CHAPTER 1

ALLRIGHT! Here we go! Don't worry ladies and gents – some familiar and much-loved characters will be returning in this installment – just who, you ask? Well, I ain't gonna tell you yet!

I know I finished the first one fast…it was sort of a practice one since Lord, I haven't wrote fic in years…but this one is going to be more involved. I probly won't update quite as often but will do my best!

ARIZONA, 4 AM

Love. To be honest, the word rather humiliated him. Verbal displays of affection were never his strong suit.

The word still came out sounding like it had squeezed between gritted teeth and gotten mangled on the way out.

However, there he was, and there she was. Damn it all to hell. She was the girl who could stare down a cobra…and then proceed to hit it dead between the eyes with a throwing knife, wrestle it down, skin it, and make herself some new boots. The word 'love' didn't even begin to cover it. It was some kind of a stunned fascination. But right now, sweet nothings were the last thing on David's mind.

"Holy SHIT!"

"I told you not to touch it."

"It BIT me! Stung me, spiked me whatever the hell it did! FUCK!"

"Serves you right for not listening."

David sucked on his arm where the quills had entered. A hedgehog waddled off through the grass in front of him, grumbling to itself about being disturbed by a strange-looking but clumsy animal. Cate stood next to him, leaning on her bow. "That had got to be one of the stupidest things I have ever seen you do." David plucked out the quills with his teeth and muttered under his breath. Cate leaned over, putting a hand to her ear in an exaggerated gesture. "What? What was that? Oh, I should listen to Cate. I'll never ignore Cate's advice again. Cate is my intellectual goddess. Cate is..."

"Going down!" He grabbed her and they rolled back and forth in the grass, fangs out in full, each wrenching around and trying to get the upper hand. They may have softened each other up a tad, but in general there was always still the tension of challenge and clash of egos. It was practically a ritual that they had a fistfight at least once a night. Whether it was a common instinct of their nature or just a bizarre display of affection .…neither knew. David was usually the first to get nippy, but no one ever really left marks unless it went on too long.

Cate won quickly, pinning his arms and raising one dark eyebrow. "Oh yeah, and I forgot, Cate is also so much of a better wrestler than me, because for all my big uber-manly strength, I am as thick as a tree trunk when it comes to moves."

David snorted lightly, conceding. "I can't think of any other sire who'd put up with your crap for a minute. Fine. But now it's your turn to decide what to have for dinner. I give up."

His hair was almost blindingly white in the darkness. They had taken a scenic detour on the way to Mesita, New Mexico, putting them a week or two behind schedule, and Cate had convinced him to cut off the longer parts of his hair as the bleached part grew out, leaving it short and a natural lightish brown color. She told him it looked better. Of course, the very next night she came into the abandoned house they were squatting in and smelled peroxide, and David came out of the bathroom grinning from ear to ear. She had been enormously pissed off. However, the sex that night had been pretty damn good. It was always better when they were slightly angry at one another. They had stopped in Sanders, Arizona for the night, only a couple hours away from Mesita. The scenery had been absolutely beautiful. Desert, red cliffs, rock everywhere. Cate loved the area. It was where she had grown up, and memories, both good and bad, flooded back with every town they passed.

By the end of the night they had caught a pair of raccoons ("They taste like ass, especially if they're rabid." David had told her, but at least it was food) and headed back in for the night. They had found a small, run-down barn out in a field, well away from town, and had settled in there for the night. After finishing her meal (and admitting to herself, yes, it tasted like ass) Cate tossed the carcass of the raccoon outside and went to the bike, which was cooling in the back of the barn, and dug around in her bag, finally pulling out a blanket. The nights had started to get chilly despite the heat of the day, and even though her body was now impervious to such weather, it was still nice to sleep under sheets like a normal person, like a human. She still hadn't accepted the change completely. She picked out a place where the hay was already matted and not scratchy, while David tossed his raccoon out, licking his lips distastefully. "Bleh. The things I do for you." He came back to her and pushed aside the blanket to slide in next to her.

