“That’s a good color for you. Now. Before we start chatting, I want my phone back,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “No one takes my things.”

“No. It’s mine now, and you know I keep what’s mine.” There were hundreds of pictures stored in that phone, and he hadn’t finished scrolling through them. Well, hadn’t finished his third scroll-through.

It was just, the camera loved her, paying that angel-face nothing but tribute, highlighting the luminous sheen of her skin, the rosy glow in her cheeks, the sparkle in her eyes, turning the brown to melted chocolate and golden glitter. And, well, he’d learned so much about her. Things he’d needed to know since they were at war and he planned to drink from her and use her—not because he was curious about her, the woman. Of course.

She clearly liked posing next to Noelle while Noelle looked her worst and was not happy about being photographed. Which proved she was delightfully vindictive. There were also action shots someone else had taken, since Ava’s hands had been occupied punching different sets of teeth. Which proved she was deliciously feral.

He shouldn’t have been impressed by those facts. He shouldn’t have been aroused. But he was.

“I’ll wrestle you for it,” she suggested. “No-rules wrestling, at that, where hands are permitted to roam anywhere.”

Tempting. To have her hands on him, squeezing at him, her body pressed against his … To have his hands on her, not just squeezing but kneading, his body not just pressed against hers but pinning …

“No.” He couldn’t wrestle one girl and freeze the other. Well, he could, but Ava would distract him, so he’d forget to hold Noelle in place, and then the agent (in fucking training) would attack him. He had a feeling his hands would be too full of Ava for his brain to care about protecting his body.

Why did she entice him so intently? She was beautiful, yes, but other women were more so. At least, he was certain someone out there was, though he had yet to meet her. And why did his mouth continue to water for Ava, even though he wasn’t legitimately hungry?

“Fine,” she said on a sigh. “Forget the phone. We’ll just jump right into our chat.”

“Now you’re acting just like the other agents,” he said, disappointed.

That seemed to please her. “Where do you hide during the day?”

Hide, she’d said. As if he were a coward. Rather than tell her where she could stuff the direction of her chat, he found himself growling, “I rest.”

“Whatever you need to tell yourself to feel better,” Noelle replied, striding forward and plopping to her ass a few feet away from him. She was still here?

He needed to keep better track of her.

Ava claimed the spot across from the girl so that he had one on each side. Their ease didn’t fool him, and he remained on guard. Though he needed something to do with his hands. They were empty, and now that he’d thought about that wrestling, they ached to be filled with Ava.

Stupid hands. They kept this up, and he would cut them off. They’d regrow in a few months, and hopefully have learned to behave. “Why do you wish to speak with me, anyway? Aren’t you afraid I’ll hurt you? Again.”

Noelle stretched her long leg toward him and rubbed her booted foot against his. “Are you kidding? One, we aren’t afraid of anything, and two, you hurt several other AIR agents. That’s why we need to speak.”

“I hurt no more than five.” He frowned and pulled away from the contact. She was a beautiful woman, but she wasn’t Ava, and for some reason, he didn’t welcome her touch. Was even uncomfortable with it. Because Ava was watching? Seemingly unaffected by Noelle’s attempt to seduce him?

He wanted her jealous?

Not missing a beat, Ava blinked over at him. “And because you hurt no more than five, that makes your actions justifiable? You removed their fingers without cause, McKell.”

He liked his name on those lush, red lips. “They were chasing me and touched my things. What better cause is there?”

The two women shared a look before Noelle shrugged. “You have to admit, Av, he makes an excellent point.”

“Of course you’re on his side,” Ava said, exasperated. She lifted a twig from the ground and tossed it into the crackling fire. “You still have dibs.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“God, you’re annoying. Here I am, handing you a slice of beefcake on a silver platter, and you’re arguing with me.”

“I told you before,” Ava growled, “but I’ll tell you again. I don’t want him.”

Noelle nodded, as if her point had just been made. “Like I said. Annoying.”

Yes, she was, McKell silently agreed, claws digging into the rock.

