“Great.” Sasquatch picked up another card. “Just great. My poor son’s going to have nightmares all of his childhood.”
“Trust me,” Chris said as he upped his bet against Wulf. “That book’s going to be the least of your kid’s problems with you as his father.”
Cassie frowned. “What do you mean?”
Chris put his cards down and met her gaze. “You do know that as a small child, they actually carried me around on a pillow? I had a custom-made helmet that I had to wear until I was four.”
Sasquatch scratched at his beard. “That’s because you banged your head every time you got angry. I was afraid you were going to get brain damage from it.”
Chris snorted. “The brain is fine. It’s my ego and social life that’s in the toilet. I shudder at what you’re going to do to that poor kid.” He dropped his voice and imitated Wulf’s lilting Norse accent. “Don’t move, you might get bruised. Oops, a sneeze, better call in specialists from Belgium. Headache? Odin forbid, it might be a tumor. Quick, rush him for a CAT scan.”
Wulf shoved his shoulder playfully. “And yet you live.”
“Ever the better to procreate for you.” Chris met Cassandra’s gaze. “It’s a hell of a life.” Then Chris dropped his gaze as if he was thinking about that for a minute. “But there are worse ones out there.”
He was right about that. Phoebe sighed as she wondered about Urian and what he was doing.
Katra waited outsideUrian’s bedroom until Davyn came outside to meet her. “Is he all right?”
“He will be, but that wasveryclose.”
She let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I’ve never seen him like that. Didn’t know he could get weak.”
“Me neither.”
She glanced to the closed door. “Do I want to know what you did to fix him?”
With grim expression, Davyn shook his head. “You wouldn’t approve.”
“Pardon the pun. Sucks to be a Daimon.”
“You have no idea. Believe me, it’s not something we enjoy. There’s not a one of us who wouldn’t give our souls to change it.”
Kat saw the truth in his dark eyes. And oddly enough, she saw Davyn’s gentle soul, and his guilt. “I’m sorry.”
“No, Kat. That’s an empty sentiment. You really don’t get what your uncle did to us.”
“Pardon?”
“I know who and what you are. Urian doesn’t.”
Panic filled her. “How?”
Davyn laughed. “I see and hear a lot more than anyone credits me with. And I’m not as dumb as everyone thinks. I’ve seen Artemis. You look just like her. Right down to the eye color. Given that, I figure you have to be related to Apollymi’s son in order for her to tolerate you to live. Never mind come and go here, whenever you like.”
Katra’s jaw dropped. “You’ve never told him?”
“Of secret things I am silence.”
“TheBhagavad Gita?”
Davyn shrugged. “I read a lot of things.”
The door behind him opened to show Urian looking a lot better. His deep tawny skin had a healthy glow. His eyes were bright and for once he wore his long blond hair down around his shoulders. She would give Phoebe credit. Her husband was extremely gorgeous.
Dressed black on black, there wasn’t much difference between Urian and a Dark-Hunter.
“You look like you ate someone who agreed with you.”
