Day 25, 23:49, Flagstaff

Quinn came up on the edge of the ridge, crouching in the shadow of a boulder to scan the ground below. He'd put a good few miles between himself and the town, there wasn't a stray camper out here this time of year and he still had to spot anything larger than a bird. He glanced up as his surroundings brightened, aware of his shadow stretching.

The moon was almost full tonight and although the sky was clouded, the world was tinged in eerie white every so often. Not that it bothered him. His eyesight was excellent and even if it was pitch black, he could rely on his other senses to stalk a victim. Apparently not from up here though. The stretch of land in front of him was deserted. Perhaps a predator had already scavenged this area earlier and scared away the other wildlife.

He decided to head into lower lands. If he was going to find something adequate to feed on soon, he speculated that it would probably be no carnivore. Stretching his legs, his leapt off the outcrop and landed on the uneven surface below. Veering to the east, he searched for tracks amongst the trees. The last time he'd been out here, an animal had practically meandered into his path. Today was slow going compared to that.

Quinn squared his shoulders, forcing the thoughts of easy hunting in cities away. He was making an effort and he wouldn't let this minor issue deter him. The darkness returned as the moon disappeared behind another sheet of cloud and he spanned out his senses, walking silently through the woods. They were rather sparse up here and if there was any creature around, it could spot him easily. He wasn't concerned, he'd hunted in the desert before and this was no greater challenge.

He strolled down the hillside, watching his step almost unconsciously. His thoughts were drifting away from finding a meal again and settling, as so often, on Rashel. She'd been reserved these past few days, always seeming to ponder something. He didn't pry, accepting that she wanted to reflect on things for a while. The other soulmates had left a couple of days ago, after a long evening of chatting about their different experiences since being introduced to his world. He'd left them to it after a while, content to check the surrounding area and create himself a picture of the town after it grew dark.

Rashel had seen something in those two. He'd noticed it from the moment they arrived and she had brought up the topic of returning to school. Not that he thought it was ridiculous. It was more of an irritation; confusion because she'd never brought this subject up before. Not once had she indicated wanting to complete her school studies since they'd come to Vegas. It didn't bother him so much that she wanted to, rather that he hadn't expected it at all. It was as though the elfin witch and her partner had held up a mirror and she had seen something different than he had.

Then again, just as she had been thinking he had also returned to considering the connection between everything that had happened. The slave trade close to Hunter's lair, Lily's presence in Vegas, underground efforts to find the double agent guiding the Circle…everything had to fit together in a grand plan. All working towards an ultimate goal but did it really involve the prophecies? Or just an augmentation of Night World influence?

Nilsson had called in the evening for an update and they, in turn, had been informed that there was no progress in the search for wild powers. Either these people were smart enough to keep themselves far away from the heat of things and their identities hidden…or they were completely oblivious. In his perspective, time was an irrelevant factor but everyone seemed to be frantic about time running along far too quickly. An unspoken deadline was approaching and neither side was truly prepared for it.

He reached the end of the tree line and paused. The moon peeked out again and he instinctively backed out of the light. There was subtle movement on the far side of the glade he'd come across. He stepped into the shadows again and stalked towards it, always keeping a handful of trees between himself and the open field.

His attention was back now, soaking up the impressions around and letting the irrelevant ones simply slide into the periphery of his mind. No disturbances around, no indication of other predators. There was a new scent in the air and the closer he got, the easier it was to identify the shapes ahead. Mule Deer. A small gathering of them huddled at the mouth of

the forest, grazing easily under the shelter of the branches. All young ones from what he could see, their antlers just starting to take form again.

He stopped far enough to watch their behaviour, noticing that the wind was in his favour. None of them indicated any sign of distress, some looked half-asleep in their positions. His fangs were aching in his gums and he inched closer, keeping his gaze locked on one of the bucks. Still waiting, still watching the sky with half his awareness. It wouldn't take long now; he almost had everything where he wanted it.

