This is how much I love you (or how guilty I feel about disappearing!), two updates in two days! And another one will be tomorrow.

I couldn't remember the last time I'd danced. Long enough to forget that it could be fun.

When Haven first invited me with her I'd been nervous, worried that I'd forgotten how or that she'd have some dancing style that I couldn't match, like the tango or that Slavic dance with the kicking leg thing… Kozachsomething. I'd balked and almost run back to the table twice before Haven pulled me in front of her and started moving.

It was as easy as talking to her had been, I was uncertain at first but as soon as I tried it I felt like we'd been dance partners for years. She danced easily and made it just as easy for me to match her. It was so natural that when I looked up and saw that we were almost completely surrounded by girls I was surprised by how jerky and juvenile their movements seemed.

The only odd thing was that Haven kept looking around us like something was bothering her. I was getting ready to ask her about what was going on when without warning she froze and I followed her gaze to the guys locker room where the door was swinging shut.

"Hey I've got to duck out real quick." She smiled and there was an unease there that hadn't been there before.

I walked with her off the dance floor and followed to the guys locker room where she stopped and turned, frowning up at me.

"What's the deal?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"Deal?" She asked, eyes wide with innocence.

Fortunately I'd had a lot of practice with Chloe and was immune to Bambi eyes.

"Why exactly are you going into the guys locker room? And why do you look different? And why do you keep scoping out the place like a cop?"

Her eyes widened in surprise.

I gave her an exasperated look. "Yes boys can be observant too."

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, a familiar gesture that on Derek meant he was deliberating and frustrated. A shout from inside the locker room made both of us freeze.

"Stay here." She snapped, her tone and intonation commanding, like she was used to people doing what she told them, and slipped inside.

I counted to two and a half and followed.

"I can't keep doing this!" Someone was saying angrily. "It's dangerous and wrong and I don't care if you do show the pictures to my wife." It was a middle-aged man, cornered by a group of guys from my class in the showers.

I looked around for Haven but she had disappeared, leaving me standing in a locker room with only a partial wall blocking me from the three thugs.

"Shit." I muttered.

Haven appeared around the opposite corner, saw me and mouthed a curse.

"Kids are getting hurt." The man's voice took on a pleading edge.

Haven slipped along the wall until she got to me, then slid over my body like a human shield, pressing me into the wall. It was something that Derek had done a few times but when Derek did it it didn't make my cheeks feel nearly as warm like they did now. I shook it off. Considering that I had at least half a foot of height on her I tried to move her behind me while getting a knock-back spell ready, but an icy reduce-to-ash-now glare froze me in place as securely as a binding spell.

"-And you are going to get hurt if you don't give us those prescriptions."

"Yeah my ADD is killing me." One of the thugs laughed. "Looks like I need some Aderal."

"And Strattera, Concerta and Vyvanse. Also Ritalin just to make sure." The first said back.

Haven pulled a slim cell phone out of… honestly I don't know where—and pressed a number, then pushed me towards the exit.

I got ready to protest but when someone picked up on the other line I knew I had to leave to talk without giving us away and with a scowl that I'd learned from Derek, I silently went outside.

"Haven? Haven?" Someone was saying on the other line.

"Sorry Haven's busy at the moment playing secret agent. I'm Simon Bae and I'd like to know what the hell is going on NOW."

"Shit... Where. Is. She." The guy on the other line sounded super worried and I hesitated.

"She's… She's in the guy's locker room with three thugs and some other guy."

"Damnit. I'm sending one of our other agents in. Just stay where you are, she'll find you."

The line went dead.

Seriously? I stared at the phone, tempted to redial.

"Simon!" Derek's voice made me look up. "What the hell?"

"So Haven's some kind of secret agent and she's about to take out three guys from our school and I just somehow called for back-up and they're sending another person in to help her." The explanation flew out of my mouth in record time.

They stopped and stared.

"Simon! Shit! All of you are here? What the fuck?" A familiar voice called and I froze and turned slowly.

Savannah Levine was running up to us, miraculously unnoticed by most of the crowd, at least most of the female population.

We all stared at her.

"Damnit. Is she still in there?" She didn't wait for an answer, just went into the locker room without acknowledging my existence further.

"Well. This is interesting." Chloe said with a weak smile my way.

"What. The. Fuck." I responded.

We stood outside the guy's locker room feeling like idiots for what felt like forever before Haven opened the door.

"You can come in now." She slanted a sideways look at me. "Sorry about all this."

We filed in and she locked the door behind us. I looked into the shower area and tried not to drop my jaw. All three thugs were subdued, one unconscious, the other two conscious but with a bleeding nose on one and a pants-shitting expression on the other. All three were on the floor with their hands tied behind their backs with plastic bands. The guy who had been cornered sat on a bench, looking both relieved and terrified.

Savannah and Haven were arguing on the opposite side of the room, out of hearing range of their prisoners and the rescued guy. We walked over to them so we could hear what they were saying.

"You were supposed to wait for backup before coming in!" Savannah hissed.

"The hell would I need backup for? This was elementary stuff. They're freaking kids for christs sake!" Haven responded emphatically. "Besides. I had a sorcerer for backup. And a werewolf and necromancer backing him up so I was pretty well covered!"

I stared at her. Then at Savannah, then at her again and felt a stab of hurt. Another supernatural girl had used me for her own purposes. Haven caught the look and frowned.

"Savannah… Did you not tell Mr. Bae that we were going to move on this?"

Savannah shrugged, flicking her heavy dark hair over one shoulder.

Haven stared at her openly. "You didn't tell our contact that we were going to do a drug bust at the school WHERE HIS KIDS GO?"

"It's his kids, not him, they shouldn't have been involved at all."

