At some point throughout the night, I fell asleep. I woke up when it was still dark to what sounded like the purr of a loud gas generator outside the door. The rumble stopped just before what sounded like battering ram hit the door. I opened my eyes; David was sitting in the armchair watching me and ignoring whatever was going on outside. I threw back the covers and sat up. "Oh, I'll check it out, don't worry yourself," I said sarcastically to David. I pushed myself to my feet and ambled towards the door, yawning twice on the way. I was surprised at how much my core muscles didn't hurt anymore. When I looked though the peephole, all I could I see was an empty parking lot. When the rumble started back up again, I opened it. There was a white tiger lying on the front step. "Tiger, huh?" I said to Moose. Gracefully, he got to his feet and head butted me in the hip, urging me inside. "Come on," I said, holding the door open for him. Having a tiger lying in front of your door was not the way to lay low.
"Leave the mutt outside," David said.
I yawned before I responded. "This is his room too. If you don't like it, feel free to leave at any time." Without stopping to gauge David's reaction, I settled into the bed and patted on the empty side of the king size bed for Moose. He jumped up on the bed, causing it to creak and shake under his massive weight. Once he circled once, twice, three times, he got comfortable and settled his giant muzzle on my hip. I scratched behind his ear, causing him to start the purring back up. The ambient noise coming from Moose worked quickly to put me back to sleep.
I woke again as a cool set of lips gently graced my forehead. "Be safe today," David whispered into my ear.
"I will," I answered. "Thanks." He may annoy the hell out of me sometimes (even when we were together he could be a bit overbearing), but he genuinely cared for me and was genuinely trying to help. He put himself in danger to come down here and protect me. I appreciated that. But we aren't getting back together, I added for myself. As soon as this is over, I'm going back to not seeing him anymore.
"Always," he answered before he kissed my forehead again. I curled into the warm mass of sleeping fur next to me and fell back asleep as David closed the door behind him.
I guess I just wasn't going to get more than a couple of hours of sleep at a time tonight. I woke back up as Moose (now in human form) was crawling back into bed with me after pulling on some boxers and sleep shorts. I scooted toward him as he settled into his side of the bed. "I don't know what to make of you anymore," I said sleepily as I wrapped his arms around me.
"I haven't changed anything," he said defensively.
I smiled. "That's not what I meant. You keep changing into a tiger now, it's skewing you…aura?" I said, unsure what to call it.
"Hm?" he said after a yawn.
"Before, when I looked at you, I saw you, but I also saw the moose you, what you usually turn into. Now I'm starting to see a lot of the tiger in there, too. It's like an odd half moose half tiger chimera." I yawned, responding to his earlier yawn. "Why are you changing it up?"
"Moose are herbivores, not very scary. I feel like I can protect you better as the tiger. And you like it." He worked his hand up under the button down I was wearing so he could rest his hand on my bare back.
I returned the favor, rubbing my hand against his chest as I curled into him. I wormed my leg between his to relieve the pressure on my hips, to which he wrapped his leg around me. Once we were both comfortable and completely wrapped around each other, we fell asleep.
I jolted awake when there was a loud knock at the door. I instinctually checked the clock, it was already 11AM. I grumbled as I rolled off the bed; I was really comfortable. "I got it," Moose said. In the time it took me to roll to the other side of the bed, Moose had already hopped out of bed and was at the door. He checked the peephole before opening the door. It was the Mom of this Mom and Pop establishment. She peeked around Moose until she saw me standing at the edge of the bed then shoved a pile of towels at Moose.
"New towels. You two need anything else?" She may have said 'you two', but she was looking right at me when she said it.
"Nope, we're fine," Moose answered. Instead of gracefully bowing away and leaving us to ourselves, she refused to budge until she got an answer from me.
"We're all set, thanks," I answered, staring her down for being so rude to Moose. There was absolutely no reason to act that way toward him, he had been nothing but polite and cordial to her. After gauging my reaction, she nodded and backed away from the door, allowing Moose to close it. "God, that woman annoys me."
