“Malcolm.”
Nicola cleaned each of the injuries, taking extra care with the ones on his neck. Even still, the skin broke open and pus oozed out. Couldn’t be an infection, she thought. Not enough time had passed. Had to be...poison?
She reached for the blade.
Malcolm latched on to her wrist, stopping her. “I knew you would make a play.”
Then why hadn’t he stashed the weapon away from her? To test her motives? “Look, I’m going to slice the wounds open the rest of the way and—”
His grip tightened painfully, nearly cracking bone.
A cry parted her lips.
Footsteps pounded, and then Axel was there, ripping Malcolm away from her.
“What do you think you’re doing, my man?” the warrior demanded.
“She wants to cut into his neck!”
“For a good cause,” Nicola said with a sigh. “I want to drain the wounds, and to do that, I need to widen them. I’ll be careful with him.” More careful than she’d ever been. This man had come to mean a lot to her. More than he probably realized.
“You haven’t seen him panting after the female,” Axel told Malcolm, pushing him toward the door. “If you had, you’d know he wants her hands all over him—whatever she wants to do.”
Panting after her? I wish. “Will you guys just get out of here? You’re distracting me, and I need to concentrate. I may not be a doctor, but I’ve watched every episode of House. I’m pretty sure I know what I’m doing.”
Whether they obeyed or not, she wasn’t sure. She settled beside Koldo’s waist, leaned forward and raised the knife.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
KOLDO TUGGED HIMSELF from the darkness and into the light. Though he was paralyzed, his mind blank, he wasn’t unaware. He felt gentle hands stroking over him, easing the stings that plagued him. The moment the stroking stopped, a wave of anger stormed through him, giving him the strength he needed to jolt into mobility.
He opened his eyes, but his vision was hazed. Blink, blink. Bit by bit, things began to clear. Blink, blink. He saw the glint of a knife. Saw a female stretch that knife toward him, aiming for his neck.
His mother. His mother had escaped, was here, was determined to kill him while he was too vulnerable to fight back.
Growling from the depths of his being, he lashed out, hitting the knife and the arm that held it. A feminine moan of pain filled his ears.
A moan he recognized. Not his mother’s.
Nicola?
He tried to sit up, the gentle hands suddenly replaced by strong calloused ones, applying more pressure to push him down.
“He didn’t mean to hurt me,” the woman said.
Yes, Nicola. His Nicola.
Had she been speaking to him? Or was someone else in the room?
Of course someone else was in the room. The hands that restrained him belonged to a male. He recalled his father’s threats against Nicola....
Koldo fought against the one keeping him in place. He managed to get his fingers wrapped around hard steel bands—arms? He tossed with all of his strength. There was a crash, a cloud of plaster in the air.
“Easy now,” a male said.
Another voice he recognized. Not his father. But it wasn’t Nicola, so he didn’t care. Koldo wanted to get to her, and would do anything to succeed. He punched and punched and punched, until finally the male stopped trying to subdue him and started fighting back. But Koldo quickly got hold of something soft—feathers—and ripped.
A howl rent the air.
A soft weight landed on Koldo. He reached up to dislodge it, but caught Nicola’s sweet scent.
“Calm down,” she said, fingers brushing over his jawline. “You have to calm down now. All right?”
“Safe?”
“You’re safe. I’m safe. We’re at your home in Panama.”
Trusting her, he relaxed against the mattress, wound his arms around her and held her close, breathing her in, savoring the scent of cinnamon and vanilla.
“I have a bald patch now,” one of the males said. Axel. “Do you know how bad that sucks?”
“I have a broken spine,” the other growled. Malcolm.
“Like you’ve really got it worse. You might never walk again, but at least you look pretty.”
“You think I’m pretty?”
“I think you’re about to get a dagger in your gut.”
Footsteps. Two sets, receding from the room. Malcolm must not have lost the ability to walk, after all.
“Stay,” Koldo said to Nicola.
“I will,” she whispered. “Rest now.”
Unable to deny her anything, he sank back into the darkness.
* * *
SHARDS OF LIGHT penetrated his consciousness. Koldo was glad, even though the light was accompanied by pain. He was used to pain. But the moment he worked his way to full consciousness, where Nicola’s voice soothed and delighted, he was tugged back into the waiting darkness.
How much time passed, he wasn’t sure.
The light tried again, lifting him up, higher and higher.
“—you’re sure he’s not marrying her?” Nicola asked.
“Positive,” Axel replied.
“But he doesn’t lie.”
“He wasn’t lying.”
“Argh! How can that be?”
“Ask him.”
Darkness.
Light.
“—and all of these Sent Ones have been showing up to check on you. I’ve been cooking for them, and I’m getting better.” A soft chuckle caressed his ears. “There’s never a crumb left, and I...”
The volume was cranked down before she could finish, the darkness returning.
No! No, he wanted to hear her words...everything she had to say....
The next time the light made an appearance, he heard, “I’m learning the most interesting things about you. You used to have hair, but then, one day, fairly recently, in fact, you didn’t. You used to not talk very much at all. Magnus said the words had to be yanked out of you with pliers, but now you talk more than is wise. Their words, not mine. Elandra says you’re fond of shopping for bras and panties. I’m pretty sure she was joking.”
He gritted his teeth and, with an internal roar, tore the rope binding him to all that darkness.
His eyelids flipped open.
Unlike the first time, there was no haze. He saw Nicola sitting beside him, her features smooth rather than bathed in worry as she looked down, her hair caught up and gleaming, her clothes neat and tidy. And she utterly took his breath away.
He smacked his lips together, tasting mint. She must have brushed his teeth for him. Though his arm was weak, shaky, he managed to reach up and pinch the ends of her hair. She gasped in surprise and met his gaze. He lost his breath all over again. Those eyes...a summer storm, heat rising, steaming up the flower gardens.