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"Yes."
I sipped my coffee, and considered him for a moment. "Did you banish your sister's spirit after I pinned her?"
"No. What you have done is far better. She is trapped in flesh that no longer lives. She can never escape."
"Flesh rots. When it does, won't she be free?"
He smiled again, and this time there was nothing warm about it. Goose bumps ran across my skin. I had to hope that that smile was never directed my way.
"The body will be mummified, then wrapped in silver, and sealed with spells only another priest can undo. She will never escape. Can never return to hurt this world."
Just live in an agony of unlife for the rest of eternity. It was a cruel ending, even for a spirit hell-bent on having her dark master dominate the world. Yet I couldn't work up any sympathy. "Which just leaves us with the dragons and their master."
"Whom I can either banish or seal in flesh, once we flush out his sacrifice site."
"Why is flushing out his sacrifice site important?"
"Because I can use its power to send him back if that's what we decide to do. Then I can cleanse the site to prevent him ever using it to reenter our world."
"I thought your sister was responsible for him being here?"
"She was. But if the gate is not closed, he can come back through."
"Not a good thing."
"No." He paused, then stepped forward, until there was only a hairsbreadth between us. The heat of him, scent of him, flowed over me, through me, filling my lungs, filling my heart, filling my soul. My breath caught, then quickened, and it took every ounce of willpower to remain as I was, to not step forward, into his embrace.
"Be careful in there tonight," he said, his dark gaze on mine and filled with concern. Filled with warmth. "The god of darkness is a very powerful soul, and long practiced in seducing the unwary."
"I could never be counted as one of the unwary." Which wasn't exactly the truth. Otherwise, why would I be standing here, drinking in the scent of sandalwood and man and desire, until all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around him and hold on tight? Why wasn't I running as far and as fast as I could from this man and all the problems he represented?
Because he was my chocolate. It might be perverse, it might be insane, but he was the one temptation I could never, ever resist.
And yet time and again he'd proven he just wasn't good for my health - my emotional health.
I might want him physically, but it just wasn't enough anymore. Even with the moon in full bloom, even with desire battering at my senses, part of me was just tired of it all.
Tired of the fighting. Tired of his constant belittling of the werewolf ways. Tired of simply trying. If he wasn't at least willing to meet me some of the way - and his actions seemed to constantly prove he wasn't - what was the point of us even being together?
I'd once said sex was a very good place to start any relationship, and I still believed that was totally true. But sex wasn't the end-all of any relationship, even tor a werewolf. There had to be more.
Had to be trust.
And the truth was, I just didn't trust Quinn anymore. And that, more than anything he might have said or done over the last few months, was a relationship killer.
I stepped away from him.
He frowned. "Riley - "
"No," I said softly. "I have a job to do, and I need you to leave."
"I have no intention - "
"You have every intention," I said, and a little of the anger that was bubbling deep inside came spewing up. "Do you remember a lady called Eryn Jones?"
"She was my supposed fiancee, so yeah. But what has she got to do with us?"
"You remember what you did to her?"