“Yeah, well, you’re a pesky little fly,” Ava said conversationally. “And if you aren’t careful, I’m going to swat you away. With my knife.”

Noelle opened her mouth to reply, but McKell held up one hand. “Not another word from you, pesky little fly.” He didn’t like the way she argued with Ava, treating her as something beneath her.

A deadly stillness fell over Ava. “What did you call her?”

His brow furrowed. “A pesky little fly. Just as you called her.” Had he pronounced one of the words wrong? But that couldn’t be the case. He knew the human language as well as his own.

“What did you call her?” she asked again, whispering this time. A dark whisper, rage in the undertone.

“A … pesky little fly?” Seriously, what had he done wrong?

“Oh, are you gonna get it,” Noelle sang happily.

Before he could blink, Ava was on him, a catapult of pummeling fists, kicking legs, and snapping teeth. He was so stunned, he could only sit there, enduring the abuse. By the time his protective instincts switched on, it was too late.

She’d already withdrawn a blade. Had already sunk that blade into his side. Then she pulled away from him, standing, panting, glaring down at him, his blood dripping from the blade. Noelle had stood, as well, he noticed, and had watched the entire “fight” with a grin.

“You stabbed me,” he said, his shock as dark as her rage had been. Scowling, he clutched his stinging side. “You really stabbed me.”

“How kind of you to notice, you bastard!”

“How could I not notice? That hurt!” he snarled, though he didn’t freeze her. Or retaliate. Still too shocked, he thought. Not disappointed. Not confused. Not upset that she hadn’t spared him pain as he had done for her.

“Don’t ever call my friend a name like that again.” Fury sparkled in her eyes.

“But she isn’t your friend.” He pressed against the wound, grimaced. He would heal, but as deep as she’d twisted that tip, and twist and twist she had, he would suffer for hours. “Not really.”

“She’s my best friend.”

“And don’t you forget it,” Noelle added with a nod.

So Ava could call the girl names, but no one else could do so? That made no sense.

He pushed to his feet. The girls didn’t back down or even step out of striking distance. Should have been a mistake. A fatal mistake. He should have attacked. But he stood there, breathing in and out, his nostrils flaring with the force he used. “If I were you, I would leave this camp. Now.” Before he lost his grip on whatever emotion was keeping him in place.

“Fine. You ruined everything, anyway.” Ava raised her nose in the air, as if she had every reason to be angry with him, grabbed her friend by the forearm, and tugged her into the woods, moving farther and farther away from him.

Five

After Ava turned in the bloody blade for testing, and endured an eternity of Mia looking at the weapon, then Ava, then the weapon, then Ava again, silent all the while, shock thickening the air, pride and regret battling inside her, she had Noelle drop her off at her apartment for a little “decompression” time.

The one-bedroom efficiency was small but clean, plain but calming. Her furnishings were threadbare but lovingly patched up. For too many years, she’d lived in filth, her mother too wasted to care about the state of their trailer, God bless her, the strangers parading in and out, or her only daughter’s wellbeing. Then Ava had met Noelle and started crashing at her place; the luxury had amazed her.

But then she’d begun to feel guilty, as if she were taking advantage of her best friend. Hadn’t helped when people started saying she was only using Noelle for her money. And it really hadn’t helped when Noelle started beating the shit out of everyone who said it, getting herself expelled and causing friction with her family. So right after high school, Ava had moved out of there, too, and gotten this apartment. That’s when she discovered a pride she hadn’t known she could feel. Pride that she had earned this on her own. Pride that she could take care of herself.

The apartment wasn’t luxurious by any means, but it hers.

Yawning, she stripped and showered in her dry enzyme stall. A standard issue, with no extras, but she was lucky to have it. A lot of people had to use public stalls. A walk-in, feed-a-few-dollars-into-the-slot, wash-with-your-clothes-on, walk-out operation. What she’d had to use most of her childhood, with money she’d stolen from the people standing in line with her. Nothing wrong with that method, minus the thief, of course, but she preferred to use heated spray rather than room temp, linger for as long as she liked, and not talk to strangers.

