First, a big shout out to my awesome beta, xfang-girlx. She, as always, has been an incredible help to me. Second, thanks to my fabulous and ever faithful reviewer Leyshla. I appreciate my girls!

Sixteen years ago: the day of Sera's seventeenth birthday and the day of her mother's funeral

Sera had walked home from the cemetery in the rain, refusing to ride with her father. The rain did not bother her though it was cold. It felt cleansing as if it was washing off all of the filth she had carried around for years. She was sure her father was busy drowning his sorrow in some bar so she took her time getting home. Raising her face to the chilling drops, she allowed them to mix with the hot tears streaming down her cheeks. With any luck, he would find a companion for the night and go home with her. He had not touched her since the night her mother had killed herself. She had not allowed him to do so. Her mother's workshop, a small but complete house on its own, had become her haven. She walked into the building, locking the door behind her before she built a fire in the old-fashioned kiln. Until the fire could get going, she took a hot shower then changed into comfortable and warm black sweatpants and black sweatshirt. Lying down on the bed, she rolled up in the comforter and cried. She seemed to be unable to stop the tears from coming. Feeling a bit dehydrated, she got up to go to the kitchen for a drink. On her way there, she tripped over something in the dim light managing to stub her toe.

"Ow! Dammit! What the hell!" she yelled, dropping down to the floor rub her sore toe. Rocking on her butt, she massaged her toe while feeling sorry for herself. Her hand moved over something smooth as she felt around on the floor for what had tripped her. Struggling to see in the muted light that danced and moved across the wall in a mix of shadows and the reddish glow from the flames, she picked up the flat rectangular object. Gliding her fingers over the black leather cover of the notebook, she traced the silver letters. "D-E-A-T-H-N-O-T-E," she spelled out to herself. "Death Note? What the hell is that?"

Sera opened the book seeing what looked like an average notebook. It looked just like one of the composition books she used for journaling in English class. Death Note. What does that mean? A low growl sounded from the dark frightening her. She dropped the notebook, pressing her hand to her chest. Her heart was beating so frantically it hurt. Her breathing ceased entirely when a pair of large golden-yellow eyes appeared out of the night in front of her.

"You can kill anyone you want using that," a deep rumbling voice told her.

"What do you mean?" she asked, watching as a long black snout and sharp white fangs appeared in the light pooling around her. She was soon face to face with a massive wolf.

"With that notebook, you hold the power of death in your hands. I am a Shinigami. That is my notebook. By writing someone's name in that book, you can determine when they die and how they die. If you just write their name, they die of a heart attack," he explained, standing to his feet.

"Oh, my god!" Sera exclaimed, staring up at the Death God. He had to be at least seven feet tall, had the body of a muscular man, skin that was as black and shiny as ebony, and the wolf's head and neck with fur that curled down onto his chest. Thick gold rings pierced his ears and his nipples. Rectangular gold plates were embedded in his skin, forming a necklace across his shoulders and chest while smaller ones formed bracelets around his massive biceps. His only clothing was a thin linen skirt he wore in the fashion of the ancient Egyptians. He was beautiful, like a statue of the Egyptian god of the dead, Anubis. He was also terrifying to her.

"My name is Tutanubis. It means in the image of Anubis," he explained, reaching down to take her hand. He lifted her from the floor easily as if she weighed no more than a doll.

"Well, that name makes perfect sense," she muttered, continuing to stare up at him.

"Are you afraid?" he inquired, smoothing her hair back from her face. His large palm pressed against her cheek, covering the whole left side of her face.

"Yes," she answered truthfully, her body trembling. Strangely, she found the warmth of his hand shocking and comforting all at the same time. She would have thought anything to do with death would be cold, an unearthly cold that froze the body all the way to the soul. Her eyes fixed themselves on his fangs. Lines of slobber had formed between them, glistening in the low light of the fire. She could hear him panting as he stared at her with his huge yellow eyes that never blinked or moved from her face. "What are you going to do with me?"

"Nothing like that, my dear. It is forbidden. Besides, why would I treat you in such a manner as the monster you want to kill?" he asked her, watching her whirl away from him with the notebook held tightly to her chest.

"You know?"

"I know all about you. I've been watching you for months. I believe you are a worthy recipient of my Death Note."

Sera sat down on the bed, flipping on the small lamp sitting on the bedside table. It did little more than completely dispel the shadows and fully illuminate the profoundly masculine Shinigami with the canine head. Keeping her head down, she wrote furiously in the notebook propped on one knee while she sat cross legged in the bed. Once she finally stopped writing, she handed the notebook to the Shinigami who made himself comfortable on the bed next to her. She glared at him as if he were settling in to read a long novel. He seemed a little too familiar with her already, and this did not set well with her. Sighing heavily, she determined she might as well get used to it since he did not seem to understand boundaries.

"You plan to kill him yourself?" he questioned her, reading through the three paragraph narrative again.

