‘I hadn’t spoken to another person, let alone Grigori, in months,’ I explained, resuming my position by the window. ‘So, I stepped in. I fought off three of them without too much trouble, but the last two had me and my dagger was thrown.’
I reached into my bag and withdrew a long, slim arrow with a sharp tip.
Lincoln’s eyes went wide. I knew he was remembering the night Phoenix had done Lilith’s dirty work and shot me with all those arrows.
‘Yeah. It’s my sick joke, I suppose. I usually have it fastened to my back.’ I shrugged. ‘It seemed fitting and it’s always handy.’ I spun the arrow to show how it split into two halves, making it twice the weapon. I rarely hunted without it.
‘Grigori blade?’ he asked, looking at the metal tip.
‘Not so much.’ I held out the inside of my wrist, unclasping the cuff and exposing the scar of the wound I’d first received in Jordan. I ignored his sharp intake of breath. The scar had been getting progressively worse each time I opened the wound. It was the only one that never healed completely.
‘Your blood,’ he murmured, almost painfully.
I tried for an easy smile as I put my cuff back on. ‘I’m toxic, what can I say?’
When he didn’t smile back, I kept talking. ‘Anyway, I saved Gray and he saw me use it. I panicked that he’d tell other Grigori about it. The only people who really know about my blood are Spence, Griffin and Steph, though I figure Salvatore, Zoe, Onyx and Dapper have a pretty good idea. And you. You know.’
He nodded.
‘And then, I healed him.’
Lincoln’s nostrils flared at that. I tried to ignore it and the sensation it ignited in my stomach.
‘And that freaked him out completely,’ I powered on. ‘But he remembered me from Santorini, and when I asked him, he agreed to let me hang out for a while and get in on a few paying jobs. He never told anyone about me and he knew I was … that I didn’t want to be social. Some of the Rogues can be forward at times and after I beat one to a bloody pulp it became clear that if I wanted to stay around, I had to work something out. One night when a couple of the guys started getting carried away, Gray just grabbed me and told them all I was out of bounds and that he was taking me home with him. They all just assumed he was staking some kind of claim, and, Gray being Gray, they accepted it. Every once in a while he’d leave the bar with me or put an arm around me and the guys would leave me alone.’
I was blushing, embarrassed to admit I’d let this happen, but I’d been desperate to be around people. Even if I couldn’t actually be close to any of them.
‘That night you … saw. He ended up unconscious in the alley behind the pub for touching me like that. He never got carried away again.’
Lincoln, who’d remained deathly silent throughout the rehash, fell against the door, as if his legs had given out.
‘What?’ I asked, alarmed.
He seemed to be struggling to find equilibrium and shook his head repetitively. Finally he looked up, his green eyes so pained it hurt to see them. ‘I travelled everywhere. For a year I was always one step behind. I found your parents in Spain. They let me stay with them for a few days, but it was torture, sleeping in a bed I knew you’d been in just weeks before. And, of course, they wouldn’t tell me where you were. I ransacked the whole place to find the next lead.’
‘I didn’t know you stayed with them.’
He nodded, unsurprised. ‘I followed you to Prague, Rome, Luzern, Brussels, always just missing you.’
I swallowed. ‘I know.’
‘I know you know. And I know that’s why you kept moving, but I couldn’t stop. How could I when I knew what we were? Nothing was going to stop me. When I finally traced you to London, it was so hard to get a pinpoint on you. Something had changed and I was afraid you’d been hurt. I’d heard rumours of a girl – a Rogue fighting solo and taking on groups of exiles at a time.’ He half smiled. ‘I figured you’d be reckless enough to do that. So, I tracked down Gray, hoping that he might have heard something or known someone who could help me find you.’
I nodded as it all came together. ‘And then you saw us.’
He grimaced, his face now ashen. ‘You’d learned to keep your shields up, but the moment I saw you I was able to break through them and sense you again. But you were … in his arms. You had another life. And I wasn’t part of it.’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘I never would’ve believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.’
‘But you did.’
He nodded. ‘And now I force myself every day not to go after you again.’ He swallowed tightly. ‘Even when I feel you come to me.’
I mirrored the action, my mouth cotton dry. ‘My Sight,’ I said, understanding what he was saying. ‘I … I’m sorry about that. I can’t … when I’m asleep I can’t always control it.’
He shrugged. ‘Half the time I convinced myself I was imagining it anyway.’
His voice was so strained, I wanted to reach out to him. ‘So, then you came back here?’ I asked instead.
‘Yes.’