FANGED

Chapter Twenty-Six

Fang slid out from underneath the chains and eased himself down to the floor next to me. Leaning against the alter, he reached out and took my hands, pulling them into his lap. My heart skipped a beat at the thought of all the wonderful words about to fall out of his mouth in appreciation of my daring rescue. It wouldn't surprise me if they sang ballads of my amazing exploits fraught with peril for future generations to learn from.

"You shouldn't have done that, Red," he said examining the torn skin on my palms and frowning.

Okay...so much for that little fantasy. "Yeah, well...you shouldn't have dragged me into the den of you ex-girlfriend." I tried to pull my hands away from him, but he kept them firmly in his grasp. "I'm fine. You can let go," I muttered as those pesky butterflies continued to do the Macarena in my stomach.

He shook his head. "You're not fine. Lead is lethal to vampires and judging by these cuts, you have contaminated your blood."

"Is that why you have those?" I nodded to the marks marring his chest. Dark, blistering burns and bruises crossed over his pecs and blemished those amazing abs of his. It was like seeing someone had drawn a mustache on the Mona Lisa.

"Yes." He sighed heavily and I could see how tired and weak he was.

Looking down at my wrists, I noticed other than being a bit red and raw from all the pulling and yanking, they weren't near as bad as Fang's.

"I don't think it bothers me."

He gave me a skeptical look with that damn raised eyebrow. Did I say I missed him earlier?

"Look!" I jerked my hand out of his grip, tugged up my sleeves and showed him. "I've been chained up just like you, only I don't have any marks." I turned my wrists this way and that under his nose.

Still he continued to give me a dubious look.

"Listen, Fang." I stood up, wincing at the pain flashing through my body.

Holy Moses on a pogo stick! I don't think there was an inch on me anywhere that didn't ache. Maybe I should have used that membership to the gym I got last Christmas for actually working out rather than stopping in from time to time for a complementary muffin.

"We don't have time for this. I will gnaw on a number two pencil later to prove it to you, but for now, we need to get a move on before Cruilla wakes up."

That got his attention. "Wakes up?" He staggered to his feet, his eyes wide in surprise. "But I heard a gunshot?"

"Oh...did I forget to mention your psycho girlfriend shot me?" I muttered, bending down to pick up a good length of chain off the floor.

Taking the links, I wrapped them around my shoulders Mexican Bandito style. My thinking was, if vampires were allergic to lead, then I would give the next blood sucking leech who came after me in a hostile way one hell of an allergy attack. Besides, it looked pretty darn cool to boot. Winner, winner chicken dinner.

Fang whirled me around to face him. "Where were you shot at?"

"OWIE!" I yanked my shoulder away from him. "Right where you just jammed your thumb, you moron!"

Ignoring me, he shoved the chain to the side and ripped my shirt open.

"Hey! What are you doing?" I tried pulling away from him, but he held me fast.

"I'm looking at your shoulder," he said flatly, slapping my hands away.

"You could have just asked," I griped, looking down at my now tattered turtle neck. First my shoes and now my shirt. What the hell did these vamps have against my wardrobe? "Well? How does it look or did you just want to play doctor?" I suddenly got a little warm at that thought.