He brushed his lips against mine again and stepped back, motioning for me to follow him to the living room. "We're going to have to look through them for any mention of the ritual the Soul Eater was collecting the souls of his fledglings for, some information on the spell he was using to control me, and anything else that might come in handy for him now that he's got the Oracle on his side. It's going to take awhile. If you're not too tired—"

"I'm too tired," I interrupted, before he could suggest we begin work right away.

"Then I hope you're not too tired to get in that kitchen and cook your man some dinner." He affected a Midwestern accent to enhance the misogyny of the statement.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, like a proper girlfriend?"

"You said it, not me." He had the nerve to smack my backside as I turned toward the kitchen.

"I'll chalk that up to the fact you're too tired to realize how very close to death you are," I called over my shoulder. In the kitchen I put the kettle on the stove and snagged a bag of blood from the refrigerator. "So, what have you found out so far?"

I expected to hear sounds of shuffling papers and opening books, but didn't. "Nathan?"

"Sorry." Judging from the tone of his voice, Nathan was a million miles away. "Yeah, Bella found two more versions of the spell she thinks I was under. The three we've got now are remarkably similar. What scares me is the number of variations that are probably out there."

I cut off the top of the bag with the kitchen shears and dumped the contents into the kettle, licking a smear of red off my thumb. Four months ago, I would have stopped to analyze that action. Now, consumption of blood was background noise.

In the foreground was my concern for Nathan and the realization we'd never actually talked about what had happened to him just weeks before.

I lit a burner and set the kettle over the low heat. Once it's warming, blood can't be left untended for long. I went to the doorway and looked into the living room. Nathan sat in his armchair, elbows on his knees, leaning forward and staring at the impossible pile of books on the coffee table.

"Do you think he'll try it again?" The possibility terrified me. When the Soul Eater had possessed Nathan, he'd driven him mad. Tormented by reliving the moment he'd killed Marianne, Nathan had become like a wounded animal, with no reason or control. Though Bella had managed to break the spell, it had been at a cost. Nathan had nearly killed me, and our relationship had been destroyed, as well. I wasn't about to accept those consequences again.

Nathan shrugged. "I don't know. But I didn't know he was going to do it last time."