“Money, my dear, is what it’s all about,” the man said condescendingly. “You have the money, I have the supplies.”

His boot-clad feet were propped casually on his cluttered desk as he picked at a hangnail. A dull gray light pushed itself through the heavy black curtains and outlined the contours of his smug face. He thought he was so great; all that and a bag of chips, the cat’s pajamas, the bee’s knees, all those sorts of things. I groaned internally.

“I told you,” I said, “I only have two-grand now, but the rest—”

“Yes, what about the rest?” he asked, finally sitting up and giving me his full attention. Exasperation gave his normally smooth voice a sharp edge. He was irritated, I could tell, but not half as irritated as me. I had a way of hiding my emotions, even from a vampire.

“It’s coming,” I replied simply. There was no need to go into details; I didn’t know this man all that well and I didn’t ever intend to get to know him.

“Well,” he resumed his relaxed position, “Until it does, I’m afraid you and your infestation will just have to wait. I have wealthier and therefore more important clients to attend to. You may leave.”

“The money’s coming, I tell you!” I wasn’t giving up without a fight. “I swear you’ll have it in three days!”

“Then I will help you in three days. Shoo.”

“If I don’t get it to you by then, you can forget about me completely!”

“Already have. Get out of my office.”

“But—!”

He dismissed me yet again with a terse wave of his hand. The nerve of some people! Vampires especially, they’ve always been prejudiced against werewolves and they didn’t even bother to hide it! I stalked out of the dimly lit room and winced at the brightness of the hallway. The walls were painted a shocking white that was blinding when illuminated by the afternoon sun. I growled and pressed the down button on the elevator.

“I’d like to see how tough he is out here in the sun.”

As I waited, I turned and looked across the city. The view out the window was breathtaking, and it briefly disarmed me of my frustration. I was currently standing on one of the top floors of the tallest building in the city, giving me a new perspective of the world below. Sunlight was reflecting cheerily off windows of office buildings, the soft gold light making the outdoors look deceptively warm. The cars looked like little bustling bugs in the streets. I growled louder than I meant to. Bugs were the last things I wanted to think about.

Suddenly, the doors of the elevator ding-ed open and a familiar voice wafted out from behind them.

“You’ve really got to get a hold of your temper, Inda,” my friend said, grinning boyishly. A few months ago, I would have melted at the sound of that voice, but now I knew better. All the same, he caught me off-guard.

“Crig! What are you doing here?” I asked, stepping into the pristine elevator as the doors closed neatly behind me.

“Oh, I had a little business to take care of here and there around town,” he replied enigmatically. He shot me a sidelong grin and tossed a stray lock of dark, steely hair out of his face. “How ‘bout you?”
“I had some business to take care of, myself,” I replied sullenly. Crig chuckled.

“Spiderling trouble, darling?”

“And vampires,” I added. He raised his eyebrows and inclined his head towards me. I nodded tiredly.

“You know Sabon Sheffard, right?” I asked. Crig groaned exasperatedly and nodded.

“I wanted him to get rid of the spiderlings, but since I didn’t have all the money, he wouldn’t listen. The bastard.”

The doors opened again. We walked out in stride and into the large foyer of the building. People in crisp business suits strutted to and fro, looking more like they were just showing off how good they looked rather than actually doing anything.

“So how is it going? With the spiderlings, I mean,” Crig inquired.

“Not so good. I don’t think I can stand those nasty things in my house much longer,” I said, and shook my head for emphasis.

“My offer still stands, you know,” Crig reminded me. His wolfish tawny eyes glanced at me from behind his bangs.

I hesitated. Earlier that week, Crig had suggested that I stay with him at his apartment until the spiderlings had been cleared out of my place. At the time, I had turned the idea down immediately, saying that I didn’t want to intrude. Though secretly, I had turned it down because I was afraid my feelings for Crig would return, being in such close quarters with him. Now, however, the offer was appearing more and more tempting. At the same time, though, I knew that if I left now, the spiderlings would just get worse. As long as someone was there to beat them into submission, they wouldn’t get too rowdy. But how great it would be to be able to get away from them! I bit my lip pensively, juggling my two choices in my head.

“You’ll think about it?” Crig suggested with a grin, filling the silence. I nodded.

The well-dressed people in the foyer gave us a wide berth as we walked towards the doors. I guess it was the way we carried ourselves, but somehow they knew we weren’t like them. Then again, all the people here were probably also aware that there were multiple vampires who held high positions in the building.

“You know, Inda,” Crig started. I could tell by the tone in his voice that he was getting ready to nag me about something. “I really don’t like you being around Sheffard.” Bingo.

“Believe me, I like it even less,” I grumbled, walking through the revolving doors. I blushed awkwardly when I realized that Crig had squeezed into the same compartment with me. The door spit us out into the frigid air.

“I don’t trust him is all,” Crig said simply. We stood on the crowded sidewalk, letting the flow of people move around us indifferently. They weren’t as careful as the people inside. I pulled my coat tighter against the cold wind.

“Crig, really,” I scoffed, “I can take care of myself, you know that! And it’s not like Sheffard and I are good buddies or anything.”

“I know, but still…I worry about you.”

I was touched by his unexpected concern, and somewhere deep down inside of me, a few butterflies stirred. I stiffened and set my jaw. No! I wasn’t about to go through that again with him!

“Thanks, but I’ll be fine,” I said curtly, and started off swiftly down the street. Of course, Crig caught up with me in a split-second.

