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When Ben arched an eyebrow, I rolled my eyes. “Well, not actual death, of course, but we’ll take their heads. Decapitation takes nearly a thousand years to heal. That’s a lot of living to lose out on.”

Ben grunted. “But that won’t cover the demons who might have been captured.”

“Nor does it cover other guardians getting captured as well.”

Finally, I lifted my hands in the air. “This is going to go on, just as ya said it would, Ben. I think all we can do is constrain the scientists and make sure they suffer serious consequences for their meddling with Mother Nature. I don’t know how to discourage them yet, but we’ll think of something. They’re worse than a coven of dark witches bent on harvesting the power of the entities they serve. They know their goals are stupid, but the risks of dying for their craft aren’t enough to deter them.”

Ben’s voice dropped low. “If the military is coming after me, then Felicity is also at risk.”

“Yes. Yer witch wife can protect herself from a direct assault, but she can’t fight a tranquilizer dart being shot at her from a long distance away. If the military took her, they know ya’d show up to rescue her. That would be a two-fer for them.”

“I’m starting to appreciate your penchant for outright killing all the people causing your problems.”

I chuckled. “Well, it’s not like I do that right off. Usually, I try to reason with them first. I don’t find yer scientists to be reasonable in a common sense sort of way. They only care aboutwhat they learn from their experiments. I let them live because Rasmus tends to overrule me about them.”

Ben came back and dropped into a seat. “I’m going to have to send Felicity to her home country for a while. I don’t know how she’ll take that bit of news.”

“Will she go?” I asked.

Shrugging, Ben chuckled. “I doubt it. But sometimes she surprises me. It never dawned on me that she would break into your home to come after me. I figured she would pace the floor all night and leave a thousand mad voicemails on my phone.”

I grunted in disbelief. “I wasn’t surprised at all that she showed up here. Yer witch wife didn’t impress me as a woman who waits well.”

Ben smiled for the first time since he came to talk. “Felicity is remarkably patient with me. I probably take that for granted too much. I should have asked you to call her but I was too freaked out that someone took my talisman in the first. Because I knew what that meant and it wasn’t good.”

I smiled back at him. “Mulan and I can come ward yer house, but when yer wife goes for groceries, they would still get her. When I fought Zara, I sent my daughter to Ireland to stay with my mother. It was the only way I could be sure the female guardian couldn’t use Fiona’s life as a bargaining chip when we fought.”

Ben scrubbed his face with both hands now.

“Speaking of chips, like the tracking kind,” I said.

Ben’s eyes widened. “Are you saying the military chipped me like a dog at the vet’s?”

I sighed and nodded. “Dylan said all of ya were because the military tracks everyone important to them. It’s how they can find yer body these days if ya get killed in a foreign country while doing yer duty. I actually can’t hold that against them. Too many people go missing in this world and never get found.”

Ben frowned. “Everything the military does looks legit. Complaining to them would do me no good at all.”

“No, it wouldn’t,” I said in agreement.

“So I guess I go home and try to talk my wife into leaving the country until this is settled.”

“Or...” I bit my lip before continuing. “There is another possibility. The two of ya could stay in the blue house. It’s not cozy, but ya might feel safer.”

Ben’s long-suffering sigh nearly made me laugh at him. But I held strong. Allowing my wicked sense of humor to express itself wouldn’t make it easier to deal with his new reality.

Chapter Seven

This was the first time I’d called a meeting in the blue house. Depending on Ben’s persuasiveness, it might also be our last one here for a while if he and his wife came to stay.

We sat around the table. Dylan and I shared all we’d learned. Even before the far darrig hacked into Ben's records, I had guessed that the bowman tried to kill me because of my connection to Ben. And also because of my previous fight with the man-made guardians. This was what I’d expected after the success I’d had taking them down with Conn’s help.

It might have also been the fact that I’d freed Rasmus from their hold on him as well. I was a threat to their scientific future, and they needed to neutralize me.

My death would have yielded far greater results for the man-made guardians than they or their support group could have ever imagined. If they killed me, it would also sever Conn’s bond with me. His contract would pass to another of my kin, and not to Fiona, who might have continued my work in shutting them down.

When we finished explaining what we’d learned, everyone was frowning. Rasmus frowned so hard that I thought his jaw might lock into place.

He glared at the missing bad guys even while his gaze stayed locked on me. “The dilemma is that genetic experimentation on this planet is inevitable. Our problems arise from their relentless attempts to weaponize every single one of their findings. Less-biased scientists should be doing the genetic study.”