Page 20 of Reaper
“What is?” Kai asked.
Without answering her mate, Liv turned to Reaper.Her eyes flashed with excitement, and Reaper knew her well enough to know that she’d discovered something, but she needed his answers to verify the evidence.
“What do you remember?” Liv asked.
He had been in a hurry to get back home, determined to get Ara alone and explore the heat that flared between them throughout the day.His focus had been so concentrated on Ara that he’d ignored everyone and everything around him.
His body thrummed with need as he spotted the flush of her cheeks and heard the accelerated beat of her heart, and it had been vital for him to get her alone and explore their attraction.The more time he spent with her, the more the need to claim her clawed in his chest, but he would never take her choice away from her.
So on the walk to the SUV, he tried to calm his growing need and his inattention almost cost Ara her life.
Taking a deep breath to get his body under control, he thought back to the moment after he’d shut Ara’s door and rounded the car.
“I headed around the hood after Ara was seated, and the force of the bullet slammed into me.I found myself pinned against the SUV.I tried to get to Ara, but the hits kept coming until my body shut down to heal itself.I can’t remember anything after that.”
Other than Ara’s voice.
“We heard the shots and ran out onto the porch, but by that time, the gunman was working on unjamming the gun.Before anyone could intervene, we watched as Ara calmly walked toward the man.When he spotted her, he cursed, working harder to dislodge the casing.Ara waved her hand at the man, and he seized for a split second before he dropped to the ground, screaming in pain.By the time the sound ended, he was dead,” Liv said.
She paused and looked thoughtfully at Ara before she gasped.Rushing to her lab table, she palmed a scalpel and a syringe before she ran up the stairs.Liv was back in within ten seconds.It dawned on him that she had gone upstairs for a sample of the gunman’s blood, and he turned his attention back to Ara, not caring what the man’s blood revealed.He heard the clink of slides as she slid the sample under the microscope, and he heard her breathing ratchet up by what the sample revealed.
“Holy shit,” Liv muttered.
Reaper had never seen Liv so surprised, and he couldn’t tell whether what she had found was good or bad news.
“She scorched his blood.She heated his blood until the plasma evaporated, and because of lack of blood flow to the heart, his heart stopped beating.”
The silence in the room stretched for several long minutes, as they thought about what Liv had told them.
“She has really strong offensive and defensive weapons.She was able to heal Reaper within minutes, but only after she’d defended herself and killed the gunman.It seems that her powers grow stronger when someone she cares about is in danger.Another curiosity is that when Ara healed you, your enhanced healing abilities became strengthened.I think that from now on, you’ll be able to heal at a quicker rate than the others,” Liv finished.
“How do you know that?” Reaper asked.
Liv understood that he’d meant Ara’s feelings and rolled her eyes before she answered him.“You didn’t see the way she was looking at you through dinner.Probably the same way you were looking at her.”
Reaper nodded at Liv.He cared for Ara in a way that he never thought possible.
He had been alone for most of his existence, and although he had grown close to the assassins he considered family, something was missing that left a hollow space inside.It wasn’t until he laid eyes on Ara that the loneliness, the hollowness, disappeared, and tonight, he’d almost lost her.That one thought had fear shiver over his spine.The other was that Ara hadn’t woken yet.
“Why doesn’t she respond to me?”
“I have my suspicions,” Liv replied.
He almost roared out his frustration, but he took a deep breath and was grateful when she continued without prompting.
“Until I can test Ara’s blood, there is no way to speculate why she can use some powers without draining her energy, but others take everything she has.It could be related to what she was injected with, or it could be latent.I won’t draw blood until she’s healthy and gives her permission to do so.”
“I don’t understand.”
Liv gently lifted Ara’s right hand and straightened her arm.He noticed some bruising near where Liv would have to draw Ara’s blood, something he hadn’t noticed before.As he touched the area gently, he noticed the skin was cool to the touch.He glanced at Liv for an explanation, and he could see the hesitation as she tried to mask her expression.
“The scientists must have drawn from her several times a day, because they are in bad shape.Although blood vessels have grown to replace the damaged ones, she’s had several collapsed veins in the area.I don’t want to take away her choice and if she prefers another method, I still have to wait for her to wake.”
Fury unlike anything he’d ever felt before left tremors shaking throughout his body.He couldn’t prevent his thunderous growl that echoed throughout the cavernous basement.Blackness edged into his vision, but before he could destroy whatever he could get his hands on, he sensed movement on the couch.
“Reaper.”
Before he could sit on the couch and reach for her, Ara launched herself in his arms and held on.For a long moment, he held her as relief left him weak, but pain ripped through him when she pushed against his chest, forcing him away from her.He thought that she was upset because he had done nothing to protect her, but her hands searched his chest for wounds that had healed and disappeared.
