Moon Shadows by Nora Roberts Page B

the same.”
    The laugh snorted out before she could stop it, and half the stress pressing on her shoulders melted away. “You can make jokes?”
    â€œSorry, baby. I—”
    â€œNo. You can make jokes.” She set the bowl down long enough to clutch his face in her hands and press her lips hard and quick to his. “I’ve been looking for a miracle, and it came running around a corner at me. You didn’t leave. You touched me, you made love with me when I thought you’d be revolted by me.”
    With a sigh, she poured the eggs into the skillet. “And you’re standing here waiting for me to cook these stupid eggs and making jokes. You’re rational. I’m amazed you can be here, be funny, be rational after what you saw.”
    Because it was there, he picked up a strip of bacon she’dset on a plate and singed his fingertips. “I’m not going to tell you I wasn’t freaked,” he said as he tossed the bacon from hand to hand to cool it. “Still am, but I’m working through it.”
    â€œBottom line, okay? Bottom line, I can’t possibly go through mainstream options. You were freaked, Gabe, because that’s what I am. A freak.”
    â€œYou’re not. You have a disease.”
    â€œAnd if I don’t find a cure, I’ll be like this all of my life. If it doesn’t drive me mad, or to suicide, I’ll live a very long life. One of the happy benefits of this condition is robust health. Ridiculously. I haven’t had so much as a sniffle since I was eighteen. And injury? Try this.”
    Before he realized what she was doing, she laid her hand against the side of the skillet. He was on her in one leap, yanking her hand clear.
    â€œWhat’s wrong with you? Let me see. Where’s the first aid kit?” He tried to drag her to the sink and couldn’t budge her an inch.
    â€œStronger than I look, especially in cycle. Just like I heal very quickly, abnormally. Look.” She held her palm up. “Just give it a minute.”
    He watched, fascinated, as the ugly burn, fiery red from fingertip to wrist, turned healing pink, shrank, and disappeared.
    â€œNice trick.” He breathed in, breathed out. “Don’t do it again.”
    â€œI’ve thought of killing myself,” she said calmly. “But that’s giving up, and I’m not ready to give up. There’s a cure, and I have to find it.”
    He turned her healed hand over, kissed her palm. “We’ll find it.”
    She turned back to the stove, scooping eggs out before they burned, and struggled to curb her emotions. “Why are you so willing to accept, and more than accept, to help me? To stand here this morning, talking about this, what should be horrifying and revolting to you while I fix bacon and eggs?”
    â€œA lot of reasons. One? The bacon and eggs is because I’m hungry. Another is it’s tough not to accept what you see with your own eyes. Then, the scientist in me is pretty damnfascinated—then add a little irony. I mean, wow, the vet and the werewolf. Sorry, lycan . The vet and the lycan. It’s like kismet.”
    â€œIf I could have gotten out of that cage last night, I’d have ripped you to pieces. Do you understand?”
    â€œYeah.” He thought he did understand, quite a bit. “You tried to get out for a while. Threw yourself against the bars. Without your amazing super healing powers, you’d be black and blue this morning. And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I was scared shitless, even when you settled down to pace the cage, snarl and howl. You know what else I felt?”
    She shook her head, kept her eyes averted as she dished out breakfast.
    â€œStaggered, humbled, moved beyond words that you would trust me that much. Even honored, Simone, that you’d share with me something you’d kept from everyone else for more than a third of your life. You had that