Shock had just barely left the forest when it occurred to her that it would probably be smart to grab some more firewood. While she had very high hopes of falling asleep in Lock's arms this time, having a fire that he didn't have to concentrate on maintaining would probably make the experience all the more enjoyable. She also felt it would be wise to grab a bit more food - the squirrels had helped, but if they were going to be stuck here for another day then they were definitely going to get hungry again, and swiping some food at night would be easier. So she flew to the little general store on the Main Street of the tiny town, and as she parked her broom by the dumpsters behind the building she was glad that stores in the country stayed closed for much longer than those in the city. Stealing from a 24-hour mega-mart would have been considerably trickier than this little Mom n' Pop store. She cracked open the back door and flipped on the first light switch she found, and happily no alarm was triggered. Again, she was thankful for these overly-trusting bumpkins who probably thought that bad things never happened 'in their town'.

Most of the food wasn't too appetizing to her and Lock's taste and there wasn't much of a selection, but eventually she settled on some sausages and bread and she even found a few cans of pumpkin pie filling. She also grabbed some more candy, then kicked over a few display cases just for fun before flipping off the light and heading out through the back door, which she left wide open - maybe if she was lucky a raccoon or something would find it's way inside and cause a little extra hassle for the owners. Then she flew quickly back to the forest for more firewood before finally turning back to the cemetery once again, just as the dawn was well and truly breaking.

Back in the mausoleum, Lock was feeling a bit stressed. Shock was taking much, much longer to arrive than she had before, and if he could have walked worth a damn he would have been pacing the room. Where the hell could she be? What was taking her so long? Even though he knew that it hadn't been done for hundreds of years, he couldn't help but think about witches being burned at the stake or hanged or drowned… though it was pretty much only falsely-accused humans that had suffered that fate, for any real witch worth her salt could easily escape such a situation - and Shock was definitely worth her salt, in his opinion. But still, there was some nut-job with a shotgun out there who would certainly leap at the chance to attack the other 'hooligan' who had messed with his stupid testicle truck. Not only was Lock feeling anxious, but he was also getting incredibly bored and being unable to do anything about it was extremely aggravating. Just when he felt like he was on the verge of going insane, he heard the heavy mausoleum door creak open and Shock call out, "Turn on the lights, will you?" and he increased the size of the fireball that he'd been juggling anxiously back and forth between his hands for the last hour.

"What the fuck took you so long?" he frowned as she entered the chamber, but his question was immediately answered when she dropped her armful of firewood on top of the little pile of ashes on the floor.

"What are you, my father?"

"Far from it. The hillbillies may want to screw their relatives, but I don't." Then he shut his mouth when he realized what he'd just said.

Shock raised her eyebrows. He had basically flat-out said exactly what was on his mind, though considering the reaction his body had to her just the other day she supposed she shouldn't be surprised. It was still pretty wild to hear him say it out loud though, and she could have sworn that her ovaries actually tingled in response, if that was possible. Somehow something about his blatant admission gave her a little bit more courage than before, so she gave him a little smirk and said, "Way to keep it classy. Glad to hear you have some standards." For the first time in a long time Lock didn't know how to respond after his Freudian slip, but fortunately Shock kept talking. "I also got us some food. I don't know about you, but those squirrels weren't exactly super-filling."

"Good call." he said as she dropped the bag on the floor between them and sat down.

"So, did you slam your ass again when you landed this time?" she snickered as she started divvying up the food, and Lock grabbed one of the sticks out of the firewood pile to skewer a couple sausages before lighting the fire.

"No, I made a perfectly graceful entrance this time, actually. It's a shame you weren't there to see it." he said boastfully as he held the sausages over the flame. The truth was that he had just barely managed to control his descent onto the floor without falling on his butt and bending his tail.

Shock snorted and rolled her eyes as she peeled open one of the cans of pumpkin. "I'm sure it was a truly magnificent sight. Like I haven't seen it a million times before." The meal was a bit pathetic, but at least it was filling and the sausages weren't half bad - and the pumpkin pie filling was pretty good too, even though they had to scoop it out of the can with pieces of bread. "How's your leg?" Shock asked after she took a swig of water and handed him the bottle.

"I dunno, you tell me." he replied, taking a drink himself. Really he just wanted her hands on him again, and Shock was happy to oblige. She gently pushed back the torn fabric edges of his pants and lightly traced the wound with her fingertips - it didn't look any better, but it didn't look any worse, either.

