Chapter 13

Zia paced her apartment from one end to the other and back again before returning to the report she was working on for Corven. She hadn"t spared the details of what she had learned in the past few days before sending it to him. She didn"t want Ares to feel like it was his mess to clean up. Corven was still the head of the family, and he needed to deal with it. Ares was stressed enough.

The only thing Zia had left out was Ares railing her within an inch of her life, but as far as she was concerned that had nothing to do with her job, and everything to do with Ares being irresistible in a way she really hated.

Zia was still trying to reconcile the fact that they now had a tentative truce between them. Despite his bossiness, Ares did have her safety in mind. Zia had stayed inside the building that day as promised. She would never admit it, but the fact he had stopped a car bomb and a sniper had her spooked. The poison in her drinks was fun and games, the type she expected. An actual professional hitman was a whole different game.

Zia spent some of her time that day digging further into Ares"s past, his childhood specifically. She was haunted by what she had seen through the magical illusions that he"d ensnared her with. Little Ares, all covered in blood, organizing his toys like he needed some kind of order in his life.

When she had run out of the reports that Corven had given her and the police reports she could find, Zia had tried and failed to learn anything useful out of Emilia.

Earlier in the day, the young fashionista had turned up on her doorstep and demanded her help. Zia had gone through a thick folio of designs and helped her choose the ones for the submission she was going to put in anonymously.

Underneath the spoiled brat persona, Emilia was a creative and sensitive soul that seemed to act out because no one took her seriously. Maybe it would be best for Emilia to get away from the fallout when Ares dealt with Erik and Camille. Erik especially wouldn"t go down without a scene. Zia looked across the apartment at her door.

"No. If Ares wants to see you, he knows where to find you," she said out loud. She had already sucked up her pride earlier that night and knocked on his door. It was probably a good thing for both of them that he hadn"t been home.

He wasn"t working because Zia had hacked into his calendar to see if he had late meetings. Nope. She hated that she had looked in the first place.

Surely if there was someone out there trying to kill her, they would want to kill Ares too. The thought soured her stomach.

Zia was contemplating going down to the gym for a steam when the elevator outside her door opened. She was on her feet in a blink. She opened her apartment door just in time to see Ares stumble out of the elevator.

"Look what the cat dragged in," Zia said and then saw the blood. "Holy shit, Ares! What happened?"

He gave her a wonky smile, his already pale skin gray. "Had to...get you a present."

"A present? What are you talking about?"

Ares fumbled in his pocket and placed two bloody fangs into her hand.

"No. No more nightmares," he slurred, and then he was falling.

Zia caught him and lowered him to the floor. She lifted his ruined shirt and saw the large open wound in his side.

"For god"s sake, what did you do?" Zia tucked the fangs into her back pocket for later questioning before hooking her arms under Ares"s shoulders and dragging his heavy ass into her apartment. She couldn"t just leave him lying in his own blood. At least she thought most of it was his blood.

Zia shut her apartment door behind her before lugging him into the kitchen. She had to keep off the carpet or they would really have problems. Zia had a lot of experience with first aid, so she went through the kitchen, gathering what she needed before getting the kit from the bathroom.

You really should call Corven, her common sense tried to tell her. Maybe she should, but she didn"t want to get Ares into trouble. Not until she figured out what had happened that night and whom the fangs belonged to.

Zia cut off his shirt and placed clean towels under him before she started wiping all the blood off his chest.

"What the hell got into you tonight? You think life wasn"t dangerous enough, so you decided to bare knuckle box with a werewolf?" she muttered.

She leaned down and sniffed the wound. There was a poison in there, keeping it from healing. Clawing panic choked her as she recognized it.

"No, no, no, not now. Help Ares." Zia placed her hands over the wound and shut her eyes. Purging a poison was one of the first pieces of magic she'd learned she possessed. She hadn"t found out the easy way. Her power tingled on her fingertips, and she began to softly hum a tune. This side of her magic came from her mother, and she leaned into it.

The poison inside of Ares responded to the call, and she opened her eyes as the wound began to run with the pale yellow fluid. She wiped it away and flushed everything with saline again.

"Why do I have to like you so damn much? You were not a part of my plan, sir," she accused Ares"s sleeping face.

When he still didn"t wake up, she lifted her wrist to her mouth and bit deep. As soon as the blood was running free, she held it out over the wound. It began to heal quickly now that there was no poison to hinder it.

Satisfied it would continue to close up, Zia opened Ares's mouth and held her wrist over it. Black eyes snapped open and sharp teeth sank into her. There was no recognition in his face.

Zia realized too late that she was completely fucked, and all she could do was hope he didn"t kill her too.