Waxing: Three Quarter Moon
Third in the Full Moon series.

"…light up my darkness. Pour over me…"

Oz stopped midway up the staircase as strains of Toni singing on the roof floated down through the basement, to the upper floors of the old Victorian house. He heard creaking on the stairs above him. A face looked down from over the banister.

"Hey Oz."

The person's face was backlit, but his piercings glittered in the light. "Hey Bobby."

"You was goin' up to the roof too?"

Oz nodded. "Yeah." He couldn't see it, but Oz was sure Bobby was grinning.

"She sure does sound pretty up there, huh?"

"Yeah."

Bobby stepped out of the light, making him more visible to Oz. Wiping his nose with the back of his hand, he came clunking down to Oz's level. "Heard anything about that hunter?"

"Vorickson?"

Bobby nodded.

"Pieter and Lo have been tracking him. He hasn't left the city."

Grinning toothily, Bobby rubbed his hands together. "Nice. We ain't had a good feeding in…years."

Oz could feel an answering smile stretch his lips. Violence wasn't usually his weapon of choice, but this Vorickson reminded him painfully of Kane. And despite the danger to themselves, and the species differential, the cheetahs had sheltered him and made him a part of their pod. Their family. Pieter had even offered Oz First Blood Rites on the man that had nearly killed him, even though they had an equal claim.

"Hey, LoAnne let's you call her 'Lo?' Last time I tried that I had to pay for the window I went through."

Oz grinned. "She do it?"

"Nah. She just gave me that look. Y'know the one where it looks like if she comes within, like, ten feet of ya you ain't gonna have no bones left after she's done."

"Yeah."

"So I jumps through the window as a kinda self-defense. She already had like three feet on me, and I swear that chick can move fast."

"You're cheetahs, Bobby."

"Yeah, but still."

Oz shook his head.

"So, really, she let's you call her 'Lo?'"

"Nope."

Bobby laughed. "Yeah, LoAnne's one scary chick. But, ya know, the two of you is really cute together."

"Don't let Lo hear you say that."

Bobby shrugged. "She wouldn't hurt me for somethin' like that. Gimme extra bathroom duty, but nothin', you know, really painful."

That got a chuckle from Oz.

Both their heads snapped up as someone tread across the floor above their heads. "Wonder who that was?"

Oz shrugged. "Hey, so Pieter's saying that maybe we could do this around a full moon."

"The Vorickson thing?"

Oz nodded.

If he didn't consider Bobby family, Oz might have found Bobby's grin, full of vaguely pointed teeth, menacing. "Hey, you know I could do with a new trophy. Whatcha think, Oz, a tatt or another piercing?"

Oz found himself responding with a feral grin of his own. "Tattoo. You're starting to resemble a sieve."

Bobby chuckled. "You gonna get somethin' to remember the night by, Oz? Or maybe you're gonna get yourself a real trophy. A finger maybe? Ear?"

"I've never been a real big fan of putting more holes in myself than absolutely necessary."

"So just the ring in both ears, huh?"

"Exactly… But I'll think of something."

Another voice had joined Toni's up on the roof. For the mercy of your plan. Help me be strong. Help me be… The two resonating as one as they rose into the night and floated to earth. Oz recognized Seraphim's soaring soprano flowering Toni's steady alto.

A light Oz had never seen before shown in Bobby's eyes. "Toni don't sing much anymore, but she's got some voice, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I guess that's my cue if ever there was one."

Before Oz could ask Bobby what he meant, the pierced and mohawked were-cheetah was climbing back up the stairs. Just before he disappeared from sight he opened his mouth to sing the tenor note.

Breath of heaven, hold me together. Be forever near me

Oz was still standing at the landing when LoAnne, back from wherever she went when she went off alone, came upstairs. "They're beautiful, aren't they," she said in her strangely husky voice.

"Yes."

Eyes closed and face upturned as if it was the sun on her face, LoAnne said, "Sometimes I wish I shared just one part of their voice." She took a deep breath, leaned over and kissed Oz chastely before going up to their room.

He was still on the landing when the trio finally came down.

[in]Fin[ite]

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