Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

“ P lease tell me that you haven’t resorted to sex to try to manipulate me,” Logan said with a pitying look that had her lips twitching.

“No, not sex,” Jill said, shifting to get more comfortable as she sat back on his knees and reached for the buttons on his shirt.

“Then, what are you doing, Angel?” Logan asked, even as he placed his hands on her thighs almost as though he couldn’t quite help himself.

“Renegotiating the terms of my release,” Jill said, forcing her mind away from the fact that she was currently straddling his legs and focused on the task at hand, putting all the pieces together.

If she was right, she was about to have leverage, but if she was wrong…

She’d figure something else out.

“There’s nothing to negotiate,” Logan said, watching her curiously as she took her time releasing the buttons on his shirt one by one.

“Are you sure about that?” Jill asked, her gaze flickering to meet silver eyes as she worked the last two buttons free.

“Positive,” he said as she looked down and-

“So, I’m going to need my cuff removed first,” Jill said with a heartfelt sigh as she took in the angry patches of red skin covering his chest and stomach.

“It’s never going to happen,” Logan said as Jill took her time running her eyes over a perfectly sculptured chest and chiseled abs marred by what could only be described as patches of what looked like a really painful sunburn.

“Why aren’t you healing?” Jill asked as she looked up and met his glare.

She watched a muscle in his jaw clench tightly while she waited for an answer, one that she had a feeling she already knew. “And before you tell me that you just need to drink more blood, you should probably know that I watched you gorge on six bags of blood this afternoon.”

“I just need more blood,” Logan said dryly as Jill reached over and gently ran her fingertips along the edge of the burn marring his chest.

“You need my blood,” Jill said as she looked up and met his gaze.

“What makes you say that?” Logan asked as his hands slid over her thighs, the gentle caress leaving a trail of goosebumps beneath her cotton dress.

“You mean besides the fact that you were able to consume my blood without dying violently?” Jill asked dryly, watching his lips twitch.

“Besides that,” Logan murmured softly as his gaze dropped down to his hands as they continued moving over her thighs.

“And the part about you not healing after gorging on bagged blood?” Jill asked as she dropped her hands away from his chest and placed them over his hands.

“Is just a coincidence,” Logan said, watching her as she slowly wrapped her hands around his hands.

“In that case…” Jill said with a heartfelt sigh as she picked up his hands and moved them off her thighs before she climbed off his lap and made her way back to her spot by the door.

“Giving up that easily, Angel?” Logan asked, seeming amused as he once again closed his eyes and dropped his head back against the leather chair.

“Just giving you a moment to consider your options,” Jill said as she adjusted her skirt over her legs.

God, she missed being able to wear pants, Jill thought, biting back a heartfelt sigh as she shifted to get comfortable only to amend that previous thought to include panties because the bikini bottoms that she was forced to wear just wasn’t doing it for her. When she got out of here, the first thing that she was going to do, besides evade capture by the Sentinels, was find a comfortable pair of granny panties and the baggiest, softest sweatpants that money could buy.

“And what are my options?” Logan asked, looking absolutely bored and making her wonder if she was wrong about this.

“Remove my cuff and I’ll allow you to partake of my delicious blood,” Jill said, watching his lips twitch.

“You do realize that I could just take your blood if I really wanted it, right?” Logan reminded her with a bored sigh.

“You wouldn’t do that,” Jill pointed out with a sad shake of her head.

“And why is that exactly?”

“Because you owe me,” Jill said with a solemn nod.

“For…”

“Not unmanning you when I had the chance,” she said, making him chuckle at the reminder of the first time they met in that alleyway when she took him by surprise by pressing a dagger coated in holy oil and Sentinel blood against his fly.

“And as much as I appreciate that, Angel, I think saving your life makes us even,” Logan said, raising his hand to absently gesture for her to get on with it. “You have nothing that I want.”

“Really? Because I thought you wanted answers,” Jill said, blinking at him.

“You already bargained those away, Angel.”

“So did you,” Jill reminded him as she thought about that other thing that she’d been wondering about for a while now.

