Published by Silver Publishing Publisher of Erotic Romance

A SILVER PUBLISHING BOOK

Shadow Copyright 2013 by Sam Makenzi E-book ISBN: 9781614959021 First E-book Publication: March 2013 Cover design by Reese Dante Editor: Monti Shalosky All cover art and logo copyright 2012 by Silver Publishing ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental. If you see "free shares" offered or cut-rate sales of this title on pirate sites, you can report the offending entry to copyright@spsilverpublishing.com. This book is written in US English.

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NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

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DEDICATION
For the late Mac, whose feline demeanor made me write about a shapeshifter in the first place.

TRADEMARKS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Smithwick's (ale): Diageo Ireland Corporation

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CHAPTER ONE
Downtown, a little before two-thirty in the morning and most of the bars had closed. People sober enough would already be well on their way home. The only ones who remained out were the hard drunksheading towards any number of establishments that seemed to forget what time serving alcohol became illegalprostitutes attempting to ply their trade, and the predators, but not the lowerhierarchy pick-pockets and muggers. No, this time of night belonged to the top of the food chain hunters: killers and rapists. Those with a compulsion that didn't sleep and didn't care about the time of day. The hours that fell between midnight and the shuffle of morning's early risers just made for easier pickings. I'd become a predator on the hunt. Not a rapist, nor a serial killer, but I did have a body count. The police tended not to care if I brought a target in dead or alive, so long as I got them off the streets. And I'd always found bringing a target in dead to be easier than doing so alive. Only rarely did the dead fight back. And they proved to be a lot quieter, too. I lived in an age where the police worked alongside vigilantes. And though they didn't discuss it openly, sometimes they set bounties on the heads of criminals the
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red tape of the law protectedthe cases where suspects who would have been convicted, but got away on a technicality. The police couldn't do anything about the axe killer that walked free because of a loophole, but if a random shooter put a bullet in their head Placing a bounty on someone's head had become a lot easier than it probably should be. Someone filled out paperwork, got a judge to okay it, and posted a reward. And then I could take on the predators the police couldn't handle safely. Vampire, werewolves, and other non-humans. Those monsters were very real. They always had been, but humans never noticed. Not to say that all monsters were bad people. Most still blended in to everyday crowds. After years of societal chaos, people got used to them and were forced to live beside them. Now, they were pretty normal. Perhaps a bit strange, maybe even weird, but not much to be alarmed over. But once in a while, just like with humans, one would rise up who just wanted to destroy. The police still weren't sure how to handle them within the lines of the law, since different states and countries had different laws. Which, again, led to the need for the police to be bedfellows with vigilantes. I happened to be looking for one of those monster criminals. A shape-shifter. He'd killed several people. One
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of them, Rob, had been a good kid. He just bit off more than he could chew, trying to take this guy on. Rob had been my friend, and this guy killed him. It became my tipping point. Shadow was a mercenary. And despite having a professional name shared with a household pet, people feared him. Or revered him, depending on who they were. I didn't fear him, though. Vengeance drove me out to await him in his hunting grounds. By three o'clock, only drunks littered the street. Nothing in the information I gathered hinted that Shadow drank, just that he liked to hang around the area. But he would show. I'd put the word out that I wanted to meet him. I mouthed off in every bar I could within Shadow's known territory. I must have called him every name under the godforsaken sun. No doubt he knew I had an agenda. I only had to wait for him to come after me. But I could have done it somewhere better than the damned alley. I would wait for Shadow inside of the pub and follow him when he left, but I made the mistake of being too angry and inebriated the previous night. The bartender kicked me out after warning he didn't want to see my face again, so tonight I had to wait outside. I huddled against a dumpster to block the wind, positioned just right to catch the sour scent of garbage with every breeze. It smelled of piss and vomit, and I made certain to put a few
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layers of cardboard between myself and the damp ground. I had an excellent view of the street before me, though, which I needed. As soon as I saw Shadow coming, I'd shoot him. No witty remarks or gloating. I put a hand on the gun at my hip, just to assure myself that it remained there. I'd read about my target a week ago. I pulled his file up on the Bounty Postings Index on the police database. Professional name: Shadow. Real name, unknown. Male, approximately six foot five inches. In shifter form, he became a black leopard, which certainly explained the silken, black hair and golden eyes. He had a handsome profile picture, rugged in a lawless way. He had a powerful jaw littered with stubble. His dark tan skin probably leant more towards his heritage than sunbathing. Not a badlooking guy at all. After reading his file, I did my research. I looked through underground forums and into gossip to find out anything I could. Then I did my thing and spread the word. I asked where his usual haunts were without any trace of subtlety. Dublin Sky Pub came up with the most mentions. I'd been kicked out of that establishment after pissing off the wrong people while on surveillance. A little too much alcohol, a little too much grief. But just because I couldn't come in didn't mean I couldn't wait in the dark alley a block
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down. I bit the end of my thumb and pressed the tip of my tongue into the skin there. I needed a cigarette. I used to smoke heavily; I didn't even do it regularly anymore. I went a month without doing so at all, but in the last couple of weeks, the craving returned. And stakeouts made me antsy. But I didn't even bring a pack with me. If I started craving during the long waits, I'd give in and smoke one. That in turn would give me away as easily as a neon sign. Noise came from the pub down the street and I whipped my head around the corner to scope it out. Not Shadow. Just a couple of drunks taking their argument outside. I snorted. I could blame it on his preternatural abilities, but I knew it happened because I got distracted. I didn't hear him approach until he stood just feet away from me and it was too late by then. I barely registered his presence before my face ended up slammed into the brick wall, followed by the rest of my body. One hand held my arms by the wrists above my head, and an elbow pressed between the two scapula bones in my back, keeping me in place. I was fucked, royally fucked. I shouldn't have made such an amateur mistake. And now it would cost my life. "Little Alice, you've wandered down the wrong
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rabbit hole." The deep voice growled against my ear. I knew even before being wheeled around that the eyes staring at me were dark gold. His skin was indeed tanned, even more so in comparison to my own, with muscles surging underneath. In the dim light, he didn't have the buff physique of a body builder, but sleek like the large cat he could become. The fluid muscles could carry him at greater speeds and make him stronger than I could ever dream of being. He was a hunter personified. That made me prey. I swallowed though my mouth had gone dry, adrenaline running through me, making my limbs shake. But not from fear. I had no fear in my eyes. My heart drummed painfully in my chest because of awe. No one had ever mentioned his handsome beauty. The photo showed his squared jaw, but not the sculpted musculature of it. It showed he looked rough, but not how rugged. Faded, pale scars stood out against otherwise smooth olive skin. Light played on the contours of his face, accenting the peaks of nose, cheeks, and forehead, contrasting them with the shadowed area around his eyes. Even in the dim alley light, his hair had a high gloss. It amazed me how different he could look in real lifethe picture did him no justice. He had my back pinned to the wall, his hip jammed into my abdomen. His nostrils flared and he regarded me
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with a calculated gaze. Probably deciding whether to kill his prize now or later. My hands were still above my head, held by only one of his. I couldn't fight back when he lowered his face towards mine. I thought he meant to kiss me and my eyes widened. But no, he ran his nose along my chest, sniffing. He travelled upwards to my shoulder, then into the crook of my neck, and oh God, the intimacy did me in. A sudden awareness of the proximal distance of his thigh to my crotch hit me, and how tight my pants had become. He had to know I got hard, but he didn't pull away. If anything, he leaned in closer. His chest became a weight against my own and he smothered me in his very presence. It had been a very, very long time. I didn't usually go for guys larger than me, let alone ones who dominated my senses so completely. Not since Aaron, at least, and that had been years ago. His nose ran up my neck to settle into my hair. He inhaled deeply, taking in my scent. Still predatory, but now becoming sexual in nature. And I could smell him as well. He had a musky scent with a hint of spice and thunderstorm. That aroma became the entirety of my senses and I let out a small gasp. Too close, too warm. Musk and heat. I couldn't feel much else. I had to have imagined the tongue flicking my ear. There simply weren't enough neurons left to register that sort of touch.
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"I heard you've been looking for me," he murmured against the side of my face, breath warm. "Now you've found me. What now, Alice? Are you going to kill me?" He nipped my earlobe and I yelped. No, not yelped. No way I did that. I had to have made a more manly sound than that. "Going to kill you," I agreed. Yep, totally in control of myself. He pulled his face far enough away to look me over. He looked so smug that even his eyes smirked. He had one eyebrow raised and he appraised my attempts to free myself. The bastard. I felt like hitting him. Instead, I spit in his face. He frowned, but I didn't regret doing it. He'd kill me anyway, so why not go out spitting mad, literally? He used his free hand to wipe the saliva off his cheek. Turning his attention back to me, his gaze regarded me in a more calculated way. "No, you're not." His head shook. "And I'm not going to kill you, yet. I'm going to have some fun with you first." He pressed a sizeable hardness against my own crotch. It strained against the confines of his pants. For the first time, fear flooded my system. My God, he planned to rape me. My stomach dropped and I renewed my efforts to
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get away. I couldn't raise my knees enough to nail him in the groin, and he moved back far enough from my teeth so I couldn't bite. I snarled. He was stronger than me. I fought a losing battle, but I wouldn't lose that easily. Not with my ass on the line. His eyes lightened to a yellower color, like marigolds, and his pupils dilated. His lips pulled back and I gaped when his canines elongated like a vampire's. He pressed those canines against my throat. I shrank back into the wall. He sniffed again and shuddered. My fear must have been arousing him. Shit. His breath burned hot at my throat. "Unfortunately I didn't come prepared for this. So I'll have to be satisfied with a sample for now." He nicked the skin above the carotid artery in my neck and suckled there. I bit my lip. Such a sexual act, and I suddenly realized why vampires were held so esteemed in romance literature. Maybe Shadow had some vampire heritage. Not that it mattered. Shifter or vampire, my brain didn't care. The only thing it registered? The nibbling on my neck and his fingers unzipping my pants. Wait, what? He used my distraction to force a knee directly under my groin. My legs were spread open on either side of his thigh, my erection now on full display, giving him
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access to whatever he wanted. He humped against my hip and the rough fabric of his pants chafed my cock. I bit back a noise, and I grew harder. I couldn't like this. I did well at keeping tight-lipped until his fingers wrapped around my shaft and gave a jerk. "Ah!" I gasped. Helpless, I did nothing when he fondled deeper, brushing against my sac, running fingers along the sensitive skin. Not fairI didn't want but God, his hands on me. I groaned and my head fell back to hit the wall. Shadow's scent grew stronger. Arousal burned in his own eyes, and I didn't want to admit it, but also probably started to reflect in my own. He chuckled as if it amused him. Once again his fingers encircled my cock. His thumb ghosted the underside of the head before sliding up to the slit. I shuddered at the teasing contact. He wiped the first pearly droplets up and brought his thumb up to his mouth to lick them away. I bit back a moan at the image. "So sweet," he murmured mockingly. I would kill him for doing this to me. So help me, I would. Further thought escaped when he returned to my shaft. He smeared new pre-cum and his fingers started gliding up and down the length, somewhat lubricating his
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hold. His hands played me, pumping slowly. His eyes though, stayed trained on my face, watching my reactions. And something about how he watched me and how I couldn't hide my reactions became so erotic. Helpless against the lust welling up in me, he clearly read it in my face. I closed my eyes and turned away. How shameful and pathetic. "Eyes on me," he chided firmly. My eyes popped open and I cried out when he scratched his thumbnail on the glans, then dragged it down my shaft. I trembled. His hand travelled back up again. On the next downstroke, my hips thrust upwards. No, I had to hold myself back. But after that one thrust, he quickened his pace and my body moved as if freed. "You're good at seducing me," he said in his low voice. I swear the sound of his zipper opening echoed, though it couldn't have. My ears should have strained to hear something so innocuous at all, but each snick of release resounded so loudly, I'd swear the people at the bar heard it as well. He pulled his hard cock out and gave it a couple of tugs. Big and veined, the length curved up towards me. The dark plum-like head had already started leaking. I licked my lips. No, I didn't want to suck him off either. I shouldn't
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want to know how he tasted, nor how forcefully he'd fuck my mouth. I didn't have long to worry about his next move because he pressed back up against me. He took both cocks in his large hand. I swallowed a sound when he started stroking them together. "Enjoy it, Alice. You're supposed to." His voice almost sounded amused. I shook my head. "No," I cried. "Yes," he hissed. "Let go." The hand holding my arms up dropped to grab my ass and pulled me closer. My arms were numb. I should have tried to escape, but all I could only think about his shaft against mine and being trapped in the tight heat of his hand. I wrapped my fingers in his shirt and shoved against him, futilely trying to put as much room between us as I could. I had no room to breathe. My body trembled, caught in this web of pleasure. His pace quickened. Every few strokes his thumb slipped against my slit. I thrust my hips against his, using my grip as leverage, pushing away yet pulling him in. He consumed my entire world. Only he and the sensations he produced existed. "So close," he groaned, pressing his face into my hair again and inhaling. He seemed to like my scent as
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much as I liked his. "I'm going to find you again." His voice went feral. "And when I do, you're going to suck my cock. Then I'll fuck you." He growled his words. "You're mine now. And when I'm done, I'll break you." I jerked and an orgasm rolled through me. I bit into his shirt to stop from crying out. The space between us filled with sticky wetness. Shadow's movements became erratic. Once again he showed his teeth and bit into my shoulder, hard enough to make me bleed. He came in long streams, covering the front of my shirt. If not for his hand still holding up my ass, I would have slid down the side of the building for the trembling of my legs. Shadow ran his fingers through his own cum on my abdomen. He then stroked my cheek, spreading it on my face. When his thumb pushed into my mouth, I tasted him. "Mine," he said barely above a whisper. Shadow's body peeled away from mine. This time I did sink against the wall, no longer caring about the muck on the ground. I already had another guy's cum all over me. Cleanliness seemed far back in my mind. "Remember what I said." His eyes glinted before he disappeared into the darkness further in the alley. I sat there, limp. There had to be something wrong with me. I shouldn't have liked what he'd done. And I sure
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as hell shouldn't be thinking about him finding me again. But I got off when he touched me. I mopped his cum off my face with the back of my hand, and then wiped it onto my shirt. I needed to get home. A shower. A hot shower would erase the burning traces of his touch. I felt dirty and my mind cracked. Shadow dragged my life out from under my feet. I hated him, even if I couldn't deny the pleasure I'd felt with his touch. How had I fallen so far in so little time? I drew my knees up to my chest and suppressed a cry. "I'm sorry, Rob." I wouldn't be able to avenge him. I had to stay away from Shadow at all costs. He could be well on his way to owning me and I didn't have to power to stop him.