Haven threw her hands in the air, looking furious. "I am never. Ever. Working with you again."

Savannah rolled her eyes and went to open the door leading onto the football and track field, letting in a few more people, all in official-looking uniforms.

"She is the MOST stubborn. Unreliable… AGH!" Haven took a deep breath and turned to us. "Well. This is awkward."

"Who are you. What are you doing here. How do you know my dad. And how did you know about… us!" I ground out between my teeth.

"I was hired to work with your dad on his case, the interracial counsel wanted to try to stop as many repeats of Chris Blakeman as possible and your school has the highest level of illegal prescription drug trafficking in the city." She smiled suddenly. "And everyone in our world knows about you three Simon. Because of you the Edison Group has been brought to a stand-still. We'd been trying to figure out how to cripple them forever but you and your family did in a few days what we've been trying to do for years. You're pretty famous you know?"

She sighed dramatically as one of the new guys brought her a black backpack. "Oh thank God. Do you all mind if I change? I'm seriously ready to get out of this dress." When we shook our heads she unzipped her dress and started car-changing on the spot. Random bouts of nudity didn't really phase Derek as that was The Pack norm and Chloe was a girl but I felt my cheeks heat unexpectedly for the second time and looked at the floor.

"As I was saying… Ideally I'd have liked to tell you all what was going on but in our initial meeting your dad insisted that we keep contact minimum. But I didn't really expect to make friends with Chloe and I really didn't expect on getting invited here with you. Things just got complicated and I couldn't talk to your dad at the senior show or reach him after to get a green light one way or the other so I just came with you, figuring that Derek's nose might come in handy if we lost our suspects."

I glanced up and, seeing her in a pair of black pants and sports bra, glanced away again quickly. But my stupid artist's eye had already gathered more information than I wanted in that one look. It really had been a long time since I'd dated. I chalked up my reaction to the fact that Haven looked so different from other girls I'd dated, usually I went for the leggy, slender type so I was just not used to her athletic and somewhat more curvy build.

"But since most everything happened so suddenly, there was no time to be like; oh hey, I'm a PI working with your dad. Now it's over and we'll check in with your dad to see how much he wants you all to know."

I looked up again and found that she was now fully dressed. "Oh. He's going to tell us everything." I said with the kind of cold vehemence that was usually only used by Derek.

Haven flinched a little at my tone. "Okay. Well I should probably head out then-"

"You're coming with us." Chloe said with less chill in her voice but the same conviction. "We want to know everything."

"And dad will only know about the legal side." Derek's voice was completely flat, no inflection one way or another, you'd only know he was angry if you knew to look at the set of his shoulders. "You can fill in the blanks."

She hesitated again, then nodded. "Okay."

Savannah came back to where we were standing and snorted in disbelief when she looked at Haven. "I can't believe you're still wearing that face. I don't even know why you picked it, it's boring."

Haven rolled her eyes. "This is why you fail at undercover work. You're supposed to blend, not stand out."

"I can blend just fine thank you."

I gave her an incredulous look, of the many things Savannah Levine was, unobtrusive or innocuous was not one of them. She was tall, leggy with slender curves, dark hair, the looks of a European supermodel and self-assuredness that made her stand out anywhere. The confidence was what really had attracted me to her, she seemed like the kind of girl who got anything she wanted and I had wanted to be one of those things.

"Haven… I mean agent Smith. I hate to throw a wrench into everything, but you still have to DJ the second half of the party." Chloe said, glaring at Savannah's retreating back. She may be angry at Haven for lying to her but when it came down to it Savannah was still the person she disliked the most in the room.

"I gave them a CD to play if I didn't show up." Haven smiled a little sadly, looking at all of us. "As much fun as all this has been it's not where my responsibilities are."

We watched the three guys get taken away and the fourth—who turned out to be the doctor who had been writing all the prescriptions—was sent separately to be questioned.

"So… what did Savannah mean about your face?" I asked hesitantly. While most of me didn't really want to talk to her at all, there was that hurt. The fact that it had hurt meant that I actually did like her and even if it was just going to be for a few more hours, part of me didn't want to lose the first friend I'd made in a while.

Lame huh?

"Ah. That. I should probably… go take care of that…" She went to her backpack and pulled out an old photo, worn and smudged at the edges like it had been handled a lot.

I watched curiously as she opened a locker, sticking the photo into a corner of the mirror inside and taking a deep breath. She half-closed her eyes like she was seriously concentrating and bit her lip. It took me a second to realize what was going on, she wasn't biting her lip, she was sucking on it, and when she switched to the upper I saw that her lower lip looked fuller. I frowned when she put her fingertips over her face and started massaging in slow circles, shaping and pulling the skin and underlying flesh. I rubbed my eyes tiredly, still low on sleep.

I glanced over at Chlerek to see how they were doing. Chloe had her arm around Derek's waist and was leaning in a very familiar gesture for them, her ear pressed over his heart and her eyes closed. I felt the familiar tightening in my chest and throat, the envy of that connection.

I glanced at Savannah, trying to imagine her leaning on me like that. She was beautiful, powerful and charismatic but she was also extremely independent and self-reliant to the point where she scorned even the idea having an equal partner. I, on the other hand, wanted an equal partner. The very idea that having and relying on a partner made you weak was laughable to me. No one ever considered Clay or Derek weak… of course it helped that they could rip the arms off of anyone who tried.

A light touch on my shoulder pulled me out of my thoughts. I turned to see a striking girl looking up at me and I don't know if it was being caught up in the thoughts of wanting a partner or just general loneliness but I felt something, like my breath catching but without air.

"Hi there, wh-" I blinked, recognizing the unusual light color of her eyes. "… Haven?"