Abby didn’t like where this was going. On the sly, she prodded Alrik with her foot but he didn’t stir. He needed to be answering these questions not her.

“Um, well, it’s not after me. It’s after him so you’ll just have to wait until he wakes up to get your answer.” She lifted her chin to finalize her words.

One black eyebrow rose at her. She glared at it. “Abbigail, you are lying.”

“No, I’m not.”

Now his other eyebrow rose to match, turning his expression into one of unbelievability.

“Abbigail, when you lie your voice goes higher, you speak faster, and you swallow hard.”

Abby snorted. “That’s not true.” But, a blush started coloring her cheeks. With humiliation, she realized she did just speak fast and her voice sounded like a little girls.

How did he know this about her? She didn’t even know him.

Blondie, who hovered near the demon carcass nodded, then called out, “It’s true! You do!”

Abby set her lethal glare on him too. How could he hear from that far away?

Suddenly all the demons around them nodded at her, and then resumed what they were doing.

“I told you,” Aidan said, a smile to his voice. “Now, tell me the truth.”

“Well, it wasn’t necessarily a lie. I mean it wasn’t after me, per se. It was after him.” She poked Alrik’s hip with her foot, this time a bit harder. He still didn’t come jolting awake like she’d hoped.

Aidan nodded grimly at Alrik. “He was touched by the beast’s acid spray. His skin is infected. It’ll leave a nasty scar.” He said it so casually as if he just relayed his favorite kind of food, or, blood, rather.

Abby frowned, her teeth worrying her bottom lip. “I don’t know what to do. Can you help me?”

He looked completely taken aback by her question. His eyes rounded, brows flew up, and then he caught himself and resumed his stoic expression.

“Help you? In return for what?” His gaze darkened and the look he gave her was so raw, earthly, and male that she could hardly suppress a shiver. The look reminded her of their intimate moment with his warm mouth on her neck. Damn. Just thinking about it made her blush, not from pleasure, but with guilt. She felt like a teenager again not wanting her mother, or in this case, Alrik, to learn what she’d done.

“I’ll hook you up on a date with my best friend.”

He blinked, shook his head, half-laughing, and cocked his head at her. “What?”

“My friend. She has a thing for vampires, I swear.” Okay, that was an exaggeration. She tolerated them well enough as a shapeshifter. “She’s beautiful, fit, and happy.” Okay, that was pushing it. She was strong-willed, perky, and very determined. She was beautiful, though. That wasn’t a lie. “She’s a lot of fun too!” That also wasn’t a lie, though it might depend on one’s version of ‘fun.’ Jenna preferred extreme everything. The shapeshifter thrived on chaos and in creating chaos. That was her ‘fun’.

Aidan slowly shook his head. “You are confusing me now. Let’s get back to the topic at hand. What will you give me in return for healing him? It must be a great gift for I hate this man. We all loathe him and the rest of his kind. To do this for you, to stop the infection, I’d need a great boon.”

“Your kind? But, you’re all demons. Well, I mean, you’re not but, yeeeah.”

His mouth twitched. “His kind is haute. Aristocrats, the high-blooded royalty, who sit upon their dais and cast judgment on all others. That’s who he is. What he is. And that’s what we hate.” He stepped closer a dark look glowing in his eyes. “Now, tell me. What will you give me if I let my men heal him?”

Damn. Abby looked around as if she might happen upon some extravagant gift she could give him, like a diamond ring maybe or a beautiful woman willing to be bitten. That didn’t happen. Finally, she shrugged and went for honesty.

“Listen, I don’t have anything to give you, but if you’re ever up on earth and I’m there, give me a call. I’ll hook you up with my beautiful friend Jenna. That’s all I can offer you.” She knew she was playing dangerously but she had to. It didn’t make her feel good to have to blow him off, he seemed like a nice...vampire guy and all, but she had Alrik. Well, and that whole situation was a mess of a disaster as it stood.

His mouth twitched with anger. He glanced at Alrik and scowled. “It’s him, isn’t it? You love him?”

Her reaction was instantaneous. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Love is a big word.” Abby threw her hands up and took a step back. Fear clutched her stomach with an icy grasp. Why did she feel so panicked at the mention of love? “I care...a bit about him. That’s it.”

He shook his head and then stalked away from her. She had the sense she’d hurt him. “You’re lying to yourself,” he called back to her.

Abby took a seat next to Alrik and cupped his dark hand between hers. She hadn’t been lying. She didn’t love him, but that didn’t mean she didn’t care a bit.

Just a bit.

The man kidnapped her after all. That surely took a few points off anything she might feel for him.

“Will you help him or not? He saved my life.” She called out to him, letting him know with her desperation that the power rested in his hands to help her, gift or no gift.

Aidan stopped walking. Slowly he turned around and watched her, his jaw working. She could see the thoughts running through his eyes: anger, disappointment, and frustration. She could only hope that whatever decision he made bode well for her.

He didn’t say anything for a long time. Or, at least, it felt like a long time. For minutes he watched her, watched Alrik, and the whole time she saw him weighing the consequences of whichever decision he’d make. The man was smart and she respected that.

“I’ll help him but only for you.”

His words stunned her. She looked away unable to hold his gaze. The small amount of time she’d been around him had influenced him that much? It was too much for her. Nobody should feel so greatly, do so much for someone after being around him or her for only a matter of hours.

Then, it hit her. Of course! She wanted to smack herself upside the forehead. The man, er, vampire, hadn’t been around a woman in ages. He’d said so himself. Surely if their roles were reversed, she’d lie, beg, steal, and do anything to get a piece of a man. He didn’t actually care about her. This was all an act because he really wanted in her pants, badly.

Aidan shouted a gruff order at his men. Three demons came over, one carrying a brown satchel slung over his back. They pulled Alrik’s shirt up and his pants down. No underwear for the fallen king of demons.

Don’t look at his butt, she told herself.

As soon as the thought ‘butt’ entered her mind, her eyes betrayed her. Heat suffused her cheeks. He had a great ass. Firm, tight, and sculpted. She knew first hand just how firm. She swallowed hard, and then felt that feeling of being watched.

She looked up and nearly cursed. The three demons were grinning at her—busted. No way could she feign a lie about why she was checking out his ass.

With a casual shrug she didn’t feel, she walked away to watch them work.

They worked over Alrik like a trained medic team. One pulled out a bundle of herbs wrapped with a thin length of rope, the next grabbed a flask made from what looked like deer hide sewn into a pouch shape, and the last pressed against the sores along Alrik’s back with his fingers.

Alrik might be sleeping but he let out a pained groan as the demon pushed on him. She took a step forward, ready to draw blood but then he relaxed his grip. Abby pressed a hand over her heart. The pumping organ felt as though it’d jump through her chest.

“Don’t hurt him.” The words slipped out. She hadn’t even known she was going to say it.

The demons looked at her, unsmiling, then muttered to each other about ridiculous ‘witches’ and ‘kings’ and a ‘waste of a good woman’.