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CHAPTER TWO
It neared four-thirty in the morning when I made it back to my apartment. I needed the walk; and I almost felt ashamed coming back to my apartment, as if the walls had eyes that bore witness to my humiliation. In reality, I lived in a small apartment, utilitarian in style, with only a few furnishings. Call me paranoid, but in my line of business, it proved better to have a life that could be picked up and moved or left behind at a moment's notice. A life that held no personal touches. No photos adorned the flat surfaces. There were a few knickknacks I kept for myself, but not anything I couldn't go without. I lived like a monk, though without the religious ideology behind it. I should have been hungry, but the dirty feeling overwhelmed me. No matter how hard I wiped, there were still stains on my shirt. Even after spitting and vomiting bile from my empty stomach in the alleyway, nothing could erase the taste of Shadow's semen on my tongue. Safety on, I gently laid my gun down on the small table covered in my notes about him. I'd forgotten I had the gun during while I'd been preoccupied. I stripped my clothes off in disgust. Hot shower. Now. My reflection greeted me upon entering the bathroom. I stopped to check the bite mark on my shoulder
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and grimaced. Human in shape, the teeth went in deeper than a person's should. Anyone who saw it would know it came from a shifter, rather than a vampire. I'd have to disinfect it. It would suck if an infection killed me before he could finish the job, after all. I also had a bit of brick burn from when he shoved my face against the wall. Back when he'd just intended to kill me. Or had he planned on molesting me all along? I doubted that. There were also little marks on my wrists, and bruises from where he held me. They would need cleaning, too. Hot water and soap. Maybe some bleach to be safe. Too bad I didn't own bleach. Something else made me pause at the mirror. Just my reflection. A man looking back at me. I put a hand up to touch the image. He did the same and our fingers connected on the cold glass. His name was Lukas. No last name. A last name could get his family killed. The man in the mirror had to worry about things like that. He also had scars. Souvenirs from past fights. Not just from run-ins with criminals. Some bar brawls as well, back from his wilder youth. A faded gash along his left bicep brought back the memory of his first bounty at the age of seventeen. A human target, but Lukas had been an inexperienced kid back then. He'd grown well past that point now. He
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bordered on twenty-five, and with his pale blond hair and skinworking at night didn't get one much exposure to the sunhe could be considered handsome, maybe. In contrast, with his stubble and worn-out face he could pass for a tired over-thirty. He needed that shower, and a shave. And a good night's sleep, judging from the bags under his eyes. I frowned. I wouldn't get a very good sleep. Exhausted yes, but not fitful. I didn't fancy the dreams I'd be sure to have. The water would only get so hot, but I still got it to a nice steaming temperature. I had some strong disinfectant cream for wounds I picked up in fights, but first, the bite needed to be cleaned out. I hollered when the hot water hit the punctures. With gritted teeth I rubbed the bar of soap into the wound. God-thrice-freaking-damned Shadow. After I got the bite mark sufficiently clean, I started on the rest of my body. I treated the rash-like scrape on my face gingerly. I might need to hold off on that shave. I didn't think the abrasion would scar, but even if it did, I didn't particularly care. I would never earn beauty points. Facial scars might even help my image. I needed to rid the sweat and grime from the alley coating my skin. I scrubbed hard enough on the uninjured parts of my body for the flesh to redden. My strokes were rough and full of self-loathing
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for how easily I got off having his hands on me. His hands. They'd been rough, but controlled. The only signs I could see of his touch were the light bruises on my wrists. He seemed mocking and full of contempt, but also restrained. He stayed in control even when I lost it. I shuddered when the ghosts of his fingers trailed along my hips. I would probably develop more bruises later. He'd been really beautiful, in a masculine way. Not like a porcelain doll, but more like a thunderstorm. Wild, dangerous. Something that, even though I knew it could kill me for getting too close, I wanted to touch anyway. The ghost fingers reached my cock, my own trailing languidly behind. The blood rushed from my head to my groin. His hands had been there, teasing me so expertly. So different from my own masturbationsdifferent from any rent boy who had ever touched me. Shadow's hands were used to fighting, callused like my own, but still so different. I fisted my length. Almost dreaming, I watched it engorge and harden again. He'd marked me with his bite, and with his seed in my mouth. He verbally claimed me. He would come for me again. And when he did A memory of golden eyes and pain flashed before me. I snapped out of my reverie with a startled jump. No, I needed to stop. I grabbed the knobs that controlled the water temperature and blasted cold water from the
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showerhead. I gasped, but my erection flagged instantly. No, I couldn't let myself fantasize about him. He was no, I just couldn't. He was dangerous to me, in every way possible. I took the time to scrub the remaining dirt from my body. By the time I finished in the shower, I shivered, but there no way in hell would I get hard. Standing in front of the mirror again, I applied the disinfecting salve to the bite wound. He had marked me, but unlike in the shower, now it had no sense of sensual ownership. An ugly wound, like any other, like the abrasion on my face. The cream burned the same going into it as it did any knife wound. And I gauzed and bandaged it like any other. Satisfied, I gave my hair one last cursory drying with my towel before slinking off to bed. I didn't even bother throwing any clothes on. I had no one to impress or scare off with my nudity, so it hardly seemed to matter. The sheets were inviting, the pillow cool on my face. I willed myself to fall asleep as soon as my body hit the bed. But I laid there for a few minutes, seeing gold eyes and shivering despite the summer heat. I did fear him. In the dark seclusion of my room, I could admit it. I was afraid of him. Not that he'd kill meokay, maybe a little. But I'd long ago realized that one of my targets would be the death of me someday. I had no illusion that I was the best, or even
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particularly good. I feared more of what he'd do to me before killing me. What he'd make me feel. I didn't want him to make me feel anything but anger for him. If he planned to kill me, I hoped he'd do it quickly. Or methodically, if nothing else. Detached. Please, don't let him play with me again before doing it. I didn't know if there were any feelings worse than hating oneself while dying. And he could make me hate myself. I fell asleep and dreamed about those dreaded emotions. In the dream, and I knew it to be a dream, he touched me gently. He caressed, rather than grasped. He took me to highs I'd never thought of, so high that I doubted they existed outside of the imagination. He called me his, but in a low, sweet tone that promised he meant it. Romantically, almost. Then he killed me. I died knowing he owned me. And I hated myself for taking pleasure in it. Hot. Sweat stuck to my skin even before I made the climb to consciousness. By the time I cracked my eyes open, I remembered the air conditioner stopped running. I mumbled a curse and rolled over. Why the hell had I turned the window unit offoh yeah, to save money. I regretted the decision now. The sheets were sticking to my skin when I moved, like the unpleasant feeling that sometimes
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followed the heated slickness of sex. I bolted up and looked around. No, no killers in my bed. Well, no other killers. Just me and my sheets, though they were losing the battle and starting to slide onto the floor. As in waking, I had a hard time staying still while asleep. Aaron used to complain about it all the time. The memory stung, though dully. Like an old wound, healed over, but not quite forgotten. Nothing more. Just an emotional scar, not a physical one. I hadn't really been hurt when we broke up, more like knowing what kind of life I could have had. Aaron would have been safety and security, a normal life with a lover. A day job. Maybe a dog or two. But he didn't become those things. He remained a thing of the past, a memory of fonder times, but times I couldn't go back to. Even if I could, I wouldn't want to anymore. Aaron would never be. I didn't even regret it. I lived with just me and my shadow, and my reflection in the mirror. And the three of us were company enough. I trudged to the bathroom. The man in the mirror didn't look much better than he had last night. I probably needed food before hypoglycemia set in. There were still bags under my eyes and the heavy stubble on my face made me want to chance a shave despite the scrapes. The mark on my shoulder had scabbed over, but didn't look infected.
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I'd heard of people dying from shifter bites becoming infected. But mine looked fine. I hoped. The corners of my lips quirked downwards. I took another showertwo within twelve hours, probably a personal record. But I left the second one feeling much better than I had from the previous. I stumbled through my waking routinecouldn't call it a morning routine because I rarely slept before dawnsame as any other day. Coffee brewed while I remade my bed, which consisted of throwing the sheets sort of back in place and tossing the pillows at the top of the bed. The bed sat in the far corner of the room and meant I didn't have to tuck all of the edges in, merely hide them between the mattress and walls. Task done, I pulled a clean pair of underwear from the dresser and went back to the kitchen to scavenge for food. I opened the refrigerator and stopped. Where did I go from this point? I'd set out to ambush Shadow, but he turned the tables on me. Then molested me. And promised to come after me again. So what now? Did I pursue him, or drop it? Other bounty hunters would go after him. The reward posted was too high to pass up. I could just swallow my failure on this one and let somebody else bag him. If I stopped chasing him, he'd have no reason to come find me. Sure, he'd probably
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kill a couple more times before someone got him, but someone would finally succeed. He'd slip up eventually. I didn't have too much pride to admit I'd lost. And while the money would be nice, it wasn't necessary. I had enough in different banks to assure I didn't need a day job between bounties, assuming I lived cheaply, which I had no problem with. So it would be smart just to forget about him. Except Except I still felt his hands on me. "Mine." I shook my head. Not after one encounter that had been against my will. I would still try to find him, and kill him. I had to avenge Rob, and myself. I stared into the refrigerator. By now the smell of coffee filled the room. My mouth watered. Never mind three in the afternoon had arrived. The start of my day began with coffee. Finally, I grabbed a couple eggs and half a pack of sausages. I tended to be lazy in the culinary aspect, being a bachelor, so I cooked the two in the same pan. The scrambled eggs tried running into the sausages, but I didn't care. They were going to end up in the same place anyway. And the melted fat from the meat gave the eggs more flavor. The eggs were done first, so I shoveled them onto a plate with the spatula and started eating them while the
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sausage cooked. When I finally deemed those finished, I slid them onto the plate to join what remained of the eggs, and then poured myself a cup of coffee. The coffee warmed my stomach better than the food did. My nerves eased a bit. The caffeine helped. Okay, I would try to go after him again. Or I could just wait for him to make good on his promise and come find me. Like a trapdoor spider ambushing prey, or a pitcher plant that lures insects in with the sweet scent of nectar before devouring them. No, too much sexual innuendo with the latter example. I'd stick with the spider metaphor. But then there had been a sexual promise in Shadow's words, not innuendo. I shook my head again. This man baffled and angered me to no end. I needed to get out, get laid. I'd go hire a rent boy and be done with it. Then I should be immune to Shadow's charms. Or dangerous attraction. Yes, I just needed to get the sexual tension out of my system, and things would be normal again. I'd be able to deal with Shadow, avenge Rob, and get the money. I just had a few more hours to stew.

