City of Dragons: Of Flesh and Blood by Adrienne Wilder

much grief. It pained something inside him to see her like that. When Farley stood up, she caught his hand.
    “Don’t leave.”
    He squeezed her fingers. “I won’t.” No, he had no intentions of leaving her alone tonight. Even if she had wanted him gone, he would have camped out on her doorstep. “I’m going to nuke a few TV dinners. I’ll be back in a few.” She let him go and burrowed into the covers.
    Farley closed the bedroom door behind him as he headed into the kitchen. He checked the fridge hoping she had some meat thawed. No such luck. Man, he needed to do some grocery shopping for Haley. He took the gallon of milk, popped the top and nursed it while he dug frozen food out of the fridge and crammed it in the microwave. Eating processed food was a poor substitute for fresh meat, but it would have to do.
    This was just one of many reasons why Haley needed other Males besides him. Farley couldn’t
feed
her as often as she needed it. Ever since Deshi had gone solo with his Human wife, meeting Haley’s needs was proving to be a task. Especially when Dens business kept him occupied for days. Haley needed blood and flesh, but Farley had burned up his resources healing the wounds the two transit cops had given him. Between that and the stress of everything else happening, Farley was in no shape to tend to her.
    Damn it. Why the hell did that cop beat the Male like that?
    Farley scrubbed his hand over his face and waited for the countdown on the microwave. On the counter, beside the keys to Haley’s Mustang, his phone danced across the Formica like a dime store box of Mexican jumping beans.
    Farley checked the number and groaned. It was Claire. A month ago he would have ignored her, but recently, she’d been making a real effort to be nice. Even to Haley. Last week they went on their first date since September. It had been awkward, and Farley kinda hoped she’d want to end it. No luck. Claire had wanted to go out a day or so later, but Farley had to be in the Dens and it didn’t happen.
    He took a breath and flipped the phone open.
    “Hi Claire, whatcha need?”
    “Hey, I just called to see if you were okay. The office is talking about what happened. You are okay, right?”
    “Yeah, I’m good.” Farley looked at the microwave and willed the seconds to pass.
    “I thought maybe you’d want to come over, and we could talk. I know what you saw had to be awful.” The microwave beeped, and Farley popped the door. The plastic trays burned his fingers when he pulled them out so he sucked on the ends to cool them off. “I can’t.”
    Claire paused. “Are you with Haley?”
    “Yeah, she was shook up pretty bad. I’m trying to get her to eat.”
    Any minute he expected Claire to fall apart but instead she said, “I could bring you something.”
    Farley double checked the number on the phone to make sure it was really Claire calling. “Uh, yeah, that’s really nice of you. But…”
    “You don’t want me to see you two together, do you?”
    It was his turn to pause, then, “No, not really. You don’t exactly have a real good record of dealing with that kind of thing.”
    “I’m sorry.” And damn if she didn’t sound like she actually meant it.
    Farley pulled the cellophane off the trays and tossed it into the sink. Haley would bitch about it tomorrow, but oh well. He found a fork in the dish drainer and a bowl in the cabinet.
    One by one he scraped the contents of the trays into the bowl and mashed them together.
    Claire said, “I really don’t mind. I’d like to help.”
    Farley sighed. “I think that’s great of you, Claire. I really do. But not tonight, okay? Please understand.”
    “If she’s okay tomorrow, do you think we could go to lunch?” Claire’s voice didn’t even crack. Farley was impressed.
    “Maybe, we’ll see.” It was as close to a commitment as he was willing to give her. Farley hung up and carried the suicide of chicken nuggets, lasagna, macaroni, turkey pot-pie, and