Damian's Assassin

He peeled off his ruined sweater and tossed it in the trash. He reloaded his weapon first, then entered his bedroom for a new shirt.

The shower was on and the bathroom door closed. He paused, sensing her distress. He opened the door enough to see in and blew out a breath. Bianca sat, fully clothed, at one end of the shower, drenched and shaking.

So maybe she wouldn't get over what she'd seen as fast as she should.

He pushed the door open and opened the shower door. The water was cold, and she shook, her arms hugging her knees to her chest. He turned off the shower before lifting her and setting her on her feet in the middle of the bathroom. She didn't move, didn't speak. Her skin was cold; she was in shock.

Suspecting he'd just driven Sofi's healer completely catatonic, he peeled her soaked sweater and jeans off to display matching pink underwear. Goose bumps rose all over her body, and he dried her as quickly as he could before draping a bathrobe around her.

Wondering what twisted sister of fate thought him capable of mothering one let alone three people, he lifted her and laid her on the bed. She curled on her side, shaking. The loosely tied bathrobe fell away from one smooth leg to her hip at her movement, and he paused.

Even traumatized, she was one of the sexiest women he'd ever seen. The sight of her shapely form in his bed made his blood burn for a different reason.

He should walk away, leave her to figure things out, and finish what he needed to this morning. But he stopped, a twinge of something akin to regret filtering through the hard layers protecting his emotions. He really didn't want her to lose the spark of life he'd found as appealing as her body. After all, that spark was why he fought so hard, so humans didn't turn into someone like him.

He looked at his watch again, then settled in bed on his side behind her. He smoothed her hair from her face and rested his hand against the soft skin of her exposed thigh, admiring her body. There were tears on her face, and her breathing was shallow and ragged.

"You killed them," she whispered.

"That's what I do. I kill bad guys."

"You won't kill Jonny?"

"He's safe for now," Dusty said, his own mind going to the boy who'd been a vamp for a day.

"Will you kill me?"

"Only if you turn into a bad guy. Mine is a very brutal world," he said. "My job is to protect people like you from monsters like those in the alley."