Incubus Dreams - Laurell K. Hamilton [66]
I started to get up off the floor, and Damian offered me a hand up. I wouldn’t have taken it normally, but we’d just had sex, and it seemed odd to slap away his hand. The moment my hand touched his, I realized it was more than that. That need to put my skin against his was still there. One moment of good sex didn’t take away centuries of need. Sex was like some kind of fuel like food—you burned it up and needed more.
I got my hand out of his and took a slightly shaky step away from Nathaniel and Damian. A little distance would be helpful, I hoped. “We’ll all live,” I said.
“Good.” He cocked his head to one side and said, “I didn’t know that Damian could walk around this early in the day.”
“He can’t,” I said.
“Do I say the obvious, ‘but he is walking around during the day,’ or do you want me to just stop asking questions?”
I was suddenly tired, and I probably wasn’t the only one. “Have you been to bed at all?”
He shook his head, and as if I’d reminded him, he rubbed his chartreuse eyes, his sunglasses already tucked into the front of his shirt. “When I drove the guy home from the bar, he had a live-in girlfriend and a child. Girlfriend started a fight about his drinking. Anger does not help you fight the change.”
“Did he shift?” I asked.
“No, but it was close, and he’s so new . . .” Micah shook his head again. “I’d feel better if the girlfriend was a little more understanding about how dangerous he could be. She just didn’t seem to understand.”
“She didn’t want to understand,” Richard said.
Micah turned and looked at him. I realized that of all the people in the room, Richard had been the only one that Micah hadn’t really looked at. “Then you’ve met Patrick’s girlfriend.”
Richard started to shake his head, stopped in mid-motion, and winced. “No, but I’ve seen it. The human spouse just doesn’t want to understand that they’re married to a monster.” I think he meant it to sound matter-of-fact, but it didn’t. It sounded bitter.
I’d never made Richard feel like that, that I knew of; no, he’d spent a great deal more time making me feel like a monster. So I let it go. I let it go because I didn’t know what to say, or if there was anything to say. Okay, I had one thing to say. “The coalition is offering a monthly meeting for family members. I thought we’d given flyers out to the werewolves.”
Richard got to his feet, cradling his arm. “This is my Patrick, Patrick Cook?”
Micah said, “Yes.”
“And you’ve been baby-sitting him all night?”
“Yes,” Micah said, again.
Richard looked down at the floor, then back up. He met Micah’s gaze, but his face wasn’t completely happy about it. “Thank you for looking after my wolf.”
“The wolves are part of the coalition, too,” Micah said, “I’d do the same for anyone’s people.”
“All the same, thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
There was one of those awkward silences. I hated to leave everybody alone, but I really needed a shower. The shower would hurt the wound on my throat, but I’d just had sex without a condom, which meant all the mess had gone into me, but it wouldn’t stay there. So needed to clean up. Truthfully, I’d have preferred a condom, but it hadn’t occurred to me until afterward. Tammy had gotten pregnant on the pill. Yeah, she had fallen afoul of the fact that antibiotics don’t mix well with the pill, but still. That one percent chance suddenly seemed like it wasn’t good odds. Damian was a thousand-year-old vampire; chances were he was infertile, but still . . . It was one thing getting pregnant by a boyfriend, but pregnant by someone who wasn’t even that . . . well, that seemed somehow worse. “I’m taking a shower.”
They all looked at me. I guess it was abrupt. “I’m sorry, but