Venom in the Skin by Jessica Gunn

Author:Jessica Gunn [Gunn, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

“I’ll see you up to the Infirmary,” Kian said as we walked down the hall to the staircase. “If you want me to, I mean.”

I nodded. “Sure. And… thanks for getting me out of there earlier.”

He shrugged. “Not a big deal. We’re partners; that’s what we do.”

“Seriously,” I said. “You didn’t have to walk me through a panic attack when you could have gotten out of there yourself.”

“I wasn’t ever going to leave you, Ava,” he said, his brown gaze holding mine. “I don’t leave people behind, least of all in a room infested with demons. Ben might have assigned us because you needed back-up, but I’m choosing to stay, if you’ll have me. You’re a great fighter.”

“Even after our argument?”

Not that it mattered too much. I couldn’t count how many times any of my old teammates had gotten into a fight with Jeremy over bad calls, iffy take-out places, or watching something besides sports on the TV. But Kian and I had been assigned to one another out of necessity, not because we needed a partner due to some age-old rule. Only official teams had a five-Hunter mandate. Freelancers could do whatever they wanted. And I supposed I was a freelancer now, wasn’t I?

Kian’s lips pressed together for a long moment. To my surprise, I realized his answer mattered to me. A lot. “You turned on Veynix this morning and told him to get lost. You braved the protection magiks around Hunter’s Guild to give us a window of escape. That was pretty brave for someone who lost her entire team to that demon.” He paused. “Along with whatever else happened that didn’t make it into the reports…”

My eyes narrowed. “Nothing else happened that night.”

Kian gave a little shrug. “Point is: I don’t think you’ll ever leave me behind, either. That’s enough for me.”

Silence fell between us as I took in the weight of his words. He might never ever trust me like either of us had at one point trusted our first teams—that kind of bond was hard to recreate—but he was right: we’d never leave each other behind.

“Sure,” I said. “But before we go making this official, we need to take down Veynix and any other Talon soldiers we can. We can’t let their poison masters rule the city anymore.”

Kian smiled as though he were happy about the decision, but something about his expression didn’t ring true. A slight wince, an odd look in his eyes.

Before I could ask what he wasn’t telling me, he continued on toward the stairs. I followed in silence as we climbed up to the Infirmary, where Kian left me to attend to other business.

Bria stood at the Infirmary’s front desk, still dressed in scrubs and now also a white doctor’s coat. She looked up as I came through the door.

“I’m here like you wanted, but first: How’s Will doing?” I asked.

Bria lifted a clipboard and scanned its contents. “Okay. We were able to decrease the dose of his pain medication, but it’s going to be a long road.

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