Sleep eluded Kaidan that night. He lay on is mattress with the comforter kicked to the foot of the bed. He stared blindly at the ceiling for hours. His mind, still feeling the aftereffects of drinking so heavily, whirled and no matter how many times he tried to get comfortable, his thoughts would not settle. They all kept coming back to her, to the damn woman who had somehow wriggled her way into his life and dominated his thoughts in the wee hours of the morning.

He sat up a little when he heard the creak of his bedroom door, and there she was, like out of one of his fantasies. Shafts of golden light peeked through the blinds over his window and rippled across her body as she moved silently into the room. She had something between her teeth, but it was too dark to make out what it was.

She shut the door behind her with a soft click and leaned against it with her hand still resting on the doorknob, as if she was deciding whether to stay or flee.

Neither of them spoke. Kaidan had propped himself up on one elbow to look at her in the darkness. He was suddenly aware that he wasn't wearing much – just his dark blue jockeys. A fact that hadn't slipped Nora's notice. Her green eyes glinted in the darkness as they raked over his body. He couldn't honestly say he didn't like it.

She came to stand at the foot of his bed, and he barely registered the packet of red sand between her teeth as she grasped the hem of his shirt she slept in and shimmied out of it in one fluid motion. She dropped it onto the floor and stood there as he stared, open-mouthed.

She crawled on all fours towards him like a panther, a predatory gleam in her eye. There was glitter on her skin, sparkling in the half-darkness as the golden shafts of lights undulated over her shoulders and bare back. Kaidan scooted backwards, his heart hammering against his ribs, until his back hit the headboard. She moved closer slowly, the packet of red sand dangling from her teeth, a sharp half-smile pulling at her lips.

Shit shit shit.

She opened her teeth a little and the packet fell into his lap, and then her mouth descended onto his, hot and wanting and delicious. Her tongue swept across his lower lip and he obeyed, opening his mouth to allow that devilish tongue inside and she rewarded him with a moan, deep in her throat that sent shivers rocketing down his spine. Her fingers were tearing open the little plastic bag as her mouth worked against his. And Kaidan knew that he wanted this, her, everything. He'd spent far too long denying himself.

It had been strange, to say the least, to experience red sand the first time. And it was made even more difficult with her fingers straying across the front of his jockeys while he nervously leaned over and inhaled as she had shown him.

Blue biotic flames burst to life across his body as he jerked backwards with a hiss, panting hard. Nora's hands came to his face, to steady him as the red sand worked its magic. Red tinted the edges of his vision as the drug took hold.

He felt… he felt amazing. His whole body was sparking and tingling. There was a pleasant buzzing somewhere at the back of his skull, and his biotics glowed brightly in the darkness of the room. He grinned energetically and looked up at her with another surging flare of his biotics.

She looked pleased, and he was possessed by the closeness of her.

His arms hooked around her waist and he drew her astride his hips to bite and kiss at her neck and shoulder, pressing her flush against his chest. She gasped and moaned and wriggled, and he drew her lips down to his for another searing kiss, his hand cupping the back of her neck. The red sand coursed through him like fire and he needed to taste her, to feel her, to see her writhe under his touch.

He pushed her off his hips with a sudden growl and she fell back against the mattress with a sharp gasp, looking up at him as his hands slid up and over her thighs. He watched with hungry eyes as her breathing grew ragged at his touch. His thumb caught the waistband of the smalls she wore, lacy ridiculous things they were, and he all but ripped them from her hips in one swift jerk.

She whimpered as Kaidan's biotics flickered into existence. His fingers, glowing brightly blue and thrumming with biotic energy, roamed over her hips and lower stomach, and he noted with pride that she was wriggling eagerly, rubbing her thighs together to ease the burning tension there. He shifted and laid alongside her on the bed, and his hand cupped a breast. His thumb teased over the hardened nipple and she arched into the touch with a jerky moan.

He bent a head and took the nipple into his mouth and she cried out, her hand fisting tightly in his hair, anchoring him in place. His hand glided down the flat expanse of her stomach while his tongue and lips and teeth drove her flesh to hypersensitivity. His biotics hummed, as if they were just as excited as he was, and he pushed a finger experimentally into her slick folds. She whimpered and clung to him. He rubbed slowly with the tip of his index finger and she thrashed.

He inserted a second finger, crooked them upwards, and a spark of blue energy shot through her. He swallowed her screams of pleasure with his mouth as she arched off the mattress, taken by surprise by the efficiency of his biotics. His fingers coaxed her down from the crest of her orgasm and she lay there, trembling and panting, a complete pleasured mess at his hands.

He couldn't suppress his feral, satisfied grin. Did Vega appreciate the little trembles, the gasping pants as she rode the aftershocks of her pleasure? From the look on her face, he didn't think so. He dipped his head and she met him halfway, leaning up a little to receive his kiss.

