thing he could think was that since it was mostly cushioning and wasn’t as important as his hands and feet, the nanos hadn’t considered it a priority. It was seeming like a pretty important priority at that moment, though, as pain vibrated through him from sitting on it, but since there was nothing he could do about it, he resigned himself to the discomfort for the duration of the ride. Once at the police station, Mac hoped to be able to get the blood he needed to finish the healing, and supposed he should just be grateful that he had managed to heal as much as he had before CJ Cummings had appeared at the back of the ambulance. Had she arrived even twenty minutes to half an hour earlier, she would’ve seen the evidence of those blisters and lobster-red skin that Officer Jefferson had mentioned.
That thought reminded Mac that he still had work to do tonight before he could retire. He needed to find this Officer Jefferson, and erase the memory of what he’d seen from the man’s mind. Mac hoped that was the only person he’d missed but couldn’t be sure. He’d thought he’d got them all before CJ had mentioned Jefferson.
Turning to CJ he tried again to read her mind, but he was just as unable to penetrate her thoughts now as he had been when she’d first approached the ambulance, and he suddenly wondered, why her? The question made him look her over more carefully. He hadn’t seen her in what most people would consider proper lighting, but with his eyesight it didn’t matter. He could see her as well as he would have in a lit room. CJ had intelligent green eyes, full lush red lips, and a slightly tipped-up nose in an oval face framed by long blond hair. She was an attractive woman. But he’d seen more attractive women in his life, women so beautiful they could almost have been a work of art, and yet not one of them had stirred him the way she did, and had from the moment he’d first spied her approaching the back of the ambulance. Tall, slim, with long legs and a confident stride, there had been something about her that had drawn his interest right away.
Still, it had been a shock when he hadn’t been able to read her mind and control her as he had everyone else tonight. Before he’d realized he couldn’t control her, Mac had thought he had two more blood donors to help him heal, and two more memories to rearrange. Up till then he’d been putting the thoughts in the paramedics’ and firemen’s minds that the house fire had been a result of faulty wiring, and that he hadn’t been injured. But once he’d realized that he couldn’t do that to her memory and that she and Officer Simpson had already found proof that the fire had been deliberately set, he’d had to change his plans. While Simpson had gone to collect his evidence kit, Mac had quickly gone into the minds of the firemen and paramedics again and changed their memories to arson, but left the part about his escaping without serious injury.
Of course, Mac had been annoyed at having to do it. A nice, naturally caused fire from electrical issues or something would have been less memorable and therefore more preferable. His kind did not like attention, and arson would invariably draw that. But now, as he watched the way CJ was studiously ignoring him, and speeding in what he could only assume was a desire to be rid of him as quickly as possible, Mac couldn’t help thinking that perhaps having to go with arson might be a good thing, after all. Because CJ Cummings was showing a dismaying resistance to his inimitable charms.
Oh, he could tell she was attracted to him. The way her face flushed, her eyes dilated, and her heart rate sped up when he drew near told him that. But those were all physiological signs that were automatic and involuntary. And, unfortunately, they were also immediately followed by protective, closed-down responses like averting her eyes, tightening her jaw, and hunching her shoulders slightly to draw her arms in closer to her body. Ms. Cummings’s body might want him, but her mind definitely wasn’t in agreement. If he hoped to get anywhere with the woman, he’d have to find some way to stay close to her, because he was pretty sure her plan was