“I appreciate it, Morgan,” he said, instantly slipping back into his Elite persona.
Would I ever get him to stop calling me by my last name and use my given name? Or would he only do it when he needed something from me?
“Knock, knock!”
I jumped, swinging my gaze around to meet Nic’s as he propped himself up against the edge of the door frame.
“Didn’t meant to interrupt,” Nic said, both hands behind his back.
“You’re not, I was just heading out. I’ll leave you to it,” Graham said to me, before turning on his heel and passing Nic out in the door.
As he made it out into the hall, he paused and shot me a puzzled look before moving away down the corridor.
“I thought you were on strict orders of bed rest? If I’d known you were cured, I wouldn’t have bothered bringing you these,” he said, swinging his arms around and revealing the large bouquet of flowers in his arms.
Heat spread from my neck up into my face and I fought to swallow back my embarrassment.
“Nic, you didn’t need to….”
“I know I didn’t need to, but I wanted to,” he said, his voice dropping a little lower as he moved a little closer to me.
The heat in my face continued to build and I fought the urge to hide behind my hands like a small child. If I did that, then they wouldn’t just be keeping me here awaiting X-ray results, they’d also be running tests on my head.
“Thanks,” I said, taking them from him and drinking in the rich scent of the roses.
“How come you’re allowed to be up and dressed and get away to buy me flowers when I’ve got to stay in this god-awful hospital gown until they get the all-clear from the doctor and the X-rays?”
“They let me go, no permanent damage to the noggin,” he said, smiling and tapping lightly on the side of his head. The moment his hand touched his scalp, I saw him wince. His face and cheek were badly bruised and swollen to twice the size I remembered them to be. “And, well, the flowers,” he said, colour flooding into his cheeks, “they’ve got a gift shop in the main foyer. I didn’t want to come empty-handed.”
I grinned up at him. “That’s not fair,” I said, sliding off the edge of the bed and crossing the floor towards him.
“What can I say? I’m tougher than I look. No demon is going to get the better of me.”
I stared up into his eyes and the urge to trail my fingers down his cheek was almost overwhelming. When I’d watched the demon slam its fist straight into the side of his head, I’d been certain he was a goner. Even the way he’d collapsed beneath the blow…. Everything about it said he was incredibly lucky to still be alive.
The dark thought soured the moment and I turned away from him, laying the flowers carefully on the table next to the bed.
“This is my fault,” I said turning away and sliding my arm out of the sling the hospital had insisted I wear.
As far as I was concerned, as soon as I was outside the hospital door, the sling would be the first thing to go, so what was the point of delaying the inevitable?
“No it’s not, you did what you needed to do,” Nic said, moving closer.
“I was reckless and stupid summoning that thing, and now it’s loose. How am I supposed to track it down? How am I supposed to send it back where it belongs when I don’t know the first thing about demon slaying?”
“Well, that’s where I come in, but only after we’ve gotten rid of the demon mark. With that still on you, there’s nothing we can do to that demon. And if anyone else decides to kill it, then….” He trailed off and I shot a look at him over my shoulder. “If anyone else tries to kill it, then I’ll stop them.”
“It needs to die, I think we can both agree on that,” I said.
“Yeah, but that bastard is mine,” Nic said with a smile that sent a fluttering of warmth all the way down into my toes.
“Not if I get it first,” I teased.
It was the first bit of light-hearted conversation I’d been able to have that took my mind away from the reality of the situation. For some reason, Nic made it easier to deal with and things weren’t as dark as they’d seemed.
Maybe he was right; maybe together, we could find a way to put a stop to what had been started in the graveyard.
And maybe if I was very lucky, I’d find a way to get a handle on my power before anyone could find out about it. It seemed like a lot of things to get lucky in, but I had just faced a demon and survived.
What was a little more danger and disaster between friends?
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Also by Bilinda Sheehan
The Shadow Sorceress Series
A Grave Magic
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A Grave Magic: The Shadow Sorceress Book One Page 19