"We need to find a laundromat around here. You stink." She made a face.

"You don't smell like your usually flowery self either." He chuckled, stripped off his shirt and settling in.

She turned on her side, putting one arm behind his neck and the other across his chest. "We'll be in Mesita tomorrow."

"Should be." His voice always got rougher when he spoke softly, as if he had sandpaper in his throat. "Are you ready for it?"

"Whether I am or not, got to go ahead and do it."

"That's m'girl." Underneath her voice, he still sensed her uncertainty, and rubbed the side of his face against her forehead.

"Hey, no exfoliating please."

"Heh…sorry. It's hard to shave when you don't have a reflection in the mirror."

"I still manage to shave my legs." If there were two things Cate would absolutely, positively, not go without, even traveling cross country on nothing but a motorcycle, was shaving her legs and washing her hair. Come hell or high water, she'd find a way to do it.

"Yeah, but that's a requirement of the female sex."

"Pig." She ran her fingers lightly in circles over his chest and teasingly pulled some of the dark blond hair on it.

"Ow! Hey, no messing with the fur." He smacked her hand away and rolled over, pretending to be hurt. He could tell she wasn't really in the mood for sex, having a literal garbage heap of other things on her mind, and tried to respect it…but the only way he could keep his hands off her was by literally turning his body around.

"All right, Big Dog."

"That's right. Sleep now, long night tomorrow."

"Yep…" her words dissolved into a yawn as she let her muscles relax. She still wasn't quite sure what to think about the whole "love" situation either. It was rare that either of them actually articulated the word…senses and gestures were enough. At first she had tried to think of him as just her own personal attack dog, a killer who would kill for her if she but pointed. Something she loved, but still something she owned. It was much simpler that way. But the complexity was inevitable. Especially when she sometimes caught him smiling at her. Not the David smirk, not a sneer, but an honest-to-goodness smile. And sometimes at night when she woke up and he was still asleep, seeing the satisfied expression on his face. She still hadn't forgiven him for what he had done to her. It wasn't exactly something that could be forgiven lightly, if at all. Maybe she would harbor it against him forever, or maybe she could find a way to let it go. Only time would tell, and she had a lot of it ahead of her.

Tomorrow was going to be interesting. She felt like she was coming back to a pack of wolves, and if she smelled any different than they remembered, she'd be torn to pieces. Planning the words as they rode alone that night hadn't really helped, it was like trying to think up an election speech on the spur of the moment. Cate wasn't usually prone to nervousness, but when it came to the acceptance of her clan…well, that was different. Plus the fact that she was bringing along a stranger. The hunter clan was extremely wary of outsiders. She hoped her good name could let him in, but it wasn't for certain. She had already prepped him with names and customs, which he shrugged off, muttering crossly that he wasn't "meeting parents over Thanksgiving dinner, for Christ's sake." She desperately wished, for the trillionth time that week, that Tobias was here. She wasn't used to having to stabilize what seemed like an entire rocking topsy-turvy world of trouble on her own. You're turning into a mother hen, Cate. Quit it before you start sprouting tailfeathers and gray hairs. With a final stretch of her legs, she tried to match her breathing to David's and sleep.

NEXT EVENING

"Catherine! Oh Cate, we heard about Tobias, how are you doing, dear girl?" Cate found herself smothered with hugs and kisses from a tottering old woman.

"I'm doing all right, Rita, thanks."

"Were you hurt?"

"No. We took out Tristan's pack pretty well."

"You and Tobias alone? Bless you child, such fighters. We'll miss him greatly." The old woman sniffled slightly.

