hair plastered to his skull. A coat, expensive, wool, already ruined. Jessie could

. She reached for his neck, her fingers still

ld. Like touching m

arrhythmic, a bird trying to

thetic. A toxin she recognized, a scent signature she'd encountered in a life she fought

ammering, her skin steaming in the cold air. S

ane gamble. She had no idea what would happen when her volatile blood met his poisoned system. It could kill them both. But she felt the

k tactical blade that had cost more than this man's coat. She pulled it f

Hesitation was for

p. She found the vein, blue against his pale skin.

thick, wrong. It smelled like chemica

his body fighting even as his mind stayed dark.

same line on her own right wrist. The pain was nothing. She'd had worse

their wris

a reaction, a neutralization. She felt the cold rush up her arm, into her shoulder, toward her heart.

hed his black blood thin, turn red, turn normal. She watched h

t smoothed out. His fingers stopped twitching

a release. His heart found its rhythm, slow and steady. Hers was slowin

ulled

belt, for the canister she kept there, military-grade, no brand name, no purchase history. She spray

n't care. She tore a strip from her hoodie, the hem already ragged, and wrapped it around

he fire was banked, not gone but contr

ng-pale. His chest rose and fell. His hand lay in the mud, fingers curled

his ID. She didn't want to know who he was, what he was doing in these woods, w

et carefully, leaving no prints

wing louder, she heard the