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 shirt. 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 hardships 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-"
"You were a hero today," she said.
"No, not today, Melissa."
Melissa gave him a confused look and Sebastian continued. "Today, I was just a normal guy doing what was expected of him.
What any normal guy would probably have done in the same situation. But all those other days-the everyday days when your hours are long and things are tough, when I"m by your side and make you smile.... That"s when I"m a real hero."
She did what Sebastian had hoped she would. She smiled. A bright, gleaming smile that brought a rich, deep sapphire color to her wondrous eyes. She finally understood that he was there to stay. "You saved me when you came into my life," she said.
"Then we"re even, " cause you saved me, as well."
Sebastian didn"t wait for her answer. He scooped her up into his arms and took her to the bedroom.
Melissa slipped her arms around Sebastian"s shoulders as he lay beside her on the bed. She ran her hand tenderly over the purplish bruise over his brow. Below it, two st.i.tches held closed the ragged cut inflicted by Sloan"s blow. "That"s going to leave a scar."
He brushed his lips against hers and said, "Adds to the whole bad-boy mystique, don"t you think?"
She smiled, and peace replaced the earlier sadness that had gripped her. With this man by her side, they could handle anything. In between kisses, she managed to say, "The E.R. doctor said we should wake each other every couple of hours."
He eased away from her, his grin broad. The dimple along his cheek deep. "Sorry, no can do."
Puzzled, Melissa asked, "Why?"
Sebastian said nothing, just rolled her beneath him.
He didn"t plan on letting her get any sleep.
Melissa could think of no better way to celebrate the start of their new life together.