THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

sorry, my friend.” Delano handed Eli’s pistol back to him. “I don’t know what to say, except that you should have used that weapon the way it was intended. You’d have been completely justified.”
    “Damn right I should have.” Eli wiped the gun on his pants before slipping it back into its shoulder holster. “On the other hand, looks like I did a pretty good job with the butt end.” He gestured to the left side of Delano’s head. “You oughta get a look at yourself.”
    Delano lifted a hand to probe his scalp. It came away covered in blood from several lacerations. Shit. More blood loss. Well, he had no one to blame but himself.
    He grimaced. “Fortunately, I’ll be handsome as ever come tomorrow night, whereas you will no doubt have some colorful bruises.”
    “That sucks. I won’t even be able to say, ‘You should see the other guy.’”
    Delano laughed and Eli joined in.
    Ainsley made an exasperated sound. “It’s not funny, Eli Grayson.” She turned to glare at Delano. “Nor will it be funny if he develops delayed airway troubles later tonight.”
    Delano sobered. “She’s right. We need to get you to hospital for some soft tissue scans.”
    Eli waved him off. “I’m fine.”
    “You’re asymptomatic ,” Ainsley corrected. “That could change in the next hours.”
    “And if it does, trust me, I’ll call 911 myself. But until and unless my status changes, I have no intention of visiting the ER.”
    Ainsley turned to Delano. “Delano?”
    He shrugged. “He’s a nurse. It’s his call.”
    “Thanks, buddy.” Eli extended a hand, which Delano grasped to haul him up to his feet. “Now, if it’s not too much to ask, would you mind explaining what the hell happened here? I thought we were agreed it was best for everyone if Ainsley went to the safe house.”
    Delano sighed heavily. “We did.”
    “Then what happened? What changed?”
    Delano rolled back his sleeve and thrust his arm toward them. “This.”
     
    Ainsley’s heart slammed in her chest, but it wasn’t fear that made her pulse hammer. It was exultation, so fierce that it stopped the breath in her lungs; a dark, savage delight flooding her neurochemical system. For there, on the inside of his elbow, were three raised dots in the form of a perfect equilateral triangle.
    Yes , came Delano’s voice. You are mine and I am yours.
    Her eyes widened as she realized his lips had not moved.
    “A little uticaria?” Beside her, Eli snorted, although the effect was somewhat spoiled when his snort turned into a cough. “That’s supposed to flip some switch in my head to make this whole soap opera comprehensible?”
    “Show him your arm, Ainsley.”
    Ainsley, who still had not recovered her shirt, extended her own left arm.
    Eli caught her arm and examined the dots. “Well, I’ll be damned. Matching his-’n-hers hives.” He released her arm. “I presume this is something more than a curiosity for the medical journals?”
    She glanced at Delano, who bent to scoop her shirt off the floor. He shook it out and handed it to her, catching her eye as she took the garment from him.
    Let me field this.
    There it was again! Not precisely a voice sounding inside her head. More like her own thoughts, only not hers. His . In her head.
    Delano turned back to Eli. “We are blood-bonded.”
    “Blood-bonded? Holy hell, Del, do you mean to say you—”
    “No.” Delano held up a hand to stop Eli. “I’ll grant you that after that appalling display just now, you have every reason to think me mad, but I assure you I am not. I took no blood.”
    “Then how the devil did you get blood-bonded?”
    “It’s a mystery to me. I wasn’t even sure I believed in blood-bonding, to begin with. I thought it merely another of the myths that have grown up around my kind, like warding off vampires with garlic, holy water or crucifixes, or vampires casting no reflection in a mirror.”
    “But you believe it now?”
    He inclined his head. “I am obliged to re-evaluate my position.”
    “But still, I don’t get how you wind up with a blood-bond without the blood-taking part. Unless—” Eli’s gaze strayed to Ainsley.
    Blushing fiercely, Ainsley busied herself putting her shirt back on.
    “Indeed,” Delano said.
    “I see.”
    She felt her blush rise all the way to her hairline, which was patently stupid. They were all adults here.
    “But even so,” Delano continued, “it should have been quite impossible. Ostensibly, a blood-bond is