Daimon (Guardians of Hades #6) - Felicity Heaton Page 0,28
and the choice of finding new parents. My brothers don’t know about it and I don’t want them to know. Do you understand that, Cass?”
She shivered at the delicious sound of her name on his tongue. She couldn’t remember him saying it, and if he had, he had never said it like that—softly, almost tenderly.
She nodded. “Why is it a secret though?”
“Esher.”
That one-word answer was enough. His brother wouldn’t understand why Daimon was taking care of humans.
“Why did you do this for the children?” She couldn’t stop that question from leaving her lips as she gazed up at the building and thought about what he was doing, and realised that the reason the building appeared as it might have back when it was built was because Daimon had been the one to pay for it then.
He had been running this home for children for two centuries.
His expression turned guarded.
“Why, Daimon?” She risked a step towards him, her tone softening as she stared deep into his ice-blue eyes, seeking the answer there.
“Go back to the mansion.” He stared down at her, a cold edge entering his eyes.
“No.” She took another step, closing the distance between them down to only a few inches.
Daimon made a lunge for her and she was quick to evade him, aware that if he got his hand on her he would teleport her back to the mansion and she wouldn’t have the strength to teleport herself after him again when he came back to Hong Kong.
“Why are you so difficult all the time? Why do you never do as you’re told?” he barked as he made another attempt to seize hold of her.
Cass froze a short distance from him, beyond arm’s reach, and stared at him as shock rolled through her, a chilling sort of cold that irritated the hell out of her.
“As I’m told?” she bit out, her eyebrows lowering as her lips flattened, the thought that he believed she should do as he bid raising her hackles. “I’m a powerful sorceress, Daimon. I can take care of myself. I don’t need a man to take care of me. I’m not some weak, delicate little female you can order around.”
She hurled the last few words at him, fury getting the better of her, tinged with disappointment. When had she ever given him the impression that she couldn’t handle things, that she needed some white-knight figure to protect her?
His face darkened, his jaw ticking as he glared at her. The pain that surfaced in his eyes was phenomenal.
Pain that went deep.
She had struck a nerve, but she wasn’t sure how.
Or why.
“Make your own way home then.” He backed off a step, still glowering at her. “It’s not my fucking business, and this here…” He pointed to the building to his right. “This isn’t your business so stay the hell out of it.”
He disappeared, leaving a trail of black smoke in his wake that was thicker than normal, swirled eerily in the disturbed air.
Cass’s shoulders sagged as all her tension rushed out of her.
She bit out a curse.
How did things between them always end in an argument? She didn’t mean for it to happen, and part of her felt it wasn’t entirely her fault. Daimon was a minefield, and even the slightest misstep on her part had him exploding at her.
She tipped her head back, closed her eyes and loosed a long sigh.
Time for another apology.
This time, she would make it good enough to heal whatever wound she had inflicted on him, even though she wasn’t sure what she had done to hurt him.
She tried to summon the spell to transport herself. Weakness rolled through her before she managed to finish the first part of the incantation.
Great.
She walked to the main road and hailed a cab.
It was going to take longer than she wanted to reach Daimon. A cab. A ferry. Another cab. She only hoped he had gone back to his home in the hills, because if he had gone back to Tokyo, she was even more screwed.
She chuckled mirthlessly at that.
It turned out she needed him after all.
She sighed as she sagged into the back of a taxi.
In more ways than she wanted to admit.
She stared out at the city as the vehicle moved, her mind filled with one thought.
If she’d had a different life, another life…
Would Daimon have been hers?
Chapter 8
Daimon cut through the water, focused on his breathing, on each stroke of his arms and pump of his legs.