Jasyn watched Emily as she swished her body through the collection of tables around the dance floor, on her hip she carried a tray with empty glasses and in her other hand she clutched another four glasses. She'd adapted well to the job, picking up the habits and techniques that the everyday bar staff had to make them more efficient at their work. Jasyn felt his skin heat up in anticipation and felt irritated at himself, especially when she came around the bar and his heart began to pound, knowing that she would soon draw near to him and have to move past him. Jasyn held his breath in expectation, just as Emily drew near her eyes came up and they locked on his, the intensity of the others stare sent shivers down both their spines. Jasyn opened his mouth to speak to her, to ask her to draw closer to him when Aimee appeared from behind him. Jasyn hissed at her, hating that he was caught so off guard. The bearswan frowned darkly at him and exchanged a look with Emily who was watching with a raised brow, Jasyn glanced around and saw some of Aimee's brothers had stopped their work to throw murderous looks at him.

"You okay, Aimee?" Dev said his eyes fixed on Jasyn who couldn't care less, Aimee nodded and moved around Jasyn.

"I'm fine, I made him jump, is all," Aimee lied smoothly and Dev, not believing it in the least, inclined his head and backed away still looking ready to fight. Aimee threw one last reprimanding glare over her shoulder to Jasyn, who glared at her coldly, then she turned to Emily.

"You've decided to stay then?" she asked, leaning up against the bar, Emily gave a shrug.

"For now, I guess."

"Good because we have something extra special coming up that I'd hate for you to miss."

"And that would be?"

"Halloween, of course."

Emily looked over her shoulder when she heard Jasyn's dry, toneless voice, she gave him an incredulous look before turning back to Aimee.

"You guys don't really celebrate that, do you?" she said, keeping the distaste in her voice to a minimum.

"Of course we do!" Dev had come back and was leaning over the bar on his elbows with a stupid grin on his face, the mischievous twinkle in his eye made Emily suspicious of whether they were playing some kind of practical joke.

"Halloween is like the holy day for were-hunters around the world," he continued and Emily was sure he was joking.

"Oh, come on," She said and Aimee laughed.

"You don't believe us?"

"Well, it just seems in pretty bad taste for you all to have Halloween as your holy day," Emily said shaking her head, "I mean, is it really appropriate to hold a ceremonial day when you've got demons and goblins knocking on your door?"

"Honey, we have that everyday of the year," Dev scoffed light heartedly, "Halloween is the only day the real demons don't come aknockin'. Like you, they think it's crass."

"I should have been a demon," Emily muttered and laughed at Dev's over exaggerated gasp of pain.

"Wash your mouth out young lady! If you think being a Were is bad, you should get a load of the Gallu. See the freaks that come out of their Pride."

Emily laughed and shook her head, "seriously guys," she said looking at Jasyn, "do you really celebrate it?"

Dev just laughed and walked off, Aimee gave her a wide smile and left her with Jasyn, she looked at him for an explanation.

"Well?"

Jasyn pretended to sigh as if the whole conversation irritated him, in actual fact he was pleased that Emily was having fun. Though he didn't want to admit he felt slight tingles of jealousy at the way she laughed so easily with Dev.

"What do you think?" He asked drolly and watched her shrug her pretty shoulders.

"I think it's a crock," she said definitely, "I mean, from what you told me Were-Hunters pre-date the origins of Halloween, so it's highly unlikely that they would choose that night to celebrate."

"I like your powers of deduction," Jasyn said tonelessly and got a thrill when she laughed.

"Thanking you kindly."

"Though they do throw a bash in here for it," Jasyn informed her, eyeing the crowd before him with disdain, "Humans go crazy for the whole supernatural shit, Artemis knows why."

"Oh, lighten up and take your beak out of your butt," Emily scoffed at him, laughing when she saw his eyebrows shoot up into his hairline, "it's a night of fun and frivolity. Get it … f-u-n … Fer-Unn! You know, where no one bothers to take themselves too seriously."

Jasyn unfolded himself from his regimental stance at the wall and walked towards her, staring down at her from his great height. He didn't touch her, just listened with relish as her heart beat picked up ever so slightly at his presence, echoing the quickening thump of his own.

"Oh, I know how to have fun, Sartas," Jasyn rumbled low in her ear, "I just don't over dress for it."

