“My father called me after they heard what happened at lunch yesterday.” Something about his tone told me Colonel Fireswift hadn’t called to express his relief that his son had survived. “He berated me for throwing myself on you when the bomb went off.”

“Ah, I guess that I, as the more expendable of the two of us, was supposed to do the self-throwing.”

“That’s not it,” he said. “He wasn’t pleased that I’d helped my biggest competition.”

“I am your biggest competition? Not the five other men and women who have an angel parent?”

“He warned me not to help them too much either. He wants me to be someone whose only friend is power.”

“And what do you think about that?” I asked him.

“That that’s a shitty way to live.”

I lifted my milkshake. “To swearing off loneliness.”

He clinked his glass against mine. “To telling my dad to piss off.”

“No,” I gasped, grinning. “You didn’t.”

“In a very respectful and polite way.”

“You mouthed off to an angel.” I giggled. “That is awesome.”

“You mouth off to an angel every day.”

“Yeah, but I’m not you. I have a problem keeping my mouth shut.”

“Something I’m sure Colonel Windstriker will appreciate when he’s kissing you.”

My jaw dropped. “You did not just tease me.”

“Did I do it wrong?” He gave me a sheepish look.

I burst into laughter. “No, you did it just fine.” I patted him on the back.

“So, what is between you and Colonel Windstriker?”

“Nothing,” I said. “Absolutely nothing.”

“I see.” He turned his gaze to the wall behind the bar. “So, what would he think of us eating lunch together.”

I smirked at him. “What, you think this is a date?”

“No, just two friends having lunch. But I’m not sure he would see it in the same way.”

“Nero doesn’t hold any claim over me.” He’d made his lack of feelings for me perfectly clear last night when he’d made out with that pink fairy. “So who cares what he thinks?”

“I do actually. He’s even scarier than my father, and I don’t want to end up on the wrong end of his fury. Or his punishment.”

“You get used to his punishments after a while. You only have to get worried if he sends you to Hall 10.”

“What’s in Hall 10?”

“Let’s hope you never find out.” I winked at him.

“You’re messing with me.”

“I’d never do such a thing.” I looked around for the bartender. “Where is that man when you need him?”

“His shift is over. What can I get you, sweetness?”

I turned around to find Stash, the werewolf I’d arm-wrestled last night, behind me. As I met his eyes, golden swirled with the green inside his irises.

“Hey, great to see you!” I grinned at him. “You work here too?”

“On Saturday afternoons.”

“Cool, then I’ll have to come back again on a Saturday afternoon.” I handed him my empty glass. “And I’ll take another triple chocolate milkshake, please.”

“Coming right up.”

“You know a werewolf?” Jace whispered to me as Stash made my shake.

“Sure, Stash and I go way back to last night when I defeated him in a round of armwrestling.”

“Speak a bit louder, sweetness.” Stash set my milkshake down on the counter. “I don’t think the weretiger in the back heard you.”

I smiled sweetly at him over the top of my monster-sized shake. “That weretiger has been checking out your manly muscles since you stepped behind the bar. I don’t think I could say anything that would change her opinion of you. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she soon decided she needed a milkshake too. Making them is so…active.” I slid my tongue slowly across my lips.

As if on cue, the female weretiger dressed in a leather motorcycle suit rose from her seat.

“You are a wicked woman,” Stash said in a low rumble.

“You’re welcome.”

The weretiger strutted over to the bar. She leaned her elbows on the counter, her back arching into a smooth curve as she pushed her chest forward and her butt back. Every eye in the place turned to gape, Jace included. I chuckled.

When I drew in breath again, I nearly choked on the foul stench in the air. I looked up to find smoke pouring out of the air vents, rolling across the ceiling like dark storm clouds.

“Poison,” I told Jace. I jumped up onto the bar counter. “By the authority of the Legion of Angels, I order you all to get the hell out of here!” I shouted, surprised at how well my voice carried across the whole room.

I didn’t have to ask twice. Whether thanks to their fear of the darkening cloud of poison or my evoking the Legion, every person in the bar ran for the exit. Jace and I waited to make sure everyone was gone, then we followed them.

“Call the Legion,” I told Jace, then walked over to Stash. The rest of the shifters were looking to him for guidance. “Are you some kind of big deal in the shifter community?”

“I was once. Before my exile.”

“It looks like you still are,” I said. “I need you to use that fame to convince these people to stay put. Some of them don’t look so great. They must have inhaled too much of the poison. I want our healers to take a look at them.”