Note: This is my first foray back into fanfic in a long time, so please leave me some feedback on if this is a utter mess! Spoilers for season 2, particularly the finale. I do have an extensive story planned after this chapter, and will try to keep writing it quickly! No Beta at this time!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters!

The Devil In Me

Stepping outside the Dal a few minutes after she had left so quickly, Dyson took a long deep breath of the crisp autumn air. He tested for the scent he knew so well, and with as injured and exhausted as she was, she had not gotten very far. Walking through the ally to the parking area around the corner from the bar, Kenzi was seated on the hood of Bo's car, her back towards him. Bent over slightly, her chin rested on the heels of her hands, elbows resting on her knees. It was beginning to get dark, the air cooling quickly with the descent of the sun. With as much blood as she had lost today, and her general penchant for having horrible circulation in those skinny limbs he knew she must be getting cold. He intentionally kicked up some gravel as he walked, not wanting to startle her as he approached from behind.

"I know, I know. I being a rude human and skipping out on some mandatory post life and death fae party ritual thing or something." She turned her head slightly, and was surprised to see her favorite wolf and not her bestie, as a smile broke across her pale and exhausted face. He hid his concern for the moment and returned her smile broadly as he came around to the front of the car, leaning against the hood. Wrapping his arm around her small shoulders, he pulled her into him as he tried to rub some warmth back into her arms.

"Kenzi, surviving this week at all entitles you to do whatever the hell you please." He replied with a squeeze. She rolled her eyes, brushing of compliments terribly as usual. He did not like however the how pale her lips had become that that he was able to get a closer look at her. "Ok, that seals it. You are coming with me." He stood, scooping her up as he did. She yelped, taken by surprise but too exhausted to protest. "I'm taking you back to my place, we are getting you cleaned up, and I am going to get some good food into softball sized excuse you have for a stomach."

"Your place huh? Getting kinda forward don't you think Kujo?"

"I convinced Bo to stay here with Trick and Lauren tonight they can keep an eye on her as the rest of that energy drains off, and you are absolutely in no condition to be left alone. Not to mention, your kitchen is terrifying and I don't trust you to eat anything other than that horrid pecan ice cream for dinner. So yes, you are coming home with me." He got her settled into the passenger seat of his car, and sent a text to Hale to let him know that they were well but would not be retuning to the celebration.

They had not been driving more than a few minutes before she was asleep, having pulled his leather jacket up under her chin and propped her feet up on the dash. He ducked quickly into the grocery store to pick up few items for dinner before heading to his loft, the sun well set by the time he pulled into his usual spot. He turned off the ignition and when he turned to wake her up he paused for a moment, taking advantage of this rare stillness to observe her.

He was not able put words to the subtle shift towards Kenzi he felt suffusing his recently restored heart. When they first had met, she had been a bit of annoyance, Bo's ever present human. But the more time he was around Kenzi, the more he witnessed her bravery, her loyalty, the more he had come to respect and even admire her. The fierceness in the way she protected those she loved commanded nothing less that absolute respect from his wolf nature. Kenzi would do anything for those she loved. Even with the constant ridicule she endured from his people, she brushed it off and stood by them anyway.

But now, with everything that had happened, everything she had risked for him...that respect was changing into something that even he was not ready to admit. The implications of what he was starting to feel were more complicated that he was prepared to deal with. Taking a deep calming breath, the scent of her dried blood permeating the car was enough to break his mood and focus on the very real needs of the present. Clearing his mind of complicated thoughts, he ran a calloused finger down the side of her face, gently tickling the sensitive skin behind her ear smiling at the sleepy fidget his ministration caused.

"Kenz...we're here." Those stormy eyes fluttered open reluctantly. She made a pouty grunt at being woken up.

"Dibs on the shower?" She asked sheepishly as she began to fold his jacket across her lap. Dyson laughed as he came around to her side of the car, grabbing the groceries they made their way to his loft in comfortable silence. As they entered he nodded towards the bathroom, tossing his keys on the counter next to the door.

"Go ahead and get cleaned up first. There are some clean sweats in the bottom drawer next to the bed that you can probably make work. I'll get started on dinner."

