We went to the bathroom that adjoined one of the bedrooms. I sat on the edge of the ornate marble tub as Daryn ran a towel under some water. She came over and knelt on the rug in front of me. Suddenly I wasn’t tired anymore.
She scooted closer and pressed the towel to my nose. I had a cut on the bridge. With the swelling, it’d been in my peripheral vision for a while but the pain felt distant. I knew I’d already begun to heal. And I was focused on one thing only, and it wasn’t my nose.
“He did this?” she said. “Samrael?”
“No. Technically, I think I did it.” I was pretty sure it’d happened when I slammed into him on the street.
I felt her eyes move to mine, but I kept my gaze on the pulse beating at her throat. The necklace was right there. I didn’t want to think about it right now.
She dabbed at the cut and around my mouth and chin. I felt weird having her clean up after me. Mopping up my dried blood and snot. There were a lot of things I wouldn’t have minded happening between us. This wasn’t on the list.
“We have to start acting together,” she said.
“We will,” I said. We were up against forces that were far more powerful than any one of us. Our only shot was by working together. But my team—an actor, a drunk, and a sociopath—didn’t exactly inspire confidence. Still. I had to find a way to work with them. “I met Ra’om tonight.”
I wasn’t sure why I’d added that. I just couldn’t stop thinking about him. I couldn’t stop seeing his red eyes in the darkness. I couldn’t think of Anna without picturing her ripping at her face. All the images were right there. Lurking. It felt like Ra’om had planted land mines in my brain.
Daryn drew the towel away. “I thought you might have.” She sank onto her ankles and looked at me. “You’re … okay?”
“Yeah.” I made myself hold in place.
She stayed watching me for a long moment. Then she stood and rinsed out the towel. “Tomorrow,” she said. Then she came back for another pass on my nose. “We’re all together now. Tomorrow I’ll tell you more.”
I nodded and we went quiet for a little while. I knew we were almost done. She’d leave soon, and I didn’t want that. “You told me your sister wanted to be a doctor. You, too? You seem pretty good at this.”
“No. Not me.”
“What did little Daryn want to be when she grew up? You owe me three more answers. You promised at the airport. I think you promised me ten, but I’ll settle for three. Time to pay up.”
She smiled. “Okay. Three more. Little Daryn hadn’t thought past college when her life was turned upside down. But the one thing she knew was that she wanted to keep running. She’d run track in high school.”
That made a lot of sense. “What event?”
“Hurdles.”
“Hot, Martin. And cool. Really cool.”
“Thanks. I loved it. I was good at it, too. You’re fast. Both you and Marcus.”
“I’m faster. I could beat him.”
Daryn laughed but I wasn’t sure why that was funny.
She swept her hair behind her ear. “Okay. Second thing?”
“Fifth. Let’s just keep numbering up instead of doing two rounds of three.”
“We could recategorize this set as A, B, C?”
“If we were trying to make me unhappy, we could.”
She shook her head. “You’re so odd. Okay, fifth.” She stared at the fancy wallpaper, narrowing her eyes in thought. Her mouth was curved into a smile, and she looked incredible.
I wanted to kiss her neck. Kind of badly. I also kind of wanted to bite her, too. Not to hurt her, of course. She just looked so good. All that smooth skin. She made me feel a little vampirish and crazy. I wanted to be all over her. Always. But especially when she was this close.
“I’m obsessed with Amelia Earhart,” she said. “I dressed up as her for Halloween, like, ten years in a row. Every picture of me as a girl, I’m wearing aviator goggles. Not up on my head, either. I actually wore them.”
“Over your eyes?”
She laughed. “Yes. I wanted to see the world the way she saw it. I had her short hair and everything. And I made everyone call me Amelia in second grade and through half of third. I still wish that was my name. Amelia Martin.”
“Not as good as what you got. Daryn’s perfect. Your name is. For you.”
“Ew, but thanks. It’s a family name.” She paused, smiling at some memory. “I think running hurdles … I think it came out of wanting to fly.”
She’d stopped fixing up my nose a little while ago. I took the towel from her and tossed it in the sink. I’d been hanging on her every word, but it didn’t feel like I was getting enough. Like we were close enough.
“Come here,” I said, pulling her up beside me.