Fairytale Ambrosia (The Knead to Know Series Book 2) by Liz Schulte

bloodstains. I don’t think I ever asked, but what were you doing in the road?”
    Boone’s head snapped toward me. He knew I could heal, but the examples I’d shown him were much smaller, like a relatively small cut on my hand. This morning was scary. This morning I could have died, but him knowing that wasn’t going to help my case for keeping him on the sidelines, where he belonged.
    “It looked worse than it was,” I said before he could speak.
    Stephanie raised an eyebrow and Megan came and stood next to her.
    “How bad is not that bad?” Boone asked. “Can you be killed?”
    “Exactly my question. I never realized vampires were so fascinating. I still have so much to learn,” Megan said. “And hi, I’m Megan and this is my partner Stephanie. We own Beeswax. Are you Maggie’s boyfriend?”
    “Nope. Just a friend. This is Boone,” I said, forcing a smile.
    He shook both of their hands. “Nice to meet you.”
    The four of us stood, not saying anything. I had no intention of answering their questions about the morning, so I just stared at my hands. Prior to this morning, though I hadn’t admitted it, part of me did feel invincible. When nearly every injury would heal, it was hard to say how bad I had to be hurt before I couldn’t regenerate. However, the slow response to the injury on my neck was a pretty good indicator that I couldn’t necessarily bounce back from everything. Had she held on longer, I might have ended up in the same shape as my coat: ashes. Holden had hypothesized that a gunshot (or any major damage) to the brain would kill me. As he said “It would kill most anything.” Now I could add boiling in my own blood to the list of things to avoid.
    Finally Boone broke the silence. “I know you guys were just expecting Maggie, but I invited myself along. We,” he gave me a pointed look, “could use your help with something. Maggie can explain it better than I can. The Abyss is still new to me.”
    Relief washed over Stephanie’s face. “I wasn’t sure you knew and we had already brought up the accident. I was worried we spilled the beans. How did you find out?” She glanced over at me. “And don’t think that we missed the fact that you still haven’t told us how bad the accident was or why you were there at all, Maggie. You aren’t off the hook yet. Let’s go upstairs and sit.” She took Boone by the arm.
    Megan smiled as she fell into step beside me. “Ignore her. You don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want to. She’s just curious. She thought she was the resident vampire expert, but you are so different from what we thought we knew. But everyone is entitled to secrets. However, if you ever want to talk, we’re here. She said your creator left you.”
    I nodded, then followed her up to the second floor. He didn’t exactly leave so much as ran away. I wasn’t bitter toward Thomas at all. My friends could be pretty intimidating, plus what help could he actually give me. He wasn’t like me.
    The main room of the shop was filled with rows of candles and oils and fragrances, along with all sorts of accessories. Upstairs there were a few narrow bookshelves and a small seating area with a couple overstuffed chairs and a much loved couch.
    Megan took the chair next to Boone, forcing me to sit on the couch with Stephanie.
    “So, we’re waiting,” Stephanie said, turning toward me and crossing her legs. “Exactly how injured were you? And how injured is too injured to heal from?”
    I wanted their help in something that could be potentially dangerous for them. The least I could do was give them a little information in return. I relaxed into the couch. “I broke my leg and cracked my skull on the pavement. My head healed first and the leg healed once I straightened it. As I said, it wasn’t a huge deal. It hurt a lot when it happened, but then it was fine and over fairly fast. And I don’t know how much is too much. Here’s to not finding out—cheers.” I lifted