Free Demon's Kiss by Laura Hawks

was hit. He held his hands over her body and healed the inflictions that caused her such agony. When at last her features relaxed and her breathing calmed, Mel flashed a bowl of water and a cloth to gently wipe her face.
    Satisfied that she was comfortable and out of danger, Azamel placed the backpack next to the bedside table. When she awoke, she would see the bag and the dagger inside. He traced the back of his fingers over her soft cheek, a wistful expression on his face. With a last glance at her still form, he pulled a chair near the fireplace and sat down where he could keep an eye on her and the fire simultaneously.
    Waking up with a roar of pain, Azamel looked around as he realized he was in the chair in front of the fire. He leaned back but as he did an agonizing pain ripped through his body. ‘What the hell?’ Mel looked down and saw the blood dripping onto the chair fabric.
    A huge gash peeked through a tear in his shirt, blood flowed freely. He had been so concerned about Clarissa being wounded in the jungle he had not noticed his own injury until now. He laid back and took a deep breath.
    “Oh great, just fucking great! Damn, this day is just getting better!”
    Mel’s roar woke Clarissa. Her eyes fluttered open to stare at the buttressed ceiling of a room she recognized belonging in Azamel’s home. The hearth blazed sending the only warmth within the otherwise opulent suite. But Mel was in the room and that mattered to her most. She scrambled to him, saw his shirt sliced and soaked red with his blood. Concern and worry creased her youthful features as she rushed to his side and knelt beside the chair. “Lay still, I can heal you.”
    Breathing through the pain, Mel kept his hand on the gash to try and staunch the bleeding. “I will be fine, it is nothing. Are you okay?” Mel looked at her concerned.
    “I am fine. I seem to be constantly thanking you for saving me. Now, will you please lie still so I can see what I am working with here? Stop being a big baby and let me clean the wound and then heal it.” Clarissa flashed in a bowl of water and a cloth as she pulled his shirt aside. She had to tear the material in order to get to the wound itself. Then taking the wet cloth, she gently wiped the blood away so she could see the extent of the injury.
    Clarissa knew she could have just healed him straight away but for some reason, she needed to see how bad it was.
    “Okay, sadly you will live.”
    The guardian looked up at him from her kneeling position as she teased him softly. Holding her hands out over his wound, she closed her eyes and let a soft, blue light emanate from her palms to spread over his wound, slowly mending and repairing the torn tissue and skin from the creature’s fireball.
    Azamel hissed at her none to gentle handling of his injuries and let loose a string of expletives that would make a hardened criminal blush. When the wound was healed and the blood cleaned away, he laid back and breathed hard. His skin had an ashen hue to it and his whole body shivered. “I need to feed. The jungle took a lot from me.”
    “You should probably eat. Do you need my blood?”
    Mel sent a mental message to Shara. ‘I need to feed.’
    The judge shook his head at Clarissa. “Thank you for healing me, love, but nothing you have can sustain me food wise. I asked Shara to bring me something. Would you like to freshen up? Maybe a shower before dinner?”
    Clarissa looked up to see Shara enter the room, her hands empty. Removing the water and cloth, she stood suddenly feeling a bit awkward. “Um. Yeah. That sounds like a good idea.”
    She spun on her heel as she nodded to Shara. Quickly she passed the servant woman as she made her way back to the bathroom to leave the two of them alone in the quarters she was assigned. Clarissa grabbed her backpack as she entered the lavish room, shut the door and leaned against it, sighing. ‘Get your head in the game girl and to remind you the game is not the dating