“Your turn,” he rumbled fiercely.

He kissed her then, thrilling at the taste of himself on her tongue, sensual and salty and sweet all at once. When he came up for air she was flushed and pretty and all things irresistible. “Come and give us that tongue again,” he said before touching his lips to hers and kissing her as deeply as he already had, and yet it felt as if he never had before. It was like that every time he kissed her.

And that was when he realized he was falling. Fast. Too fast. And too hard.

Panic touched him. He couldn’t do this. Compared to her with her kindness, generosity, and boundless bravery, he had very little to offer her. Danger? Threat? A life where he would risk his life day in and day out to protect the lives of others with no regard for himself and the woman who would be waiting for him to return?

He drew away from her. From her mouth, from her entire body, rising up on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

“What is it?” she asked, sitting up and looking at him with innocent, questioning eyes.

“I have to … There’s something … I forgot to …” All of it fell flat as he grabbed his pants off the floor and pulled them on with as much haste as was possible. “I’ll be back soon,” he said once he was fully dressed. But it was a lie. He couldn’t come back. He couldn’t risk the emotions he knew were building inside of him. They were not his to give. His life, his duty, had been given up to Menes, the man he had sworn to protect in exchange for the energy he so willingly provided to his touchstone.

No. He had nothing to give her except maybe sex and amusement, but it had gone beyond that already. He had to be honest with himself and admit it. He could only pray it had not gone beyond it for Kat as well. She wasn’t a casual sort of woman. She took these things very seriously. She would not give herself to any man lightly. If he had learned anything about her it was that she didn’t do things lightly.

Even as he walked out the door, unable to meet her eyes or even look at her face, he knew he was hurting her. She didn’t realize it yet, but he was hurting her. But there was nothing he could do about that.

Nothing at all.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

It wasn’t until twenty minutes had passed before Kat began to get the picture that Ahnvil wasn’t coming back. Well, she thought, perhaps he’s being held up by something important. Or maybe he’d sensed some kind of threat. Hadn’t someone told her that Gargoyles had a built in alarm system that had them sensing threats before they even fully materialized?

Picking herself up off the floor, she went to the window. It faced the front of the house. Looking outside she saw nothing more than a woman she had not met yet playing with a dog. She was pretty and tall and, like everyone in this place, really attractive. She was realizing that the perk of being a Bodywalker was that you got to pick and choose who you came back as. That included looks. But that was understandable because good looks got much further in this shallow world of theirs. That was a fact.

But the playing woman told her that there was no obvious threat taking place. At loose ends, she decided to go back downstairs and look for him, trying to figure out what had happened. When she passed through the living area it was devoid of the gathering she had left behind. Now she was curious on two fronts. She thought one should have been more important than the other, but for some reason it was Ahnvil she fixated on.

But after nearly twenty minutes of searching, she did not find him. Instead, she ran into Kamen in the kitchen. Full-bodied ran into. She was so preoccupied that she crashed into him like a crash-test dummy. He reached out and steadied her.

“Oh. Hi,” she said distractedly.

“Hello, little Djynn.”

“I’m sorry but … have you seen Ahnvil? You know, big Gargoyle. Hates your guts.”

“Yes,” he said with amusement, “I am aware of who he is. No, I have not seen him.” He studied her. “You left earlier. Are you not curious as to what transpired afterward?”

She nodded to him.

“Leo Alvarez has accompanied the new Nightwalker couple off the grounds. They will return to their Demon King … Noah, I believe is his name … and they will tell them of finding us and this curse that seems to be separating us. Eventually I believe we will need to figure out a way to dispel this curse. It will not be an easy solution. It might take years before we discover it. Unfortunately, I do not believe we have years. Fortunately, Menes has allowed me permission to begin to research this matter on my own. He has finally come to realize that I am his best hope in dispelling this problem.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Kat let go of her distractions and focused on the man in front of her. “Did you mean what you said? That you can help me learn about who I am?”

“You would be much better served to ask Grey for assistance in that regard. He knows what it means to be a Djynn. Far better than I do. Though I admit, he is mercurial at best. Most Djynn are. Between him and perhaps SingSing …”

“I get the feeling I won’t get anywhere with SingSing. She isn’t the instructive type. I’m not entirely sure she’s all there.” She whirled her finger around her ear.

“Perhaps,” he said with a small smile. She wondered if the man had ever laughed. He seemed incredibly serious. Then again, she would be serious, too, if she were under house arrest and untrusted by the entire household. She couldn’t imagine what that would be like. Here she was a total stranger and already she had been trusted with high levels of information. Before they had even known anything about her. Based solely on the word of her Gargoyle.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Why would you stop now?” he queried.

“Oh. Right.” She gave him a self-effacing laugh. “Well, I was wondering. Do you regret anything you’ve done … I mean outside of this whole resurrecting a demon god thing.”

He raised a brow. “Is that not enough?” he asked.

“I suppose it is.”

“I am going to guess you are asking if I regret making and owning Gargoyles.” At her nod he said, “I have not made a Gargoyle since creating Stohn, and even he was not something I wished to do. After so many escapees I realized there was nothing I could do to breed in true loyalty. My compatriots are convinced otherwise, but I did not need to have my head bashed against the wall in order to see the writing upon it. A Gargoyle caught escaping was put to death without question. And escaping Gargoyle tells you he no longer has loyalty to you, that there is a flaw in the forging process. At least, that was the general belief. I have other abilities that if brought to bear could reel an escapee in, had I truly wanted to.”