"Do you want to check your handiwork?" When she nodded, he sat down on a bench and she carefully peeled the tape back. As he winced, he looked around her at Vishous. "Did you tell Z about this yet?"
The brother shook his head. "Haven't seen him, and Rhage tried his phone but it was off."
"So, no news from Havers?"
"Not that I've heard. Although we're about an hour before dawn, so they'd better be back soon."
The doctor whistled under her breath. "It's like I can see the skin knitting back together in front of my eyes. Mind if I put another gauze pack on?"
"Whatever you like."
When she went back into the PT suite, V said, "Gotta talk to you, my man."
"About?"
"I'm thinking you know."
Shit. The lesser. And there was no playing dumb with a brother like V. Lying, however, remained an option. "Fight got tight."
"Bullshit. You can't be pulling moves like that."
Phury thought back to a couple months before, when he'd become his twin for a time. Literally. "I've been worked over on one of their tables, V. I can assure you they are not concerned with warfare etiquette."
"But you got cracked tonight because you were going Ginsu on that slayer's ass. Weren't you."
Jane came back in with supplies. Thank God.
When she'd finished packing him up, he got to his feet. "I'm going to head to my room now."
"You want help?" V asked in a hard tone. Like he was sucking back a whole lot of need-to-share.
"No. I know the way."
"Well, since we have to go back anyway, let's make this a field trip. And take it slow."
Which was a damn good idea. His head was killing him.
They were halfway through the tunnel when Phury realized that the doctor wasn't being watched or guarded. But, then, hell, she didn't look as if she wanted to bolt. Matter of fact, she and V were walking side by side.
He wondered if either one of them was aware of how much they seemed like a couple.
When Phury got to the door that led into the big house, he said good-bye without meeting V's eyes and went up the shallow steps that led out of the tunnel and into the mansion's foyer. His bedroom seemed like it was all the way across town instead of just up the grand staircase and the exhaustion he felt told him he needed to feed. Which was such a bore.
Up in his room he took a shower and stretched out on his majestic bed. He knew he should be calling one of the females he used for blood, but he so wasn't interested. Instead of picking up the phone, he closed his eyes and let his arms fall to his sides, his hand landing on the firearms book, the one he'd taught class from tonight. The one with his drawing in it.
His door opened without a knock. Which meant it was Zsadist. With news.
Phury sat up so fast, his brain went fish-tank in his skull, sloshing around, threatening to spill out his ears. He put his hand up to the bandage as pain speared into him. "What happened with Bella?"
Z's eyes were black holes in his scarred face, "What the fuck were you thinking!"
"Excuse me?"
"Getting jumped because—" As Phury winced, Z cut the volume down on his boom-box routine and shut the door. Relative silence didn't improve his mood. In a hushed voice, he bit out, "I can't fucking believe you played Jack the Ripper and got cracked—"#p#分页标题#e#
"Please tell me how Bella is."
Z pointed his finger right at Phury's chest. "You need to spend a little less time worrying about my shellan and a little more worrying about your own sorry ass, feel me?"
Swamped by pain, Phury squeezed his good eye shut. The brother was, of course, right on the money.
"Shit," Z spat into the quiet. "Just… shit."
"You're absolutely right." Phury noticed that his hand was clutching the firearms book, and he forced himself to let go of the thing.
As a clicking sound started to go off, Phury glanced up. Z was nicking the top of his RAZR phone over and over again with his thumb. "You could have been killed."
"I wasn't."
"Cold comfort. At least for one of us. What about your eye? V's doc save it?"
"Don't know."
Z walked over to one of the windows. Pushing the heavy velvet drape aside, he stared out across the terrace and the pool. The strain in his ruined face was obvious, his jaw clenched, his brows down low over his eyes. Strange… before it had always been Z who was on the edge of oblivion. Now Phury was standing on that thin, slippery lip, the worrier having become the cause for concern.
"I'll be okay," he lied, leaning to the side for his bag of red smoke and his rolling papers. He spun a thick one up fast, lit it, and the false calm came right away, like his body had been trained well. "Just had an off night."