"I wear one, too," Jule continued.
"I don't see it," she said, gaze dropping to his chest.
"I'm chained. You can dig it out."
She looked him over again, certain he could escape any time he wanted.
"You're safe with me," he said at her hesitation.
She felt the truth in his words, perhaps because their souls had touched when they first met the day before. Hesitating only a moment more, Yully moved towards him and knelt. Her hand brushed one of his forearms, held in place over his head by the handcuffs.
"Your skin's like ice," she said, suddenly realizing how cold it was in the storage room. He wore only jeans and a dark T-shirt that stretched across his chest in all the right places and clung to bulging biceps.
"Cold won't kill me," he said, unconcerned.
"An Irish winter will," she returned.
She saw the silver chain around his neck and delicately tugged the round emblem free. It was a silver coin, warmed by his skin, with a circle of cuneiform symbols surrounding a star with two arrows. Her own necklace had the same symbols surrounding five stars.
"You're an immortal," she said and dropped the necklace. Her eyes went to his dark, steady gaze. "You're a Guardian?"
"Yes."
She sat back with a frown. He'd just admitted to being what her father warned her about! Her father said Guardians were her enemies, creatures who preyed on humans, and that she must use her powers to kill them. The man before her looked pretty human himself, with beautiful brown eyes and a body unlike any she'd seen before. She'd sensed more danger from her father than from the man before her.
His intent gaze was steady, and she wondered if he could read her mind like her father did. The air between them shimmered with his body heat and her magic, and he didn't flinch away like normal people did. This man seemed to accept her freakish powers, until he spoke again.
"I feel your magic. What are you?" he asked.
"I have to go." She flushed and stood. Accustomed to being shunned by people, she'd almost felt normal around the stranger who seemed unaffected by her magic. With regret, she realized her father was right: no one could accept someone like her. She strode to the door.
"I may freeze to death tonight," he warned. "You may not have another chance to ask me what you want to know."