Sarah relaxed back into the chair at the kitchen table, eyes roving over the piles of book before her. The house was eerily silent, no creaks or sighs from the walls, no rush of traffic sounds outside, no sense of the vibrant urban neighborhood. She idly stared at the far wall, wondering in an off-hand way about sound-proofing. Shaking herself, she scribbled on the legal pad under her hands, flipping the book nearest her closed with a muted thump.
She'd discovered the supernatural section of Talera's small library completely by accident. Combing through the walls of books in one of the spare rooms of her friend's Georgetown townhouse, she was surprised to find a collection of books, both ancient and crackly-new, that dealt with any number of creatures Sarah had never imagined.
Since no one else was awake as usual in the few days since the demon had returned, Talera in her room for the day, Kevin apparently in her company— doing who knew what in that big bed— and with Ana and Nel at their own places, she had some time to kill. So she approached her task like a term paper, taking notes, compiling a list of questions based on research.
"Is there a test later I was supposed to study for?" Kevin asked, a yawn interrupting his sleepy laugh. He padded into the kitchen in a pair of tight jeans, hair long and tangled over his bare chest and shoulders, feet bare.
"You need new clothes," Sarah noted. "Those jeans are indecent."
"Ugh, shopping," he snorted. "What time is it?"
"After six," Sarah said absently, leaning forward to close all the open books and stack them neatly. "I assume you're hungry. Where's Tay?"
"Off stalking her dinner, I guess ," he said with a shrug, leaning into the fridge and retrieving a beer. "She's not in the house."
"Stalking?" Sarah sighed with a raised brow.
"I don't picture her as a pouncer," Kevin mused, downing the beer and crushing the can into a tight little aluminum ball. "Can't you see her watching from the shadows, waiting for them to—"
"I get the picture," Sarah cut him off with a faint shudder. "I didn't hear her leave."
"Did you feel a breeze?" Kevin asked, deadpan, popping open a soda and rooting in the pantry.
"About an hour ago."
"Then you heard her leave."
"It's not even dark yet."
"Like it matters to her. Maybe I'll order a pizza. Extra cheese. Mmm, lots of meat."
"Whatever you want," Sarah said absently, jotting down a sudden thought on a separate notepad.
"What are you doing, anyway?" the Wolf asked, coming to look over her shoulder.
"Just compiling a list of questions," the girl said, showing him the three legal pads in the pile. "One for all three of you freaks. I can't stand not knowing anything."
"Freaks," he snorted, lifting the list with his name on it from the pile. "Let's see..."
She waited expectantly, heart picking up a notch with excitement. He caught the increase, lifting a brow at her.
"It's not that exciting," he huffed, scanning to the next page, eyes flickering with red light. Taking a chair on the other side of the table, he twirled it around and straddled it backwards, resting his arms on the back of it, laying the list on the table.
"Silver..." Sarah prompted when he fell silent.
"We're mildly allergic to it. Nothing too bad. Hurts like hell if you shoot a Lycan with a silver bullet, but it's not fatal."
"Full moons."
"Mmm, tricky," he sighed, running a hand through his hair. "At first it's hard to control the Wolf at full moon. It's supposed to get easier with time and experience. We can shift at any time, but at full moon, it's damned hard not to. A lot of the Packs have reserves and ranches they retreat to once a month so they don't have the danger of discovery or accidental Hunts during the two or three days when it's hard to control."
"When is the next one? What's going to happen to you?" Sarah asked, placing her hands flat on the table near his.
"Hard to say," he said with a shrug. "The next one starts tomorrow night. Pershing is coming up from Georgia to discuss my plans."
"Do the Packs hunt people? Humans?"
"Sometimes. Game is the usual fare, though. Deer, elk, bison, depends on the area. I won't say they never hunt humans, but it's not the norm and there are a lot of rules to follow if we do."
"If you're an Alpha and Pershing's an Alpha, what happens now?"
"You're taking this seriously, huh?" he noted dryly. "I don't know. Traditionally, I challenge him for the Pack. I don't want to lead them. I don't know how they're going to see me either. Since I used be a Hunter, the enemy, I can imagine I'm not going to get the warmest welcome. The only thing that's kept me from having to go down there and prove myself so far is Pershing's insistence that they cool down a bit. That and Talera's blood is in my veins, and she scares the piss out of them. Are we done yet?"
"For now," Sarah conceded. "I'll think of some more, and we'll get back to the rest of the list later."
"Joy," he snorted, yawning again, baring long teeth.
