Ginny drove slowly out of the resort grounds. She glanced at her cell phone for messages. Then she handed it to Alton. “Call Markus. See if he’s seen anything unusual.”

Alton took her phone, found Markus’s number, and punched the key. There was no answer. He left a brief message and then handed the phone back to Ginny. “Now what?”

“Wasn’t this your idea?” She laughed. “I guess we drive. Open the windows. Keep your senses alive to anything that feels wrong.” She slanted what should have been just a quick look in his direction. Light from the dashboard reflected off the curve of his chin and the sharp line of his nose. His hair was dry now, hanging like pale yellow silk over his shoulders and pooling in his lap. Damn, but she was jealous of that hair. Why was it the guys always got the beautiful, smooth tresses? She loved that he’d left it unbound. His black T-shirt was tucked into his jeans—it stretched over his muscular chest as if it had been painted on him.

She had to force her attention back on the road stretching out in front of them. Concentrate, girl. Pay attention. “I felt the demons at the airport,” she said, though she hated recalling that awful feeling. “It was a horrible sense of something really wrong, like a slow-motion anxiety attack that just kept building and getting worse.”

Alton’s big palm covered her right knee and she smiled at him, then quickly looked at the road ahead. “I wasn’t sure if it was the vortex I was sensing or the demons, but once we went through the portal I knew it was demons making me so anxious.”

Alton nodded. “I sensed them as well, but I’m wondering now if it was the lesser demons we sensed, or the demon king. I’ve never noticed that kind of physical reaction before, but this was a feeling of something truly evil.”

“Maybe it’s because he truly is evil. Think about it. A demon that’s born a demon, that’s always a demon, is acting true to his nature. In Abyss, he’s not evil, he just is. As Dax said, his only concern was staying alive, so the demons invading Earth’s dimension aren’t inherently evil—they’re merely acting the way they’re supposed to act—like demons. The demon king, though, was once a creature in a world without evil, so for him to choose the darker side means he consciously chose to be bad. Doesn’t that make him worse than a natural-born demon?”

Alton’s burst of laughter caught her by surprise. “What?”

“Ah, Ginny…If I’d had any doubt that you were Lemurian, your argument just now would have convinced me of your true nature. Lemurians live for the debate. You’re a natural.”

She chuckled. “Eddy’s always said she hates to argue with me because I refuse to lose even when I’m wrong.” Grinning broadly she added, “Of course, I’m never wrong.”

“I’m glad you told me. I’ll remember that when we disagree.” Alton settled back in the comfortable seat and smiled as if he were enjoying his own private joke. At her expense.

“You say that like it’s not going to happen.”

Alton cocked one expressive eyebrow and rolled his head to one side to watch her. “I was being facetious. I imagine we’ll disagree many times in the many years ahead. Don’t expect to win every time. It would be bad for my self-image.”

Many years? Would they really be together for many years? How could Alton say that when they’d known each other such a short time?

She really didn’t want to think about that right now. No, she just wanted to check around Sedona for demons and then get back to the casita and sleep. Except where was she going to sleep tonight? In the same bed as Alton? And if they slept in the same bed, would they make love again?

Just thinking of the possibility made her stomach clench—but was it nerves or expectation? Ginny glanced Alton’s way, but he was staring out the window as they sped toward town. She wondered what he was thinking, but when she searched, she came up against a solid wall blocking his thoughts. Turning her attention to the road ahead, she drove through the darkness toward the lights of Sedona.

Alton hadn’t felt this relaxed in ages. There was something about Ginny Jones that seemed to make him feel complete in a way he’d not been in thousands of years. It didn’t make sense, really, since she’d certainly not committed herself to him. They’d made love only that one night and she certainly didn’t treat him with the respect and deference a Lemurian female traditionally offered to her mate.

Which, he’d finally decided, was part of the attraction. Ginny deferred to no one. She was tough and outspoken and fearless in battle, as aggressive on the battlefield as she’d been in his bed. There was a lot to be said for a tough, self-confident woman.

At least he finally understood why Dax loved Eddy so—she was his equal, a woman to stand beside, to count on, not one to treat like spun glass. Eddy was a woman worthy of respect.

Just like Ginny.

She drove slowly once they reached Sedona. At the intersection of Highway 89, she stopped for the red light and then turned left into town. Traffic was quiet—not nearly as heavy as it had been during the daylight hours. It was still comfortable out, so they drove with the windows down.

