A/N: I finally found a copy of this chapter that had the missing paragraph! Woohoo!
In the years since I originally posted this I have lost Molly, Babykins and -in July- Miss Kitty. These wonderful cats are missed.
The lights on Houston Bay were nothing new. They weren't even particularly pretty, Rollo thought to himself. Why anyone would think the lights of the oil rigs out in the Louisiana Gulf were a tourist attraction was beyond him. To be honest, though, most tourist attractions in the areas that were devastated by the melting of the ice caps were a mystery to Rollo. They just seemed like a sad attempt to capitalize on what was now useless waterfront. Still, here he was, sitting in one of the thousands of restaurants along the coastline built expressly to watch the dirty water and bland red and white lights and paying for the overpriced food and wine. He wondered why he was there. To his right sat Marcus Andrew, a violent little man with a too thin body and the pale skin of a man who avoided daylight at all costs. Rollo hated to work with Marcus, but at times the man's methods got the job done admirably. This was one of those times. Working for the future of the human race was exhausting, but on occasion extremely lucrative.
The reason Rollo was waiting in this overpriced fried fish stand with chairs was led to the table by a young waitress who visibly avoided eye contact with Marcus. When their guest sat down, Rollo wasted no time in getting down to business.
"Why are we here?"
The sharply dressed gentleman pulled a thick envelope from his coat and slid it across the table to Rollo. "This is for services rendered. You will find the new targets listed inside."
Rollo raised a brow at the formal speak and tucked the envelope in his own coat pocket without bothering to open it.
"I have heard the new head of Persephone's UFA has taken over. Is he cleaning house satisfactorily?"
"He is none of your concern," the man said, his dark eyes narrowed. Rollo noticed that his client's pristine and expensively cut curls were cleverly arranged to hide a thinning patch. Still, the man had a few more years before it would become a problem. Rollo hoped it wouldn't turn into a combover. That would only look ludicrous on the large man, particularly paired with the expensive suits he favored. "Only the names in the letter matter. Eventually I will figure out who is behind this asinine idea. Then you will take care of them for me. Until then that commune must be destroyed, along with them anyone else who stands in my way."
"But you don't want us to actually go after the shifters themselves?" Rollo was opposed to the idea himself, but he was curious what his guest would say.
"Bad idea," he answered, shaking his head. "There are too many of them and recently they've shown a few... disturbing new abilities. It would become too noticeable. The current plan is quieter, and will be harder to trace beyond the obvious."
"Local ETRO is already working with Persephone PD on this," Marcus interjected. "It may pay to watch whomever they've assigned to work with the cops."
Rollo and the gentleman exchanged a surprised glance and Rollo made a mental note to keep a closer eye on Marcus going forward. The man was displaying more intelligence than made Rollo comfortable. Still, it was a good idea.
"I'll get someone on it," Rollo said. "It may lead to other useful information."
At this the man raised a brow and stood up. "Contact me with anything you discover."
Rollo nodded and watched his client walk away. The man obviously had his own agenda, but for now their paths meshed nicely. Rollo was not opposed to making money to do what he would likely have done anyway for the "cause." Now he merely had one more person to add to his list when the current job was done. He sneered at the appetizer on the table in front of him and threw a few bills on the table as he stood to leave. Marcus followed him off the deck and Rollo shook his head at the people at the other tables. The fools- paying to look at nothing. God, he hated tourist attractions.
That could have gone worse,
Alec supposed as he listened to the muted music and soft sound of running water that came from somewhere inside Evie's half of the small duplex. She hadn't hit him again which he took as a good sign, and she hadn't ignored him which he also chose to see as a good sign. She had, however, glared at him as she climbed out of her small car looking adorably disheveled and Alec hadn't been about to mention the bits of paper in her hair. Jack had had no hesitation in laughingly pointing it out and Evie had looked horrified. A look of resignation had followed, accompanied by a tired smile and she had merely climbed the steps to her door. She had slowed long enough to step over Sorley who lay with his head in Alec's lap and tried to get the dog to follow her inside, but the beagle puppy had merely groaned and stretched out his paws, nestling more comfortably against Alec's thigh.
"Lazy puppy," she had mumbled and moved on to unlock her front door. "I need to wash the dead smell- and apparently my napkin- away. I'll be back out soon." she then turned to Alec and the shadows from the porch light made her look like fragile porcelain. "When I come out we'll talk."
Once she had gone inside, Alec turned his attention back to his old friend Jack and his lover Danny. He could wait until she was ready and came back out front, but he was not leaving until they had had a good long talk. Evie looked like she had had a rough day, probably mostly due to the bomb he'd dropped on her. He was pretty sure that showing up the way he had after fifteen years of silence was the last thing she could have expected, but she had to have known he would return for her. He had fully believed her when he got the message that she had been forced to miss their meeting due to work. Her job was unusual and unique to Persephone. Alec had heard about the ETRO liaison working to bridge the gaps between the UFA, ETRO and the local law enforcement even from Paris and Kyoto. He was vitally interested in expanding the program, and had been thrilled to discover that steps were already being taken to do so. He would have to speak to his father about creating similar positions within the UFA to facilitate communications between the departments.
