then pulled away before taking a deep breath. “Don’t cry for me, Meara. Never for me.”
He then turned to Hunter, and a faint feeling of satisfaction whispered through him at the sight of the man’s healing body. The blackened, burned skin was flaking away, leaving only pink, new skin in its place. That doctor would have lost her mind to see what she’d only be able to comprehend as a miracle—no science or medicine could have healed these injuries.
When science and technology were gone, only miracles and magic remained.
Meara glared at him and turned away, her hands going to her cheeks. When she faced him again, the tears were gone, but the fury remained. “You promised me, after the last time. You said, ‘Meara, I promise, I won’t do it again.’ Do you have any memory of that, you lying piece of crap?”
Edge walked into the room, carrying an armload of firewood, just in time to catch the end of Meara’s angry question. He dumped the wood in the wrought-iron log holder next to the fireplace and then brushed off his hands and turned to face them, bleakness stamped on the lines and angles of his face. “I know. I’m sorry. Bane never should have risked his life to save mine.”
She whirled on him. “No. He should not have. And don’t try to make me feel guilty for saying what we all know is true. The Turning is far too dangerous. My father died. Bane, I won’t lose the only family I have left for some ridiculous notion of…what? Nobility? Leave saving the humans to the doctors.”
With that, she pulled invisibility around herself and vanished but deliberately didn’t bother to mask the sound of her boots stomping across the gleaming wooden floor as she left the room.
“Hey! What did I do?” Luke walked into the room rubbing his jaw. “Why did Meara just punch me in the face?”
“Because she still can’t bring herself to hit me,” Edge said, sadness and something else Bane didn’t want to think about darkening his silver eyes to storm cloud gray.
“What?”
“Never mind that,” Bane said. “I need more blood. And what happened at the hospital?”
Luke casually bit open his wrist as he crossed the floor to where Bane sat next to Hunter. “Take what you need. I found a willing nurse who remembers only a few kisses and cuddles on the roof with a handsome visiting doctor, so I’m good to go.”
Lucas used his much-bragged-about charm to feed, leaving his prey feeling sensual and satiated. Bane, when he did feed, didn’t bother with any such niceties. He simply found the worst scum in town, took what he needed, and then—when he could be bothered—ripped the memories of the night from their minds.
He’d heard rumors of more than a few wild-eyed criminals turning themselves in to the police with tales of “coming clean to escape the monster.” He and Meara were invariably the monsters. Mr. and Mrs. Cassidy, who were bound to them by family loyalty and an enthrallment that was more for ceremony than out of necessity, chided them for it, but what did he care?
Savannah was the most haunted city in the country, right? A crazy report of monsters would be laughed at or ignored.
This was how the monsters thrived in the age of cell phones with video cameras: when anything and everything was fodder for televised entertainment, even the monsters were nothing to fear.
Until they ripped your throat out.
Bane fed from Luke for just a minute or so, and then he was fine. “Thank you.”
Luke nodded. “Whatever you need, whenever you need it, brother.”
“And,” Bane forced the words out, “about earlier. I should have known you wouldn’t have hurt him.”
Luke laughed, but it was a harsh, rasping sound with no humor in it. “Why would you apologize?”
Bane bared his teeth. “You’ll notice I didn’t.”
“We both know I’ve hurt humans before. If I’m not careful, I’ll do it again. I should have flown into that house and pulled them both out. If only I’d gotten there sooner…”
“All three of you would have died if you’d gone into that fire,” Edge said flatly. “Don’t be a fool. Even fire you didn’t create can hurt you, fire starter or not, as far as we know.”
“As far as we know,” Luke repeated, his eyes going blank and far away.
The image of ocean-blue eyes flashed into Bane’s mind. The woman whose image had seared itself into his brain. “The hospital? Did you remove any trace?”
Luke’s lips quirked. “Naturally.