"Yes. He deserves to die by my hand. I want to pay him back for everything he did to me. I will stab him once for every time he raped me," she said, staring at the wall in front of her.

"But - "

"My father is a very big man. I will use his arms and legs. If he gets chopped up into little bitty pieces that's fine. It will make it easier to stuff him in the kiln to get rid of the body. The very first thing I plan to do is cut off his - "

"Yes, well, you don't need to finish that sentence," he interrupted her, slamming the notebook closed to hand it back to her.

Sera carefully opened the notebook to add one more line to her father's death sentence. And I will never, EVER, be caught.

~\0/~

Present day...

"Tutanubis! Tutanubis!" Sera screamed unnecessarily as she entered her house.

"I'm in here!" a deep resonating voice that almost sounded like a peal of thunder responded.

"Ugh," she groaned realizing his voice was coming from the television room. For a Death God, he had a disconcerting and ravenous addiction to pornography. She closed her eyes, knocking on the door. "Is it safe to come in? Are you decent?"

"Watch where you walk and you know damn good and well that I'm never decent," he answered.

"You're so disgusting," she admonished, walking into the room. Since she had warned him she was coming in he had turned off the tv and opened the curtains. She stepped around the dirty girly magazines, empty pizza boxes, and beer cans littering the floor. Tutanubis had gained an affection for far too many things of the human world. "You're such a perverted sicko."

"Takes one to know one," he retorted, adjusting the white linen skirt he was wearing.

Sera glared at the ancient Egyptian Shinigami of S&M - that was what he looked like to her anyway. "I had no idea Death Gods could develop so many vices. You need to clean this place up. Does it every bother you that you're such a living - " She paused, giggling at her own misplaced word. He was hardly alive being a Shinigami. "Such a terrible cliché."

"What do you mean?" He plopped his big body down on the couch, propping his feet on the coffee table in front of him. If it were not for his unusual, to say the least, appearance, it would be easy to mistake him for a human male.

"A man who is a lecherous creep is called a wolf," she informed him, sitting down beside him.

"I take that as a compliment."

"Of course you would." She scooted over a bit when he leaned toward her with his golden eyes glimmering mischievously. "There's something I need you to do."

"Anything for you, my Queen." He put his arm around her shoulders, licking her cheek.

"Don't call me that. Don't do that again. You know I hate that." That was exactly why he had licked her like a dog. She shivered, pushing him away. "I need you to find out everything you can about a guy named Rue. He looks like a psychotic black Dandelion. He visited me today and - what?"

"Do you mean the guy that was here last night watching you perform your macabre extracurricular activities?" he queried nonchalantly, staring out of the window to avoid her deadly glower. It was a good thing for him he was not actually alive.

"That would be the one. Why didn't you say anything?"

"He's harmless. To someone like you anyway. He would have seen me, and I'm not revealing myself to him. I'm yours and yours alone. Besides, he's not exactly human. He's something special. I already know who he is."

"What do you mean?" She moved toward him when he withdrew his arm from around her.

"He has a few names in this world. Rue Ryuzaki is the one he's using now. B, BB, Beyond Birthday...you never know who he'll be next. He's known to Shinigami as the Death God half breed. It's because of him that the rule was written that Shinigamis cannot have sex with humans. He's the child of a Shinigami and a human woman," he told her, moving closer to her. He put his finger under her chin, tilting her head up. "Good thing for you it's against the rules or I would have made you my lover years ago."

"Hmph," she snorted, pushing his hand away. "You helped me slay a monster. You wouldn't have become one."

"You're right. I'll always protect you. Don't worry your pretty little head about anything," he told her, pulling her into his arms.

"How do I find this guy?" She pressed her hand against his chest. It was still strange to feel nothing under her palm, no heartbeat, just his muscles flexing.

"He'll come to you again when he's ready."

"Yeah. That's the part I don't like."

~...~

Several days went by with no appearance by the freak of human nature and the world beyond. Sera was preparing to enjoy her next few days off. She had just completed a seventy-two hour shift. That meant she had lived at the hospital for the three days, eating and sleeping when she could between the regularly scheduled surgeries while being on call for emergencies. At least she had three days of uninterrupted rest to look forward to. Dr. Blackwood had already assured her that he would not call her and just make due with the anesthesiologist on hand.

Sera had just poured herself a glass of wine; a dark red, almost black, pinot noir. She had flicked on the grill section of her stove and was seasoning her steak when she heard Tutanubis call her name.

"You have a visitor," he informed her.

"Dammit," she hissed, throwing the steak on the grill. She was not in the mood for visitors tonight. Especially him. A warmth settled across her back, and she knew he was behind her. Her body shuddered in response to him being so close to her.

"Miss me?" Rue asked, his warm breath flowing across her neck and raising goosebumps.

"No. Not particularly," she responded coldly, flipping her steak. She wanted just a bit of color and the grill marks on the outside of the meat. Rare was her favorite way to eat a steak. It was hot and brown on the outside, cold and bloody on this inside. Just right.

