At last she took a deep breath and looked back at him. “Maybe we can take in a night game sometime. I’d like to see the city lights.” She sounded serious.

“Sure.” He smiled while he tried to decide if there was a coded message he’d missed. Dacian never did come to a conclusion because someone opened the door in his mind. From Cinn’s expression, she was feeling the intruder, too.

“Perhaps you should come back to the greenhouse. There’s been an incident.”

Asima didn’t bother to elaborate, leaving both Cinn and him to assume the worst. With a muttered curse, he stood and ran from the club, with Cinn beside him.

Dacian didn’t know what to expect when he flung open the greenhouse door and stepped inside.

Asima sat on the table in the middle of the greenhouse. She looked as though she’d just gone through a windstorm and caught a lot of flying debris. The cot was upside down and the chair was lying against one wall, but other than a few leaves scattered around, all the plants seemed to be in one piece.

“What happened?” Cinn sounded breathless as she moved down the aisles, looking at each plant.

“Airmid came. She thought I’d let her destroy the plants.”

“But you didn’t.” Dacian’s opinion of Asima went up a notch.

“I promised to protect them.” Asima looked militant.

Cinn returned to his side. “Are you okay?”

Asima nodded. “I heal quickly.”

“How did you drive off a goddess?” What Dacian left unsaid was that Asima might be immortal, but she didn’t have goddess power.

Asima’s tail seemed to have a few kinks in it as she whipped it back and forth. One ear looked a little ragged, and bald spots here and there would give her lots of street cred with Galveston’s alley cats.

“I’ve been a messenger of Bast for thousands of years. I’ve learned to protect myself. Besides, Airmid is a goddess of plants, not a warrior goddess.” Her eyes gleamed with wicked satisfaction. “And I fight dirty.” Her satisfaction was short-lived, though. “She’ll return.”

Cinn pressed her lips into a thin line. “I’ll be prepared. Thank you for what you did. It couldn’t have been easy to fight your boss’s friend.”

Asima groomed one paw. “Sometimes you have to make a difficult choice and then be prepared to defend that choice.”

“We’ll take over, Asima. Go get some rest. You deserve it.” Cinn dragged the chair back to where it belonged.

Asima left in a hurry. Dacian watched her go before righting the cot. “I think I underestimated her. She has more power than I gave her credit for. Because no matter how dirty she fights, Airmid should’ve been able to bounce her off these walls.”