Part 25 (1/2)

He ripped away from her, stared down at her pale face and wide unfocused eyes. Licking her blood from his lips, he switched positions so he now held her gently, embracing her until the effects of his bite ebbed and she stirred.

”Ryder?” Diana sat up and gripped her head with her hands as she wobbled a little from the loss of blood. Taking a deep breath that steadied her, she ran her hand over the bullet holes in his s.h.i.+rt. Beneath the holes there was nothing but smooth perfect flesh.

On the floor by his feet were the bullets his body had expelled during the healing process. He picked one up and handed it to her.

She examined it for a moment before meeting his gaze again. ”Will it always be like this? This complicated?”

Ryder wished he could tell her that it would be different. That things would one day be simpler. But as much as he wanted to do that, he couldn't.

Just as Ryder recognized that Melissa couldn't tell Sebastian that their lives would one day be different. Be normal.

As Diana slipped her arms around him, seemingly in acceptance of their fate, Ryder hoped Sebastian would be as strong.

After much protest, the doctor in the E.R. released both Melissa and Sebastian, although he made an issue of telling them their leaving was against medical advice.

Detective Daly had hung around, waiting to make sure they were fine and to tell them that Sloan had never gotten out of the building. When the doctor let them go, the NYPD detective was kind enough to drive them back to the apartment.

As Sebastian followed Melissa in, he wondered if Ryder was okay and if Diana was upstairs with him. If everything was all right with them.

As if anything could ever be all right in the crazy world into which both he and his sister had landed. He must have paused, for Melissa turned and looked at him. ”Are you okay?”

He tightened his hold on her hand and said, ”This is what it will always be like, isn't it?” Fear clouded the blue of her eyes. She slipped her hand from his. ”Yes.”

He took a step closer to her and cradled her cheek, knowing what she was thinking. ”I was scared today. So scared.”

”So was I,” she admitted. ”But Sloan is dead. Detective Daly said no one could have survived that fire.”

”But the journal is still missing. And Ryder is alive, which means-”

”I'm still his companion and no closer to finding out what my father had discovered,” Melissa finished. A heavy sadness stole into her at that realization, at the possibility that Sebastian also finally understood the nature of her life and all the hards.h.i.+ps it presented. She wrapped her arms around herself and walked away from him. Better to leave of her own accord before he broke it off.

Sebastian tenderly grasped her arm to stop her flight. ”I know you don't need a hero-”