Her gaze snapped to him, her stomach doing a relentless yo-yo-ing at his words. “The Guardians?”
“Aye, told ya about ‘em, lass. They’re warriors who protect this realm from supernatural evil. Immortals and real dangerous, with only one purpose—to kill evil. Demons.”
“Oh, right.” She’d never come across them while trying to help the homeless, but then she avoided anyone she sensed was otherworldly. Her throat dried out at her close encounter with one of them.
“If they suddenly turned up in full force,” Eddi continued, “then those demons must be real bad.”
“They could be working for the FBI, you know some unnamed, secret squad?”
Eddi snorted. “I have a few demon friends. They keep me informed. Those Guardians are an antisocial lot. Avoid humans like the plague. Aye, Shady lass, no chance of us lowly creatures catching sight of them, not unless they want you to. Mercifully, we aren’t demons. It’s them they hunt. If they sense evil in you, and I mean like the ones from Hell, you run.”
Well, she had. Yay for her survival instincts.
She removed her wrist blades, careful not to touch the iron metal—the darn thing made her skin itch—and shoved them into her backpack. So, he was a Guardian.
And she’d called him a weasel.
She bit her lip, stopping a smile as she sidestepped the stinky water running along the pitted ground. She didn’t want the questions that were sure to follow.
When she’d first seen this inked Guardian in the castle, all those months ago, she’d been grazed by a bullet, her mind foggy. But she’d sensed he was different, and she’d thought he and the blond guy who saved her belonged to some kind of secret task force—they certainly looked it. Heck, she’d left the very next day since she trusted no one.
“For now, it’s best to stay away from the topside, Shady.”
Oh, she planned to lay low for a while. “Did they kill Halen?” She asked about his demon partner who’d died a year after she’d moved in with them.
Eddi shook his head, a flash of melancholy crossing his face. “No, he got in with the wrong lot, his own kind.”
She knew that much but hoped he would say more. Eddi didn’t, so she let him be. They were all entitled to their secrets.
A single light bulb blinked. The tunnel wavered. She swayed. Crap, not the tunnel—her.
“Lass?” Eddi grabbed her arm as the wave of dizziness swept through her. “You okay?” His voice came from afar, his brow furrowing in concern.
“Yeah. A little woozy after the fight.” She kneaded her temples, casting him a guileless smile.
A little woozy? If only.
She was weakening. Eddi was right to worry, not that he knew why.
To deflect him, she added with a cheeky grin, “The adrenaline rush is fantastic. Burnout, however, is a pain in the ass.”
He dropped his hand and sighed, shaking his head wearily. “You are trouble, Shady.”
“Hey, it was a good fight…” Untilhedistracted her.
“Just be careful, okay?”
“Uh-huh.”
As they neared the area where the gloomy tunnel split east and west, he stopped. “You’re going to The Refuge?”
He mentioned the place where the migrating homeless stayed a short while.
“Yeah. Need to convince Joyce to move to The Shelter—she’ll never last in this dump.”
“Here ain’t good for a young, defenseless woman,” Eddi agreed, expression grim.
“It’s why I’m glad I have you.”