Silent seconds ticked by and the dark returned as the moon was obscured. He didn't waste his time. His muscles uncoiled and he was crossing the space in a flat run, grinning even as the animals zigzagged wildly for cover. He rushed straight through the centre of the group, twisting through the trees as easily as the larger mammals in flight. He kept his eye on the specimen he'd chosen before, not the slowest of the group but doubtlessly the one he wanted tonight.

Five paces into the cover, he used a trunk to propel himself into the animal's path, wrapping an arm around its neck and sending the buck crashing into the next tree with the momentum. It was dazed as it reared out with its legs and he used that advantage to grip the newly grown antlers, press the writhing body against the tree and push his fangs into its neck. One hand fisted in its coat, the other keeping the powerful neck still, he broke skin and tasted life. It fought, survival instinct making it thrash its head in hope of spearing the attacker. Quinn didn't budge; he drank deep until the shock set in and the deer began slumping.

He guided it to the ground, settling one knee onto its heaving torso for better access. Soon the panting lessened, the blood flowed slower. It didn't take him long. He'd ripped a larger wound than he intended. When he let up and ran a hand across the red-soaked fur, it was already dead. He stayed there for a moment, taking in the shape of the animal, the large ears that earned it its name and eyes that reflected the stars. It was a shame but he had needed it all to be satiated.

It was surely well past midnight by now but he took his time pulling the body deeper into the trees, away from the obvious trails. He didn't need this one to be found so quickly, especially after he'd picked off a similar one two days ago. He would have to branch out further in the next couple of days, heading further towards the canyon. He didn't need forest rangers roaming around to deal with the wildlife numbers dropping.

Wiping the last of the blood off into the animal's coat, he continued his trek back towards civilisation. He could grow to like this area; the wilderness had far more to offer than the drier land surrounding Vegas. Most importantly, everything looked untouched by human hand. Despite the baffling modernization he had witnessed in the past years, it was still ungraspable how many spaces like these had been reduced for the sake of large cities. He'd have to take Rashel through the canyons around here before they moved on again.

He wasn't naive to think they could remain here just as they had at Headquarters. Another week or two and one of them would be feeling uneasy and suggest looking for another place. He wouldn't have minded New York again but if he was going to stick to this routine, he needed somewhere rural. He wasn't about to compile a private zoo to feed on.

On the other hand, he was enjoying the freedom here. They had no responsibility to anyone; they could do as they pleased with no boundaries, no justifications or others to mind. He had to push that notion away every now and again to stop himself from flat out seducing her when she was rummaging in the kitchen or sprawled on the sofa with another witch history book from the house owner's shelves. Ever since they'd taken it to another level before the mission, he had trouble hanging onto his rationality when she was alone with him.

He was also struggling to read her on that matter. He'd figured she wanted to speak about it but since their arrival here, she had been preoccupied and he had taken a step back. Things had shifted again in the time they'd been apart and whatever he desired, he knew he needed to be patient this time around. It was her move to make.

The surface under his feet was rocky again, he left the trees behind him. He had a handful of miles ahead but he wasn't bothered to pick up his pace yet. The night kept him in its grasp and he was contented here, unseen and unrestricted. Sometimes he did wish for a way to stop the world from moving, snatch up a moment and stay in it. He'd had that thought a lot in the last couple of weeks.

He'd never been seriously concerned with thinking about the future, ever since he'd made the change. There had been no need to make plans when his time was practically limitless. He'd followed Hunter's guidance until he worked his way up to a position where he didn't need to obey orders anymore. Autonomy had its perks until realization set in that all he was doing was following the ideals another man had imprinted for centuries.

A month into this insane adventure, there were countless aspects worth thinking about. There was somebody else to consider now, somebody who meant more to him than anyone he could recall from his previous life. What Rashel had said several days ago had been eye-opening on a different level. He knew he wanted her, needed her, just as deeply as she had confessed to him. But he'd come to revisit the element of time.

