Split at the Seams by Yolanda Sfetsos

said by way of greeting.
    His gaze moved to my collarbone and I remembered I was still holding down my top and bra, baring my shoulder right in front of him, and maybe even a bit of breast. Yet somehow I couldn’t bring myself to cover up. After he’d taken care of me for over a day and held me while I slept away the exhaustion, I felt as if something very important had changed between us. An intimacy, which went a lot deeper than the quickly evolving physical relationships I used to stumble into.
    “Are you okay?” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down before he lifted his gaze to meet mine.
    “Yeah, I was just looking at this nasty bite.” I turned away, headed back into the bathroom and to the mirror, inspecting the ugly-looking laceration. I wasn’t sure if it was real or just a psychological stain in my memory, but I could feel the graze on my actual collarbone. As if the beast’s teeth had scratched at my very bones and gone deep into them. The black outline the teeth marks made were a little disconcerting but was probably a fading bruise.
    I looked up at Papan’s face, not surprised to find the faint bruising on his cheek completely gone. As if it had never been there.
    “It should’ve cleared away by now,” he said, stepping into the bathroom. “All you should have is a faint scar. Even your boyfriend said the same.”
    “I wish you’d stop calling him that.” I also wish I could bring myself to ask you what you meant about protecting me from Jonathan. Was it just because of the constant confrontations the three of us seemed to be finding ourselves in lately? Or had he overheard something during Jonathan’s mysterious telephone conversation earlier? I never did get an answer from Papan.
    “That’s what he is, right?”
    “You know he’s not,” I said with a shake of my head. “Who was he talking to on the phone?”
    Papan exhaled. “Some guy called Mauricio.”
    “What were they talking about?” My heart sped up. I didn’t recognize the name, but I still wanted to know what Papan overheard.
    “They were vague.” He looked away. “J was warning him to stay away, and the other man insisted they stick to the plan.”
    “Was that all?”
    He shrugged. “J told him he wasn’t ready yet. That they had to slow things down before everything blew up in their faces again.”
    “That’s it?”
    “Like I said, vague and very short… If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he remembered I was nearby before the conversation got any deeper.”
    I nodded. That made sense. Jonathan liked to be elusive on the phone. And if he’d remembered a werewolf was in the house, he would have put on the brakes before giving anything away.
    “Does it mean anything to you?”
    “Not really.” Not yet. “What about you?”
    “It means that he can’t be trusted. I need to keep a closer eye on him.”
    I looked into the mirror, staring at Papan. I was grateful that he’d filled in some of the blanks, but didn’t want to get into a discussion about my problems with Jonathan right now. “I might rub some aloe, or moisturizing cream on it. It might help the sting and keep me from scratching.”
    He frowned. “Is it itchy?”
    “Yeah, why?”
    He shook his head.
    “Papan, if you know something, you have to tell me.”
    “I don’t know for sure. Let me check with a few contacts before I say anything that’ll freak you out.”
    “Too late for that,” I said with a sigh. “I’m already freaked out. It’s obvious that someone wants me dead. Just because this monster failed, it doesn’t mean someone or something else won’t succeed.”
    “I won’t let anything happen to you.” He now stood right behind me, both of his hands pressed against my upper arms.
    “You can’t be with me all the time.”
    He leaned down a little closer. “Sometimes, I wish I could.”
    My heart hammered against my ribs. If he didn’t move soon, who knew where this was going to end up. Maybe back in my bedroom.
    “You