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CHAPTER THREE
I left after dark. I'd spent most of the afternoon switching between checking data on other open bounties and being glued to the television. The bounties because my business required it; the TV because reading the police database unerringly led back to Shadow. And if nothing else, TV proved good for erasing coherent thought. After a couple hours, I made dinner on autopilot and cleaned up around the apartment. As if a hooker would really care if I cleaned up for him. But it needed to be done, anyway, and only took a few minutes. I didn't have that much space to worry about. The wind blew my hair around and I got hit with a smell that promised rain in the future. Perhaps tonight or in the early hours tomorrow. I looked at a small group of boys across the street. They chatted with each other, huddled under a street light against the wind. Just boys, it seemed, barely of age. Could be some of them weren't even that. I knew a few who started turning tricks not long after hitting puberty. They weren't dressed as flashily as the female prostitutes down the street. These wore just shadows of make-up to augment the androgyny of their facesdark eye shadow, lip liner. One of them seemed a little older,
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nearly my age. He should have been in college, but something led him off the normal path. He glanced over, saw me looking, and smiled in a sexy way. I held the eye contact and gave a miniscule nod. He turned to his friends, said a few words of self-dismissal, and crossed the street. His curly brown hair waved in the breeze. Eyes that looked blue under the lights studied me, giving the once over, and he nodded approvingly. He liked what he saw, I guessed, even with the marks on my cheek. "So, you want to go to a hotel, or" His voice trailed off, leaving the decision in my hands. "My place is a couple blocks away." I nodded my head in the general direction of my apartment. Cheaper than using a hotel. "Oh, thank God." He smiled warmly. He didn't use the practiced lines of a hooker. I didn't need them, and he probably liked not having to lay them down. He'd marked me as an easy sell, someone looking to have sex, not someone nervous or confused and needing pretty words to comfort the way. I'm sure he had his reasons for working the tradeeveryone had a story, after all. I didn't need to know it. I wanted a business transaction, and an anonymous one at that. I led the way and he kept a few steps behind. He had pale skin and thin frame under his clothes. Freckles
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dusted his cheeks lightly. He couldn't be more opposite, looks wise, from Shadow. Someone breakable. Someone willing to bend to my will and let me take him. Where Shadow had been dominant, this young man would do as I told him. His hands wouldn't be searing and forceful. They would be practiced and meek. If I wanted, he'd suck me. And when he had me ready, he'd open himself to me; maybe even beg me to take him. And I would. I would be in control of the rhythm. I would have the power over him in the same way Shadow had controlled me. I wanted exactly that. To be dominant. We arrived at my apartment complex and walked up the stairs to the second floor. His feet were quiet behind me and I looked out of the corner of my eye to make certain that he didn't lag behind. He hadn't. I used the key to unlock the door and he just watched me. I almost asked what he was looking at, but I didn't need to know. I opened the door. Something felt off. The lights weren't on, but I sensed something different. Someone waited within. I put an arm in front of the nameless man. He silently peered upwards in question. I put a finger to my lips. Listening for any movement, I flipped the light switch. Whoever lurked in the apartment knew I'd come back, since I hadn't exactly been quiet when unlocking the
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door. And I'd rather not give them the advantage of the dark. Nothing looked out of place, but the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. "Should I call the police?" The young man whispered. I shook my head. My gun still lay on the table. I moved quietly towards it, making sure to slide my feet barely an inch off the floor. With the weapon secure, I started towards the bedroom and connected bathroom, the only places left for anyone to hide. I paused. Light seeped through the space under the door. Hard to tell because of the light coming from the front room, but it was there. He didn't bother hiding. I opened the door and he grabbed my wrists. My gun flew out of my hands and it skittered across the room. I knew who held me captive even before he swung me around to land with a grunt on the bed. I smelled his musk and spice scent and varying emotions hit me at once. Recognition, anger, arousal, and fear. The golden eyes locked with mine and I stopped breathing. Shadow landed on top of me, using his superior weight to pin me down. But not well enough. My fist connected with his jaw and he yielded to it. Heartened, I started struggling. But then he straddled my hips and secured both wrists above my head. "I told you I would come, Lukas," he reprimanded.
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He knew my name. Shit. "Yet you brought someone here anyway." His face turned towards the door. I lifted my head to see the man I'd brought home. Oh God, please don't let Shadow kill him, too. The prostitute stood in the doorway, frozen. His eyes seemed afraid to leave Shadow, but every once in a while they slid to the gun on the floor. Run, my brain screamed at him. Don't try to be a hero. "I'm sorry to interrupt your business, but Lukas is mine." Shadow narrowed his eyes in the young man's direction. "I suggest you leave." He tore off before Shadow finished speaking. His feet pounded, then the door opened and slammed shut. At least he wouldn't be in immediate danger. I felt warm breath on my face and shuddered. "Now back to you." Yes, back to me. I tried to raise my wrists against him, though I knew it was hopeless. "How the hell did you get in here?" He'd broken in to my apartment. My home! It pissed me off. Breaking and entering, as well as rape? It's not rape if you like it. I stopped the thoughts there. Earlier had been forced. He did something to me. Right. He chuckled. "How did I pick the lock to your
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apartment?" All right, that seemed like an obvious question. "How did you know where I lived?" Again, a stupid question. But anything to delay what would soon happen. "I followed you, easily. You didn't exactly try to hide where you lived after our encounter last night." He smirked, face inches from my own. "Almost as if you wanted me to find you this quickly." "I didn't" "Are you sure?" His face went to my hair and he inhaled. He must have had a fetish for smells. "I must say I prefer you in this setting to a dirty alleyway." I did my best to head butt him, I really did. I gritted my teeth and bucked my upper body forward, but he easily evaded it. Besides, my arms were still pinned. "I think," he continued as if I hadn't tried to hurt him, "that I'll take my time enjoying you. Last night was too rushed." "If you think I'm just going to let you" My voice cut off when he grabbed my shirt and whipped it over my head, but not all the way off. Somehow, he tangled my hands into it, effectively cuffing them together in the fabric. But it did mean I could
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lift them. I bunched the muscles in my arms, ready to swing forward and hit him, but one look at him stopped me cold. He hovered above me, quiet, too far back for me to hit without sitting up. His eyes visibly roamed my chest with a fierce intensity, mentally tracing my scars. I'd seen the looks from previous sexual partners. But others before had looked at the ridges and crossed lines with fear or disgust. When Shadow looked at them his gaze became unreadable. The fingers of one hand traced my crowning gloryan upwards stab wound between my fifth and sixth ribs. Vampire. I'd been expecting a bite, but instead he'd pulled out a knife. And he knew exactly where to find my heart; he could see it beating in my chest. He could have hit either that or my lungs. I probably should have died, except I moved just enough for the knife to dig into the bone and cartilage that connected my ribs to sternum. It hurt, and he'd gotten away. I heard someone else took him down later. But now Shadow studied the scar intently. From there his hand moved to trace other, smaller scars. As if he mapped my body by the most apparent landmarks, committing it to memory. I didn't like it. He hadn't acted this way last night. I could hate him if he gloated and laughed at me. Now he acted almost like my I jerked my head to the side. No, he'd never be anything to me but a bounty.
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"You're beautiful," he murmured. "No," I croaked. I wasn't. He moved as if he had all the time in the world. Slow, careful. And I didn't fight back when his hands moved over my chest. Intimate, but not sexual. I just closed my eyes and laid there, imagining his hands were that of a lover. They moved with the same certainty that Aaron's had towards the end of our relationship, but without the unrepressed heated need teenagers have. Patient. His lips touched my eyelid; I wanted to hide my face in the bed. They ghosted, barely skimming my skin, to my temple. His weight settled on top of me, heavy and restraining, but still without intimidation and only a tinge of sexuality, when our hips lined up. No, it shouldn't be like this. He should take and be rough, and I should fight back against him. I wanted to hate it. Maybe my dream had been right. He'd use gentleness to lull me, gain my trust. And when he had it, he'd finally kill me. My eyes stung from wetness gathering there. His tongue touched the corner of my eye, licking the liquid away, but he didn't comment. His hands coasted downwards. Fingers slipped under the waistband of my pants and quickly retreated, rubbing my hip bone with his
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thumb. His lips moved along my jaw with a hint of teeth just under my chin. He muttered something wordless against my ear. Then he retreated and his gold eyes stared down again. I dared a look. His eyes held me there. I shuddered from his gaze. The intensity alone made blood race downwards. My cock twitched, and he felt it, too. Fully expectant that I would stay put, he sat up with his legs still entangled with mine. His back arched when he pulled his shirt over his head and threw it to the side. Then I could marvel at his form. Fluid solidity greeted me. His honey tanned skin rippled over his muscles when they moved and I stared when those in his torso and arms expanded and contracted. Mesmerizing. My eyes travelled lower to his abdomen, where a six-pack, though not bulgingly pronounced, definitely held my attention. A trail of hair went in a 'V' from his chest down into his pants. I had a sudden urge to follow that trail with my lips. As if reading my mind, he unzipped. My eyes widened when his fingers cupped my chin and forced me to look back up at his face. "Do you remember what I said last night?" No, not particularly. I mean, he said a lot of things, sort of. But I had no idea which specific thing he referred to. So I just gazed upwards. He turned and moved up my bed to sit with his back
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against the wall. "Suck me." My breath hitched when he pulled his cock out. Uncut. Somehow that fit him. He made himself comfortable and stroked his shaft a few times. The delicious scent of male arousal filled the room, and held my attention rapt. He gazed at me as I rolled onto my knees. In this position I could focus on untangling my arms. I did so, and thought of running. But how far would I get? "Lukas," he breathed. Had it been a growl or a groan? The way I figured, I could either look at his eyes or his cock. I picked the latter. Staring into his eyes dragged me into their dark depths. His hand nudged the back of my head and I crawled closer to him, close enough to feel the heat radiating, and then closer still. I touched the tip of his cock with my tongue, taking a sample taste. I remembered it. Salty, yet also the personification of the maddening scent. Encircling the head with my lips, I suckled for a moment. He inhaled while I kissed the skin there. The hand on the back of my head gripped my hair and pulled my face closer. Warming up to the task, I took the whole head into my mouth and started to bob as far as his hand would let me. Shadow moaned and his head fell back against the wall with a dull thunk. Not hard enough to knock him out, of course, because that would allow me to escape. The grip in my hair released,
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and his palm rested there instead. I pulled away to breathe. The foreskin fully retreated to reveal the glans underneath. I had never been with anyone who'd been not circumcised before, but I'd heard the head tended to more sensitive. File that note away for later. I pressed my lips into the vein just under the head and ran them down the length. He grunted and opened his legs farther when I neared the base. My tongue darted out and brushed his balls. I looked up. His head rested against the wall, his eyes closed. I used the flat of my tongue to lick upwards. When my lips closed over the head again, I dragged my teeth along the slit, applying pressure. His whole body jerked and he made a noise of surprise. My eyes met his wide ones. Maybe it hurt, maybe it didn't, but pre-cum filled my taste buds. With his cock in my mouth, I had control. I smirked my triumph, closed my eyes, and sucked him in again. He bumped the back of my throat, but I didn't stop there. Shifting the angle, my throat opened and down I went until my nose hid in the hair at the base. His hand grasped my hair painfully and held me there. I couldn't breathe. But for some reason, I had no fear. His grip lessened and I pulled back far enough to catch a breath before bearing down on him again. His hips met me in a thrust. Fast and rough, he started fucking my throat, but I
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directed the rhythm. My own neglected cock brushed his leg once in a while, but received no further stimulation. It painfully reminded me it needed attention as well. My free hand fisted and pumped my shaft, hips humping into the sheets and against his leg. I felt him about to come and drove towards that end. But then he pulled me off, and once again I ended up on my back and looking up. My hands found the sheets on either side of my body and held on. His eyes were no longer studying me with patient intent, but were dark and hot. Pupils dilated in lust, teeth bared in a snarl, he shoved his hard cock against mine. Oh, God. How long had it been since had anyone ever looked at me like that before? My hips reacted on their own accord and rose to meet his. "What are you doing to me?" In mere seconds, he had me completely helplessin my own homeagain. His face lowered inches from mine like he planned to kiss me. I parted my lips in expectation. My body and brain were having a disagreement about how things were proceeding. He merely licked the corner of my mouth, nothing more. "I'm doing what you want." "I don't want" But my body said differently. No matter how much my mind screamed to fight
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back, my body answered to let him in, in more ways than one. The foremost being physically. For all my words, the desire belonged to me, one I'd left hidden, and he'd seen it so clearly. I hadn't had a man inside me since my teenage years, with Aaron, my first and only actual relationship. We'd fucked with abandon every chance we got. After he broke it off with me, I dedicated my life to my calling as a killer. After that, there were only rent boys. And I couldn't let myself hire a top. I couldn't let anyone else see me being so lustful for a dick in my ass, let alone trust anyone enough to dominate me like I craved. I screwed prostitutes, doing to them what I desired to have done to me. But this man knew the need that burned in me. Not even knowing me, he saw my hidden urge to be dominated. He sat back, spreading my legs with his thighs. And suddenly a familiar bottle ended up in his hands. My lube. The bastard had been rooting through my drawers! And he knew I took offense, because the corner of his mouth quirked upwards, daring me to protest. As if going through my things could be a higher offense than breaking in and rape. But somehow it counted higher, in my mind. He prepared me quickly, starting off with two lubed fingers and thrusting them in. I arched back when they
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moved inside, petting, twisting, loosening me up for him. A shock went through me when he found that little gland. I gasped. It had been far too long He smirked and assailed that spot viciously, making me writhe into the sheets. No way could I run from the sensations. A third finger in. It didn't hurt now. It felt full, like he tried to scratch an itch. He slid them in and out at a teasing pace, making me crazy. "Just" I spoke in a gasp more than words. I tried again. "Just do it, dammit!" He didn't say anything, just gave an infuriating smirk. His fingers slipped out and he slicked his cock with the lube, staring at my face the whole time. And then he took my hips in his hands and pressed himself against the entrance to my body. My spine arched, and I threw my head back when he slid in. No words now. He stilled, watching and feeling. When he felt my readiness, he pushed a little farther, slowly claiming my body as his. I thought he might be prepared to take the entire night as he went deeper, until seated all the way inside me. My hands grabbed his arms to hold him there. The whole time his face expressed fierce concentration. I shuddered, and then closed my eyes with a moan.
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So full. Wow. Why had I been denying myself? This God. "Fuck." The corner of his mouth twitched and he made a small sound, like he wanted to laugh. Instead he pulled back. A moment of emptiness before his hips thrust forward again. My mouth opened in silence. He leaned over me, and I wanted his lips so badly. But rather than kiss me, his lips fastened onto my throat and I bared it for him. He ran a series of kisses and nips along the underside of my jaw and his thrusts picked up speed. I think a moan left me, but I had no concern at the time. My hands moved up his arms, along his shoulders. He lifted up enough to let me explore his hard chest. His skin was as rough and scarred as my own, some old, some new. We surged together, and something about feeling those muscles move under my fingertips when he filled me made me feel almost possessive. He said I belonged to him, and in the moment, for this moment he belonged to me. One hand slid up to his face and he held it there. We were both undoubtedly male, with rigid jaws and stubble, and he had a stronger brow; nothing about him would ever be considered effeminate. He didn't look anything like the pretty twink I picked up earlier, nor like anyone I had slept with recently. Bigger than me, there could be no doubt in my mind who dominated whom. The hair my fingers
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tangled in felt soft. A low rumble came more from his chest than his mouth. He adjusted the angle and I shouted. The feeling, the burst of electricity from my prostate became intensified by his size. My muscles tightened around him. A shudder went through his body and his hips sped up, slamming his cock into me harder. Lust clawed into me like a light in overwhelming darkness, searing my body so badly it burned. My hands grasped his shoulders above me, nails grinding into the thick muscle. He growled and bit into my neck again where he had already marked me. The bed moved against the wall and he fucked into me with finality. I could feel it building at the base of my spine. I reached for my cock, but he grabbed my wrists and pinned them again. My fingers grasped the sheets above my head and I kept them there. He used that hand on my cock to jack me off, dry and hard, slicked only with my own pre-cum. It burned, but made me pant. He had control of when I would come. My legs seized around his hips, trying to arch my back, to push myself farther into his hand, to trap him deeper inside. There was white in my vision and Shadow, mouth curling in a grimace. A snarl, and then warmth flooded my insides when he came. He continued to thrust and pump slowly until we came down from our orgasms. Finally, both
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of us too sensitive to continue, he pulled out and separated from me completely. I felt like I had a gaping hole in my body. He gazed off to the side, looking like he tried to collect his thoughts. His mouth opened slightly as if he wanted to say something. I got words out first. "Going to kill me now?" Sprawled on my bed, my chest heaving, my legs wouldn't be able to hold me, not after coming the hardest within memory, let alone carry me if I needed to run. Killing me would be easy for him to do. He turned back towards me and stared pensively for long moments. A different look. His expressions changed slowly. "No," he answered finally, "not tonight."

