A smile brightened his eyes and he closed the distance between us.

“You’ve got fire and determination. You can overcome the impossible. We’ll figure it out, I promise you. We’ll call the Spirit Walker again, and this time, I’ll be on hand to lend you some might. He might be a strong spirit, but I am a Demigod. He won’t dominate you a second time.”

I dropped my head to his chest. “It’s like a fairytale, the way you always save me, but honestly, when do I get to be the strong guy?”

“You turned the tide in my war against my father, fought him off when he was about to kill me, and saved the day. I’d say I’ve done my fair share of being the mansel in distress. You gotta let me swing my dick around once in a while or I might just get a complex.”

I laughed and snaked my arms around his middle. When I tilted my face up to him, he bent down to kiss me.

“I absolutely loved the necklace,” I murmured against his lips. “I have some ideas on how to thank you, but I’m actually trying to break up with you first, so…”

“Break up with me next time you freak out. I’m famished. Let’s eat dinner. Nancy was sucking on strawberries all afternoon and it really put me off eating. Do you want to eat here…or with the others?”

“Is Jack cooking?”

“Roasted chicken and all the fixin’s.”

“We’re definitely going over there.”

He sighed, kissed me in a way that curled my toes, and put an arm around my shoulder, ushering me out. “Good. I’m tired. I didn’t feel like making something.”

“I like that you assume you’d be cooking, because I definitely wasn’t going to.”

“Isn’t the rule that if it’s my house, I cook, and if it is your house, you cook?”

He paused in the kitchen and pulled away so he could lower the blinds. Good thought. After last night, I needed to do that in my house.

“No,” I said. “The rule is, if it’s your house, you cook, and if it is my house, one of your guys cooks.”

He laughed and rejoined me, leading me toward the door. “Or Bria.”

“She’s banned from the stove. She’s burned too many dinners. And lunches. And once the breakfast.”

“On purpose. She’s actually an excellent cook.”

I laughed. That sounded about right. She was better than me at getting out of things. “Are you going to fill the guys in on that?”

“Oh, they know. That’s why they had her cook a few times instead of just the once. But when it turned out she’d rather accept my displeasure and eat burned food than cook for that many hungry guys, well…”

“She’s a smart girl.”

“Very. Listen, I was thinking…” He paused when we stepped outside into the crisp night, like he was waiting for something.

“What is it?” I asked into the hush.

He shook his head and started forward again. “Thought I heard something. I was thinking…I never stay at my house anymore.”

“I know. Look, I’m sorry about that. It’s just that Zorn’s training is turning Daisy into a terror. Just the other night I caught her trying to set a tripwire at the top of the stairs for Mordecai. She’s gotten out of hand. As soon as she gets a clue, I swear we can stay at your house again.”

“No, it’s not that.” He stopped again on the sidewalk, his eyes roaming my empty grass. “Where’s Frank?”

“After the fifth time I sent him rolling through a bunch of houses and streets, he got the hint that I need a break from him.”

“Why? What did he do?”

“Tried to convince me that it was okay for you to cheat but not okay for me to retaliate.”

Kieran froze and looked down at me for a long moment.

“The last Soul Stealer was on the handsome side. Frank thought I was bringing him back to…you know,” I said.

Kieran’s brow pinched. “Can you do that with a spirit?”

“I’d never thought about it, and now I’m afraid to ask.”

A minute soul bleeped on my radar, but it wasn’t a human. An animal, it had to be. Their souls weren’t as complex, though they did pulse nearly the same. The creature was ambling in the trees beyond my house.

Kieran walked me to my door but didn’t reach for the handle. “It’s just that we spend every evening and night together. It seems silly to have two houses. It might be better, for a few reasons, if you and the kids and I all had just one place. Maybe closer to town. Nearer the guys and Bria.”

I’d just tried to break up with the guy, and he was asking me to move in with him? We were both cracked. Still, I could barely contain my excitement. He was certainly getting the short end of the stick, but he didn’t seem to mind. Given my feelings for him, I didn’t want to push too hard. It was a complete role reversal from when we’d first gotten together. At first, he’d tried to push me away, convinced he was too much like his father to make a relationship work. Now, I’d taken on that role.

Yeah, we were definitely both cracked and maybe a little stupid.

“As silly as you marking me?” I smiled.

I expected him to bend and kiss me, but he looked out over the street, on guard. His emotions didn’t tell me that he was spooked about anything, though. Probably just watchful after last night.