Cate extricated herself from the wrinkled arms hugging her and gestured towards David, who was standing quietly by, waiting to be introduced. His stance was slightly off-balance, as his bad knee was bothering him from the cramped ride, but he still cut a respectable posture. "Not all alone. Rita, this is David. A friend from Santa Carla. He's…he offered to join the clan." Rita looked David up and down and pursed her mouth slightly. David took the woman's hand and made a gentlemanly gesture as if to kiss it, flashing a dazzling smile. Rita, however, was a conservative old woman, the type that shooed hooligans like this away from her porch with a broom . She eyed his trenchcoat, bleached hair, and earring, and narrowed her eyes further. The guttural sound of the motorcycle signaling their arrival had not impressed her either. Cate had left with Tobias, a good, upstanding young man, her brother in the clan…and come back with something that looked like it had crawled out of the California underground. It probably had. But as David tilted his head disarmingly and smiled again, she relented – but only slightly. …he was handsome and young enough to make his street-tough appearance marginally forgivable. Only marginally.

The sharp, manipulating intelligence and cruelty behind those blue eyes couldn't be missed, and neither could the falsity of those foxy smiles.

Rita played the part of the clan mother, but she was no coddling, cooeing granny. She was as sharp as a knife's edge and didn't miss a thing. If Cate had come all the way with David, then he was at least worth trusting in terms of being on their side. But she still didn't like his conceited bearing and sly attitude. Outsiders were shady, and outsiders that looked like wolves dolled up in sheeps-down were worse. She turned back towards Cate, ushering her inside. David followed, glancing up at the huge archway. This place was literally a mansion, sitting out in the middle of nowhere in the Mesita city limits. Weird. It had been the only place they had seen for miles. Mesita was more of a small village than anything else. Almost the entire population was Native American, most on the low end of the economic scale. David had felt distinctly out of place when they had stopped to gas up. He was about the whitest person he knew, literally, and got quite a few stares. But this place itself was pretty magnificent. A real old-school mansion, like something on TV. But he didn't miss the subtly hidden defenses as he came in. There were cameras, there were locks, there were countless slits and holes beside all the windows to allow for sharpshooting. He guess this place could become as impenetrable as Alcatraz in under a minute. Rita was still chuntering away to Cate. "We were just about to all sit down to dinner, it's so wonderful to have you back. We'll have to let everyone know, and…introduce your friend." Rita kept urging them on, but in the back of the old woman's mind the image of David's face was bothering her. He looked familiar. Unplaceable, but definitely, familiar.

A BIT LATER

Cate had been famished and had eaten more than most of the men at the table. Being a vampire doesn't curb your need for real food – she needed something to keep the living part of her body going. David had maintained scrupulous manners, completely unlike his usual self. Cate was sure Sorscha had put him through the paces in terms of etiquette. She seemed like the type. It was rather funny to see the normally brusque and rude David acting this way. She thought of him ripping into the raccoon's leg, blood running down his chin and the ugly noises of crunching bone, and snickered to herself, picturing him eating at all dainty-like and speaking with a Southern accent. Now THAT was funny.

Hey there Rhett Butler, doing all right? Do they like those "Sothen' boy" manners?

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn

He winked at her from across the table and let her know exactly what he wanted to do to her as soon as dinner was over. At times like these, Cate was glad their communication was silent. Scandalous.

After dinner and a short period of subtle alpha-male posturing, David was actually getting along famously with the rest of the young men in the clan. They were engaged in a loud game of cards at the side of the room. Cate could tell he was letting them win. With his vampiric senses, he could see through any poker face, but decided that getting on everyone's good side was the better course of action. Cate was relating the goings-on at Santa Carla to the older members of the clan, who listened intently. She didn't bring up what had happened near the end, still acutely aware that after her brother's death at the hands of a vampire, they might not be quite so willing to accept the turning of one of their own, not to mention the inclusion of an intruder. The leader of the clan was a grave older gentleman with a grandfatherly face that betrayed his serious nature, named Daniel. He was a huge man; huge hands, huge arms, legs, a neck as thick as a horse's thigh, and a bushy salt-and-pepper beard that almost disappeared into his shirt collar. He tapped the table with his huge hands as Cate ended her story with David and herself taking the bike to Mesita. "It was a lot quicker than hopping buses to get down there."

