A/N: It's finally here! I'm going to try to update this as often as possible. I don't know if I can maintain the chapter-a-week pace of the first Madrugada posting, but I'll certainly do my best. I do have a few chapters finished already, so at least it'll be nice and steady for a while.

Note for non-Spanish speakers: "Amaneciendo" means (as far as I can tell) "Dawning", which I thought appropriate since that's what directly follows the morning twilight. I is such a clever girl.

Amaneciendo

A sleepy groan slipped through his haze of unconsciousness. Still half-asleep, he allowed his hands to explore what they last remembered holding… and he was met with a handful of soft flesh that stirred to life under his gentle touch. He grinned to himself. An hour after their plane had landed and they had barely managed to get the front door closed before attacking each other.

Talk about being worth the wait.

The girl in his arms stirred again. She was awake, now, stretching contentedly across his chest where she had draped herself sometime in the night and ensuring that he was most emphatically awake. He opened his eyes to look into hers.

Good morning, my joy. He spoke the words softly, brushing her mahogany curls away from her face.

Aleda giggled. She still loved the novelty of the language, even if he had been whispering it into her ear since they got on the plane two days ago. She buried her face in his chest for a moment, not quite willing to submit to wakefulness, then looked at him with brilliant fire in her eyes.

“I think we have to get up,” she told him. She could almost reach out and touch the sun in the sky. “It’s midmorning.”

Ryan groaned and stretched. “I feel like I just slept all day,” he said. He returned his hands to their task of keeping Aleda warm.

“You didn’t seem to have much trouble falling asleep last night,” she reminded him with a wink.

“Mhmm… Somebody took it upon herself to make sure I was tired enough to sleep through the night.”

Her teasing smirk was an echo of his own. “Needed to be done.”

“Whatever you say, lass.”

He watched her for a little while. He didn’t want this moment to end. For just this short time, everything was peaceful. Everything was right. Everything was simple. He knew all too well that as soon as he got up he would have to start dealing with this mess he had gotten himself into. Moments like this—quiet, easy moments—would be hard to find.

But it needed to be done.

He slipped his arms under Aleda and sat up, taking her with him as he swung his legs over the side of the bed.

“Hungry?” he asked.

She protested. “Wait a minute! I’m… I’m not…”

“We have the entire house to ourselves,” Ryan said. “You really think I’m going to let you get dressed?” He carried her downstairs to the kitchen and sat her down on one of the chairs with a kiss. “Besides… It’s not as if I’m wearing anything either.”

Aleda blushed and perched primly on her chair, pretending that there was nothing at all out of the ordinary in her situation. Once again Ryan was reminded of an offended cat. He shook his head, grinning to himself, and rummaged through the cupboards.

They had been given the Organizer’s house, of course. The same house that Mike had so recently vacated, and Simón before him. It served him right. It really did. All those times he had poked fun at all the bureaucratic posturing, and the one time he interfered he ended up having to step in as fecking Organizer for all of bloody La Paz. All of bloody La Paz and all of the bloody demons swarming the area. Damn it, he should have known better than to send Mike over here. Lazy bureaucratic ass.

He was able to find a couple of bowls and some cereal. It wasn’t fancy, but it would do the trick.

“What happens now?” Aleda asked, accepting for the moment that she would be eating breakfast without a stitch of clothing.

“Sanaman already put in the request for our new identification before he left. Somebody should be dropping it off soon. After that… I don’t know.”

He shrugged, then sat down next to her and dug into his breakfast. Even so much as a week ago she would have accepted his nonchalance and turned her attention to her own food. Now, however…

She smiled sympathetically. “You’re nervous.”

“No, I’m…!” He stopped himself. “Ok… I’m a mite uneasy about all of this. I’ve not exactly done this sort o’ thing before.”

“You’ll be fine,” she said, putting a hand on his arm. Her grin widened. “If anyone can make people listen, it’s you.”

Ryan laughed. Finally relaxed.

