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had
ripped in his fight with Robert. I redid those, then saw to a few
new nasty wounds, lamenting that I’d need a trip to the sewing
store for new needles at the earliest opportunity.
    “These will heal,” he said as I sewed. “But
they’ll take a while. The bastard had were poison on his
blade.”
    “Wasn’t he were?” I asked, carefully sewing.
“What if he cut himself on his blade by accident?”
    “Werecoyote,” Theo spat. “I gave him some
poison, too, when I cut him. It’s standard practice, Sar, in a
challenge.” He paused. “Robert was good, very good. He didn’t make
any stupid mistakes. It was close a few times.”
    As I applied bandages to the sewn places,
Theo called Danial and left a message on his cell to say he was
fine, and that we were coming back tomorrow.
    “Don’t you want to stay here?” I asked,
surprised.
    “Sar, the Harvesters are still out there,”
Theo answered, hanging up the phone. “I’m not going to take the
chance that they might hurt you or Devon. We have to go back until
I settle with them.”
    Since I couldn’t say anything to the
contrary, I nodded. “Sorry. I forgot.”
    “Come lie next to me?” Theo asked
tenderly.
    I lay down beside him, and hugged him,
wondering if I should bring up Devlin.
    “I love you. You make me so happy, Sar.”
    Probably not the time to mention Dev. “You
make me happy, too. Your scent always comforts me—”
    “What do you mean, my scent?” Theo said,
pulling back and then grimacing as his fresh stitches
tightened.
    “I’ve never told you before that you smell of
prairie grass, pine forest, and wide blue skies? I must have, in
all our time together.”
    Theo gave me a peculiar smile. “You never
said it, Sar. I would’ve remembered.”
    “Well, you do,” I assured, snuggling into
him. “And I like that. I liked it from the first time I smelled
your jacket, that day after I first dreamed of you.”
    “I remembered how surprised I was, when I saw
you had it in your bedroom,” Theo said tenderly. “I remember
wishing I had something of yours to smell when I thought of
you.”
    “How do I smell to you?” I asked
hesitantly.
    “You smell good,” Theo said, inhaling deeply.
“You smell of femaleness, warmth, and softness.”
    “All females must smell like that,” I said,
rolling my eyes.
    “But your scent carries something extra,”
Theo said. “Something like sunlight, and green things, maybe. I
can’t give it words. But when I smell you, I think of how good the
sun feels on me when I’m walking outside on a summer day.”
    Danial and Devlin had always said I tasted of
summer. Maybe that was why. Or maybe I smelled of summer because
whatever was in my blood had that odd aspect. “Interesting to
know.”
    “I love your scent,” Theo continued. “It was
hard to get used to the bit of vampire smell that’s mixed in now,
but I don’t notice it anymore, really—”
    “How do vampires smell?” I asked. “You make
it sound like its bad. But they don’t smell bad to me.”
    “Not bad, really,” Theo said, backpedaling.
“A little like fall, like damp earth—”
    Something sounded familiar. What?
    “— and blood, usually. Almost always,
vampires smell of blood.”
    I didn’t remember anyone smelling like blood
lately. Maybe it was nothing. I kissed Theo and held him close.
“Get some rest. There will be time enough tomorrow for
talking.”
    * * * *
    The next afternoon, after we had returned to
Danial’s, I reluctantly told Theo that I had decided to go to
Devlin that night to ask for his protection. Even with what he had
said to me the previous night, Theo immediately got upset.
    “Why tonight?” he protested, flopping down on
Danial’s couch. “I know you don’t really want to go. I can smell it
on you, like you’re fighting with yourself.”
    He was right. I’d have to fix that before
seeing Devlin, unless I wanted to blow my deal with Lash to hell.
“Because you were right last night; we need