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“Mulan’s as fine as a woman could be given her situation. Those bruises upset me, but I respect my friends, so I refused to talk her out of what she was doing to cope.”

“What situation is she coping with? I’m the one who got told to go away until she called me,” Conn said.

I turned from my food to glare at him. “Well, that’s yer fault as well. Ya were too good between the sheets, Conn.”

He snorted and glared at me. “You’re being ridiculous just to punish me.”

I glared back harder. “The Wu Shaman’s history of committing is as bad as yers. The last time she fell for a man, he used her to hide the fact that he preferred swinging his bat for the other ball team.”

“The other what?” Conn asked, his face wrinkling.

I’d lived in the States for a long time and I was fairly sure I’d used words that communicated what I meant. If Conn wanted it stated another way, though, I could certainly do that.

“She was in love with a man who was in love with a man. She has had nothing other than well-trained boyfriends since. Gee, look at that... she’s got the same attitude about men that ya have about women. Neither of ya want to get close.”

Conn’s arms fell. “I wasn’t trying to be anything to her. Things just...” He gestured to the ceiling with his hand. “It’s not my fault we were perfect together.”

“Oh, come on,” I said, slicing through my sandwich. “Sex takes two people. It was at leasthalfyer fault.” I handed him half. “Here. This is better than doggie kibble.”

Sighing, Conn took my offering and bit into it. His half was gone in a few bites. I sighed and handed him the other half without even getting one bite. I felt the need to feed him now that he was human again. It was just like my need to feed Fiona. It was a family thing. “Finish it. I’ll make a couple more for us.”

“I never meant to hurt her.”

I snorted. “Well, I have good news for ya then, because ya didn’t.”

“If I didn’t break her heart, then why did she make me leave?”

“Men are so clueless,” I said, stacking meat on bread and twice as much on his. “Her official purpose in the world is to cast out demons, but she did the exact opposite with ya. Being with ya created a work dilemma for her, and I’m not talking about her hair business. Don’t play dumb.”

Conn moved closer to the sandwiches. I smacked his hand when one moved quietly toward what I was creating. He was impatient when it came to food. After the last two weeks, I would say he was being impatient with Mulan as well.

“Is this seriously about her work?” he asked.

I piled on vegetables before cutting the sandwiches in half. I put Conn’s second one on the counter next to him. “If ya were always in yappy dog form, how successful would ya be as a demon king? The moment Lilith’s people saw ya as a giant demon with a crown, they fell to the floor and shook in fear. Mulan is going to have to become twice the Wu Shaman she’s been if she’s planning to let the most famous demon of all be a regular part of her life. Either people will fear her or they’ll being with ya as her most epic failure.”

“So her sending me away wasn’t about me being a demon?”

I shrugged as I chewed. “Only indirectly. This is about the source of her power conflicting with her idea of the perfect man.”

Conn stopped chewing to stare. “Does she seriously think I’m perfect?”

My lips twitched in amusement at his hopeful expression. “I don’t know, Conn. Do ya want me to pass her a note in class and ask how she feels about ya? I’d check the ‘no, I don’t like him’ box if I was her.”

Conn snickered as he ate. “Never mind. I’ll ask her myself when I see her.”

“Thank the Goddess,” I said. “This best friend role is the pits. The two of ya cooking together in my kitchen made me jealous because ya reminded me of how love is supposed to be. I nearly asked ya to take yer love vibes elsewhere.”

“You can stop worrying about us now. I’m done brooding about this.”

“I’m relieved to hear it because I was nearing the end of my patience with ya.”

Conn chuckled. “Well, it wouldn’t be the first time, right? Explain to me again why we have to visit werewolves.”

“BecauseBen—we’re first name besties now, Ben and I—he said there was a rumor that a Salem werewolf pact was abducting women and turning them.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

I nodded as I chuckled. “Yes, I told him the same, but the women are still missing. Where did they go? Local human authorities investigated, found nothing, and concluded all the women ran away. It’s a dozen or more spread across two months. Something is not right. We’re doing a contract with the first official American branch of the Shadow Breakers.”