Cass tensed, her eyes leaping to him, instinct pushing that same question to the tip of her tongue.
He huffed and for a moment, she thought he would lash out at her, but then he calmly turned to the woman behind him and offered her a warm smile. “Anything, really. Just call.”
She nodded and disappeared inside.
Daimon closed the door, the sound of it slamming cranking up the tension Cass felt.
She braced herself.
Rather than turning on her, he casually walked down the steps and up to her.
“This goes no further. Got it?” he said, and she wanted to argue with him, because she hadn’t meant to snoop, and she knew he was angry with her but she didn’t want him kicking her out of the Tokyo mansion or banishing her or whatever he had in mind. She would stop irritating him, would pretend she didn’t give a damn about him, if he would relent and let her stay. He scrubbed a hand over his hair. “None of my brothers know about this place.”
Her eyes widened.
Oh.
He meant, knowledge of this place went no further than the two of them, not things between them went no further and she was out on her backside.
“I’ve never seen you come here before.” Her shoulders went rigid when he frowned at her and she realised she had just confessed to following him before tonight. “I had to study all of you. I had to be sure Mari was in safe hands.”
Daimon looked back over his shoulder at the building.
“Is that what you do here?” She glanced at the sign and then back at him. “You keep children safe?”
He sighed, raked fingers through his hair again and looked as if he wouldn’t answer those questions.
But then he nodded.
“There’s a lot of less fortunate children in this city. Kids who have no parents… Kids who have parents who hurt them. I opened this place for them. Everyone gets an education, food and the choice of finding new parents. My brothers don’t know about it and I don’t want them to know. Do you understand that, Cass?”
She shivered at the delicious sound of her name on his tongue. She couldn’t remember him saying it, and if he had, he had never said it like that—softly, almost tenderly.
She nodded. “Why is it a secret though?”
“Esher.”
That one-word answer was enough. His brother wouldn’t understand why Daimon was taking care of humans.
“Why did you do this for the children?” She couldn’t stop that question from leaving her lips as she gazed up at the building and thought about what he was doing, and realised that the reason the building appeared as it might have back when it was built was because Daimon had been the one to pay for it then.
He had been running this home for children for two centuries.
His expression turned guarded.
“Why, Daimon?” She risked a step towards him, her tone softening as she stared deep into his ice-blue eyes, seeking the answer there.
“Go back to the mansion.” He stared down at her, a cold edge entering his eyes.
“No.” She took another step, closing the distance between them down to only a few inches.
Daimon made a lunge for her and she was quick to evade him, aware that if he got his hand on her he would teleport her back to the mansion and she wouldn’t have the strength to teleport herself after him again when he came back to Hong Kong.
“Why are you so difficult all the time? Why do you never do as you’re told?” he barked as he made another attempt to seize hold of her.
Cass froze a short distance from him, beyond arm’s reach, and stared at him as shock rolled through her, a chilling sort of cold that irritated the hell out of her.
“As I’m told?” she bit out, her eyebrows lowering as her lips flattened, the thought that he believed she should do as he bid raising her hackles. “I’m a powerful sorceress, Daimon. I can take care of myself. I don’t need a man to take care of me. I’m not some weak, delicate little female you can order around.”
She hurled the last few words at him, fury getting the better of her, tinged with disappointment. When had she ever given him the impression that she couldn’t handle things, that she needed some white-knight figure to protect her?
His face darkened, his jaw ticking as he glared at her. The pain that surfaced in his eyes was phenomenal.
Pain that went deep.
She had struck a nerve, but she wasn’t sure how.
Or why.
“Make your own way home then.” He backed off a step, still glowering at her. “It’s not my fucking business, and this here…” He pointed to the building to his right. “This isn’t your business so stay the hell out of it.”
He disappeared, leaving a trail of black smoke in his wake that was thicker than normal, swirled eerily in the disturbed air.
Cass’s shoulders sagged as all her tension rushed out of her.
She bit out a curse.
How did things between them always end in an argument? She didn’t mean for it to happen, and part of her felt it wasn’t entirely her fault. Daimon was a minefield, and even the slightest misstep on her part had him exploding at her.
She tipped her head back, closed her eyes and loosed a long sigh.
Time for another apology.
This time, she would make it good enough to heal whatever wound she had inflicted on him, even though she wasn’t sure what she had done to hurt him.
She tried to summon the spell to transport herself. Weakness rolled through her before she managed to finish the first part of the incantation.
Great.
She walked to the main road and hailed a cab.
It was going to take longer than she wanted to reach Daimon. A cab. A ferry. Another cab. She only hoped he had gone back to his home in the hills, because if he had gone back to Tokyo, she was even more screwed.
She chuckled mirthlessly at
