Sean had spent the day following up on the Callum problem, visiting his clansman Ben to let him know he was taking a personal interest in the situation. The humans were long gone, Spike had told Sean, and Ben had confirmed, headed back east somewhere. Callum’s clan leader wouldn’t let Sean see him but assured Sean that they were taking care of the problem internally. By Shifter law, Sean had to leave it at that, but he and Liam would watch.
Sean had returned home in time to see Andrea getting ready to go to work. He’d objected, and she’d pointed out that the human shooters were gone. Arguments that who knew whether the humans’ friends or one of Callum’s zealous followers would try to take revenge on Sean and Andrea were ignored. Andrea clearly wasn’t going to stay safely at home unless Sean chained her to her bed. He almost did that, except that Kim and Connor intervened when they came over to see what the noise was about.
The compromise Kim forced on them, that neither of them liked, was that Andrea went to work but Sean went with her. Andrea refused to wait on Sean’s table all night but smiled sweetly at the other customers.
Look at her. Sean watched Andrea over the beer Annie had brought him. Swaying her hips in those tight pants, and her top looking like it’s painted on. The shirt bared her shoulders, making even the Collar around her throat sexy. The humans she waited on liked what they saw, if the drool dripping down the sides of their mouths was any indication. If any of them touched her, they’d lose fingers.
Sean’s view of Andrea was cut off as someone stopped in front of his booth. He looked up to find Dylan gazing steadily back at him.
“Dad,” Sean said as Dylan dropped into the seat opposite. Sean reached for Dylan’s hand, squeezed it. “You all right? Where are you staying?”
“At a friend’s.” Dylan didn’t respond to Sean’s touch, and Sean withdrew, troubled.
“I’m hoping you don’t mean a female friend. I don’t need Glory exploding while I’m living in her house. I’m not getting much sleep as it is.”
Dylan looked surprised. “Glory told me to go. Why would she care?”
“She didn’t mean for you to be running to the next woman on your list. You know that.”
Dylan gave him a tight smile. “You flatter me if you think I have a list.” He signaled to Andrea, who nodded and turned to the bartender. “Kim is kindly letting me stay in her house, if you must know.”
Kim’s family had left her a big house north of Lake Austin near Mount Bonnell, and though Kim now spent all her time in Shiftertown, she still owned the house, which was large and posh.
“Cushy crash space,” Sean said. “With cable. Now I envy you. Kim’s a sweetheart.”
“I had to promise not to get cat hair on the sofa,” Dylan said.
“That’s our Kim. What do her neighbors think?”
“Her neighbors don’t know I’m there.”
They wouldn’t, not if he didn’t want them to. Dylan could be the master of stealth.
Andrea floated over with a bottle of Guinness. She smiled at Dylan as she set down the bottle, her dark hair dancing across her cheeks. Sean wanted to pull her down, kiss her red lips, wrap his arms around her, and get down to serious business.
Andrea didn’t even look at Sean. “That beer’s on me,” she said to Dylan. “Nice to see you again.” She deliberately ignored Sean as she sashayed away.
“Trouble in paradise?” Dylan asked with a glint of humor.
Sean growled. “Goddess, Dad, she is the most bloody stubborn, smart-assed, frustrating female I’ve ever met. Did I mention stubborn?”
Dylan’s smile took on a touch of sadness. “She’s like your mother. Niamh had that same trick of looking at me as though she didn’t give a damn about anything I said until I apologized—for whatever it was I’d done to piss her off that time. If I didn’t know what I’d done, that just made things worse.”
“Aye, I remember. And, aye, I’m thinking Andrea’s the same way.”
Across the room, Ellison started up the jukebox with a rocking country tune. Ellison liked all music, as long as it was country and the singer was from Texas.
Dylan leaned across the table to Sean. “Where did you put the sword?”
“Liam’s office, like always. Why?”
“Liam’s in there?”
Sean glanced around. The office door was closed, and Liam hadn’t emerged. “He is.”
“If he’s not back there to watch it, I don’t want it out of your sight.”
“Why, Dad? What’s up?”
“They had plans to steal it,” Dylan said around blare of the music. “Callum and his Feline faction. That’s interesting, don’t you think?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sean stared. “Why the hell should they want the Sword of the Guardian? It’s not like anyone can just pick it up and use it.”
Dylan shrugged as he lifted his beer. “Who knows? To intimidate you, our clan ... this entire Shiftertown, maybe. If Shifters think their souls are in peril because you lost the sword, will they be trusting you?”
“Are they crazy?”
Sean recalled the night he’d been chosen as Guardian, when he’d been barely past cub age. He remembered shivering on a windswept Irish promontory under January moonlight, while the dead body of the previous Guardian lay on the ground, the naked sword across his chest. Sean remembered his dismay as white-hot Goddess magic turned his own blood to fire, his absolute knowledge that he would be the one to lift the sword and drive it into the former Guardian’s heart. He’d been terrified that night, Dylan and Niamh so proud.
“Most Shifters know that the Guardian has to be chosen,” Dylan was saying. “But if the Guardian isn’t strong enough to protect the sword, how quickly will they choose a new Guardian, or kill the old one?”
“Bloody hell, Dad. I’m flattered that Callum and his friends thought I had so much power. But the sword is a sacred relic. They’d have messed with that?”
“I’m thinking they would have.”
Sean knew full well that some Shifters now believed they could get to the Summerland without the Guardian to turn the body to dust and release the soul. The sword had been forged for the purpose of keeping Fae from trapping or torturing Shifter souls, but the Fae were no longer around, and having the soul trapped was not a likely danger.
Then again, Sean also knew that superstition died hard. Shifters might say they didn’t believe they still needed a magic sword, but Guardians had been around for centuries. Beliefs got lodged deep inside and were not easily pried out.