Page 165 of Victorious

“I have,” he said, taking the kit from her hand.

She watched as he lifted his shirt, revealing what looked like a shallow knife wound. “Did somebody stab you?”

He ran a disinfectant pad over the weeping wound. “It’s a graze.”

“Jesus Christ, Victor, you were gone for an hour and a half.”

His mouth quirked in a way that could have been a weary smile, or a grimace.

She shook her head and sank into a nearby chair with the bottle of champagne, her glass forgotten by the door. “What happened?”

“I went for a walk,” he said as he began to stitch the cut closed. He didn’t even flinch when the needle pierced skin, when the thread caught on its torn edges, tugging them together.

He spoke, and Dani listened, trying to keep the anger from her face as he explained—how he had cornered the four men in the lot, how he’d taken down the first two, been testing his power against the third when the pain flared up, how it had worsened with each act, then held, before at last retreating.

When he was done, Dani said, through gritted teeth, “Yeah, I don’t think the compound is the problem.” He looked at her flatly. She let out a long-suffering sigh. “Look, obviously the drug still needs refinement. Which is why I didn’t give you more than one dose. Forgive me if I didn’t anticipate you taking your powers for a joyride.”

He scowled. “I was testing—”

“Something we would have done together, in a controlled environment.” She shook her head. “You said the serum stopped working, but it didn’t. If it had, you would have eventually gone into cardiac arrest. And your chest pain didn’t start until you pushed yourself too hard.”

“It wasn’t that hard,” he said as she transferred the data from his heart monitor onto her laptop and scowled at the results.

“Maybe not for the old you,” she said. “But you spent years dying. Over and over again.”

“I’m aware.”

“Then you should also be aware that the damage it must have done to your heart is quite frankly hard to fathom. Even with your powers back, there’s going to be a limit—”

Victor clenched his jaw. “Limits,” he muttered, tying off the last stitch.

“Yes, limits. All things in nature are subject to them. Even you.”

“How very inconvenient,” he said dryly, tugging down his shirt.

“You of all people should know that pain is the body’s way of warning us to stop.” Dani ducked into the bathroom, returned with a baby aspirin and a glass of water, and set them on the coffee table. Victor looked at her, nonplussed. “I can handle my own pain.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s for your heart. Is it still bothering you?”

Victor swallowed the pill dry. “No.”

“Good,” she said.

That was a relief. The last thing she needed was her science experiment dropping dead on her. Especially when they were finally seeing results.

She looked around the half-made room, couldn’t believe she was about to say it, but— “You should stay here tonight, in case that changes. I’ll get some blankets for the couch,” she added, heading down the hall.

He didn’t protest. Which felt like a victory. Until she got back to the living room, pillows in arms, and found the place empty.

Victor had simply left.

And he’d taken the rest of her champagne.

XXNOW. THEN.

5 HOURS BEFORE THE END

MERIT