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By Root 7292 0

and bra showed a lot of cleavage; third, the boots. Maybe my Nikes were covered in blood, they probably were, and the boots were comfy and low heeled, but Nathaniel was twenty and male and often looked at clothes from the perspective of his job. Micah had a tendency to not match everything perfectly; he would have just put on an ambi-sexual T-shirt from the T-shirt drawer we shared. The outfit wouldn’t have looked so terribly like an outfit if Micah had done it. I’d have to talk to Nathaniel about picking out things with this much cleavage when I was working with the cops. I had my backup shoulder holster instead of the custom-made leather one, which probably meant hospital efficiency had destroyed it. That would be the second or third one that had gotten cut to pieces in an emergency room.

I felt heat, or air movement, or…something. I turned and must have done it fast enough to catch Olaf in midmotion, pulling his hand back. He had almost touched me.

I glared at him, and he stared at me. Those dark, deep-set eyes stared at my face, and then his gaze slid down the front of my body in that way that men can do. That look that slides over you so that you know they’re thinking about you naked, or worse. In Olaf’s case it was probably worse.

“Stop looking at me like that,” I said.

Edward was watching us both.

“Every man who sees you tonight will be looking at you like that.” He made a gesture in the vague direction of my chest. “How can they not?”

I felt the heat run up my face, and spoke through gritted teeth. “Nathaniel picked the clothes to bring to the hospital, not me.”

“Did he buy the shirt and the bra?” Olaf asked.

“No,” I said. “I did.”

He shrugged. “Then do not blame the boy.”

“Yeah, but they’re date clothes, and I don’t think there’s going to be time for a date tonight.”

“Will we be hunting the vampire that escaped us?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, if we can figure out where she and her human servant have gotten to, yeah.”

He smiled.

“What?” I said, because the smile didn’t match what we were talking about.

“If things work out as I hope, I may owe your boy a thank-you.”

I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”

Edward touched my arm, and I jumped. “You don’t want to understand.” He led me down the hallway, his hand on my arm. Olaf stayed where he was, staring at us with that strange half-smile on his face.

“What?” I asked Edward.

He leaned in close, speaking low and quick, “While you were unconscious, Olaf came into the room. You were covered in blood and they’d cut off most of what you were wearing. He touched you, Anita. The doctors and guards chased him back, and I got him out of the room, but…”

I stumbled, because I was trying to stop, and he kept us moving. “Touched me where?” I asked.

“The stomach.”

“I don’t understand,” and then I did. “The wounds, he touched the wounds.”

“Yes,” Edward said, and stopped us outside a door.

I swallowed hard; both my pulse and a certain nausea were trying to climb up my throat. I looked down the hallway where Olaf was still standing. I knew my face showed fear; I couldn’t help it. He drew his lower lip under and bit it. I think it was an unconscious gesture. A gesture you make when you are moved to the point where you don’t think about how you look, or who’s looking. Then he moved down the hallway toward us like some black movie monster. The kind that looks human, and is human, but in their mind there’s nothing human left to talk to.

Edward opened the door and drew me inside. Apparently we weren’t waiting on Olaf. Fine with me.

I stumbled over the doorsill. His hand tightened, steadying me. The door closed on the sight of Olaf gliding up the hallway. He moved like all his muscles knew what they were doing, almost like one of the shapeshifters. He so needed killing.

I must have looked pale, because Micah came across the room and took me in his arms. He whispered against my cheek, “What’s wrong?” He hugged me tighter. “You’re shivering.”

I wrapped my arms around him and pressed as much of me against as much of him as I could. It was one of those hugs when it