"Hey!" Wulf snapped. "That has never been my problem. That's his problem."
"Bullshit!" Chris snapped. "I haven't got any problems there either. My only problem is you yenting at me all the time to go get laid."
Oh, Cassandra really didn't want to go where this conversation was leading. It was way too much information about both men.
"Well, then, what problem were you talking about?" she asked Chris.
"The fact that if you walk out of the room, by the time you get to the end of the hallway, you won't remember him."
"Oh," she said in understanding. "That."
"Yeah, that."
"It's not a problem," Wulf said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "She remembers me."
"Ah, man," Chris said, his face contorted by disgust. "I've been making moves on a relative? That's so sick."
Wulf rolled his eyes. "She's not related to us."
Chris looked relieved for about half a second, then he looked ill again. "Well, then, that sucks even more. I finally find a woman who doesn't think I'm a total loser and she's here for you? What is wrong with this picture?"
Chris paused. The light came back to his face as if he'd had an even better thought. "Oh, wait, what am I saying? If she remembers you, I'm off the hook! Wahoo!" Chris started dancing around the couch. Cassandra stared at his chaotic, off-rhythm movements. Wulf really needed to let the boy out more.
"Don't get too excited, Christopher," Wulf said, dodging him as he came around the couch and tried to include Wulf in the dance. "She happens to be an Apollite."
Chris froze, then settled down. "She can't be, I've seen her in the daylight and she has no fangs."
"I'm half -Apollite."
Chris stepped behind Wulf as if suddenly afraid she might start feeding on him. "So what are you going to do with her?"
"She's my house guest for a while. You, on the other hand, need to get your bags packed." Wulf pushed him toward the hallway, but Chris refused to budge. "I'm calling the Council to evacuate you."
"Why?"
"Because we have a nasty Daimon after her who has some unusual powers. I don't want you caught in the cross fire."
Chris gave him a droll look. "I'm not a baby, Wulf. You don't have to hide me at the first sign of something not boring."
In spite of Chris's words, Wulf held the look of a patient parent dealing with a toddler. "I'm not taking a chance with your life, so go pack."
Chris let out a disgusted growl. "I curse the day Morginne gave you the soul of an old woman and made you worse than any mother could ever be."
"Christopher Lars Eriksson, move!" Wulf barked in a tone so commanding that Cassandra actually jumped. Chris just gave him a bored, blank stare. Sighing heavily, he turned and walked back down the hallway he'd emerged from.
"I swear," Wulf growled in a tone so low she barely heard him, "there are times when I could choke the life out of him."
"Well, you do talk to him like he's four."
Wulf turned on her with a glare so menacing that she actually stepped back from his wrath. "That is none of your business."
Cassandra held her hands up and returned his glare with one of her own. "Excuse me, Mr. Bad-Ass, but you will take another tone to me. I'm not your bitch to heel when you snap. I don't have to stay here."
"Yes you do."
She gave him an arch look. "I don't think so, and unless you take that anger out of your voice when you speak to me, all you're going to see is my heinie as it goes out that door." She pointed to the front door.
The smile he gave her was wicked and cold. "Have you ever tried to run from a Viking? There's a damned good reason why the western Europeans wet themselves whenever our names were mentioned."
His words made her shiver. "You wouldn't dare."
"Feel free to try me."
Cassandra swallowed. Maybe she shouldn't be so cocksure. Oh, screw that. If he wanted a fight, she was more than ready. A woman who had spent her life fighting Daimons was more than apt to take on any Dark-Hunter.
"Let me remind you of this, Mr. Viking-Warrior-Barbarian-Hoodlum, while your ancestors were scrounging for fire and food, mine were commanding the elements and building an empire that not even the modern world can touch. So don't you dare threaten me with what you're capable of. I'm not about to take that from you or anyone else. Got that?"
To her surprise he laughed at her words and moved to stand in front of her. His eyes were dark, dangerous, and they made her hot in spite of how angry she was at him. The heat of his body incinerated hers. She was even more breathless now. More aware of him and that raw, unsettling masculinity that made every feminine part of her pant.