“What exactly do you want to know?” Logan asked with a heavy sigh only to open his eyes and frown at her next question.

“What am I?”

“What are you talking about, Angel?” Logan asked, moving to sit up when he felt the first wave of fear wash over him.

“The bullet wounds would have healed, but I should have been frozen in my immortality exactly the way that I was when I was human. Instead, everything about me changed and I know enough about vampires to know that my transition wasn’t normal,” Jill explained as beautiful silver eyes met his.

“No, it wasn’t,” Logan murmured in agreement.

“What was in the blood that I was given during my transition?” Jill asked after a slight hesitation as he noted the terror in her eyes and-

“You’re afraid that you’re like your brother Joshua,” Logan said, watching her swallow hard.

“Can you blame me?” Jill asked as a wave of sadness slowly took over at the mention of her brother.

No, he couldn’t.

Joshua never should have survived his transition with shifter blood and Pyte blood in his system. He not only survived, but from everything Logan learned about him, he’d changed in unexpected ways. Even three cells away from him, Logan could scent the aggression pouring off him. Every time Jill walked past his cell to visit her brother late at night, he’d tensed, ready to tear the fucking cell door off if her brother hurt her.

“You’re a vampire, nothing more,” Logan promised her.

“And the reason why I changed so much during my transition…” Jill said, letting her words trail off as she looked at him expectantly.

“Tomas is looking into that,” Logan said, watching her nod as she thought that over.

“And what exactly is Tomas?” Jill asked as her gaze dropped to his chest and took in the burned skin covering his torso.

“An Impure,” he said as something occurred to him. “You haven’t asked about your family.”

“I know better,” Jill said, shrugging it off like it didn’t matter, but he felt her loneliness.

“Meaning?” Logan asked, watching the way that she tried to pretend that her family didn’t matter to her and he wanted to know why.

“Meaning that you should stop trying to change the subject and just give in to my demands,” she said with a heartfelt sigh.

“Refresh my memory, Angel. What were your demands again?” Logan asked while he wondered why a woman that loved her family refused to talk about them and there was no doubt in his mind that she loved them.

He could feel it every time he mentioned them.

“In exchange for removing my cuff, I will allow you to take another sip of my delicious blood so that you can heal,” Jill said with a heartfelt sigh that had his lips twitching.

“That’s very generous of you, Angel, but I’m afraid that I’m going to have to pass,” Logan said as a surge of pain tore through his skin.

Biting back a groan, he closed his eyes and dropped his head back, wondering how he was going to be able to hide the fact that he wasn’t healing from his men and-

“Did you know?”

“Know what, Angel?” Logan asked as he found himself wondering just how much blood it was going to take to heal from now on.

“That their cuffs would shock them when they were removed?” Jill asked after a slight hesitation.

“Yes,” Logan said, only to end up frowning when he felt her climb back onto his lap a moment later.

“What the hell are you doing?” Logan asked as he opened his eyes to find her staring intently down at her wrist only to release a heavy sigh as she gave up whatever it was that she was doing so that she could raise her arm and gave it a pointed wiggle.

When he only sat there, wondering what the hell she was doing, Jill said, “Taking pity on you,” as she gestured for him to get on with it with her other hand.

Gently pushing her arm away, Logan said, “That’s not an option, Angel.”

“Neither is letting your men know that you’re not healing,” Jill said with a pointed look at his hands.

“Afraid they’ll drive a stake through my chest before you get a chance?” Logan asked dryly.

“I mean, there is that,” Jill murmured with a heartfelt sigh that had his lips twitching.

“I don’t need your blood, Angel,” Logan said, reluctantly placing his hands on her hips to move her off his lap only to go still when she murmured, “Liar.”

“What makes you think that I’m lying?” he asked, watching her curiously.

“There’s only one way to find out, but I guess we won’t be finding out tonight,” Jill said, placing her hands on his shoulders as she climbed off his lap with a heartfelt sigh and headed for the door, leaving him with no choice but to watch her go.