"I know, I know," muttered Mattie in what she hoped was a soothing voice and probably was not. In fact, Nick's reaction was not as horrible as she'd thought it would be. That made it a lot easier. She withdrew the cloth after giving the alcohol some time to do its germ-killing thing, and peered, squinting, at the wound to see if that would have gotten rid of those nasty-ass looking stripes of darkened skin. 

Because if it didn't, she was going to cut that tainted flesh right the fuck off of him.