He Loves Me, He Loves Me Hot

by Stephanie Rowe

  “She didn’t.” Nick frowned as he kept sending his energy into her, not at all certain the problem was her loss of blood, but Theresa already had Becca’s sweats rolled up over her thigh and was sawing through the makeshift bandage with a razor-sharp claw.

  He looked again. Yes, claw.

  Theresa didn’t even look up. “I can shift partially. That’s my dragon claw. It’s sweet, isn’t it? I could rip out your innards with this thing.”

  “Yeah. Try it.” He pulled Becca onto his lap, trying to give her more surface area to draw from, sending his life force into her. But he could feel she wasn’t drawing on it. Why the hell not?

  “Oh, you don’t want to push me, big guy.” Theresa bent low over Becca’s thigh, her hair covering her face. “Shit, girl, what’d you get yourself into?” She uncorked the vial and poured it into Becca’s gaping wound, then tipped some into Becca’s mouth.

  Nick frowned, twitching with the need to rip the vial of unknown origin out of Theresa’s hands. But he had to trust Becca’s judgment. She’d believed Theresa would help her, and so he would have to, as well. “You’re sure about that stuff?”

  Theresa sat back and winked at him. “Magic potion. Watch.”

  Nick stared at Becca’s leg, startled when he realized that sparks were starting to fly out of it. Blue, green, red…

  “I love this part.” Theresa leaned forward and let the sparks bounce off her skin. “Be careful, though. You could get burned.”

  Nick ignored the warning and leaned down next to Theresa to peer at Becca’s leg, ignoring the sparks dancing on his skin. As he watched, her leg began to heal…but he felt no answering response in her body. If anything, she was even darker inside. “This isn’t working.”

  Theresa frowned, concern growing in her yellow eyes. “But her leg is healing. She should be waking up.” She patted Becca’s face. “Rivka! It’s me! I’m going to have sex with your boyfriend if you don’t wake up soon.” When there was no response, she let out a noise of distress and jumped to her feet. “What did you do to her?”

  “Something else is wrong.” He scooped her up and rose to his feet, his heart hammering in his chest. “We have to get her to a hospital.”

  Theresa held out the vial. “I’ll give her more drinks of Mona. That’ll do it. I know it will.” Her voice was getting shrill and she looked like she was starting to panic. “She can’t die! She’s my friend!”

  He stopped, stunned at her words. “Mona? You mean Desdemona’s Temptation? The Goblet of Eternal Youth? That’s what you gave her?”

  “Um…” Theresa grimaced. “No?”

  “Don’t lie to me.” He walked back over to her and grabbed her shoulder with his free hand. “Did you use the Goblet on her? I need to know what I’m dealing with.”

  She pursed her lips, then nodded. “Yes. One drink heals injuries, two makes the being pretty darn tough to kill, and three makes them immortal, unless they get beheaded.”

  “But she’s already immortal.”

  “Which is good, because I’m not supposed to make anyone immortal. But she’s still got human vulnerabilities, so maybe this will work. Put her down.”

  Nick set Becca back on the bed, and Theresa knelt beside her. “Hold her still. We’ll give her another drink.”

  He slipped his hands under Becca’s head and held her steady while Theresa poured it in, stroking her neck to help her drink. “Drink number two.”

  She sat back on her heels and waited. “Come on, Becca. You’re too bitchy to die on me, I know it.”

  Nick smiled at the affection in Theresa’s voice, while he cradled Becca’s head and stroked her hair. “You guys are good friends?”

  She nodded. “We have to pretend we aren’t so Satan doesn’t kill me, but I love her. I’ll do anything for her.” She chewed her lower lip and patted Becca’s cheek. “Girlfriend? Wake up. You’re scaring me.”

  Nick reached inside Becca and found nothing but emptiness. The faint spark of life was fading. He clenched his jaw. “It’s not helping.”

  “Then we go with the third drink.” Theresa took a deep breath as she uncorked the vial. “I am so screwed if the Council finds out I’m doing this. It’s so illegal.” She poured it into Becca’s mouth. “But three drinks will totally work. Short of being actually dead, there’s nothing that three drinks of Mona can’t save.”

