Note: This chapter has a tiny bit of steam in it because even when they're hundreds of miles apart, Elisa and Goliath still have intense chemistry.
.
.
.
Elisa threw herself onto the bed the moment she got to her hotel room. It had been a really long day, and she hadn't slept in over twenty-four hours at this point. She was exhausted.
She could have stayed with Beth, but her apartment was small and she would have had to sleep on the couch, which seemed unnecessary when Elisa could afford a couple nights stay at a moderately priced hotel. It wasn't The Plaza by any means, but it was clean and most importantly, private.
With a groan of reluctance, she forced herself off the bed and into the small bathroom. At the very least she should brush her teeth before she passed out, and she set about getting ready for bed. She quickly brushed her teeth and then leaned over the sink to rinse her mouth.
When Elisa looked back up, she saw through the mirror a woman standing right behind her. The very same woman she had seen earlier at Joseph's ranch.
Elisa gasped and turned around quickly.
But no one was there.
"The barn," a feminine voice said. "Joseph."
It was soft but crystal clear like it was said directly in her ear.
She quickly looked back in the mirror.
But the woman had disappeared just as quickly as she had appeared.
Elisa spent the next several minutes tearing her hotel room apart searching for the intruder. She searched the whole bathroom, behind the shower curtain and the door. She searched the room, tearing back the sheets, looking under the bed and anywhere someone could possibly hide.
She checked the lock on the door and found it in place with no signs of tampering.
She didn't find any sign that anyone else had been there at all.
Except for a black feather she found on the floor of the bathroom, just like the one her father had on him, but the moment she took her eyes off of it, it disappeared, just like the other one.
"I'm losing my god damn mind," she muttered to herself. "I'm tired and I'm hallucinating."
But she still requested a room change…just to be safe.
...
...
Elisa sat up straight in bed just before 2:00 a.m. gasping for breath, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. She'd been having a nightmare. In the dream someone had been on top of her as they had her pressed against the ground, their hands around her throat, squeezing tighter and tighter. She kicked, scratched, and punched, but her blows grew weaker and weaker every second she couldn't fill her lungs with oxygen. Her panic eventually gave way to resigned acceptance as her life slowly ebbed away, and that's when she woke up gasping and frightened.
She'd never had a dream like that before, and it left her unnerved.
She tried to go back to sleep and found herself unable to, whether from the dream or her natural body clock being screwed up, she wasn't sure, but it didn't help that this was not when she normally slept. She tried to relax and thought of Goliath in hopes of encouraging more pleasant dreams, and then she had a better idea, and she picked up the phone and dialed her home phone.
Because Arizona did not do daylight saving time like most of the country, she was three hours behind New York instead of two, which meant it was a little after 5:00 a.m. there, and Goliath might be at her apartment taking care of Cagney before he returned to the castle to sleep for the day.
The phone rang several times before it went to her answering machine.
"Hey, Big Guy, if you're there, pick up. It's me," she said.
A few moments later there was a click and Goliath's low voice came through the receiver.
"Elisa?" he said, his voice was concerned.
"Hi," Elisa replied, relieved and comforted to hear his voice. "I'm glad I caught you."
"Is everything alright?" he asked.
"Yeah...I just couldn't sleep. Things have been weird here, and I missed you."
"Weird? Weird how?" Goliath asked, sounding alarmed. The protective leader and mate coming out.
Elisa wasn't sure what to say to him. That there was some strange woman that kept appearing to her?
"It's just…family stuff," she sighed. "We spent some time on the reservation today, and I met my dad's uncle for the first time. He's really odd…I dunno, I got a really bad vibe from him, but it may just be that I hardly know anything about him or my Hopi heritage, to be honest, and that's why he seemed so off to me. I've always been proud of my native heritage, but I've known little about it, and I've always identified more with my African side."
She exhaled loudly.
"Does that make any sense at all?"
She heard Goliath take a deep, thoughtful breath.
"I imagine it's somewhat akin to how I feel both loyal to my new home here in Manhattan and my old home back in Scotland."
"Yeah, something like that," Elisa smiled to herself as she relaxed into the bed, feeling much more at ease now that she was talking with Goliath.
