Nicky came to stand beside me. “First, I’m glad that you’re working your issues with Sin.”
I turned and looked at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean,” he said, and gave me a look out of his one blue eye that said, clearly, I did know what he meant, and I did.
I shrugged and looked away.
“Second, I’m sorry about Domino. I didn’t mean to kill him.”
“You didn’t,” I said, looking at him.
“I almost did, and it would have been an accident; if I kill people, it should be on purpose.”
I studied his profile, because he was the one looking away now. “So, you’re not apologizing for almost killing him, really; you’re apologizing for accidentally almost killing him.”
“Yes.”
“Because if you kill anyone it should be on purpose, is that it?”
“Yes,” he said.
I laughed, started to hug him, and settled for patting his arm. “That is one of the weirdest apologies I’ve ever had, but I’ll take it; thank you.”
He nodded. “You’re welcome.”
My phone gave Micah’s text tone, which was how I knew to look at it. The little word balloon read, “Can you meet me down in Rafael’s room in medical?”
I texted back with one finger, much slower than Nicky, Nathaniel, or Cynric. “Is Rafael all right? Is he worse? Not healing?” I sent the message and realized it was awkward as hell, but hey, at least I texted instead of just calling back. It was a start.
“He’s healing, but not healed. Won’t be healed by tonight’s meeting.”
I started to text back and finally just called. “Micah, I tried texting, I did, but I’d still rather hear your voice.”
He laughed. “I don’t mind, I’d rather hear your voice, too.”
I smiled and said, “Good, now what’s up, short, dark, and handsome?”
He gave another chuckle, and then said, “Well short, pale, and beautiful, I’d rather discuss it in person.”
“Okay, that sounds serious.”
“It is, but not in the way you think.”
“Okay, mysterious then.”
“Oh, hell,” he said.
“Now I am worried, you almost never curse.”
“Rafael is healing, but not as fast as we’d hoped when we scheduled the big meeting for tonight.”
“Everyone here in St. Louis is friendly, so it shouldn’t be a big deal,” I said.
“We’re including people via Skype that aren’t so friendly, including the rat group that was behind the assassination attempt.”
“He needs to appear strong in front of them, not weak,” I said.
“Exactly.”
“Okay.”
“Rafael needs a little help to make that happen tonight.”
“To appear strong, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“We’re here to help him.”
“It’s more your help he needs right now, Anita.”
“Define help.”
“He needs to be healed more by tonight, if possible.”
“Agreed.”
“Will you help me heal him?”
“Sure, how do I help you do that?”
“I can call flesh like I did for you the first time we met, and you’ve healed using more than one method.”
“I thought calling flesh only worked on wereleopards for you.”
“I’ve managed to use it on werelions out of town.”
“You never mentioned that.” I could feel that first spurt of resentment, or anger. His reaction to Dev’s power-up with us had let me know just how much danger he’d been putting himself in to help out-of-town animal groups, or consolidate our power base with them.
“I think we both keep a lot of our out-of-town work private from each other, Anita.” And just like that I had to swallow whatever pissiness I’d planned on dishing out, because he was absolutely right. I did a lot of dangerous stuff on vampire hunts, and rogue lycanthrope hunts for that matter, though my out-of-town work was usually vamps. I’d woken up in the hospital more than once far from home and the people I loved.
“You’re really good at that,” I said.
“Good at what?”
“If I said You know what, would that be too passive aggressive?”
He gave a small laugh. “Oh, Anita, there’s usually nothing passive about your aggression.”
I debated on whether to be grumpy and then finally had to smile and shake my head. “Fair enough.”
“I feel awkward asking you to have what may end up as sex with Rafael, after I made a big deal out of not wanting to share you with more men.”
“Unless it’s for a good cause, and then you see sex as just another tool in our arsenal, whether it’s you having sex with other people, or me.”
“That sounds cold-blooded.”
“A little, but you and I both decided a long time ago that sex isn’t a fate worse than death.”
“True, but it still makes me feel inconsistent and I hate that.”
“You are one of the most consistent people I’ve ever met, Micah.”
“Thank you.”
“And you still adapt to change, or let your plan adapt to battle conditions, better than almost anyone I know.”
“So I’m both consistent and adaptable?”