She jumped at the deep sound of Wulf's voice behind her. She hadn't heard him approach. "It's beautiful. Did you commission it?"
He nodded and indicated the woman in the picture. "Isabella was quite an admirer of van Eyck's work so I thought it would be a perfect wedding present for them. She was the eldest daughter of another Squire family who had been sent to marry my Squire Leif. Chris is descended from their third daughter."
"Wow," she breathed, impressed. "All my life, I have struggled to find out something about my heritage and lineage, and here you are, a walking textbook for Chris. Does he have any idea how lucky he is?"
He shrugged. "I've learned that at his age, most people aren't interested in their past. Only their future. He'll want to know as he gets older."
"I don't know," she said, thinking of the way Chris's eyes lit up whenever he tried to teach her Old English. "I think he knows a lot more about it than you realize. He's a star student in class. You should listen to him go. When we were studying, he seemed to know just about everything about your culture."
Wulf's features softened, turning him into the gentler man she'd seen in her dreams. "So he does listen."
"Yes, he does." Cassandra started for her room. "Well, it's getting late and it's been a really long night. I was going to go to sleep."
Wulf took her hand and pulled her to a stop. "I came to get you."
"Why?"
He stared at her intently. "Since you're now pregnant with my baby, I don't want you to sleep up here where I can't get to you, should you need protection. I know I told you you could come and go in the daylight, but I'd rather you didn't. The Daimons have human helpers just as we do. It would be too easy for one of them to get to you."
Her first reaction was to tell him to stuff it, but something in her refrained. "Are you ordering me?"
"No," he said quietly. "I'm asking you. For your safety and for the baby's."
She smiled at that and at the edge in his voice that told her he wasn't accustomed to asking anyone for anything. She'd heard him bark enough orders at Chris to know Wulf and free will weren't exactly synonymous.
"Okay," she said, giving him a small smile, "but only because you asked me."
His features relaxed. Good grief, the man was gorgeous when he looked like that. "Is there anything you need from your apartment? I can send someone after it."
"Clothes would be nice. Makeup and a toothbrush even more so."
He pulled his phone out and dialed it. Cassandra listened to him introduce himself to his security men as she opened the door and he followed her inside her room. Kat, who was sitting in a chair reading, looked up without comment.
"Hang on." He handed the phone to her. "Here, tell them what you need and where you live."
"Why?"
"Because if I tell them, they'll forget within five minutes what I said and won't leave the premises. I always have to have someone, usually Ash, Chris, or my friend Talon, tell them what I need done, or I e-mail them. And right now e-mail or text-messaging would take too long."
Was he serious?
"I can go with them," Kat offered as she set her book aside. "I actually know what she uses and I want to grab a few things of my own."
Wulf relayed the message to his guards and then had Cassandra repeat every word of it.
Once she finished talking to the guard, she hung up the phone. Lord have mercy, and she had thought her life was screwed up. "So are you telling me that humans can't even remember a conversation with you?"
"No, never."
"Then how do you keep Chris under wraps? Can't he just tell them you said it was okay for him to leave?"
Wulf laughed. "Because any order concerning his safety has to be cleared through Ash first and Chris knows it. The security guards would never move without direct orders from Ash."
Wow, the man was strict. Kat gave Cassandra a gentle smile as Cassandra picked up the clothes Wulf had given her from the dresser. "I'm glad you handled this so well this time. And Wulf too. It makes things a lot easier."
Cassandra nodded. It did indeed. If only Wulf could accept her heritage as easily as he had the baby. But then what good would it do when she was destined to die? Perhaps this was the best way for it to work out. This way he wouldn't mourn her. No, the voice in her head said. She wanted more than that from Wulf. She wanted what they had shared in her dreams.
Stop being selfish. Cassandra swallowed at the thought. She was right. It would be kinder to stay away from Wulf. The last thing she wanted was to know he would grieve for her. The fewer people mourning her, the better. She hated the thought of people hurting for her the way she hurt for her mother and sisters. There wasn't a day that went by where they weren't in her thoughts. Where a part of her didn't ache that she could never see them again.
Once she had the T-shirt and sweatpants in her arms Wulf walked with her back through his house. His powerful presence touched something deep inside her. She'd never imagined feeling like this.