"But you should not ignore your instincts, either, Elisa. If he has triggered them, be wary."
"I will," she responded, feeling reassured that Goliath did not dismiss her feelings. "How are things going there?"
"Good. I just fed Cagney and took care of his leavings."
It gave Elisa a great deal of pleasure to picture Goliath cleaning out a litter box for some reason.
"How is everyone else?" she asked with a wide smile on her face.
"They are all well. Nothing out of the ordinary to report."
"And how are you doing?"
"Well enough. I'm tired after a long patrol tonight, and...I miss you."
"You just saw me yesterday," Elisa said with a light laugh, but it warmed her heart to hear him say it anyway.
"I know, but I still miss you," he admitted.
"I miss you, too," Elisa agreed, and then she had a very sly, very wicked thought.
"So…how much do you miss me?" she said, her tone teasing.
"Immensely. I wish it were Monday night and I could hold you in my arms once more," he admitted.
"And once you have me in your arms again, what would you do to me?" Elisa asked, her tone sultry.
"What do you mean?" Goliath asked, puzzled by the question.
Elisa smiled affectionately at his naiveté.
"I know what I'd like to do to you…" she said. "I'd run my hands over your broad chest, then down over your rippling abdomen. Then I'd tear your loincloth off and run my tongue along the length of your rock-hard cock."
"Elisa!" Goliath said scandalized, but there was a delighted tone in his voice as well.
"I'd devour you like you were an ice cream cone," she continued.
She heard a puff of breath in the receiver like someone had hit him.
"Stars above, Elisa…" he moaned.
It thrilled her to have that effect on him.
"What would you do to me?" she asked again, her tone coquettish and encouraging.
"I'd start by kissing that wonderfully lewd mouth of yours," Goliath said affectionately, and Elisa grinned smugly to herself.
"Then I'd kiss your neck, particularly that spot below your ear that makes you squirm so delightfully…" his voice had lowered, and Elisa bit her bottom lip.
She knew he'd be good at this once she introduced him to it, but until now she hadn't had an opportunity to.
"I'm squirming just thinking about it," Elisa sighed.
She heard a soft aroused growl on the other end that made her toes curl.
"Then I'd run my tongue over the hollow of your throat, before I worked my way lower to your breasts."
Elisa closed her eyes and thought of him as she slowly trailed her fingers down her neck and collarbone and over her breasts.
"Yes," she sighed.
"I'd take one of your nipples into my mouth, and I'd slide my hand—Cagney! You shouldn't be out there!"
Elisa furrowed her brow and sat up.
"Goliath? Is everything alright?" she asked, alarmed.
There was no answer.
"Goliath?"
Still no answer.
"Goliath!" she said a little panicked.
She waited several long minutes, the line hadn't gone dead, so he hadn't hung up, but he wasn't responding either.
She looked at the time. The sun would be up soon in Manhattan.
She waited several more minutes for him to come back and then after thirty minutes had gone by, she hung up and called the castle. There was a direct line that very few people were privy to, but she was one of them.
"Yes?" Owen Burnett answered informally and somewhat tersely. This was not a business line so he did not answer it as such.
"Owen, could you do me a favor and check and see if Goliath made it home safely for me?"
"Detective Maza, last I checked, I was under the employ of Mr. Xanatos, not you," Owen replied, his tone annoyed. "And as for favors, I do not think you know exactly what you are asking. Do you truly wish to be in my debt?"
The way he said it, she knew he didn't mean Owen's debt…he meant the other guy. Puck.
"Oh, uh, no—"
"Fortunately for you, I am standing in the courtyard, and I can clearly see Goliath asleep on the tower."
"Oh, thank god," she sighed with relief. She wondered what that was all about earlier with Cagney, and chalked it up to his unfamiliarity with using a phone.
"Thank you, Owen. Uh, have a good day."
"You as well, detective."
She hung up.
There wasn't much she could do where she was and had to hope and trust that whatever happened earlier, Cagney was alright.
She tried to get some sleep after that, and though it was long in coming, at least she didn't have any more nightmares.