The sounds of swords clashing echoed over the mountaintop. A deadly katana winged in the air—shit! Dagan jumped back before half his face landed at Nik’s feet.

Chest heaving, he held up a hand and called a halt to the training, his mind still on how Shae had found out about him and Kaerys. With her penchant for causing trouble, he wouldn’t put it past Kaerys to induce the fucking dream Shae had.

Frustration gnawing at him, he pulled out his cell and messaged Angelus.

“Just an hour and you’re quitting?” Nik drawled, dropping his sword to the ground. He picked up his t-shirt and pulled it on, covering the myriad of tatts on his body and his nipple piercings.

“Angelus can take my place.” He hauled off his shirt, wiping the sweat off his face and chest, then gingerly pressed a hand on his stinging wound. It was probably bleeding again. “I gotta go.”

Showered and changed, Dagan headed to the kitchen where he sensed Shae. Her back to him, she appeared to be staring at several grocery items on the table.

He slipped his arms around her and pressed his lips to her nape. Just holding her eased the upheaval inside him. “What are you doing?”

She turned in his arms, a smile brightening her pale face. “Baking. I thought you’d be hours with Nik.”

He shrugged. “I’ll make it up later. I needed you more.” He lowered his head to kiss her but cupped her chin instead, eyes narrowing. Despite the gold specks warming her stormy gray irises, pain edged them. “What’s wrong? Is this about…Kaerys?”

She shook her head. Her throat worked as she swallowed and waved a hand at the table and the things she had there. “Mom used to make this stacked applesauce cake my dad and I loved…”

“I’ll make everything right for you, Shae. Just give me a little time.”

She didn’t say anything for a second. Then she stepped back and frowned, sending her gaze down his torso and up again. Everything inside him went into slow burn. He’d made love to her twice last night—didn’t dare risk anything more until he got his damn thirst locked down. Now, he hungered for her again.

“Are you going out?”

Her voice pulled him back to sanity, and the work he’d elected to do. “For a short while. I want to check out the church’s parking lot after the fight last night. Why don’t you come with me? Afterwards, we can stop in at one of those little sidewalk cafés you like.”

“Really?” Her eyes sparkled in excitement, then faded. “But you don’t eat.”

“Solids, no. I can consume liquids. All right, let’s get all the fallacy about me out of the way. I won’t burst into flames in sunlight, but it tends to weaken me. My eyes are extra sensitive to it, so dark shades help. Liquor doesn’t inebriate me with my quick metabolism. A stake in the heart won’t kill me, but beheading? Yeah, that shit will probably kill anyone. However, we have never been caught in that situation, so it remains to be seen. But certain angel weapons and our Gaian ones can kill an immortal.”

“Silver? Crosses? Holy water?” she threw in fast like there was a time limit to him answering.

He cut her a sardonic look. “Only if you’re the undead. I still have a heartbeat. I didn’t die, Shae. My DNA simply changed over time.”

“Just checking,” she countered, putting the cake things away. “Because I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Shaking his head, he crossed to a drawer near the wine shelf, then got out paper and a pen and jotted a message on it. He set the note on the microwave and continued, “Bodily functions? Sure, I can take a piss, but that’s about it. And yes, I get a fucking erection every time I see you. Can I sire children? I don’t know.”

Shae stared at him for a moment then she smiled. “We can deal with everything else as it occurs. For now, I’m happy I have you. Let me change my slippers and get a jacket.” She hurried to the kitchen door, skated to a halt, and spun back. “I’m really, really glad you still have a heartbeat, and you aren’t like the vampires movies and books depict—the ones who don’t breathe and drop into a dead sleep at sunrise—that would be scary as hell.”

“And you think I’m not?”

“Oh, I know you are.”

“Good.” He cut her a serious look. “Never forget, Shae, I’m a predator first and foremost.”

* * *

Honestly, she didn’t care how threatening Dagan appeared, he was whom she wanted. This attraction had taken root that night outside the club when he’d abducted her, though she hadn’t appreciated it at the time.

In the bedroom, she traded her warm, fuzzy slippers for boots. The long-sleeved, maroon knit-dress would do. She grabbed her leather jacket and sprinted to the front courtyard where she sensed him waiting.

He turned from staring into the gorge below, the light breeze playing with his unbound hair. At the darkness in his expression, her steps faltered. “Dagan?”

He shook his head. Was he thinking about his past? When she recalled his awful confinement trapped in the wasteland of Tartarus with nothing—no one to talk to for five centuries—her chest hurt. Maybe, in time, she could ease some of those nightmares. Replace them with better ones.

“What was the note you left in the kitchen?” she asked instead, pulling on her jacket.

“I requested Angelus to make you an apple cake.”

“You did?” Her gaze widened, then she smiled. “It’s okay, I like baking. I wasn’t born into wealth, you know. My father was a farmer. Apples.”

“Where?”

“Stone Ridge, Upstate New York. I really loved it there…” A wistfulness entered her tone. “It was so peaceful.”

“I like apples, too…”

“What?” She blinked. “But you don’t…”

His gaze lowered to her chest. “They’re round, firm, and really delicious. I can eat them all day, every day.”

She burst out laughing. His lips twitched in amusement. Only he could do that, make her smile when her heart was filled with sorrow.

“C’mon, my wildcat, let’s go.” He drew her close, and she put her arms around his waist. But at the tempting bulge nudging her, she couldn’t resist, and she slowly rubbed her hips against his groin.