Alton fiddled with the radio. He was quickly growing to love the different kinds of music he could find with the mere flip of a switch. For all their advanced technology, Lemurians had nothing to compare to the music humans made. They couldn’t.

Good music was passionate. It stroked the emotions.

He stopped at a country-western station, listened a moment, and then sat back to enjoy a slow, sad ballad about lost love and missed chances.

Ginny laughed. “You always go for the most depressing music, Alton. What’s wrong with something fast and sexy? Some of these songs just make me wanna cry.”

“That’s because they make you feel emotions.” He steepled his fingers beneath his chin. “I was raised in a society where emotions are frowned upon. In Lemuria, it’s all about logic, about the common good. Humans are all about passion and emotion, about getting in touch with their feelings.” He sighed. “I envy you the life you’ve led, the freedom to enjoy emotional highs and lows, to feel sadness and joy with equal measure.”

Ginny was quiet for a long time, staring straight ahead as they slowly drove through town. After a couple of blocks, she softly sighed. Her voice was so quiet he barely heard her.

“I know it sounds great in theory, Alton, but emotions aren’t always a good thing. I still feel horribly sad when I think of my parents and how much I miss them. I’m scared to death of the changes in my life right now.” She stopped at a red light and turned to stare at him.

“Most of all, I’m really terrified of what I feel for you.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to feel all twisted up inside, unsure of how you feel about me, afraid of what I’m beginning to feel for you.”

The light changed and she pulled forward, but her soft words hung in the air between them, emphasizing the charged silence.

He had no answer for her. Dax had asked him if he loved Ginny. How could he know what love was if he’d never felt it before? He liked her. Liked being with her, admired her, but like and admire weren’t necessarily love. His lack of response only added to the silence between them.

A silence that didn’t end until they heard a blood-curdling scream. Ginny hit the brakes and skidded to a stop at the side of the road. “Do you hear that?”

“C’mon!” Alton jumped out of the SUV, drew HellFire, and raced back the way they’d just come. Traffic continued past them on the road as if no one else heard the terrified screams. Alton skidded to a quick stop in front of a narrow alley, slid around the corner, and ran down the dark passage between two buildings.

Ginny’s feet pounded the sidewalk behind him. He held his sword high. HellFire’s brilliant glow illuminated the shadows, spotlighting an older woman cowering in a doorway, surrounded by huge gray rats.

He saw seven of them, though others might be lurking in the shadows. Their eyes glowed blood red. Naked ears lay flat against ugly heads. It took Alton a moment to place the odd clicking noise echoing around him—it was the rhythmic snap of teeth as the rats closed in on their prey.

She was wearing shorts and hiking boots. Her legs were bleeding from a dozen deep scratches, though Alton was relieved to see she didn’t have any visible bites. She looked about sixty or so in human years. Her gray hair framed her face in a wreath of curls and frizzy tangles. She grasped the broken handle of a broom in both hands and held it like a club. The rest of the broom lay just beyond, along with the bodies of two dead rats.

“Don’t worry about finesse,” Ginny said. “I hate rats.”

“Whether you hate them or not doesn’t matter.” Alton swept his loose hair over his shoulders to get it out of the way and moved around to the other side of the advancing circle. “If you kill the living avatar, the demon will take its life force. The last thing you want to do is feed demons. It’s better to force them out and kill them in their mist form.”

“Damn. I was afraid you’d say that.” Ginny touched DarkFire to the first rat. It screeched and rolled over. The demon shot straight out of its belly in a dark swirl of stinking mist. Alton swung HellFire. The demon burst into flame and disappeared in a thick cloud of sulfuric smoke.

Another rat, another demon gone. Then another. Suddenly Ginny sensed a movement to her left. She spun around as a large black cat launched itself from the top of a pile of boxes. Ginny slapped it down with the broad side of her blade and Alton forced the demon from its body. Ginny swung DarkFire through the screeching wraith and watched with absolute satisfaction as the black mist burst into flames.

The cat sat up and shook its head, hissed once, and raced away. “Ungrateful beast.” Ginny turned her attention to the rats once more. “The least he could have done was hunt a few rats.”

Only four of the creatures remained, but they continued to circle in front of the woman. She’d moved to the top step. Trembling, she hung on to the door, watching wide-eyed.

Advancing slowly, Ginny and Alton methodically destroyed the rest of the demons. The stunned rats wobbled to their feet, blinked with beady but normal rat-colored eyes, and scattered. The woman stared as the last of the vermin disappeared into the shadows.

