“You mean … you used to be h-human? All human?”

“Aye,” he said with a tight nod, clearly not happy discussing it. “But I doona want to talk about it. Let’s get you on your feet. There’s a good lass.”

Ahnvil reached out to gently palpate her ribcage and she squealed and batted him away. “Stop that!” she cried. “There’s been more than enough fondling for one night.”

He smiled as naughty as a wolf plotting to use a shortcut to grandmother’s house. “There’s no such thing as too much fondling,” he said. “But I doona ken your meaning. I’ve no’ fondled you, though I canna say the idea hasna crossed my mind before this. Though I admit I was thinking about you doing all the fondling. Ye’ve a fair fine pair of hands on you lass, soft and sure. I’d be lying to say otherwise.”

“You could have gone with not saying anything at all,” she muttered, scrubbing a hand at one of her blushing cheeks. Then she stopped and looked at him oddly. “What the hell is your name?” she thought to ask suddenly.

“Ahnvil.”

“Oh.” Then a second later, “Seriously? You were born and your mom looked at you and thought ‘Ahnvil, that’s the way to go!’ ”

“Nay, lass. ’Tis no’ my original birth name. ’Tis the name I chose after my second birth. It’s spelled A-h-n-v-i-l. The h is silent.”

“That’s a very odd spelling. Why the h? And what do you mean by second birth? Are you, like, a born-again Christian or something?”

“No, lass. What’s your name?” he countered, obviously evading her questions.

“Kat. Short for Katrina.” She figured first names were as far as she was willing to go.

“Well, Kat lass, I’m a wee bit tired, so I’m going to go back to your fine bed and have a rest.”

“But what about this necklace?” she wanted to know, trying twice more to take it off by the time she reached the bed, and both times inexplicably letting go of it the minute she thought of pulling it over her head.

“Well,” he said, sitting on the bed and taking a minute to catch his breath. He was so very pale and she realized it was from his blood loss. But she had no basis for comparison because she had no idea if he was normally pale. She might have thought he was tanned, because he seemed so strong and potentially outdoorsy, only he had an obvious aversion to daylight, which was something she completely understood. “We canna do anything about it at the moment. So it’s best to let it lie. I doona want tae hurt you trying to take it off again.”

“Oh. Okay.” She could appreciate that. She fondled it for a second. “It’s very pretty, but I don’t think I want to be stuck wearing it for the rest of my life,” she said worriedly.

“I doona think it will come tae that,” Ahnvil lied. “I’ve a few people I can go tae for help.” He listened for a minute to the howl of the wind that had picked up outside again. “But it will have tae wait until after the storm.”

She scoffed. “Longer than that,” she said. “You’re not going anywhere for quite some time.” Although, she thought, anyone else would have been unable to even move after those awful wounds.

“ ’Tis cute the way you worry about me,” he said with a chuckle.

“Shut up!” she said, flushing under his teasing regard. “I’m just doing what any good person would do. Besides, if I don’t take care of you I’ll never get this thing off.”

She picked up the necklace. It was so shiny and pretty. It felt smooth and cool in the center, but when she touched it, even when she tried, she left no fingerprints on it. She found herself looking into the disc in the center of it, her reflection clear as if in any mirror. Only, somehow she looked different in it. Not distorted per se … just … hazy. She’d be looking at herself and it’d start off normal but after a moment she would sort of fuzz over.

“Stop,” he said suddenly, reaching to cover the Amulet, breaking her eye contact with it. “It keeps entrancing you,” he warned. “You doona even seem tae hear what I’m saying tae you.”

“It does not!”

“Then what did I just say?”

“That it’s cute the way I worry over you.”

“That was several minutes ago,” he said. “I’ve been talking to you about how I don’t heal like normal people do. Although, I would heal faster if I turned into stone.”

“But you’ve been turning to stone all along,” she said, torn between frowning at the reminder that he was less than human and fascinated by every new detail. After all, she’d never met a supernatural creature before. Anxiety aside, it was actually incredibly cool.

“I mean turning into my full stone self. The grotesque. What you’re seeing is my body trying tae change tae stone as a reflexive protection, but I am fighting it off.”

“Why would you do that? If you can heal …”

“It’s a long story. Suffice it tae say, it would be bad.”

And he had only a couple of days before it would get worse. Possibly permanently worse. He found himself looking anxiously at the shuttered windows. “Any news on the storm?”

“Oh! I didn’t even think about the news. I’ll turn on the Weather Channel and see what they say.” She reached across him for the remote on the opposite bedside table, her entire tiny body pressing into his lap and the curve of her hip coming into pronounced view. Just a few inches more and she’d be fanny up.

He’d already noticed she had a fine little arse. He’d have to be dead not to, and he wasn’t quite there yet. The way her spine dipped before the flare of her backside and the perfect roundness of her cheeks could make a man’s hands itch to grab hold. She might be compact, but she was very shapely for her size.

The TV popped on and suddenly she was gone from his lap, flipping through the guide and channels in an expert swipe. “I’d been tracking the storm, along with everyone else, for several days. Give it a few more hours and we will lose electricity. But I have a generator of course. We get so many storms up here on the mountain that it’d be stupid not to.”

“Verra good, Kat lass. I’m clearly safe in your hands, am I no’?”

“Yes,” she said with a proud lift of her chin. “Frankly you couldn’t have found a better place to be sick. I … I have experience with serious wounds and such.”