Chapter 13

I woke up in the wee hours, sated and blissful. And alone in my bed. I spotted him sitting on a chair against the far wall, watching me silently.

"What's the matter?" my voice was rough with sleep as I sat up, keeping the blanket up over my bare breasts instinctively; it was a little cool.

"What am I to you?" His question was so unexpected that I just stared at him.

"I'm not sure I understand the question," I told him, confused and bewildered. This was not how I had imagined this moment to go.

"Am I just a friend? Am I just a one-time fling?"

"Shouldn't I be asking those questions of you?" I asked, half joking. He didn't answer, but I hadn't expected him to. "Let me see if I can answer your questions. Like you, I don't have many friends. My adopted family doesn't count," I added before he could interrupt. "Who do I hang out with? You and Marcus and maybe a friend from school once in a great while. I enjoy being with you guys, to the extent of not really wanting other friends.

"I can tell you without being vain, that I could have had my pick of the men in the club tonight and I chose not to, because I didn't want them; I wanted you." I took a deep breath and flipped the covers back, getting up and walking over to him slowly so he could see me. "If I ask you to come back to bed, would that answer your question?"

"I don't want to be used, not by anyone," he told me, keeping his eyes on my face, for which he gained huge points, his voice stern, unyielding. "And yet," he continued softly, "I think I would let you use me, so long as it kept you near me."

"Do you think I'm doing this for purely physical reasons?" I asked him, stepping back, hurt. "Do you really think I'm the type of person who would take what you offered and toss you aside when I was through? That hurts," I felt my eyes stinging and clenched my arms around myself. "I'm nothing like him, nothing like the women at the clubs, offering themselves for a sexual high. I haven't been that way ever, not even when I went out regularly." I turned my face away and hugged myself tighter.

"Is that what he did to you?" he asked quietly from his perch in the dark.

"I don't want to talk about it." My voice cracked and I swallowed around the painful lump in my throat. I turned to get back in my bed and felt his arms wrap around me, warm and solid. Though I fought it, I couldn't help but lean into him.

"I don't want to hurt you," he whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Then what do you want, Talon?" I closed my eyes as they started to fill, his hands deftly rotating me to face him.

"You, Ramirez." His sincerity did strange things to me, making me feel light-headed. "I've always wanted you. But I will leave if you ask me to." His voice and hands pleaded with me not to make him leave, not to mention my own heart.

"I don't want you to go," I whispered, a tear sliding down my face; I smiled, my eyes still closed. "I'm crazy about you; ask my aunts sometime. They've been bugging me for years to go out with you."

"Why didn't you?" His slightly cool fingertips wiped the trail of moisture from my cheek, leaving a cool phantom touch in its place.

"You never asked," I shrugged and opened my eyes to look at him. "I wasn't going to ask you; I had no way of knowing if the sentiment was returned either. All you had to do was talk to my relatives," I pointed out, "Marcus wouldn't tell me shit."

"I know; he told me."

"That little-!" I huffed and stomped my foot. "That's it! No more jelly beans for a month." I wasn't actually angry, just a little annoyed; besides, that was usually the time period between offerings. Deep down, I'd known he'd tell Talon, had counted on it.

"Did you honestly expect him not to tell me?" he asked and I shrugged again. "So, does this mean that, if I ask you to dinner tomorrow night, you'll accept?" His hands slid down from my shoulders, across my ribs to firmly grab my waist as he walked me backwards.

"That depends," I replied and looked at my bedside clock. "Considering it is 5:30 Wednesday morning, and I don't consider it to be the next day until I get some more sleep, does that mean tonight or tomorrow night?" I felt the edge of my bed pressing against my legs and I locked my knees so I could stay standing.

"That depends. Do you need time?" He was utterly serious and I found myself wanting to melt into his arms.

"To think about it? No, I'd love to. But if you're taking me somewhere fancy, I'll need time to find appropriate attire." I draped my arms around his shoulders, minimizing the space between us to zero. He bent his head, laying a trail of kisses from my temple, down my face and neck to where the neck and shoulder met and bit just hard enough to make me moan. "You learn quickly," I whispered breathlessly, "and fight dirty. How about we work out the details later?"

His response was just what I'd had in mind.

I finally did manage to catch a few hours of sleep before heading to work. Talon had left sometime during my nap, leaving a note and a flower on the bedside table saying he'd call me later with details about dinner.

I was glowing with happiness as I got around, my heart and head lighter than I could remember in a long time. I felt as if something was finally going my way.

I put up with shit all morning from Aunt Gene and congrats from Aunt Annie until they set the apprentices their duties for the day. The brunette, who's name was Molly, looked like she was in heaven, all smiles and competence as she worked, clearly enjoying herself. Blondie, on the other hand, wasn't fairing so well. Dark circles ringed her eyes, her nails were chipped and her clothes bore ugly stains. She glared at me briefly before shuffling off and I shook my head; obviously she needed a bit more work.

