Priceless

had to give up. “Ah, damn it!” I couldn’t get the wrap tight enough on my forearm. Giving up, I tied off the wrap and turned on the Jeep. The engine turned over nicely and I pulled away from the curb.
    If I’d been home, I would’ve gone to the hospital and checked on Giselle, and got stitched up there. As it was, Dox could stitch me up.
    I barely made it back to the Landing Pad when a wave of dizziness crashed over me. Leaning on the horn, I didn’t lift off until Dox came running out, Alex on his heels with a grin stretched across his face.
    “What the hell happened?” Dox’s voice rebounded as if he had a mega phone. Just another quirk of being an ogre. A perk when you had to yell over a noisy crowd; a serious pain when it was right in your ear.
    “A bargain. I got what I needed, but now I’m thinking I could use some stitches.”
    Dox helped me out and, when my legs buckled, swept me up into his arms and strode into his bar. “Seriously, I didn’t think he’d go this far. I’ll kill him.”
    “Can’t. He’s a daywalker.”
    He stopped mid-stride and looked down at me. “Did he bite you?”
    I shook my head. “No, but I had to give him some blood.” I took a deep breath. “Just a little.” I tried to make a pinching motion with my thumb and forefinger on the hand of the arm I’d cut. Nothing moved. “Oops.”
    “Oops, my ass, Rylee. You cut too damn deep!” He laid me out on the bar. The polished wood was cool and felt nice against my bare skin. Bare skin?
    Lifting my head, I glanced down at my body. Apparently I’d passed out somewhere in the process as my shirt had been cut off me. Hell, I’d liked that shirt.
    Dox was on the inside of the bar, my arm in his hands as he cleaned and probed the knife wound. “Why did you use your own blade? You know they are spelled to cut deep.”
    Shrugging while lying down didn’t really give the effect I wanted. “I didn’t want to use the razor he left out. Was afraid he might have put something on it.”
    He grunted, but stopped chastising me. We both knew daywalkers, just like their counterparts, were more than apt when it came to knocking out their victims and draining them dry over a long period of time.
    At first the tug and pull on my skin as Dox stitched me up didn’t hurt. It just felt weird. And then all my adrenaline started to wear off.
    “Ow! Damn it.” I tried to keep myself from jerking away from him. Alex bounded over to me, bunting his head into my good hand, which hung off the bar. “Hey, buddy.” His tongue lolled and his eyes were wide with worry. “Rylee hurt.”
    “Only for a minute. Were the brownies good?” I made a real attempt to not give into the pain starting to burn up my arm.
    Alex bobbed his head. “More brownies?”
    “Maybe later.”
    Dox stuck me again and I hissed in a breath past my teeth. “Unnecessary roughness.”
    “Where’s Milly?” The ogre asked.
    “The Coven finally accepted her. It meant she had to cut ties with me and Giselle.” A new pain flared up, right around my heart.
    He paused in his of torturing me. “And she did it? Are you kidding me?”
    Again, I attempted a shrug. “It’s what she’s wanted as long as I’ve known her. I’m not going to take it away from her. Though I still want to kick her ass.”
    The stitching resumed and I kept my other hand busy petting Alex’s head, scratching his ears, reminding myself this was the price to pay for India. That helped.
    “I have to drive home as soon as possible,” I said as Dox put in the last stitch. I looked over at his needlework. “Those are good, better than any doctor I’ve seen do stitches.”
    He snorted out a laugh. “You don’t get to the top of the food chain without being able to stitch yourself up from time to time.”
    It took me a minute to realize what he meant. “You’ve had to stitch yourself up?”
    “More than once.” He held his hand out to me and helped me to sit up on the bar, just as the door binged and the first real patron of the day came in.
    Just my luck, it was someone I knew, far too well.
    O’Shea.
    “Adamson, what the hell are you . . . are you bleeding?” His voice shifted, as he covered the distance between us. I’ll be buggered; he was worried about me.
    “Yes, thank you very much. Now if you wouldn’t mind, I’m half naked and would like to get some clothes on without you staring at all that God gave me.” I glanced sideways at him and batted my eyelashes for good