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CHAPTER FOUR
Shadow left before I woke up. He'd gone to clean himself up in my bathroom, and I fell asleep. For the second time since meeting him, I didn't snap awake. In fact, I thought the clock had to be wrong when it showed the time to be just before noon. But the sun was up and I was awake. I also felt sweaty again. Not a habit I particularly wanted to fall into. When the cell phone on my nightstand rang, I ignored it until it went silent. I didn't feel like moving, so I just listened to the sound of rain pattering on my window. I ran my hands over my face. So, I had sex with Shadow. Good sex. And he didn't kill me after. Now what? I had no idea what his intentions were. I thought I did, but now not so much. He couldn't be trying to woo me, thank God for that. He considered me a fuck, as far as I could conceive. And a guy who vowed to kill him. And he said he'd kill me in return. So, would we continue until one of us finally did it, or would it be over now? My phone beeped to indicate I had a message. Since it didn't have anything to do with live interaction with another person, I grabbed the phone to check. A voicemail from an unknown number.
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"Lukas." Shadow's voice was as deep as I remembered it, if tempered since last night. How did he get my phone number? Never mind, he probably just looked at my phone while I was asleep. "Meet me at Dublin Sky tonight at ten." The message ended. Now why the hell I groaned and threw the second pillow over my face. It smelled like him and sex. The two scents were synonymous now. My cock twitched hopefully. I flung the pillow to the floor. My whole bed smelled like sex. There were probably going to be stains that needed bleaching. Luckily my sheets were white anyway. I guessed the time had come to do laundry, after another shower. And after I bought some bleach. Shadow. Shadow resided in my head and I couldn't get him out. No matter how much television I pretended to watch or how long I stared at my computer, he remained there. Even when the widow down the hall caught me in a conversation, I stayed distracted. I begged off with the excuse I had a long work night previously and needed a nap. What I did for a living didn't bother hernot so long as I stayed on the 'straight and narrow' and only went after criminals who deserved it. Strange lady, but I liked that she
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didn't mind. I needed a hobby, but my hobby was my job, and my current job was Shadow. I caught myself staring at his photo again on the police website. And again, I realized the photo did him no justice. While it may have shown the basic lines of his face, it couldn't begin to capture what belonged to him. Shape without form. Luckily the apartment complex had enough washing machines I didn't have to wait for one to open up. I folded my clothes, tossed them into the dresser, and considered whether or not to meet up with Shadow that night. I had a few hours to make up my mind. What could he want to talk about? It had to be about why I wanted to kill him; I couldn't fathom any other reason. And why did he have to pick the Dublin? I'd made the biggest ass out of myself there, and he probably knew it. The widow needed help moving furniture around so she could clean. Since I happened to be the only 'strong trustworthy young man' available in the afternoon, she had asked. And since I wanted to do anything but think about Shadow, I told her I could after my fictional nap. It ended up being a nice change. I listened and moved couches as she prattled on about her life and her late husband, and made vague noises of agreement when she scolded that I'd never find myself a nice man or woman with my schedule.
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I was glad she hadn't seen Shadow leaving, or else she'd be asking when he'd be moving in. As it stood, I wondered just how much noise we made the night before. But I felt pretty sure the people who lived in the apartment under me were dealing drugs and knew what I did for a living, so I didn't worry too much about them saying anything. I didn't really keep my occupation a secret. I finished around seven and went back to my apartment. My face had started to sport legitimate facial hair. I really needed a shave, no matter the consequences. I avoided looking at the mirror when I showered earlier, but now saw I really should have checked. I'd worn a turtleneck in the hot weather, as if that didn't provide indication enough I had something to hide, but now I could see hickeys, bruises, and definite bite marks along my jaw line. No wonder the widow had made comments about my love life. My neck screamed either rough sex, or a fight, or well no, it could only have been sex. At least the facial hair had hidden some of the blemishes not enough though. I revealed more and more when the razor skidded across my skin. Scraping lightly around the brick burn, I managed to inflict only a couple of cuts there. A messy job, but it would have to do. My hips hurt, but not bad enough to affect my movement. The marks he left behind held my interest. His
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nails had broken the skin where he gripped my hips. I had seen them during my shower, but looking at them in the mirror felt different. I was claimed, possessed. He hadn't worn a condom, something I really didn't care about in the heat of the moment last night, but now it preoccupied me. Not just the inconvenience of clean-up, but did shapeshifters catch human diseases? Or did they have things we could catch? Not a conversation I particularly wanted to have with anyone, even the Internet. I could ask Shadow. I could also go bury myself in a hole somewhere, become a cave hermit, and never see another living soul again. Actually, I found that an increasingly attractive option. Somehow I ended up on the Internet anyway. I started reading an underground news feed when his name caught my eye. A simple title, nothing like the embellishments I usually found in newspapers: Shadow Strikes Again I clicked on the story. Early this morningit must have been just after he left meanother bounty hunter came after Shadow. Dalton Summers. I didn't know him and the article said he'd been in town just for this job. They found Dalton in an eastern block a couple of miles from my apartment. Currently in the hospital with critical injuries, but lucky to be alive. After all, Shadow had a sizeable body
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count. I wondered distantly if his bounty would go up. And Dalton was lucky to be alive. I wondered what had stayed Shadow's hand. I tried to keep detached as I read the information. Dalton had identified his would-be killer in a moment of consciousness when the paramedics carted him off. He had lacerations to his arms and torso. Medical analysis reported they were indeed claw marks from a large cat. It occurred to me I'd never seen Shadow in his transformed state. Probably lucky I hadn't. I did well looking over the information objectively until I saw Rob's name in the list of people Shadow had killed since the bounty had gone up. Robert Kingsford. I stared at the name and different emotions warred in my head. Anger won out. I closed the laptop and set it aside. I tried to focus on eating something, but everything tasted like bile ready to come up. Like hell would I meet up with him now, not after being reminded what he could do. I dropped onto my bed and stared up at the ceiling. The smell of detergent greeted me. The hours ticked away while I focused on thinking about everything but him. I even tried reading fictional stories, something I hadn't found time for in a long while. That didn't really work, but it ate away at a few minutes.
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No surprise when my front door opened late that night. Shadow didn't try to hide his footsteps when he headed straight for my bedroom. My gaze went from the ceiling to the doorway when he appeared in it. He didn't look angry. "Why didn't you come?" His face remained neutral. My head rolled back to look up at the ceiling. I lay on my back, hands pillowing my head. "I didn't feel the need to." His silence indicated his anger, but I didn't owe him anything. "I needed to talk to you." I rolled my eyes and sat up since I doubted he'd go away. "About what? You were pretty vague in that threesecond message." "Your friend." Even though I expected the subject, the pit of my stomach still dropped. I stood and tried to square off with him. I'd had enough time to stew with my anger it should be pretty intimidating. "What about Rob?" He'd killed Rob, plain and simple. "Oh, I get it. You didn't mean to kill him. It just happened. We know how good you are at controlling your urges, but it just happened." I couldn't keep the sarcasm from my voice. "He was a fucking kid, for Christ's sake."
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I tried to walk past him, but he grabbed my shoulder. "That fucking kid shot me! I reacted." He turned me around to face him and I didn't fight it. No point in trying. "He came after me and I defended myself. You're right, it just happened." It hurt my professional pride a bit to know Rob had at least gotten a shot in, and another part of me swelled with pride. But I remained alive, and that made yet another part of me feel guilty. Granted, the last thing had nothing to do with my skills as a hunter, and everything to do with Shadow wanting to screw me. I shook my head. At him, at myself, at the whole goddamn world. "Fuck you." "Already done that." He let me react. Even with the knowledge, it felt good when my fist connected with his jaw. He stepped away, his fist clenched. My body tensed, ready in the event he wanted to fight. I almost wanted him to. That way we could have some sort of physical contact not about sex, something that actually made sense with my anger and the tension in the room. He unclenched his fists. His body strained, but he willed it down. "Your friend," he said slowly, "snuck up on me. He shot me in the back. So yes, I did kill him, because he tried
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to kill me. Same with the others I've taken out since the bounty went up. You've done similar in the past." I shook my head. "But" "But what?" "You have a bounty. You're a criminal." It sounded weak. The wheels turned in my head. I shifted from foot to foot, unable to stand still with what rolled around in my brain. He laughed. A harsh sound that made me sting, nothing like the night before in bed. This Shadow was not like the man from last night or even the one previous. He sounded frustrated, and even a little tired. "Yes, I'm a criminal. I get hired to kill people. But Lukas, the only difference between you and I is who the clients are." Not necessarily true. People who posted bounties had their identities hidden, but their paperwork had to be filed. Hiring a mercenary would be completely under the table, and some people couldn't afford even the slightest bit of exposure. But no definite line separated the two, though. The only difference between the people I killed for and Shadow's clients? How traceable they were. We were cut from the same cloth, men who were paid to deal with other people in one way or another.
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"You've killed innocent people." Surely he had killed someone who didn't deserve it. People hired killers for personal reasons, and often the targets were others who didn't really deserve to die. Or innocents got caught in the crossfire. Everyone in our business knew that. His head shook. "Just because someone makes an offer doesn't mean I take it. Believe it or not, even killers have lines they won't cross. I assume that holds true for people on your side of the court." A superior smile curved his lips. "And unless I am mistaken, your job doesn't require you to kill your target, yet you do anyway." True. I didn't have to kill whoever I went after. It usually tended to be a matter of convenience. But we weren't the same. I couldn't let myself believe we were. There still had to be a line, something to separate black and white. Something to make us fundamentally different. "Why are you here?" I asked instead. "You couldn't have come just to let me know that you killed Rob out of self-defense." "No, I didn't," he agreed. "I came to ask you to help me find out who put up the bounty and clear it." "Now why would I do a thing like that? Do it yourself." He had to be joking. No way would he seriously want my help.
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"I would," he said quietly, "but I need to get access to police records to find the client. And I'd rather have someone I trust with me. Someone I know who has the skills I need in a partner." Trust. Partner. For a moment my mind thought we were talking about something else entirely, something far scarier to me than getting access to a police computer. My heart didn't skip a beatit felt like it beat sharper, deeper. I paced. Maybe the footsteps would cover the noise of my heartbeat. "You can't trust me. You don't know me." He shrugged. "People seem to think you're trustworthy." I bit my lip, and then stopped myself. Bad habit. "Why should I help you?" He moved in front of me, stopping my walk, his face about a foot from my own. His eyes were searching for something. "I admit I don't have any logical reasons to convince you. I can only ask." I closed my eyes, which only intensified his scent. Bad idea. "Full disclosure?" "Sure." "How do you decide which jobs to take?" "I research. Find whatever I can on the client and
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target, and ask around to see if they've approached anyone else. If so, what they thought, and why they turned the job down. In case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty fast at getting information about people. I end up learning more about the target and the motives of the client than they'd like to think." He noticed the disbelief on my face. "I'm not a saint, but I am careful. You don't live to see notoriety without being so. And if I'm going to kill someone, I'd like to know why someone wants them dead." "Example." He snorted. "The last guy I killed was scum. Drug dealer who let a girl overdose, suspected of doing it himself. Her dad didn't have enough proof for a conviction and was too paranoid to post a bounty. He had a family and a name he wanted to protect. First, he hired me to find information on the guy. That pretty much amounted to the research I'd do before a hit anyway. Then he hired me to make it look like a deal gone bad." His mouth quirked. "The dad was clean. Biggest hit on his record was a speeding ticket. He was just a guy who wanted revenge for his daughter. Basic stuff." I considered his words. "So you think whoever posted the bounty on you was a relative of someone you knocked off recently?" "Most likely. Though I'm usually careful enough
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not to leave evidence pointing to me." His potential carelessness seemed to bother him. We were both left trying to stroke our professional egos tonight. "It could also have been someone I turned down. Hell, even a rival." We were far too similar. The wall I had built between us, the one that placed me on the side of the lawful and him far on the other side, was crumbling to nothing. The only thing left between us now was well, about a foot of air. His body heat filled in the distance. But rather than becoming aroused by his proximity, a spike of fear ran up my spine. The idea of hating him, the very idea of turning him in for the money, had gone. It had been ebbing ever since he forced a place for himself in my life, redefining a few things for me along the way. The uncertainty scared me, and the fact I could change in such a short time period. Scared also of how he could read me. In an ideal world, the only person who should be able to do that would be a lover, or at least someone I could trust. Could I trust Shadow? He hadn't killed me. Did I still think he would? No, the thought went out the window about the same time I realized I wouldn't be killing him. He could try to take me out after I outlived my usefulness, but I doubted it.
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So where were we now? Hell, did I even want a 'we' to talk about after this adventure, or had I gotten ahead of myself? He watched me, waiting for an answer. I didn't like seeing his neutral expression, not after seeing his face showing other emotions. "Okay," I said, but it came out too quietly. I cleared my throat, and tried again. "Okay, I'll help you. God knows why, because I sure as hell don't. But yeah, sure." I threw in a few nods to convince myself. The muscles in his face didn't move much, but his eyes cleared. And somehow, that made all the difference. I relaxed. There were things I could wonder about and doubt, but I'd deal with them later. There were slightly more pressing matters, only one of which was clearing his bounty. "One more thing." My face reddened and I really didn't want to ask, but I had to know. "Last night, you didn't use do you have anything I mean, are you?" The remaining tension left his body and a small smile crossed his face. His forehead rested against my skull. He chuckled lightly, a warm sound, and it felt like everything would be alright. "Don't worry, I'm clean." I shouldn't have felt so relieved to hear him say
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those words, but I couldn't deny it felt like a weight in my chest had gone. "Oh," I murmured. "Well, that's good." His arms rested around me. It felt comfortable. More than it should have been. "So," I interrupted the moment, "we have to find out who put out the contract on you." "There's only a small pool of suspects who would have done it." He smirked and his eyes flashed with a glint of something wilder than mischief. "Fancy a trip to the police station?"