"Does everyone have fangs now?" Sarah growled, shivering involuntarily at the sight.
"I don't think Ana does," Kevin said, a slight smile on his lips.
"I'll add it to her list. Why are Talera's so...big? I've never even seen any of the others'."
"On most vamps, their fangs retract when they're not using them," he explained, yawning. "And I've never heard of anyone with them on the bottom. I don't think she can retract either set. Probably because she came into the Change with them intact. It keeps you as you are for the most part. Freezes you in time. That's why they tend to have long hair. Short styles aren't generally timeless."
"What about Lycans? I saw a couple of older-looking guys in Pershing's Pack."
He considered for a moment, eyeing her speculatively.
"You'd make a good Hunter," he said, giving her a wry smile. "If you're Changed, bitten, unless you're a little kid, you're stuck at whatever age you were when it happened. But, that doesn't happen very often. Most people who are bitten die immediately, and outsiders aren't usually brought in anyway.
"But, if you're born a Wolf, it's a little different. Everyone ages to a certain point, then stops. Sometimes it's just after puberty ends, sometimes it's not until your late fifties or so. There's no way to tell ahead of time. So, don't think that because one of us looks older, that we are. A teenager could be the eldest in a group and there'd be no way to know it. Other than that, I'm not so sure about the finer points of our physiology. My training wasn't comprehensive on some subjects."
"What did you...cover? What are the Hunters most concerned about?"
"Depends on the organization," he shrugged. "Generally it's the big three, though: vampires, werewolves and demons. And the latter covers a broad range of creatures. Ana is considered a demon now."
"That's charming."
"It's easier than breaking them down into each individual species."
"What did your organization, um, hunt?"
"There are different branches," he said, leaning over to pick up a book from the center of the pile. "These guys? Abercorn and Cohen? They're affiliated with the group I worked for. Do most of our—they're— research. They're thorough too, the books they write are the most accurate in the field. Are these hers?"
"I found them in the library in the last room down the hall," Sarah said. "Doesn't look like most of them even have been opened, though."
"She probably doesn't need to read them," he yawned again, though his face was thoughtful. "Anyway, I was in the vampire division. My whole mission was to come in and run inside surveillance on her alone. We can see how well that worked out."
"Why you specifically? Aren't you a little young?"
"A bit, but there are some of us who are called Born Hunters," he explained. "For some reason we pop out of the womb with the ability to track, patience to research, and everything else a Hunter needs. My parents have been friends with the leader of the organization I belonged to for most of their lives. Jobias Thompson. Good guy, actually. Noble, if that's not too cheesy a word. Anyway, when she came to the world's attention a few years ago, when Ash first took her as his Chosen and everyone got a look at the power behind that pretty face, Job asked me to join. For two years, I went through extensive training to prepare me to face her. Job apparently thought she'd find me appealing."
"Is she that dangerous?"
"More than we knew. Still moreso, I'd imagine," he grinned, eyes distant. "I had to learn how to lock up the thoughts in my head, disguise who I really was. Learn how to defend myself against vamps, how to incapacitate them, kill them if need be. It was kind of fun at the time. Super spy stuff, you know? And then... that first night, she walked into that kitchen and...it was all for naught. I knew that... I couldn't betray her. Knew it was useless anyway. Something about her. I just realized that, uh, it didn't matter what we did, she was like a hurricane, a nova. If she wanted to start trouble, there'd be nothing any of us could do about it. And she was fascinating."
"And hot," Sarah put in, grinning.
"And hot," he said ruefully. "I was eighteen, and—"
He froze, eyes scanning the room, alert suddenly.
"She's..." he said slowly, turning to scan over his shoulder. "Fuck! Bloody vampire! Don't do that!"
It took Sarah an extra heartbeat to realize that Talera was leaning against the doorjamb, dark eyes glinting in the light from the kitchen, arms crossed beneath her breasts. Her teeth flashed in a brief grin, but she otherwise remained still as a sculpture.
"How long have you been standing there?" Kevin demanded.
"Your pizza is on the way," she replied, straightening. "The staff will bring it up later."
She vanished for a second, but was back in a blink, two bulging shopping bags dangling from one hand. Her well-worn jeans hugged every curve, every ripple of muscle as she sauntered into the room, raising a brow at the books, but saying nothing as she set the bags in an empty chair. Sarah noted wryly that the demon looked more elegant and powerful in jeans, a black t-shirt and sneakers than most people did in suits or in uniform.
"It's all in the attitude," Talera said quietly as she ducked into the pantry, coming back with a bottle of red wine.
