Page 72 of Blood Stone

Chapter Fifteen

Winter looked out the window over the desk she was sitting at when the quiet tap sounded. She swivelled to look back at Garrett. “It’s Roman.”

He didn’t bother hiding his surprise. Or his dismay.

“It could be about anything at all,” she said, standing up. “As Bastian pointed out, you and Nial are the only vampires around.” She opened the trailer door, keeping a firm hold on the handle so the wind didn’t whip it back and slam it against the side of the trailer.

Roman climbed up, brushing sand from his hair and shaking himself. He nodded at Winter before facing Garrett. “I need your help,” he said flatly, reaching for the hem of his tee-shirt.

Winter glanced at Garrett, her brow lifting. He understood her silent question. She was asking him if he wanted her to leave. He shook his head. He didn’t know what the problem was, but Roman was here for the help he was asking for, pure and simple. There was a ‘strictly business’ demeanour about him. Winter had nailed it – he needed another vampire’s assistance and that was all.

Garrett wanted her nearby because if that was the only reason Roman was here, Winter’s presence would ensure the meeting stayed that way.

Roman pulled the shirt off and turned around. “I need to get the bullet out.”

Garrett stood up. There was no sign of a gunshot wound on his back, but there was a lump under the skin, a few inches higher than his right kidney.

Cold alarm touched him at the sight of the lump.

“What is it?” Winter asked, her voice hushed.

“A bullet. Roman let himself heal and didn’t eject the bullet first. Now it’s lodged behind healed skin and can’t come out without help.”

Winter stepped closer, lifting her hand up toward Roman’s back. “May I touch it? It’s possible I can help.”

Garrett saw the look Roman sent him. It was an expression from out of the past. A small lift of his brow.Can I trust this human?

“She’s not human,” Garrett told him. “And what makes her not human may help you now. Let her. It could be better than having me dig around with my dirk.” He made himself relax back onto the sofa, although the tension was winding up inside him with every passing second.

Winter rested her hand over the small mound, her eyes drifting almost closed as she eased her senses inside Roman’s body.

“If you couldn’t discard the bullet before you healed, you must have been hiding the wound from humans,” Garrett said. “That raises some alarming questions.”

“That’s the other reason I’m here,” Roman replied. He twisted around to look at what Winter was doing. “I can’t feel anything,” he told her. “Should Garrett be getting his dirk out after all?”

“Shh,” she told him. “I’m figuring out your cell structure. It’s dark in here. Give me a minute.”

Roman looked at Garrett again. Garrett read the uneasiness in his expression, although he knew few others would see it.

“Was Kate there?” Garrett asked him.

Roman’s face closed over. It was like watching a pair of steel doors swing shut.

“Got it,” Winter declared and held up her hand, palm up. A bullet, still almost perfectly formed except for barrel riflings and a dent on the tip, sat on her hand. There were a few drops of blood marring the bronze shape and her fingertips, but Roman’s back was already closed up. A fine pink line showed where the bullet had been.

“How did you do that?” Roman demanded.

Winter hefted the little bullet in her hand. “It’s hard to explain. I…caused your skin cells to separate and make way for the bullet.”

“That’s why I didn’t feel anything?”

“I didn’t disturb any nerves,” Winter told him. “Everything just got moved aside temporarily, unlike when the bullet went in. So no, you shouldn’t have felt anything.”

“Have you always been able to cut people open like that?” Garrett asked, fascinated.

“I suppose…yes,” Winter said. “I didn’t know until just now that I could do it at all.” She smiled apologetically at Roman. “I’m still figuring all this stuff out. For the longest time I kept it secret, you see.”

Roman turned back around to face them and worked his arms back into his tee-shirt. “Whatareyou?”