Then she focused on the light from the two swords. Slowly she moved down the three steps, but she didn’t turn loose of the broom handle. “What the hell happened? There’ve always been rats in the alley, but never once have they come after me.”

Ginny sheathed DarkFire and stepped forward. “Are you okay?”

The woman nodded and glanced at her legs. “I scratched myself when I fell. I was trying to get away from them.” She pointed at the dead rats. “Those two came flying out of the dark and scared me half to death. I knocked them both down before I had a chance to think about it, but the broom snapped in two.”

She grabbed the short banister beside her and hung on. Her entire body shook as she stared at the dead rats. Then her head snapped up and she looked at Alton as if she were seeing him for the first time. Her terrified gaze settled on his sword. “Who are you? Are those lightsabers you’re using? I’ve only seen those in the movies.” She reached for HellFire.

Alton quickly pulled the blade out of her reach and slipped it into his scabbard. He checked Ginny’s sword to make sure her glamour was in place. Then he swept his hand across the woman’s eyes. She blinked owlishly and looked down at her legs.

“Oh, wow! How’d I do that?” She touched one particularly deep scratch and then looked up at Alton. “Who are you?”

He ignored her question. “We heard you scream. My friend and I came to see if you needed help. Are you okay?”

Still somewhat dazed, she nodded. “I’m fine. I must’ve fallen. I’ll need to clean these up, but thank you. It’s nice to know someone will still stop and help a person.”

She gazed into the shadows and shuddered. “Weird,” she mumbled. “Just weird.” Then she turned, opened the door to the back of the shop, and went inside.

Alton gazed at Ginny for a long moment. A sound caught his attention and he turned quickly, drawing HellFire. Nine hells. He quickly sheathed the sword.

A small crowd of onlookers had gathered at the far end of the alley, obviously drawn by the woman’s screams just as Alton and Ginny had been. Alton grabbed Ginny’s arm and they walked quickly toward the group. As they drew closer, Alton realized they were mostly teenagers and young adults.

At least a few of them had been drinking. “Hey, man.” One who’d obviously had too much, a tall, lanky kid, stepped forward. “Cool sword.”

“Sword?” Alton gave him a confused look. “What sword?”

The kid frowned. He looked at Alton’s hands. One clasped Ginny’s arm, the other hung at his side. He shook his head. “I was sure I saw a sword.” He looked over his shoulder at his friends. “Man, I need another beer,” he said. Then he spun around, stumbled, and laughed. “Make that two.”

He took off down the street with his buddies laughing and teasing him. Alton watched the group go with his thoughts in turmoil. He wasn’t thinking of the demons or the fact they’d just saved a woman from an unprecedented attack, one that almost seemed too organized for demons as they knew them.

No, he was thinking of what it was like for young humans. The friendships they had, the opportunities to go out in the world and do stupid stuff, to take chances. To learn and grow and experience life in all its wonders, even if that wonder was nothing more than hanging out on a street corner with friends.

The best memories of his life were of his times with Taron when they were still children, but then their world had changed and they’d been thrust into a life without any challenges at all. A life so tightly directed they’d never had the chance to grow, to find out what they were capable of.

And what had he done with the life he’d had? Disappointed his father. Left his mother without the one child she’d been able to have. Abandoned his world, his people, and any chance at redeeming himself to his family and friends. Had he made the right choice when he’d left Lemuria? Would his sacrifice make any difference at all, or was he merely using this battle against demonkind as an excuse, a chance to see what there was beyond the only world he’d ever known?

He was still learning. Still discovering who and what he was. Even Ginny knew more about living than he did. She’d lived more in her thirty-one years than he had in all the long centuries of his existence. What did he have to show for his long life? What had he done to make his mark on his world?

“Alton? Are you okay?”

Ginny’s soft question dragged him out of his dark thoughts. Pulled him away from a lifetime of regrets and worries about his future—if he even had a future.

“I’m okay,” he said. “Just thinking about a lot of stuff I can’t do anything about.”

Ginny squeezed his hand and hugged his arm close against her side. “I know. Life’s like that. Lots of questions and not nearly enough answers.”

They quietly walked away from the alley and back to the SUV. When they reached their vehicle, Ginny paused and stared at Alton. “I wonder where the demons that were in the rats she killed have gone?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know, but odds are they’ve got the life force of the rats to give them more power. Demons are definitely growing more aggressive, but rats?” He rolled his shoulders. “Nasty things.” He gazed around the area where they’d stopped, in a part of town filled with small shops, restaurants, and bars. A few tourists wandered from store to store and most of the businesses were still open. “Let’s walk,” he said. “Can we leave the vehicle here?”