  “Mona won’t revive the dead?”

  “Nope. Dead is dead.” Theresa corked the bottle. “That should do it. Come on back, Becca.”

  They waited.

  Nothing happened.

  Theresa’s eyes began to fill up with tears. “Don’t you dare die on me! Wake up!”

  Nick shook his head, his hands getting clammy. “It’s not working. Give her more.”

  “There is no more. Three is the max. There’s nothing else to do.” Theresa jumped up. “Three always works. Becca! Are you listening? I’m going to kick your ass if you don’t wake up right now!”

  Nick’s mind raced as he tried to figure out what to do. If a full dose of Mona hadn’t healed her, what would? There had to be something. His chest tightened, and he scooped her up and crushed her against his chest. He fed his concern into her and felt a faint stirring deep inside. She was still with him. Then he thought of his ma. Was there a chance she could do something? “I know someone who might be able to help.”

  Theresa smacked him in the shoulder. “Then what are you waiting for! Take her there! Why are you standing there talking?”

  “I’m not.” He stepped into the circle in the middle of the room, and a faint humming filled him, and then they were back at his ma’s house.

  Yasmine was sitting in the kitchen drinking hot cocoa and sharing Saturday-morning pancakes and bacon with Paige when Nick appeared next to the kitchen sink, Becca clutched against his chest. “Becca needs help.”

  Paige let out a cry of distress while Yasmine jumped up and cleared the table with a crash that sent plates and food flying in all directions. “Put her on here.”

  He set her down, leaning heavily on the table while his ma laid her hands on Becca. Paige hovered behind her, tears filling her eyes. “What’s wrong? Is she going to be okay? She’s like my mom and my best friend and if something happens to her…”

  “She’ll be fine,” Yasmine snapped. “Go outside and find me some acorns. I need them.”

  Paige was out the door before Yasmine stopped giving the order, and Yasmine smiled. “That girl is so enthusiastic. I love her energy. I don’t even need the acorns, but I could tell she was about to lose it.”

  “Ma.” Nick could barely keep the tension out of his voice. “Becca.”

  “I’m working on her. Relax, Nicky.” Yasmine fell silent and Nick ground his jaw while he waited, tapping his foot restlessly on the antique pine floor.

  After a minute, Yasmine shook her head and muttered something under her breath as she continued to work on Becca.

  Nick felt like his head was going to explode. “Talk to me, Ma.”

  “All the rot she took from Jerome is still inside her. She didn’t cleanse it.” She laid her hands on Becca’s chest and chanted something.

  Nick dropped his head with relief. “That’s it? God, I thought it was something bad. You’ll show her how to cleanse it?” But when Yasmine didn’t answer, he snapped his head back up. “Ma?”

  Then Becca groaned, and Nick spun around to cup her face. “Becca? Can you hear me?”

  Her eyes fluttered open, hazy but alert, and she looked at him. “Nick?”

  His hands tightened on her cheeks. “Yeah, it’s me. You scared the crap out of me.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I feel like hell.”

  “Sit her up,” Yasmine ordered.

  Becca’s gaze flickered past his shoulder. “Your mom’s here? Why?”

  He supported her back and helped her sit up, keeping his hands on her waist, reaching inside her to reassure himself that her life force was pulsing again. It was. She was really okay. He took
a deep breath and sat down hard in the chair next to the table, his legs suddenly weak. “We’re back at her place. How’s your leg?”

  Becca frowned and shifted her leg. “It’s fine. Where’s Theresa? Did she leave already?” She rested her hand on his head, her fingers lacing through his hair, drawing on his light.

  Yasmine grabbed Becca’s chin and turned her face toward her. “Did you work on Nicky?”

  “Yeah.”

  Yasmine snapped her fingers at Nick and he leaned forward so she could lay her hand on his forehead. Then she looked at Becca. “I’ll show you how to finish.”

  “Finish?” she asked. “What didn’t I finish?”

  “Replenishing,” Yasmine said. “When you take out negative energy, you have to replace it. You do it to yourself at the same time.”

  “How do you do that?”

