To Adam With Love--A Gray Zone Novel

Chapter Six

"Ow, it hurts."

"Of course it hurts. You fell out of a tree and hit the ground. Now let me see it."

Adam reluctantly held his arm out to Ean. The other boy tipped his head one way, then the next before dipping in close and lapping the wound with his tongue.

"Funny...." Ean sat back and smacked his lips.

"What?"

He shook his head, and the beads in his hair clicked. "You don't taste like buttered chicken and chocolate to me."

Adam made a face. "Why would I taste like that?"

"Batu says that's what you smell like and that's what most Humans taste like. Except for me."

"What do you taste like?"

"Peaches, that's what Batu says. It's why he wants to keep me." Ean licked the wound again and made a face. "Definitely nothing like chocolate."

"What does it taste like?"

Ean's brow wrinkled up while he thought. Finally, he said, "Like pennies." Ean pressed his lips against the wound, and this time he sucked.

Adam winced. "That hurts."

"Sorry."

Adam reached up and thumbed off a drop of blood from Ean's bottom lip. He stared at it and thought about putting it into his mouth to see if he really tasted like pennies instead of buttered chicken and chocolate. According to Ean, when he changed, he'd want blood. But right now he didn't want it. In fact, the idea of putting it in his mouth made his stomach flip. Adam wiped his hand off on his jeans.

"It's bleeding again," Ean said. "I can't make it quit. Batu licks my cuts, and they quit." He gave a little show-and-tell of the newest scar on his elbow. It was shiny and pink, like it had been healing for a month instead of a day.

"He's Kin."

Ean growled. "So."

And Ean wasn't. Adam didn't say that out loud because reminding Ean he was Human always made him mad. Adam stood up and headed up the hill toward his house.

"Where are you going?" Ean ran up behind him.

"To let my mom look at it."

"Will she lick it and make it quit bleeding?"

Adam rolled his eyes. "No, of course not. She'll get the first-aid kit out and clean it with peroxide, then put a Band-Aid on it." He turned his arm so he could look at the cut. It sure was deep and bleeding a lot. Adam couldn't help but wonder if he was going to need stitches. If nothing else, Ean would be impressed.

"Are you sure you won't let me drive you to the hospital?" Brian came back into the kitchen. He had a white plastic box tucked under his arm.

"Where did you get the first-aid kit?"

"My car." He dumped the contents on the counter beside the fridge.

Adam watched from his perch on the tabletop as Brian picked through the contents, pulling out gauze, antibiotic cream, peroxide. When Brian turned back around, he frowned. "I really think you need stitches."

Adam shook his head. "I'm fine." The cut on his leg sure was ugly. At least the bleeding had almost stopped. He pressed the wad of paper towels back over it, mopping up another stream of blood.