It suddenly occurred to him that since the day he'd found his mate in Persephone, and who her parents were, Grant Davis had somehow managed to keep Alec away from Persephone under one pretext or the other. Was it a coincidence or intentional? What did he think his son would do- court a ten year old and claim her the minute she hit puberty? Alec's fist tightened around his beer. That was probably exactly what the old man thought. Either that or he'd been afraid of losing control of Alec, which was a joke because Alec had had his own plans in place since he was fifteen, both for the UFA and his personal life. Finding his stone-mate so early had simply meant one less thing to worry about and now they were both the perfect ages for the claiming, which should have made his finding her again perfect. Instead Alec could feel the gathering storm.
It didn't help that a new faction of therianthropes had emerged to challenge the UFA. They were independent of the Indomito, thank the fates for small favors, but it wouldn't take long for ETRO and the military to hear of the problems within the UFA. Alec was certain they were former UFA, but he had no idea at present how to contact them.
"Alec."
Jack's voice broke into Alec's musings and he smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I wandered there."
"So I gathered," Jack said with a smile. "It didn't look like you followed Evie into her shower, so where'd you go?"
Alec cleared his throat and tried not to follow that train of thought. "Just thinking about work," he said, resolutely not imagining Evie in the shower.
"I'd rather talk about the day you claimed Evie," Danny said calmly. Alec looked over and saw only curiosity in the man's eyes.
"Nothing really happened," Alec began and Jack's snorting made him roll his eyes. "I had just stumbled out of the crystal chamber and found her crying. I put the crystal on her thinking it would jump away-"
"I remember that prat in bio class showing off by making his crystal do that on some cheerleader," Jack interrupted, laughing. "He was sick as a dog for the rest of the day."
Danny and Alec laughed along and Alec nodded.
"That was what I remembered when I saw her crying," Alec said. "What was I supposed to do with a little girl in tears? I was dead tired after seven days in that damn chamber and-"
"Whoa, whoa!"
Jack set his beer down hard and foam bubbled up the neck and onto the steps. "Seven days?"
"Yeah," Alec answered with a nod. "Seven."
"You probably shouldn't mention that to Evie right away," Danny said, wincing.
"Why not?" Alec had been without his mate for fifteen years. Now that he'd found her he wanted to start his life with her. That sure as hell couldn't happen if he was hiding things from her.
"How would you feel if you knew that people could only jump two feet in the air," Danny replied, obviously still searching for the right words. "And Evie told you she could jump onto the top of a skyscraper with no problem?"
Alec started to argue the analogy and then stopped. He knew what ETRO and UFA records showed. The max was four days for any elemental to stay in the chambers. The youngest any therianthrope had officially shifted was twelve, the onset of puberty. Alec had been in the chamber for seven days and he could think of at least one other man who'd been in there almost as long. He knew a few shifters who had been able to shift from the time they could walk. None of them were on record as anything other than strictly normal. Alec was listed at three days and his shifter friends never shifted in public until their voices started changing.
"Fair point," he finally conceded. "I'll work up to it gradually."
"Probably for the best," Jack said. "She wigged when I mentioned that guy who took four days."
"Evie doesn't wig," Danny said.
"Bull," Jack replied with a grin.
"What is?"
The men turned to look up at Evie as she emerged from her doorway. Alec felt the warmth spread through him at her approach and wondered idly if she knew what she did to him. It was the damndest thing, he thought, that she should affect him this way and still be a virtual stranger to him. He'd collected a virtual dossier on her over the afternoon and been intrigued by the woman she was on paper, but he was eager to get to know the real Evie.
"Nothing important," Alec said as he scooted out from beneath the dog. When Sorley yawned and whined pathetically Evie laughed and bent over to pick up the puppy. Alec caught the scent of wildflowers as she passed by and he noticed that her hair looked almost black as it hung wet in large curls. She'd pulled on a khaki plaid pair of men's pajama bottoms and a t-shirt that had a fiery volleyball on the front.
"Come on in," she said as she leaned forward to kiss her brother and her friend goodnight. "See y'all in the morning."