He had just finished cutting all the vegetables when the surprised cry of pain and loud thud just about made his heart stop. He dropped the knife and sprinted to the bathroom, the sight that confronted him drew him up short. Kenzi's back was towards him, she had fallen hard on her knees to the tile, one arm clutching her side, and the other, modded with dark bruising, was braced against the floor of the basin. Her shoulders were shaking violently despite the thick steam that had already filled the room. Cursing at himself for leaving her alone in the first place, without any thought to her possible protests, he pulled off his shirt and stepped into the shower with her. Gently, he reached down and slipped one arm under hers and high across her chest, wrapping his hand around her opposite shoulder. The other arm he wrapped other across her waist, well clear of the sealed wound low on her hip. He carefully pulled her to her feet and rested her against his chest, taking almost all of the weight off her legs.

His arms wrapped tightly around her, he just held her close as he could as sobs wracked her lithe form. More than anything he wanted to be able to comfort her, but he was unsure of what there was that could be said to ease horrors and pain they had all endured these last few weeks. So instead he just held her as tightly as he dared for as long as she would let him, his thumb tracing slow circles across her belly, slowly learning the horrible ridges of the nasty scar that he knew was painted across her skin. The wound that had almost taken this remarkable human away from them. From him. The intensity of that last thought surprised the shifter, and he was almost glad for distracting twinge in cooler water that told him they needed to get out before it turned much colder.

Extracting the hand from her waist, he reached down and turned off the water, the small whimper of protestation from Kenzi made him smile. She twisted carefully in his arms so that she was tucked against his chest. Trying his best to let Kenzi preserve whatever modesty she wished to claim, he carefully kept his gaze leveled over the top of her head, trying very hard to ignore the growing realization that her naked chest was pressed against his. He reached for the fresh towel she had hung next to the shower and draped it around her shoulders. Her breath still hitching every few lungfuls as she got herself back under control, she rested her cheek against his chest. When she spoke her voice was uncharacteristically unsure.

"Dyson...what is this?" She asked, not able to look at his face, instead focusing on the lights of the city, clouded and obscure through the fogged glass of the bathroom windows. Dyson sighed and wrapped his fingers through the thick damp mass of hair at the base of her slender neck. Resting his chin on the top her head he answered as honestly as he could.

"I don't know Kenz... I don't have it all worked out yet." He could feel her nod and immediately start to pull away from him. He was surprised at how quickly his arms wrapped around her again, pulling her close. "Hey...talk to me." He used a knuckle to gently force her face up too look at him. The loneliness in those blue-grey eyes hurt him more than he thought it ever could.

"I...is complicated. Bo makes it complicated. I make it complicated. I know what people might think about me, with my 'tude, my drinking, my rocking sense of style..." She smiled a bit at the look that solicited from Dyson. "But this..." She gestured to herself. "I know I must pretty much seem like a baby to you, but I've had a lot of stuff happen to me in my life, and it makes it hard for me to...I can't just..." She sighed, frustrated with herself. "You are either all in or not. I can't deal with this fae hippie bed hopping shit. Bo is different I get that, its who she is. But its not who I am. So until you know for sure what you want, who you...I cant..." She took a deep breath steeling herself as she gently pushed away again, her hand resting over his heart. "I just can't." She finished, her voice calm and resolved.

She moved to step out of the the tub and he stood close by, considering her words carefully before he spoke next. Getting her settled on the edge of his bed he quickly stripped out of his soaking jeans and pulled on a dry pair of basketball shorts. Running a towel roughly through the damp mass of his unruly hair, he retrieved a long-sleeve t-shirt and sweatspants for Kenzi from the bottom drawer of his dresser. Seeing how stiffly she was beginning to move, he kneeled down and let her steady herself on his shoulder as she stood up so he could get her pants on. Slipping one foot, then the other into the pant legs, he slid the pants up her toned slim legs under the towel. Taking her words to heart, he tried very hard to ignore her involuntary shiver his thumbs brushing along the sides of her hips elicited from her damp skin, a shiver that had nothing to do with the cool temperature of the room. Letting the towel loosen a bit to give him access to the drawstring, he pulled the considerable slack taunt enough to keep them from falling off the bones of her hips.

