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"We don't really eat," David explained. "Not in this form. We can, but it all tastes like sawdust."
"This won't taste like sawdust, I promise. There's no way." When her gaze turned to him, Clara paused, studying him. Abruptly, she beamed at him. "Congratulations. You must be really excited. I didn't know angels . . . well, I guess they can, because Alexis has never said she couldn't have babies."
David's brow creased. "Excuse me?"
Clara blanched. "Oh, crap. She hasn't told you yet. Sometimes, when it's late or I'm flustered"--she shot a self-conscious look at Marcellus--"I get confused. I think she was getting ready to tell you pretty soon, else I wouldn't have confused it. If your wife or girlfriend is scary, don't tell her I was the one who told you."
"You have no idea," Marcellus said dryly.
David was staring off into space, his expression torn between shock and sudden light-headedness. "Excuse me," he said all of a sudden, and vanished.
"Wow," Clara blinked. "Did he just--"
"No. He flew, but faster than your eyes could follow."
"Oh. It was still freaking impressive. Damn it, I hope I haven't caused trouble."
"I expect you're quite practiced at that. But it will be joyous news to him." Though he privately wondered if Mina's reaction would be far different.
"Good." Taking a step onto the ledge, she cocked her head, her gaze passing over him with a blatant appreciation that would have amused him if she didn't inexplicably get under his skin. "Well, I didn't plot it or anything, but looks like we've got the rooftop all to ourselves." She glanced at the starry sky. "Romantic night, hmm?"
Marcellus gave her a narrow look. "I am four hundred years old."
"Cool. I'll keep that in mind when I bake you a birthday cake. Okay, in about three seconds, I'm going to jump over there. I assume you'll grab me out of the air if I fall short."
Marcellus straightened. "You will not. We are not circus animals, to perform for your--"
"Three." Clara leaped into open space, the cake holder hugged against her body.
FROM his enhanced hearing, Jonah knew both occupants of the room were sleeping. He knew David was right, that he should come back. But the explosion of energy so close to his daughter's home, the obvious use of Dark One power, had been unsettling, to say the least. He wanted to confirm she was all right, for Anna as well as himself.
The key she kept in the planter next to the door always irritated him, but she'd rightly explained that humans held no danger to her. The cloud of tranquil energy around her neutralized any random threat of theft, rape or murder. "It's a chicken and egg thing," she'd explained to him. "There has to be a reason to want to harm me, Pyel, and most people want to be near me so they can feel good. Wanting to harm me would be because I'd made them feel bad."
No, the type of enemy who would attack her would be otherworldly, one not deterred by locks on windows or doors. For instance, the kind who would pull her through a dream portal.
Jonah wasn't completely oblivious to David's point, or Marcellus's. He just wasn't ready for them to be right. His daughter's heart was like her mother's, pure feeling. She had the key not just for Clara, but for all manner of people she'd befriended and granted refuge. He knew about all of them. A young, single mother who occasionally needed someplace to nap on her lunch hour, close to her office. A teenage boy who lived in a bad neighborhood and came here to study after school. There'd been a plethora of stray dogs and cats she'd placed in homes, though she'd kept the big buff-colored tomcat, saying he was meant to be here.
Whereas Dante, her latest stray, shouldn't be in the same dimension.
Sliding into the town house, Jonah closed the door. His nostrils flared, scenting the blood drops on the floor, but it was only a small splattering. She was fine, she'd said so. Still, he moved through the living area with silent caution, taking in the usual comfortable arrangement of sofa, easy chairs, coffee table. She liked open spaces and simple decorating, for practical as well as aesthetic reasons. Bric a-brac on tables could be swept off by a wing, the same way a golden retriever would do it with an enthusiastic plume of a tail. A faint smile touched his lips, recalling the saucy remark when she moved in, anticipating visits from him and other angels of the Legion. She was so different from him and Anna, and yet so alike as well. He marveled at the miracle of it every day.