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CHAPTER FIVE
My compliance led to a blowjob. He pressed me against the wall of living room and slid to his knees, unbuttoning my pants as he went. His mouth felt searing hot, much hotter than it had been on my skin before. I didn't dare lay my hands on his head, though. Instead my fingers curled into fists against the wall. Fast and devouring, his tongue drove me wild until I thought my soul would pour out through my cock. Then he wiped his mouth and asked if I had any coffee. We sat at my table and came up with a plan to get access to a police computer. I had a decent knowledge of how computers worked, but I couldn't just hack into a system remotely. While there were people who would do so if we paid them, Shadow firmly refused to let anyone else get involved. We figured it would be best to just get the information ourselves. We picked a small constable station in a quieter area on the outskirts of town. I drove my beatup car. It felt weird driving with Shadow in the passenger seat. He stared out the window, though I could see the reflections of his eyes moving. He looked solemn for a few moments. Worried or anxious? I almost wanted to ask him, but didn't know how to word it or if he would want me to ask.
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We parked a few blocks away. The car wasn't worth enough for anyone to want to steal, except as parts. And if that happened, I might consider it divine intervention telling me to get off my ass and get a new one. There were two men on duty that night. In such a domestic area I doubted much happened after the sun went down. In silence we waited until Shadow heard one officer leave to use the bathroom. I provided the distraction. I ran into the station, doing my best to look harried and dismayed. "Officer, I" I didn't know where to go from there, so I did my best to look speechless. The performance wouldn't win any awards. Luckily the young officer ran with it and gave me enough time to think something up. "What's wrong, sir? Was there an accident?" "Yes, my friend. We were coming home from the bar, and hea car just oh my God!" I pointed my finger towards the front doors, hoping he'd take the hint and head for the street. The guy must have been new to act as he did. Rather than wait for his partner and call an ambulance, he checked his gunthe behavior of a green officerand jogged to the front door. The kid seemed so excited that something finally happened on the graveyard shift he didn't notice the false dismay, or my lack of following him.
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He went out the front and I trusted Shadow to take care of him. I turned and walked around the corner to find the bathroom the other officer had gone into. I barely got in place before he walked out, wiping residual dampness from the sink on his pants. Jumping from my location behind him, I hit him hard enough in the head to knock him out cold. I then took the keys from his trousers and dragged him to the holding cells. Only one drunk in one of them tonight. I carried the officer to an empty cell and tried to lay him down gently. Not his fault he had duty the night we needed to break in. Sounds of movement from behind made me turn swiftly, but only found Shadow with the other officer. "I like your thinking," he complimented and my face heated. Probably too dark to see me blush, luckily. So I told myself. "We need to get into their computers and delete the bounty on you," I replied instead. "Or better yet, officially rescind it. If it just disappears, someone will get suspicious." Shadow shook his head. "No, they'll just look which files were tampered with while the cops were locked up and know whoever it was wanted access to my info. Better to just look at who posted the bounty." His eyes glinted in the
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dim light. "Then I'll take care of it myself." "Fair enough." I shrugged. I went up to one of the active computers and pushed the chair out of the way. The basic setup made it easy to find what I wanted. I leaned over the computer system and a hand caressed my ass. Shadow sat back in the desk chair I'd discarded. His eyes dared me to protest. "This isn't the time or place!" I growled. "I disagree." His growl sounded twice as predatory as my own. My knees shook, but not in fear. "How many times will you get the opportunity to fuck in a police station?" I decided to ignore him and my fingers danced on the keyboard. The interface had been set up so people with minimal computer knowledge could use it. I found what I needed linked on the desktop. I didn't even have to crack the password, since one of our detained officers had left it logged in. Probably the young guy. I wondered if this would get him fired, but had to push any guilt out of my system. I selected the bounty records and searched through them. There were a little over ten names on the list. Shadow had the highest bounty. I shouldn't have felt a well of pride over that. I double-clicked his name and the profile I'd seen previously popped up. But on this computer, it had
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information on the poster and his contact information. I started to read the information, but the fingers I had been so dutifully ignoring ran between my thighs. They pressed into the place behind my balls and teased. Two thin layers of fabric separated his hand from the heat of my skin. I fought the urge to push back into him. He made an amused noise. My body betrayed me and my legs parted a few inches. Thankfully I didn't wear leather pants, like some hunters had a tendency towards. But tight jeans weren't helping my mental state fare much better. My hips wanted to flex against him. It was very distracting. "Is this your way of showing contempt for authority?" "No, this is my way of screwing you as often as possible. Turns you on, doesn't it? The thought of getting caught in a police station with a dangerous criminal's cock in your ass." His voice turned rough, as if he'd just had a shot of whiskey that burned particularly hard. "All the way up to my balls in you." My whole body shuddered. He had it right. The anticipation hummed in my head. I had become a wanton creature, and realization burned warm in my belly. A small sound left my mouth. I tried to hide it, to bury it, but he heard it anyway and needed nothing else. His body enveloped mine. The hands touching me felt safe. My heart
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pounded with adrenaline as a heated lust left me shaking.. "Pants. Off," he ordered. He sounded barely in control. Like he wanted to rip my pants off and fuck me into the table. And God, I wanted him to. Every muscle and fiber in my body screamed for it. But my brain whispered that I still needed the pants later. Because there would be a later, right? Yeah, after he screwed me. On a desk. In a constable station. Where we just knocked out the on duty officers. His hands were everywhere. One roamed my chest, grazing over my ribs and nipples. The other slipped into the front of my pants to tease my hardening cock. The pants that needed to go away. I pushed my elbow back against him just enough to give myself some space. Neither of us wanted to separate for that long. When he exposed me, a chill from the air swirled around, but as a paradox, I still felt all too hot. My skin flushed and sweat covered me despite the coolness. And suddenly the rough fabric of his pants pressed against my backside. But the texture didn't catch my attention. Heat radiated from his erection, still restrained by his pants, but outlined there. He grabbed my hip and humped into my crease. The denim burned where it rubbed my hole. I winced at the roughness against the sensitive skin there, but the wince turned into a gasp when the
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fingers on my chest scraped a nipple hard enough to hurt. The pain became pleasure and I didn't know which way to leanforward and into his hand on my chest or back against his cock on my ass. My arms, bracing against the desk, shook and threatened to give way. My legs were well on their way to becoming jelly. He pulled the demanding hardness away from me. I groaned in frustration when his hand, the one teasing my nipple, moved to my shoulder. My driving stimulations all disappeared at once, leaving me cold and shaking with need. His zipper opened. He wouldn't let me turn to look, but I ran my tongue along my bottom lip in expectation. His pants hit the floor and I willed whatever god would listen for Shadow to please, please just do me now. The hand that grasped my hip before reappeared to trace downwards along my spine. I shuddered. Slick and coldwhere the hell did he get lube fromnever mind, I didn't actually care. Cold, but quickly warming up, his fingers slid languidly along the curve of my ass. But no, we had too little time to draw the sex out. He needed this as much as I did. His breathing remained steady, though deep. One blunt finger pressed at my entrance and I willed my body to let him in. Too quickly, I wasn't quite ready yet, a second joined it. But the bite of pain turned into mild discomfort before melting into warmth. Not yet
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pleasure, but so close I needed the release. I pressed back against his fingers. He chuckled approvingly and stilled, forcing me to move if I wanted anything at all. "Shadow," I moaned, trying to force myself back onto his fingers. I couldn't get far enough because his other hand still rested on my shoulder. "Please, needoh God, please!" I yelped when his fingers plunged forward and curled to strike my prostate. The sound turned into a keening cry in my throat, like a bird warbling to its mate. "Yes," he murmured, burying his face in my hair. "Sing. Let them all hear you." The rest of his body snaked against mine so seamlessly it could have been the mold from which I was produced. His freed shaft prodded against my naked hip. Wetness pooled from the head. Even with that light touch his erection felt like fire and satin. The muscles in my ass clenched with craving. "Shit," he huffed throatily, "it feels like you're trying to suck me in. You want my cock that much?" Some unintelligible sound left my mouth when he thrust a third finger in, and he finally thrust in a slow rhythm, brushing my prostate over and over again. I didn't know if I made a cry, or a moan, or something in between. It just spoke of my blind desperation. Nothing existed in my world but him and the sensations he produced. I could
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smell him, the stormy scent of his sweat and shampoo. His body. Most of all, his musky arousal. "That wasn't an answer," he scolded, his lips pressed into my ear. "You have to tell me clearly." His hot breath made more tremors run through me. I considered it a miracle I didn't have a seizure. "Do you want me to ram my cock up your tight little ass?" I brimmed with lust. The world could end and the only thing I'd feel would be his body. I would only smell his seductive scent that belonged to him alone. That he deprived me felt like utter torture. If I were in my right mind, I would be appalled by how easily he could manipulate me. But he knew my body. And I already gave in to the fact he owned it as well. "Yes!" I screamed. His fingers vanished and I had barely any time to mourn the emptiness before the head of his cock started filling me. Very different from the gentle conquering of our first time in my bedroom. This had become carnal and with abandon. My body arched like a bow, hips pushing back against him. He didn't give me time to adjust to his size, merely thrust his entirety inside. I writhed on the impalement. My legs shook, wanting so badly to give out.
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Shadow solved my dilemma by picking up one of my knees and bending it over the top of the desk, leaving me open for him, on display like a piece in a private gallery. It should have been lewd and embarrassing, but I'd stopped caring. He could take all of me and break me. It wouldn't take much more. "So fucking tight," he groaned. "Even after I've already taken you. Can you feel how tight you are around me?" He pulled back slowly and teased my entrance with his cock's head before slamming back in. I nodded and swallowed a groan. Yes, I felt him inside me. Exhilarating, and it terrified me on a level I couldn't begin to understand. I leaned forward, resting my head on the desk top. One arm curled up under my face while my left hand gripped the edge. I closed my eyes. "Please, Shadow. Please move. I neednow!" He growled. A tremor ran through his body and I felt it deep in my core. His nails grew out to the point they scratched into my skin. If I looked behind me, his canines would have lengthened and his eyes would be a lighter gold. His muscles would be tense like a spring, a big cat readying itself to pounce. His hands gripped my hips hard enough to bruise.
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He pulled almost all the way out and slammed back in. My cock bounced against the table and I gasped. My arms flailed, trying to brace myself when he plunged in with increasing frequency. With each thrust he adjusted the angle a bit. At last he found what he looked for. My limbs stiffened and I cried out. There, that place. That toe-curling, agonizing pleasure. And now that he'd found that little spot, he pounded into me. Mind-numbing and wonderful. I had no control, no way to fight for it, so I let him set the pace. The sounds of our bodies meeting mixed with gasps and heavy breaths. Tentatively, I tried pushing back against him. "Yes," he hissed encouragingly. I continued, trying to match his rhythm. He jerked my hips back in time with his movements. Thrusting, shoving into me, and me into the desk with mad determination. I slid back and forth against the surface, scattering papers. Finally we found a tempo that suited us and we soared. "Harder," I begged. I wanted to feel him up to my manic heart. Tension curled like a spring. I inched closer to my release. Just needed a little more More, faster, harder, flying towards an edge I both craved and feared in equal amounts.
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I moved back against him. We no longer danced cordially but primal in our taking of each other. My balls drew up and my gut tightened. "Close." It didn't even sound like a word at that point, just a ragged breath. He grunted and pounded into me with a growing frenzy. The desk screeched against the floor as it moved under us. I leapt frantically over that edge. My mouth opened with a harsh noise and I came hard, white pinpoints flashing in my vision. And I decorated the desk with my cum. But I received no respite because Shadow still searched for his own end. His nails bit into my skin, and he thrust again, once, twice, and finally arching his back, thrust his cock as far into me as he could, yanking my hips back against him. With a shout, he found his completion. He wanted everyone to hear. He then bit into the back of my neck again. I stiffened against him, letting him claim me. Liquid heat surged into me when his orgasm exploded. He had marked both the outside and inside of my body. We slowly came down from the high of orgasm. I lay limply on top of the desk, my knee still resting up there. Shadow licked at my renewed wound. Still inside of me, he continued to pump lazily. An almost contented sounding purr came from his throat. If predators purred. His
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softening cock moved in and out, back and forth. My body glowed with heat. Our breathing transitioned from shallow gulps to something more normal before he finally pulled out. In the aftermath, I felt dirty with his cum slowly dripping out of my ass. My body cooled and started chilling with the sweat. After such intense heat, I suddenly felt cold. He pulled some tissues off the desk and started wiping his cock off. I couldn't meet his eyes. I was scared of what he was turning me into, making me realize about myself. I used to like being in control. I liked being alone. But this man had forced his presence on me and had taken away all semblances of control I had. He introduced me to a world of pleasures I never knew existed outside of fantasy, let alone craved. I didn't like how he could turn me into a shameless mess, or break down my barriers, with merely a touch or word. He threw me off my path and left me wandering lost in a dark wood. I needed to be done with the intense reactions. I needed him to be gone from my life, so I could find myself again. No more pounding in my chest; no more of this insanity. I excused myself to the bathroom. He had the audacity to look as content as a fat housecat when he gave
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me a once-over. I wore nothing but my shirt. Using paper towels and slightly softer toilet paper, I cleaned myself up. I'd need another shower. I still had cum inside, and it made me wary to put my pants on. Except, I needed pants to go around in public, so I just had to deal. We'd need to talk about condoms later, if nothing else to help with the mess. Condoms? Later? What the hell was I thinking about? I shook my head at my reflection in the dingy mirror as if it was his fault. Without my realizing we'd gotten to a point where I assumed sex would happen whenever we met. And in all fairness, it did. I washed myself using the sink until I stopped feeling sticky. Wincing, I redressed. After abstaining for so long, suddenly having a regular sex life made moving around suck. But it might not be regular. Now that I'd helped him find what he needed, there was a chance I'd never see him again. I stopped. The truth hit hard. I did what he asked: I helped him find out who posted the bounty. What he did with the information would be up to him. He didn't have a practical need for me anymore. I cursed myself for feeling hurt at the knowledge. When I found him again, Shadow sat in the desk chair, running through files on the computer. He had a pen
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in hand and jotted something down. It looked as if he'd cleaned the desk space up a bit. "You get what you need?" He nodded, writing down one last bit of information before closing the files down. "To be safe, I accessed all of the bounty records." "Good idea." A thought occurred to me. "Do you think the guy I talked to could identify me?" Shadow shrugged. "I doubt anything will come of it. You don't live on this side of town, and 'mid-twenties with blond hair and green eyes' describes a lot of people." I snorted. "You know my eye color." I hadn't meant to say that out loud. "Of course I do." He frowned, looking like the color of my eyes should be common knowledge. "Okay." I grew irritable. "What did you find out?" Without bothering to ask, I snatched the paper from the desk. Inside, I dared him to protest. He didn't. We were finished, so I read over the information as we headed out. In the back of my head I remembered the locked up constables, but someone would find them in the morning. The name of the poster was Donald Harland. I didn't know the name, but I assumed Shadow did. "You know him?"
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"Yeah, I turned down a job offer." It must have been serious for Harland to put a bounty up just because Shadow turned him down. Again, the high price of the bounty impressed me. "Must have been important to the guy. Why'd you turn it down?" Not enough money, not enough for him to gain from it, or maybe the guy just pissed him off? "I don't kill kids." My jaw seized shut. What could I possible come back with anyway? I slowed down while Shadow continued at the same pace. He glanced back, and the look on my face must have said everything. His expression closed. "You make a lot of assumptions about me." He continued walking, and I couldn't defend myself because I did leap to conclusions about him.