She had a lifespan. Should the apocalypse wipe out the world they were fighting for soon he didn't need to worry about it. In any other case, it was important. Rashel was growing older and he wished nothing less for her than a happy life. What had changed was that he wanted to be part of this life at any cost, however long it was.

He couldn't imagine the future without her beside him and even though he'd accepted that vampirism wasn't something she could ever embrace for her own, it didn't deter his want to be with her. Until the day she died. He supposed in human terms that would equate to marriage but he was definitely not about to spring that on her. This was a new revelation inside him and he was going to keep it there until she was ready to consider it.

The clouds shifted again and he watched his shadow wander across the trail in front of him, copying his motions. He could see the town in the distance, a collection of lights against the blackness. He picked up pace and headed down the slope onto flat land. He didn't bother looking back as a collection of howls sounded somewhere far behind. The wolves he'd expected on his hunt finally coming out. They'd probably do him a favour by polishing the body off. Perhaps he'd come back tomorrow when the moon was full and see what fun they had to offer.

The streets were empty but he walked along the fringes of the suburbs. The main road would have more activity. Out here, in the middle of the week there was nobody around. He'd gotten the layout of the place down quickly and knew the best way to get out of town when unfriendly guests came along. Rashel had taken the task of picking out inconspicuous stores to buy necessities at. Nobody had come to knock on their door and introduce themselves as neighbours yet, which meant they were doing a decent job at keeping out of the public eye.

Nearing the residence, he paused when he heard a scuffling near the lawn of the opposite house. His senses were heightened and as he focused on the area, a mouse scurried out of the bushes and sped across the finely cropped grass. He wasn't close enough to determine whether or not it was a shifter but he highly doubted it. They hadn't stumbled into any trouble yet and if anything, it would not be shifters tailing them. Hunter's regular lackeys had failed; he would send a team of professionals by now.

The house was lifeless when he let himself in. He hadn't expected Rashel to wait up but there was something about this house that made him edgy. Silent. There was no sound throughout the building so he climbed the stairs, trying to shake the feeling. He told himself he was just full of excess energy at this point. Until he stepped foot inside the bedroom and found it just empty, bedcovers untouched. He reached out through the link but Rashel's presence had vanished – she was nowhere close.

It took Quinn less than a minute to search the top floor, another thirty seconds to clear downstairs and then he was standing in the yard, scanning the neighbouring gardens. She wasn't here. Repressing a frustrated growl, he strode back into the hallway. It wasn't in his nature to worry but he sure was now. She hadn't mentioned going anywhere, there was no note. She was gone and the only logical explanation he could come up with was abduction. No signs of a struggle though, no scent of fear in the air. It didn't make sense. Had they been careless again? Had they missed obvious signs?

He placed a hand against the wall, needing something to ground him and get his mind to stop projecting images he didn't want to imagine. Think. Think. Rationalise the situation. If he couldn't feel her anywhere around this place, she could simply be taking a walk. She could have decided to meet him halfway and they'd missed another somehow. Endless possibilities and he was much too agitated now to sit around.

Quinn hit the road again, steering into a random direction. There were no strange cars, no tracks around the house that shouldn't be there. Everything was deserted and looked entirely calm. He followed his instincts towards the town centre, the only place he could imagine her being at this time for a good reason. Windows flashed past him, moonlight casting shadows that suddenly didn't welcome him anymore but seeped across the tarmac.

His concern was starting to morph into fury at a faceless culprit, the longer he kept walking without any sign of life around. He wasn't getting anything and he could just be overreacting. Just as he'd thought he would never do.

The artificial lights blazed as he reached the main road, eyes adjusting to the glare of the signs. There still was life around here at this time. He took everything in. A handful of people hanging around the bars, a tired couple pushing a squirming baby in a stroller, a group of students coming out of a drug store. He swept them out of his mind the moment he passed them, kept walking.

