Free Forgotten by Evangeline Anderson Page B

voice. “I should not have
said such things.”
    “ It’s all right.” She took
a deep, trembling breath. “Look, come into the kitchen and let me
look at that gunshot wound.”
    He raised an eyebrow at her. “Can you? Stand
to be near enough to me to treat me, that is?”
    “ I…I think so.” She
swallowed convulsively. “If…as long as you don’t reach for me or
try to touch me. I…I don’t know why that bothers me but it does.
It really does.”
    “ I can tell.” Rone
wrinkled his nose, scenting the sharp smell of her fear
again. Have to move slowly and take it
easy, he cautioned himself. He didn’t want
to scare her into flight again—the results had been disastrous last
time.
    Taking a deep breath, he
followed her into the kitchen. They would just have to take this
slowly. Very… very slowly.
    * * * * *
    “ Sit here.” Kate pulled
out one of the mismatched kitchen chairs, picking what she thought
was the sturdiest one. It was heavy and made of solid wood—Mimi’s
grandfather had made it for her. Kate was glad they had it now. The
Kindred—no, Rone, he’d said his name was Rone—was so big she didn’t
think a weaker one could have taken his weight.
    Wincing, he stripped off his jacket and the
black wife-beater t-shirt to bare his shoulder before sitting down.
Kate watched him, wide-eyed, as he settled into the chair, looking
more like a mountain of muscle than a man. Around his neck he wore
a long, fine-link, rose-gold chain. There were two rings strung on
it—one was a delicate gold band and the other had a pale green
stone with gold flecks at its heart. It was perfectly round and
seemed to glow against his olive skin like a small moon.
    “ What are those?” She
gestured at the rings. “I mean that stone—I work in a jewelry store
but I’ve never seen anything like it.”
    He looked up at her, his piercing blue eyes
troubled.
    “ You really don’t know?”
Before she could answer he sighed. “Of course you don’t. These are
your wedding band and the engagement ring I gave you when I first
asked you to be my bride. The stone is a Rigellian Emerald. Very
rare and expensive but it reminded me of your eyes. You loved it.
You said…” He looked down at his big hands, lying open in his lap.
“You said, ‘Any girl can have a diamond. But who else has a stone
that exactly matches their eyes?’”
    “ Look, I’m sorry…” Kate
shifted uneasily. “Really sorry that I can’t remember any of that.
But I just can’t, okay? I’m not doing it on purpose to hurt you—I
really just don’t remember.”
    “ It’s all right. Forgive
me—I should not have spoken of it.” He sighed. “Do you have any
antiseptic wash? This wound must be cleaned before my body can heal
it.” He nodded down at the bullet hole, still oozing blood, which
had gone through his outer triceps area.
    “ I have some hydrogen
peroxide here.” Kate held up the brown bottle. “It might sting a
little but it should do the trick.”
    “ All right.” He held
perfectly still and let her pour the liquid on the bullet wound. It
was small and neat at the front of his arm where the bullet had
entered, but much larger where it had exited. Still, it didn’t seem
to have hit any bones or tendons or blood vessels. Kate thought
that all in all the big Kindred had been really lucky she was
panicking when she pulled the trigger. She was usually a much
better shot than this.
    Speaking of panic, she still felt the
overwhelming fear wanting to rise in her throat when she got close
to him. But she gave herself a stern talking-to, reminding herself
that Rone wasn’t here to hurt her, and managed to damp it down. It
helped that he held as still as a statue while she treated him and
didn’t try to touch her in any way—Kate was grateful for that.
    “ All right,” she said at
last, when the peroxide stopped foaming. “I think that’s it. I’ll
just clean this up…” She took a pad of paper towels and blotted
gently at the