“It’s fine here. I actually parked legally.”

She flashed him an uncertain smile and slipped her hand into his. They walked along the sidewalk like the rest of the people enjoying a balmy evening in the desert. Alton searched her thoughts and found the same disquiet he felt within himself.

Sometimes he wondered if he and Ginny were more alike than he’d thought. Maybe Ginny was the answer to his questions, if he only knew what they were. Was Ginny as confused as he was?

Sounds of laughter filtered out of a small bar they passed, but it was the country-western music that brought Alton to a stop, made him back up, and drew him toward the sound. He gazed in through the open door. Once his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he realized the place was filled with young adults around Ginny’s age, all gathered in couples or groups. They were laughing and talking and doing all the things young couples in this world did to get to know each other.

It wasn’t this free in Lemuria, but even at their more formal gatherings the objective was the same. Spend time together, see if the person you met would make a proper mate, a potential parent to the child you hoped to have one day. Here it was called dating. He understood the concept, how human men and women interacted as they grew to know each other.

He glanced at Ginny and wondered what it would be like to go on a date with her. Would it hurt to take a moment for themselves, just the two of them?

Feeling absolutely reckless, he leaned close to Ginny’s ear and whispered, “Hey, sweet thing. Can I buy you a drink?”

She giggled and leaned against his arm. Then she gazed up at him with a look of pure adoration that he knew was absolutely fake. “Can you afford a girl like me?”

He blinked and straightened up. That certainly ruined his line. “Well, no. I gave all my money to you.”

She laughed, hooked a finger in the waistband of his jeans and tugged. “C’mon, cowboy. I’m buyin’. It is, after all, your cash.” She winked. “How’s that work?”

“Works for me.” He looped an arm over her shoulders and they stepped into the shadows. There were at least a dozen young men lined up along a wooden bar. Light reflected off of various bottles and glasses along the wall. Most of the tables were filled with couples or groups of single men or women sitting and drinking, talking and laughing.

The noise level dropped as he and Ginny walked through the door. Alton was immediately aware of the avaricious looks some of the women gave him. Any other time he might have enjoyed the attention, but tonight he only wanted Ginny. She clung tightly to his arm. He wanted to think she was staking her claim, but he figured that was only fantasy.

Still, he couldn’t help but wonder if she ever gazed at him in such a covetous manner. If she ever looked at him as if she were mentally undressing him. He doubted it. Not Ginny. She had more pride, unlike these ladies. Some of the women they passed looked like they wanted to eat him alive.

One particularly busty blonde tried to make eye contact, but Alton quickly glanced away. Luckily, the music that had caught his attention when they’d walked by was still playing.

“I thought I knew this song.” He grabbed Ginny’s hand and dragged her over to the colorful machine in the corner that seemed to be the source of the music. “What is this? Is it like the radio in the car?”

“No, silly.” Ginny leaned over and read a list of titles across the front. “This is an old-fashioned jukebox. I haven’t seen one of these for years. Look—it’s actually flipping real records. Wow…Johnny Cash and Folsom Prison Blues. I haven’t heard this one for a while.”

“It was on the radio in your little blue car. That’s how I recognized it.” He turned and caught Ginny looking at him, but she was only curious. At least he didn’t think she was imagining him naked, and since her thoughts were blocked he couldn’t really tell.

Her thoughts were always blocked, it seemed.

“It’s an old song,” she said, glancing at the list of titles once again. “I used to know all the words.”

He nodded. “I’ve only heard them once before, but the lyrics made me think of my life in Lemuria, when I knew there was a whole other world outside and I was stuck inside a mountain with nothing to look forward to.”

She raised her head and her tiger’s eyes seemed to look right through him. “You thought of Lemuria as a prison? For all those years?”

He shrugged. “Not always. When I was younger, shortly after our continent sank beneath the sea, I was excited about our new home. When I was old enough, I helped with some of the early construction, but then it was done and there was nothing. No challenge, nothing to dream of. It became even more of a prison after I began sneaking out and visiting your dimension. The personal freedom here made me realize how much more there could be in a man’s life. When I heard this song on your car radio yesterday, it reminded me again of how I felt within the stone walls of our world. Earth was the train, forever moving, knowing freedom.”

His words drifted off as the song ended. Ginny continued to stare at him and her look was one of timeless wonder, as if she might finally have started to understand more of the man he was and not just the man he preferred to show her.