And now she slipped her hands beneath the waistband and took him in hand and he groaned at the sensation of her soft fingers moving across the over-sensitive flesh. She licked her lips as she stroked him, languid and slow and tortuous.His fantasies abruptly had the flimsy feel of paper compared to the real thing, to the real woman lying beside him in the twilight. She was moving again, to pull his jockeys down and fling them across the room.

He chuckled at her enthusiasm and shifted to hover over her. Another kiss, slow and hot andwonderful, and his hand slipped down her thigh to the back of her knee. He lifted her leg gently and hooked her knee over his shoulder to open her up to him. He settled for a moment between her thighs to ravish her neck and shoulders and collarbone with tongue and teeth, his hands caress the thigh pressed to his shoulder.

She wriggled beneath him expectantly, but he waited, his lips moving across her jaw and neck, tasting her glittery skin. But she was impatient, and she lifted her hips off the mattress to speed up the process.

His biotics flared into life immediately, and he pressed her back down to the bed with one strong hand. She whined and he grinned down at her, but there was a tautness to his eyes that betrayed restraint.

"Patience is a virtue," he said, deep and husky and teasing in her ear, and she shivered. "Ask me nicely."

"Please… please touch me." He took note of the deep flush that had settled across her cheeks. She clearly wasn't used to talking. He wondered ferociously whether Vega had even said her name during their little trysts. He was determined to show her that rough and hard and fast wasn't the only way. His hand moved from her lower stomach upwards towards her breasts. His thumb ghosted over a hardened nipple and she whimpered. He continued to torture her for a few more minutes before she cried out, practically sobbing with desire.

"Kaidan, please,I need –"

He silenced her with his mouth, and slowly, he slipped inside of her with a groan. He leaned down, her knee still resting on his shoulder, until they were nearly flush against one another. Her arms came around his shoulder and he buried his faced into her neck. Then, and only then, did he start to move.

It was a totally different experience for Nora. Kaidan was slow and gentle and generous, compared to the fast-paced and carnal fucking she'd come to expect with Vega and others before him. He didn't speak much, aside from whispering her name,Nora, but he somehow knew when she needed him to move faster, when she wanted him to kiss her, when she wished for his fingers to come between them and rub. And it was fantastic and she couldn't think, didn't want to think –

"Look at me, sweetheart. Look at me," he pleaded and her unfocused eyes flicked to his face as she drew close to the precipice again. She arched, murmurs sharpening into gasps, fingernails digging red stripes into his shoulder blades. He groaned softly as they kissed again, tongues and lips and molten fire, and he could feel her walls shudder and clench around him as she toed the edge of orgasm. He was close, too, but he was determined that she got her good first.

"Harder, Kaidan, please, oh God," she whined, begging, and he mindlessly obeyed, rocking against her with a renewed ferocity that made her cry out. So close… so close.

With a shout, they fell over the edge together, tumbling chaotically through madness to find the one safe haven on the far side of the abyss. Groans and whimpering sighs and murmurs of names filled the room. His hand found hers in the last moments and he held it tightly, fingers laced, as if it was his last tether to this earthly plane of existence. She watched his face raptly as they rode out of the aftershocks together. He exhaled a trembling breath and lowered her leg back down to the mattress with a shy little grin.

"Good?" was all he could manage and she laughed. His smile faltered a bit and he just looked anxious now, and she planted a sweet kiss on the corner of his mouth.

He turned his head, though, and their lips met, all softness and affection. She didn't think she'd ever get tired of that.

"It was definitely better than my fantasies," she replied. Her fantasies? Oh my God. He swallowed hard and rolled onto his back beside her. She followed, curving herself alongside him with her head resting on his outstretched bicep. His arm curled around her and drew her closer, until her head was tucked beside his neck. His hand moved lazily across her lower back, over the tattoo he hadn't gotten to see, but it didn't matter now. There'd be time later, he hoped.

He chuckled, already feeling sleep tugging at the corners of his mind. But the red sand was still coursing through him, and his thoughts were whirling again. Her hands were exploring him now, slowly mapping every ripple of his abdomen, following the trail of dark hairs that led from his chest back down the stiffening flesh between his legs.

"Minx," he said through gritted teeth, and she laughed again.

The red sand had given him an excess of stamina, he realized now, as she shifted to settle herself astride his hips. He looked up at her, and her hands reached down to encircle him, guiding him. His hands came to rest automatically on her hips, squeezing, his fingernails digging into her flesh, leaving small crescent shapes along her backside.

Their second time was rougher, more desperate, less kind. Everything was too sensitive now, their pleasure edged with a throbbing undercurrent of pain. She took control this time, and he watched her raptly as she rode him, her hips grinding against his unevenly. He pushed himself up and wrapped his arms around her waist with a groan. She tossed back her head and his mouth descended on the creamy column of her throat, nipping and kissing his way to her collarbone.

She gasped and arched and soon another orgasm ripped through them both, and she collapsed onto his chest, utterly spent. He fell back onto the mattress, chest heaving.

