Yay! Another reviewer! It's just like Christmas! Hehehehe. Just a quick author's note: BUCS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL! Sorry if you're an Eagle's fan, I'm just pretty stoked. Anyway, continuing . . .

Emmanuelle: I'm not a big fan of 'Buffy' myself. Glad you like the action. Sexual tension? Maybe that's where some of my writing is coming from! LoL.

Tamashii: So you think you have Mr. Monroe figured out, do ya? Maybe your right . . . we'll find out in the next few chapters. =) Thanks for the review. I'm glad it's taking shape for you.



*Chapter 5*



Chaos. That's all Tala could take in from the room. The mother was still on the floor, unconscious. The made vampire that Monroe had sensed was on fire, running around the room, setting anything he touched ablaze. The lion was no longer human, letting out a loud roar as the vampire fell on top of him. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Monroe climbing through the newly broken frame of the door.

In the middle of the madness, a small child sat on the floor. Unhurt, she sat looking unamused and somewhat sleepy. The flame did not come within five feet of her.

Tala had already changed back to human. Ignoring the scene around her, she walked calmly toward the girl. Seeing her, the little girl smiled.

Kneeling down, Tala returned the grin. "What's your name?"

"Vesta Lynn Douglas." Her eyes held years of wisdom that she seemed too young to have seen.

Nodding, Tala went on. "Hi, Vesta. I'm Tala Acevedo. Do you know who I am?"

The little girl's face brightened. "You're from Circle Daybreak. You're going to save me."

She stood, taking Vesta in her arms. "Exactly." She turned back to the fire. Monroe was already checking the mother. The two Night people sat on the floor, motionless, fire consuming them.

Shielding the girl's eyes, she walked straight toward the front door frame. "Grab her! We have to get out of here!" Monroe nodded an acknowledgment, gently picking the mother up from the floor.

Almost to the car, Tala heard the windows explode from the heat. She made room for Monroe to place the mother in the back, then tossed him the keys. "You drive."

He looked at the keys, shocked. "You trust me to drive?"

She rolled her eyes. "Right now isn't the time to debate my trust in you. Just get in and drive."

She pulled Vesta onto her lap as they took off. In the side mirror, Tala could see the house burning into the sky.



Upside down, Tala was resting her eyes in the chair at her desk. She felt her blonde hair grazing the floor, the blood rushing to her head.

"A wolf with an office."

Opening one eye, she recognized Monroe's Airwalks at the bottom of her desk. "If you've got an insult lined up to go with that, may I remind you that Thierry's not here to save you this time."

"Hey, I thought it would be a compliment."

"Whatever. What do you want from me?"

"The Big Guy is ready to give us the next part of the assignment. And the girl wants to see the puppy that saved her."

"Are you trying to be a smart ass or cute? Because I'm not buying it." She flipped her feet over her head, landing gracefully on the ground. Running a hand through her hair, she turned to look at Monroe.

"Neither, she actually said that. She's pretty smart." He started to walk beside her as they made their way to Thierry's office.

"She's an Old Soul. I saw it in her eyes." She put her hands into her jacket pockets. It was about three o'clock in the morning and she had yet to change or take a shower. Suddenly self-conscious, she checked her reflection in a passing office window. She was covered in soot.

She suddenly felt something on her mind, literally. She stopped in the hallway. "Don't you dare probe my mind. I never gave you permission."

He held his hand up defensively. "Sorry. I saw something was on your mind. I just thought I'd try to see what it was."

"There's this thing called asking. You should try it sometime." She continued down the hall.

He quickly caught up. "I may not know you, but I knew that I would just get a negative answer and a punch in the groin."

"You didn't tell me you were psychic," she mumbled, turning into the office. She sat down on the expensive couch and put her feet up on the expensive ottoman.

Thierry was shaking his head, hiding a smirk. "I don't even want to know what you two are arguing about now. Here." He handed Tala a new folder. "The woman is going to stay here with us. You guys are going to take Vesta to a safe house in Miami in the morning."

She had already begun to flip through the contents of the folder. "Then what?"

"You take care of her, make sure the Night World doesn't get a hold of her, and search her mind as to why they might want her."

Tala almost dropped the folder. "You mean you don't know why they want her?"

Thierry shook his head disappointedly. "No. We know that the Council wants to use her as some sort of weapon, but we have no clue as to what or how. They killed her whole family. The woman taking care of her was one of our agents."

Tala sighed, closing her eyes. "All right. But please tell me I can sleep until the morning."

He nodded. "Yes. But I can't have you going home. I need you close by. Monroe and yourself will be sharing room-"

"Goddess, Thierry!" She stood up, completely aggravated. "I have had to put up with his attitude all day and now I have to sleep in the same room as him? Do you know that he snores? Forget it, I'll just sleep in my office."

He began to tap his fingers on the desk. "No, you won't. You need a good night's sleep, both of you. Unfortunately, we have a lot of visitors here at the hospice, so I can only give out this one room. I'm sorry you haven't gotten along, but you will do as I tell you. Unless you both want to be taken off of the assignment for insubordination?"

Silent until now, Monroe stood. "No, it's okay, Thierry. I'm working on being nicer to her, I swear. We'll be okay."

Her jaw had dropped, staring at her partner. She barely noticed when Thierry had asked her if she agreed. Hesitating for only a second, she concurred. Slowly, she followed Monroe out of the office.

The room they shared was quite small. Two cots sat almost three feet apart against opposite walls. Everything was hospital room white. She knew the sheets would be scratchy.

She climbed into a bed, not caring if he wanted a choice of the two. Fully clothed, she pulled the wool-polyester blend sheets over her head. From underneath, she called out to him. "Don't you dare try to probe my mind while I'm sleeping. I will wake up and stab you, so help me."

"Don't worry. I won't bother."

She saw darkness filling the room and heard him rustling into his cot. She took this minute to try and squeeze some information out of him. "Why is this case so important to you?"

"I told you already." His voice was filled with annoyance . . . and something else . . .

"Why is it you won't tell me anything, then? I don't think you fully understand that partners need to trust each other. Do you hate me that much? Just because I'm a wolf?" For some reason, heat was coming to her eyes.

"Tala, I don't hate you. I mentioned it before, I just have a bad past and it keeps me from telling anybody anything. Eventually it'll loosen, I don't know. Let's just try to get some sleep, okay?"

She nodded, knowing he couldn't see her. She rolled toward the wall and took a deep breath, not knowing why he affected her so much.