Triad Blood by ’Nathan Burgoine

Author:’Nathan Burgoine [Burgoine, ’Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626395886
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2016-03-24T04:00:00+00:00

*

When they came back out of the room, David was scowling.

“I need you to go look at him,” Curtis said.

“I thought he didn’t want to see me,” Anders said, keeping his voice low.

“He doesn’t. And the spell didn’t work—” David muttered.

“It worked,” Curtis said. “It’s just—”

“He looks the same. You said—”

“No, it’s because we saw him before. If someone who doesn’t know—”

Anders held up his hand. “Stop.”

They fell silent.

Anders nodded at Curtis.

“I’m not great at illusions, so this is more like a misdirection. There’s a suggestion on his skin to not notice the bruises.”

“But it didn’t work,” David said.

Curtis exhaled. “It did. But you can’t not notice something you’ve already seen.” Curtis shrugged. “We can test it by letting someone who hasn’t seen Ethan all banged up see Ethan now.”

“Ah,” Anders said. “Is he awake?”

Curtis nodded. “I needed to explain what I was doing.”

Anders rubbed his chin. “Okay,” he said, and he changed. He let his allure reach out to David, and the heat washed over his skin in a wave. His view shifted, and he fought off a wave of vertigo as he grew shorter. An ache burned through his arms and chest, spreading lower and across his stomach and then down his legs, and he grunted.

“Whoa,” Curtis said.

Anders took a second to recover, then looked at David. “Good enough?”

David stared at him for a heartbeat, then nodded. “Just don’t talk.” His voice was gravel.

Curtis led the way.

The bedroom was as spare and plain as the rest of the house, but Anders saw traces of the young man lying in the bed. A laptop on the small desk covered in stickers. Pop cans. Clothing tossed across the floor.

Anders looked at Ethan and saw nothing wrong. He was lying down on his bed, blanket and sheet pulled up to his waist, head propped up with a few pillows. A tablet lay beside him, though the screen was dark. He turned his head, and although his skin seemed smooth and unblemished to Anders, Ethan winced.

“Sorry,” Curtis said. “Last time we bug you, I promise. I just want to take another look at what I did. Make sure it set.”

Ethan looked at Anders, but there was no sense of recognition in his soft blue eyes. His dark hair was a bit longer than the last time Anders had seen him, and he’d continued to fill out. His shoulders were wider, his chin stronger. The demon was emerging. Incubi were all handsome and masculine. Though Ethan would likely always have a quality of youthful good looks to him and would probably keep those baby blues, he was definitely losing his baby face.

Ethan nodded. “Fine.” He sounded angry. He drew out his left arm from below the sheet, and Anders could see the red lines Curtis had obviously drawn on the young demon’s forearm. It might have just been a red marker, but it was beautifully done. There were three words, though Anders didn’t have a clue what they said. Ethan’s arm, like the rest of him, appeared fine.

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