"I think… I'm done now," she whispered between pants, lifting her head off his chest. He kissed her wordlessly, pressing his mouth blindly to hers as he rolled her to his side and folded her against his chest. Again and again he kissed her, deeply, chastely, gently, roughly, any possible way in between, leaving her trembling and panting.

He hoped if he kissed her enough, he wouldn't have to speak, to tell her... He loved her. The thought thrilled and terrified him simultaneously.

She fit under his chin and against his body almost perfectly, her arm draped over his side. He watched her as she fell into a doze in the slowly blooming light of dawn, before sleep finally claimed him. He dreamed of little, except red and black and mossy green.

He awoke abruptly to the sound of silence, sunlight streaming through the window in bright shafts of morning light now. He felt cold. He looked down and she was gone without a trace. Ice pierced his heart and he scrambled to his feet. He yanked on clothes as quick as he could, tripping over his jeans as he wrenched open his door and ventured into the hall.

Please let her be in the shower.

The bathroom door was standing wide open. Darkness and silence greeted him as he looked into it. Panic was steadily rising in his chest now. He opened her bedroom door. Her bed sheets were untouched, and she wasn't there, either. He whirled on his heel and called her name.

He entered the living room and the panic swelled even higher. He felt like he might drown in it. The room was a mess. His coffee table was broken, shattered to pieces. His photographs had all been destroyed, and his vidscreen sparked feebly as it hung on the wall, a huge crack running down the center. His front door was open. Nora was nowhere to be found.

How had he not heard any of this? He could think of only one explanation, and it made his insides turn cold. He spotted something lying by the front door out of the corner of his eye. He strode over and picked it up. It was a packet of red sand, identical to the one she had brought to his bedroom last night. He opened it and dipped a pinky into the small red granules. He licked the tip of his finger. Shit. He had been hoping his hunch was wrong, but there was a definite taste of a powerful narcotic laced in the red sand.

And then, like a bolt of lightning, Kaidan suddenly knew who had taken Nora. He felt like someone had just punched him in the stomach. His mind whirled as realization hit him like a freight train.

Sovereign. Sovereign had taken her, and he knew where.

Kaidan moved through the apartment with renewed vigor now. He yanked on his boots and a t-shirt and reached for the holster on the hook by the door. He wasn't surprised to see that it was empty. Only an idiot would have left a weapon behind, and Sovereign was no idiot. He pulled it on anyway and left the house.

It didn't matter that his pistol was gone. Kaidan could stop at any C-Sec outpost and requisition a weapon before heading to Sovereign's hideout. But walking outside and seeing his sky car gone was certainly a setback. He stood there, mind scrabbling to recover. He opened his omni-tool and called Bailey.

"Alenko, what's happened?" came Bailey's gruff voice from the other end of his line.

"There's no time to explain, Bailey. I need a sky car sent to my house."

"Wait, what happened to yours?"

Kaidan gritted his teeth. "Sovereign took it."

There was a pause. "Sovereign was at your house?"

"He… he drugged us, Bailey. He slipped something into our… drinks at the gala last night." Best to leave the red sand out of it for now. "And he took her, Bailey. He took Nora."

"Nora?"

"Ashley's murderer. He took her."

Bailey was a smart man. He could piece things together pretty well. Kaidan waited impatiently for Bailey to come to the right conclusion.

"Shit, son, are you touched in the head?"

"Can we skip the lectures for now, please? I need a sky car immediately. And send C-Sec officers to meet me at Purgatory. Tell them to be discreet. There's a hostage involved and I don't want Sovereign to get spooked."

"What? The bar?"

"That's where he's taken her."

"And you know this how?"

"…Call it a hunch."

Kaidan hung up the call without waiting for Bailey's inevitably snarky response. He began pacing, hands on his hips, as he waited for a sky car. Hopefully Bailey would have the sense to send one of the undercover vehicles. He didn't need to alert all of Harbinger's agents to his presence when he arrived. And Sovereign… Kaidan could have punched himself. Why didn't he realize earlier? Hindsight really is 20/20,he thought bitterly. Looking back, it all made sense.

Alone and without anything to do, his thoughts wandered and he didn't like the places they visited. He imagined the cruelties being inflicted on Nora as he stood there helplessly, and his stomach turned.

No. He would stop this. He had to stop this. I should've told her. Shit, why didn't I tell her?

Finally, a red sky car glided into view and lowered itself down onto the gravel driveway. Kaidan ran for the car and opened the door. Set to auto-pilot, the car was empty, but there was a duffel bag full of shotguns, pistols, and rifles in the backseat.

"Bailey, you are a godsend."

He found two Carnifex pistols and shoved them into his holsters, pocketed several spare thermal clips, and fished out a Crusader shotgun. He grinned at it viciously.

"Always did love this shotgun."

He pumped it with a quick jerk of his hand and slid into the front seat. The door closed behind him automatically and he set the butt of the shotgun on the floor of the passenger seat.

"Don't you worry, Nora. I'm comin' for you."