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Rasmus frowned into his tea. “How do you feel about me? I guess I’m hoping you’re not as angry with me as you are with him.”

“My feelings about all versions of ya are complicated—too complicated to discuss tonight. I’m still mad that ya changed yerself without talking to me. Maybe I’ll never get over that. But I can see now why ya did what ya did. Living like Zara, with all her memories of being one of yer kind, could be worse than living with some fake background someone made up for ya. Maybe I’m coming around to accepting that ya had good reasons for choosing the path ya chose.”

“I don’t remember my guardian life at all. All my memories are of this one life I have now.”

I sighed and nodded. “Orlin said he once planned to do what ya did so he could return to my grandmother and be her husband. I’m sorry his plan didn’t work out because she missed him until the day she died. The bottom line is that I’ve decided not to hate ya. Is that a good enough answer?”

Rasmus chuckled. “Yes, because now I can sleep without worrying you might decide to kick me out tomorrow.”

I chuckled at his concerns. “I would never do that to ya, Rasmus. I would just spell ya to stay away from me.”

“Can you do that?”

I laughed as I left the kitchen. “I don’t know if I could spell ya to keep yer distance or not, but I for sure know I would try if I felt it necessary. Does understanding that help ya or add to yer concerns?”

Rasmus chuckled. “Ask me tomorrow.”

The phone vibrated against the table and I picked it up to check for messages. “Ben says the five captives are being treated at the hospital and the dead duck mound is being investigated. He said he’d be in touch again tomorrow.”

“Does that mean it’s bedtime?” Rasmus asked.

“Yes,” I said happily and headed down the hall.

I felt a bit of temptation to steal a kiss good night but wisely fought the urge. With demon wolves in the garage and Fiona in my bedroom, it would not be good to start something I couldn’t finish. But the fact that it crossed my mind was something worth thinking about.

ChapterTwenty-Three

Islept for three scant hours and woke in a dark room. A quick glance at the clock on my nightstand showed it was only four in the morning. My heart raced from some nightmare about fighting.

As I rolled to my back all I could think about was that I had no defenses equal to Zara’s powers. She might have rudimentary demon magic and be careless with her witching spells, but I’d seen that some of her guardian powers were functional. If she froze my human neighbors, I would turn over the demon wolves to her no matter how I felt about things.

And I faced an even more literal problem. If the female guardian could read minds, it would take Zara five seconds in my company to read mine. If I confessed my intentions, could I sell the female guardian on a compromise to keep us from battling for real?

Even if I convinced her not to make more wolves, Zara would never stop using a process that ensured her survival. She’d beaten her own kind’s efforts to get rid of her. Why would my intentions worry her?

Sighing over my depressing conclusions, I dressed in warm clothes without turning on the light. The air in the house was nippy because we hadn’t bothered with heat yet. It was going to be much colder outdoors, which is where I was headed.

Every blanket was being used by someone, so I grabbed the last throw from the couch as I passed through and headed out to the backyard. I sat in one of the now naked wooden chairs tried to make the short cloth cover as much of my body as it could. My discomfort had me remembering the wolves who were using the lawn chair cushions, so I got up and went to check on them.

Cracking open the door to the garage, I watched them sit up on their makeshift wolf beds and blink at the sudden light. They were wide awake but being quiet. It was no surprise to me that I wasn’t the only creature in the house unable to sleep.

I opened the door wider and waved a hand for them to join me. They jumped up and trotted into the hall. I gently closed the door behind them so as not to wake up Rasmus. Then I padded silently through the house in my bare feet with the wolves at my heels. The moment I slid open the door leading into the backyard they moved around me to escape.

“It’s not true freedom, ladies, but ya have free run of the yard this morning. Just don’t make a lot of noise. Explaining wolves with demon horns to non-magickals is not in my plans.”

They blinked demon wolf eyes at me before whining and trotting off.

I went back to my cushion-less chair and squatted in it again. Tucking the couch throw around me, I pondered my chances of surviving a face-off with Zara, much less winning. Ten minutes later I was back to being certain she’d kill me.

How do ya defeat a being who was smarter than ya could ever hope to be? I had no idea.

That’s why I closed my eyes and wished with my entire soul that I could speak with The Dagda about this. He might know a few secrets about the guardians that could help me. Djinn created from their thoughts and were powerful creatures as well, yet they were not undefeatable. The same had to be true about guardians—it had to be.

I put a hand on my upper chest where The Dagda Stone rested inside me. I couldn’t feel its outline anymore, but I felt its power the moment I focused on it. Could the stone take a message to The Dagda for me?

I blew out a breath, pushed away my worries, and calmed myself as best I could. Thinking of my ancestor and the human form he took to train me, I searched for his essence on the earthly plane. I breathed slowly as I focused on my need to talk to him.

A deep male voice boomed in my head.“Well, I wondered when ya were ever going to call me.”