"Whatever you say, John." Qhuinn's mismatched eyes were impossibly kind. "Whatever you want to do."
They headed back for the car, which was parked in an open-air lot about two blocks from the club. As they came around the corner, he noticed that the building next to the lot was being worked on, its construction zone battened down for the night, tarps flapping in the wind, heavy equipment sleeping soundly. To John, it seemed desolate.
Then again, he could have been bathed in sunshine in a field of daisies and all he would have seen was shadows. There was no way the night could have been worse. No. Way.
They were a good fifty yards from the car when the sweet smell of baby powder floated over on the breeze. And a lesser stepped out from behind a bucket loader.
Chapter Twenty-one
Phury came to but didn't move. Which made sense, given the fact that one side of his face felt like it had been burned off. After a couple of deep breathers, he lifted a hand to the pounding ache. The bandages covered him from forehead to jaw. He probably looked like an extra on the set of ER.
He sat up slowly and his whole head throbbed, like a bicycle pump had been shoved up his nose and someone was working that bitch with a strong arm.
Felt good.
Shifting his feet off the gurney, he pondered the law of gravity and debated whether he had the strength to deal with it. He decided to give it a shot, and what do you know, he managed to weave his way to the door.
Two pairs of eyes flipped over to him, one diamond bright, the other forest green.
"Hi," he said.
V's woman came up to him, and her stare was all doctor-scan. "God, I can't believe how fast you heal. You shouldn't even be conscious, much less upright."
"Do you want to check your handiwork?" When she nodded, he sat down on a bench and she carefully peeled the tape back. As he winced, he looked around her at Vishous. "Did you tell Z about this yet?"
The brother shook his head. "Haven't seen him, and Rhage tried his phone but it was off."
"So, no news from Havers?"
"Not that I've heard. Although we're about an hour before dawn, so they'd better be back soon."
The doctor whistled under her breath. "It's like I can see the skin knitting back together in front of my eyes. Mind if I put another gauze pack on?"
"Whatever you like."
When she went back into the PT suite, V said, "Gotta talk to you, my man."
"About?"
"I'm thinking you know."
Shit. The lesser. And there was no playing dumb with a brother like V. Lying, however, remained an option. "Fight got tight."
"Bullshit. You can't be pulling moves like that."
Phury thought back to a couple months before, when he'd become his twin for a time. Literally. "I've been worked over on one of their tables, V. I can assure you they are not concerned with warfare etiquette."
"But you got cracked tonight because you were going Ginsu on that slayer's ass. Weren't you."
Jane came back in with supplies. Thank God.
When she'd finished packing him up, he got to his feet. "I'm going to head to my room now."
"You want help?" V asked in a hard tone. Like he was sucking back a whole lot of need-to-share.
"No. I know the way."
"Well, since we have to go back anyway, let's make this a field trip. And take it slow."
Which was a damn good idea. His head was killing him.
They were halfway through the tunnel when Phury realized that the doctor wasn't being watched or guarded. But, then, hell, she didn't look as if she wanted to bolt. Matter of fact, she and V were walking side by side.
He wondered if either one of them was aware of how much they seemed like a couple.
When Phury got to the door that led into the big house, he said good-bye without meeting V's eyes and went up the shallow steps that led out of the tunnel and into the mansion's foyer. His bedroom seemed like it was all the way across town instead of just up the grand staircase and the exhaustion he felt told him he needed to feed. Which was such a bore.
Up in his room he took a shower and stretched out on his majestic bed. He knew he should be calling one of the females he used for blood, but he so wasn't interested. Instead of picking up the phone, he closed his eyes and let his arms fall to his sides, his hand landing on the firearms book, the one he'd taught class from tonight. The one with his drawing in it.
His door opened without a knock. Which meant it was Zsadist. With news.
Phury sat up so fast, his brain went fish-tank in his skull, sloshing around, threatening to spill out his ears. He put his hand up to the bandage as pain speared into him. "What happened with Bella?"
Z's eyes were black holes in his scarred face, "What the fuck were you thinking!"
"Excuse me?"
"Getting jumped because-" As Phury winced, Z cut the volume down on his boom-box routine and shut the door. Relative silence didn't improve his mood. In a hushed voice, he bit out, "I can't fucking believe you played Jack the Ripper and got cracked-"
"Please tell me how Bella is."
Z pointed his finger right at Phury's chest. "You need to spend a little less time worrying about my shellan and a little more worrying about your own sorry ass, feel me?"
Swamped by pain, Phury squeezed his good eye shut. The brother was, of course, right on the money.
"Shit," Z spat into the quiet. "Just… shit."
"You're absolutely right." Phury noticed that his hand was clutching the firearms book, and he forced himself to let go of the thing.
As a clicking sound started to go off, Phury glanced up. Z was nicking the top of his RAZR phone over and over again with his thumb. "You could have been killed."
"I wasn't."
"Cold comfort. At least for one of us. What about your eye? V's doc save it?"
"Don't know."
Z walked over to one of the windows. Pushing the heavy velvet drape aside, he stared out across the terrace and the pool. The strain in his ruined face was obvious, his jaw clenched, his brows down low over his eyes. Strange… before it had always been Z who was on the edge of oblivion. Now Phury was standing on that thin, slippery lip, the worrier having become the cause for concern.
"I'll be okay," he lied, leaning to the side for his bag of red smoke and his rolling papers. He spun a thick one up fast, lit it, and the false calm came right away, like his body had been trained well. "Just had an off night."
Z laughed, though it was a curse more than anything jolly. "They were right."
"Who?"
"Payback is a bitch." Zsadist took a deep breath. "You get yourself killed out there and I'm-"
"I won't." He inhaled again, not willing to take the vow any further than that. "Now please tell me about Bella."
"She's going on bed rest."
"Oh, God."
"No, it's good." Z rubbed his skull trim. "I mean, she hasn't lost the young yet, and if she keeps quiet she might not."
"She in your room?"
"Yeah, I'm going to go get her something to eat. She's allowed to be up for an hour a day, but I don't want to give her excuses to be on her feet."
"I'm glad she-"
"Fuck, my brother. Is this what it was like for you?"
Phury frowned and tapped the blunt over his ashtray. "I'm sorry?"
"I'm fucked in the head all the time. It's like whatever I'm doing moment to moment is only half-real because of all the crap I'm worried about."
"Bella's-"
"It's not just about her." Z's eyes, now back in yellow because he wasn't as pissed off, drifted across the room. "It's you."