"Oh, that hurts," he moaned in mock offense. His fingers drifted up her arm raising every nerve to attention as they made their way to her neck that was bare to him since she had her hair twisted up into a messy bun. His breath stirred the loose hairs hanging against her neck and he felt her quiver uncontrollably from the tickling sensation. He liked the way her body reacted to him. In the highly polished brass backsplash of the stove, he could see her reflection. His touch had provoked a stimulating response from her which was evidenced by her hardened nipples straining against the tight fabric of her white tank top.

"What do you want?" Sera inquired testily, hearing the tremor in her voice. Her eyes drifted closed when his fingers slid around her side and along the round edge of her breast. An involuntary gasp burst forth from her lips when his finger grazed her sensitive nipple. She cursed her body for being so weak, for immediately yielding beneath the slightest touch from him.

"I've already told you," he whispered, his lips brushing her cheek. "I want you."

Sera instantly came back to herself when the delicious scent of the cooking meat filled her nostrils. She snatched the steak from the flames with the tongs, putting it on her plate. Her stomach growled in response to the smell of the food. Her need for food triumphed over her sexual hunger. Pushing past him, she sat down at the counter in the kitchen to eat. It unnerved her terribly how he casually took a seat next to her as if he had been an invited guest. Pretending as if he did not exist at this moment, she cut into the steak watching as blood gushed forth and covered her plate. Perfect. She had not overcooked it after all despite the distraction sitting next to her.

"Who was the first person you murdered?" Rue queried boldly, taking great pleasure in observing her voraciously devouring the steak like a true carnivore.

"Not one for idle chit-chat are you?" she grumbled through a mouthful of barely cooked meat. Taking her time to chew and savor, then washing it all down with a long sip of wine, she was in no big hurry to answer his question. She doubted he had any intention of leaving soon anyway. "My father. What about you?"

"I can't remember really. There's been so many," he replied wistfully as if referring to past girlfriends instead of victims who died by his hand. He reached over and took her wine glass by the stem, swirling the deep red liquid around as he held it up to the light.

Sera stopped eating to study him as he stuck his nose in her glass to deeply inhale the wine. She would have never guessed he was a wine connoisseur. Dropping her knife and fork onto her plate with a loud clatter, she huffed in disbelief as he daintily sipped the wine to give it a taste before draining her glass.

"By all means, make yourself at home. What's mine is yours," she muttered irritably, hopping off of her bar stool. She retrieved another wine glass from the rack built underneath her counter and filled both glasses before sitting back down. Sitting the wine bottle next to her, she hoped she did not have to share again. Presumptuous bastard. He was getting on her last fucking nerve. Speaking of... "So do you plan to fuck me at some point or do you prefer being a tease?"

Rue chuckled; a low, sinister rumble that had a threatening overtone to it. "All in good time, my dear. First, I think we should play together. Extreme foreplay if you will."

I will NOT! , her brain screamed. Instead, she heard herself saying, "How so?"

She propped her foot on the cushion of the bar stool between his legs. She regretted it when he slid forward, pressing the bulge in his jeans against the bottom of her bare foot.

"I want to be with you when you kill your next victim. We can even choose the unlucky soul together. It will be extremely intimate," he said, his soft, smooth voice moving across her jagged nerves like a lover's caress. His hand covered her foot, pressing it into his crotch as he moved himself against it. "I believe it will be extraordinarily exciting for the both of us. I can barely contain myself just thinking about it."

"I-I c-can t-tell," she stuttered while he continued to use her foot as an object of sexual gratification. Closing her eyes, she leaned back in her chair struggling to control her breathing and stifle the sexual hunger growing within her. This only made it easier to hear to his subdued panting which made every muscle in her body clinch with desire. She yelped and opened her eyes when she felt his hand sliding up her leg. Her eyes met his as his fingers slipped under her skirt and between her thighs. She was afraid and breathless with anticipation all at once.

"Close your eyes," he told her.

"No," she whispered, her obstinate eyes meeting his. Her nose grazed his when she jumped as his fingers traced the edge of her panties along the inside of her thigh.

"Okay then," he returned, pressing his lips to hers.

The kiss was slow, tender, undemanding and giving. His soft lips leisurely ravaged hers, daring to bringing her to a high state of arousal. She had been kissed before but never like this. The thing that terrified her was that his kiss was possessive and burying her self-control with its gentle quality. Then...he was gone.

"Bastard!" she screamed, slamming her fist down on the counter in frustration. She was left panting like a bitch in heat. Then the horny dog showed up.

"Watching you was better than any porno I've ever seen!" Tutanubis exclaimed, his long pink tongue lolling out of his mouth.

"Ewww! Would you get out of here?!" Sera hollered at him, jumping off the bar stool.

"Where are you going?" he called after her without giving in to the temptation to follow her.

"To take a cold shower," she replied over her shoulder.

"Good luck with that. There's only one thing that will put the fire out that he started!"

"Yeah, I know."