The warm mist seeped into her skin, cleaning her inside and out. After watching McKell’s blood slowly fade from her hands, and battling a fierce urge to cry about its loss, blaming fatigue all the while, she closed her eyes and let her mind drift—away from McKell, back to McKell, away again, then curse that bastard, back again. Damn vampire! He shouldn’t have badmouthed Noelle. Only Ava had that right. Everyone else suffered, as McKell could now attest.

When others even looked at Noelle the wrong way, rage consumed Ava. Rage she couldn’t control. Always. Maybe because a threat to her friend was a threat to her happiness. Maybe because, even though Noelle was rich, she’d had as emotionally whacked out a childhood as Ava had had. Her parents had been cold, distant, and unconcerned about their daughter until she embarrassed them. Which she had. A lot. And maybe, in the beginning, that was why Noelle had wanted to hang out with Ava. But the more time they’d spent together, the more they’d realized how much they actually needed each other. They loved and they accepted without judgment or conditions.

They also relied on each other for bail.

McKell had probably thought, as so many others before him, that she and Noelle were adversaries. Which was an easy mistake to make, she supposed. They argued and called each other names, but underneath each of their clashes was affection and purpose.

Hopefully, the mistake wasn’t debilitating on McKell’s part.

Debilitating. She gulped as guilt filled her. Though what she had to feel guilty about, she didn’t know. Really. If McKell had kept his stupid mouth closed, she would have gotten a blood sample another, nicer way. But nooo. Now he might be incapacitated by blood loss or infection. Or die.

Die. She gulped again as dread filled her—then anger that she even cared. He was nothing, damn it. An assignment.

Scowling, she left the stall, dressed in a tank top and panties and fell onto her bed. Don’t think about him. Relax, rest. She had a big day tomorrow. Namely, she planned to bask in the accolades of her fellow trainees because she had gotten that blood sample. Finally she’d have the respect she deserved. Then, of course, she would research ways to prevent time manipulation.

Would Mia want her to try to capture McKell again?

You’re thinking about him again.

Argh! For hours, Ava tossed and turned, her mind constantly returning to the forest. McKell on his rock. McKell gaping in astonishment. McKell bleeding. A crimson river, shirt soaked to his side. Pain a glaze of frost in those violet eyes.

Stupid McKell. He only had himself to blame.

Realizing the futility of trying to sleep, she got up and brewed a pot of coffee. The sun was out and brighter than shit, anyway, which wasn’t really conducive to a good, or even halfway decent, rest.

Nothing was, to be honest. Not for her. She’d suffered from insomnia forever, and figured she would suffer with it the rest of forever, as well. As a child, she’d known that one of her mother’s “friends” could walk into her bedroom at any time and hurt her, so she’d taught herself to rouse at the slightest noise. Sadly, the skill had come in handy.

Soon, though, she’d stopped sleeping altogether. And even while living in the Tremain compound, as she called it, with the best security money could buy, Noelle in the bed next to her, she hadn’t rested properly.

Some habits were too hard to break, she supposed. Which was a very good reason to finally stop thinking about her vampire. She didn’t want McKell-pondering to become a habit. Or an obsession. But …

Was he okay?

She sank into the cold metal chair in front of her kitchen counter. This time, she didn’t try to clear her mind. Contemplating a man’s ultimate fate wasn’t obsessive; it was considerate. What if she’d killed him?

Oh, God. McKell … dead … The possibility seemed more likely with every second that passed and he didn’t show up to retaliate.

Bile burned her throat as she dropped her head in her upraised hands, elbows propped against the stone counter. Why do you care? And she did. She cared. Because he wouldn’t be able to answer Mia’s questions, and wouldn’t be able to donate more of his blood to the Save a Human from the Schön Queen foundation. Surely. But she couldn’t deny that those very logical, acceptable reasons meant nothing to her.