Moose smiled at me. "You'll get used to it. Do you want to shower first, or should I?"
I crawled back into the bed and pulled the comforter up to just below my eyes. "You." In a matter of seconds, the water turned on.
I had showered and was almost dressed before the vision hit. Sookie was in trouble. I threw a sweater on over my soaking wet hair, shoved my feet into a pair of loose sneakers, and grabbed my purse and the rental's keys. "Let's go," I yelled over my shoulder at Moose, who was already following close behind.
"Where are we going?" he asked as I slid into the driver's side and he into the passenger side.
The engine roared to life and I peeled out of the parking lot. "Sookie's."
Luckily, we didn't have to deal with any traffic lights on the short drive to Sookie's. I sped down her driveway, screeching to a halt just on front of her house. When I turned the car off and stepped out, I heard Sookie scream from the backyard. I didn't think about the fact that I was unarmed and most likely just as if not more vulnerable than Sookie would be, I just started running. I circled the outside of her house, taking the shortest route to where the vision took place. As I rounded a corner, I grabbed a shovel that was leaning against the house. I choked up on the handle like I would a baseball bat. When I rounded the corner, I could see a tall man was standing in Sookie's backyard, glowing like the woman from my visions. I could only see Sookie's arms and legs as she flailed to get leverage against her captor. Without even thinking, I swung the shovel at the man's head. Instead of hitting him with the broad side of the shovel like I had intended, the blade of the heavy shovel sliced right through her attacker's neck, decapitating him. He fell to his knees before dropping to his chest, Sookie escaping from his grip.
I just killed a man. With my own hands.
Either with the shock of it or because my lungs hadn't completely healed from getting dead flu, I dropped to my knees, gasping for air. Moose ran into the backyard, reaching Sookie first. He put one hand on either shoulder, steadying her. "Are you hurt?" After some contemplation, she shook her head no. As soon as she did, Moose practically threw her to the side and dropped to his knees at my side, taking my face in his hands. "Mac?"
I nodded, taking one of his hands from my face and lacing my fingers with his. "I'm fine." I took a gasping breath. "My lungs weren't quite," gasp, "ready for that yet."
"Are you sure?" I nodded again as I leaned heavily on him to get back to my feet. God, I felt like an old lady. I concentrated on taking deep, even breaths as I made my way to Sookie, who was staring at the body in her yard. When I followed her gaze, I noticed what had her captivated. He was disintegrating. "What the hell?" Moose mumbled behind me.
"I don't know," I said, amazed. Sookie had disappeared into her house, leaving Moose and I alone and dumfounded on her lawn. In an instant, with no warning what-so-ever, the gravity of what I had just done came crashing down on me. Shakily, I reached back and found Moose's hand without tearing my gaze away from the body. "Moose…I just killed a man." I sounded like I was on the verge of tears. Maybe I was.
His voice sounded like he was in awe. "I don't think he was a man."
I tore my gaze away so I could turn and look Moose in the eye. "I'm serious. I've got blood on my hands, now. I'm a criminal, I could go to jail. Moose…" Hysteria was quickly reaching a fever pitch in my body.
Moose wrapped his arms around me. "You saved Sookie's life. Isn't that the reason we came down here?" He stroked my hair, which was going a long way to calm me down. I still had a long way to go, though. "Besides, pretty soon there won't be any evidence."
That comment almost pushed me over the edge. I wanted to scream at him until he got the gravity of the situation, I wanted to hit and kick him until he was just as terrified as I was. As soon as I pulled my head back from his chest and started to push him away, he latched on tighter, immediately understanding my reaction. "I'm sorry, I know you're scared. I'm scared too. But you did the right thing and everything will be OK. I'll protect you from anything that comes our way."
