to fear his marks, that he wanted her repulsed by him. Jamie set the cloth down, staring at his back. The marred skin was definitely the work of professionals. Scars were deeply set, cuts were open and looked like they didn’t plan on closing any time soon, bruises were yellowing and some were fresh, the dark purple surrounded by blood red marks. His neck was strong, thick, his nape covered with damp strands. She swore his shoulders was the size of a truck, his skin hanging off of his frame.
She watched, entranced, as one of the smaller cuts closed, the flesh binding by invisible needles. Jamie wished she could deny that she had known in the back of her mind that he was different, that he could be like Auro and Lyne. Earlier she had watched the wounds mend themselves, but she was closer, the lighting was better, and his skin was clear of dirt and blood.
Her chest tightened. Dipping the cloth into the tub, feeling it soak up warm water, she brought the thing to his shoulder and began dabbing. The blood had spread because of the water, but she cleaned around it before getting to the actual wound. Jamie wondered if he could feel her trembling hand. Hell, she wondered if he could feel anything.
Talon barred his teeth at the wall, jaw clenching as the pain in his arm amplified. He almost reached around and tore her hair out, but he knew how frightened she already was. He shouldn’t care, he told himself. He shouldn’t give a rats ass if she was about to piss herself because of him.
But he did.
Her soft hands, running smoothly along his back and his arm, had him squeezing himself against the side of the tub. He was desperate. To get away, to get closer, to turn to her, to turn away from her. Talon’s chest constricted painfully. Nothing he could do. Nothing he could say.
“Talon?” she asked, a mere whisper. Despite the lighting, bright and consuming, their proximity made it feel like it was dark, enclosed, comfortable.
He hesitated before answer, his voice nothing but a coarse scratch against his throat, his ears, even her ears. “Jamie.” Just saying her name was a blessing. It calmed, healed, made the pain durable. Her innocent hands lessened their pressure, before moving to his neck.
“It might be too much to ask — hell, it might even be too much for you,” she said with a bitter snort, her hands pausing on his neck.
“What is it.” He couldn’t force himself to say it as a question, Asking for something would make him feel weak, even weaker than he felt at not behind able to form a coherent question.
“We need to escape,” she said quietly, the trembling in her fingers returning. For a second, it had stopped, not now she shuddered behind him as if a breeze was in the room. Talon almost turned to look at her, to stare at her in disbelief.
He said nothing.
“Talon,” she said, her voice beseeching. Her fingers wrapped around his throat, seemingly unconscious of her actions. The warmth of her fingers seared him.
Talon’s lip curled as he wrenched himself from her grip. Familiar torment ran through him as he remembered the helplessness of Auro’s hand around his neck so many times before, of Lyne continuing the torture while he struggled to breath.
Jamie let out a high pitched gasp. He looked back at her sharply, eyes blazing, to see her leaning against the wall, legs drawn up and arms around her knees. He felt his heart turn over, the anger dimming only slightly.
“You think I haven’t tried?” he growled, jerking into a sitting position. He ignored her roaming eyes, ignored the becoming blush that settled on her pale face. “You think I haven’t tried, haven’t gotten beaten for my attempts? What would you do if they caught you — the torture they plan for you would be ten times as worse.”
Water flew from his hand as it lashed out, the slicing motion igniting fear into her already pale face. He rose to his feet, uncaring of his nakedness. “Stupid woman. They would only get us again,” he snarled, the vicious sound ringing through the room. “I don’t think you want to feel their hands on your skin any more than I do.”
Jamie’s only reaction was a stiff nod, her face lined with fear. When he stepped from the tub, the trembling of his knees was absent. A flash of relief ran through him