But was that a good thing or bad? He’d never been close to anyone other than Taron, never really shared his more intimate feelings and thoughts. Maybe it was a mistake to let Ginny get too close. She’d already said she didn’t intend to stick around.

She had her job to go back to, a job she seemed to think was more important than fighting demons, than saving the world…than him.

Nine hells…he hoped his mental barriers were strong. They could still communicate, but he didn’t want her wandering around inside his self-pitying thoughts. Another song came on. The same singer, but with a totally different sound. Something about naming a boy Sue? Alton tried to make sense of the silly lyrics, but he couldn’t give them his full attention. Not when Ginny was so close, her eyes focused solely on him.

He reached out and touched her hair. Her dark curls were springy beneath his fingers, so unlike the straight, smooth feel of his. Hers had life and energy, just like Ginny. They fit her. Everything about Ginny fit. She was perfect, exactly as she was, a woman comfortable in her own skin.

“Son of a bitch!”

Ginny pressed close. Alton focused on the group of young men at the bar. He recognized two of them. They’d been part of the small crowd watching from the end of the alley when he and Ginny took care of the demon-possessed rats. He’d left them all with a compulsion to forget, but the tallest one had been particularly inebriated.

He was the one who’d shouted the curse, though he sounded more frightened than angry.

Alton grabbed Ginny’s arm. They edged over so he could see the guy better. His compulsions generally worked really well on drunks. They didn’t have the mental clarity to fight his suggestions, but there was something weird about this guy.

He was there, wasn’t he? He looks familiar.

Yes, Ginny. I want to watch him. Something’s not right.

I agree.

She moved with him and they took two empty stools close by the young man. He was leaning over the bar now, staring at his mug of beer and mumbling incoherently. His shoulders jerked, his legs twitched, and there was obviously something very wrong about him. The bartender was serving another customer, but he was definitely keeping an eye on this one.

Even his friends seemed to have noticed something was wrong. A couple of the guys had their heads together, but they kept their focus on the drunk. Suddenly he straightened up, screamed as if the gates of hell had been flung wide, and lunged toward Alton and Ginny. He swung his arm around and caught Ginny hard on the shoulder with a roundhouse punch.

She flew off the stool before Alton even had time to react. He caught her before she hit the floor. The guy’s buddies were all over him. Within seconds they’d grabbed his arms and pinned him against the bar.

“I’m okay.” Ginny shook her head and tried to sit up, but Alton held her down between the legs of their barstools while the battle for control went on over their heads.

“Stay down. I have a horrible feeling that I know where those two demons pumped up with the life force from the dead rats went.” Alton pulled HellFire from his scabbard.

Despite his orders, Ginny scrambled to her feet and grabbed DarkFire. Five men were trying to hold the drunk, but he managed to shake them loose one by one whenever they grabbed an arm or a leg. The bartender was on the phone, calling for help.

“Now, before the police arrive.” Alton stepped forward and waved his hand over the group of men as they struggled with the drunk. All five suddenly turned the tall kid loose. He shook them off, completely unaffected by Alton’s compulsion. His eyes glowed red. He snarled a curse and the sharp points of his teeth glowed in the reflected light.

Alton leapt forward and pressed his crystal blade against the drunk’s chest. The kid jerked and his body went totally rigid. His arms flailed, his mouth opened in a soundless scream.

Then another piercing screech poured out of his mouth, along with a thick, black mist. Ginny caught the wraith with DarkFire’s blade and it burst into amethyst sparks and sulfuric smoke. A second dark cloud shot out of the man’s mouth and Ginny got that one as well.

The drunk stared blindly at Ginny. His eyes rolled back in his head and he slowly crumpled. Alton grabbed him before he hit the floor and eased him slowly to the ground. Ginny quickly sheathed her sword and Alton managed to get HellFire in the scabbard before the sound of sirens and screech of tires warned that the police were pulling up out in front.

Alton quickly set a compulsion over everyone in the bar. He knew it wouldn’t last, but hoped it would at least give Ginny and him time to escape.

He grabbed her hand and slipped out through the door just as the police raced toward the bar. Alton and Ginny stepped to one side and the two officers ran by them without seeming to even notice they were there.

“What’d you do? How come they didn’t even look at us?” Ginny frowned and stared over her shoulder at the bar as Alton dragged her down the sidewalk toward the SUV.

“I used the same glamour on us that we use on our swords. They were so intent on getting inside the tavern that they weren’t looking for us, so they didn’t see us.”

