"You must be Valerius," she said, stepping forward to offer him her hand.
"It's an honor," he said formally before he shook her hand very briefly, released it, and stepped back six paces.
She looked at Tabitha. "You two are the odd couple, aren't you?"
Tabitha shrugged before she tucked her hands in her pockets. "Thank God he's cuter than Tony Randall and I don't have Jack Klugman's nose."
Valerius became even more rigid.
Tabitha ran her hand affectionately down his arm. "Relax, hon. She doesn't bite. Only I do that." She winked at him.
The problem was, he didn't know how to relax. Especially not while her twin was staring at him as if he were something sinister.
Amanda watched her sister with the Roman general she had assumed she would hate on first meeting. To her surprise, she didn't.
He wasn't friendly, that was certainly true. He stood there with a crisp, arrogant look that seemed to defy her to insult him. But as she looked closer, she realized it was nothing more than a facade. He actually expected her to say something vicious to him and was just bracing himself to take it.
In fact, her psychic sense didn't pick up cruelty of any sort. Though he looked completely ill at ease, his gaze softened ever so subtly every time he glanced at Tabitha.
And there was no way to miss the way Tabitha reacted to him.
Oh, good grief, they really did love each other. What a nightmare!
"Well," Amanda said slowly, "I can stand here making everyone uncomfortable or I can go home. I should probably head back before it gets dark anyway. So-"
"My apologies, Mrs. Hunter," he said quickly. "I didn't mean to make you uneasy. If you wish to stay and talk to Tabitha, I'll be more than happy to withdraw."
She smiled at his kindness. "No, it's okay. I just wanted to meet you for myself. I've never been the kind of person to let someone else make up my mind for me and I wanted to know if you really were a three-toed, horned demon. But strangely enough, you look like an accountant."
"From her, that's a compliment," Tabitha said with a laugh.
He looked even more uncomfortable.
"It's okay," Amanda said. "Really. I just felt this insane need to know who was holding my sister hostage. It's not like her to not call me three dozen times a day."
"I'm not holding her hostage," he said quickly as if the accusation offended him. "She can leave anytime she chooses."
Amanda smiled. "I know." She looked at Tabitha and shook her head. "It's going to be hell at Thanksgiving, huh? Never mind the terror of Christmas. And we thought Granny Flora was bad with Uncle Robert."
Tabitha's heart pounded at what her sister was saying. "You don't mind?"
"Oh, I mind, all right. I would sooner kill myself than ever hurt Kyrian, but I can't hurt you either and I'm not willing to lose you over something that happened two thousand years ago. Maybe we'll get lucky and one of the Daimons'll get Valerius before this is over."
"Amanda!" Tabitha snapped.
"I was joking, Tabby. Really." She took Valerius's hand and held it against Tabitha's. "One of these is not like the other, one of these does not belong," she sang under her breath.
Then she sobered. "Are you going to ask Ash for Valerius's soul back?"
Tabitha felt a bit awkward with that question. "We haven't gotten that far."
"I see."
Tabitha stiffened at the "Mom" tone Amanda used. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Amanda looked at her as if she had no clue. "It means nothing."
"Yeah, right," Tabitha said, her anger mounting. "I know that tone. You don't think I'm serious about him, do you?"