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“A razor.”

“Do you still have it?”

Reluctantly I removed it from my pocket and handed it over.

When Asher saw it, he whistled. “No wonder it got infected,” he said, holding it up to the light. He shook his head, then pocketed it.

“You’re keeping it?” I asked.

“No,” he said, “I’m just not giving it back to you.”

My hands twisted together at that. But I would be okay.

“Why did you do it?” he asked a minute later.

I pressed my lips together. I didn’t want to answer this. Not when he was starting to look at me like he actually cared.

But if he wouldn’t let me pledge him my life, I could at least answer his questions.

“I was testing out the sharpness of the blade,” I answered honestly.

“And you were doing that because...?”

“When it’s been awhile since I’ve culled... I get urges.” I glanced down at my hands, afraid to meet his eyes. “I need blood—if I don’t want to hurt someone else, then I have to hurt myself.” I furrowed my brows. “But it’s better now... around you.”

When I finally did look at him, I saw such conflict in his eyes.

I reached for Asher’s vial again, like it was a talisman. And again, my fingers didn’t close over the glass. I glanced down at my chest, peeling necklaces apart one by one as I looked for Asher’s blood.

I sucked in a breath when I didn’t find it. “Thevial,” I said.

“What about it?”

“It’s gone.”

Chapter 17

Lana

“Gone?” Asher tookhis eyes off the road to stare at me. “What do you meangone?”

“I mean it’s not here.”

“You mean youlostit?”

Golden skinned Asher went pale at that, and the look in his eye... moon-touched. A muscle in his cheek feathered. I could see the anger building up, his muscles taut with it.

My fault. “Asher, I—”

“Don’t.”

“But—”

“Just...don’t.” He looked like he was barely keeping it together.

I chewed on my lower lip. “It could’ve just fallen somewhere.”

“Itdidn’t,” he all but growled. “You and I both know exactly where it went.”