Page 48 of Magpies & Mayhem
“I’m sorry,” he rasped, trying to pull me closer. It was probably the only time I was going to get to cuddle him this close to his neck, so I let him, but I wasn’t happy about it. My adrenaline was still pumping, and I wanted tofight.
“Why couldn’t I shift? If you were going to insist on carrying me—wrecked as you are—it would have been a lot easier to carry a little bird.” He’d still managed to jump over that counter while holding me, but why make things harder for himself?
“Smoke is bad for bird lungs,” he said quietly, repeating the answer I’d given him when he’d offered me a cigarette.You poor, sweet, foolish boy.My heart clenched, and I melted against him, all the fight draining out of me.
“You and I are going to have a long talk once we’re alone. And if you bolt on me again, I’ll hunt your ass down.”
He didn’t respond except to press his mouth to the top of my head again, which made my heart flutter in a way I didn’t care for.
Augustus came back around the corner with a uniformed medic in tow, and I turned to see Tobias and Alejandra coming up the block from the other direction with squirming dragon babies in their arms. Lucas was bringing up the rear. Tobias was cursing and trying to keep his dragon’s head pointed away from him, and Alejandra was desperately trying to get her arms around the wings of the one she carried so it couldn’t club her in the face.
I tried to get up again when the medic crouched to talk to Jordan, but when he tightened his hold again, I just accepted it and drooped against his chest. He needed his safety-blanket right now, and I supposed that was me. The medic would have to work around me. I eyed Augustus as he fussed over the two new dragons and brought the one from Alejandra’s arms over to me.
“These do not appear as hearty as yours, I think,” he stated, holding it up to Huck as he lounged on the sidewalk. He was right. Their ribs were showing, and they were noticeably smaller. They had the same black scales as Huck, but where his were shiny with an iridescent gleam, theirs were dull and rough looking. I held my hand out toward it, and Augustus brought it closer so I could feel its bone structure under its scales. Nothing seemed out of place or broken, but it seemed weaker than Huck, so I pushed some of my magic into it to give it some strength.
“The Phantoms might not have fed them,” I sighed. “Try some burned rats. Hey, what’s wrong with your skin?” I asked, noticing that Augustus’s face and neck were covered in blisters where his leather jacket didn’t cover. They weren’t wearing their helmets now that the sun was down, but maybe they should have been?
“The room you were in was very hot,” he said, stepping out of the way so the medic could get past him. I had to sit up after all so that Jordan could get his jacket off. Augustus glanced at my face and neck and then did a double take. “How is it that your skin is unmarred? Do you have fire resistance like our Jordan?”
My mouth dropped open, and I pressed a gloved hand to my face. I hadn’t felt any pain?
“I wondered that myself,” Jordan replied as the medic taped one of his deeper wounds shut.
“What does that mean? Of course I’m not fire resistant. I’ve gotten burns all my life,” I said. Huck had flambéed both me and Joshua the night he started flaming. I pulled my glove off to wipe my face and found it black with soot, but I got distracted by the medic as he taped up some of Jordan’s deeper wounds. “What are you doing? And why is he still not healing?”
The dark-haired man shot me a glance as he worked, saying, “I’m just pulling the edges together to make sure they’ll heal properly once his magic kicks back in. Give him a few hours away from those hexes and he’ll be just fine. Sir, we need to move you so I can check you over and address the cuts on your back.”
Jordan winced as he stood, and I gritted my teeth as I caught a glimpse of how bad his back was torn up.
“Are all of the Phantoms in that building dead?” I asked. I’d go back there and finish the job if they weren’t.
“All of them,” Augustus agreed, trying to keep his squirming dragon contained.
“How much trouble am I in?” Jordan asked as he hobbled toward the warehouse entrance.
Augustus shook his head with the smallest sigh. “Every new immortal gets one free pass for idiocy. If that’s not written in the immortal’s contract, it should be. There will, however, be a department-wide mandatory meeting about following protocol to limit damage and loss of life where possible.” Tobias groaned and Alejandra muttered something about newbies under her breath. “Unfortunately, Lucas has already used up his free pass.” He shot a droll look at Lucas, who returned an unamused one.
I blinked a few times before patting my leg for Huck to follow us inside. “There’s an immortal’s contract?”
Jordan laughed. “No.”
Chapter 35
Thenewdragonsdislikedwater as much as Huck had, but their dull looking scales concerned me, so I had them soaking in some warm tubs with a little antiseptic in Jordan’s shower back at the compound. At least I’d gotten some food into them, although the vampires hadlost their mindsat the burned rat smell in the kitchen.Oops.We were stuck with them until Augustus could arrange proper rehab because I wasn’t letting them go back to the refuge that allowed them to be stolen in the first place. Huck was completely uninterested in his siblings, slinking under the bed to sleep in a pilfered pile of my clothing while I got cleaned up.
I exited the bathroom and stared at Jordan, silently eyeing the taped-up cuts still crisscrossing his shoulders as he sat hunched on the edge of his bed with his forearms braced on his knees. The cuts were healing about as fast as a shifter heals, so they’d be gone before too much longer, but the fact that they were still there threw me off balance. Jordan had seemed so unconquerable and invincible—a quiet menace who was quick as lightning even in his youth. He was faster than that now, but his speed and competence was what had drawn me to him even then. The extra dose of power and strength, paired with his new imperviousness to harm, looked good on him. But seeing him with injuries in spite of all that did something inside me. It made me mad. It made me want to protect him. It made mecrazy.
The spark of anger flickered back to life, deep in my gut. I still hadn’t forgiven him for bolting on me last night or for going after the dragons the way he did. I knew most of my anger should be directed at the men who hurt him, but it was hard to be angry with people who were already dead.
“Maybe you should bite me,” I suggested.
Jordan’s head shot up, his inky black eyes instantly locked on mine with a ferocity I hadn’t expected. “What?” The word hit me like a whip.
It wasn’t something I’d ever expected myself to offer, but staring at Jordan’s lingering cuts made my chest hurt. I crossed my arms. “The medic said taking blood would help you heal faster. I’d assume fresh would work better than that old, bagged stuff.”
I was flat on my back on the bed before I could blink, with Jordan looming over me and a scowl on his face. The way my stomach swooped and tightened and my heart started racing irritated me to no end. I took a deep breath, trying not to be obvious about pulling his scent into my lungs, basking in the warm, rich smell ofhimlayered under the sharp, spicy scent of his blood magic. “Don’t offer that to me, or anyone, ever,” he said, his voice pitched low. “I will never do that to you.”
I blinked at him and narrowed my eyes. His purring, velvety tone was at direct odds with his blunt words and his scowling expression. “If it’s consensual—” I started, but he cut me off.
