“No.” He rushed toward her, everything in him demanding that he keep her here for as long as possible. The pain behind his eyes was easier to bear when she was here. He didn’t understand why that was—some kind of innate Slayer magic, no doubt—but he accepted the gift gladly and refused to let it go until he had no other choice.

She shied away, retreating to the open door before he reached her.

Joseph stopped dead in his tracks and raised his hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you away.”

Her spine straightened until she was standing tall and proud. “You couldn’t scare me on your best day, Theronai.”

“Then why do you always back away when I get close? Do you think I’m going to hurt you?”

She snorted. “I’d like to see you try.”

He sighed. “Sheathe the claws, kitten. You don’t have a thing to prove to me. Let’s just sit down and pretend you can stand to be in the same room with me for more than two minutes.”

She looked longingly at the door for so many seconds that he thought she might just bolt and be done with it. Instead, she surprised him by coming to the table, smoothing her skirt, and sitting down as if the disastrously cluttered confines of his office were the finest restaurant in the state.

“You know I only came here so I could convince you to let me keep teaching my class, right?” she asked.

“I assumed as much.”

She picked up her steak knife and gripped it in her fist. He could see her wavering on the edge of indecision, as if she had something she wanted to say.

“Just spit it out, Lyka. Whatever you’ve got to say, say it.”

She stared at him for a second, sucking him into the glowing depths of her eyes. He got so lost looking at her, he was almost surprised when she finally spoke. “I was told to dress like this and put on makeup and perfume so you’d want to fuck me.”

He choked on the bite of steak he’d taken, coughing to clear his throat. “Wow. Okay. Points for honesty, Lyka.”

“I thought it was a stupid idea, too.”

It wasn’t stupid. Not even close. In fact, whoever had given her that advice had probably seen Joseph watching her. He was going to have to be a lot more careful about letting his desire for this woman show in public. “I can’t let you sway my mind, no matter how beautiful you are.”

“And I can’t sit here and suck up to you, leading you on and letting you think you’re going to score.” She hit him with a hard, golden gaze. “You’re not.”

“I honestly never thought it was a possibility.” Though he wished like hell it was. Maybe sex would help him release some of his building power and ease his pain just a little. It worked for some of the men.

And sex with Lyka? It would probably blow him away. He’d wanted her for too long, and despite his best efforts, had built up quite a set of fantasies about her. They were all wildly inappropriate, and more than one of them was doubtlessly illegal, but he couldn’t seem to purge his thoughts of her.

She rose to her feet. “I’ll go and let you eat in peace, then. Sorry for wasting your time.”

“I’d like it if you’d stay.”

She frowned. “Why? I already told you I’m not going to fuck you.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t stay, does it? You are capable of sharing a meal, knowing that’s all it will be, right?”

“Of course.”

“Then sit and eat. Tell me about your work with the kids. I don’t get to spend as much time as I’d like with them these days. It would be nice to hear how they’re doing from someone who is pathologically incapable of sucking up to me.”

She stared at him for a moment, considering his request. Slowly she set her plate down and lowered herself into her chair. “You want the truth?”

“Absolutely.”

She gave him a nod. “Okay. You got it.” She went on for an hour, giving him a detailed report about the strengths, weaknesses and progress of every child that had crossed her path. She outlined which ones she thought were emotionally stable and healthy, and which ones were on the verge of collapse or explosion. She explained her strategy for helping each one of them grow stronger and more confident.

By the time she was done talking, he was impressed by how much thought and care she’d put into her teaching. She wasn’t just using her class to pass the time. She really wanted to help these kids. Her methods were different from what he was used to, but maybe there was some value in her way of doing things, however violent.

“What about the injuries?” he asked. “Isn’t there some way of teaching them without damaging them?”

“They need to learn to deal with pain. They need to know they can push though it and keep functioning even after they’re hurt. It might make the difference in a life-or-death situation.”

“I hate knowing that they’re in pain.”

“So do I, but we have to face facts. These kids are never going to lead normal human lives. They’ll always be one step away from being some demon’s snack. And they know it. Every injury they get and work through teaches them that they can take more. Be tougher. Keep going. If you start adding in pads and helmets, they’ll always think they need them to fight and freeze up if they’re not available.”

“But they’re so young. If you were only teaching the teens, it wouldn’t be as hard to swallow.”

“And waste all those years helping them learn what they’re capable of?” She shook her head. “By the time they’re teens, it’s too late. Their hormones are raging. They either think they’re immortal or wish they were dead. Teaching them is like trying to teach a crazy person with no ears and genitals for brains.”

They’d had more than one teen kill himself inside these walls—the ones who couldn’t deal with the terror of what was done to them. Poor little Tori had been half-mad—violent and deranged—from what she’d suffered. And she’d had the benefit of being a Theronai—stronger than a human child would have been—but even she’d had to be sent away in the hopes that beings more powerful than the Sentinels could purge the demon blood from her veins and heal her.

“I’m not reinventing the wheel here, Joseph. This is how I was taught. We were forced to push our limits, take the pain, grow stronger. All the Slayers learn the same way.”