I guess I hadn’t been too subtle when I hung around that little grocery store. Not that subtlety had ever been one of my strong suits. “I’m only five-nine,” I commented, but Adam didn’t seem amused.

“What were you up to? And what went wrong?”

The cat was well and truly out of the bag, so I figured there was no point in keeping the information to myself. I told him everything—about my mysterious hospital stay, about the files, about the letter from Bradley Cooper, about the pile of ashes, and about Der Jäger. And I tried not to think about the scream I’d heard, the scream of a man having his guts torn out by a demon. I swallowed hard and thanked my lucky stars my stomach was already on empty.

Silence reigned when I was finished. I stared out the windshield at the gray concrete wall and concentrated on breathing. At least I tried, though the steady throbbing of my finger was something of a distraction. And I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about Der Jäger’s parting shot. He and I had unfinished business. Oh, joy!

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this yesterday?” Adam asked. “We could have worked something out, gotten to those papers before your parents burned them.”

I turned my head to look at him. “Maybe I didn’t want to risk having my parents tortured to death if you weren’t satisfied with what you learned.”

“Ah,” he said, “this is still about Valerie.”

I reached for the handle of my door—with my left hand, of course—but Adam hit the locks.

“You’re never going to forgive me for that, are you?” he asked. “Even though you know I had no choice.”

I let out a heavy sigh. “My head knows you had no choice. My heart doesn’t give a shit.”

Would he figure he had no choice but to interrogate my parents now? And if he did, was there anything I could do to stop him?

I knew there wasn’t. God, how I hated feeling helpless! And I’d been feeling helpless far too often lately.

Once again, I reached for the door, hitting the unlock button. But before my hand got to the handle, the locks snicked shut again. If I wanted to get out, I’d have to use both hands simultaneously, and I couldn’t bear the thought of moving my right hand more than absolutely necessary. I glanced down at it and saw that while, thanks to Adam, the finger was straight, it was swelling up like the proverbial balloon.

“What are you planning to do now, Morgan?” Adam asked. “You can’t just go back to your apartment and resume life as normal. Not with Der Jäger still hunting you.”

I shuddered. “Like my life has been anything like normal lately.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I know.” I turned to face him. “What would you suggest? What can a puny human being do to protect herself from a rampaging demon?”

“Well for one thing, you can come stay with me and Dom.”

My eyes widened. I’d gone that route before—not of my own free will, I might add—and I hadn’t enjoyed the experience. “Yeah? And you’re going to hang around and guard me 24/7? Might get in the way of your job just a bit, don’t you think?” He didn’t have a quick comeback for that one, so I continued to press. “Look, I live on the twenty-seventh floor. The only way Der Jäger can get to me is through my front door, right? He can’t fly or climb up the outside of buildings like a spider.”

Adam nodded his reluctant agreement.

“Remember, I have a Taser. And for the moment, I have a roommate. As long as we guard the door, there’s no way Der Jäger can get to me without getting zapped.”

Adam looked like he still really hated this plan—or lack thereof—but he didn’t seem to have a better suggestion. “Don’t leave the apartment without me,” he ordered. “I’ll come back as soon as I’m off duty and we’ll see if we can cobble together a plan.”

I didn’t much like his tone of voice, but for once I managed to stifle my rebellious response. I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could take on Der Jäger and win.

“Okay,” I said.

Adam gave me a suspicious look. “That was too easy.”

I shook my head. “I’ve met Der Jäger up close and personal. I so do not want to meet up with him again in some dark alley.” I forced a bit of a smile. “Besides, I’m getting better about accepting help when I need it.”

The look he gave me said he still didn’t trust me, but this time when I reached for the door, he let me open it.

“I’ll walk you to your apartment,” he said, getting out of the car.

Again, I had to swallow the urge to tell him to back off. I reminded myself that I didn’t have a Taser on me, and I didn’t have a death wish.

“Thanks,” I said through gritted teeth. Then, as we walked toward the elevator, a very disquieting thought struck me. “Could you beat Der Jäger in a fight?”

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye and saw the sudden tightness of his expression.

“I don’t know,” he finally answered. “But I could at least hold him off long enough for you to get away.”

There wasn’t much to say after that, so we walked the rest of the way to my apartment in silence.

I discovered it’s incredibly hard to fall asleep at five o’clock in the afternoon when you’re in constant pain—even when I knew falling asleep would allow Lugh to heal the worst of it. I’d have to keep the bruise from yesterday’s encounter with my not-father, but today’s injuries could soon become nothing but an unpleasant memory. If only I could let myself drift off.

Outside my bedroom door, I could hear the TV going as it no doubt had been all day. I’d come home to find Andy sitting listlessly on the couch, staring at the TV but not really seeing it. He’d snapped out of it long enough to ask me what had happened during my ill-fated break-in, but when I’d stopped talking, the animation left him and he was back to staring. I had to hope he had enough brain cells functioning to shoot anything that came through the front door.

I was in too much pain to deal with his issues, so I’d gone to the bedroom to lie down. But as I lay there failing miserably at my attempt to sleep, I couldn’t help worrying about him.

Andy might not be catatonic anymore, but he wasn’t exactly back to normal, either. He had a fragile vulnerability that was so not in keeping with my mental image of him. Had Raphael damaged him irreparably? Was there anything I could do to help?

Eventually, I realized I wasn’t getting to sleep without help. I raided my medicine cabinet and found an old, expired bottle of sleeping pills. I downed a couple, hoping they’d still be effective after the expiration date, then went back to bed and closed my eyes.

I don’t know how much longer I lay there awake, my mind cycling through my impressive list of problems, but eventually I drifted off. I hadn’t been sure if Lugh would talk to me now, or if he still thought I needed cooling-off time, but I awoke in another version of his dream world, one I had visited only once before, when he’d healed me after Adam had finished “playing” with me.

I lay on my back on a sumptuously soft bed, my body draped with a crimson silk sheet that clung to its contours like a wet T-shirt. Naturally, I was naked under that sheet, and I was keenly aware of the texture of the silk against my skin.

Lugh sat beside me on the edge of the bed. He’d toned down his wardrobe for this conversation, ditching the S&M getup for a plain black T-shirt that hugged his spectacular chest. He still wore his trademark black leather pants, but not the heavy black boots. One bare foot was tucked under the opposite leg, and I had the strangest urge to reach out and touch it. Then I remembered I was furious with him and nipped my arousal in the bud.

I glanced down at my body, noticing that despite my supposed anger, the thin sheet did little to hide my decidedly perky nipples. I scowled.