A surge of excitement raced through her and Kylie sent up a quick prayer. “Oh, please let it be that easy!” She called up a new program and did a few quick fiddles, capturing a screen shot of the man’s blurry image and saving it as a separate file. “I got the film as clean as I was able to, but I know a guy who’s an expert with imaging. If anyone can do something to get a recognizable face from this shmuts, it’s him. I’ll shoot it his way and see what he can do.”
The Guardian grunted his approval of the idea. “Good, but there is more. How are we to discover the details of this grand plan the nocturni mentioned? Clearly we must put a stop to anything that could raise so much power for the Seven. Both for the greater good, and for the sake of the hundreds of lives that would be lost.”
Kylie sent her e-mail to Vic, the wonder imager, zipping through the ether, then returned her full attention to Dag. “No, you’re absolutely right. Whatever it is, we need to stop it, which means first off, finding out what ‘it’ is. There are still a couple of files on here that I haven’t gone over yet. It’s possible they could tell us, or at least point us to where we can look for more info.”
“Digging deeper only increases the danger to you, and by extension, the larger cause.”
She scowled. Seriously, the guy was a bad influence. “Are you saying we don’t look? That we just let it happen?”
“Of course not. But perhaps it would be safer if you did as the other man did not and left this city for a different location, one where you would be harder to find.”
“That’s a joke, right?” Kylie knew the answer to that, but he needed to hear how ridiculous his suggestion sounded. “First of all, no frickin’ way. Second of all, what? You’re just going to send me away somewhere where I won’t have my very own Guardian watching my back? Are you going to paint a target on it, too?”
“Do not be ridiculous. You could travel to the home of the witch. She is your friend, and my brother would guard you just as I would. You would be safer away from here.”
“I call that blote. Bullshit. All I would be is away. Safer’s got nothing to do with it. If they want to find me, they’re going to find me. If you really want to keep me safe, you’d be better off bringing Wynn and Knox here where they can both help guard me and maybe teach me to better guard myself. I’m a Warden now, right? Well, I’m not going to be a very good one until someone shows me how.”
When he opened his mouth to protest, she bounced right up off her ball and got up in his face. Or as close as she could be from more than a foot below it. “And you can add all that fine, rational logic of mine to this: I flat refuse. You want me out of here, you’ll have to drag me out, kicking, screaming, and plotting in my head the quickest way back. I don’t like taking orders, and I hate being treated like a child.”
Number five on the List, actually.
By the time she finished her little speech, she stood before him on the tips of her toes, leaning so close that her chest nearly mashed itself up against his. She had her shoulders pulled back, her eyes narrowed, and her chin practically pointed at the ceiling. Her hackles were raised, her back was up, and frankly, she was a little surprised that smoke didn’t seem to be pouring out of her ears, because she was mad, she was determined, and she was all worked up into an epic case of shpilkes.
Then she blinked and got a good look at Dag’s expression.
All of a sudden, the shpilkes became tingles and dropped down to concentrate in a very specific place—namely, right between her thighs. What did it say that every time the two of them worked each other up, Kylie’s mind turned immediately to sex?
And her mind still lagged about three steps behind her body, it seemed, which for the first time in her life was working more slowly than someone or something else.
The tension between them could not be cut by a knife. Kylie guessed it would require a chain saw at the very least. Maybe a laser torch. Dag’s black eyes had turned nearly red, so brightly did the fires that normally flickered within now burn. She felt pinned in place, breathless and aching, and damn him for being the cause of it all.
For the span of several pounding heartbeats, she waited for his hands to close around her, for his mouth to crash down once again and consume her the way he had just a few hours ago. She could feel the crackling energy of lust sparking between them and knew anything could happen at any moment. Any. Thing. At. All.
But she wasn’t expecting the roar.
Throwing back his head, Dag released a roar even louder than the battle cry with which he had greeted the drude. This time, her plaster actually did crack, a small section of it raining down from the ceiling even as the Guardian spun and shot from the room faster than the sound could travel.
Kylie stood there and watched him go, a light coating of dust in her hair and a vow to get even growing in her heart.
So Mr. Rocks for Brains thought he could just walk out on her every time things between them got a little heated? Oh, he would learn the truth, and Kylie T. Kramer would teach it to him, one day very, very soon.
She hoped he took notes, because it was going to be a long and thorough lesson.
Chapter Eight
Di velt iz sheyn nor di mentshn makhn zi mies.
The world is beautiful but people make it ugly.