Emily caught the innuendo and it made her breasts feel warm, she wanted to step nearer to him and lay her hands somewhere, anywhere. Perhaps to his throat to see if his pulse was exploding in his neck as hers was, but his warning from the other night cooled her down and Emily broke their connection by pulling her eyes from his. To his chagrin she deliberately moved away from him and picked up her tray again, with satisfaction Emily saw Jasyn's eyes cloud with uncertainty, apparently he didn't like being brushed off. Emily sauntered towards the kitchen; she threw him an alluring but devilish look over her shoulder.

"Your loss," she said lightly and moved out of sight, leaving Jasyn feeling sizably cooled and irritated.

"Try again!" Jasyn demanded angrily, watching Emily's face flush scarlet as she picked herself up from the floor again. Emily got up rather awkwardly, trying to stutter out a retort through her indignation. When Jasyn had come up to her that morning and told her that their first lesson was going to be in the evening, Emily had been thrilled. One hour into it and she was sick of being shouted out and bossed around by him, so sick she was considering telling him to stick his lessons where the sun doesn't shine.

"I told you!" she snapped once she had finally regained some height and didn't feel at such a disadvantage as shouting back at him when she was on her ass would have. "I can't transform during the day, the last time I tried I could barely hold it for more then ten minutes - and it made me feel nauseous!"

Jasyn's eyes flashed with anger, he didn't reveal that his respect for her was mounting by the minute as he watched her struggle under his teaching. For someone of her youth and inexperience to be able to transform during the day time at all was a phenomenal feat, let alone for ten minutes. Jasyn wanted to question her on how she had been able to do such a thing with aid or instruction, but he's stubborn pride would not allow him to show her his admiration, which was something he was a little aggrieved about.

"Do you know what happens to young were-hunters that can't control their powers?" Jasyn barked at her, she looked petulant as she shrugged with her arms folded angrily across her chest. "They become cannon fodder the bigger and the badder and the more powerful!"

"Like you, you mean?" Emily said half sarcastic, half contemptuous and Jasyn moved towards her and got up in her face, Emily was too exhausted to retreat.

"You're damn right!" he sneered his voice, like his body, was hyped and pumping with intensity and rage. The tone rising with every sentence to drill the point home to her. "Because in this world there is no discrimination between sexes or ages. No matter who you are, what you are, from what clan or tribe you hail - If you can't fight and if you can't win … if you can't be the baddest bitch out there that makes everyone think twice about stepping up to you and giving you shit, then you die!"

"You become what you fear," Emily cried back, getting up in his face on her tiptoes, "you make sure that when someone looks at you they know that if they disrespect you, you are coming after them with the mother-fucking legions of hell to trample over their punk asses! That whether you have to wait a week, a month or a year, you'll come back and do your worst to let every sorry, take-a-chance, sonofabitch know that you won't ever back down!"

Emily dropped back on her heels breathing hard, Jasyn raised a perfect WTF eyebrow and Emily laughed in his face.

"I'm sorry," she said breathlessly, "your speech was so inspiring that it fired up some repressed emotions."

She laughed and backed away from him, Jasyn let out a loud sigh that concealed beneath it his amused chuckle.

"For a moment there I thought you were squaring up to me," he murmured carelessly, Emily threw him a droll look over her shoulder.

"I'm not that brave."

"I'm quite certain that you are," Jasyn replied without thinking and bite his lip as he said it, not looking up to see Emily throw him a beaming smile.

"Nah," she said a little modestly, "I just heard that speech before."

She said fiddling with a twig she'd found on the floor, she stared up at the sky and inhaled. She seen many places but the bayou was something altogether magical for Emily. Perhaps it was the Were capital of the world as Jasyn had called it, maybe it was because she was there with Jasyn. Either way New Orleans would indeed hold a special place in her heart long after she was gone from it.

"Where?" Jasyn scoffed but was genuinely interested; she threw the twig away from her and meandered her way back to him, looking here and there at some form of plant life as she did so.

"I was raised in care," Emily said dismissively, more interested at the wilderness around her then her less then orthodox upbringing. "If you're not put with a nice foster family or adopted then you are in an orphanage and in a way … I guess I see myself back there again."

"I don't understand," Jasyn said quietly, studying her intently as she talked about her life, seeming completely unperturbed by it. Jasyn never talked about his past and if he had, it had never been casually.

