Page 52 of Taste of Blood

“He’s safe.”Safer than he’d be with you.

“Who is this?”

I glance at Cord, thinking about that. “A friend.”

“Asher?”

Surprising. Dante and I have clashed in the past, but he has to know Cord and I have been apart for years.

Unless Cord told him something about our encounters lately.

No, that doesn’t sound like Cord. He wouldn’t even admit that to himself. Maybe he’s just referring to the fact that Cord is a loner with so few friends. Or any.

“I’ll have him call you when he wakes up.”

I cut off the call before he can reply. The last person I want to talk to right now is Dante.

Cord stirs on the couch and his eyelids flutter, then open.

“Thirsty,” he croaks.

I sprint to the kitchen for a glass of water and hold it to his lips. He takes a sip then sinks back on the couch with a loud sigh.

“How did I get here?”

“You don’t remember?”

He runs a hand through his hair and drapes his arm over his eyes. “I remember the ambush, then trying to escape. I was running, and then…” He looks over at me. “You found me?”

“You were bleeding all over the wall outside my building when I got home. You ran all the way here?” Impressive, considering he could barely stand when I found him.

“I guess? I don’t know.”

He tries to sit up and groans, falling back again. “Fuck. I feel like I got hit by a truck.”

“You’re pretty beat up, though you should be healing now.”

He looks over at me. “You gave me blood?”

“Two donors. You could probably use more.”

“I thought I imagined that.” He tries again to sit up, this time managing to slump against the back of the couch. “Just give me a few minutes and I’ll be out of your hair.”

“You’re not going anywhere until you’re healed.”

“Ash, I need to get out there–”

“No.”

“You are so fucking stubborn.”

“Damned right I am, when it comes to you. Now if you’re feeling well enough to argue, why don’t you tell me what happened. You owe me that much.”

He sighs again. “We were trailing these two vamps.”

“Who is ‘we?’”

“Me and three of Dante’s guys. We’d been sitting on this club all day after we saw them grab a woman and throw her into a van. We figured we’d torture them a little, get some information about their boss. It seemed pretty straightforward. There were only two of them, and they didn’t look all that threatening.”