Three blocks down he caught of glimpse of a figure with long, dark hair. The second he stopped mid-stride to look closely, it was beyond clear that it wasn't her. He had known it anyway. He braced himself against a brick wall for a moment and tried to regain his cool. He was getting nowhere this way. He had no idea what he was doing and just going in blind. He forced himself to keep active, keep walking anyway, crossing the street and heading away from the nightlife. He had the rest of the night to keep this up and he was going to damn well find her and make sure she was all right.

He'd barely put the lights behind him when a familiar presence suddenly flared up on the edge of his consciousness. The breath of relief barely registered with him as he picked up his pace, instantly heading in a different direction. Her emotions grew clearer with every step he took and he was startled by the ferocity radiating from her. No pain and desperation at least, he supposed that was good news. He felt her through the bond, so focused on that sensation that he doubted she even noticed his approach. Another ten steps and he reached the mouth of a dim side street. No sign of humans here.

Sounds reached him clearly now at this proximity and he almost paused in his step as he listened. The adrenalin level rose to new heights as he moved along the length of the pavement, closer to the sound of a fight. His skin prickled, he was on his toes and the anticipation was rising as he picked up on details. The furious snarl of a cornered animal. The impact of shoes on the road. The dull noise of flesh hitting the ground, a groan of surprise.

Envisioning the sight already, he turned the corner to find his soulmate hovering over two forms on the street. One of them was rapidly shrinking in size as it desiccated into a corpse.

The initial wave of relief mixed with confusion as he watched Rashel. She had the situation under control, evidently. What was she doing here and who were those vampires? Had they attacked her? Had she been followed? She remained in her crouch for a heartbeat but her back was stiff and he knew she had noticed him entering the scene.

She stood up, keeping the sword at her side. He hadn't seen it in her hand for a while and it was quite a picture to find the wood stained dark, the slick green almost glowing. Her holding onto the weapon was already dampening the possibility that she had been ambushed. He didn't hesitate to approach her.

"What is this?" he asked as he drew nearer.

She sighed, shoulders rising, falling and turned around. Her eyes met his before sliding to the side and fixing back on the bodies. She didn't reply as she bent down and grabbed one of the corpses by the ankle, dragging him towards the side of the road. He kept waiting for an answer as she did the same to the other mummy. Rashel remained silent and concentrated on her task as she took out a lighter and let the tiny flame feed on the dead, dry skin. The fact that she had that gadget with her…the situation was becoming clearer but he didn't want to let this picture account for it just yet.

He stared at the slowly charring heap and even though he didn't utter a word, it bothered him this time around. Had Rashel had the heart to kill him weeks ago, he would have been firing up just like them. Or more likely, sunk in the ocean. She was looking at her work with a strange expression, as though she had been doused in cold water and come back to reality. When she moved in his direction, he stepped in her path.

"Hey…"

"We have to get away from here first," she objected, knowing what he was getting at. She kept walking. Burning always attracted attention and the mummified creatures were enough material for a small bonfire. The few who were out would notice soon, random roadside fires were probably not too common. He didn't care. She could have been dead for all he'd known and he would have had no idea. It was pure luck that he had found her, albeit staking vampires.

He took her by the elbow as she walked past. "I need to know what's happening"

Blazing irises looked back at him, pupils growing small as she faced the flames. Perhaps it was annoyance at him insisting. He couldn't pinpoint it but her intention was obvious enough. "I'm not explaining this to the police, Quinn. We've got to go"

He wasn't going to back down so fast. The police were secondary right now. He could take care of that if he had to but he still had no idea what this was about. What reasons did she have for doing it in the first place? Nobody had come down the street yet so he wasn't about to run away from the scene. "You just staked two vampires and you're not going to tell me what's going on here?"

