Declan threw him his cell phone.
“I’ll just go bleed over there and leave you two alone.” Jackson nodded at the parking lot before heading off in that direction.
“How’s your leg?” I asked, placing my hand on Declan’s knee as we sat side by side on the ground just outside the warehouse door. Laura was nowhere to be seen. She’d taken off running and hadn’t stopped. I hoped she’d be okay and not sign up for any more research programs that required one to be locked in a room deep underground.
He raised an eyebrow. “Healing. How’s your throat?”
“I need ice cream. And a couple Band-Aids.”
His jaw tightened. “I’m sorry everything didn’t work out, Jill.”
I laughed a little at that. It hurt. “Not working out is a bit of an understatement.”
He nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry that in our search for a solution to your problem we were nearly torn apart by bloodthirsty vampires.”
“That’s better.” I grabbed his hand and squeezed it, tracing my thumb over an old scar that ran across his knuckles. “We’re still alive, so I’d say the day was a success.”
“Your blood—”
I cringed at the memory. “If it had killed you, I’m not really sure what I would have done. I think I might have gone ballistic on Dr. Reynolds long before Lawrence got to him.” I searched his face. “Did the Nightshade do anything to you? Anything bad that you might not recover from?”
He shook his head. “I think its effects are fading.”
“Your human side was enough to counteract the poison.”
“Yeah, but—but it did something else to me. Something that really messed me up.”
“What?”
“It threw off the serum I’m on. It messed up my emotions. Made it f**king hard to think straight.”
I knew I’d seen emotion on his face before. This was the confirmation.
I grimaced. “How do you feel right now?”
“I thought it might be permanent, but I can feel it fading as we speak. I don’t think it was a cure for the permanent serum, just a glitch. Besides, the pain I felt when I was injected—not really something I want to experience again if I can help it.”
I studied his face. “So you’re back to normal?”
“Almost.” His brows drew together. “You said something earlier—about our experiment last night.”
This wasn’t a good time to talk about that. “Declan—”
“No, hear me out, Jill. You said that it wasn’t unpleasant for you to let me . . . do that.”
The memory of his mouth on me and his hands skimming my body played in my mind. “Not unpleasant is also a vast understatement for what I felt last night.”
“Yeah, but you also said you didn’t want me to touch you or kiss you again if I wasn’t feeling something in return.”
I swallowed. “That’s right.”
“That means I better do this now while I still have a window of opportunity.”
“What?”
He took my face between his hands and kissed me. This wasn’t a one-sided kiss, one that lacked true feeling on Declan’s part. Even with the salty taste of sweat and the faint copper tang of blood, this was incredible, amazing. Passionate. Real. The feel of his mouth against mine trumped any suit-wearing, perfect Declan in any stupid dream. A shiver of pleasure coursed through me.
When he finally pulled away, my cheeks were flushed and my entire body tingled. I stared at him with surprise, and he rewarded me with a grin.
“Was that better?” he asked.
I smiled back at him. “It was . . . not bad.”
His grin widened. “It was better than not bad.”
“Practice makes perfect.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.” The smile faded. “Shit, I can feel it. The effects of my serum . . . it’s coming back fast. I’m sorry, Jill.”
I shook my head. “Don’t be sorry.”
I kissed him again, quickly, and already I felt it wasn’t the same as a moment ago. I’d have to keep that one passionate, incredible kiss firmly in my memory. If it had happened once, it could damn well happen again.
Laura was right about hope. Even after everything that had happened, I was surprised how much I still had in reserve.
Declan stood up and held out his hand to help me up. “Let’s get out of here.”
I felt shaky, my body ached, and my throat was tender. I’d lost a whole lot of blood. I hadn’t found a solution to my Nightshade problem. The scientist who claimed he could help me was dead, an act of vengeance for the sins of his past. There was a nest of vampires beneath our feet that had an extermination to look forward to rather than a juicy, human jugular to snack on.
I’d nearly died, but I was still alive. I had a chance to heal and to figure out what my next step was going to be.
And surprisingly enough, I felt rather hopeful about that.
One amazing kiss from Declan had made me see that nothing was permanent—there were always loopholes . . . or glitches. If his so-called permanent serum could be brushed aside once, it could be again. And if he could be healed, then so could I.
It was far from perfect, but I was okay with that. I already knew perfection was highly overrated.
Turn the page for a preview
of Jill and Declan’s first thrilling adventure
by Michelle Rowen . . .
Nightshade
Now available in paperback from Berkley Sensation!
Life as I knew it ended at half past eleven on a Tuesday morning.
There were currently thirty minutes left.
“What’s your poison?” I asked my friend and co-worker Stacy on my way out of the office on a coffee break.
She looked up at me from a spreadsheet on her computer screen, her eyes practically crossed from crunching numbers all morning. “You’re a serious lifesaver, Jill, you know that?”
“Well aware.” I grinned at her, then shifted my purse to my other shoulder and took the five-dollar-bill she thrust at me.
“I’ll take a latte, extra foam. And one of those white chocolate chunk cookies. My stomach’s growling happily just thinking about it.”
Stacy didn’t normally go for the cookie action. “No diet today?”
“Fuck diets.”