“Don’t get smart with me.” She jabbed a finger into Cian’s chest. “I’m here worried half sick, and the two of you are out there wrestling around like a couple of idiot puppies.”

“You nearly put an arrow in my foot,” Hoyt reminded her. “I think we’re quits on foolish behavior for one day.”

She only hissed out a breath. “Into the kitchen, both of you. I’ll do something about those cuts and bruises. Again.”

“I’m having my bed,” Cian began.

“Both of you. Now. You don’t want to mess with me at the moment.”

As she sailed off, Cian rubbed a finger gently on his split lip. “It’s been a long while, but I don’t recall you having a particular fondness for bossy women.”

“I didn’t, previously. But I understand them well enough to know we might as well be after letting her have her way on this. And the fact is, my eye’s paining me.”

When they came in, Glenna was setting what she needed out on the table. She had the kettle on the boil, and her sleeves rolled up.

“Do you want blood?” she said to Cian, with enough frost in the words to have him clearing his throat.

It amazed him that he actually felt chagrined. It was a sensation he hadn’t felt in... too long to remember. Obviously living so closely with humans was a bad influence.

“The tea you’re making will do, thanks.”

“Take off your shirt.”

There was a smart comment on the tip of his tongue, she could all but see it. He proved himself a wise man by swallowing it.

He stripped it off, sat.

“I’d forgotten about the burns.” Hoyt examined them now. There was no longer any blistering, and they’d gone down to a dull, ugly red. “If I’d remembered,” he said as he sat across from Cian, “I’d have put more blows into your chest.”

“Typical,” Glenna said under her breath, and was ignored.

“You don’t fight altogether the way you used to. You use your feet more, and elbows.” And Hoyt could still feel the aching result of them. “Then there’s that leaping off the ground.”

“Martial arts. I have black belts in several of them. Master status,” Cian explained. “You need to put more time into training.”

Hoyt rubbed his sore ribs. “And so I will.”

Weren’t they chummy all of a sudden? Glenna thought. What was it about men that made them decide to be pals after they’d smashed their fists into each other’s faces?

She poured hot water into the pot, and while it steeped came to the table with her salve.

“I would’ve said three weeks to heal with what I can do, considering the extent of the burns.” She sat, slicked salve on her fingers. “I’m amending that to three days.”

“We can be hurt, and seriously. But unless it’s a killing blow, we heal—and quickly.”

“Lucky for you, especially as you’ve got a mass of nice bruising to go with the burns. But you don’t regenerate,” she continued as she applied the salve. “If, say, we were to cut off one of their arms, it wouldn’t grow back.”

“There’s a gruesome and interesting thought. No. I’ve never heard of anything like that happening.”

“Then if we can’t get to the heart or the head, we can go for a limb.”

She went to the sink to wash the salve from her hands, and make cold packs for the bruising. “Here.” She handed one to Hoyt. “Hold that on your eye.”

He sniffed at it, then complied. “You shouldn’t have worried.”

Cian winced. “Bad tact. Wiser to say: ‘Ah, my love, we’re sorry we worried you. We were selfish and inconsiderate, should likely be flogged for it. We hope you’ll forgive us.’ Thicken the brogue a bit as well. Women are fools for brogues.”

“Then kiss her feet, I suppose.”

“Actually, you aim for the ass. Ass kissing is a tradition that never goes out of style. You’ll need patience with him, Glenna. Hoyt’s still working on the learning curve.”

She brought the tea to the table, then surprised them both when she laid a hand on Cian’s cheek. “And you’re going to teach him how to deal with the modern woman?”

“Well, he’s a bit pitiful, is all.”

Her lips curved as she lowered her head, brushed them over Cian’s. “You’re forgiven. Drink your tea.”

“Just that easy?” Hoyt complained. “He gets a pat on the cheek and a kiss with it? You didn’t nearly put an arrow into him.”

“Women are a constant mystery.” Cian spoke quietly. “And one of the wonders of the world. I’ll take this up with me.” He got to his feet. “I’m wanting some dry clothes.”

“Drink all of it.” Glenna spoke without turning as she took up another bottle. “It’ll help.”

“I will then. Let me know if he doesn’t learn fast enough to suit you. I wouldn’t quibble with being second choice.”

“That’s just his way,” Hoyt told her when Cian left the room. “A kind of teasing.”

“I know. So you made friends again while you were bloodying each other.”

“It’s true enough I hit him first. I spoke to him of our mother, and the garden, and he was cold. Even though I could see what was under that cold, I... well, I lashed out, and... After, he took me to where our family’s buried. And there you have it.”

She turned now, and all the pity in her heart swirled into her eyes. “It must’ve been hard for both of you to be there.”

“It makes it real to me, that as I sit here now, they’re gone. It didn’t seem real before. Not solid and real.”

She moved to him, dabbed her tincture on his facial bruises. “And for him, to have lived all this time with no family at all. Another cruelty of what was done to him. To all of them. We don’t think of that do we, when we talk about war, and how to destroy them? They were people once, just like Cian.”

“They mean to kill us, Glenna. Every one of us that has a heartbeat.”

“I know. I know. Something drained them of humanity. But they were human once, Hoyt, with families, lovers, hopes. We don’t think of that. Maybe we can’t.”

She brushed the hair back from his face. A nice accountant, she thought again. A stockbroker. How ridiculous, how ordinary. She had, right here, the amazing.