Chapter 21

By the time our laughter faded, the sun had dipped below the horizon and true darkness was approaching swiftly. While Talon carted me upstairs to his bedroom, Marcus got busy cleaning up the battlefield. He'd been talking on the phone while sweeping up the glass, presumably arranging for a professional cleaning crew to dispose of the bloody mess.

"Be sure to have Marcus write up an estimate for the doors," I said to my mate as we entered his bathroom. "If whoever he orders the replacements from is willing to accept payments, then I'll work something out with them." He started to protest but I wasn't hearing any of it. "No, it's my fault they're broken, therefore it's my responsibility to pay for them. Besides," I continued after he spread a towel on his marble counter for me to sit on, "you guys already paid my bills, which I am not happy about, by the way, so-"

"What are you talking about, Remi?" Talon interrupted, confused. "What bills?'

I gave him my best don't-play-dumb-with-me look. "When I told Marcus about me going back to work and needing to make up for my recovery time, he told me not to worry about it, which I know is code for 'We've already paid for it'. And where do you get off making that decision for me?" I asked sharply, working up to a full rant. "I am perfectly capable of taking care of m-"

His mouth came down on mine, catching me off guard and stifling my words with his tongue. For a long moment, all I could think about was being with him again, the little zing that went through me as his lips claimed mine driving everything else out of my head. I felt a little of my life essence leave me just as he pulled away and I wondered why, if he needed it so bad, he didn't take more.

His amber eyes, brightly lit from within and slightly dilated, stared down into my reflective grays, a small smile tugging at his lips at whatever he saw on my face. "You are so cute when you're riled." I narrowed my eyes and he leaned back a little; smart man. "But you're wrong. We didn't pay for anything except the Witches' services. It was the Chinook Winds Pack of Montana that decided you should be compensated for your services and hardships."

My mouth opened but I could think of nothing to say besides "Umm". I couldn't fault him wanting to pay my aunts; they'd worked on him, too. If what he'd said was true and the money for my expenses had come from the Pack as a whole instead of an individual, it was something I could accept. It meant that nobody pitied me, which made me feel much better.

Seeing that I'd settled down now, Talon began examining me for injuries. I had several pieces of glass in my side from where I'd slid across the floor and a knife was necessary to remove more glass from places that had begun to heal over. Several slices had already scabbed up on my hands and feet and he was forced to break those open and scrub them under the faucet to insure no shards were in my flesh. When he tried to pull my left leg forward under the running water, I let out a breathless scream and knocked his hands away.

"Don't," I grunted, swallowing roughly and breathing shallowly.

His growl echoed around the room as he stepped away from me entirely. "Dammit! I swore I'd never let him hurt you again."

"He didn't!" I snapped before he could get too angry, and then corrected myself. "Well, he did but he didn't. It's just my thigh muscle. It's cramped up from all the work I've been doing around the house and then going to work at the shop today and then going to the dojo. Once you factor in my mad dash for the two miles I'd had to cross from my car to your house -. My car!" I smacked myself in the forehead with the heel of my hand, wincing as it opened up one of the cuts. "I left it parked in the road. Can you or Marcus go move it? I didn't turn my hazard lights on or anything and someone might hit it." I'd been so worried about the deer that I really don't think even existed and then escaping a revenge-crazed Demon that I'd completely forgotten about my poor Toyota.

Heaving a dramatic sigh, Talon brushed another kiss across my forehead and left the bathroom to do as I asked. It's not like I could do it myself, though.

Looking into the huge mirror that ran the full length of his blue marble counter, I cringed at my reflection. Dried blood mixed with fresh covered my skin in large smears, giving me the appearance of a horror flick extra and a cheesy one at that. My shoulders and hips bore mostly healed scraped from where I'd squeezed through narrow spaces trying to elude my attacker and bruises added more color in various other places. When I tipped my head forward to examine an area on my shin, small slivers of glass fell and I realized my black hair was full of shards that had probably sliced my scalp up, too. In short, yet again, I was a blood mess.

"Can I not go a week without something happening to me?" I asked my reflection grumpily while reaching across the counter for Talon's brush so I could start working on my hair. "I didn't used to have this many problems; I could swear I didn't. What happened to my peaceful, boring life?"

"Me." Talon's sudden appearance didn't startle me as it normally would have since I hadn't heard him. Instead, I'd felt him as he came up the stairs and down the hall, though I'd be damned if I knew how. Maybe I'd done it on a subconscious level?

Rolling my eyes, I said, "Don't even try that stuff again. My bad luck started before you kissed me the first time, remember? Actually, now that I think about it, that day at the shop when -" I hesitated, not wanting to say the name out loud, "- that Vampire showed up is when everything went downhill. Well," I smiled to myself, "almost everything."

Crossing his arms, he leaned against the door frame, still clad only in his shorts, all his lovely dark tan skin on display. "He's gone now, in case you were wondering. The Vampire," he clarified. "He finished his business and cleared out three weeks ago."

I didn't ask if he'd kept tabs on Andras because of me; I didn't want to know. All I said was, "Good," and went back to trying to work the knots out of my hair.

"A comb would work better for getting the glass out," he commented helpfully.

"Not right now, it wouldn't," I told him, tugging the brush through a particularly bad spot. "All that I'd gain from using a comb right now would be broken bits of plastic added to the glass." Now that I was working with it, my scalp started throbbing all over.

