Page 14 of Reaper and Ruin

“I’m clean as a whistle. Want me to pee in your cup?”

Dax subtly moved his hand to cover his coffee mug. “I’m good. But if you hit your head, maybe you’d be better off at the hospital tonight?”

The mention of the hospital had every muscle in my body seizing.

I wasn’t going there. The first night I’d met Doc, he’d practically stared straight into my soul and known exactly what I was on the inside. Doctors were too perceptive. They could do too many tests. Someone would realize my brain didn’t work right, that I enjoyed things no sane person should.

And then they’d lock me up.

I didn’t care if I’d hit my head and was bleeding internally.

I’d rather die than go to a hospital.

Plus, my head was fine.

At least physically. The desires inside it, probably not so much, but hey, you win some, you lose some.

“Just the nose ring, please.”

Dax looked at Violet, and she nodded.

“He’s okay.”

I slung my arm around her neck and kissed her wet hair. “So are you.”

Dax pointed to a sign on the wall that indicated there was a bathroom at the back of the shop. “Go get changed out of those wet clothes first, and I’ll set up for it.”

Satisfied with that answer, I ushered Violet into the bathroom and followed her in, locking the door behind us.

I dumped my clothes on the closed toilet lid and set to work undressing her.

I cringed at the soggy wet clothes I peeled off her and the way her skin was so pale it was vaguely blue. “Shit, Violet. You’re freezing.”

She shook her head. “Not as cold as you are.” She rubbed her hands up and down my arms. “God, X. Your skin is like ice.”

It was? I hadn’t even noticed.

But the worried expression creasing her pretty face said she knew what she was talking about. I stripped her off quickly and got her into dry clothes, grinning at her wickedly. “Violet in sweats with no panties underneath. Why is that so hot?”

She laughed a little but did the same for me. My fingers trembled, and I shoved them into the warm, fleece-lined pockets of the hoodie with the Saint View Tattoo logo on the front before she could notice.

I couldn’t feel anything. I was numb, inside and out.

Which seemed like the best time ever to get a piercing. I doubted I’d even feel it.

Despite the fact Violet had no panties on, and that was a very tempting thing in itself, I dragged us both out of the bathroom before I could do anything about it. One of Dax’s guys, who I knew I’d been introduced to but could not for the life of me remember his name, pointed to a black slip of plastic on the counter. “Dax left a garbage bag there for your wet clothes. He’s waiting in room two for you.”

“Thank ye, kind sir.” I saluted him and tossed the pile of soaking clothes inside it. Leaving it there at the desk for us to collect on our way out, I threaded my fingers through Violet’s and tugged her toward the door marked with a graffiti style number 2 on it. “Come in and hold my hand?”

“Of course.” She lowered her voice. “But, X, we need to talk about what happened on that cliff tonight.”

I nodded seriously. “We should also probably discuss the pile of mutilated bodies we found.”

She jerked to a stop. “What?”

“Oh. No one told you about that yet?”

“No! When would anyone have had time?”