"Well, I grew up in a poor borough in New York. There wasn't a mother or father or even siblings, I was alone. And even as kids we were savvy, we cut our teeth on stealing things for ourselves, more food or some new kid's clothes, you know. You built up your stock and bartered and sold to get what you wanted, or in certain cases not to get beat up. It was very much, every man for himself."

Emily looked up at that point and smiled at Jasyn, "are you kind of getting where I'm going with this?"

"You grew up fending off stronger predators, making sure you weren't pray and knowing that if you didn't get something yourself, you'd never get it."

Again Emily beamed at him and this time he saw it, and was slightly mesmerised by it.

"Yes, that's exactly it. That's how I'm relating the two situations."

"Except this time the predators are interested in doing more then taking candy from you," Jasyn warned her and Emily snorted at him.

"Trust you not to take the situation seriously," she quipped, Jasyn stared at her for a moment, caught between amusement and …. He was ashamed to admit it but pity and fear for her.

"I suppose it was hard for you," Jasyn said softly, "and lonely."

He would know, he too had been orphaned at a young age, but still he'd got to know his parents before they were slaughtered. Actually, Jasyn didn't know if that made it better or worse.

"Come on!" Jasyn barked suddenly making Emily jump, "you need to learn this!"

Emily grumbled but reluctantly complied, she didn't think about her childhood very much, and very rarely thought about it with sadness in her heart. But she did realise that she had been robbed of something special, she looked at Jasyn thoughtfully, she wondered what his childhood had been like? Emily closed her eyes and faced the late afternoon sunlight, she took several deep breaths.

"Now concentrate," Jasyn commanded in her ear, his large hands came down upon her shoulders, like warm, comforting weights. "Visualise yourself in your hawk form."

Emily did as she was told, but all the while feeling how close Jasyn was to her, his breath on her ear, his lips scant inches from her flesh.

"Can you feel your feathers? The wind flowing over them?"

"Yes …"

"Can you hear sounds deepening? Can you feel your wings where your arms used to be?"

"Yes!" Emily cried suddenly, she did feel it.

"Now change!" Jasyn commanded her, and because his wilful voice so demanded, she did as it said and transformed. Emily kept her eyes closed as she charged her body up into the air like a bullet fired from a gun and spread her wings, allowing them to take her across the sky. There was a screech behind her and Emily knew that Jasyn had transformed and was behind her somewhere, following her through the air, the pair of them making silhouettes against the bright sky. It took much more concentration to keep in this form during the day; Emily could not afford to open her eyes for it would direct her attention away from her ability to maintain her form towards obstacles and other creatures. She felt herself wobble in midair and the nauseous feeling came over her, with her mind she automatically called out for help.

Jasyn, I can't hold it!

Take yourself down, his voice commanded urgently, at the nearest landing space, I'll cover you if humans are around!

Emily tried to obey but found herself unable to focus on direction or course with the effort of holding form, if she lost her form she would plummet to the ground and would be unable to capture it. Fear pounded through her heart now, Emily knew she could not maintain the hawk form a moment longer and that she would surely fall to her death. In her animal form tears of fear formed and she let out a cry.

Help me!

Emily felt herself smack into something hard and firm, she twisted away from it only to feel a sharp tearing at her chest. Emily transformed back into her naked human self as she fell rapidly towards the hard concrete ground. Jasyn bulleted to the ground after her, racing against the pull of gravity on Emily's body, he transformed not a moment to soon. Jasyn did not so much catch her as become a human pillow for her, she fell upon him and they both ended up in a crumpled heap with Jasyn on the bottom. His first thought was thank God she hadn't flown so far so she hadn't transformed in the middle of a packed out street of car park. Then he saw that she was slick with dark blood, Jasyn extracted himself from her limbs to see her chest had been torn open by something on the telephone pole, it was a common accident for birds but never for Weres. Jasyn cursed himself as he gathered her into his arms, some teacher he was turning out to be! First he'd threw her into a wall and probably broken her shoulder, now he'd drove her into a telephone pole and ripped her open, what next? Laying her under a car?

Without a moment to lose, Jasyn flashed them to Carson's surgery and shouted out for the doctor as he laid Emily's floppy body upon the operating table. Jasyn gripped her head between both his large hands, feeling them shake with fear when he saw she had lost consciousness, what he would give now for her to wake up and try to hit him again.

Carson came running in with Margie right behind him, he cursed when he saw Emily and Margie put her hands to her mouth, her eyes looking anguished.