Alec handed his nearly empty beer off to Jack's outstretched hand and nodded a goodnight to the men before following Evie into her home. The living room seemed to fit her personality with its eggshell walls covered in bold abstract paintings and odd framed photographs. None of them were of her family, simply photographs of random people. One showed a sailor kissing a nurse on the street. Another had a thin woman with short curly hair dressed in black and sitting on the floor with a wide smile. Every photo was in black and white and everyone was happy. The paintings were all bold splashes of color and fast strokes, but none of them felt angry, just absorbed. One looked like a pair of eyes that followed him and as Alec got closer he saw a small card underneath that said "Princess Diaries." He had no idea what that meant and he followed Evie into the kitchen where she set Sorley down on a small rug.
"Have a seat at the table and I'll make us some tea," she said. Alec looked behind him and saw a small table set into a breakfast nook. The table was set right up to the windows where a low padded bench was built into the wall. There were a couple of chairs on the other side, but Alec made for the bench where he could sit and watch her putter around as she prepared their tea in silence.
When it was ready she brought two mugs along with the pot of steeping tea over to the table. She returned a moment later with sugar and a small jug of milk he could see she was stalling. Evie looked from the spot next to him on the bench to the two chairs and back again before finally, with a small sigh, sliding in beside him. He fought back a smile and kept his hands on the table to reassure her. Just as the silence stretched a moment too long, he heard her. Barely.
"Did you ever think about me?"
Alec could see that she regretted having said anything, but he couldn't deny the satisfaction that swept through him. Asking that question meant she'd wondered about him, thought about him, and he was pleased as hell that she'd thought about him.
"Every single day I was gone."
She finally looked at him and the disbelief he saw in her eyes warred with hope.
"I won't lie to you," he said again. "I didn't spend the last fifteen years in a monastery, and I'm a guy. But there literally wasn't a day I didn't think about you and the day we'd get to meet again." He smiled and looked down into his tea. "I never planned for you to punch me, though."
Her laughter warmed him and he chuckled with her.
"I have to admit that that never happened in my daydreams either."
He looked back up to her and before he was aware of what he was doing he had his fingers buried in her wet curls.
"You have pretty hair," he said, half to himself. "I wonder if you taste as sweet as your hair smells."
He barely registered her eyes widening in shock before his mouth closed over hers. He felt her resist for a moment before she softened beneath him and he groaned in thanks. He pulled back slightly to gently take her lower lip between his teeth and reveled in the trembling that shook her small frame in his arms.
"Open for me, sweetheart," he whispered against her lips.
She obeyed without thought, lost in the fire of Alec's touch. She'd been kissed before, but she'd never felt such an immediate response to a man before. His tongue swept inside her mouth and pulled hers into an intimate caress and demanding a response. His hands gripped her shoulders to pull her to him before his arms wrapped around her, pressing her close. Her own arms wrapped around his neck and she finally indulged her desire to take a handful of his curls. They felt like silk between her fingers. He grabbed a fistful of her hair and tilted her head, controlling the kiss and obviously trying to maintain control of himself. She followed his lead as he made love to her mouth as thoroughly as if he had her naked beneath him. At that image a shred of panic broke into Evie's thoughts and she pulled away, afraid that she might allow just that to happen if he kissed her much longer. She ducked her head when he tried to claim her mouth once more and he froze above her, his breath as labored as her own.
Slowly their breathing returned to normal and he pulled back, giving her space. When she finally dared to look up at him she was surprised to see him smiling at her. She'd expected him to be a little angry, or at the least frustrated. Instead he looked pleased with himself, and her.
"I won't rush this," he said as he reached out to stroke her cheek with his fingertips. When she blushed he dropped his hand to take hers. "We have all the time in the world, sweetheart. You tell me if I go too far or too fast and we'll slow down."
Evie stared at him, unsure what to say or do. He solved the problem by standing and pulling her up with him. He guided her to the living room and then moved forward to open the door. He then turned back to her and gently cupped the back of her head in one hand, laying the other against her neck. Slowly and sweetly he kissed her again, barely long enough for her to respond and then he was stepping back.
"I'm back in Persephone now and I have no intention of leaving anytime soon. I'm here for the UFA, but I'm also here for you. We can make this work, sweetheart."
Then he was gone and Evie was left staring out her screen door at the taillights of his car as Alec drove away. When Sorley's cold nosed rubbed against her foot Evie realized she was standing there like an idiot and she closed the door before scooping the puppy up into her arms and heading for the bedroom, turning off lights as she went.
When she entered her bedroom she looked around, taking comfort in the dusky blue walls and light pine furniture. The plush down comforter had a bright cobalt and teal diamond slipcover that reminded Evie of the ocean and she climbed between the sheets with the taste of Alec on her lips. She breathed deep as Sorley burrowed under the covers and she was almost asleep when her phone rang.
"Hello?"
"If you want answers about the dead men, check your email."
"What? Who is this?"
When the line went dead Evie swore violently and climbed out of bed. She pulled her laptop out of her tote and carried it into the kitchen where she booted up the computer and thanked the fates she'd forgotten to pour out the tea it appeared she would now need.