Even the crossbow she'd used the other night was clean and perched where she'd found it, loaded once again. She'd shot two men with it. She wondered how many other men had been killed by the clean, neatly aligned weapons in the armory.
"My name is Darian."
She whirled, her heart leaping. The man in the corner was tall with eyes that swirled gold like Damian's had. She snatched one of the handguns out of the small arms chest and aimed it at his head, fed up with surprises. Light and dark seemed to bend to avoid him, leaving a haze around his body.
"That won't work. I'm immune to lead!" he said and laughed. "Get it?"
She stared at him. He grew serious when she didn't respond.
"Anyway, Damian sent me. He said it's about Jule."
"What about Jule?" she asked. Yully lowered the weapon slowly. The man in the corner took that as in invitation to approach, and she moved behind the table her father used for laying out pieces of disassembled weapons in the center of the armory.
"I guess first off, is he alive?" the man called Darian asked. He stopped across from her. She had the sense of power shimmering in the air around him.
"As far as I know," she replied. "What are you?"
"I'm Darian," he said, though darkness crossed his features. "Jule was my closest friend until things went to shit. What are you?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know?" he echoed. "Never met anyone more lost than I am."
"I'm not lost."
"You think an Other is your father, and you seem to think a Guardian of humanity is your enemy. I'd say you're lost."
"I don't understand any of what you said," she replied.
His gaze narrowed, as if about to accuse her of lying. Instead, he frowned.
"Jule's safe. He was hurt" she rushed on, not wanting to admit how, "but he's safe for now."
"Where?"
"Up the coast in a cottage."
"Assume I know nothing about Ireland," he said, amused. He held out a hand. "Show me in your mind."
She shook her head, recalling what she'd felt when she touched Jule.
"If he's hurt, I can help him," Darian said.
"Right now, I don't know who to trust," she said.
"Easy. Me. Jule's my friend."
"I just found out my father's running around killing people, and you expect me to trust a stranger when I don't even know if I can trust him anymore?"