He went utterly still, and without a word, he dematerialized them. The moment they took form on the shadowy side of the church, he slammed her against the wall, his mouth crashing onto hers. He kissed her deeply and, just as suddenly, pulled back, leaving her panting. His gaze heated to a brilliant yellow, he dropped to his heels and reached beneath the hem of her short dress.

“Wait, wait!” She grabbed his thick wrists. “What are you doing?”

He pulled off her underwear. Like a man possessed, he pushed her legs apart and put his mouth on her. She grabbed his head, pleasure igniting as his tongue parted her and he licked up her cleft and over her clit. A moan rushed free. “God! Dagan, we’re in a church.”

“Outside,” he corrected against her flesh and deliberately hooked one of her thighs over his shoulder. With teeth, tongue, and lips, he sucked and nibbled, and she whimpered. He appeared determined to make her lose her mind. She’d had no idea her teasing would take such a sensual turn. Desire coalesced, her every sense focused on one part of her body. Her fingers tightened in his hair. Shae no longer cared that they were in the open as he tormented her with lazy licks. “Dagan,” she moaned, she was so close.

A sharp tug on her clit and she cried out, her orgasm hauling her up as she broke apart. Birds roosting on the small shrubs nearby took flight in a rustle of wings. Arms steadied her.

Breathing hard, she came back to her senses and found him watching her with an emotion she couldn’t decipher, one that made her heart race. He straightened her clothes and rose. “Tease me that way again, Shae-cat, and you pay.”

She wanted to glare at him. Instead, she panted. “I can’t believe you did that against a church building.”

A dark eyebrow arched. “And you’re complaining because?”

“Anyone could have seen us.”

“But the danger made you hot, admit it.” His tone lowered. “I love mouth-fucking you, but I really wished my cock had been inside you when you came—”

“Oh, God.” She slapped a hand over his mouth, halting the sinfully erotic words, so sure her face must be brighter than her hair. But deep down, she wished the same. “Stop that.”

He kissed her palm, then lowered it. “Why? I find I like my mouth on you, so fair warning, my sweet cat, I’ll continue to do so whenever I can—wherever I want. Ready?”

“My legs feel like jelly. I don’t think I can walk,” she grumbled, fighting to focus on why they’d come here and not on tackling him to the ground for more sexy fun. “My underwear?”

A hint of a smile, he handed it over. “Okay, wait here while I do a recon of the area.”

Shae pulled on her underwear and slumped against the wall, her breath choppy, and her legs still wobbly from the unexpected sensual encounter—and in broad daylight, too.

Dagan slipped on his shades and stepped out from the building’s cool shadows. The weak, noonday sun gleamed off his blue-black hair as he strode across to the parking lot. With a wave of his hand over his loose tresses, like several invisible fingers working at once, the strands parted and wove into numerous warrior braids. He glanced about the place, appearing to study the air around them.

Her legs functioning once more, Shae wandered over. “What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to find a tear. It’s the only way all those demons appeared so suddenly last night when only four followed us.”

“What tear?”

“It forms in the mystical veils that separate the realms, and it keeps this world safe from supernatural evil.” He frowned, his attention back on the gravelly surface. He hunkered down and put his open palm on the dirt-packed ground. “If there’s a crack in the veils, they’ll use it to enter this world, and we can’t allow that to happen.”

Warily, Shae looked about her then crouched beside him. “Is there one?”

“No. They must have accessed a portal.” His moving hand stilled. “I feel the lingering vibration…the entryway was through here.”

“But the other Guardian, Race, he would have killed them all, right? I mean, those flames last night were pretty scary.”

“Yeah, he would have taken them out…”

Still, her stomach knotted at the hard set of his jaw as he glanced in the direction of the village. “What’s wrong? Oh, no, do you think there could be more of them still lurking about?”

His gaze came back to hers. Softened. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” He helped her to her feet. “I’m sorry, Shae-cat, but a rain check on the café? I need to make sure none of them are around.”

Blowing out a rough breath, she nodded. Her cell rang. She retrieved the device from her jacket pocket and answered.

“Shae?” Harvey’s harried tone cut through her worry. “I found out something I think you should know. It’s about your mother—”

“What is it?”

“I was in a club last night and overheard a demon bragging to a few of his pals about something big going down soon, then I heard the name Jenna mentioned. I know it’s your mom’s—”

“What did they say,” she demanded, feeling as if someone had sucker-punched her.

“Asshole wouldn’t say anything when I pushed for more. But it sounded like they knew where she is.”

Her fingers clenched around her cell in frustration. “Where can we find this demon?”

“He usually hangs around at Club Anarchy. I’ll keep pushing, see if I can get more information from him.”

“I’m coming back. I want to talk to him.” She ended the call before he could protest and lifted her determined gaze to Dagan’s shaded one. “I have to do this. I’ve looked for her for so long. If there’s a chance it might be her and they know where she is—” She bit her lip, unable to stop the tremble or the fear seeping through her.

“Shae…” He pushed his sunglasses to his brow and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’d ask you to let me handle this—”

“Dagan—”

“But since I know you won’t,” he cut her off, “we’ll do it together—unless I deem it too dangerous.” He squinted in the sunlight, but his features were hard. Forbidding. “And you aren’t doing anything on your own with that Fallen after you. I need your word on this.”

She sighed. “Fine.”

“C’mon, let’s head back. Besides, I don’t think it matters much now which place we’re at since they know you’re here. I still can’t figure out how the hell the bastard tracked you here so fast.”

Shae knew whom Dagan meant. Aza.