“Uh-huh. So those slashes across your ribs are what? A pre-existing shaving accident?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Resisting the urge to comment on the idiot macho nature of men, I sat silent while Tybalt pestered Lex about what all the buttons did. It was a short drive to my apartment, and the trip was uneventful. Lex paused to grab a gym bag out of the back of the car before we headed into the building. Once we were safe inside my place I escorted Lex into the kitchen to tend his wounds at my breakfast table. Magicians heal injuries faster than the average human, but even we can catch an infection if it’s bad enough. No telling where those vamps’d been. They were probably crawling with all kinds of nasty undead cooties.

“We ought to take care of your burns first,” he insisted as I plunked down my first-aid kit.

“I just need a new shirt. This one’s trashed.”

“No, your hand should be bandaged. Give it here and have a seat.” Before I could protest he gently took hold of my injured hand and turned it over to examine it. I sat in the chair he pulled out for me and surrendered to his demand. “Explain to me how you lit those vamps up.”

“Is that what I did? I was a li’l distracted by being on fire at the time.”

“They’re char-grilled. It was great!” Tybalt exclaimed from his perch on the edge of the sink.

“Which, I might add, I’ve never seen before. You drag a vamp out into the sunlight and it gets sunburned, it doesn’t burst into flames. What you did is something out of fiction.” Grabbing a tube of antibiotic ointment from the kit, he unscrewed the cap and poised himself to squeeze some onto my burns. “This’ll probably hurt.”

“Yeah, I figured that. Go ahead.” To my credit I didn’t shriek when the gob of ointment hit my skin, and I kept my composure while he spread it over the angry, reddened wounds. “Tybalt, the spell was your idea. You ever hear of that kind of reaction happening?”

“Sure, that’s why I had you invoke Apollo. Magic sunlight’s got a chance to do it when it’s properly blessed, and the caster’s strong enough.”

I stared incredulously at the faerie. “Why haven’t you mentioned this before?”

“Thought you knew about it.”

“Nobody knows about it.”

“It’s not my fault you humans forget things so easily. You all used to know about that,” he pointed out, a scolding tone in his voice.

“Great. Anything else you want to share with the class?”

The faerie blinked and looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head. “No, not really.”

“Those vamps didn’t die, did they?”

“Nope,” Lex replied. “Just ran off like someone lit their tails on fire.” Finished with the ointment, the guardian wound a thin gauze bandage around my hand.

“So they’re going to be extra mad later, pretty much?”

“More than likely.”

“Wonderful.”

“They’ll be less mad than if we’d killed any of them though, so it’s not that bad. And no paperwork. There you go, all set,” Lex proclaimed, releasing my hand.

“Thanks. Your turn,” I said, as I got to my feet.

“I can take care of it.”

“It’ll go faster if I do it. Guardians may know a thing or two about first aid, but witches are natural healers. Now let me see.”

For a second it looked like he wanted to argue with me, but then he shrugged. Slipping his coat off, he placed it on top of the table, and it made a loud clunk as Lex set it down. Next he removed the torn, bloodied black T-shirt, and I blushed from the roots of my hair down to the tips of my toes. Lord and Lady, I’d forgotten just how gorgeous that man was-or rather I’d repressed those memories. But hell, I’d seen him naked, so I was sure I could survive a few minutes of shirtlessness without making an idiot of myself.

“What did this?” I focused my attention on the marks. Five evenly spaced slashes had gouged through his shirt and into skin. Just deep enough to need stitches, they looked really painful.

“Vampires can grow claws when they don’t feel like using fangs to draw blood. Short, stubby claws your average shapeshifter would laugh at, but they get the job done.” Lex grimaced, shrugging again.

I nodded in reply and set about dealing with his injuries. I dabbed at the cuts with a clump of gauze soaked in hydrogen peroxide to clean off the blood. The tough guy didn’t even flinch, good for him.

“I’m going to need a few more things to close these up a bit, unless of course you’d rather I break out my sewing kit.”

Lex winced at the thought of me stitching him up, and I couldn’t blame him. It’s not something I’d be eager to try either. “Go ahead, I’ll wait.”

Leaving the two males alone in the kitchen, I ducked into my bedroom and rummaged through my ritual supplies. Normally I’d light a green candle for healing energy, but I’d had more than enough fire for one night. Instead, I raided my collection of rings and slipped a moonstone and silver ring on each finger of my right hand. Moonstone’s not normally associated with healing, but it’s my zodiac birthstone, so it gives an extra kick to my magic (something I needed at the moment). The rings and my bandages combined to create a ginormous fashion faux pas, but I didn’t care. Returning to the kitchen, I found Lex and Tybalt chatting about the finer points of decapitating vampires.

“Hold still.” Squaring my shoulders, I stared at the claw marks, holding my right hand just a hairsbreadth above them. I closed my eyes, concentrating as I visualized the slashes closing from the inside out, the tissue and muscle slowly knitting together. The energy moved in a cool, soothing wave, and I passed my hand across the length of the wound. To my disappointment I realized I couldn’t close it completely. I just didn’t have the strength left in me, but I managed to reduce the gouges to mere scratches.

“That’s all I can do.” My voice was hushed and breathy as I opened my eyes and sagged into the chair behind me. I was tapped out-between the exertion of the test, the strain of holding up über-shields, and healing the wounds, I was at my magic’s limit.

“Thanks, Cat. I can handle the rest.”

“Nah, I started it, may as well finish it.” Grabbing a tube of triple antibiotic ointment from my first-aid kit, I leaned forward and smeared a generous amount on the claw marks. “Hey, if you heard about my death sentence, I don’t suppose you heard why the vampires want my father to be Oberon?”

“No, that’s goin’ to take more research.”

“It’s a power play of some sort,” Tybalt stated.

“Yeah, but what sort? We need to figure out what they’re up to before we do anything else.”

“That thought had crossed my mind.” Lex smiled dryly. “I’m going to do some askin’ around tomorrow.”

“You mean we are going to do some askin’ around, right?” Frowning at my collection of bandages and the placement of his injuries, I debated how best to wrap them up. The prospect of putting my arms around him to do something as simple as winding bandages turned my face even redder, and I cursed myself for being a blushing idiot. With an annoyed sigh I stood up again and got to work.

“No, I meant just me. I wouldn’t advise you leaving here right now. Your apartment still warded?”

“Of course. I have the whole lot triple warded, for everything but faeries.” With my relationship to Tybalt and Portia’s clan, not many beings from Faerie would try to pick on me, so I don’t worry about keeping them out. Clan Silverleaf is respected, powerful and well connected.

“I’m impressed,” he said, and his expression echoed the sentiment.

“Yeah, well, I got real into security after…” I trailed off. Lex nodded in understanding and didn’t comment. After my attack I’d been extra jumpy, but I’d been twitchy about safety even before that. Not many witches have come home to see a loved one ripped to pieces on the carpet. If my mother had taken more precautions, the vampires might not have been able to get in to attack her, though admittedly it was a very big might, considering my father would have just undone whatever wards she put up. He let those monsters in. Very little feels safe again after that.