A nasty grin broke over Michael’s face as he dropped the towel, got a pair of jeans, and dragged them over his muscled thighs. “Hmm, so their vendetta’s probably with me. We shall see… Besides, I don’t want to tip my hand just yet, I have bigger fuckers to reelin.”
Undoubtedly more runaway angels, but Dagan didn’t ask. He had a shitload to deal with right now, he couldn’t worry about the other aspect of his job. Shae was who mattered, and she had no idea of the danger nipping at herheels.
He got back to the issue at hand. “This Fallen wantsShae.”
“I’m not surprised. Kicked from Heaven and losing their more powerful abilities, they would look for ways to compensate—gain power again. Take Shae to Romania. It’ll be safer for her there, and buy us sometime.”
Dagan rubbed his jaw. Hell, he wanted to leap at the chance to go back to the place he regarded as home, but his Guardian oath stopped him. “No, with trouble stirring again, you need me here. I’ll keep her safe, but it’s my duty to see this to theend.”
“Understood.” Michael’s fractured irises glowed as he pulled on a navy t-shirt. “But she’s far more important. They obviously know we have her now—we’ll keep an eye on the penthouse. You need to leave, trouble already heads this way. I’ll remain here for the duration or as long as it takes to end this. With the kind of abilities she wields and her burgeoning powers, she’s vulnerable rightnow.”
Dagan glanced behind him through the bank of windows. Weak, early-morning light seeped into the bedroom, daybreak mere minutes away. “One more thing.” He refocused on his leader. “Inara?”
When Michael freed them from Tartarus, he’d told Dagan he freed her, too. But she’d disappeared, never to be seenagain.
The Arc exhaled heavily and shook his head. “Still nothing. It’s been three and a half millennia. Wherever she’s gone into hiding, she’s secreted herself well. Sheisthe Goddess of Life, Dag, she won’t be found if she doesn’t want tobe.”
He didn’t care. She was his sister, and he’d failed her once. Not again. “When this is all over, and Shae’s safe, I’m taking some time off. I have to find my sister,Ineed to know she’sokay.”
With a slight incline of his head, Michael acknowledged hiswish.
Dagan headed out, only to stop on the third-floor landing. He had no idea where Echo had put the little hellcat. He scanned the castle and instantly picked up her psychic vibration, the damn thing rolling through him like an inherentcaress.
Mouth tight, he pulled out his cell, recalling her number—yeah, he’d checked after the human texted—and sent her a message.Come down to the recroom.
He jogged down to the ground floor and headed for the rec room. It was empty, but cheering from a recorded ball game playing on the flat screen echoed in the place. The Celt was probably aroundsomewhere.
Dagan retrieved his spare cigar case from the wet bar in the corner and removed a smoke. He threw open the French doors, stepped outside, and sat on the top step leading out to the rolling lawns as day broke. Cigar lit, he inhaled a fragrant lungful of smoke and stared into the gardens, his mind on everything that hadoccurred.
A soft, furry slap flicked his side as he blew out a spiral of smoke. Dagan glanced down and cocked an eyebrow at the overweight, gray feline. “You hit me with that fluff of yours again, I’m going to shave off all your hair. Understand,cat?”
Bob ignored him. With another flick of his tail as if to show Dagan who was boss, the cat stalked past him and down the few steps, tail held high. He prowled through the plants, his focus on the birds perched on a lowbranch.
Dagan shook his head. Cat probably had snark for breakfast with that streak ofbravery.
“Come down to the rec room. Really? Did it occur to you that this place is massive and I could get lost—which I did until I smelled your smoke?” Her husky but frustrated voice stroked his senses, shoving all his need receptors to the forefront. He shut his eyes at the effect this human girl had onhim.
Another deep inhale, then Dagan killed his half-smoked cigar, pushed it into his pocket, and rose. “We’releaving.”
“Again?” Her brow furrowed. “Why?”
“I’ll explain later, but we need to go,now.”
“Where?”
“To the Guardians’ otherabode.”
She blew out a tired breath. “Great, more migrating. I should have been a bird. Fine, let me get mystuff.”
“No time. I’ll have your things sentover.”
Pulling on the last reserves of his psychic energy, he parted the mystical veils, and a shimmering gateway appeared. At her wide-eyed stare, he grasped her hand and stepped through the flickeringportal.