I knew something was up when Moose spun us 180 degrees. I lifted my head and looked past him; he had put him between me and two approaching men. One I recognized from a few of Sookie's visions; they were both glowing the most beautiful blue color. God, what was his name again? "Granddaughter," the elder said with a genuine smile on his face. He touched Sookie's face before kissing each cheek. "What seems to be the problem?"
She pointed to the disintegrating body. "He tried to kill me, but Sloane killed him first." She nodded toward me in acknowledgement.
The elder man turned his attention to me. "How?"
I nodded to the heavy shovel, now lying on the ground next to the body. "I decapitated him with that shovel."
He leaned down and gracefully lifted the shovel from the ground. "Iron. Very good." His name was different, British maybe.
"So, do you want to take his body, or his dust, or something?" asked Sookie. The two men looked at her like she was psychotic.
"For what reason?" the elder asked. Niall! That was his name.
"You know, to bury him, or whatever ceremony you have." I could tell Sookie just wanted this all to disappear.
Before the two men could respond, I got another vision. I was two for two today. I could see the pair that I had seen torturing Sookie through the eyes of a young girl. God, she had to be at a rave or something. The music was loud and obnoxious heavy metal, there were strobe lights pulsing everywhere. Not to mention she was high on something, which was amplifying the music and the lights 100-fold. "Woah," I said as I waivered on my feet, obviously not used to the effects the drugs were having on me.
Moose caught my elbow before I tumbled. "Vertigo?"
"Vision," I answered quietly. "She was all drugged up." I shook the fog from my brain and looked up to Sookie. She and the two men were both watching me. "Do you know of any heavy metal clubs in the area? It's a circular black room, with black leather circular booths all around the outside and a dance floor in the center?" Sookie shook her head no while I got blank stares from the two men. As long as I was asking questions that revealed a bit too much about me, I may as well ask another one that had recently come up. I turned to Niall. "So why do you glow blue and the other ones glow green?"
He approached me slowly. He extended a bejeweled hand. "I am Niall Brigant of the Air, Prince of the Fae." Ah, finally, it makes sense. I found the target, now I just needed to know the who and the why behind the attack. "This is my son. The others of whom you speak are of the Water. Where have you seen them?"
"Oh." I guess it was a family trait, like hair color. I turned to Sookie for her approval before I said anything more about my ability. When she nodded yes, I said, "I saw her in my visions. A woman that tried to kill me, then again when she was hanging out with a guy in this bar. I've seen the guy before in other visions, but it was through other people's eyes, so I couldn't tell if he…was different or not." I turned back to Sookie. "If you were a heavy metal groupie, where would you shop for clothes?"
"Uh, I guess the Mall in Muncie, or maybe Shreveport?"
I nodded and grabbed Moose's hand. "It was nice to meet you, Mr. Brigant and his son. We have costumes to buy." I tugged Moose around the house the long way to the car. Carrying on a conversation with someone who has a glowing blue aura is harder than it sounds. It's just really hard to take them seriously. "I'm driving," I said as I pulled the keys out of pocket.
Moose and I got some funny looks from the salesgirl behind the counter at the boutique-y goth store in Shreveport. While she was dressed head to toe in black, Moose and I were dressed, well, normally. "Can I help you?" she said, obviously bored with having to help the masses.
"Yea, we need new outfits," I said, saddling up to the counter where she was perched. There was a piece of paper sitting in front of her covered with doodles of stars and puppies. No kidding.
She sighed heavily before pushing herself off her stool and ambling around the countertop. She eyed me up and down, then did the same to Moose. "Is that your real hair?" she asked him.
"Yea," he replied, somewhat put off by the question.
She sighed again before starting farther into the store. She didn't even look as she picked items off a rack here, then there. She went to the back wall of the store and grabbed a shoebox, handing me the contents of her arms and dramatically and sarcastically showing me to the first dressing room. I got my first chance to look at her selection once I closed myself in the small room. I stripped down to my skivvies before I pulled on the black skirt that was barely more than decent. Next came the corset-like tank top that laced down the front (a shirt that requires either a cute bra or no bra, that's for sure), followed by knee-high lace up boots with several inches worth of platform. I checked myself out in the full length mirror. I looked silly. "Are you ready for this, Moose?"