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CHAPTER SIX
As a rule, Shadow didn't kill kids. It shouldn't have been a surprise. Nothing he'd given me in the past couple of dayshad it only been that longhad shown him to be the ruthless murderer I had thought. I knew now he had his own code of ethics. So I really shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. I'd assumed he'd turned down the job for some reason concerning personal gain. And that reaction showed on my face. So did his. Shadow left. I eventually found my car and made it home in the early hours. Every time I closed my eyes in attempts to sleep, his expression haunted me. Insulted I'd assumed he would be willing to kill a kid, and maybe even little hurt? No, he couldn't be hurt. My opinion didn't mean that much. I didn't mean that much to anyone. My conscience really shouldn't have been bothered so much. I'd hurt people's feelings beforeit became an incidental part of the job, almost inconsequential. What bothered me? Regret I might have hurt Shadow. I hadn't wanted to cause him pain. And the concern vexed the hell out of me. So there I lay, in bed, staring up at the ceiling. No matter how I moved or shifted, I couldn't get comfortable.
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Just sex. Sex I really shouldn't have with someone. So I shouldn't feel bothered. In fact, I should be relieved. If it meant we never shared another word, then so be it, right? "Damn it." I whispered this to the dark room. It didn't answer back. Sleep wouldn't come. I still caught some persistent notion of his scent somewhere. Or maybe I imagined it. I got up to make myself a sandwich instead. I had his number on my phone. I could have called him, but my bravery only went so far. I owed him an apology. I didn't even know why I felt like I needed to, but I owed him one. If I didn't, I wouldn't have to worry about him because we'd probably never speak to each other again. Whatever we had, whatever our relationship, it rested in my hands at the moment. If I let it go, I doubted he would pursue me any further. If I apologized to him, though maybe we might have a chance of something? Of what, I had no idea. But there could be something. Assumptions. I needed to stop assuming what could come out of this. Maybe maybe we needed to actually talk about it, see what we could have. There seemed to be an interest on his part. If nothing else, the sex would be good, and with time I could quell whatever the sickening pounding sensation in my chest that I couldn't seem to
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name. The television gave off a fuzzy glow, but I had no idea what played on the screen. The can of beer in my hand had gone warm. I gave it a little shake. It sounded pretty empty. I knocked back the rest of it and tossed the can towards the kitchen. It hit the hard floor with a clang. Then I sat back and watched through the bedroom door as sunlight slowly crept up the wall in there. I eventually slept on the couch. It seemed to be easier there. The beers probably helped. I woke up that evening, bleary with a nasty taste in my mouth, but with certainty of what I needed to do. The last time I stepped foot in the Dublin Sky Pub, which had been prior to the night that Shadow found me in that alley, I'd walked in with purpose, and got thrown out on my ass. I'd done enough damage to know I'd better be on my best behavior this time around. The bartender gave me the eye when I walked in. I tried to look apologetic. I sat at the bar. He took his time before he came up to ask what I wanted. I didn't blame him for that. "Opening a tab. A pint of Smithwick's." He didn't spare any pleasantries, just took his time to get my beer and set it in front of me without a word.
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I slumped against the bar and started my wait. "What time does Shadow usually show up?" I called out to him. He gave me a narrow look, as did most of the patrons within hearing distance. "Look, I'm not here to cause trouble. This time. I just have something I need to tell him." No need to mention our history. I'd been a drunkard yelling how the dickless coward needed to face me, among more colorful things. To someone who didn't know everything about Shadow or me, how could the past few days have changed what I thought? God, it'd only been a few days, and I had already One pint turned into two, three, four then a shot of whiskey somewhere in there to change things up. The patrons came and went. Finally the bartender took my empty glass. "You've had enough." I shook my head. "Need to talk to Shadow." "He's not coming tonight." Why hadn't I noticed his lingering Irish accent? I wanted to argue. Instead I sighed heavily and let my forehead drop against the bar. "I'll be back tomorrow, then." I picked myself up and stumbled out the door. I'd had the foresight not to drive, so I waved over a passing
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taxi. I'd come back the next night and wait, however long it took. This vigil went on for four more nights. On the fifth night of drinking myself stupid, I sat heavily at the bar and raised my index finger to the bartender. "You still coming?" He put my order down in front of me. We'd fallen into a rapport, now that I spent money there regularly and didn't curse his patrons. I also left good tips to make up for my previous behavior. If Shadow didn't show up soon, I'd be broke. "He knows I've been stopping by. He can't avoid me forever." At least I hoped he couldn't. "What'd he do to you?" I looked into the pint of stout in front of me and shook my head. "It's what I've done." "He isn't a bad guy, far as I can tell." "I know that now." He nodded and excused himself to the storage room. A few moments later he popped out with a new keg and went on with his business. I sat back and watched football on the television screen. The game made no sense to me, but the moving colors kept me company. At least this proved far more comfortable than my previous stakeouts.
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It neared midnight when the door opened. The bartender looked up from his post and recognition filled his eyes. I turned to look as well. Shadow walked quickly towards me. He grabbed my arm without a word. The bartender pointed him towards the storeroom and I got dragged behind. I should have realized that they were in cahoots. "You know each other?" I asked as Shadow closed the door behind us. "I've tossed out more than a few drunks. He gives me a free pint for each one." "Did he tell you I was here?" He nodded. "And that you've been here nearly every night this week. My question is, why?" He leaned back against one of the walls and waited for me to answer. I noticed a new cut along his forearm. Another bounty hunter, no doubt. "Did you kill him?" I asked, nodding at the wound. Shadow shook his head. "You seem to get pissed off every time I do that. Now, why are you here?" I bit my lip and the urge for a cigarette came roaring back. "I'm sorry," I said finally. When he didn't respond, I continued. "I'm sorry for for assuming you were just some killer without morals. For being surprised when you proved me wrong. For just being an ass in general. For,
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God, for anything and everything I've done to piss you off, whether or not I know I've done it!" I breathed deeply. "I was wrong." He didn't move from his place against the wall. Instead he looked off towards the door. "And I apologize for forcing myself on you and for breaking into your apartment. And for going through your things." For some reason, that last recognition made me feel better. I paused for a moment. "Are we still going to kill each other?" He snorted with a repressed laugh. "I doubt it, though I wouldn't be surprised if you were the death of me someday." Another silence, but this time he turned towards me and broke it. "In the near future, we're going to talk about us." I nodded. We were going to have a nice, long talk, just not right now. Another pause where he seemed to wait for something. After a few moments he let out a hard breath and approached me, loosely placing his hands on my arms and closing the distance between us. The warmth felt right. His cheek rested against my head. I lifted my face towards his. For the briefest moment my lips brushed his, but he swiftly broke the contact. I frowned. Oh right, we still had
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to clarify a few things between us. People kissed things they wanted to show affection to, like lovers or pets. Until things changed, I didn't qualify as either of those things, just something he'd claimed. We really needed to clear things up, and I probably needed to come to terms with a few things myself. "Right, then," I said, stepping back and trying not to be offended. "What now?" He let go of my arms. "I already asked Harland to renounce the bounty he placed on my head. He refused." Somehow I could actually imagine Shadow popping up in someone's office and asking that. He probably made it more of a demand in actuality. Shadow finished, "Instead, I'm going to find evidence that he intends to kill his nephew." "Nephew?" His gaze held mine. "Tell no one what I am about to tell you. If word got to the wrong ears, anything I plan will be useless." He glanced in the direction of the door and lowered his voice. "I have no proof of this yet, but I know it exists. Donald Harland's brother is dying in the hospital. The wife's already gone, so his will leaves his stocks and a very large inheritance to his twelve-year-old son, to be distributed when the boy reaches adulthood. While Harland may be the boy's legal guardian after the father dies, he
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can't touch the money." "But if the boy dies too" Shadow nodded. I felt sick in my stomach. "My instructions were to make it look like an accident. As long as it looked convincing, it was okay if someone else died in the crossfire, but there would be a bonus if only the boy died." I grimaced and shook my head. "Now I see why you turned it down." People like Harland really existed. So disgusting. Just kill the nephew, then sit and wait like a vulture until his brother died. Too bad it had been all under the table, or else Shadow would already have the evidence. I tried to sound nonchalant. "What can I do to help?" His eyes held disbelief and a bit of suspicion. "You intend to help me?" I shrugged. "You told me all of this. I'm committed one way or the other. Besides"I couldn't lose him, not now"you could probably use the help, considering you have a price on your head." "Probably," he agreed. "I'm going to break into Harland's home and look for personal correspondence, or anything incriminating. I'll use it as blackmail if I need to. Any of that will probably be on his computer. From what
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I've heard, you seem better at finding that sort of information than I am." I felt flattered and didn't bother suppressing it. "I can do that." He nodded as if expecting my response. "We break in. You go through his computer. I look for anything else. If someone interrupts, I'll run interference." "When?" He thought for a moment. "Tomorrow night. If his schedule runs regular, he should be out drinking until about one am. I'll drop by your place earlier in the evening." That sounded like a plan. Break in, find incriminating information, and try not to get killed in the process. "Are you okay to get home?" No doubt his friend the bartender told him of my drinking. In my defense, waiting for a guy who might or might not show had been made easier with alcohol. I could just blend in with the other drunks. I bit my lip. I'd only had a couple pints. I was perfectly steady and clear-headed. "Actually, can you?" I didn't want to finish the question. I regretted it as soon as I put it out there, but I couldn't take it back. Shadow's eyes indicated he
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understood the implications I couldn't voice. I had never initiated the contact between us. That I'd asked him to take me home, knowing what would occur, might be a step I wasn't sure I was ready to take. It needed to happen, but did it need to happen now? I didn't know, but it would happen nonetheless. We left the storage room. With a nod to the bartender, he led me out of the bar and flagged down a cab. I sank against the back seat when he told the cab driver my address. His gaze fixed on me, my stomach jumped, and suddenly my hands became the most interesting things in the world. I kept my focus on them until we stopped, and Shadow played the part of a friend helping a drunk by dragging me out. Or maybe I'd gotten cold feet. My hands shook lightly when I took out my keys and unlocked my front door. No sign of anyone elsethe widow and other renters would be asleep by this time. Finally I got the door open and stepped in. I turned but Shadow lingered in the doorway, to my surprise. I looked up, but his face remained neutral. Ah, waiting for me to decide, giving me one last out. The point of no return had passed long ago. "Get the fuck in here," I rasped, throat dry. He complied, and I wondered why the hell I danced
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around my desire so much. He took my hand and led me to my bedroom. So slow and sure this time, in no hurry, passionate but steady. His hands were hard and gentle at the same time and I shuddered under them. "Mine," he whispered against me. My throat choked and I could only nod in return. For the first time, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him closer. The muscles in his back rippled when he surged against me, cock filling me to the brim and threatening to spill over. He took me over like a wave on a shore. His chest met mine and his heart beat just as rapidly as my own. Very different from the hurried times before. Still passionate, but with something else, something warmer. Something that made me smile and murmur nothing in particular against him. Where had he been all this time? He made sure I came first before he allowed himself completion. In those moments after, while we were panting and not yet wanting to move away from one another, I grabbed a fistful of his hair and brought our lips together. This time he allowed the action; hell, he seemed just as eager. Without breaking the kiss, he rolled us onto our sides and gathered me against him. I'd never been kissed with such force. He dominated me, tongue lapping as if it belonged, as if he had done it a thousand times before. I
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forgot how to breathe, but felt that dying like this would be a damn good death. I only had to admit I wanted him. It should have been the easiest thing in the world. I had a thought, maybe a petty one, but I wanted to know. "What's your name?" I muttered against his skin. "Not your working name, obviously. Your real name." He had a name and I needed to know it. I craved with the same intensity I craved his kiss, or his warmth. He stayed silent for a few moments and I feared he'd leave or somehow find my need to know offensive. I kept my gaze on his collarbone, too afraid to look him in the eyes. "Thomas," he answered finally. "But no one has called me that in a long time." "Thomas," I repeated. Such a normal name. But then I supposed that like me, Shadow had at one time been a fairly normal person, albeit a shape-shifting one. He may have come from a perfectly normal family. Something I could find out later. I nodded and took enough liberty to draw myself tighter to him. We were in my bed, after all. His heartbeat thrummed strong in his chest. A steady metronomic sound became a lullaby that led me to a dreamless, deep sleep.

