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“Good as new!”Avery looked surprised as he flexed his fingers and then rubbed his thumb over the place where he’d been hurt.There was no trace of the rope burns on his right hand now—not even a scar.

“I am glad it worked,” I told him.“Now let me heal the other one.”

Silently, he gave me his left hand and I breathed on it as well, pressing my lips to his palm as I did so.I could feel my Drake’s warmth healing him as I did so and it gave me a surge of pure joy.For the first time in my life, the immense, raw power that was bottled up inside me was finally doing somethinggoodfor a change.I was curing instead of hurting—using my Drake’s power for healing instead of evil and destruction.

I finished and Avery took his hand back…but I didn’t want to stop healing him.Didn’t want to stoptouchinghim.

“Avery,” I said in a low voice.“Can I…could I heal your face as well?”

I touched the swollen right side of his face lightly with my fingertips and he looked up at me uncertainly.

“You…really want to?”

I nodded.I wanted to more thananything.Wanted to press my lips to his face, to his cheek, his forehead…his lips…

“Yes,” I told him, my voice coming out low and rough.“I want to heal you—allof you.”

“All right.”He shrugged, as though trying to make light of it, but he was looking at me as he did, searching my eyes with his own as though trying to find my motive.

I didn’t know what it was myself.Not just to heal him, surely.Maybe just to have him near…to touch him a little while longer…

Bending my face to his, I pressed my lips to his temple and breathed out my Drake’s healing warmth.Avery shivered under my touch but didn’t move as I kissed him better.I let my lips trail down his face, kissing around his wounded eye gently, feeling the swelling go down and erasing the bruises that were forming.I kissed his cheek too, erasing the abrasions there.

Then I reached his mouth.

The right side of his bottom lip was swollen and split where Gonzales’s fist had smashed into it.For a moment the thought of the big Drake hitting Avery—myAvery—made the rage rise in me.I swallowed it down with some difficulty.There was no time for anger now—this was the time for healing…for showing Avery how I felt about him…even though I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt myself.

I hesitated, my lips hovering over the wounded spot, wanting badly to go on but not sure if I should.

“Saint,” he murmured hoarsely.“You…you don’t have to if…if you don’t want to.”

“Iwantto,” I told him.“I want to so much,mi Corazon…”

I didn’t know where the words came from but they felt right.And then I was pressing my mouth to his, breathing softly against the split lip and then kissing it gently—just to be sure it healed correctly, of course.

Avery shifted restlessly, as though he wasn’t sure what to do.I pulled back and looked into his eyes.He was so close and his lips had been so soft, though I had only kissed the bottom one.

“Saint…” he breathed.“I…I don’t know if…”

“If you’re healed?”I murmured, looking at his lush bottom lip again.“I am not quite certain myself.Should I do it again, just to be sure?”

“If…if you want to.”His eyes were beautiful and filled with uncertainty.

“I want to,” I told him, and kissed him again, pressing my mouth to the place he had been hurt as I cupped his face in my hands.I held him as though he was something rare and precious and perfect…something only for me…

At last, though, I felt Avery’s hands on my chest and he was pushing me gently away.

“Saint,” he whispered, nearly panting.“Saint, no.You have tostop.”

“Why should I stop,mi Corazon?”I murmured.

“You’re not the one doing this—it’s your Drake,” he said.

I shook my head.

“He sleeps—for now.”

His eyes widened.