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that truth really is stranger than fiction.”
    ****
    How dare she!
    “Damn it, Meredith! This isn’t some game we’re playing to stroke your writer’s ego,” he said. “This is serious. We are fighting real demons and the outcome has real consequences! And for some reason you felt the need to tell the whole world all about it!”
    He inhaled deeply and lowered his voice, channeling the calm objectivity of the part of him that was demon-warrior. He couldn’t afford to scare her off again. Not while he had another chance to bring her before the Warrior Council. As another half-breed, Randy would be able to relate to Dax’s masculine desires. The others, as full-blooded demon-warriors, would get a truer sense of Meredith’s intentions and motivations. The energy she might be trying to hide. Whether she was friend or foe.
    But the others weren’t seeing her as he was now, in the plain white T-shirt and white lace thong she had slept in. With glossy black hair sticking out in all directions, her face scrubbed of makeup. More beautiful than ever.
    He didn’t want her to realize how easy it would be to simply leave again.
    “That must have been why my eyes turned gold,” he said. “That only happens when there’s about to be demonic activity. Not just because someone is having car trouble.”
    She seemed to shrink before him. Her eyes widened and she took a deep breath. “Do you mean that thing was a demon?”
    She fiddled with the leather cord on the ridiculous pendant that dangled between her breasts. Her only connection to her ancestors. Her family. Dax felt a pang of regret that he had only one living relative. He would remind Aunt Cara how much she meant to him as often as possible.
    Something wasn’t making sense, though. “Are you absolutely certain about what you saw?”
    “Yes, of course. Why?”
    “The thing is, I’m not aware of any demonic creature that has ever taken that physical shape,” Dax said. “Since my eyes changed, I know it was demonic. But this must be some sort of lesser being. My hunch is that it was just checking you out—trying to scare you off, maybe, but not powerful enough to do real damage.”
    She sat beside him on the bed. Neither spoke as early morning sunlight filled the room.
    “I don’t want to fight, Dax. Maybe that was our dance through the fire,” she said at last. “Whatever that means.”
    “You’re right,” he finally said. “We have to put this behind us. Demons love to throw us off course by making us argue about trivial things. We have to stick together.”
    His human emotions were on fire. For the first time, he dared to imagine that Meredith was the love of his life from all those centuries ago. As grateful as he was to have finally found her, his heart was in shreds.
    The battle would launch soon, perhaps in a matter of days. If the demon-warriors were defeated, he would be separated from Meredith once more. Could his human side endure the loss? He would not let himself think about it now. Instead, he would try to make her understand. Or at least stay with him for a little while longer.
    He took her hand and kissed its palm. “When I was a young man, more than two centuries ago, I fell in love, right here on the banks of the river. She was Lipan Apache. Neither of our families approved, so we kept our relationship secret. But knowing her made me want to be fully human, to know love and tenderness as well as violence and caution. To dedicate myself to someone in this life and all those that follow.”
    He looked at her. It was now or never. “The thing is, I am convinced that that someone is you. Sounds crazy, I know. All I am asking is that you stay with me for a while, at least until the battle starts and it’s too dangerous for you.”
    “Oh, Dax,” she said, unable to keep the tears at bay. “It is crazy, but it’s also real. I feel the same way. I carried the dream of you always, even past the point of remembering.”
    He wiped away a tear