Her thoughts raced everywhere but kept coming back to that. Danny is completely alone. The only time he comes to his friends is when the Belmage is trying to force him to have sex with them, and then all Danny can do is protect them—always protecting other people—but he can’t do anything to save himself.

And what do I do? Supposedly his girlfriend who supposedly loves him? I get jealous of my stupid friends for acting exactly the way I would have predicted they’d act, and as for Danny, I completely stay away from him.

That’s what Stone told me to do. That’s what makes sense.

Right, it makes sense to leave the man I love completely alone while he’s going through the worst thing in his life.

But if I try to talk to him or go to him, then he’ll just be worried about me and have to try to protect me, and what if he can’t stop the Belmage from using me?

Well, so what if he does? Just because it’s the Belmage doing it doesn’t mean I can’t still be making love with Danny. And with me, Danny won’t have to do whatever he did to make his body useless to the Belmage. He can go ahead because whether the Belmage is there or not, it’s what Danny and I both want to do so guess what, Belmage—we win!

Stupid, she told herself. Stupid. Danny doesn’t want it that way, with an onlooker, with somebody else riding him like a pony. With a monster watching. And neither do I, because it won’t really be Danny. No way does Danny have some kind of magical trick to undress women in a couple of moves, if that’s what really happened. Danny’s not experienced, he’s not smooth, he’s just a kid, and that’s who I want to make love with, not a thousand-year-old incubus who uses up women like kleenex.

But if I just talk to him. Just tell him that I know, that I—

That’s the opposite of what Stone said to do.

When did Stone become my boss?

He became my boss when I went to him and asked him for advice and he gave it to me and I realized he was right. What good will it do if I let the Belgod know that we’ve figured him out, that we know Danny’s a captive? That would make me even stupider and more selfish and more disloyal than Xena and Sin and Laurette. As long as I stay away from him, Danny won’t have to worry about me.