Reunion Read Free

chest.
    “If you’re up to it, I’d like your opinion on what happened the night you were injured.”
    He gave her a look that conveyed exactly what he was thinking. He was right. It was cold of her to stand here, distant and uncaring while he suffered, but that was what a Law Keeper did. They didn’t mix business with pleasure. Pleasure was a thing of the past for them. To hold this position meant being impartial about the bloodlines and being emotionless. Emotions got in the way and clouded your judgement.
    Like hers were right now.
    Marise turned her back again and paced across the room. She didn’t need the distance it brought—she needed the darkness. It robbed her sight of its sharpness and meant she couldn’t see his injuries so clearly.
    “A simple nod or shake of your head will suffice. That is, if you can manage it?”
    Jascha gave her a tiny nod and grimaced, his hand coming up to touch his throat. His eyes closed and she could see the pain in his face and feel it in her blood. She had forgotten the wound there. A part of her said to give him time to recover before questioning him, but the rest overruled it and said to get it over with and get out before the feelings stirring inside her became dangerous.
    He was a soldier. She was sure he understood. She needed answers for her investigation and so she could judge whether this case required a Law Keeper or not. This couldn’t get personal. She couldn’t go there again.
    “Do you think there’s a reason you were left alive?” Marise held the tremble from her voice so he wouldn’t know how much the sight of him so injured was affecting her.
    He nodded.
    “I think so too. Timur hasn’t a clue what happened. You do though, don’t you?”
    He nodded again and swallowed with a grimace.
    She moved a step closer so he could see her better through his one good eye, but kept far enough away that she couldn’t clearly see his wounds.
    “Who did this to you? A vampire?”
    A shake of his head, tiny and almost imperceptible.
    “I didn’t think so. Were they human?”
    He hesitated. There was uncertainty in his eyes.
    “Niet,” he said, voice strained but the accent that had always melted her was still there.
    It was just like him to fall back on his native tongue. She hoped he would keep his answers simple. She never had grasped the language.
    “Did they look human?”
    “Da,” he croaked and rubbed his throat again.
    Marise stepped closer and had to look away when fresh blood seeped into the bandages around his neck. Her stomach roiled at the thought that she was hurting him by making him speak. She wanted to ask him to stick to nodding or shaking his head, but she couldn’t let him see how much it was all affecting her.
    “Do you think they were demon or were they wholly human?”
    “Ya ne pani’mayu.” His voice sounded tight and he pushed himself up as he coughed.
    Blood trickled down from the corner of his mouth.
    “Damn it, Jascha! I told you to shake or nod.” She stormed across the room and sat down on the bed beside him. Her hand was against his cheek, holding him and forcing him to look at her. Everything she was ready to say slipped away and instead she wiped the blood off his chin with her thumb.
    She took her hand away from him, gathering herself while she wiped her thumb on the dirty cloth beside the bed.
    There was a canister of blood and a stained glass pushed to the back of the small table. They were feeding him old blood? How was he supposed to heal? Anger stirred inside her and she shot a black look at the door. She could sense Timur outside with the guards. Was Tynan there too? Surely he wouldn’t let Jascha suffer like this?
    Marise undid the buttons on her jacket sleeve and pushed it up her arm before setting to work on the buttons of her shirt cuff. She rolled it up and tugged it out of the way.
    Thinking about what she was doing, she justified it by telling herself that a dead witness was of no use to her. This was about