unless he wanted to make an issue of it.”
“What if the girl wanted to give her powers to the boy?” I asked.
“Then I’d think it would be a pretty stupid thing to do.” He shrugged. “Can it be done?”
“No.”
“Good for the girl. She might get smarter and find a different boy.” He released his hold and handed Julie a metal rose. “For you. Kate, if you’re done with your plate, Curran wants to see you. He’s up on the roof.”
I followed him to the staircase and climbed up onto the third floor, where a small foldout ladder led to the square piece of the sky. I conquered the ladder and emerged onto the flat roof of the building.
The roof was filled with assorted free weights. Curran lay on a massive weight bench with a reinforced steel frame. He was working the bench press, raising a bar loaded with weights above him and bringing it back to his chest in a slow controlled movement. He didn’t cheat by letting the bar “bounce” off his chest.
I came closer. The bar was thicker than my wrist. Had to be custom made. I tried to count the weight disks on the bar. A normal bar weighed forty-five pounds, and normal disks weighed up to forty-five pounds, also. But these didn’t look normal.
I stood to the side and watched the bar rise and fall. Curran wore an old, torn T-shirt, and I could see his muscles pump under the fabric.
“How much are you lifting?”
“Seven hundred.”
Alrighty then. I will just stand over here, out of your way, and hope you don’t remember my promise to kick your ass.
He grinned. “Wanna spot me?”
“No thanks. How about I just scream verbal encouragements at you?” I took a deep breath and barked. “No pain, no gain! That pain is just weakness leaving your body! Come on! Push! Push! Make that weight your bitch!”
He cracked up. The weight stopped, perilously close to his chest, while he shook with laughter. I stepped up and grabbed the bar. It put me into an incredibly compromising position, since his head was really close to my thighs and the area directly above them, but I didn’t want to explain to a rabid Pack how I was responsible for the Beast Lord crushing his chest with a weight bar.
I put my back into it. There was no way in hell I could ever pull it up without him pushing.
The bar crept up very slowly.
“Curran, stop playing and lift.”
I looked down and saw him looking straight at me. He had a smile on his face. The sight of me puffing and straining apparently amused him to no end.
He raised the bar up and slid it into the twin forks on the sides of the bench.
I beat a hasty retreat, putting a few feet between him and me. He sat, pulled his shirt off, and used it to wipe the sweat off his chest. Slowly. Flexing a bit for my benefit.
I turned around and looked at the scenery. Having a streak of drool hang from my mouth would seriously cramp my style. Besides, if he full-out flexed, I would probably faint. Or jump off the building.
I needed to get laid. Otherwise my hormones might go on strike and short-circuit my common sense.
Curran came to stand next to me. Before us the broken city grappled with an impending flare. In the distance husks of skyscrapers sagged to the ground. Between them and us stretched the twisted labyrinth of streets, punctured by greenery, where nature had reclaimed the ruins for its own.
Maybe I was imagining things. Maybe he was just wiping off his sweat because he didn’t want to be sweaty, not because he was showing off for me. Once again, I was giving myself too much credit.
“What are you going to do with the child?” he asked.
“I’ll take her to the Order. There is a vault below the Order’s building. It has a two-foot-thick steel door, and it’s blanketed in a ward the entire mage division of the Military Supernatural Defense Units can’t bust. The safest place in the city right now.”
The Order had to own other facilities too, but I didn’t rate high enough to know their location or function. I wouldn’t have known about the vault either if Ted thought he could hide it from me. If you put a door marked “Authorized Personnel ONLY” and me in the same building, sooner or later I’ll try to jimmy its lock to discover what’s so special about it.
“You can keep her here,” Curran said. “We’ll look after her.”
“Thank you for the offer. I honestly appreciate it. But things are hunting her. She’ll be safe in the vault and I don’t want to be responsible for any deaths.”
He sighed. “You do realize that you just insulted me, right?”
“How so?”
“You implied that I can’t protect her or my people.”
I looked at him. “That’s not at all what I meant.”
“Apologize and I’ll let it go.”
I kept my hands firmly on the iron rail before me. Grabbing the weight bar and walloping the Beast Lord upside the head wouldn’t be the best diplomatic move.
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty.” There. I was civil. It almost killed me.
“Apology accepted.”
“Will there be anything else?”
“No.” He picked up an enormous dumbbell and began to curl, working his biceps.
I turned to leave and stopped. He was in a good mood. Relaxed. He didn’t wig out at me. Now was as good a time as any. “Myong…”
A low warning growl reverberated in his throat. “I said later.”
Technically it was later. “I think she loves him very much.”
He snarled. “You forget yourself! Drop it.”
“She’s very passive and she’s terrified of you. It took a great deal of courage for her to come and see me.”
He tossed the dumbbell aside. It went flying and hit with a loud thud, leaving a dent in the pavement of the roof. Curran strode toward me, eyes blazing. “If I let her go, I’ll need a replacement. Want to volunteer for the job?”
He looked like he wouldn’t be taking no for an answer. I swiped Slayer from its sheath and backed away from the edge of the roof. “And be girlfriend number twenty-three soon to be dumped in favor of girlfriend number twenty-four who has slightly bigger boobs? I don’t think so.”
He kept coming. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. You get these beautiful women, make them dependent on you, and then dump them. Well, this time a woman left you first, and your enormous ego can’t deal with it. And to think that I hoped we could talk like reasonable adults. If we were the last two people on Earth, I’d find myself a moving island so I could get the hell away from you.” I was almost to the drop door leading to the ladder.
He stopped suddenly and crossed his arms over his chest. “We’ll see.”
“Nothing to see. Thanks for the rescue and for the food. I’m taking my kid and leaving.” I dropped into the hole, slid down the ladder, and backed away down the hall. He didn’t follow me.
I was midway down to the first floor when it finally hit me: I had just told the alpha of all shapeshifters that hell would freeze over before I got into his bed. Not only had I just kissed any cooperation from the Pack good-bye, but I had also challenged him. Again. I stopped and hit my head a few times on the wall. Keep your mouth shut, stupid.
Derek appeared at the bottom of the stairway. “It went that well, huh?”
“Spare me.”
“I take it you’re leaving.”
I stopped hitting my head and looked at him.
“Mind if I tag along?” he asked.
“Why?”
“I want the thief.” Derek’s face was grim. “He has a thing for you.”
A werewolf who can outrun me, who can bend metal into roses with his fingers, and who could grab Julie in