"I'm sure." His voice was extremely deep, slightly muffled by the beard. "And you say David wishes to join the clan?"

"He does."

"Is he from a known family?"

"No…he doesn't exactly have a family. He is under my name, I take responsibility for him"

Daniel made a rumbling cough. "You have a good nature Cate. You learned it from your brother. But we cannot take in every brigand, no matter how well-intentioned, in the streets who wishes to make a mercenary living."

"Not even ones who save my life?" Cate pressed, not wanting the conversation to turn so quickly against David's favor. "He's not just a thug off the streets. He's genuine." Her heart lifted as she saw Daniel's face relent, and the other elders exchange glances. They trusted her family and her name, and she was pushing that trust as far as it would go. It would have to go even farther once she figured out a way to explain why she had no reflection in the mirror, she remembered.

Suddenly there was a roar and crash from the card table. Cate whirled and saw David and a second young man, a few years older but lean almost to the point of wiriness, standing.

Don't you dare! she thought as she sensed amber flecks beginning to sparkle in his eyes. Across the room, David's body relaxed almost imperceptibly. Daniel stood and projected his voice. It sounded like a French horn echoing through the room. "What is this? Adrian, you threaten a guest in our house?"

Adrian blinked his large, pool-blue eyes and took his seat again slowly, crossing one lithe leg over the other in a fluid movement just a tad too graceful to be human. "No." There was a scraping noise as claws retracted against wood, like huge fingernails on a blackboard. "Accidental surprise."

David did not sit. I do NOT like surprises. His arrogance has roared to life quicker than his Triumph kicking into high gear and his thoughts towards Cate sounded like they were being directed at a lying subordinate.

You didn't tell me not everyone in your clan was human.

Relax. Ade won't hurt you. Watch your tone and drop the machismo, now.

He's a fucking werewolf, Cate.

Daniel stood and walked over to the boys, his heavy limbs echoing and creaking like moving tree trunks. "I apologize. Some of our youngsters are prone to showing off. I trust that, living in Santa Carla, you are accustomed to things being…out of the ordinary?"

"Yeah – Yes. Sir." The "sir" was rather forced. David could charm up all the ladies in the house but didn't like admitting lower status to another male. "He just surprised me. No harm done."

Adrian's nostrils flared faintly and Cate began to get apprehensive. He was still young, only about her age, and hadn't developed all of his senses yet. But he could smell something that wasn't human. He took a deep breath, disguising it as a conciliatory sigh, but she knew what he was doing. He smelled something wrong with this newcomer. It had become fainter since the anger and surprise had died down, but he hadn't given up trying to subtly pick it up. Whether he could discern exactly what David was, or what she was, she didn't know. But, after a few anxious seconds, Adrian seemed to relax again and offered his hand to David. "Sorry. Didn't mean it. I just can get antsy when I lose." David shook his hand. He didn't like the look in this kid's eyes. It was like there was something in them lurking just below the surface, a creature underneath that blue sea, mocking him, teasing him to try and draw it out, saying "Try me. Just try me." Cate was relieved he has his gloves on.

The chill of his bare skin would be a dead giveaway to anyone, let alone Ade.

LATER IN THE EVENING

David was silent as he unpacked his few belongings in the small room he had been given. Cate sat on his bed, waiting until he pulled out of his deep blue funk enough to speak. He had grumbled a bit about how propriety and decorum around family was bullshit, and how they should be able to sleep in the same room if they wanted, and do what they wanted, and make as much noise as they wanted, but that was it. He wasn't just pouting, she could recognize pouting. A pouting David was looking for attention. Right now, it looked like he just wanted to be left alone to stew.

"So what other creepy-crawlies do you have running around here?" his rough voice broke the silence.

"Not very much. Ade and his sister Tara are lycanthropes. Rita is a witch, mostly white magic but she's dabbled in black a few times. Daniel is a shapeshifter but he never does it anymore. That's it."