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CHAPTER SEVEN
I woke up cramped in bed. Daylight teased my eyelids, daring me to open them. I felt warm and content. Slowly and against my will, my brain started waking. I found myself vaguely shocked Shadow remained, and he'd curled around me, the two of us squeezed together under the sheets. His nose buried in my hair didn't surprise me. He really did have a thing for scents. My mouth quirked upwards. I tried to look around with as little movement as possible. His arm wrapped around my midsection highlighted the difference in our skin tones. His new wound had scabbed and would probably leave a light scar. I ran a hand along his arm. He felt warm. "What?" he murmured, already awake. I shook my head in response. His grip tightened. Kind of a 'now that you're here, I'm not letting go' thing. My stomach fluttered again. "I need to piss," I muttered finally. I didn't lie. He grunted and let go. I stumbled blearily into the bathroom. The man who met me in the mirror might be the same guy, but he looked different somehow. He still had the same scars and bite marks, and the brick burn hadn't completely faded. Bruises still lined
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his skin, some older and some much newer. But he had a confidence in his stance and a light in his eyes that hadn't been there before. I wondered what made the difference. I mean, I knew it had to do with Shadow, but it looked like something more than the 'I get laid regularly' vibe. I went ahead and grabbed a quick shower, rather than think about it. My stomach growled while I toweled off and reminded me I hadn't eaten since before the pub last night. I wondered what edible things I had in my kitchen. Going back into my bedroom, Shadow still lay in bed, sprawled out like a cat in the sunlight. Or like something out of a dirty magazine. My eyes grasped every detail, and my fingers remembered the feeling of running my hands over much of his skin. The look on his face mimicked mine. My heart sputtered, but not in a palpitations kind of way, more in a way that made me embarrassed. "Hungry?" I asked instead. His eyes said yes. I pulled on my pants and a shirt and searched the kitchen for something to eat. Eggs and toast. Did I have yes, I did. I found a pack of bacon I'd bought on a whim earlier in the week. Sort of an, 'I'm not happy, let's eat things terrible for me' binge. Luckily I hadn't gotten to a point where I needed to eat an entire package of bacon to make myself feel better.
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The smell of cooking must have roused him, because I looked up to see Shadow standing in the doorway. Naked. I lifted a brow, questioning his lack of clothing. With a huff of amusement he turned and went back into the bedroom. A few moments later he emerged wearing his pants. I hadn't really minded, but I couldn't claim to be used to having attractive men I'd just had sex with lounging around nude in my apartment. My positive thought that might change had my cock agreeing wholeheartedly. He sat at the table and stared out the window. I braved a glance his way. Stubble had come up on his cheeks. I felt my own chin in response. Yeah, I probably needed another shave. The stubble in broad daylight made him look I didn't know how it made him look, but it made me want to see it more often. I divided the food between two plates and grabbed the silverware. Shadow thanked me when I set one set in front of him. We ate in a companionable silence. "Nervous?" he asked. I looked up in question. He clarified, "About tonight." I shrugged one shoulder. "A bit." I didn't make a habit of breaking into people's houses and hacking their computers. I just happened to
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have skills that would theoretically allow me to do so. "You'll do fine. I'll be there with you." That made me feel a little better, hearing him say it aloud. "Just no sex this time. Serious work only." He smirked but made no promises. ShadowI still couldn't think of him as Thomas had to leave in order to prepare things for our raid that night. He hesitated on the threshold. I almost asked what bothered him when he cupped the back of my neck and kissed me. Briefly. He left quickly after and I didn't know how to feel. Happy, yes, and then incredulous that a man should feel so happy over a damn kiss. I'd never found out where Shadow lived. After we cleared his name, if we pursued something more, I'd need to find out, among a countless number of other things. I had my own preparations and no real clue what the night would bring. I couldn't afford to think of the after, only the actual event. I shaved, and then checked my email. After completing those tasks, I went shopping for dinner. Just a light meal. I didn't want to be hungry, but having a full belly wouldn't be a good idea. I didn't want to stack on carbohydrates because while providing energy, they also tended to make me feel heavy. Vegetables and lean meat
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sounded good at the moment. I wondered briefly what time Shadow intended to stop by. Would it be early enough for dinner? I shrugged and bought enough for two. If nothing else, I would have something to eat tomorrow. Because tomorrow would come. I planned to survive to see it. I went through my closet and made sure I had appropriate attire. Shoes worn in enough to bend softly but still had tread. Clothing tight enough so it didn't flap around noisily when I moved, yet loose enough to hide my gun. I cleaned my weapon, disassembling it and going over each part to make sure it would work in the critical moment. I popped a clip in and released it back out. No catching, everything in working order. I slipped into the same state of mind I would before any kill, though ideally we wouldn't need to kill anyone tonight. But I held no illusions. If the situation came up, then I would have to be ready. Shadow arrived early enough for dinner. He again accepted the food with thanks. I looked him over. He had dressed similarly to me. Tight black jeans, but not tight enough to restrict movement. The black shirt could have been painted on, though. My gaze lingered for a little longer than a professional once-over before ending on bare feet. I glanced up, confused. "I move better barefoot," he commented. "Plus, if I have to shift, shoes don't tear as easily as other clothes. I
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don't want to be stuck in them if the situation comes up." He moved the vegetables around on his plate to make it looked like he'd eaten some. I considered trading his peas for the rest of my chicken, but decided to let him sweat it out. "Have you canvassed the area?" He nodded. "Harland lives in Meadowland." A rich, affluent area on the outskirts of town. "His cleaning staff leaves around five, and most of the neighboring houses are dark by eleven. No dogs. There is an alarm, but the code is his birth date. He may as well be asking to get robbed." He shrugged. "But we'll just be in and out. His office is on the second floor, front side of the house. We'll have to enter through the back and make our way up there with minimal light. We don't want to risk alerting the neighbors by breaking pattern." Shadow could probably see with minimum light, but I would need help. I had a small flashlight somewhere. We travelled light. I had my flashlight, a USB flash drive, and a knife. I shoved my phone in my pocket as well. Shadow just had a small set of lock picking tools. I made a note to ask him to show me how to use them someday. I picked up my gun and started to tuck it into my pants. "Do you really need the gun?" Shadow asked.
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"Since you don't have a holster, it'll make you move slower." I frowned. "What if we need it?" His face tightened. "As long as we're quick, we won't." I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "You may not need any weapons, but one of us is human." "Fine." His voice had gone flat. I almost asked if its presence really did bother him, but didn't feel comfortable with the question. Instead I flipped the safety on and tucked it into the back of my pants without replying. Turning out the lights, I took one last look around my apartment before shutting the door. I should have been nervous. My brain raced. My body, however, ran mechanically. We took a cab over to the area adjacent to Meadowland. From there, we trekked to the high gates of the closed in community. An area where people who could afford the luxury had sprawling green lawns they probably never laid foot on. No matter what anyone said, people who have a fountain in their front lawn have more money than they actually needed, or they didn't know how to spend what they have right. Or a combination of the two. I supposed the houses weren't considered mansions, but were just really big houses. I never really understood the
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difference. Shadow helped me over the outer fence. I usually would have balked and tried to scale it on my own, but part of survival meant knowing your limits. 'Fence' would be the polite term from the ten-foot brick wall surrounding the community and keeping its occupants from having to see the traffic and people of the less fortunate variety. The word also defined what I knew without a doubt, I would not be able to climb without help or rope. Shadow scaled up the wall silently and in one fluid movement. I considered it a wonder shape-shifters didn't have a monopoly on the killer/thief-for-hire business. We were towards the north end of the community, coming down near a neatly paved and groomed street separated from the Harland estate by another fence. This barrier consisted of metal bars, however, so it didn't seem as daunting. I could grab the iron and hoist myself over. I studied what I could see. If the guy had the money to afford a place this big then why the hell did he need his brother's money? A preliminary look into Harland's finances had showed he had no mortgage, and that he had plenty of his own money. Of course there were some questionable money sources I made mental notes about, just for future reference. Though unrelated to our current mission, I never knew when that sort of stuff could come in handy. But the
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guy had no debt and earned in the six-digit range, so what he needed more money for would be beyond me. A touch to my arm shook me out of my silent annoyance. Shadow indicated some of the hedges that ran along the property and neared the house farther up. We moved swiftly past the rows of pruned leaves until we were closer. Shadow trod silently beside the lawn. The quietness of his movements amazed me. I could be very quiet when I wanted, but I couldn't hear his steps even when watching and listening for them. We made it to the house. The windows were dark, and no lights were on, aside from what came from digital clocks or other electronic devices. Shadow went to work on a set of glass doors leading out to the back patio. He unrolled his tool set and withdrew a couple of picks. After a few moments the lock clicked and he opened one of the doors. Sliding inside, I closed the door behind us, though left it unlocked. In an ideal situation, this would be the way we left Shadow held out an arm to stop me. He cocked his head and listened before nodding, apparently satisfied nothing waited in the dark. He swiftly made his way to the alarm system and punched in a few numbers. The lights stopped blinking on it. "Predictable," he muttered.
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I pulled out my flashlight but pointed it to the ground with a hand cupped over it. Shadow led the way up the stairs to the second floor office. The double doors were beautiful quality. They swung open silently. Sweeping the light low around the room, I identified the computer station tucked into the corner. I sat at the desk and booted the PC up. While it loaded Shadow searched the room, looking for something. He opened a few drawers, looked through the files inside, and closed them again. Once in a while he found something of interest and pulled it aside. The man's computer didn't have password protection. Something like that wouldn't keep good hackers or thieves out, but most people had that at least. This man was either predictably stupid or supremely confident. I hoped for stupid, because confident sometimes surprised me with a curveball. Harland had one of those email systems that automatically started when he logged on to the computer. Right away I got a slew of junk mail, business memos, personal correspondences, and receipts. I glanced up to where Shadow rifled through a drawer. "Shadow, did Harland contact you by email?" "Yeah." He met my gaze with a question in his expression.
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"Your email address?" He rattled it off. I went through Harland's inbox. No longer there. His deleted mail folder didn't have anything to or from Shadow. "Of course he deleted it," I murmured. I went into his computer's memory and found his deleted emails, the ones he tried to erase from his account. Just because it didn't show up in the browser didn't mean it no longer existed. A person just had to know where to look. He hadn't cleaned out his hard drive recently, if ever. That I could sympathize with, since it proved to be kind of a hassle. I copied the deleted email and response to the flash drive. Shadow took a moment to come up and look over my shoulder at what I had. He nodded, and then went back to searching for more information. I found a few more emails to and from other codenames I knew. Harland must be hard-pressed to find someone willing to take the job. The most recent had been sent from Harland's address two days ago, still awaiting reply. "Do you know Kingfisher personally?" I asked. He nodded. "Yeah, he's efficient, if a bit direct. Why?" "Tell him not to take the job." Shadow frowned. "He won't."
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Curiosity got the better of me and I went into Harland's banking accounts. My eyes almost bugged at the number of digits in the balances. Why would anyone need so much money? Large numbers aside, the first couple of accounts looked pretty normal. But then something caught my eye. He had a series of smaller payments into one of his personal checking accounts from his brother's company that didn't look like salary payments or business reimbursements. They were a lot smaller than the other deposits. It might be nothing, since I didn't know much about the business world, but I copied the statements over as well. "Anything on your end?" I asked Shadow when I popped the flash drive out of its port and tossed it in my pocket. Not very professional, secure behavior, but good enough. So long as I didn't break it. He held up the papers he set aside. "Profiles on a few others in my business. Handwritten notes on them." He folded them and I put them in my pocket as well. I couldn't believe how easily we'd retrieved what we needed. We made a pretty good team, even if the intent had technically been robbery. I felt a smile on my lips. Never think how easy something could be. Karma just waited for that set-up. We were running the way we came across the lawn
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when the lights flared up. I closed my eyes for a few seconds then I squinted against the floodlights. There were people with guns spread across the lawn. "Lukas," Shadow said calmly, though he sounded restrained, "get out of here." His eyes were bright yellow, lighter than I had ever seen them. The muscles beneath his hard jaw line were moving. The mouth I had finally kissed drew back in a sneer, but then I realized the bones in his face were rearranging themselves. As I watched, Shadow's limbs changed, black fur sprouted all over, and he morphed into a large cat. A leopard. And true to his word, his clothes lay in scraps on the ground. The men opened fire. Shadow moved like a blur, and opened the closest shooter up before I could react. Another wheeled around in his direction, but didn't dare shoot for fear of hitting his comrade. Shadow took him down before the guy could get his nerve up. Most of the people were staring at Shadow, trying to train a shot on the moving blur of his form. For the most part, they were just wasting bullets. I pulled my own gun from the back of my pants. I could try to shoot some of them, at least. "Throw the gun away from you. That knife, too," a voice commanded behind me and pushed what I guessed to
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be the muzzle of a semiautomatic against my spine. I tossed the gun off to the side. Slowly I reached for the knife and dropped it to the ground before lifting my arms away from my body so he could see I didn't have any other weapons. Disarming an opponent had two key points. The first would be knowing where and how the person was positioned. A little more difficult in my situation with his gun against my back. Assuming he had the same sort of weapon the other men had and that he would be righthandedscratch that, he had to right-handed from the tilt of the muzzleI got a mental picture his location. The second point would be not giving away my intent by telegraphing my movements with limbs and eyes or by tensing. I spun, grabbing the barrel as I knocked the gun away. It grew hot with sudden gunfire. My other hand came up and hit him in the nose. I felt cartilage give way. Ignoring the heat of the barrel, I twisted the gun in his grip, which had loosened when I broke his nose. I knocked him out with the butt of the gun. By this time, we drew attention to our skirmish over the sound of Shadow's fighting. Two men came running over, guns trained on me. I did not qualify as a professional marksman, and moving targets sucked to shoot. But still I
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aimed, trying to keep my nerves cool, let out a breath, and fired. I hit one guy in the shoulder and completely missed the other. It felt like a win to me, but I still had to deal with the uninjured guy. My knife was close by, so I picked it back up and sprinted away. My own gun lay in my path. I scooped it up, nearly fumbling it, as I ran. I couldn't leave it for someone else to use. A few shots followed my progress, but they were wide by a good margin. I ran into the trees near the fence line. If I were Shadow, I could vault up and over. Instead, I kneeled in some shrubbery and steadied myself in a position to shoot. Away from the lights, I hoped I had enough cover to grant me a few seconds. That would be all I needed. The stolen gun I placed nearby. I didn't want to leave it now that it had my fingerprints on it. The guy I hadn't shot came closer. He would know the general area I'd run into, but he looked up towards the trees, thinking it the most likely place to climb the fence to safety. He stopped, likely listening for the sound of rustling. I aimed and shot him in the arm. He let out a yell, but I knocked him out. With any luck, I wouldn't have to kill anyone tonight that didn't need it. Time to get back to Shadow. I could see he'd been hurt and not moving as quickly as he had been, favoring one side. No doubt some lucky bastard hit him. I tucked
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one gun into the back of my jeans and ran towards him. One shot rang out. Actually there were several, but one in particular resounded in my head. Shadow screamed, the sound so high and feline that for a moment it terrified some instinctual part of me. And then my brain caught up and I felt terror for an entirely different reason. He bled from his chest. I had no idea where his heart would be in animal form. I couldn't find my voice when he lashed out at the man who shot him and opened his neck. Another guard, attention focused entirely on Shadow, lined up his shot. I raced towards him with my knife, but didn't reach him before he fired twice. I heard another animal cry. My blade sank into the guy's abdomen. He yelled out, and then slumped to the ground. With that last burst, everything got quiet. I ran over to Shadow and leaned over his prone body. He lay on the cold lawn, bleeding out. He swiftly shifted back from leopard to human form. I wondered inanely if it would prove good or bad for the position of the bullets in him. Either way he needed medical attention, but He finished transforming and something snapped inside me. I stopped shaking. I had to act now. I tore up pieces of my shirt and dressed the wounds the best I could. I assumed all of the security members Harland called in
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were here, and that they had driven themselves. A couple minutes searching the bodies of the dead or unconscious men yielded a set of keys. I dashed to the front of the house with a speed found only in adrenaline and desperation. The keys matched a black SUV parked off to the side of the drive. I drove it over the lawn, not really caring if I screwed up the landscaping. I hoped with fervor on the verge of prayer that Shadow still lived. He did, and I dragged him up to lie across the second row of seats. His breathing had gone shallow. The crude dressings were soaked through. Shape-shifters healed fast, but I doubted that could stop him from bleeding to death like this. And even if he healed, the bullets would still have to come out, wouldn't they? I stopped next to one of Harland's cars. A gate blocked the front drive from the street ahead and it looked to be remote operated. I grabbed the tire iron from the back of the SUV and broke the front window of a Mercedes. The car alarm blared, but I ignored it and searched around the front dash. I found what looked to be the remote for the gate. Getting back in the SUV, I left the screaming car behind. The remote worked, and I sped off, hoping I would make it in time.

