There was no answer. Brian often worked tons of overtime, so I tried his office number. No luck.

Finally, I resorted to dialing his cell phone. I hoped like hell I wasn’t interrupting a date. Of course, since I’d cut him loose, I should theoretically be happy if he’d moved on with his life and found a new woman. Theoretically being the key word.

The phone rang three times, and I was afraid I was about to be dumped into voice mail. Then the voice I’d missed more than I could express said, “Hello, Morgan.”

My mouth was so dry that I couldn’t even answer him at first. I tried to interpret the tone of his voice. Was he furious with me? In dire pain? Or had he found a measure of acceptance? I couldn’t figure it out from two words.

“Morgan? Are you all right?”

Five more words, and I still couldn’t figure it out. But I found a scrap of my voice. “Yeah.” I realized with a jolt of alarm that I had no idea what to say to him. Though he had suffered dreadfully on my account, he had no idea why. He knew only the police interpretation.

“Are you going to speak to me, or are you expecting a monologue?”

I cleared my throat, my mind still frantically searching for what to say. “Sorry,” I said. My voice sounded crackly, and I cleared my throat again. When in doubt, stall. “Look, something’s come up and I need to talk to you. Can you come over?”

There was a moment of silence as he processed that. “What kind of ‘something’?”

“I’ll tell you all about it when you get here.” I wondered if my nose was growing longer.

He chuckled. “You never tell me ‘all about’ anything. And I’m kinda busy right now.”

I hated the way my stomach clenched as I imagined just what “busy” might mean. Please, God, don’t let him be on a date, I thought, then hated myself for it.

“It’s important.”

He sighed dramatically. “You do love keeping your cards close to the vest. I still love you, but if you expect me to drop everything and come running without anything more to go on, I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint you.”

I couldn’t tell if hearing that he still loved me made me feel better, or worse. “It’s too much to explain over the phone.” Especially when I hadn’t the foggiest idea what I was going to say. “But I think you may be in danger. I couldn’t bear it if you got hurt because of me again.”

He was silent for a long moment, and I held my breath. Then he sighed again and said, “I’ll be there in about a half hour.”

There was nothing more to say after that, so we hung up. When I wandered back into the living room, the TV was finally off. Andy watched me as I plopped down on the love seat and curled my feet up under me.

“What are you looking at?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest.

His lips twitched in a hint of a smile, quickly banished. “What are you going to tell him?”

I hunkered down lower in the love seat. “I haven’t the faintest idea.”

“And your plan to keep him safe from Der Jäger is…?”

“See previous answer.” I closed my eyes, laying the back of my head against the back of the love seat. Why did everything always have to be so fucking complicated?

“You might want to work something out before he gets here.”

I opened my eyes and glared at him. “Thanks for the tip, Einstein.”

My snarkiness didn’t seem to bother him, which wasn’t much of a surprise. After all, I’d probably been snarky in the womb, and he’d known me all my life. He met my glare with a neutral expression.

“And have you considered the possibility that Der Jäger might have gotten to him already?”

“No!” I shouted, though the very vehemence of my denial proved what a liar I was. “I refuse to consider it.”

Apparently, Andy had some wax buildup in his ears, since he went right on talking.

“When he comes in, I’ll keep him contained,” he said, patting the Taser that lay beside him on the couch. “Then you check out his aura, make sure he doesn’t have company.”

“Who died and made you king?” I asked, then grimaced at my choice of clichés.

“You’re probably right, and Der Jäger probably hasn’t gotten to him yet. But ‘probably’ isn’t ‘absolutely.’ You know we have to make sure.”

The problem was, I did know. And it didn’t make a damn bit of difference whether I liked it or not.

I was unhappy with this plan on so many levels I couldn’t even count them all. But I went along with it anyway.

As Andy and I waited for Brian to arrive, I pulled a single chair away from the dining room table, positioning it in the biggest open space I could find. I had to shove the coffee table and love seat to the side to make room. Then I dug into my supply of vanilla-scented candles, arranging them in a circle around the chair. When the security desk downstairs called, I told them to send Brian up, and I started lighting the candles, trying to pretend my hands weren’t shaking as I did so. I moved one candle out of alignment to give Brian room to enter the circle. Then, I waited.

Andy, his strength slowly beginning to return, propped himself against the dining room wall, giving himself a clear shot at the doorway. The Taser was armed and ready to go, and Andy’s face showed nothing but grim determination. I hoped he didn’t have an itchy trigger finger, but it was too late to reverse our roles now.

The ding of the elevator gave me advance warning of Brian’s arrival. I gave up trying to sort out the clamor of emotions that warred within me, steadying my nerves as best I could. I still had no idea what I was going to tell him.

I opened the door before he had a chance to knock, and the sight of him stole my breath.

In the looks department, Brian can’t compete with the perfection of Lugh or Adam, but he’s still damn good-looking, in a sort of all-American-boy way that seemed so wrong for someone like me. My heart fluttered in my chest at the sight of him, even though he wasn’t giving me the fabulous, warm smile that had melted away my cares so often.

He opened his mouth to say something, then caught sight of Andrew and the Taser. His whisky-brown eyes widened with shock and he gaped at me. Guilt gnawed at my guts, but I forced myself to meet his eyes.

“Step inside, please,” I said, moving back a bit and holding the door open for him.

He just stood there, staring at me. “What’s this all about?”

“Come in, and I’ll explain. I’m really sorry about this. Andy and I are just being paranoid.” When he still didn’t move, I gave him my most beseeching look. I was pretty sure that if he didn’t come in of his own free will, Andy was going to zap him, but if I could possibly avoid threatening him, I would.

Finally, Brian’s shoulders slumped. “This ought to be an interesting explanation,” he muttered.

Even though I didn’t really believe Der Jäger had gotten to him yet, I kept my distance from him as he crossed the threshold and I closed the door behind him. It was then that he saw the chair and the circle of candles.

“You think I’m possessed?” he cried, giving me a look that said I was out of my mind.

I shook my head. “No. But I’d hate to be wrong. Please just take a seat. I’ll take a quick look at your aura, and then we can talk.”

He scowled at me. Before my bad influence had rubbed off on him, he’d been one of the most even-tempered individuals I’d ever met. I hated the thought that being with me had changed that.

“I should have known when you called me that it would be something like this.” His face slightly flushed with his anger, he stomped over to the chair and plopped down on it, refusing to meet my eyes.

“I’m sorry,” I said again, but he didn’t look at me or acknowledge the apology.

Trying not to be hurt, because, after all, I’d be acting the same way in his shoes, I closed the circle. It wasn’t really necessary for the candles to be arranged in a circle, and often I dispensed with the formality, but I was so miserable that I fell back on the more traditional ritual.