Early the next morning Max was up and cautiously peering out of her room on the third floor. She was wearing a pair of loose fitting jeans and a guys tee shirt, which she had found in one of the drawers. She was a little disoriented and couldn't remember the way Grey had led her to the room. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the night before.
They had driven up to a set of huge gates that opened automatically. There was a long drive, a parking lot, and a big house - no a huge house. The forest stretched for miles around them. Max did not feel at ease knowing that they were incredibly secluded.
The front door had cameras (thanks to her profession she remembered the locations of all the cameras) and once past it there was a huge room, with three separate staircases heading to different parts of the house. To the right was a office set up, and she thought that each set of stairs might lead to a separate wing.
Grey escorted her up the middle one. Gabriel had watched, looking a little like he wanted to stop them, before heading to the office with Michael.
Once on the third floor he had lead her right... Or maybe left... To her room.
"The bathroom's on the right, the stairs are on the left." An amused voice broke into her train of thought.
Max opened her eyes to find a short woman with plenty of attitude looking back at her from the room across the hall. Her hair was streaked black and stunning red and she was dressed in overalls covered in grease. The woman's eyes looked almost black to her.
"Hi, I'm Max Seris, thanks.. this place is... unusually big."
Max said a little unsure of whether the woman was happy to see her or not. Her eyes were unnerving.
"I'm Jess Thomson. And I know exactly what you mean. I work a lot down in the basement with the weapons and stuff, and coming back up here to all the space can be a bit disorienting. But then I'm a fox, so I'm more of a 'little space' person anyway." Jess grinned and extended her hand to shake.
"I'll take you on a tour in a second, I just want to grab some non-dirt encrusted clothes."
Max grinned in return and nodded her hand. "Thanks."
***
Jess showed her downstairs to the rec room which was full of beanbags and movies. She also showed her around the giant kitchen, and they had breakfast together while Jess explained the rest of the house. There was a big pool out the back, gardens, and trails leading into the woods and a gym.
Grey and Michael lived in the eastern wing on the first floor which led out into the pool area. Jess lived on the third floor opposite her with a view of the gardens. Christina lived on the second floor of the western wing, and Gabriel lived on the top floor with his own rooftop garden.
"Grey's our computer guy, a technical genius... He's not all that happy with me because I accidentally threw one of his computers out a second story window the other day." Jess grimaced.
Max stared at her "seriously? Why?"
"Freaking Microsoft. There was a fatal error, and I wanted to make sure the damn thing was dead. I'm going Mac next time, I don't care how much Grey whines about interlopers. I'll get Michael to talk to him about discrimination.
"Michael is the muscle here. He does quite a few body-guarding type jobs... He's not so great at the light on his feet thing - he's too big - that seems to be the norm for tigers I think, graceful as cats, but clumsy as heck as people, you know?"
"Erm not really" said Max.
"I've never really spent that much time with other shape shifters. I've been on my own since is was 16, and never really thought it was a good idea to mix with others."
As evidenced by last nights' catastrophe which destroyed everything she owned.
Jess saw the hard edge beginning to creep into Max's eyes and hurried on with her explanation.
"Christina is a snow leopard, she does a bit of thieving. She's not really great at that though, what she is good at is getting information out of people, and infiltrating hard to reach places... Mostly through sex I think. It's surprising how far a vindictive bitch can get on a smile and the promise of some ass."
Jess and Max both giggled at that - Max remembering Gabriel's blunt treatment of Christina the night before.
"Are they together? Gabriel and Christina I mean.." Max asked, more nervous than she really had right to be.
"She wishes... Gabriel's smart enough not to get involved with her - although not smart enough to throw her trouble making ass out of the house. Speaking of our illustrious leader I'm guessing you're wanting to find him and take a piece outta him for last night huh?" Jess asked stacking their plates away in the dishwasher.
"You knew about that huh? Yes please. It's about time I had some answers from him." Max sighed
Jess pointed Max in the direction of the office and disappeared into the basement.
***
Max loitered in the big entrance hall for a moment or two getting her game face on. She strolled in circles pretending to be looking at the plants while mapping the angles of the cameras. From where she stood she could see two possible ways to enter the main house without being caught on the cameras.
She should probably mention that to someone - the problem would be easily fixed by installing a big mirror on one of the walls, and it would brighten up the room a bit.
Gabriel was working on his computer when she finally made her way to him. He was dressed in black and had his hair out of its usual confines.
He wasn't having much luck trying to find the information he was looking for, and for a moment was happy to see her. Until he took in her expression, his eyes lingered on her stubborn mouth for a second, imagining kissing her into submission. She looked tired, and angry - bound to be a fun combination.
Last night when he had been looking for her he was using his mind as much as his eyes ears and nose. Some shape shifters had some small mental abilities to go with their natural talents. Gabriel's was a natural affinity with finding things. Sometimes it just meant that he got hunches that turned out to be correct, or picked up a scent that no one else did, or sometimes he would get a flash of the person and their location like a bundle of feelings, and smells, and images in his head.
Last night when he had found Max he felt her mistrust of them all. It hurt him to know that she didn't trust him, but at the same time he knew damn well she had no reason to. He decided to tell her the truth - it was going to come out eventually and if he had any hope of gaining her trust sooner was better.
"Kitten. Have a seat." He leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair.
She watched speculatively for a second before taking the seat offered. Gabriel looked as tired as she felt... His eyes were still intense and that hair. She just wanted to play with it. She didn't bother correcting his choice of nickname - kitten was probably there to stay - she thought, annoyed.
"What the fuck happened last night. What did I actually steal, why, and who from. How much trouble am I in?" She asked in a clipped voice.
She was angry but there was no need to shout yet.
