"You know her too?"
Again Ash ignored the question. "I need you to protect her."
"Bullshit," Wulf snapped, angered over the fact that he already felt used by her. The last thing he wanted was to give her another shot at messing with his head. He'd never liked anyone toying with him, and after the way Morginne had used and betrayed him, the last thing he needed was another woman out to screw him to get what she wanted. "She's an Apollite."
"I know what she is and she has to be protected at all costs."
"Why?"
To his amazement, Acheron actually answered. "Because she holds the fate of the world in her hands, Wulf. If they kill her, Daimons are going to be the very least of our problems."
This was not what he wanted to hear tonight.
Wulf growled at Ash. "I really hate it when you say things like that." He paused as another thought occurred to him. "If she's so important, why aren't you here guarding her?"
"Mostly because this ain't Buffy and there's not one single Hellmouth to guard. I'm up to my armpits in Armageddon down here in New Orleans and not even I can physically be in two places at once. She's your responsibility, Wulf. Don't let me down."
Against his better judgment, Wulf listened to Ash give him Cassandra's address.
"And Wulf?"
"Yeah?"
"Have you ever noticed that salvation, much like your car keys, is usually found where and when you least expect it?"
He frowned at Ash's esoteric words. The man was really, really strange. "What the hell does that mean?"
"You'll see." Ash hung up.
"I really hate it when he plays Oracle," he said between clenched teeth as he turned his SUV around and headed toward Cassandra's.
This sucked. The last thing he wanted was to be near a woman who had seduced him so completely.
A woman he knew he could never touch in the real flesh. That would be an even bigger mistake than the one he'd already made. She was an Apollite. And for the last twelve hundred years, he had spent his life pursuing her kind and killing them.
And yet the woman called out to him in a way that tore through him.
What was he going to do? How could he uphold his code as a Dark-Hunter and keep away from her when all he really wanted to do was take her into his arms and see if she tasted as good in real life as she had in his dreams...
Kat thoroughly searched the apartment before she allowed Cassandra to lock the door.
"Why are you so nervous?" Cassandra asked. "We defeated the Daimons."
"Maybe," Kat said. "I just keep hearing that guy's voice in my head telling me that it's not over. I think our friends are going to be back. Real soon."
Cassandra's nervousness came back with a vengeance. It had been way too close tonight. The mere fact that Kat had refused to let them fight the Daimons and had opted instead to hide in a corner of the bar told her just how dangerous these men were.
She still wasn't sure why Kat had pulled her away from them.
Neither one of them cowered from anyone or anything.
Not until now.
"So what should we do?" Cassandra asked.
Kat triple-locked the door and pulled the gun from her purse. "Put our heads between our knees and kiss our butts good-bye."
Cassandra was stunned by the unexpected words. "Excuse me?"