“Well?” I asked quietly, anger flowering in my middle. “Do you plan to pull it out, or are you trying to give me rust poisoning?”
“That’s not even a thing for magical people, Jane.” He let go of the hilt and pulled his hand back, joy soaking into his features even as blood soaked my shirt. He clearly didn’t intend on pulling the knife out himself.
I didn’t feel the blade, and I was already working on damage control with my healing magic, but that didn’t stop the primal part of me from cringing in dread. A deep part of me still connected a stabbing with a grave. My mind edged into survival mode, each second that dangerous weapon stayed lodged in my flesh pumping out another wave of adrenaline.
I could easily pull it out, sure. I wouldn’t feel it. But half the time it didn’t hurt to work out splinters, either, and digging those out with a sewing needle had always been beyond me.
“Pull it out,” I said through clenched teeth, my hands shaking, not daring to look down at it again. “There’s nothing in the rules about you getting to leave the knife in.”
“Exactly. There’s nothing in the rules about leaving the knife in…or pulling it out, either.” Sasquatch just looked at me with that awful smile, enjoying my turmoil.
“The game is over.” Austin’s deep, rich baritone washed over me. I’d lost track of his approach.
Sasquatch jolted as though struck, his spine snapping ramrod straight, his beer belly popping out. He hadn’t noticed Austin coming at all. A moment later, he bent like a dying reed, drooping over and reaching for the knife.
“No, no!” I slapped his hand away, my reflexes faster than they’d ever been. My body stronger, too. Austin wasn’t just training me in magic. “Careful!”
Sasquatch staggered to the side before lunging back at me. “Alpha said the thing is done. Give me my knife!”
“Don’t grab like that. You’ll make it worse.” I slapped his hand away again and sent a tiny blast of magic to shove him back.
He flew off his feet and sailed ass over end toward the building, his back hitting first, his head pointed toward the ground. My power kept growing, and every time I thought I had a handle on my range, I went and blasted someone across the room. Or down the sidewalk, as the case may be. Oh well. It probably wasn’t the first time he’d been dropped on his head.
“Oops. Too much power,” I said.
Sasquatch struggled to his feet, hand to his cranium. He pointed a finger at me. “You saw her, alpha. She assaulted me. Aggressively! She broke the law. Punish her.”
Austin stepped back into the gutter. Power throbbed off his robust body. Hard eyes surveyed us from a harder face. This was Austin the alpha, not my friend and trainer. He was hearing a complaint from someone in his territory and discerning its merit before he reached a verdict. He was police, judge, and jury in this town, and he couldn’t afford to let someone upset the extremely precarious balance right now.
But then…I wasn’t in the habit of letting people beat me up, either.
This might be bad.
Two
“She has a knife sticking out of her body and she worried you’d do further damage by carelessly yanking it out.” Austin’s eyes sparked with danger. “Every magical person in town is aware of her power situation. You should’ve known how your fumbling would be received. This matter is over.”
The commanding tone had Sasquatch stepping back, uncertainty and fear on his face. “Okay, but…”
Austin looked down on him, unblinking. His power throbbed once, twice, daring Sasquatch to push back. Darkness bubbled just under the surface of his eyes.
“It’s just…” Sasquatch pointed at the knife lamely, reminding me it was still there. Reminding me that a knife was lodged in my stomach and blood was seeping down my side. “I need my knife back.”
“Possession is nine-tenths of the law, and currently it’s in her possession,” Austin replied.
“Finders keepers,” I muttered miserably, looking at the hilt with my hands spread to the sides. My mind swam. I wasn’t sure if it was from blood loss or the prolonged dumping of adrenaline into my blood, or maybe my mind was convincing my body that it should be in shock.
“Go,” Austin growled, and Sasquatch took off running, grabbing the waist of his pants as he did so, apparently worried they’d slip down and show his cheeks.
“Except I still have a knife sticking out of me.” I swayed.
Austin quickly stepped closer, and his warm hand grasped my shoulder.
“It’s okay,” he crooned, his tone soft and comforting, a complete one-eighty from a moment ago. “I got it.”
I met his eyes, soaking in that beautiful cobalt blue.
“I didn’t mean to retaliate against him,” I said, holding his shoulders for stability. It was like gripping two large boulders. “I was trying to get him to step back.”
“You seem to forget that I’ve been on the other end of that sort of accident a few times.”
“It’s just…I know you’re under a lot of pressure to keep everyone from killing each other here. I didn’t mean to add to that.”
His gaze dipped to my tongue sliding across my lower lip. “Jess, you don’t have to apologize. I know exactly what happened. I watched the whole thing. I was at the other end of the street when he first caught sight of you. If I weren’t officially alpha now, I would’ve told him to get lost. Being the alpha, I had to at least appear to weigh both sides.”
“I thought you didn’t play favorites.”
“I don’t. But I also don’t listen to whiners who delight in stabbing beautiful women.”
I smiled at him, my heart warming.
“Does it hurt?” he asked softly, his hand near the knife, getting ready to pull it out.
I squeezed my eyes shut so I wouldn’t accidentally look down and see. Unlike with a splinter, you couldn’t just leave the knife in until it worked itself out.
“No. I think I’ve mastered my healing magic. It’s just…” I blew out a breath. “My brain is bleating in panic every time I think about it. I have a knife sticking in me, man! For forty years I’ve lived with the idea that being stabbed is a potentially life-threatening situation. It’s hard to ignore that just because I don’t feel the wound. It’s hard to get used to. People in shock don’t feel things either. Shock means something very bad has happened to you. I can’t—”
“I’ll handle it, okay?” His breath dusted my face, spearmint and something sweet.
“Did you eat cake? I could use a slice of cake. I haven’t had cake in…” I trailed away, wondering what the hell was taking him so long. Just yank it out, already!
I flinched at the thought.
“Listen,” he said, his voice still so soft, so comforting. “I wanted to talk to you about the winery.”
As in the winery he’d asked me to buy and run with him. The arrangements had already been made, but what if he’d changed his mind? Did he think it was a bad idea for us to work together?
A wave of worry washed through me, and I blinked my eyes open to see his expression.