"Seems about the same. It doesn't look like the discoloration has spread, so at least I'm pretty sure you're not actively bleeding internally anymore."

"Well, that's a relief." he yawned. "I don't know about you, but I'm beat."

"Why are you beat? I'm the one who's been running around taking care of everything."

"Yeah well you didn't just about get your leg blown off two days ago."

"I thought you said you can handle anything?"

"I can." he said sleepily, then yawned again and Shock rolled her eyes.

"Alright, oh impervious one, let's get some rest." She watched as Lock very carefully lowered himself onto his back, using her empty bag as a makeshift pillow. Once he got settled she took off her hat and wadded it up to make her own attempt at a pillow, then lay down right beside him and this time she was the one to scoot close against his side. Her hand wandered over to rest across his chest again, and Lock really wanted to try giving her a kiss goodnight, but he was so tired that he didn't think he'd be able to do a very good job of it. However, he hoped that at the rate they were going it wouldn't be too much longer before he got to give it a shot.

Despite their mutual excitement from being so close to one another again, sleep came to them easily. The thick marble walls muffled the sound of a distant rooster beginning to crow, and then the lowing of cattle as a herd of dairy cows meandered down through a nearby pasture from the milking barn to see what they could scrounge up to graze on this chilly second day of November. Eventually Lock woke up first to find that his fire had mostly gone out and that he had ended up rolling from his back onto his side facing Shock in the night. She was nestled up as close to him as possible face-to-face, and he took the opportunity to just stare at her for awhile, admiring how wickedly witchy and pretty she was with her long, aquiline nose, the little wart on her jawline and her dark, shadowed eyelids that were currently softly closed and that hid her sharp, calculating, coal-black eyes. Then those eyelids slowly opened and their eyes met, and Lock held his breath as they just gazed at one another for a moment. Time stopped, the air was thick with tension and electricity, and they both felt like they were moving in slow-motion or underwater as he leaned in just a tiny, tiny bit closer and she did the same, breaths light and quick, barely daring to blink…

And then they were kissing, softly and slowly at first, hesitant and shy, eyes fluttering shut and their closed lips touching lightly and tentatively as they tried to figure out how to work around their noses, and both still not quite able to believe this was really happening. Then after a moment Lock opened his mouth a fraction and Shock did the same. He experimentally slipped just the very tip of his tongue between her parted lips, soft and wet and so, so good, but she gasped as his tongue invaded her mouth so he immediately broke the kiss, terrified that he'd gone too far.

"I'm sorry." he breathed in a rare apology, hoping that she wouldn't punch him in the face, but instead her own tongue darted out to moisten her pale green lips and she said a little bashfully:

"No…I… I don't want to stop." It was the truest statement she had ever made. Kissing Lock was even more incredible than she ever would have imagined, and she'd imaged it a lot.

Lock was hardly able to believe it, and he didn't think he'd ever felt so happy in all of his existence. It was like a thousand Halloweens rolled into one, and from now on this was how he wanted to spend every Halloween – and every Not-Halloween, for that matter: making out with Shock in a spooky, crumbling, cobwebbed mausoleum - though preferably without the gunshot wound. "Yeah?" he asked.

"Yeah." she replied, then leaned in to meet him halfway and this time it was she who parted her lips first and ran the tip of her tongue along the seam of his mouth and he immediately opened to let her in. She rubbed her palm back and forth across his chest and up to his shoulder, and he wrapped his arm more tightly around her waist and pulled her more firmly against him - he felt much less embarrassed about the possibility of her feeling his body's reaction to her this time around, and sure enough, he felt that telltale rush of heat to his groin when she moaned into his mouth and rubbed her pelvis a little harder against him. Shock felt it and moaned again, and all of the fear she'd experienced the first time this had happened was nowhere to be found - now there was only excitement and desire.

After several minutes of this he felt overwhelmed and overstimulated, so he pulled back to look at her and she was just as flushed and alluring as she'd been in his dream. "Wow," he panted softly, and it sounded completely stupid but he didn't know what else to say.

"Yeah," she whispered, gazing into his eyes. They were glowing gold in the remaining firelight, his pupils huge and glinting and she couldn't believe how wickedly handsome he looked despite his rather stunned expression. Then the corner of mouth quirked up a bit and he joked:

"You really do like devils. Not that I blame you. We are super sexy, after all." He had to make a joke because if they kept making out he wasn't sure he'd be able to stop, and he didn't want to frighten her away with how badly he wanted her. At this point his leg could have been chopped off completely and he still wouldn't have had any trouble trying to ravish her, if she'd let him.