“Oh. I never would have thought of that.” Ginny wrapped both her hands around his left arm and matched her steps to his. “Well, Alton. I must admit…you certainly know how to show a girl a good time.”

He snorted. He couldn’t help it, and it made her laugh. “Good times like that we can do without.” Then the reality of what they’d done slammed through the adrenaline rush that had him practically giddy with relief. “You know what this means.”

Ginny’s smile disappeared. She nodded. “That’s the first human possession we’ve seen.” She stopped and frowned at Alton when they reached the SUV. “But he was drunk, Alton. And there were two demons filled with the rats’ life force.”

“I know, but remember, they’re evolving. When they first showed up, it was inanimate objects of the earth. They could only take over stone, metal, or ceramic. Then they moved to family pets and wild animals, and I was with Dax and Eddy when we discovered they’re taking on plastic avatars. That’s still of the earth, but definitely processed.”

“From rats to humans is a pretty big leap to make so quickly, even if it was a drunk human.”

Alton opened Ginny’s door for her. She climbed into the Yukon and buckled herself in. He stood there in the open door, watching her as she latched the seat belt over her trim hips, but his mind was spinning a thousand directions at once—and not a single direction was good. “In some ways,” he mused, “that’s even worse. Two demons working together were able to take over a human’s mind and body. That’s more than an evolution of abilities—it’s showing more conscious thought. More cooperation.”

“Well, we knew they were beginning to cooperate when they started bundling together in the cavern and turning themselves into über-demons.”

Alton backed away and shut her door, but he leaned his elbows on her open window. “I know. It’s another step forward for them, though. And it means none of us are safe, if they develop the ability to possess someone who’s sober.”

Ginny’s eyes opened wide. “How do we fight that?”

Alton shook his head. “I don’t know, but we need to figure out something. I have a feeling the gloves, if there ever were any, are off.”

He circled around the front of the Yukon and climbed into the passenger seat. Ginny flashed him a tired smile. “I take it you’re not interested in more barhopping?”

He shook his head. “No. I’m worried about Cathedral Rock. There’s another vortex there, which means there might be another portal allowing demons through. We’ve closed the portals at the airport vortex, Bell Rock, and Boynton Canyon, but we haven’t even checked the one at Cathedral Rock.”

Ginny stuck the key in the ignition and turned to smile at him. “Let’s worry about it tomorrow. I’m not too concerned about that one.”

“Why not?” Alton paused in the process of fastening his seat belt. The big grin on Ginny’s face seemed out of place with the current discussion.

“Because Cathedral Rock is a girl vortex.” She started the engine and eased out into traffic. “Remember that discussion we never had about boy and girl vortexes? Well, I read about them. The actual source of the vortex is on the creek at a place called Red Rock Crossing. It’s got lots of feminine energy. You know—kindness, compassion—the good things women are known for.”

“I see.” Alton bit back a smile. He settled into his seat and watched Ginny while she navigated the narrow streets on her way back to the road that would take them to their rented casita, back to Eddy and Dax and, hopefully, an uneventful evening. “So you think the demons might avoid this particular energy source?” He chuckled when Ginny flashed him a wide-eyed, innocent look.

“Well, wouldn’t you?” She blinked. “All that sweet goodness should be absolute poison to any right-minded demon.”

Alton rolled his head to one side and played along. “It might, Ginny m’love, if all feminine energy were nothing but sweet goodness, and if there were such a thing as a right-minded demon. There’s no such creature.”

She turned and headed out the rural road that would take them home. Then she deadpanned, “You’re such a killjoy, Alton.”

He leaned back in the seat and folded his arms over his chest. In his best Johnny Cash voice he said, “I know, but when you’ve got a talent, you learn to work it.”

Her soft laughter shivered over his shoulders as he settled back for the short ride. The evening hadn’t gone anything like he’d planned, but they’d worked well together. They’d made a difference, and they’d learned more of their enemy’s abilities.

In battle, at least, they were a perfect team.

And now they were headed back to the casita where all he could think about was the fact they’d be sharing a room again tonight. He stared at the headlights sweeping over the road ahead and carefully blocked his thoughts.

No wonder they’d not gotten very good at their telepathy. They spent more time blocking thoughts than sharing them. He wasn’t certain he wanted to think about the implications of that, the fact that they still didn’t trust each other with their deepest thoughts, but at some point in the not too distant future he and Ginny really needed to learn to communicate.

Of course, they’d need to learn to trust each other, even when they weren’t surrounded by demonkind. That might be the most difficult lesson of all.