"Only if you are," he said as I opened the door. Shortly after, he opened his door.
"Oh," I whispered as I took him in. "You look great in black." He was wearing black Dickie's, black converse shoes, and a black v-neck tee.
"So do you," he added.
The salesgirl hand us each a pile of leather and metal. "Do you want a hoop for your nose?" she asked me, still with her bored demeanor.
I had thought about changing out the diamond stud I always wore for something a bit more…hard. "If you have some."
She simply nodded lethargically. "I can ring you up when you're ready." She was obviously ready to get us out of her store so she could go back to her all important doodling. I shut myself back in the dressing room and changed back into my normal clothes, then gathered everything she had given me up and took it to the cash register.
"All of his stuff, too," I said after she rung all of my stuff up. As an afterthought, I added a bottle of dark purple nail polish to the pile for myself and a bottle of black nail polish for Moose. Moose added his stuff to the pile and shortly after, we were out the door. "Use my phone to find the closest pharmacy. We need a few more things."
He adeptly pulled up the internet, found the closest Rite Aid, and used the MapQuest function to direct us there. After maneuvering the 2.3 miles to the Rite Aid parking lot, I hoped out of the car. God, this thing was fun to drive. If I could whistle (which I can't), I would have been whistling all the way into the store. "You're in a good mood all of the sudden."
"I love that car." I grabbed his hand and laced my fingers between his as I walked down the hair color aisle. I couldn't believe they even still made temporary hair color, but they did. I grabbed a box of 'blue black' temporary hair color and went down the next aisle. In my haste to get out of my house and on the road, I had forgotten to pack a hair straightener and I need one to finish my ensemble for the night. I picked the cheapest one they had and made my way for the makeup aisle. Last but not least, I grabbed some dark red lipstick, and headed for the cash register.
"Hey, should I get some of these?" Moose asked, holding up a 48-pack of condoms.
I smirked. "No, I'm on the pill." I had been for some time now, ever since menstruating started to interfere with my ability to keep food down or get out of bed. "Forty eight, huh?"
"What? You want more than a week's worth? We can get two packs…" he said as he wrapped his arm around my back and squeezed my butt.
I slapped him lightly as I kissed him, laughing. "Let's go, Romeo." I placed my odd assortment on the countertop for the cashier.
Moose followed me into our room, hauling the bags with him. I had one more thing I had to accomplish today. I scrolled through my contact list on my phone until I came across Deb's number. "Hey, Sloane."
"Deb, what's up?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" she asked.
I paused, trying to think if I had missed an appointment with her or something. "What?" I asked when I came up blank.
"Dr. Ross came by today, she's been talking with Matt."
Uh oh. "Yea, and…"
"She was looking to talk to you." She paused. When I didn't say anything, she added, "Don't worry or anything, she looked kind of happy when she was telling me about it."
"What exactly did she tell you?"
"That Matt stopped by Moose's place Saturday morning and you were there wrapped in a blanket with an obvious case of bed head."
Oh, fantastic. I am going to kill Matt. "Guilty."
"Anyway," she said. "You should give her a call."
"I will, thanks, Deb."
"Oh, wait," she said before I could hang up. "Why did you call? Just to chat?"
Oh, right. "No, I need a favor. Could you teach for me tomorrow?"
"Sure, why can't you teach?"
"I had to leave town."
She paused, probably deciding whether or not to read any farther into that statement than she already was. "Alright, lover girl. I'll teach for you."
"Thanks. I'll let you know when I get home." I hung up before Deb could say anything else. "Crap," I said.
"What?" Moose said. He had separated our respective outfits and laid them out on the bed.
"Matt told Jeanne about us," I said as I found Jeanne's number in my contact list. "She was looking for me." I dialed the number.
"You've got Jeanne Ross," she answered.
