Free A Kiss Beneath the Veil by Aimee Roseland Page A

news, to the stranger who lets them cut in line at the check out,
to the aunt they’ve only met twice in their life. Not Daphne though. She used
the word “love” very sparingly, and Isaac knew that.
    “Are you
sure?” he asked. Not exactly the response she’d expected, but she answered
nonetheless.
    “Yes. I love
you,” she said thickly, and not only because her throat was still raw and
bruised from being strangled. She was ready to cry all of a sudden, as though
every cell in her body had just realized how much Isaac meant to her and was
flooding her with love for him.
    Isaac either
leapt faster than she could track, or teleported into her arms, because she was
suddenly engulfed in his embrace. She was terrified of hurting him though, and
was squeaking in protest. “Your skin! Careful!”
    “To hell
with my skin! You love me?! I’ve waited so long to hear you say that,” Isaac
said, laughing down at her. His bright white smile was still the same, even in
the charred ruins of his face. And in that moment as she looked at him and felt
her heart swell with love, she realized that beauty really had no part in how
she felt about him. And, considering how battered and horrid she looked, it obviously
didn’t matter to him either.
    “I love you,
Daphne,” he said. And she sighed in relief. It felt as though everything had
finally come together as it was supposed to.
    She lightly
kissed a less injured part of his jaw and settled back in his arms. “Thank you
for rescuing me again,” she said. He smiled in response and she watched another
shred of his skin peel back to reveal healthy golden flesh beneath. “How long
until you’re fully healed?” she asked.
    “I will be
healed by dawn. Of course, I could be healed faster with your assistance,” he
murmured suggestively.
    She laughed
soundlessly, her shredded throat protesting all the use she’d given it. Daphne
pictured how gruesome they must look cuddling together and shook her head at
Isaac. She would do whatever it took to help heal him, but her own injuries
couldn’t be ignored for long. One of the tubes left in her arm stung in protest
as she raised her hand to his face. He immediately clucked in sympathy and
helped her remove it, obviously berating himself again in a foreign language.
“You talk to yourself a lot. Have you been alone most of those thousand years
you’ve been alive?”
    Isaac’s head
snapped up in shock, his mouth an ‘O’ of surprise. She winked at him, or
squinted one eye really, since she wasn’t very good at winking. She could feel
his responding laugh like a physical touch to her heart, squeezing it just a little,
making it hard to breathe.
    “Touch é , ch éri ,” he murmured.
    “Let’s try
that ‘start over’ trick again, and pretend that this is the date after we
finally did more than kiss. Neither of us has been hurt,” Daphne said. She
stopped there though, realizing that Isaac deserved an apology for her behavior
five years ago. But when she tried to explain he cut her off.
    “Agreed. No
more apologies. The slate is clean and we’re starting fresh,” he said. Daphne
could tell that he was forgiving her. He would stop blaming himself for not
being there when she was hurt, and she would stop berating herself for her
foolish choice to leave him. She was getting the better end of the deal since
it really wasn’t Isaac’s fault that she’d been injured, but by the look in his
eyes he thought he was winning. Daphne could leave it at that.
    “Alright,” she
replied, shifting in his lap and realizing that her hospital gown was
completely open in back. Isaac’s devilish grin said he’d known all along. “How
do we heal you?” she asked, wanting to touch him without causing further damage
to his skin.
    His face
shifted between a look of hope and uncertainty. “I would need to feed from
you,” he said softly.
    That sounded
just great to Daphne, though she wondered if all the drugs she’d been given would
affect