  “Through your right palm.” Yasmine gestured at Nick. “Come around.”

  He scooted his chair closer while Becca turned to face him, her legs hanging off the edge of the table at the knee. Nick leaned between her knees and rested his forearms on her thighs. God, he wanted to just reach up and haul her against him, breathe in her scent and take a little tour inside her body to see what was going on. Make sure she was really okay.

  Becca reached for him, and then her soft touch pressed on his forehead. “Like this?”

  He felt his ma’s hand rest on top of Becca’s. “No, you’re not generating any healing energy,” Yasmine said. “Find it in your body and give it to Nick.”

  He waited, but he didn’t feel that warmth.

  Yasmine muttered something under her breath, and he opened his eyes to see her place a hand on Becca’s chest. “Try it again.” They all waited a few more minutes, but Nick didn’t feel any heat from Becca.

  Finally, Yasmine dropped her hands and shook her head. “It’s what I was afraid of.”

  Becca fixed her eyes on Yasmine. “What are you talking about?”

  “You don’t have a healing resource to draw from. You have the ability to attract the negative energy, but you have nothing to replace it with. You’re just negative energy.”

  Naked, vulnerable disappointment flashed over Becca’s face, and then she shuttered her expression. “Oh.”

  Nick tightened his grip on her waist and rubbed her lower back.

  “You shouldn’t heal,” Yasmine said. “The replenishing part is important; otherwise you leave empty gaps that can be filled with anything, including energy that is more negative and damaging that what you took out.”

  Becca pressed her lips together, and Nick felt her withdraw. He stood up and pulled her against him. For an instant, she resisted, then she relaxed into him, and he felt her draw on his energy. He felt her disappointment, hidden under layers of resilient denial.

  “The problem is that you took the Chamber Terrors from Nick and Jerome into you, and you can’t get rid of them.” Yasmine gave Becca a sympathetic pat on her shoulder. “Unless you can find a source of light to draw from, it will stay in your system. I settled it down, but…” She hesitated.

  “But what?” Becca’s voice was quiet.

  She met Becca’s gaze. “But it’s just temporary. It’ll keep coming back until it destroys you. Until I can’t pull you back from it like I did today. You have to cleanse yourself.”

  Becca couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Or I die?”

  Yasmine nodded. “Or you die.”

  Well, damn. Didn’t that just figure? Try to do some good and it kills you.

  Nick tightened his grip on her, and she could feel his concern. “You’re sure, ma? But she’s immortal.”

  Yasmine turned to wash up at the sink. “The Chamber rises above the law of immortality. Something always does.” She grabbed a paper towel and dried her hands. “She needs to find a positive source of energy to draw from so she can cleanse herself.”

  “She can draw on me. She already does.”

  Becca couldn’t help but smile at his authoritative tone. Big strong man accustomed to solving all his problems by sheer brute force and willpower.

  Yasmine shook her head. “It won’t be enough to cleanse them from her system. It has to come from within her. It has to be a part of her.”

  “Then who?” he demanded. “Or what? Tell me and I’ll get it.”

  Yasmine reached out to touch Becca’s cheek, an affectionate gesture that had Becca scrambling off the table and out of reach before she could succumb to the temptation to lean into Yasmine and get the first mom-hug of her life. Like she wanted to open that door.

  “I don’t know, but you two have about a day to find out.”

  “A day?” Becca repeated. “You can’t give me like a few hundred years or something? People live in the Chamber for hundreds of years. That’s the point of it. An eternity of suffering and all that fun stuff. Only the really weak ones die, and even that takes a long time.” She set her hands on her hips. “And trust me, I’m not weak.”

  “Well…” Yasmine rubbed her chin. “I guess it could be that long. I don’t really know. I figured it was better to err on the short side, though, given the fact that it nearly took you out already.”

