Page 5 of Starfall
He looked at her in surprise. “I have been seeing you since I was a teenager. I am not going to give up on you. Or on us, rather.”
She frowned. “Now that I have been exposed to the council, I am not going to have long out and about.”
Nori paused. “You have been seen?”
“I have been observed. I killed my father, and Orla finished off the other two. She had to live with them; I didn’t.”
Nori blinked. “Right. And since her family were technically in good standing with the council, there had to be witnesses to their end and to the fact that they were illegal non-humans.”
Emery snorted. “Like me.”
Nori looked at her. “You have special circumstances. You are a fucking star, for pity’s sake.”
“Yeah, and the next time I am in a body, I will be known as the ogre-star. Delightful. Shit. Can you check him to see if he has been contaminated?”
Nori snorted. “I told you not to say it like that. It’s a normal response, and the first time, it was defensive.”
Emery hugged herself. “Check him, please.”
Rowen shrugged. “I don’t feel odd.”
Nori sighed and got a magnifying glass. “Can you show me the area in question?”
He shrugged and pulled his shirt off. Nori’s eyes widened. “Whoa.”
Emery stifled a flick of possessiveness. “Nori, the mark?”
“Right.” Nori used the magnifying glass and examined the bite. “It’s shallow and doesn’t look like you activated your marker. Sir, do you want the antivenin as a preventive?”
“It will keep me from being identifiable to her as a partner?”
Nori paused, and understanding dawned. “Yes.”
“Then, no. Leave things as they are.”
Emery jerked her head up. She had been staring at her feet. “Rowen, take the meds.”
He shook his head. “No. I have spent my life knowing you were for me, and I am not going to miss my chance with something to block your effect on me.”
“Don’t be stupid.”
He laughed. “That is possibly the most direct you have ever been.”
She scowled. “If that stuff activates, you will be miserable. Once it populates through your body, you will be locked.”
He smiled. “What if that is where I want to be?”
Nori paused. “I will take some swabs and double-check exposure. Rowen, you will have to keep your shirt off for a while. I will consider it payment for my time.”
Emery huffed and flapped her arms in the air. “I am going to find the cat.”
* * * *
Nori sighed as shegot the swabs ready. “Yeah. She’s upset. Really upset. She hasn’t accidentally bitten someone for a decade, and that wasn’t her fault.”
“What happened? A boyfriend?”
Nori smiled at his jealous tone. Yeah, these two were going to collide and lock eventually. “No. Well, it was a high school date-rape attempt. He forced her head down, and her teeth emerged. Guess where he got bit?”