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“How am I a threat?”
“Every being in town with a certain level of power must be officially identified as a threat. It’s in the by-laws.”
“Are you on that list?”
“As a matter of fact, I am.”
That made me feel slightly better. “Is Josie?”
“Josephine is ferocious in her own special way, but her power is limited to that of an ordinary vampire.”
I smiled. “I’d like to hear you call Josie ordinary to her face.”
“Unlike you, Lorelei, I have far too much sense for that.” His knuckles dug into a knot in my shoulder, and I groaned. “How do you feel otherwise?”
“The headache is gone, which is a relief. Plenty of knots, though, as I think you can attest.”
“I don’t mean physically.”
I closed my eyes as visions of last night appeared in my mind’s eye. Dead werewolves. Dead demon. Ghosts. Gun.
“Guilty,” I admitted.
“You shouldn’t.”
“I didn’t mean for the wolves to die. I only wanted to protect the kulshedra. West was right about me. So was Pops. My powers are a danger to everyone around me.”
His fingers continued to knead my skin. It felt better than I deserved.
“Why couldn’t I have just let the wolves kill the kulshedra? She’d still be dead, but at least they’d be alive.” And I wouldn’t have their blood on my hands.
“Because you’re a goddess in a human body that’s hard-wired with a fear response. You reacted to a genuine threat. It was instinct.”
“But it wasn’t a threat to me. I was defending someone else, and I managed to make the situation worse. Maybe you were right about me, Kane. Get too close and I’ll drag you down with me.”
His fingers danced along the sides of my neck. “Do you really not see?”
“See what?”
“The reason you couldn’t let them kill the demon. In your mind, the kulshedra was you. That’s why the attack felt like a threat to your life. By protecting her, you were protecting yourself.”
“I’m not a demon, Kane. That’s you.”
He moved to kneel beside me. “The way you see yourself… Let’s just say I understand it, but it isn’t accurate.”
“Since when? You’re the one worried I’m going to drag you to the dark side. Didn’t last night prove your point?”
“Quite the opposite, in fact.”
I was confused. “How? I lost control. Death followed. You’re right. I’m more like the kulshedra than I realized.”
He sighed. “They were killing each other, and you are not a serpentine, three-headed killing machine.”
I smiled. “If I were, would you still be interested?”
“Depends. Could you still fit in that dress you wore?”
“Magnarella did mention your kinks.”