A flash of movement at the window caught his startled gaze. Marcellus winged by in a sharp banking maneuver. He caught a glimpse of a woman's flailing arms, her body securely caught in his grasp, just before his captain's reassurance came into his mind, letting him know whatever the situation was, it was under control.
When he stepped to the bedroom door, Jonah braced for the likelihood she was sharing her bed with the Dark Spawn. If they were in a bare, postcoital state, he might put his eyes out with a hot poker.
His daughter was in her favorite oversized sleep shirt, her shoulders visible over the warm pile of blankets on top of her. She was curled on her side. Dante was with her, curved behind her body, his arm over her chest, large hand cupped under her upper arm as she held on to his forearm in her sleep. Fortunately, he appeared to be wearing jeans, and of course Mina's silver collar.
Clustered around Alexis's front was a plethora of the stuffed animals normally on the floor. Plush ponies, puppies, kittens, bears and Pooh characters were grouped at her abdomen, legs and around her head. Dante's other arm was under it and she clasped his hand on that side, closing the circle between them.
Jonah noted the split on her lip, and knew that was likely where the blood splatter had come from.
"I didn't do that."
He shifted his gaze to meet Dante's. The hellfire color glowed in the darkness like a demon's. He'd spoken low, so Alexis didn't stir.
"I know." Jonah forced out the words. "She told me she got in the way."
"Yes. And no. She was trying to help, and did not stay where I told her to."
Yes, that happened. He didn't have to look far to know exactly where his daughter had gotten that trait from.
Dante's watchfulness suggested he was ready to leap up if Jonah gave him cause. Lex stirred restlessly, making a questioning sound in her sleep. He murmured to her, one hand stroking her fingers, and hers tightened on him. She subsided.
Jonah studied her. "She's all right
then? No injuries."
"Bruised only. She said nothing was broken, and that she would know if it was. She believes that, but I do not know if it is the truth."
A reminder that the bastard knew everything that went through Alexis's head, making her completely vulnerable to him. Jonah's jaw tightened. "She's likely right, but tell her I want her to see Raphael or one of his healers tomorrow, to be sure. I will be checking to see if she receives the message, and obeys it."
"I will make sure she does."
Jonah indulged the visual of twisting his perfect face into the shape of wet clay, snapping his spine like kindling. "You may have inadvertently marked her as your servant," he said, just as low, "and Lady Lyssa may have told you that meant certain things, but know this. She is not yours. She makes her own choices."
"I know." Dante brought his attention to her face, as if she was a puzzle to him. "You give her choices, though you could easily take them away. Because she is your daughter and you . . . love her." When he looked at Jonah, something equally menacing entered his gaze. "What if that gets her killed? Is that something your love allows?"
"Here to now, you have been the greatest threat that's ever been made against her life. You took her against her will, and out of hatred and cowardice, not love."
Jonah cursed himself as, picking up on the rising tensions, Lex stirred, her lids opening. She took in the arrangement of animals in front of her first. With some surprise, Jonah realized she hadn't done that, for she giggled, reaching out to touch several of them. "Were you keeping me barricaded?"
"They seem to comfort you, and make you laugh. So I put them around you, like a Protection Spell." Dante cleared his throat. "It is the same principle. Your father is here."
"I know." She smiled sleepily, stretching out her hand. "I knew you had to come by and check on me. Worried old bird."
"You and your mother have an equal lack of respect for my age." Jonah came to her then, taking her hand. She kept her other around Dante's forearm, holding them both connected to her.
"It's because you get to look like you're thirty your entire life, while she and I will eventually get wrinkled and saggy. Unless my angel side is stronger than the mermaid." She winked and pushed herself up. She was stiff, he could tell by the sudden flinch. When Dante helped lift her to an upright position, Jonah dropped to a knee by the bed to accept Lex's embrace. Her arms slid around Jonah's shoulders, Dante drawing back as Jonah returned the hug. She smelled of lavender and vanilla, only a faint trace of Dark One magic fire and sulfurous smoke remaining in her hair.