"You were looking for me?" I asked as innocently as I could.
"Yes, I was. Where are you?"
I scrambled. She may be laid back and easy to talk to, but she was still effectively my boss. My boss who needed to stay completely in the dark. "Uh, well, right. Sorry I didn't tell you, but I was kind of in a hurry. Um, family emergency. I don't know when I'll be back."
"Oh really?" She sounded less than convinced. "Who?"
"My…cousin? Sookie. From Louisiana." I shot Moose a very panicked look. He just winked at me.
I really, really needed to learn how to lie more effectively when it counted. "You can tell me the real reason, Sloane. I understand; Ty and I do it all the time." Ty was her husband.
Now I was just confused. "What?"
"You and Moose are taking a mini honeymoon, aren't you?"
I was speechless. "Excuse me?" I said after a long pause.
"You didn't think I'd see through this?" she asked. "You and Moose both disappear at the same time just after I find out you two are dating? Not a big leap."
I decided to just let her think what she was going to think. "Sorry to disappear on you."
"Oh, don't worry about it. If anyone deserves it, it's you two. I'm just glad to see you with someone alive for once."
"Alive?" I asked.
"I'm not as obtuse as you obviously think I am. I can read between the lines."
"Between what lines?"
"You started coming in to lab later and later, you looked tired all the time…you were dating a vampire, weren't you? I'm not judging, I'm just glad to see you with someone you can really settle down with."
"Jeanne…I don't even know…where are you getting all this?"
"Am I wrong?" she asked.
I paused. "No, just…" I needed to stop this conversation right now. It was starting to get to be a bit much. "I gotta go, Jeanne. I'll let you know when I get back."
"Alright, Sloane. I'm happy for you."
"Bye." I hung up and tossed my phone onto the bed as I stared at Moose.
"What?" he asked.
I laughed once at the absurdity of that conversation. "Jeanne thinks we're on a mini honeymoon, and she couldn't care less because she's just glad I'm no longer with David."
"She knew about O'Hara?"
I shrugged. "I guess she did…"
He burst out laughing. "And you just let her think that?"
I shrugged again, this time defensively. "What was I supposed to do? I can't tell her the truth, and I am a horrible liar."
"It's cute," he said, pulling me onto the bed with him.
I grabbed the bottle of black nail polish off the bedside table and settled my back into his chest, resting his hand on my knee. "Hold still," I said. I shook the bottle as he wrapped his other arm around my waist.
"So, why are we getting all gothed out?"
"We're going to do some recon," I said as I painted his pinkie nail black. He had wide, gorgeous nails.
"Of?"
"The fae that are going to torture Sookie."
He lifted my chin to look at him. "Mac, I'm not sure that's a good idea. Why don't you tell O'Hara, and he can tell that Eric guy, and then we can just go home, you in one piece."
As much as it irked me to bring them along, maybe Moose was on to something. "OK, we can bring the vampires. Happy?"
"No." He took a deep breath, but stayed still for me to continue painting his nails. "I'll be happy when we're back home, safe and sound."
I had finished Moose's nails and started my own with the dark purple polish when there was a knock at the door. "Come in, David," I said without getting up from Moose's lap.
"Exciting day?" he said after trying his hardest to not react to how Moose and I were sitting.
"Don't remind me," I replied, not taking my eyes from my nails. I finished my second coat, closed the bottle, and waived my nails in the air to help dry them.
"I did not expect such a reaction from you. What happened?" David asked.
I inspected my nails so I wouldn't have to look him in the eye. "I killed a man, decapitated him with a shovel."
He was quiet for a long time. He didn't speak until I looked up. "Where is he now?" He settled into the armchair, still ready to hop out and kill someone, if need be.
I shrugged, dropping my eyes from him again. "He disintegrated." He was quiet for another minute, leaving the room silent. I couldn't take it anymore. I pushed myself off the bed and to my feet, grabbed my clothes and the hair color, and retreated to the bathroom.