"Let me?" he asked softly, silently holding his hand out for the brush. Despite the tenderness of his earlier ministrations, I could feel his tension, contained and wound tight like his shoulders, and I understood what he wasn't saying. Relinquishing the torture device, I let him work on my hair, giving in to his need to take care of me. A lot of dominants had the unquenchable urge to care for others when they were hurt and Talon was quite dominant, even if he wasn't a Werewolf. His touch was gentle, working from the tips to the roots and using his long fingers to deftly untangle the worst places instead of trying to yank through them like I'd been doing.

When the brush slid easily through my hair, he put it down and went over to his large, sunken tub and turned on the water, adjusting them to an exact temperature before returning to my side. From a drawer, he pulled a fine-toothed comb and went back over my hair, starting at the top, ridding me of the finer particles of glass that hadn't already fallen out. The amount of tinkling made me worry about him stepping in it and cutting himself up.

"Don't worry about it, Ramirez," he told me, his voice very soothing. "Just relax. Your bath is almost ready."

I did feel relaxed, enjoying the way his fingers ran through my long, midnight locks, separating out sections to comb through. It reminded me of the way he'd sometimes run his hands through my fur when I was a Panther and I sighed happily, thinking about how nice such a simple motion could be. A surge of disappointment rose up when he stepped away to shut off the water in the tub, leaving me alone on the stone counter.

As he crossed the bathroom back towards me, I called out a warning about all the broken glass again, thinking that I should have had him bring up a broom. When he asked me what glass I was talking about, I gestured to the sand colored marble beneath his feet, then stared in wonder. What glass, indeed.

"Where did it go?" I asked stupidly. I'd seen the spread of glittering shards there just a second ago. Hadn't I? I went to lean back on my arms but shot back upright at the last second before I put all the glass he'd just combed out back into my hands but, when I looked, that was gone, too. "Okay, I know I'm a bit rundown but I'm certainly not delusional. What happened to all the glass?" My pulse picked up as I stared around, looking for it. I didn't like it when things disappeared without assistance; it freaked me out.

"I cleaned it up." Talon spoke gently, seeing how much it bothered me in my wide eyes and jerky movements. "Yes, I know, you didn't see me do anything. That's because there was nothing to see. I used what you would probably call a 'Demonic trick'. It's okay." He smiled and held out his arms. "Now, if my lady would allow me to assist, your bath is ready."

For a long moment, I continued to stare at him nervously. The day had been filled with all sorts of nasty surprises; I didn't think I could handle any more. Tomorrow, after some rest and food, I'd be fine, but tonight ... Tonight, I was uncharacteristically vulnerable, raw and unbalanced in both a physical and mental capacity. For the third time, I'd come close to being killed by the same person, a man moreover who'd supposedly been killed himself over a week ago. Also for the third time, Talon had almost arrived too late.

Shivers wracked my body, causing my teeth to chatter, moisture from my suddenly full eyes leaving hot, raw tracks down my cheeks. It was so cold all of a sudden, like all the warmth in my body had been sucked out, my heart pumping icy sludge through my veins in place of hot blood.

Talon's arms came around me, feeling like hot metal against my frozen flesh and I tried to pull away, the heat too much for me to take all at once. His grip remained unmoving, his lips murmuring sweet reassurances into my hair that I couldn't understand while my jaw used my teeth as percussion instruments. Slowly, painfully, the burn of his flesh receded to a pleasant warmth, thawing me from the outside in until I no longer shivered, allowing me to draw a full breath of Talon-scented air.

"What happened?" I was exhausted now and a bit worried about myself. I couldn't recall ever having an episode like that and I surely didn't want a repeat.

"Shock, I think," he told me, his voice nonjudgmental and I realized I was in his arms instead of on the counter; I didn't remember being picked up. "It was probably brought on by everything that happened today. To be honest, I'm surprised it took so many traumas to cause it. You are very strong."

"Not today," I remarked glumly, looking at my dirty hands, feeling depressed.

His lips once again pressed into my hair and he whispered, "Especially today." In his normal voice, he said, "Let's get you in to soak before the water gets too cold."

Despite what he thought, the water was almost too hot, making me wonder if I was still chilled or if he had filled the tub with nothing but hot water to begin with. In either case, the blue marble basin was warm as well and my muscles immediately began to relax. He touched a button panel I'd never noticed before and the water began to froth and roil.

"Oh, my gods, this isn't a tub, it's a Jacuzzi!" He laughed and pressed a different button to activate the whirlpool jets on my back. My groan echoed around the large room, the jets massaging away the knots while the warm water relaxed my cramped muscles.

Letting my eyes drift shut, I concentrated on evaluating my body. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. My muscles were loosening, my left leg finally starting to relax and uncurl itself from my chest. The various cuts from jumping through the set of doors were already healing and would like close up without a mark once I ate. All in all, I thought I'd fared pretty well. Better than the last time, anyway.

I don't know how long I lounged there before Talon joined me in the tub, considering I hadn't noticed his stripping, I might have dozed off. The water level rose but didn't overflow like I expected it to as he sat beside me (the tub was very large, more along the lines of a small hot tub sunk into the floor, so there was plenty of room). Gently, his arms came around me and transferred me to his lap, my back resting against his well-defined chest, his arms placed across my shoulders to keep me from floating away.

This was the first time we'd been in the bath together. We've showered together a few times, some of them requiring multiple washings, but never the bath. It seemed odd, now that I was thinking about it; the sheer size of it invited long, leisurely soaks with perhaps a plate of fruit or a glass of wine, watching the sun set through the large, open windows overlooking his back yard and the woods beyond. It made me curious to ask if Talon did such a thing on a regular basis or maybe as a special treat, a private pleasure at the end of the day. Maybe that was why he hadn't suggested playing in the tub before.