  “It was the blood loss.” She flared up a fireball and shot it into the cast-iron sink. “See? I’m fine. All good now.” She ignored the concerned looks on both their faces. “So, I’m a little itchy with these buggers running around inside me. It’s no different than harvesting some ADHD souls.” She dusted off her hands, annoyed that they were still looking at her with worried expressions. “Hello? I’m fine. You need to stop giving me those mopey looks. If Satan sees you looking all upset about me, he’ll come down and cut out your eyes. I have too much to do to bother finding a damned light source right now.” She looked at Nick. “I need answers. I’m tired of playing games, and I’m running out of time.”

  Nick’s forehead furrowed and he glanced at his mom. “Ma. Maybe you should check on Jerome.”

  Yasmine flicked an interested look at Nick, then nodded. “I expect you’re right. I’ll see you guys upstairs.” Then she grabbed her hot cocoa from the counter and walked out.

  Becca turned away from the speculative look on Nick’s face and opened a cabinet. No, she was not going to get bogged down in empty predictions of her death in less than a day. “Where are the mugs? That hot chocolate smells fantastic. I’ll drink while you tell me how the hell the Markku figured out how to live without Satan’s life force.” She opened another and found dry goods, and turned around, only to find Nick right behind her.

  Way in her personal space. “Back up, big guy.”

  He set his hands on either side of the counter by her hips and moved closer. “You’re wrong. You need help to get rid of those Terrors.”

  He was so close, she could smell his faint scent, clean and fresh, like soap. She took a deep breath, inhaling it into her body. “Don’t try to change the subject. I’m fine, trust me. Rivkas are tough, and I’m particularly tenacious. Besides, we need to find Satan Jr., remember? Take him out. Save Satan. Free your sister. All before midnight tomorrow night when the time runs out in the pus blister. Priorities, Nicky.”

  He didn’t back down. “You can’t help me with my sister if you’re dead, and I can’t figure it out on my own. You’re my hell expert.” He paused. “And it would piss me off if you died.”

  His concern pulsed at her, and a part of her wanted to let go of her resistance and fall into his aura. Instead, she set a hand on his chest. “I will save myself. Your only job is to give me information I need. That’s it.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “You’re not getting any info from me until I know you’re going to stay alive, and you need me to do that.”

  “I need no one.”

  “Did you need Gabriel?”

  She wrenched her gaze off his face and stared over his shoulder at the kitchen. It was so homey. Cute. Normal.

  She froze as she felt Nick’s lips on her neck. “Don’t do that.”

  He kis
sed her collarbone, and she felt his heat creeping over her.

  “Cut it out.” She closed her eyes and tried to steel herself against his emotions. “I don’t want this.”

  “You need me.” His breath was hot on her neck, his lips tender against her throat. “Let me in and we’ll get rid of those Terrors. I have enough light for you to draw on so you can cleanse yourself. I’m half Markku, but I’m also half healer. We’ll get you taken care of, so we can go after my sister and your freedom. Don’t be a fool, Becca. You have to save yourself.”

  “I’m not a fool. I’m goal oriented, and I know I don’t have time for this…” But she tilted her head back as he kissed along her jaw. It wasn’t just a kiss. It was Nick’s kiss, and all that went with it. His lust, his concern, his love—not for her, she knew, but the man was practically overflowing with love for his family—his arrogance that he could help her. It crept under her skin and permeated her cells, infusing them with heat and warmth and things she couldn’t even name. “Nick…”

  “I’m not doing this because I love you, so Satan has nothing to worry about. I’m his man-friend, remember? I’d never steal his girl.” He kissed the corner of her mouth, his tongue flicking out in a quick touch that sent spirals of heat through her. “I’m doing this for my sister…And for your freedom. That’s it.”

  “I’m not his girl.” She clutched the edge of the counter, trying desperately not to fall into Nick’s spell.

  “You’re no good to me dead,” he whispered into her mouth. “Or insane.” His lips brushed hers as he spoke. “Satan would appreciate my need to keep you alive. He’d probably even support it.”

  “He’d kill you.” She let her lips part under his, then nearly moaned when his mouth descended over hers, his lips so demanding that her whole body swelled up in response. Oh, God. I can’t stop myself.

  His hands left the counter and slipped under her T-shirt, cupping her shoulder blades and pressing her against him until her breasts were crushed against his chest, her nipples so hard that they felt like they were going to pierce her own body.