Tara, she was that one with the big doe eyes who had been checking him out all evening. David made a mental note to pursue that avenue if Adrian decided to piss him off. As long as Cate wasn't watching, that is. Although he hadn't seen a good catfight…scratch that, this would be a bitch-fight…in a while. Cate and a she-wolf Bitchfight. David snickered quietly to himself at his own joke, feeling less angry than he did before.

Very funny Cate's mental voice came to his ears. He had forgotten to put up his defenses. Whoops. He shot Cate the old devilish David smile. Cate shook her head as if to say it wasn't going to work this time, and spoke out loud. "I know what you're thinking, about having accepted non-humans here. But vampires are different…that's pushing it. Really pushing it. Having your own prey in your house?"

David was quiet again, moving his lower jaw back and forth slightly, as if tasting the information before swallowing it. "So I take it you haven't told anyone yet?"

"No. I'm figuring that out."

"Well you better figure it out fast, because if it looks like we lied, I can tell that your wolf cubby friend there is going to want to take a nice big chunk out of me."

"I know I'm going to have to figure it out soon. Explaining why we sleep all day and are out all night won't be easy unless I do. And relax, Ade is harmless." Cate moved over and swung her legs back and forth, gently knocking them against David's thigh.

"You didn't see his teeth…."

After shamelessly building David's ego back up with a nippier-than-usual make-out session, and getting him to reluctantly apologize for the caustic thoughts directed her way at dinner, Cate took her leave to go to her own room. She walked down the hallway in her bare feet, feeling the carpeting under them. It was a worn maroon color, dulled but never stained. Rita would have taken the head off anyone who spilled things on her carpet. The feel of it between her toes reminded her of a much longer time ago. She had been only about three and her father had taken them on a trip down to see Daniel. She had been a little terror back then. Running up and down the hall at night to avoid going to bed, hiding under tables, playing too rough with all the boys…

"Catherine." Cate felt breath on her ear and turned quickly. Adrian was behind her. Despite her senses, he was still able to creep up on her like a ghost. "You seem uncomfortable."

Cate matched his eyes. "Why do you say that?"

Adrian reached a hand up towards her cheek and she moved her head away. He laughed softly. "See?"

"My brother just died, Ade."

"Hmmm. No….It's not that." His voice almost purred. She was so used to David's husky baritone, the sound of Adrian's voice was almost foreign. It was light with just a hint of a nasal resonance, just enough to make it sound like he was innocuous and always on your side, but just as sharp and edgy enough to make you realize he wasn't. Without warning his claws came out and he grabbed her chin firmly. Cate froze.

"I knew it."

"Knew what? Get your hands off me."

"That's a nice body temperature you have there. Seventy, seventy-five degrees?"

She grasped his wrist and threw his hand away. He retracted his claws, but there was a feral tinge to his eyes. "Cate, I can understand getting this past the elders, but getting it past me? Did you really think you could?"

"Your sense of smell is getting better, is it?" Cate was fully on the defensive now, muscles tensed. She felt her pupils dilate but carefully controlled the instinct to change face and fang out.

"It's not my sense of smell. You know what it is."

"Don't even try it."

Adrian took a lithe step closer to her. "I'm not trying anything. So who is your friend? Or is he the one that turned you? A sire, a protector?" The purr in his voice deepened. "A lover?"

Cate had long since learned not to be scared of Adrian. She stepped forward as well and placed a hand on his chest, pushing him slowly backwards until he was against the wall in a submissive position. The two locked eyes, a silent battle for superiority raging between blue and brown. Adrian craned his neck forward slightly, but Cate didn't budge. His nose almost touched hers and she heard him draw in a breath. A knowing smile slowly spread across his face

"You smell like him, you know…."

