrassed. "I have to ask. I'm sorry."

"I live with both of them," I said.

She gave me that look again, like she didn't believe me.

"Honest, cross my heart and hope to--well, you know."

She shook her head. "And what is Mr. Graison's job?"

I had to smile. "He's a stripper."

She put her hands on her hips and almost stamped her foot at me. "It can't all be true."

The door opened behind her. It was my men and Special Agent Fox. The nurse threw them both a look, then hurried out.

"What have you been telling the nurses while I've been lying here?"

"The nurses were just trying to be friendly at first," Micah said, "but when we answered their questions truthfully, they didn't believe us."

"No one lives with two men," Nathaniel said, mimicking someone's voice that I didn't remember hearing. "And federal marshals don't live with strippers."

"Once we knew you were going to be all right, Nathaniel teased them a little," Micah said.

Fox laughed. "A little."

I held my left hand out to Nathaniel, and he took it with a smile. "You mad?" he asked.

"No. It was the crack about federal marshals not living with strippers, wasn't it?" I said.

He shrugged. "Maybe."

"The nursing staff seemed more interested in your boyfriends than in you," Fox said.

"Well," I said, "it's hard to compete when the guys are this cute."

Micah came around and took my other hand. He ran his finger over the new scar. "You've finally got one on your right arm."

I sighed. "My only unscarred arm. Damn."

Fox said, "I come all the way down here to tell you what you missed, and I don't think you give a damn."

I smiled at Fox. "Truthfully, I'm just glad to be alive. When I hit that marble, I knew I was hurt."

His face went very serious.