Wolfsbane: Aspect of the Wolf by Jennifer Colgan Read Free Book Online Page A

fluttered open half an hour later. He'd stretched her out on the floor of the back room and placed his folded jacket under her head. A cool compress of paper towels from the bathroom rested on her pale forehead.
    "Thank you. It was some of my best work,” she responded with a shaky half-smile. She brought her injured hand up to her face and surveyed the bandage he'd cobbled together from her meager first-aid supplies.
    "I don't mean the spell.” He lifted each of her eyelids to check the pupils. “I meant that you managed to shatter that bottle in your hand and not need stitches."
    He gently turned over her palm and looked at his work. No blood seeped through the layers of gauze he'd wrapped around her hand.
    "What's important is the spell worked, right?” She sat up and tried to look past him.
    He pushed back her shoulders and helped her adjust the compress on her head. “Take it easy. You've been out for a little while."
    "I'm fine. Except for ... the blinding headache and mild nausea.” Her voice faded as she settled her head onto his makeshift pillow.
    "Is plain aspirin okay? It's all you have in your medicine cabinet."
    He rose and retrieved the glass of water he'd prepared and handed her four small, white tablets. Her hand shook a little as she reached for the glass, so he held it to her lips.
    She cringed as the pills went down. “Thanks."
    He gave her a dark look and tried to maintain his ire, which wasn't easy since he'd never seen her look sexier. With her hair spilling wildly around her face, a smudge of otherworldly soot above her left eye, and the fingers of her bandaged hand idly toying with the protection amulet on her chest, she appeared invincible and vulnerable at the same time.
    It bothered him that he felt every ounce of her power, and seeing her in action, holding back the forces of darkness, had given him a raging hard-on. His blood ran hot at the thought that she might have tried this spell all alone and failed.
    She blinked up at him, all innocence. “What?"
    "This is exactly what my petition was about. Reckless magick."
    " Reckless ?” She bolted upright, then grabbed her head and moaned. “I closed a portal to hell,” she said through clenched teeth.
    "By yourself. What if the potion bottle hadn't broken? What if I hadn't been here to pull you out of the hole?"
    "What hole?” She looked around him again at the expanse of intact, but dirty, floor.
    "The hole that opened up under your feet. The one you sank into about knee-deep."
    She stared at him for a moment, obviously dumbfounded, then winced and rubbed her head. “I don't remember that part."
    "I'll never forget it. Thanks."
    When she struggled to her feet, Daniel forced himself not to go to her. He wanted to stay mad and make her fully understand how dangerous her plan had been. And he wanted to kiss her until she couldn't breathe and demand that she never put herself in that kind of danger again.
    His resolve crumbled when she put her hand on his shoulder. Her touch electrified him. She still resonated with the power of her spell, and the energy in her body shot through him, straight to his heart.
    "Thank you..."
    Her voice was a whisper over the pounding of blood in his ears. He could have sworn sparks flew between them as she leaned closer and grazed her supple lips over his jaw. He turned just slightly, wondering how easy it would be to capture her lips with his and taste the power that emanated from her.
    But she pulled away before he had a chance. “Now we're even."
    "Even?” He backed up a step and glared at her. Sinful thoughts of taking her in the middle of the floor dissolved into frustrated anger. “How do you figure?"
    "You tried to run me out of town. Then you saved me from being dragged through a portal into hell. I'd say the two things cancel each other out."
    "Not wanting you to set up shop in Cypress Park, and not wanting you to fall through a portal into hell, are not the same thing."
    "Obviously."
    He made a