"Not here," she insisted again and pulled her arm out of his grip, "Come on"

He threw a long look at papery skin peeling off, ashes gathering as the heat ravaged the corpses. Then he followed her back towards the main road. Anger was gradually settling into his body, despite him mirroring her movements. He let her guide them away from the scene. There was something different about her – a primal satisfaction radiating through their chord that was distinctly hers. He was still left in the dark.

They made it out of the town centre, remaining on side roads before the anticipated sirens finally cut through the air. By now the bodies would be close to dust. Not even halfway to their new home but Quinn deemed it a decent compromise of distance. He used the noise as a distraction to pull her towards him again.

She twisted with the sudden motion, ending up eye-to-eye with him. He kept his hold on her upper arm, lest she decided to keep walking away. Knowing she was unharmed had done a lot to placate him but the lack of answers was antagonizing. Surely she knew that he could have forced an answer out of her telepathically by now; he was letting her carry on with this out of simple respect. Even his patience has boundaries in circumstances like these.

"What the hell is happening?"

Her headshake didn't give him the answer he was looking for. She wasn't catching his gaze but sounded very decisive when she told him, "I've got it covered"

He didn't even know how to respond. In what world did she consider this something that wouldn't concern him? Something that he shouldn't worry about. He honestly didn't want to be threatening at this point but she was giving him nothing. Her name left his mouth in an unmistakable growl of warning and she finally quit straining against his hand, eyes snapping up to his. Playing the waiting game wasn't going to cut it for him.

"You're not the only one involved here," he reminded her. She stared back at him in silence, the same stoic quiet she'd coated herself in when he'd found her. When he didn't show any signs of relenting, she caved in.

"I went on a stakeout."

"I can see that," he quipped, not needing to point out the wisps of smoke in the distance.

She took a breath and he could feel the stress in her as she clenched a fist in his grasp. He didn't like pushing her for a reason behind her actions when she didn't want to give one but this…there could have been real trouble and he wasn't going to stand here like a fool who let her keep secrets that could prove deadly.

"Look, I couldn't stay inside anymore," she pressed out, "I can't keep reading that witchy collection about the wars between Night World people, thinking about what's ahead. I have to be out here, I have to do something that actually contributes, even if it's just dealing with vampires that are causing trouble. I can't do it in Vegas so I'll start here"

"By drawing attention to us. By doing exactly what you said we should avoid," he responded.

Her demeanour changed at that and the look she fixed him with was almost condescending. As though he was putting her down for the sake of it. The thought of telling her that he was only acting up because he'd been worried was steadily slipping away. This was so far from what he'd expected to find, he couldn't get his head straight yet. What he was hearing in this conversation was that she'd gone out to search for vampires because there was no other activity around here, her simply wanting to plunge her blade into something.

"Just like hunting doesn't attract any attention," she retorted, face darkening the more she threw herself into the conflict, "You slipped up in L.A. and now you're lecturing me on not being careful about what I do?"

"That has nothing to do with tonight," he flared up.

She had found the weak link in the chain and she held onto it, eyes shining in the streetlight. "It does. You can't give up human blood and I'm the bad guy for not giving up my job? You know what it feels like. You can't get away from it either," she paused, letting another thought form into words, "Those vampires were picking out dinner when I found them and this town is a better place for it"

The anger was rising again, creeping in without a barrier to stop it and he was having a tough time keeping his voice checked in this confrontation. This wasn't even about those two bodies anymore, which were really just a trigger. It was about likening two instances to each other when their positions were entirely opposite.

It was baffling him, the way she was turning the situation around when his slip-up had no connection to this. He had never gone in with the intention to kill those humans. He'd also never asked her to give up the vampire hunting for his sake. It had been a natural development and he couldn't recall giving her a hard time about it. He was trying to be rational, always rational, but his words were giving him away.

"This is not what we're here for"

"What did we come here for then?" she pulled but he kept his grasp unrelenting, "A holiday. One where we sit inside and think about other people doing the fighting? One where we pretend we belong here like normal people?"

