She felt even colder. Sean had been alive when her father knocked out Jule and brought him here the other night. If he was dead, it meant her father did it, not Jule, who had been in the basement.
The man named Damian still watched her. "I want Jule's body," he said.
"It's been sent to the immortal realm, where it belongs," her father replied.
"Bring it back."
"I summoned you here as a warning that your interference won't be tolerated. I don't take orders from your kind."
"If I remember correctly, this realm belongs to Jonny and me," Damian said with a spark of anger. "You are the guest. You will bring me Jule's body, or I will invite the Watchers in to do with you as they please."
"If they could find me, they would've by now, just like you'll never be able to retrace her steps back to this spot once you leave," her father said, his voice rising. "You don't give me orders, Damian."
Yully's heart was pounding. Her life was in danger, and so was Jule's. She didn't fully understand what was going on between her father and these people. Jule trusted this Damian, even though they were both the Guardians her father warned her about. Yet it had been her father who killed Sean, not the Guardian Jule. She patted the pocket in her skirt containing the paper on which Jule had scribbled down the phone number of the towering man before her.
"I call bullshit on this whole thing. No matter, I'm outta here," Damian said. "Gimme a ring if you have anything useful to say."
She sensed this comment was directed at her. Damian disappeared, followed by the man named Jonny and the woman with him. Her father turned to her, anger and triumph on his normally stoic features.
"Father, what's going on?" she questioned. "Who are all these people, and why are they after me?"
"It's a much longer story than I have time for," he replied. "Your magic gifts have blossomed, and they've attracted the attention of others with magic gifts."
"I thought there were no others."
"There are. You are one of what they call Naturals. Damian and Jonny collect Naturals for their own purposes, mainly to battle each other. It's like a chess game, and the humans are pawns to be used and destroyed," he explained. "That is not the fate for you, my dear."