Flesh And Blood: House of Comarre: Book Two (House of Comarre 2) Painter, Kristen (historical books to read txt) 📖

She shrugged. ‘It’s fine.’

He walked into the foyer, waited for her to close the door, then followed her into a large sitting room. White and ivory dominated the decorating. Very comarré. She sat at the edge of a snowy leather sofa. He took a seat across from her. She lifted the hem of her tank top and wiped sweat from the hollow of her throat. The gauze covering her stitches was gone, leaving three pink sutured lines visible on her skin. They seemed to be healing well. And fast.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I realize I’m intruding. You’d probably rather be showering.’

She laughed. ‘Is that your way of telling me I smell?’

‘No. Hell, no. I’ve always been partial to a healthy sweat on a beautiful woman. It’s the ones who never exert themselves you have to worry about. I take it you were training?’

She nodded. ‘Have to stay sharp. Doc makes a great sparring partner.’

‘So would I.’

She smiled a little. ‘I’m sure you would.’

He gave her an out by pointing at her stomach. ‘You should probably get those stitches out if you’re healing as quickly as you seem to be.’

She flushed, or maybe she’d been that shade of pink already. ‘It’s not hard, right? Just snip and pull? I can get Velimai to do it.’

‘I’m glad you’ve got her. Wyspers are good to have around.’ Very good. Particularly if vampires dropped by unexpectedly. Which gave him a way into the real reason he was here. ‘Especially if there’s something in the house worth protecting.’

Her brows furrowed. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

There was no point in skating around it. ‘I – that is, the Kubai Mata – we know about the ring.’

She pushed back, her jaw tensing. ‘Does everyone know about that wretched thing? I suppose you think I should give it to you for safekeeping, right?’

That answered the question of whether she’d be keeping the ring or not. He leaned his elbows on his knees. ‘Not me, but back to the Kubai Mata, yes.’

‘Back to them? You make it sound like it was theirs to begin with.’

‘It was. Your patron, Algernon, was working with the KM as an inside source. Somehow he found out about the ring and stole it from the archives. Flipped on them. The grand masters are not happy.’

‘Algernon?’ Her hands unclenched. ‘I never would have guessed that about him, but our relationship wasn’t exactly deep.’ She shook her head, taking it all in. ‘Do you know what the ring’s power is? Why Tatiana wants it so badly?’

‘No.’ He snorted out a breath. ‘I may be KM, but I’m also just a grunt.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘I’m not high on their trust list.’

She tipped her head and looked at him like she was seeing him with new eyes. ‘I trust you.’

He hadn’t expected that. ‘You don’t know me well enough to trust me.’ Although he wanted her to. Very much.

‘You saved my life. I trust you until you give me reason to do otherwise.’

He bowed his head. ‘I hope that doesn’t happen.’ And he meant it. Someday she’d understand that what he was doing was for her good and the good of mankind. He lifted his chin and looked into her eyes. ‘Do you feel that way about Malkolm?’

She narrowed her gaze. ‘You mean do I trust him?’

‘Do you?’

She hesitated. ‘Yes.’

‘But?’

Her fingers wound around each other. ‘No but. I trust him.’

‘What about that thing he becomes?’

She dropped her chin slightly. ‘No, I don’t trust that part of him.’

Creek couldn’t blame her. ‘Do you think he would ever attack you when he’s like that?’

She stood, walked to the back wall of glass doors and looked out. ‘He has.’

Anger pushed Creek to his feet. ‘When?’

‘About a month ago.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s nothing to worry about now.’

He went to her side. ‘If he did it once, what makes you think he won’t do it again?’

‘Mal won’t.’ The glass reflected her scowl. ‘He has better control now.’

Creek had pushed her far enough. A seed of doubt existed in her. That was all he needed to know. He backed off. ‘You know him better than I do, I’m sure you’re right. Other than the beast part of him, he seems like a … decent guy.’

‘He is.’ She looked at Creek with sudden curiosity. ‘Although you’re the last person I’d expect to say such a thing.’

‘We’re trying to be civil. For you.’

‘Thank you.’

What other thoughts rolled through her head? He knew what was going on in his own, and it didn’t have anything to do with the vampire. This close, not touching her felt impossible.

‘I need to ask you a question,’ she said. ‘And I want you to answer me honestly.’

‘Of course.’

She looked at him as though she were trying to see into his soul. ‘Have you been killing off fringe vampires?’

‘What do you mean killing off?’

‘Numerous piles of ash have been found in your neighborhood. All in the same area.’

‘Not me.’ A comarré caring about fringe? ‘But I have killed a few who were putting human life in danger.’

She nodded and looked outside again, the faraway glaze returning to her eyes.

He jerked his chin toward the vast lanai beyond the sliding glass doors. ‘That’s some pool.’ And some luxury yacht parked in the deepwater slip a little farther out.

She tipped her head like she was seeing it for the first time. ‘I hardly ever use it.’

‘How come?’

Her mouth quirked to one side. ‘I’m not a great swimmer.’

Genuinely shocked, he laughed. ‘I thought swimming was a comarré prereq.’

‘It is, but I never seemed to get the hang of it. I did enough to pass my classes, but that was it.’

He unlocked the latch on the slider. ‘Never too late to learn.’

‘Yes, I think it— Hey!’

But he had the door open and his shirt off before she’d set one foot after him. ‘Last one in’s a rotten egg.’ He shucked his jeans on the run, almost tripping in the grass, and dove headfirst into the cool blue.

He bobbed to the surface, swam