First Aid

Lent dropped obediently, and the flimsy chair creaked under his weight. Lent was large and hard-muscled, his short but shaggy black hair looked uncombed. He didn't have an ounce of fat on him.

Storm wasn't used to seeing as men as hot as this, having never really met one on her side of the town, except for her ex, who had left her to pursue his basketball career at a university, thousands of miles away from her.

Curtis had been her high school sweetheart whom she could do anything, totally anything, even if included her right kidney. He had been a home of comfort to her whenever her step mother and step sister decided to turn on their devilish mode and wreak havoc on both her physical and mental state.

Curtis had been her lifeline. He had transferred to their school in their eleventh grade, and they had hit off immediately. An act which was obvious to everyone since Curtis was the new hot male student and she was the most beautiful girl in their class, had been voted that way since their seventh grade, something that had irked her step sister and her minions to no end.

They had been the best couple, had been crowned so at their last prom dance in the school. They had had plans for each other after school, to attend the same university. It had worked for she had been given a half scholarship to the same university that he had been admitted, but her step mother had denied her that chance, and she had lost Curtis.

Last she heard of him from the gossip crew in her town, he was dating her stepsister, a month after he had dumped her. It’s been a year now, but she never forgave him for that. Lent was different though. He had proved to be such a sweetheart for he'd quickly overcome her uneasiness when she had first stepped into the bar.

"I can't stay in here," Lent protested. "What if they come back?"

"You're not going anywhere, my friend, until we get that bullet out of you." Kaden mentioned, before he snatched a blanket from the sagging sofa and dropped it over Lent's lap.

The fight had in some way left Lent in only his polo and inner shorts. But Storm’s attention hadn’t been drawn unto that until now.

A smile slithered across her lips as she thought that perhaps Kaden had done so, because he thought he needed to protect her from a Lent in his naked glory. Lent, admittedly, was ... supersized. She thought, feeling her cheeks get hot in slight embarrassment.

"I thought I'd be away from the door maybe a minute." Lent's deep black eyes filled. "What if someone had gotten hurt? Or killed? It would have been because of me."

"No one got hurt but you, you big softie." Kaden's voice took on that gentle note that made Storm shiver deep inside herself. "You frightened away the bad guys before anything worse could happen."

"If I'd been at my post, instead of playing around at the bar counter, I would have blocked the door, and none of the bullets would have gotten inside." Lent said, and Storm furrowed her eyebrows, wondering how in the earth was he going to block the bullets without getting killed.

"And then you'd look like a cheese grater," Kaden said. "And be dust at the end of my sword. I like you, Lent. I don't want that."

"Yeah?"

Storm set down the first-aid kit she'd fetched from the cabinet and perched on the edge of the desk, her hand on Lent's unhurt shoulder.

"I don't want that either." She said, serving her own dosage of comfort.

Lent relaxed a little under her touch-he needed touch, reassurance, especially when injured or frightened. Storm wanted to give Lent a full hug, but she feared hurting him. She kneaded his back instead, trying to put as much comfort as she could into the caress.

Lent grinned weakly at her. "Hey, you're not so bad yourself, for a human."

"I guess I should say thanks." Storm muttered, her mind reeling over Lent’s statement. What had he meant by referring to her as a human? Wasn’t he one? Or was he teasing her? That would be it. She figured, feeling herself relax once again. She wasn’t still at peace with this side of the town even though they had hot male species.

Lent squeezed her fingers in his pawlike hand, and she smiled.

"This is going to hurt like hell, big guy," Kaden said. "So just remind yourself who you'll have to answer to if you turn bear on me and take my head off."

"Aw, I'd never hurt you, Kaden. Even if I didn't know Casper would rip my guts out if I did."

Casper. That was the name of the second guy. Storm committed it to memory.

"Good lad. Remember now. Storm, hold the gauze just like that." Kaden mentioned to Storm.

Storm positioned the wad of sterile gauze under the ragged hole in Lent's shoulder as Kaden directed. Kaden sprayed some antibacterial around the wound, reached in with the big tweezers he'd dipped in alcohol, and yanked the bullet from Lent's flesh.

Lent threw his head back and roared. His face distorted, his mouth and nose lengthening to a muzzle filled with sharp teeth.

Blood burst from the wound and coated first the gauze, then the clean towel Kaden jammed over it. Lent's hands extended to razorlike claws, which closed on Kaden's wrist.

Storm bit down a shout, watching the film-like display happen before her. She opened her eyes and shut them intermittently, perhaps wanting to remind herself that she was not dreaming.

Kaden pressed the towel in place, unworried. "Easy now."

Lent withdrew his hand, but not before a blue snake of electricity arced around his Collar, biting into his neck. He howled in pain.

Damn it!

Storm leapt to her feet, unable to stand it any longer. What the hell was going on? She mumbled; her wide eyes still stuck on Lent. She had thought that she was the only one in Shapper’s town with special abilities.