My gaze searched his. "Someone close to you?"
"A friend," he said, then released my hand and rose.
The compassion and understanding disappeared in an instant, and I knew I’d get little more out of him. But that didn’t stop me from asking, "So what did you do?"
He raised an eyebrow. "I did exactly what you are attempting. I tracked down and killed those responsible."
"And did it make anything any better? Did it make you feel any better?"
His mouth twisted bitterly. "No. But at least I could rest easier with the knowledge that they would not be able to destroy anyone else."
And that’s what I wanted. While it was undoubtedly true that I wanted vengeance so badly I could almost taste it, I also wanted to stop these people from doing to someone else what they’d done to my mom.
He studied me for a heartbeat, then said, "You’re bleeding."
As if his words were a trigger, the pain hit, rolling through me in heated waves. I unzipped my coat and peeled it away from my side. The shirt underneath was torn and covered in blood, but the wound itself wasn’t really that deep. It hurt like a bitch, but then shallow wounds were often more painful than the deep ones.
"That is a debatable point," Azriel commented.
"You’ve obviously never experienced a paper cut." I pulled off the remnants of my shirt and used the unbloodied bits to stanch the wounds. There were benefits to being half wolf, but quick healing was one of those things I didn’t quite get enough of. I healed much faster than a human, but my inability to shift into wolf shape meant I couldn’t get the almost instantaneous restoration that most wolves enjoyed.
"Why do you not heal yourself in Aedh form?" Azriel said.
I wrinkled my nose and zipped my jacket back up. "Shifting into Aedh saps my strength badly, so I can imagine what trying to heal myself while changing form would do."
"So you’ve never actually tried?"
"I’ve never even really thought about it."