Because they don’t expect their guests to use them to wash their battle wounds, said the voice in her head.

Sera mentally hushed it and turned her attention to Kai. “Sit,” she ordered.

To her surprise, he obeyed. That didn’t stop a smug smile from tugging at his mouth.

“Something funny?” she asked, soaking the first towel in the water.

“You’re cleaning my wounds.”

“You don’t have any wounds. They’re all healed,” she replied. “I’m cleaning the blood left by your former wounds.”

“There’s blood on you too.” He pointed at her arms.

“I think that’s your blood actually. From when I was jolting you awake.”

He caught her hand and tugged gently, until her arm was in front of his nose. “Yes.”

“You can smell your own blood?”

“Yes.” He inhaled deeply. “My blood and a touch of your essence.”

She gave him a puzzled look.

“Your sweat, Sera. I smell your sweat mixed in with my blood.”

“Oh. Well, I was fighting and…” She pulled her arm away. “Whatever.” Why was she even defending herself? He knew people sweated during a fight, especially a fight to the death against dozens of vampires. “Well, I’m glad you find my sweat funny,” she finished, frowning at him.

“I don’t find your sweat funny. I find your scent invigorating.”

Danger! Danger! warned the voice in her head. Or was that just her normal thoughts?

“Oh,” she said. “Then why were you smiling?”

“I was amused by the futility of this.” He indicated the growing stack of blood-stained towels. “It would make more sense for me to step into the shower and wash all the blood away there.” Magic boiled in his eyes, tart and tempting. “You could join me.”

“No.” She dunked the next towel into the bowl. “There will be no showering. And no joining.” She wiped the towel across his arm, focusing her eyes on the blood she had to clean. The blood and nothing else.

They didn’t say anything more for the next few minutes. His eyes were probably doing that magic-pulsing thing, but she wasn’t looking. She had employed the tunnel-vision defense. She saw nothing but blood and torn clothing and bloody torn clothing, none of which could possibly be the least bit tempting.

Finally, she was finished. She carried her pile of bloody towels and her big bowl over to the kitchen sink and dumped them in. She probably should have called the cleaning staff to come get them, but she wasn’t in the mood to answer questions about the bloody towels. Maybe Kai was right. Maybe he should have just taken a shower. Alone. Not with her. And especially not with soap sliding over naked flesh.

Sera shook her head, trying to exile the images. Her mind was so far in the gutter, that she couldn’t even see the light anymore. She needed to stop fantasizing about Kai naked. And her naked with him. She washed the blood off her arms, then walked back to the table.

“Ok, so I guess I’ll be going,” she said, keeping her gaze locked on the empty space over his right shoulder.

“We still need to talk about the vampires,” he reminded her.

“Oh? How about tomorrow? When we’re rested.” And not fresh off an adrenaline high. Adrenaline highs only ever led to doing stupid, reckless things. “It’s been a long day. I should stretch out some before bed.” She reached her arms behind her back, pulling them against each other. Something popped and pain shot up her neck. She cringed.

“You’re injured,” he said.

“No, I’m fine. Just a few pulled muscles and some sore spots. Between today’s matches and our fight with the vampires, my body is finished. Dal was too busy sweeping up vampire bits to heal me. And Blackbrooke ran off before I could make him do it.”

“Make him?”

“You know, sit on him and yank his arm behind his back until he agreed to heal me,” she said.

“I can do a bit of healing myself,” Kai told her. “And you don’t even have to sit on me.” He smirked. “Unless you want to.”

“That’s ok,” she said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. “You’re still too weak.”

He caught her hand as she stood. “I’m a mage who turns into a dragon and steps on monsters. I can handle a few pesky vampires and still have enough power left to heal you.”

He got to his feet, and before she could say another word, he was behind her, massaging her back. Soothing magic eased out of his fingertips. Her muscles relaxed into a pool of hot liquid mush, melting under his touch. His hands worked her back in deep, powerful strokes, kneading the tense magic out of her. Her magic slipped away, drifting lazily until it met his. And then it sizzled.

“Sera,” he said, his voice deep and husky.

“Mmm?”

“Is that an issue of Mages Illustrated in your bag?”

Her eyes snapped open. She looked down at her sports bag. Sure enough, an issue of Mages Illustrated was peeking out of the top. The issue with him on the cover. Topless. Her liquid muscles tensed again.

“Naomi,” she grumbled.

“Pardon?”

“She’s been teasing me with this magazine for weeks now. She must have stuffed it in there this morning.” Sera was happy her back was to him so he couldn’t see her burning face. Mortification didn’t even begin to cover how she felt right now. If they’d still been in the room with those piles of vampire parts, she’d have hidden herself under one.