He wasn't about to let her manifest this into something it had never been. She had come to him with the idea of leaving Vegas, not the other way around. He had to concentrate on keeping his expression from slipping but his tone was dark enough, "You wanted to get away, remember? We could have gone back but you wanted to go cross-country."

"And that was for you!" she exclaimed, face flushing with emotion. "I was protecting you. Protecting everyone."

"I never asked…" he started but was cut short by her.

"You didn't have to," she wrenched against his hold again, her sweater material slipping in his fingers. This time he let her go and watched her put a step between them. She was breathing hard, her knuckles pale around her sword.

He ran his hand across his face in exasperation, turning away from her for a moment. He couldn't grasp the intentions here, couldn't justify her anger. He knew she had given up their newfound life in favour of safety but she had done it of her own accord and blaming him was ridiculous. This defiance was new and it emerged from a motive he couldn't put his finger on yet.

"What do you want, Rashel? Live a normallife? Whatever you think this is, it's miles away from that"

"No. You don't understand," she raised her arms slightly, blade whispering through the air with the motion, "that I have to do this. I can't go through with hiding the entire time. It was a naïve idea in the first place. I thought I could handle it, that I'd even enjoy being away. But I can't switch off my head and ignore what's happening out here, not when I'm cut off from it with no way to act."

He looked back at her, conflicted as the comprehension finally set in. What she was skirting around in this argument…it was becoming obvious. He'd sensed something brewing in her in the past few days but he'd assumed she had been pondering the idea of returning to a kind of human life - school and all those things that he'd long forgotten about. It was shaping up to be the opposite. She'd thought of returning to that human life to detract herself from what was really taking place.

He hadn't expected it to all lead back to something far more basic. Her fear of the unknown.

With the understanding, his confusion also grew. Why had she not just opened up to him before? She had put distance between them in the last few days, built a wall in the way she had been used to all those years to hide the fact that she was scared. She was powerful enough to stand up to her enemies for so long but powerless now against something that seemed inevitable and simultaneously indefinite.

Her fate was, in the widest sense, in the hands of four individuals she didn't even know and here they were rooted in place without the ability to search for them. It looked like she hadn't been able to figure out a better way to handle that fear than returning to old habits. A security blanket.

The simplicity of the problem was counteracted by the way she had excluded him from it. This conflict would not have happened if she had just let him know about her apprehension, they would have figured out a way to deal with it.

"You should have told me," he stated, advancing towards her again, "Any indication and I wouldn't have needed to search for you because I would know…"

He drew up short there before he could give himself away entirely. Looking towards the sky as though to shove the words straight back down his throat, he avoided her gaze. Here he was, confessing to losing his self-control at the thought of something having happened to her when she had just used him as a scapegoat. What was going on with him tonight?

He felt his soulmate's stance slowly change though as the sudden quiet filled the space. The sirens diminished in the backdrop, the hostility dropped away too. There was a shift in emotions as the meaning of what he'd been about to say reached her. It was her turn to understand his thought pattern. A different tension settled over them that neither tried to break until Rashel read between the lines, "You thought I was gone."

A million scenarios of gone. He tipped his head back down to face her. "Something like that."

She let the following silence speak for itself. Even so, her apology seemed to radiate from her body through his, travelling into his system and soothing the last remnants of worry. It almost made the dispute fade into the background.

"I didn't want to drag you into this," she finally told him in a quieter voice, accusation disappeared from her speech. Then, even softer, the words that both of them were thinking anyway, "I'm sorry"

"I know." She'd understood his side of the story just as he had hers. They'd reached some kind of even ground and could figure out where to go from here. The one remaining question was – what to do?

They could stay here, hunting individually with different intentions but only one of them would gain peace of mind from it. They could move on and look for another place, finding their own way as they had before. They could negotiate with Thierry about returning and facing the threat on their own terms, away from the circle. As long as she didn't leave him out of the loop again, he could handle just about any alternative.