They had a few more peaceful minutes of breakfast that morning. The kitchen windows, screened with lightweight curtains, faced the alley behind their building. It was private enough that Aleda didn’t worry too much about somebody seeing her in her current state, but it didn’t let in much light, either. It didn’t really matter. Even in the half-light the entire room glowed.

It was still taking some getting used to. Aleda had been called only three days ago… three days and a lifetime ago. Only two days ago she had been standing in a line with a yellow cap and gown. Two days ago she had thrown both cap and caution to the wind and followed Ryan six thousand kilometers away.

She hadn’t even spent an entire year in Delaware. Talia would be proud.

Although… Aleda still wasn’t entirely sure what had prompted the little blonde to conjure up that plane ticket at the last minute. Did she simply want to make sure her brother didn’t lose himself in the wilderness again? Or was she nothing more than a hopeless romantic at heart? Well, either way Aleda was grateful. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how miserable she would have been if she had still been stuck back in Keeney. Leaving with Ryan had been a… very good move. She grinned to herself, remembering the look on his face the night before, when she had revealed that Nate had never gotten further than her bra.

Apparently some things didn’t heal all the way, for a hunter.

Ryan paused with his spoon only halfway to his mouth. She had been getting herself a little worked up remembering the events of the night before… and he had caught the echoes of it. They were sitting so close that she could smell the pheromones coming off of him. He dropped the spoon back into his bowl and was about to throw her over his shoulder when a loud ringing echoed through the house. He shut his eyes and groaned.

“Damn it,” he growled. “Not yet.” He shot Aleda a look that said ‘hold that thought’ and crossed the room to the phone hanging from the wall.

“¿Bueno?”

Aleda blinked. It took her a moment to remember they were in a Spanish-speaking country. That was somewhat convenient, at least.

“Sí. Sí, yo soy el organizador. ¿Puedo ayudarle?”

She smiled, watching him. He might not be perfectly fluent, but his time in the jungle made him sound like a native—he reminded her of the stock characters in Spanish movies that the hero met on his trip through the Amazon. The complete lack of Western clothing added nicely to this effect.

He looked up at her with smoldering eyes and cupped his hand over the mouthpiece.

“Not helping,” he muttered, just loud enough for her to hear.

Aleda blushed and turned away from him. He was doing his official thing; she had better not distract him. She got up as discreetly as possible and put their bowls into the sink, trying not to let the chilly breeze from the open window bother her too much. As she left the kitchen to go back upstairs she could hear a splintering sound behind her—the sound of fingers digging into wood.

She smirked.

Unfortunately, she only had one set of clothes that she could wear on the street: a short denim skirt and a peasant blouse that she had bought while waiting for their next flight in the airport at Miami. Her white graduation dress hung all by itself in the closet, a little worse for wear from the hours it had spent on the plane. Her scuffed white heels sat on the floor below it.

The skirt and blouse were still in the same rumpled heap as the night before. It took a few more minutes to locate all of her underclothing. It was a shame it was all she had—she hated having to wear dirty clothes. It would have to do.

As soon as she was decent she tiptoed back downstairs. Ryan was still on the phone with whomever it was that had called, but he saw her dressed and pulling her microscopic purse over her shoulder. He covered the mouthpiece again.

“You’re going out?”

Aleda nodded.

“Do you need money?”

She nodded again, sheepishly this time.

“Sanaman said he kept the money in the desk,” Ryan said. He pointed into the next room. “Third drawer, in the metal box.”

“Thanks,” she whispered, and went to investigate.

It was a good thing that Simón—Sanaman—had left some money for them, because all they had was American dollars. She pulled a few bills from the metal case and slipped them into her purse, although there was hardly any room for it. Add that as one more thing she needed to buy.

She looked back at Ryan one last time. Hard to say how long he’d be tied up with that phone call. She wasn’t too happy about the prospect of going out into the city by herself—especially since neither one of them had been paying particular attention to their surroundings the night before. He scowled at whatever was being said. She would just have to go by herself.