Daimon: Guardians of Hades Series Book 6

this,” Cass countered and unleashed her own attack, a spell designed to freeze blood. “I don’t need protecting.”
The twin bolts of blue shot past Daimon as he turned icy eyes on her. “I’ll decide that.”
He swept his right arm up and before her spell could connect and prove that she didn’t need him watching out for her, three spires of ice shot up from the rooftop, impaling the daemon in his thigh, stomach and shoulder.
Cass glared at Daimon as black blood oozed down the jagged clear ice.
“I had that.” She pulled Mari closer to her. “Snegovik.”
He scowled at her but said nothing, because he was a snowman. Cold as ice. Standing alone in this world. Bringer of brief joy followed by despair and misery.
Perhaps that was a little too harsh, but he had ruined her fun. She had been about to prove she could handle herself, maybe even make him see that she could fight on the frontlines if she chose to, and he had spoiled it.
Keras hurled another wave of shadows at the Erinyes, and a portal formed behind them. The one on the right backed towards her sister, took hold of her arm and helped her into the portal. She stopped and glared down at Keras, her violet eyes glowing in the fading light, and then stepped into the portal.
The shadows tore through it, twisted around and attacked it again, decimating it.
Keras turned to her. “Get Marinda away from here.”
She nodded and summoned a spell, but it was chilling darkness that took her and Marinda from the rooftop, cold that seeped into her from a spot on her wrist, spreading outwards along her arm. Her feet touched solid ground again and the cold released her, warmth seeping back in to chase it away.
She looked at Daimon where he stood beside her, his glacial eyes on her arm.
“You all right?” he grumbled, his gaze not leaving the point where he had touched her.
She released Mari and rubbed at it, deeply aware of his eyes on it and what he was thinking.
Feeling.
He was worried he had hurt her. He didn’t need to worry. She was tougher than she looked. Far tougher than he believed. She skimmed her hand down her arm, revealing where he had touched, and his eyes widened slightly.
Leaped to meet hers.
Cass lowered hers.
To her perfect, unmarked skin.

Chapter 6
Daimon backed away from Cassandra, needing some distance between them. It was a trick. It had to be. She had used magic to heal her injuries when she had held her arm, undoing the damage he had done by foolishly grabbing her and teleporting with her. It had been reckless of him, but in the heat of the moment, he hadn’t been able to stop himself. The need to get her away from the enemy had been too great.
When they had all rushed towards her, something dark inside him had howled for freedom, for him to unleash it on the daemons.
To protect her.
Keras and Ares appeared, shortly followed by Marek and Caterina. Keras gave him a look, one that had Daimon averting his gaze, hoping that his older brother wouldn’t mention what he had done. Whatever wound he had dealt Cass by touching her, she had healed it.
No harm, no foul, right?
So why did he feel terrible?
Cass busied herself with checking Marinda over from head to toe. Daimon stared at her arm, at the smooth, unblemished skin. He stared at it so hard he began to get the feeling he was willing a mark to show, some evidence that he had hurt her as he suspected and that she had covered it up.
Why?
His foolish heart answered that.
Because she didn’t want him to hurt, to feel bad because he had injured her.
Her earlier words came back to haunt him, the ones she had murmured when he had told her that she couldn’t worship what she couldn’t touch.
That’s what you think.
Was he wrong about her? Could he touch her without harming her? He had teleported her to the pond and dropped her in it, had stepped with her in Paris too, when they had been tossed over the side of a steep hill. She hadn’t shown any pain. Anger, yes. But not pain.
He shook those thoughts away, before they could take hold and spread roots. He couldn’t touch her. He couldn’t touch anyone. Even Megan hurt if their skin was in contact for more than a minute, and even though he didn’t give her frostbite, he still chilled her flesh as badly as a frigid snowy winter’s day might.
He distanced himself from Cass while she was distracted, heading for the TV area on the right side of the long open-plan room and leaving her near the dining table at the other end of it.
“We need to test to see if it’s possible for a furie to siphon powers from blood.” Keras neatened the cuffs of his black dress shirt, his eyes on Marinda.
She looked up at him, her eyes blue-green again now, and nodded.
“We have to what now?” Cal came from the corridor beyond the wall that separated the TV area from the north wing of the house.
“We suspect the Erinyes can gain abilities by having contact with blood.” Marek finished giving Caterina a thorough once-over. “Caterina suggested it as a possibility when the Erinyes appeared through a portal, using a power that has faded in Marinda.”
“Your girl-fiend makes a good point. I mean, blood is power, right?” Valen looked over the back of the couch, his golden eyes fixing on Marek and an expectant look on his face.
Marek’s jaw flexed. He gritted, “I told you about calling her my girl-fiend.”
Caterina petted Marek’s arm and pressed close to him, her black T-shirt blending with his linen shirt. “I don’t mind it. I actually sort of like it.”
Marek looked as unimpressed with her as he was with Valen.
It was still strange having a human-daemon hybrid among their ranks. According to Marek, Caterina was still developing powers courtesy of the blood Eli had