Master of Smoke

my injuries had completely healed. All those god-awful wounds, gone. Like it never even happened.” She shook her head. “Magic.”
    David rested his chin on the top of hers and hugged her close, relieved the horrific story was over. “Thank the gods.”
    “Except for my head.” Her voice sounded bleak. “What’s in my head never healed.”
    After a long, aching pause, David asked, “Once you realized you’d survived, what did you do?”
    “Hid out in the woods until I changed back. I guess I wanted to be human again so bad, I just called the magic without knowing what I was doing.” Eva paused. “You know what I’ve never figured out?”
    He stroked one hand through her hair. “What?”
    “Where do my clothes go when I change? You’d think they’d rip like they do in the movies, but no—they just vanish. Then they come back when I become human again. Along with my car keys, cell phone, and anything I have in my pockets. Makes no sense.”
    David laughed. The sound cracked in the middle, and he cleared his throat. “Never expect logic from magic.” Her body was slowly relaxing against his now that the worst of the story was over.
    He still wanted to throw up.
    To distract his heaving stomach, he asked, “What did you do after you became a werewolf?”
    “Freaked the fuck out. I thought I was a monster, and I was terrified I was going to start killing people. I told my dad I had a stomach bug and couldn’t go to work.”
    David frowned down at her. “You didn’t tell him what happened?”
    “What was I going to say? ‘Hey, Daddy—some werewolf ate me, and now I turn fuzzy’? My folks would have lost their minds. I finally realized I couldn’t hide out forever, so I went back to work. I’d run home after closing every night, until I finally figured out I wasn’t going to start eating people. Guess the creep who attacked me was just a serial killer.”
    “And you never told anyone?”
    “God, no. I wanted to come out to Mom and Dad, but I was afraid. They’d think I was nuts unless I changed in front of them, and then they’d think I was a monster. I couldn’t face that. So I never told anybody. Until you.”
    They fell silent together, Eva lost in her memories, David struggling to deal with his sick rage. Finally she said, “David?”
    “Yes?”
    “I want you to teach me how to fight.” The words spilled in a rush. “I froze out there. When those werewolves jumped us, I just froze. All I could think of was when Cujo ... hurt me.”
    David took a deep breath and blew it out. “I’ll teach you everything I can.”
    “Thanks. I think if I knew how to defend myself, maybe I wouldn’t be such a fucking coward.”
    “You’re not a coward!” He spat the words with more force than he’d intended, and she jerked against him. David winced and moderated his tone. “An experience like that would give anyone mental scars. But they can be overcome.”
    “God, I hope so.”
    They subsided into silence again as he cuddled her. At last, exhausted by her story, she fell asleep again.
    Battling images of Eva being attacked by the werewolf, David held her as she slept. She felt so delicate, so fragile. The idea of some psychotic monster ripping into her made him feel as if he’d been gutted himself.
    Somehow, some way, he was going to find that prick and kill him.
    Another thought pierced his rage, sharp as Eva’s claws. So sharp he felt his rage drain into cold depression.
    I am in deep, deep trouble, and sinking deeper.
    In only a few short hours, Eva had become the center of his fractured universe. The pain he felt at what she’d suffered made that all too clear.
    It was more than sex, more than his delight in her admittedly beautiful body. Hell, he even found her lovely in her werewolf form. Her Fluffy self.
    He snorted amusement at the name. It was a prime example of her skewed sense of humor, especially considering he could sense how deeply uncomfortable she was with being a werewolf.
    If Eva feared it, she made a joke about it.
    Oh, he was definitely in deep, deep trouble. Here he was, one fragment of some other man, waiting for the rest of his mind to return. Would he even exist once they came back?
    Would he still love Eva?
    David winced. And there it was: the trouble. What kind of idiot let himself become obsessed with a woman in a situation like this? All he was doing was setting himself up for more pain.
    If he had any wit at all, he’d keep away from her. Or at least,