Cate could see the tips of his incisors sharpening slightly. Feeling strangely violated, she gave him her worst sneer. His face still hadn't moved from hers, but his teeth flattened back slightly. He moved sideways against the wall and out of her hand's reach, and she let him go, warily. "I won't go telling your little secret. I'll leave that to you. But I'll be keeping an eye on your friend. For your own protection." He smiled lazily and turned to continue down the hall. "I'll put in a good word for you with the elders after you break the news. I'm sure they can forgive you. I do. But him…tsk tsk, Cate, I really don't know."

Adrian moved silently back down the hall the opposite way he had come, pausing to take a short snort at David's door, like a cat inspecting its food and expressing its dislike, then continuing on.

Cate only slept for a few hours that night, knowing that she had to make some sort of appearance in the morning like a normal person. She had told Daniel that David would probably sleep most of the day, due to the hangover of a bad injury he had sustained a few days before when they ran into a rogue vampire on the way to Mesita. Cate hated lying to Daniel, it was like lying to her own father. She almost wished she hadn't learned the talent of lying quite as well as she had, and that Daniel had seen through her ruse. At least that way, she wouldn't have to be the first one to breach the subject of why she and her new friend were so "different." The few hours during which she did finally manage to doze off were fitful, and she woke at around eight in the morning feeling not nearly as together as usual. Pulling on a pair of black pants and another worn t-shirt, this time a light blue (do I own anything else? She'd mused) and tying her hair back as best she could to avoid looking like a rock video reject, she made her way towards the main hall where people were gathering for breakfast.

Daniel heaved his large frame upwards as she came in. "Cate, did you sleep well?"

"Sure." She lied. Again.

"I need to speak with you for a minute, if that's all right. But feel free to eat first."

Her stomach leapt at the thought of food, but then settled back down noisily with a wave of nausea at Daniel's words. "I'm not quite hungry yet. We can talk now."

She followed him to a side room. Rita was already there. Cate stepped inside, already beginning to feel quite nervous. Daniel closed the door behind her. "Sit down, please." Cate sat on an armchair, now definitely feeling like a cornered animal. Daniel settled into his own chair and folded his hands over his lap. "Cate, we've been receiving threats here in Mesita."

Relief swept over her, hearing that it wasn't about her or David, but it was quickly replaced by more concern. "Threats? From who?"

"We're not sure. It isn't someone in Mesita itself, because the messages have had to be carried to us by locals. They don't seem to know exactly where we are, but I do not like banking on trying to hide this place."

Receiving threats at their west coast base of operations was almost unheard of. Outposts got attacked, true…but Cate couldn't think of anyone stupid enough to try to breach this place. Her fingers instinctively twitched, trying to stroke nonexistent knives. They were hanging in her closet on their belt and she wished she could have the comforting feel of silver against skin. Daniel continued, "We've sent out people to round up more hunters from some more eastern clans. I know you only just got back from California, but we need to send you there again."

Cate's heart sank. You've got to be kidding. She had just gotten back to New Mexico. The deserts, the scrubs, the cliffs…some called it desolate, but to her it was peaceful. It was home. It was safe. "Where in California?"

"Los Angeles. Do you remember an elder who spent some time here once, by the name of Theodore?"

"Not really."

"He was killed recently. His sons are now living with their mother in Los Angeles."

"Does she know?"

"No. She divorced him almost a year ago." Daniel sighed deeply. "Theodore chose to not tell them about his real life…a decision that proved ill-fated I fear… too many absent nights with no explanation, strange phone calls, unknown friends…she finally decided to leave. The boys know nothing. It is the older one that I need you to specifically bring back. The younger is not quite old enough…but Theodore was an extremely courageous fighter, and if his son is even half what he was, we will have need of him if these threats prove to be substantial. I wanted to talk to you alone, Cate, because this is an extremely delicate mission. The young man knows absolutely nothing, and it may be difficult to convince him to come. Of course, we will give you everything you need….you are welcome to take along anyone you please as long as they agree. Adrian showed some interest in going."

I'll bet he did. "What's this kid's name?"

"Michael. They go by the name Emerson now, after their mother."