Page 44 of Of Blood So Cold

She rolls her eyes. “Sure, yeah.” She reaches me, then wraps one of her arms around mine. “Come on; let’s get you cleaned up.”

“Hold on.”

She stops, looking down at me in question.

“How are you feeling?” I ask. “Like, really, Cigs; how are you feeling right now?”

Her brows crease. “I don’t understand.”

I sigh. “You just killed two people,” I say to her. “I need to know you’re okay – mentally, that is.”

“Of course I am,” she offers, then squeezes my arm. “It’s not the first time I’ve ended a life, Dor.”

“I know that. But this was different, wasn’t it? Besides, witnessing me killing Haroon is completely divergent toyoukilling the Goswamis. The impact of both can’t be compared.”

Her eyes crinkle at the sides as she smiles at me. “And what about you?”

“What of me?”

“Areyouokay?”

“I’m fine,” I tell her honestly. “I feel like myself again, which was long overdue, to be honest.”

She smiles again. “So trust me when I tell you that I’m fine as well,” she assures, keeping her gaze on me. “I mean it, Dor. Watching you end Haroon was great, but when I shot the Goswamis, I…” She swallows. “It’ll make me sound fucked up, but making them bleed was almost…healing. It was an experience I didn’t know I could have, but am so glad I did.”

“We’re all fucked up, sweetheart. And if being the way we are gives us an opportunity to liberate ourselves, then who are we to deny the hand of fate, eh?”

She grins, briefly glancing at the Goswamis behind her. “Exactly.”

I chuckle, then get to my feet. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay. But if there’sanythingyou wanna talk about, I’m here, alright?”

“Okay,” she says, then rises on her tiptoes to give me a kiss. But the second our lips touch, she rears back and grimaces at me. “Umm, while we get you cleaned up, let’s also have you brush your teeth, becausegoddammit, dude, your mouthstinks.”

I put my tongue to my cheek. “But I thought you liked the taste of blood on me.”

She mock-shudders. “Not the fuckingaftertasteversion of it, I don’t.”

“You’re so picky sometimes,” I quip.

“Yeah, I know. But I’m not asking for the best of both worlds from you, so the least you can do is have a mouth that doesnotreek like a dead rat’s ass.”

“Do I wanna know how and why you know the smell of a dead rat’s ass?”

She scowls, dragging me forward. “Let’s fuckinggo.”

I laugh, letting her lead me outside the study and towards the guest room. “Aye, ma’am.”

16.

“Fuckingpristine,” Dorran grumbles as he takes in the stunning guest room. “Also, why does it smell like lemons in here?”

I shut and lock the door behind us, then roll my eyes at him. “You’ve always had an issue with luxury.”

His brows droop as he narrows his eyes at me. “It’s wasteful.”

“I like to think it’stasteful.”

He waves a hand around the black-stone walls and the floor-to-ceiling windows in the room. “Isn’t this…I dunno,extra?”