“I don’t know, I don’t know.” Cinn rubbed at her eyes. God, she was tired. Too much had happened today. Her thoughts were getting muddied.

Dacian was ready for this whole scene to be over. “Maybe you should leave, Asima. And ask Holgarth to send someone to guard the plants while Cinn gets something to eat and takes a shower.”

Asima wasn’t listening. She gazed up at them from eyes bright with wonder. “Vince says he loves me. He admires my elegant manner and thinks my eyes are more beautiful than the stars he can see through the glass.”

She leaped for the door. “No one has ever loved me. Ever. I want him to hear some of my music. He’ll love it.”

Cinn looked at Dacian. “Don’t say it. I know I made a mess of this. Maybe Airmid is right.” She sighed. “I don’t know anymore.”

Dacian didn’t want to think it, but he couldn’t stop his mind’s buzzing. Did she see him as she saw her plants? An experiment with the unknown? God, he hoped not. “Okay, we know Vince reacted to Eva’s pollen. What about Teddy?”

Cinn looked over at the cactus. “I don’t know. He’s not as evolved as Vince, so he might not be able to express his feelings.” She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, because we know what Eva does. Now I have to figure out how to cure Wade and Vince.”

Dacian cast another glance Teddy’s way. He wouldn’t count the cactus out. But maybe Cinn was right. Even if Teddy had some emotional response to Asima, what could he do? Poor slob.

Cinn and Dacian sat on the cot waiting for a replacement guard. Neither spoke. They didn’t have to wait long. Suddenly, the kitchen door entrance swung open and Ganymede padded in. Several hotel employees tagged along behind him. One carried a flat-screen TV while another toted a small fridge. A third pushed aside several plants and put a cat bed on the counter. Ganymede leaped into the bed as one of the men strung two extension cords out the door and back into the kitchen. Cinn and Dacian could hear the chef’s shouted opinion of this disruption of his cooking routine.

“I don’t believe this.” Cinn narrowed her gaze on the cat.

“Believe it, babe.” Ganymede began to wash his face. “I’ll watch your plants, but you have to do something for me while you’re out.”

Dacian knew this wouldn’t be good.