Chapter 12

MAEVE

I stand in with Ash,looking through the conservatory window to where Andrei sits on the lawn. He"s barely moved all day, as if coming back into the house might end his ability to walk outside again.

I"m happy to sit outside on warm days but I"m too on edge to stay still for long. Andrei isn"t the only person in danger—everybody here faces problems—and after a few hours, I walked back inside. I teased Andrei that he has several lifetimes to sit in the sun, but that almost opened the can of worms from before. Immortality.

Ash crosses his arms. "Do you think he"s dangerous, Maeve?"

I look around in surprise. "Andrei? I don"t feel anything "off" about him."

"But he isn"t the same. You can"t judge—it"s less than a day."

"We"re all watching him, right?" I ask. Something odd crosses Ash"s face—a look I"d see when we spoke about Tobias in the past. "Ash?"

"I don"t think you should be alone with Andrei. Not yet," he says stiffly. "You"ve always had the ability to stop him from attacking you, but we don"t know if you can any more."

"Andrei would never hurt me."

"I agree with Ash," says Tobias and I turn. He"s holding a plate in his hand containing one of the simple cheese and ham sandwiches I made earlier. The guys devoured most, but not all.

"Hungry?" I ask.

"I ate." Tobias pauses as he looks outside. "Did Andrei?"

My scalp prickles. "No. He wasn"t hungry."

With a huff, Ash flops into a wicker chair positioned to catch the sunlight in the afternoon. Does he realise the few gold scales that stayed behind after his partial shift shine in the light? He exchanges a look with Tobias.

"Maeve. Andrei lost a lot of blood when he started to change," says Tobias.

"Yeah, like a lot." Ash swallows. "When Tobias called me up, I could barely stay in the room."

"You told me."

"Then why isn"t he hungry?" asks Tobias softly. "You must understand that a hemia short on blood will need to feed."

"But Andrei doesn"t," I protest. "Hemia who"ve lost a lot of blood can barely function. Maybe he doesn"t need as much? Or his body made more while he slept?"

Slept. Like a dark Sleeping Beauty.

Tobias sets the plate on the low table beside a glass of lemonade. "Let"s keep an eye on Andrei for a few days."

"I"m positive Andrei won"t, but what if he does attack someone?" I ask. "We"d be useless against him—you heard what Andrei said, with the First"s blood, he"s more powerful than anybody but the creature itself."

"I don"t know," says Tobias. "We"re facing something as unknown as when the First arrived and started playing with us."

He's right—they"re both right, and Jamie will agree with them, but I"m aching for time alone with the guy I was terrified I'd never touch again.

"I"ll be careful," I say.

"Don"t go to his bed."

I widen my eyes at Tobias"s terse demand. "Wow. Okay." Ash watches us warily and I raise both brows at him. "Just Andrei"s?" Ash may not be a creature with unknown powers, but he"s a dragon and his physical reaction to me changed, too.

Tobias holds my look as I step towards him, face to face. "I"m not stupid enough to put myself in a situation where Andrei can lose control around me."

"Good."

"Not yet." Our gazes lock. If Tobias thinks I"ll never have a physical relationship with Andrei again now that he"s different, the guy"s crazy.

"Yeah, well, let"s channel Andrei into taking down Gabriella," puts in Ash hastily. "Take advantage of his daywalking and really hunt her down. They both have the First"s blood. He"ll find Gabriella."

The door from the conservatory to the garden slides open, and Andrei steps into the room. I turn from Tobias and unintentionally startle at his changed appearance and energy.

"Did you know that I can hear the rabbits moving in the woods?" he says.

"Um. Right," says Ash.

"Far into the woods." He pushes his tongue against a canine. "The change in my senses will annoy the hell out of me until it becomes my new normal." He"s now fixated on Tobias and my stomach flips. This isn"t Andrei sharing interesting facts about local wildlife. "Although, hearing people talk about me, now that I"ve keener senses? That"s something I"ll appreciate." His strange eyes harden. "Although I don"t appreciate what you"re implying."

"Andrei." I take his hand. "We haven"t said anything that I wouldn"t say to your face later."

"Mmm hmm." He looks at the sandwich on the plate, takes hold and shoves half in his mouth, staring at Tobias as he chews. Andrei wipes crumbs from his mouth with the back of his hand. "I don"t want blood, but I"m also not hungry."

"Point taken, Andrei," he says.

"Or tired," he adds.

"You did sleep for a week," quips Ash.

"Ha ha. Look, I told Maeve that I heard everything you guys said to me in that room, and it fucking hurts that the people who love me as part of a family now don"t trust me."

"Would you?" asks Ash. "A hundred percent trust one of us who"d been through the same?"

Andrei drags hair from his face. "Yeah, I understand why you"re wary. I just wouldn"t make the person feel excluded so that they chose not to ask for help if something felt... off."

"I apologise." Tobias places a hand on Andrei"s shoulder and squeezes.

"What do you most want to do now that you can walk in the day?" I ask, desperate to focus on the positive inside all this. "Where do you want to go?"

For a moment, Andrei"s eyes glaze as if he"s elsewhere. Then he smiles at me. "I want to watch the sunrise."