She took a deep breath and thought about getting another glass of wine.
“She seems genuinely happy,” Emery said after a while, Darius pulling Reagan closer as the music slowed. “Did you want to dance, by the way? I know you didn’t earlier, but—”
“And have them completely show us up? Are you kidding me?” Penny laughed. “No. I’m tired from the flight. I’m looking forward to just chilling for a couple of days. Reagan’s not allowed to get up to any mischief here, so I’ll get a real break. And no, she is not genuinely happy.”
“No? What am I missing? She has never struck me as the type of girl to fake her emotions.”
“Usually she’s not. And she’s not faking her love for Darius. It’s just…” She shrugged. “People always think Darius is the dangerous one of their pair. They see an elder vampire and think she’s the one in need of protection. That they shouldn’t mess with her because of him. But that’s not it at all.”
“I’m not following.”
“Do you know what would happen if someone hurt him, for example?”
“She’d kill them, I imagine.”
Penny leaned away so he could see her lifted eyebrows. “Yeah. Kill them. At the very least. If they kidnapped him?” She whistled, which almost sounded like a raspberry. “If he got into trouble, she’d handle it, know what I mean? Like…dynamite and earthquakes kind of handling it. Like, burn down a town and—”
“I got it, I got it.” Emery grinned.
“Don’t laugh. I’m serious. She would go absolutely nuts. You think she’s unhinged when she gets bored? Well…” Penny hit him with a poignant look.
He laughed and put up his hands. “She’s territorial, I got it.”
“She’s more than territorial. Once she trusts, she’s a ride-or-die kind of person. She would never let any harm come to Darius if she could help it. Me either. She’ll always have my back. Our backs, I guess, though you are basically marrying into it.”
“I hope to, at any rate.” He rubbed his thumb across the power stone in the ring he’d given her when he proposed. The stone purred in contentment. It liked him more than Penny, she was pretty sure. “Though…ouch.” He smirked.
“You know it’s true. You’re in her circle of protection because of me.”
“So, for your sake, she’d blow the world to save me?”
“I mean…Emery, she would kidnap a person’s family and hold them for ransom. She might even skin a pet or something, I don’t know. She’s nuts, man. Don’t mess with her loved ones. She’s not rational—”
He fell away from her, leaning against the arm of the sofa, laughing. “I got it, I got it.”
“I know that you’re laughing at me, but you have no idea. If you’d been on as many bounty hunter gigs with her as I have, you’d know that the woman has no sense of self-preservation. Literally none. She’s not here to protect herself, and she’s not here for vacation, like we are. She’s here because the people who love her want to keep her safe, and she worries that if she leaves, she’ll drag us all into danger. Then she’d have to, like, light cars on fire or something, I don’t know. Burn Roger’s house down, though that might just be for fun.”
His big body shook with laughter next to her, and he wiped his eyes. Penny cracked a grin, because the last had been a joke. Reagan knew better than to mess with Roger. Hopefully.
“Did she say this?” Emery asked, finally calming down.
“She hasn’t admitted it, but I see it more and more every time we visit. I think she really hates it here.”
“That’s crazy. This is literally paradise. I would give my left nut to own this place and hang out here whenever I felt like it.”
“Ew. That’s the thing, though. You’d choose when to hang out, and when to go back to your life. She doesn’t have a choice, and I think it’s eating away at her. I was sheltered for most of my life, and now, after getting a taste of the magical world, I would wither and die if I had to go back to that. She’s never been sheltered before. Not really. She was sequestered away, but from the sounds of it, her mother exposed Reagan to plenty of danger so she could learn her magic. Her mother found a balance. And that was easy when no one knew she existed, but with so many people out there, looking for her…”
Emery sobered and leaned back toward Penny. “Yeah, I suppose.”
“She can’t hide here forever, Emery,” Penny said quietly. “Even if so many people weren’t actively trying to flush her out, Darius can’t keep her hidden forever. He’s good, but he’s up against the literal creator of hell.”
“The Underworld isn’t hell—”
“Well, the demons we’ve been fighting sure look like the harbingers of hell, so excuse me for the confusion. Show me proof to the contrary, and maybe I’ll believe it.”