“Inda, what’s wrong?” His tone was almost condescending, as if he were talking to a crabby kid or something. I sighed sharply.

“I’m just irritable is all.”

“I know what you mean,” he said, holding up his wristwatch. There was only one hand on it, and at the moment it was pointing nearly straight up at a white circle where the twelve would have been on a normal clock. At three and nine’s places were half-circles; at six’s place, a black circle.

“Spiderlings, vampires, debt, and on top of all that, a full moon?” I moaned. Crig ruffled my dark, springy hair.

“Hey, no worries, right?” he smiled winningly. “Things’ll work out.”

I snorted, unconvinced.

“And it’s not like you’re on your own,” he added. “If you ever need anything, anything at all, you know all you have to do is ask me.”

“In that case…” I grinned wickedly and inclined my head towards the cozy coffee shop we had stopped in front of. He sighed with a smile.

“Yes, I will buy you a peppermint mocha frappiccino,” he stated.

“Thank you,” I cooed, sappily dragging out the “you”.

He rolled his eyes with mock exasperation as he held the door open for me, muttering, “Still don’t know how you can drink that crap.”

I just smiled and put myself as far away from the thoughts of spiderlings, obnoxious vampires, and full moons as I possibly could.

---

Crig handed me my drink and sat down across the small table, having bought nothing for himself. He watched me musingly as I took a tentative sip of the hot liquid.

“You know,” he started, “I’ve been thinking…”

“Uh-oh,” I teased. He shot me a playful sneer and continued.

“Do you want to go somewhere?”

I stared at him blankly, waiting for the rest of his idea.

“I mean, for…” He nodded surreptitiously at his lunar watch. I started in surprise.

“Why?”

“Well, you and I both know how hard it is in a big city like this, so I thought maybe we could leave town for a few days, get away from our—normal problems and just focus on this one. Maybe someplace like the Rockies or something.”

“The Rockies!” I exclaimed incredulously.

“Well, someplace where we can just be—” He glanced around quickly and lowered his voice— “wolves.”

I stared at my coffee and thought about Crig’s sudden plan. It wasn’t such a bad idea… But then I’ve always been known for being stubborn.

“Is running from my problems really the best choice?” I asked reproachfully.

“How are you running?” Crig asked, turning his palms up in an innocent shrug. “It’s not like you’ll be able to do anything productive for the next few nights anyway.”

I glowered at him. He was right, and we both knew it.

“What about the spiderlings, though?” I asked. “If I leave, they’ll have totally devoured my house by the time I get back!”

“Let Sybil worry about it. She won’t mind.”

I shook my head obstinately.

“Absolutely not, I’m not going to hand my problems over to her! She’s a human, Crig—”

He held his finger to his lips.

“Inside voice, Inda,” he reminded me.

“She’s in actual danger,” I continued in a harsh whisper. “The spiderlings don’t hurt us—” I used the word to mean more than just Crig and me. “—because they know we’re strong enough to handle it. But Sybil—!”

Crig smiled wryly.

“You’ve conveniently forgotten that her boyfriend is a vampire,” he countered, loud enough that only I could hear him. I gaped indignantly, suddenly realizing—

“You already asked her to, didn’t you?” I cried. A few heads in the coffee shop turned, and Crig again held his long finger to his lips.

“You told her it was okay for her to bring her oversized mosquito into my house?” I hissed, leaning across the table. “Crig, you know how crazy it makes me when you make decisions without me, especially about my life!”

Infuriatingly, he laughed and patted my head. I swiped his hand away with a glare.

“Okay, take it easy, Inda,” he said calmly. “What’s the worst that could happen? He’ll probably just tell you that your house smells like wet dog.”

“At least I don’t smell like a rotting lime dipped in turpentine,” I grumbled. Crig held up his hands and raised his eyebrows.

“Preachin’ to the choir,” he told me. His hands fell to the table again as his face sobered. “Seriously, though, it’s no big deal. Yeah, he’s a jerk, but he loves Sybil. He’ll keep her safe.”

I sighed loudly, but it came out as more of a growl. Crig turned my attention back to his original idea.

“It would be a nice release, though, don’t you think?” he asked me. “Nothing but wilderness for miles…We wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally hurting anyone.”

I rolled my eyes, for lack of a good rebuttal.

“Come on,” he pressed, “Don’t act like you don’t worry about that every full moon! I know I do.”

I glanced up, my irritation abating slightly.

“Really?”

“Of course.” He looked uncomfortable, so I directed the conversation away from the subject.

“Okay, I’m not saying no to the idea,” I conceded, “but I’m not saying yes either!”

“Well, not to pressure you or anything, but it’s not like you’ve got forever to decide,” he reminded me. Then he grinned. “And anyway, can’t you picture it?” His hands swept the air gracefully as he looked off into the ether. “Inda Wilde,” he breathed dramatically, “in the wild!”

“Har har,” I laughed scathingly at his little pun. As if I hadn’t heard that one before. He gave me an apologetic smile. A perfect, gorgeous, apologetic smile. I frowned slightly and looked away.

“Come on,” Crig said softly, placing his hand over mine. His skin looked much paler in comparison to my ebony hand. “Whadda ya say?”

Maybe it was the high I was getting from his touching me, or maybe it was the heady smell of overly-flavored coffee that did it, but I suddenly found myself saying, “Okay.”