For the first time he could finally take a closer look at her wound. He looked up at her, the lines of his face drawn tight.

"May I?" He asked evenly, trying to rein in the very real desires her scent soliciting from his body. She nodded as his one hand steadied her waist while the fingers of his other gently pushed back the curtain of the towel.

Finally seeing the extent of the damage done, he couldn't quite stifle the quiet growl of rage that rose to his lips.

He had been a warrior the balance of his life, and had both inflicted and suffered more injuries than he could even try to remember. But he was Fae, and a furthermore a shifter, whose healing and strength was unmached by most. More than anyone else however, he knew how close she had come to dying today. It had not been that long ago that he had been inside of Kenzi's terrifyingly fragile body. A mere quarter inch further and the beserker's sword could have easily sliced through major internal organs. If it had not been for Lauren's quick thinking, and Hale's amazing control she would have bled out in that horrid little room. And Bo would have...the thought of just how close he had come to losing them both sobered his desires quickly.

He sat back on his heels taking deep measured breaths to calm himself as Kenzi sat back down on the edge of his bed. She reached out to tug the shirt he had pulled out for her off of his shoulder when he he finally got a good look at her arm.

"What happened here? I thought it was a bruise but..." He pulled it in for closer look. Her skin was mottled and red from the back of her hand to her elbow, with deep blue-black bruising that looked almost more like an infected tattoo than battered tissue. Kenzi jerked away quickly, taking the shirt with her. Moving to the far side of his bedroom she turned her back towards him and pulled the shirt over her head, tugging it over the towel.

"Its nothing." She said curtly, pulling the towel out from under the shirt and tossing it onto a nearby chair. "So...what about this dinner you promised me huh?" She said with a smile. Dyson, aggravated by her quick change in demeanor, when her eyes were clearly screaming 'terrified'. He was not having it. He stood and closed the distance between them, and grasped her upper arm tightly. Pushing back the sleeve, he turned her arm so he could examine it in the light of the lamp. The closer he looked at it, he realized that the darkness in her skin was shifting. It was barely perceptible, but his keen eyes were able to discern the motion.

"Kenzi, this is not nothing." He gently pushed the sleeve up to her elbow, his thumb tracing over the skin of her arm. This was not an injury at all, this was fae magic He swallowed, trying to quell the sick feeling that was brewing in his stomach. "The Norn?" He asked, even though he already knew the answer. Kenzi nodded, pulling her arm back as she slid the sleeve back down.

"Yeah." She took a deep shuttering breath she turned towards the kitchen in search of the pain meds that Lauren had given her. "Its not like you think though. I didn't offer her a goddamn thing. It was more an accident than anything else. She had given me the jar of your mojo and was spouting some horrible supervillian revenge fantasies. But as I was backing away, I bumped into a shelf and this jar of black bubbly goo fell off the very top shelf and shattered on the ground. Some of it just splashed up on my hand is all." She unscrewed the bottle of pills and tossed two in her mouth, swallowing with a swig from the now warm beer that Dyson had been working on before her shower drama. "What ever it was she seemed just as surprised as I was, significantly pleased with whatever horrible fate awaits me though. Freaky giddy actually." She looked up at him, but could only muster a half smile. "I'm sure any day now I'm going to turn into some horrible slime monster or something."

"No." The anger in Dyson's voice surprised her as he moved towards the door grabbing his keys. "I'm calling Lauren. We are taking you to the Ash's compound right now and figuring this out." Kenzi shook her head vehemently

"Uh huh." She moved faster than he thought she had the strength too, yanking the keys out of his hand as she interjected herself between him and the door. "One night Dyson. Give them one night. Our world has been a raging shitstorm for the last few months. They deserve one night without crazy fae drama. I've had this for days, it only started to look like this afternoon. Whatever it is is not going to kill me if we wait one more day." She placed the her hand on his chest, and gently pushed him away from the door. "Please Dyson. One night."

"One Kenzi. First thing in the morning we are going do you understand me?" His tone deadly serious. He is hand covered hers on his chest, feeling how fast his heart had been to beat beneath her fingers. The raven hair human nodded quickly.

"Deal."