True to his word, Talon called me at about four. "Don't worry about clothes," he told me, mentioning the name of a little café that made great salads and was right down the street from the shop.

After closing, I made my way leisurely to the dojo; seeing as how I'd missed Saturday's class, I wasn't inclined to skip another.

I felt delightfully nervous as I left the dojo and made my way to the restaurant. Talon and I had often gone there for a bite before or after class, but I kept thinking it would be different this time.

It was a relief to discover I was wrong. The employee's greeted me by name when I walked in, pointing to the slightly secluded alcove that held two tables, one of which was occupied.

"Hey," I said, by way of greeting. "I didn't see you in class." I was a little worried that he'd forgotten about practice and had been waiting here the whole time.

"Yeah, I was helping another student train for the exhibition next week," he explained and I sighed in relief. I looked him over but nothing had changed. He was wearing his customary baggy clothes with his damp hair pulled back out of his face. The only difference was his slightly more relaxed posture and the small smile tugging at his lips as he looked at me.

We ordered our food, making small talk until it arrived, and then digging in heartily. I loved all the food here, the ingredients actually being fresh and put together as it was ordered. This place was also known for its coffee and kept several different kinds brewing all day. I didn't really drink the stuff, but the smell was nice, rich and comforting.

It was towards the end of the meal that his cell phone rang. I waited while he conversed with another man; the music coming in from the speaker overhead combined with his phone's low volume prevented my sharp hearing from catching anything besides tone and gender.

"What was that about?" I asked when he was through, finishing the last of my salad.

"Information, of a sort," he took a drink and pushed away from the table.

"Let's go." We left, walking back to my car a few blocks away. "Does this have anything to do with Lilitu?" I asked as we walked.

"It might," he said. "One of the reasons I knew about your father's pack before you was because I already had people watching that area." He waited until we were in my car before speaking again. "Did your father or any of them mention anything about recent disappearances?"

"No," I told him, confused about the subject change. "But like I said before, they wouldn't necessarily tell me anything."

"Hmm, maybe, "he said thoughtfully. "Anyway, there has been a rather unusual set of disappearances up that way in the last two months."

"Like how many?"

"It isn't the amount so much as where they were taken from." I made a come-on motion, getting onto the highway, headed home. "Ten people have gone missing from clubs in central Montana."

"While that's sad," I told him after a thoughtful silence, "it isn't unusual. Vamps and Demons, no offense, lose control sometimes and kill their partners."

"I agree. But no bodies have been found anywhere. And all the clubs were Werewolf."

I let that sink in as I drove, my brain wandering in thought. That didn't make sense, especially in a state as populated with Werewolves as Montana. "What clubs?"

"Fangs and Claws, Exiled and The Hole," he said, hesitating slightly as though he were reading off a list.

"Hole-in-the-wall, richy-bitch, and working class." I nodded. "Also the three most popular for those circles in the central part of the state. I'd like to think somebody would have notices ten Weres disappearing into thin air," I commented, pulling onto my driveway.

"They were humans," he told me, "those that are missing."

It was a good thing I wasn't still on the road, because I whipped my head around to stare at him and almost didn't stop before I drove into a tree.

"That's not right," I told him, shaking my head as I shut off the engine and climbed out. "Those are Were and Shifter only clubs- NOTHING else allowed, no exceptions." I remembered some hot-shot Vampire trying to sue Exiled for discrimination; he lost, obviously, since there were segregated clubs for everybody.

"The only thing all the missing have in common is where they disappeared from." Moving quickly, we climbed the switch-back stairs and reached his house, continuing the discussion in the living room.

"So what did the man on the phone have to say?"

"Another was reported missing tonight. So far, that makes it six men and five women, with four missing from both Fangs and Exiled and three from The Hole." Talon joined me on the couch, sitting at the other end so he could turn and face me as Marcus entered with drinks.

"Is there a pattern to these disappearances?" I asked, thanking Marcus for my drink, an ice-cold soda; he knew me well. I'd even go so far as to suspect him of being psychic.

"We can't tell," Marcus took over. "The missing person reports are all out of order, some going unreported for a week or two, some, like this last one, a day later."

"Why not have some of your contacts stake the clubs out?" I asked, reasonably I thought. But they just stared at me. "What?"

"You said it yourself, no one but Weres and Shifters are allowed inside," Talon said.

"You're telling me that, out of your numerous spies and contacts, there isn't a single Shifter or Were among them? Bullshit," I said with a snort.

He smiled, just a tiny thing but it made my heart beat faster. "You are correct; I do have a couple of animal types out that way. But, like Marcus said, we don't know the time table or pattern. I do not, however, know enough of them to stake out all three clubs every night in the hopes that they'll get lucky." He leaned forward slightly. "Besides, I'm not a cop; I have no interest in finding the people, I just want to know what's going on."

I glanced at him sharply and he shrugged. "I still think something's not right," I said. "The doormen themselves, at least for Exiled and The Hole are trained well in how to tell supernaturals apart, besides using their noses. I won't vouch for Fangs - it's a sleazy joint that would probably just assault any other they found in their midst.