"Margie -" Carson said over his shoulder but the able assistant was already prepping for surgery, Carson moved over to Emily and pushed Jasyn out of the way. Jasyn watched helplessly as Carson and Margie began to clean the wound which looked more ghastly then ever under the severe operating light.

"What happened to her?" Margie asked Jasyn, though her eyes never left Emily's body nor did her hands pause in their task.

"She flew into a telephone pole," Jasyn said, his voice a little bit desperate, Carson threw him a lightening quick glance of anger.

"What the hell was she doing flying?" he demanded, "she's too young to attempt that during the day, surely she must have known that!"

"I -" Jasyn felt guilt niggle at his insides before he told the truth, "I was with her, I was teaching her …"

Again the doc gave Jasyn that look of utter anger but this time mixed with disgust, Jasyn didn't think he could feel any worse but he did.

"A fine teacher you turned out to be," he hissed, Jasyn felt his incisors lengthen, "were you trying to kill her? Or was it fun for you to watch her almost die?"

Jasyn growled and stepped forward, ready to kill the young hawk but Margie gave a wordless shout that got both their attention.

"Both of you that's enough!" she snapped, "Carson stop picking at him, its obvious he never meant this to happen!"

Jasyn was taken aback, he'd never given this human the time of day and yet she defended him.

"And you! If you can't stay here without trying to attack him then leave, I can't sew her chest back together on my own, you know!"

Jasyn sneered but complied, and retreated to the doorway where he leant against the jamb watching in a state of extreme agitation.

Finally after what seemed like hours they snipped at the last stitch on her chest, tapped the last bandage into place and moved back, snapping off their latex gloves.

"That should do it," Carson said, "Margie you might ant to inform Mama Lo, and also get Aimee to bring some clothes for her."

Margie nodded and left to do his bidding, Jasyn watched Carson look down on Emily and gently stroke her hair from her forehead. Jealousy the likes of which he had never known ripped through him and he flashed to Emily's side, shouldering the doctor out the way. Carson let out an angry squawk but moved back and Jasyn grabbed a blanket and covered Emily's resplendent body from Carson's gaze. Jasyn looked down at Emily's face which was relaxed in sleep, Jasyn sensed Carson behind him, moving agitatedly to get a better look at Emily.

"Will she be alright?" Jasyn demanded abruptly over his shoulder, Carson silently sneered at him before answering.

"She'll heal," he answered stiffly, "she needs care and rest. She can't be allowed to disturb he wound, I have her on some pain meds which should help."

"Good," Jasyn whispered and he stroked Emily's burgundy hair away from her face, his face was the epitome of tender as he gazed at her.

"She should never have been flying," Carson said neutrally, not missing the soppy look on Jasyn's face and hating it. "She could have been killed."

"I know …"

"Did you want this to happen?" Carson accused suddenly and Jasyn turned like a flash and had the doctor by his lab coat lapels lifting onto his toes.

"You're dead, doc!" Jasyn threatened between clenched teeth, there was a gasp from the doorway.

"What's going on?" Aimee asked, while Margie watched warily over her shoulder. Jasyn lowered Carson and thrust him away, he returned to Emily's side and his hands unconsciously began smoothing out the blanket over her.

"Nothing," Carson said, straightening his coat with a sharp tug then stomping from the room, Margie watched him go with sad longing in her eyes. Aimee raised her eyebrows and shrugged; she deposited Emily's clothes on the end of the bed and leaned over to see Emily's face.

"Well, at least she doesn't look like she's in pain," Aimee murmured, her eyes flicked down to Jasyn's hand which rested on Emily's neck, his thumb stroking her collar bone, he didn't even seem to know what he was doing.

"I'll leave her to you Jasyn," Aimee said briskly and walked to the door ushering Margie with her, Jasyn gave her a bemused look. "I'm sure one hawk can take care of another much better then a bear or human."

Aimee shut the door behind her but not before seeing Jasyn reach for Emily's clothes, he ran his fingers over the neckline of her shirt and brought it to his nose. Aimee's heart gave a little twinge, it was obvious he was falling for Emily but his pride wouldn't let him act on it. Poor Jasyn, she'd never warmed to him but perhaps Emily would be good for him. Poor Emily, Jasyn would be the perfect mate to introduce her into the were-hunter way of life. Aimee walked down the hallway and passed Carson's door, she sighed as she went … Poor Margie.