As much as he would have wanted to press the subject, the flash of lights in the periphery of his awareness had him on alert again. After this, he really didn't have the patience to deal with being discovered by the police. He reached for Rashel instinctively to cover her, placing himself in front of the line of sight from the street. She was surprised by the motion and didn't even attempt to put up a fight.

She glanced over his shoulder, noting the police car speed past on the main road and head west. Then her attention swung back to Quinn, who also just realized that his movement had put him barely a hair's breadth away. He locked gazes with her, drank in the heightened thud of her heart at this proximity. She breathed in once, twice before her thoughts were back in order and murmured, "Let's get back"

He agreed, staying by her side as they rounded the corner and continued their path. The darkness was still complete even though it must be nearing dawn. She did well at keeping the sword out of sight, blending into her black clothing and keeping it close to her body. He had his eyes on the surroundings, scanning for any threat but couldn't stop his other senses from zeroing in on Rashel.

He still wasn't quite sure what had just happened between them. Despite all the things they'd just thrown at another, there was a pounding under his skin that had nothing to do with anger anymore. Or maybe it was just that. They rarely fought about something seriously and even more rarely, fought so verbally. In any other circumstance, both of them would be physically worn out.

They had already reached the neighbourhood when she probed the link. Quinn.

Hm? He half-turned, attention entirely on her.

Her face was pale under the fading moon, a solemn expression that watched him carefully. Her mind wasn't so calm when she told him; I didn't mean to blame you. I know I made the decision to come here by myself.

No useless apologies, he reminded her, I agreed.

She smiled meekly at the words, a reminder of a conversation that had taken a different turn than the one tonight. He felt the trickle of relief through their link and knew it was exactly she needed to put the guilt behind her. She kept pace with him until they reached the house. The area was as empty as before, no sign of authorities combing the place. They would have no decent evidence to go on, it was doubtful they even knew it had been a murder. Rashel knew what she was doing after all.

Everything was just as he had left it but he was feeling careful tonight. He went in first, subtly checking for signs of intruders while they'd been away and wasn't surprised to find it just as untouched. His soulmate let the door snap into place behind them and he listened to her footsteps moving away as she climbed the stairs.

He threw a look out into the backyard just to be sure. It was vacant, only the spring grass flattened by a breeze every now and again. Beyond the garden boundaries, a dusting of light was becoming visible on the horizon. The morning of the day where they would devise a new plan, this time without the pressure of imminent attack. He was so focused on the possibilities behind the skyline that he was almost caught off guard when she appeared behind him again.

"Do we have company?" she wondered aloud.

He couldn't help the smirk that crept across his lips. Of course she would also be thinking about danger surrounding the house, even after taking out two potential threats. Not tonight.

She chuckled as she caught onto the irony, sharing his amusement. Walking past him to the adjacent window, she pressed a finger onto the glass and drew invisible lines. She had traded the dark clothes for an oversized t-shirt, her hands appearing almost empty without her weapon. He met her glance as she tilted her head and leaned it against the window. Do you ever think we're a little bit damaged?

He didn't even need to think about that one. Yes.

She blinked at him and although apology was still etched into her eyes, she didn't falter. Maybe that's why the universe thinks we fit so well.

She lifted her body up, drifting over to him. He reached for her when she was close enough, laying a hand against her neck. He could practically feel his skin stealing her warmth. Her arms wrapping around his waist told him that she wasn't bothered in the least. Still, he wasn't innocent enough to assume that her actions weren't fuelled by her desire to make it up to him. He'd seen this before. Never mind how much he wanted her, it wasn't the way he wanted this to go.

Despite himself, he let his hand drop from her. You don't have to prove anything.

She nodded, barely an inch away. Neither of them backed up though and he could feel the miniscule tremor starting in his hands, the longer he stood there exercising control over his impulses. Her fingers eased their pressure against his back and slid away before he could break. She took a moment to leave him in that state of suspension, on the verge of moving away. Then she leaned in, lips closing over his.

I'm not.