"Maybe we're looking at this from the wrong angle," I continued, thinking furiously. "You said they've gone missing from the clubs, right?" I waited until they nodded. "How do you know that?"

"Cars left in the parking lots, people close to them that said they were headed for one of those clubs before they disappeared," Marcus told me.

"This is making my head hurt," I said with a sigh. "Why don't we make this easy and call the closest Alpha, who should already know all this, and see where that gets us. Honestly, as tragic as this all is, I'm not entirely certain why you're involved? This seems a little too much trouble to go through just to satisfy your curiosity."

"I don't like serial killers," Talon confessed. "If that's what this turns out to be, I'd like to enter the scene as prepared as possible." He shrugged. "Call it one of my hobbies. This is also really bad publicity for the Werewolves, which they will be implicated in soon, so I figured you'd like to know."

"Well, I appreciate it," I told them, nodding to both of them. "Now, any progress with Lilitu?"

"We think they're still in Montana, but they're staying off the radar, most likely gone to ground. But we aren't actively pursuing them yet, so," Talon shrugged again. "I've got a few people watching your pack as well as any move that might be Zaire; we'll know when anything goes down."

"In the meantime," Marcus yawned and stretched, coming to his feet, "I need some sleep. I'd suggest you get some too, Talon, but you'll do as you please." I couldn't help snickering as Talon rolled his eyes. "Goodnight, Miss Kinkade."

"Goodnight, Marcus." I waited until I heard a distant door shut before turning my attention to the Demon before me. "So?" There was a world of emotion in that word and my quirked eyebrow.

"I imagine it will take longer than one day and one date to figure it out," he told me, grabbing my foot and digging into the heel.

"That feels good," I groaned as his competent fingers went to work. He just chuckled. "If you're not careful," I told him when he switched to my other foot, "I may pass out on your couch." His hands were soothing on my skin and I felt myself relaxing into his touch.

"As comfortable as it is," he told me, his hands sliding up my ankle and calf to gently caress my lower leg, "I've got a bed that's much more comfortable."

"That sounds," I paused to yawn, "enticing, but I don't think I'm up for anything but sleeping." I'd only managed about three hours of sleep this morning and hadn't slept well the night before; it was only 11pm but I was tired.

"That sounds good to me," he said, trying and failing to suppress his own yawn and helping me to my feet.

Laughing, he led the way to his bedroom, down the hall from his office and around a corner. I'd been all over this house in the four years we've been friends and the only two places I'd never been were Talon's bedroom and bathroom. Even Marcus' rooms were not exempt, though it was his decision to let me in them. Curiosity piqued, I waited impatiently while he opened the door and hit the lights.

The walls were done in a swirled mix of blues and blacks so well that I couldn't tell whether or not it was wallpaper; the ceiling was the same. The carpet underfoot was plushy and done in shades of grey that reminded me of stone. The rest of the room was put together so well that it took me a minute to actually see its contents.

The dresser, various tables and shelves were all wood, stained a deep, dark color I couldn't name, the main door as well as two others stained to match. It should have felt claustrophobic, dark colors tending to shrink a room; instead, it felt cavernous, like I was standing on a rock ledge under a night sky. The only thing missing was the wind and wildlife.

Despite the events of the previous night, I was nervous, so I focused on the scent of the room as my tension increased, trying to calm myself. It had been a long time since I'd been in a relationship and I was worried about what could happen. I had no qualms about having sex, but sleeping with him scared me. Go figure. Though I guess it wasn't as far fetched a fear as some; I'd never stayed the night with any man I was in a relationship with.

Picking up on my unease, Talon crossed to his dresser. "Here," he said, tossing me a shirt. "The bathroom's through that door," he gestured to the farthest one in and stepped back.

I murmured my thanks and walked past him without touching him. Once I'd changed, I used the toilet and braided my hair for sleep, then stared in the mirror.

Dark circles from lack of sleep and stress served to enhance my grey eyes, which were rather bloodshot under my dark eyebrows. I laughed a little at the overall picture in the mirror.

Wearing Talon's oversized shirt, I looked like I was twelve and lost, spending the night in some obscure relative's house. Scoffing at myself, I folded up my clothes and looked around me.

The room was huge. The countertops were varying shades of blue marble, going nicely with the sand-colored stone of the floor. There was a sunken tub in one corner, also done in blues, with windows that could be opened to overlook the back of his property. A shower stall, large enough to fit six or more people, boasted four showerheads that sprouted from its blue tiles like branches from a tree. The overall effect of the room was beach-like, comfortable and relaxing. Whoever had designed and decorated his suite was very good, not that it really surprised me.

When I finally emerged, he was pulling the shades down over the windows, dressed in a pair of shorts, his hair pulled back still.

Watching him, I felt my chest lurch. He was so comfortable, so relaxed as he moved habitually around his room, preparing for bed. He was sexy, to be sure, but I felt more than lust when I looked at him, and that scared me a little.