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CHAPTER EIGHT
The next hours passed in a blur. Somehow I managed to call Doc, a small clinic doctor who did what needed doing and didn't ask questions if someone had money. He and another guy met me at his door and helped dragged Shadow inside. The two helped me carry Shadow to a makeshift operating table in an area in back, away from the actual clinic. Doc and the other guyhis nurse, I figuredwere already wearing scrubs. They pulled on latex gloves and the nurse steered me out of the room. The door closed and I stood staring at a paper sign taped to the door with 'OPERATING, DO NOT DISTURB' written in bold black marker. Cheap and efficient, I supposed. I had nothing to do, nothing I could do. I knew that, but I paced anyway. If they needed me to help somehow, to, I don't know, hold him down while they extracted a bullet or even hand them the fucking surgical instruments, I wanted to be ready. Plus, if I paced I could focus on the noise of footsteps. In the moments I stopped, it grew too quiet. I couldn't hear anything from the other side of the door. Eventually adrenaline stopped pumping and my limbs grew heavy in reaction. I sat in a chair a few feet
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down the hall from the door. The cover had worn to the point the padded innards were visible. I let my head fall into my hands. Shadow couldn't die. Not now, not when this whole thing with Harland was almost finished. Not when I could finally admit to myself how I felt. An ambush like Harland's, I would have died if they hadn't been so focused on Shadow. If they hadn't pegged me as the weaker of the two, they would have shot me as quickly as they were to shoot him. I should have died. Shadow might still. A sob poured from my throat. I tried to choke back the second, but it escaped. I cried hot tears of regret. I wanted to vomit. I might lose the first person I actually cared about in years. I lifted my head to stare at the blank wall in front of me. A default white decorated with places where the paint had started to wear thin. I gazed at it like it would save him. "God," I whispered, "or whoever wants to take this one. Don't let him die. He'sdo not. Just don't. He can't die. I need him to live. I need to tell him I love him. At least I think I do. I need to find out for sure. Please?" I received no answer. I sat and waited. I had no idea how much time had passed. My body had begun to shut down and force itself to
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sleep when the door clicked. I shot to my feet when Doc emerged, his face hard. My stomach dropped, fearing Shadow had died on the table. "He'll live." Doc held out a hand and stopped me from dashing into the room. "We had to remove a bullet from his chest that nicked a major artery. It had already started to close itself by the time you got him in here, but the bullet sat there and kept reopening it. Had to do a big blood transfusion, too, which is a lot harder with a shifter. Everything else was relatively superficial and should heal on its own, providing he doesn't move around too much. Damn troublesome, though." My mind went blank as I processed the information. I had a moment where I didn't know if I could put two plus two together. "But he'll live? He'll get better?" "Yes, like I said. We've just got to make sure he doesn't tear or reopen anything." The only thing that mattered would be that Shadow would live. The pieces clicked together in my head. Shadow. Not dead. He would wake up. We were almost at the finish line. My heart soared. "Thank God, or whoever." I didn't care who answered my prayer, God, another god, or a man in a run-down clinic. "Thank you, Doc. I"
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I couldn't find words to describe my gratitude. "I do what I can, boy." He coughed lightly. "Derek will total up the bill." I really didn't care how much it cost. I would come up with the money somehow. Waiting in the foyer became a test of patience. Derek, the male nurse, came in smelling of disinfectant. A line of blood dotted the hem of his shirt. I bit my lip and said nothing about it while Derek totaled the bill. He popped the vertebrae in his neck and held up a pack of cigarettes. "Want one?" I shouldn't, but damn I wanted one. "Sure." "Take that outside," Doc reminded. Derek held the door open and we exited. The sun had started coming up. It had been a long night, and the day was just beginning. Derek would probably have patients later, and I had to do something with what we found. He handed me a cigarette and I might have salivated with the anticipation. Ten months. I popped the end in my mouth and Derek held the lighter up to the other. I inhaled, perhaps too quickly, and coughed. A slower breath and it felt sweet going down. Probably killing me, but I pretty much decided business would kill me before lung cancer. The nicotine helped my nerves. Loose ends. There were loose ends to tie up. I still had the flash drive and
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printouts in my pocket. Should I go to the police with them? Or could I blackmail Harland into taking the bounty off Shadow? The bounty would go away if Harland got arrested anyway, but I'd risk the chance his lawyers could get him off scot-free. A tiny chance, but worse criminals got away sometimes. It would be prudent to contact Harland directly with a threat. Take the bounty down, and if I so much as heard a rumor that someone would be coming after either of us, we'd kill Harland. No need to sugarcoat it with this guy. "Is it wrong to blackmail a guy who tried to kill you?" Who also wanted to pay a man to kill someone else? I didn't voice the second part. No need to get Doc and Derek more involved in our ordeal. They were already in shit-deep, whether they knew it or not. But doctors knew what they were getting into when they worked under the table. "Hell if I know," Derek answered. I had reached the end of my cigarette. He offered me another and I shook my head. "I'll be back with cash. Doc knows where to find me if I don't show up." "Besides," Derek mumbled around the cigarette, "we've got him on ransom. You wouldn't leave him." He
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nodded his head towards the clinic door. I nodded once. "I've got some stuff I need to take care of." And a heavy pocket full of information that could ruin a man's life. Attached to so many machines the air hummed with more electricity than it did with life, the patient's pale, thin face turned towards me when I entered the room. His eyes opened. They were a grim brown, lacking the spark I associated with a healthy person. "Mr Edward Harland." I nodded in his direction. I didn't need to introduce myself. I wouldn't count as anyone important. He adjusted the bed to a sitting position. "I"my throat suddenly didn't want to work"my friend"Someone I care about"someone important to me"Someone I think I love"almost died to get this information. What you do with it is up to you." I tossed the flash drive on his lap and walked out of the room before he could reply. It contained all of his brother's emails to mercenaries, including the one he sent Shadow. It also contained files showing just how much money Donald laundered through Edward's company. I hoped this Harland would do the right thing with the information presented to
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him. I had more files, but I kept those for my own on an external hard drive, just in case. Couldn't be too careful sometimes. I had to sneak out a side door of the hospital. There were police and news cameras. Someone must be making a speech. I took one look at the crowd and walked in the opposite direction. The bank teller stared at me when I gave her the cash withdrawal slip. She looked back down at the piece of paper, and then at me again. "It's time for a new car." I nodded my head towards the vehicle I drove, visible through the bank's glass front. Before visiting the hospital, I dropped the stolen car off a few blocks from where I left my own the previous night, happy to be back in my own piece of junk. The amount I had written wouldn't be enough for a new car, but I could probably get a good used one. And Shadow held more value than a damned car. She nodded in return, and then verified my name, PIN number, driver's license, and bank card. She held the license up and squinted. "I took a fall on asphalt," I explained regarding the fading scabs on my face. She held the license next to the name on the bank
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card. Now she'd become paranoid. She took long enough that a bank manager came, looked at the card and license, glanced at me, and nodded. The teller gave me the money in an envelope. It felt fat in my hand. I gave a challenging look to anyone who gazed at it for too long when I went to my car. I called an informant named Blake. In the trade we had several unofficial webs of communication, and Blake tended to have his fingers in most of them. "Blake, it's Lukas. Tell everyone you can the bounty for Shadow is off." "Damn, everyone else gave up on getting Shadow anyway. Except you, I think." When I didn't laugh, he continued, "What's up?" "I can't say much, but the guy who posted it is about to get hit with a lot of shit. Really, really illegal shit." One way or the other, through his brother or through me, his name would be dragged through mud. "Right, okay." I heard typing in the background. "I assume you want to remain anonymous as a source?" "Yeah. Your reputation's good enough online that people will believe you even without a name attached to the info." "And I worked hard to build that reputation, don't
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forget. If you've fed me shit, I'll throw it back." I shook my head, even if he couldn't see. "If things don't go as planned, I'll go to the police with what I know." He clicked his tongue. "Damn again, you're involved with something above-ground, and Shadow's also involved?" I thought of the external hard drive sitting in the glove compartment. I copied everything onto my laptop and then to an online file accessible from any internetcapable computer to anyone with the URL and password. I could get car bombed, my home raided, and the information would still exist. "Yeah. And if you wanted to know about it, you'd check your email and remember who introduced us." Despite not wanting to get people involved, I wanted someone else to have access to the files in case something did happen. I used the name of the person who brought us together as the password on the URL. "Thin Man?" He laughed. "No, I don't think I will. But if something happens, I'll remember." I had no doubt curiosity would have him finding and opening the email, but self-preservation would stop him from actually following the link and reading the file. If the bank teller thought she needed to be paranoid
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handing me over a few thousand dollars in cash, she never had to cover her tracks to save her own life. Good for her. I found myself back at the clinic just before sunset with hot coffee and a bag of sugar and cream packets only to discover the door locked. I frowned, and kicked the bottom in lieu of knocking with my full hands. Derek appeared and hurried to unlock the door. "Good, you're back. He's pissed!" I frowned. "Why is he pissed? I brought the money. And coffee." I held up the flimsy cardboard carrier full of cups as proof. He shook his head. "Not Docwell, Doc, too, but the guy you brought in." "He's awake?" I froze, then set the coffee on the reception desk and made quick strides towards the hidden surgery area. Derek followed quickly behind. "Yeah, and Doc had to close the clinic because he kept trying to leave. Eventually we had to pump him full of more sedatives, but he burns through them fast." Somehow it felt like the money in my pocket wouldn't be enough anymore. But that didn't matter. Shadow had survived and bounced back enough to cause trouble. A good sign, as far as I figured.
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I only knew where the surgery room had been, so Derek had to lead me to the recovery room they put Shadow in. I threw the door open. Shadow sat in bed, staring at the blank wall. His glare turned towards me and softened into surprise, relief, and other emotions that made my heart jump. "Lukas." Standing at his bedside, I didn't know how to react, frozen in relief and sudden anxiety. I gazed at him, wideeyed, unable to breathe properly for all the different things I wanted to say. "Well"Doc rose from his place in the chair"if you're here, I trust you can deal with him." I held the envelope of money out, not taking my eyes from Shadow. Doc took it, and the door closed behind him. I moved the chair next to the bed and sat heavily. "So, uh." So many things I wanted to say and the words were escaping me. Every time I thought I had something, it flew from my grasp. "Derek said you were pissed off?" Shadow snorted. "I told you to leave when they started shooting. You didn't. Then I got shot and passed out, and when I woke up, you weren't here." "I'm sorry." I looked down at my own lap. "It's been a busy day."
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"I'll bet." He paused. "Did you take care of the information?" I nodded. "I gave Edward Harland what was relevant to him. If he doesn't go to the police, which I can't imagine why he won't, considering his brother tried to get someone to kill his son, then I will. If something happens to me, I have someone who has access to the files. The son of a bitch is going down, one way or the other." "Nothing is going to happen to you." Shadow said it with such confidence. I blushed, but had nothing else to say in response. Instead, I put a hand on his lap. I could feel his warmth through the sheet. It made me feel better. The last time I touched him, he'd been close to death. His hand covered mine. I had to say it. Now should be the right time, but I couldn't bring myself to. I looked up at him desperately, wanting him to know. The words were just stuck in my throat. I needed to say it, but I was also terrified what would happen if I did. "I love you," he said in his calm, confident way. "You know that, right?" I laughed. A sharp, barking sound. He frowned and his eyebrows knitted together. "That's harsh."
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His disappointment seeped in. His face closed up. "No!" I all but shouted, "No, no, no. I mean, yes, I" I shut my mouth and breathed. Not like me at all. I didn't get flustered. Let's try this again. "I love you, too. I just I was having such a hard time coming to terms with my feelings, and then getting the words out. And there you are, saying them so fearlessly." He sank back against the wall and the tension left his body. "It wasn't fearless. I was scared you would reject me. Then you laughed." "Again, I'm sorry." I stood and placed a hand on his cheek. Turning his face towards me, I kissed him. Quick, just something to get his attention. "I love you, too," I said quietly. "I have for a bit, I think. I'm just an idiot." He lifted a hand and brushed hair from my eyes. He gazed into the green there, and I did the same with him. I kissed him again, much slower this time, and it felt like the beginning of something new and incredible.

THE END

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sam is a Texas native who started writing fanfiction as a kid, but always wanted to be a real writer. Facebook www.facebook.com/SamaelMakenzi Twitter https://twitter.com/Sam_Makenzi Blog https://sam_makenzi.livejournal.com Email samael-x2@hotmail.com