“We’ll see,” Ahnvil said.

“That means ‘We do it my way, woman!’ ” she scoffed. “I’m not going to let you boss me around. God! You can be so infuriating!” She pushed away from them and, spying a pad and a pen she scooped them up and marched toward the entrance of the house.

“And just where do you think you’re goin’?” he demanded to know from her.

“For a walk! And you’re not coming with me! I’m just going down to the road and back and I don’t need you following me. I have to think about what to say in my next letter to Bella and I also need a break from a lumbering, pigheaded Gargoyle!”

“Lumbering?” he echoed. Then he shook it off. “No. I forbid you tae go. You willna leave this house wi’out me.”

“You forbid me?” she said, her voice raising enough octaves to make him wince. “No one forbids me from doing anything! And even if I agreed to take someone with me it sure as hell wouldn’t be a jackass like you!” She turned her back on him and marched out the door, muttering the word forbid under her breath and scoffing.

Ahnvil turned to look over at Jackson and Marissa helplessly, seeking some kind of guidance from them. “Tell her ’tis no’ safe for her! She willna listen tae me!”

“She said she wasn’t leaving the property, so she should be fine,” Jackson said.

“You can’t tighten your grip on her,” Marissa advised. “She’ll just slip through your fingers if you do.”

“But ’tis no’ safe. Surely you know that!”

“There are Gargoyles all around the property,” Marissa reminded him. “And she doesn’t have anything anyone would want.”

“What abou’ the Amulet?” he asked even as the front door was slamming shut. He looked back at it worriedly, seemingly torn between staying and going. “I doona think that attack yesterday was meant by Apep. I think it was Panahasi trying tae get the Amulet back.”

“It’s true Apep would have sent a stronger force,” Jackson said with a sage nod. “And it’s likely he would have been in the middle of the fray. Just the same, I could have been the target just as much as it could have been about the Amulet. There’s really no telling. But she’s mortal and fragile, Ahnvil. Anything out in the world could hurt her. You can’t protect her from all of it.”

“She could bump her head against a door and develop a brain bleed and die,” Marissa posited. “There’s no way you would ever be able to protect her from something like that. And if you constantly smother her you’ll as good as kill her anyway. You have to let her make her own choices, let her choose to take her own risks. The disease she has is dangerous and deadly. She knows what it means to live a life of caution. She won’t just throw it away for no reason. Just give her a little time alone. She’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Ahnvil didn’t look happy with that idea. He had begun to fidget the minute the door had shut behind her. It was in his blood to protect that which he felt loyal to. It was almost impossible to fight the impulse.

It made him wonder when, exactly, he had begun to feel so utterly loyal to her. It had happened so gradually. While he wasn’t paying any attention. One day he’d been a stranger to her, and the next he couldn’t move three feet away from her because his soul was screaming out to him that she needed and deserved protection. A feeling that had only intensified since the attack at the airport … and since he had made love to her.

Christ, just thinking about that made him want her again. It reminded him of the way she had felt, the way she had smelled. He had loved the taste of her on his tongue. The feel of her surrounding him when he’d been deep inside of her. He began to grow hard for her right where he stood and he turned away from his Pharaohs with a flush.

Now he wanted to follow after her all the more. But he couldn’t, he realized. He couldn’t or she’d just grow more and more angry with him. And he didn’t want her to be angry with him. He wanted her to forgive him for his boorish ways and maybe let him touch her again.

He couldn’t follow her, but he might be able to get someone else that could.

He went off in search of them.

Kat sat down on the porch swing, Karma at her feet, in order to write a note to Bella. It was short and sweet. A simple “We’re here, are you?” It seemed like a good place to start. She would check the note in about fifteen minutes and every fifteen minutes after that.

As for these first fifteen minutes, she was going to use them to take a walk. She stuck the note in the front door and leaving her writing implements on the swing, she stepped down off the porch and started walking, Karma close at her side. The driveway was very long, the landscaping cultured and beautiful. Someone had a very green thumb and an eye for making the land around the house look neat and tidy and yet it blended in almost seamlessly with the land that stretched outward beyond them.

She was really feeling like her head was starting to clear by the time she had almost reached the end of the driveway. It was also about the same time she heard footsteps behind her.

She turned and saw a man she hadn’t met walking toward her. He was just under six feet tall, had black hair that curled slightly and almost touched his shoulders. He had chocolate-brown eyes and a very lean athletic build.

She sighed.

“He sent you to follow me, didn’t he?”

“Mmmyup,” the man said with a boyish grin. “I’m Leo. Leo Alvarez.”

“Hi, Leo,” she said, reaching to shake his hand. She narrowed her eyes on him a little. “Why haven’t I met you yet?”

“I was away. Just got back a few hours ago.”

“Oh.” She paused. “You’re different. You’re human … I mean mortal … aren’t you?”

“Yes. How can you tell the difference?”

“I don’t know. I just can.”

“Do I carry myself like I can die any minute?” he asked with another grin.

“No,” she said with a laugh. “Like I said, I don’t know how I know. If you’re mortal, what good could you do if I got into trouble?”

“You’d be surprised,” he said mysteriously. Then she found herself thinking he might be able to handle himself after all. That was how he carried himself. “So you’re the girl who has our boy tied into knots. You look pretty harmless to me.”