She rolled her eyes. "God, you are so full of yourself, it's unreal." Then she couldn't help smiling a bit naughtily, "And I guess you really did want to make out, huh?" Lock didn't know it, but she was actually having similar feelings: she wanted to keep going, but at the same time she was a little scared. Things were moving so fast and she wasn't sure she was ready for where this might lead if they kept at it right now - plus her underwear was getting increasingly soaked and she didn't have an extra pair with her - so when he gave her a startlingly lustful grin she felt the need to quickly change the subject. "How's your leg?"

"What leg?"

Shock rolled her eyes yet again. "Don't be an idiot."

Lock looked down at his injury and then back to her. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. My mind was more pleasurably engaged." he smirked, trying his damndest to live up to devils's reputations for being almost as seductive as vampires.

"Wow, fancy words there, devil boy. You almost sounded like Vasile." she teased, and Lock's face instantly transformed into a frown. Shock raised an eyebrow at him, a little amused by how angry he suddenly looked. "What? Are you jealous or something? I only danced with him for half a song two months ago. It didn't mean anything."

"I'm not jealous, he's just an idiot who was only trying to get in your pants." he said crankily. Truthfully Lock had never wanted to punch anyone so hard in his entire existence. He'd wanted to knock that stupid, smooth vampire's fangs right out of his head and shove one up each of his nostrils... and then punch him again for good measure.

Shock couldn't help but smile a bit wickedly at his obvious lie. The knowledge that Lock felt so jealous over her was extremely pleasing and all of her earlier trepidation about moving too fast flew right out the window. "Hmm. But doesn't this mean that you're trying to get in my pants, too?" and with a boldness that surprised herself, she rested her palm lightly on his crotch and he sucked in startled breath.

"That's different." he managed to say in a strangled voice.

"How so?"

"Because I actually know and like you." he confessed, and then pulled her hand away because it was driving him crazy.

"I like you, too."

"Well I should hope so, considering we've been friends forever." He was trying to stay nonchalant, but inside he worried about her only using the word 'like'. 'What were you expecting, idiot?' he thought angrily to himself. 'For her to confess her passionate love for you or something?' He supposed that if all she wanted from him was to make out without any romantic feelings then he could deal with that. Friends-with-benefits wasn't the worst situation he could think of, but he would prefer it if she actually cared about him beyond that. When had he become such a sap? Then Shock interrupted his thoughts:

"No, I mean I like-like you."

"Oh."

His short response and the fact that he'd pulled her hand away from him made her insecurity flare up despite the fact that they'd just kissed for a considerable amount of time. Did he like-like her, too? Or had he meant it when he said they were 'friends'? Shock wasn't sure she could handle just making out with him casually, and if that's all he wanted then she wasn't sure she wanted to make out with him at all. Over the last two months (and probably quite some time before that, if she was completely honest with herself) she'd developed feelings for him that went way beyond platonic, and the idea that he didn't reciprocate those feelings beyond getting physical was terrible.

But she didn't need to worry about that - it was simply taking Lock a moment to process the enormity of her confession and after a beat he slipped his hand down from her waist to her rear and then it was her turn to gasp in surprise. "Well I like-like you more." he said smoothly, giving her a little squeeze and leaning in for another kiss, but before he could reach her she tilted her head away and gave him a cranky look.

"Why do you always have to try to one-up me, you turd?" she said with mock irritation, though inside she was flooded with happiness and relief to hear that it wasn't just physical. She could pretty much always tell when he was lying, and it was clear he was telling the truth this time. Lock could also tell that she wasn't actually annoyed and his lips curled up into a little smirk.

"Sorry, it's just that it's impossible not to one-up you. I don't do it on purpose, I'm just that awesome."

"Careful, devil boy…" she threatened as she ran her hand back up along his good thigh and dangerously close to his crotch again. "You might want to be a little more thoughtful about what you say if you don't want to sustain a more devastating injury than the one that human gave you." Then she squeezed his erection almost as hard as he'd squeezed her ass and all bets were off as far as Lock was concerned. He crushed his mouth to hers once more with a groan but just as things were really starting to get hot and heavy they heard the loud creak of the mausoleum door opening and they quickly broke apart.

...

To be continued...