There's No Place Like Home
Title: "There's No Place Like Home"
Author: mlady_rebecca ( mlady_rebecca @ livejournal . com )
Beta: Jodi (Thanks for reviewing this multiple times!)
Fandom: Anita Blake
Type: Fan Fic
Written: Originally written 05/19/2004 - 05/20/2004. Expanded 03/10/2005 - 05/15/2005.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of LKH's wonderful characters. Just borrowing them for a few moments. For entertainment purposes only.
Rating: R
Pairing: Nothing that isn't canon.
Spoilers: Mild spoilers for ID.
POV: first person, Anita
Warnings: AR/ AU story. Go with it, it will eventually make sense. *g*
Author's Note: This story was inspired by the question: Would Anita walk away if she wasn't bound to the vampires and the lycanthropes?
Archive: http://home.comcast.net/~mlady_rebecca/ab_fics.html
The hum of the air conditioner kicking on startled me awake. Usually it didn't bother me. In fact, I find the white noise soothing. Why did it seem wrong tonight? I had a fleeting thought that the vent should be on the other side of the room. But no, that's where it has always been.
The feeling remained. Wrongness. Not the kind of wrongness indicating that a killer is hovering in the shadows. The nebulous "I forgot something important" or "if I could only recapture a dream" type of feeling.
I reached out and was surprised when my hand brushed Sigmund's furry form. I was seeking warmth and comfort, but no, there has only been Sigmund. I hugged my stuffed penguin tightly and drifted back to sleep. My last disconnected thoughts were of a curtain of auburn silk that smelled like vanilla and fur and a pair of kitty cat eyes.
*****
The next time I woke was to a pounding on the door. I had my Browning in my hand and I was on my feet before my mind could fully process the noise. Me paranoid? ... nah.
Since the bad guys rarely knock, I spared a moment to drop the gun on the bed and pull on a pair of faded jeans. Jeans and a nightshirt were cover enough to greet my unexpected visitor at the ungodly hour of.... I looked at the clock. 11:45 am Damn, I guess even *I* should be up.
I carried my gun by my side, out but not drawn, until I heard Ronnie muttering through the door. "Anita, are you planning to see sunlight today?"
I sighed and put the Browning in my waistband. Not terribly comfortable, but Ronnie had a thing about me answering the door armed.
I unlocked the door and pulled it open to admit my best friend. She was all sunshine and happiness today. She started telling me about her latest blind date before I could close the door.
"Hi. Coffee. You want coffee?" was my monosyllabic response. Did I mention I wasn't a morning person?
Ronnie followed me into the kitchen and babbled on brightly while I fixed us coffee. After about the third sip, I started to focus on what she was saying. After the fifth, I was staring at my coffee with a puzzled look on my face.
It took three "Anita's" before I looked up at her.
"Anita, you are acting more oddly than usual. You ok?"
"I must have bought the wrong coffee, it's ... not right."
"I thought you were raving about this brand last week?"
"Was I?" I didn't remember.
"Is something else wrong? You seem off."
I considered her question. The wrongness I felt during the night bloomed back in full force. I looked at Ronnie. I had the strangest feeling that we had been fighting. That she had disapproved of ... something.
I settled for a simple "I didn't sleep well."
"Oh. Sorry." Ronnie said, before launching into another tale. She knew me well enough that if she wanted real feedback she'd have to wait till I hit my second cup of coffee.
I let my thoughts wander. The coffee was wrong. The direction the sunlight poured into the kitchen was wrong. The fact that Ronnie was sitting in front of me was wrong. But, they weren't. This was my apartment. This was my best friend. It was Saturday and we had a standing appointment to go jogging for years.
I changed for jogging while Ronnie cleaned up the coffee cups. Then we ran.
We kept a pace fast enough that talking wasn't an option. Unfortunately, the black cloud of my thoughts was harder to escape.
******************
My bad mood didn't evaporate as the day progressed. Even the zingers I got in with Bert didn't make me happy.
Now it was late, or early rather, and I was tired. I was paying for agreeing to raise a fourth zombie tonight. I usually stuck to three, but when Bert offered me a fourth, I agreed without proper consideration. This wasn't the first time my conscious and subconscious mind found themselves in profound disagreement. My instincts seemed to have gone haywire today.
I cleaned my blade with automatic precision, my eyes drifting towards the lightening horizon - dawn. Why did it feel like a part of me was dying? I needed a decent night's sleep. That was all. I hoped that was all.
I always hated going home after dawn. My apartment was how I left it, but I could have sworn that something was out of place. I shook my head trying to clear the feeling.
After a quick hot shower, I settled in bed with Sigmund. I studied his familiar form stroking his side. He was so small. On impulse I crawled our of bed and grabbed an armful of stuffed penguins, raining them all on my bed. I hadn't slept with any of them, except Sigmund, for years. Tonight I needed more. More ... something. I crawled into the pile of flightless birds, curled up in a ball and drifted to sleep.
It was Sunday. I went to church like a good Christian girl. It was a familiar, ingrained habit. As long as I wasn't thinking about it, it felt normal.
I got there a bit late so I found a seat in the back. They had a guest musician who was playing a beautiful wordless piece. At first I really listened to the music, but eventually my mind wandered.
With large groups, I always felt one extreme or the other - a sense of belonging or a sense of isolation. Usually church gave me a sense of belonging. After the Catholic church kicked me out for raising the dead, I found a home here.
Today I felt every bit of my differences. It wasn't a lack of faith. Holding a vampire off with your faith deepens it to an untouchable level. It was ... I just knew that many of these good God-fearing people would look at my life and find it not up to some nebulous standard. And I couldn't even point to why. It was a ghostly fear that refused to be named.
I closed my eyes and prayed. Prayed for some sense of balance, harmony, sanity.
******************
Ronnie had been dying to try a new trendy coffee shop near the college. I agreed. We met for a late lunch.
We found a table near the back. I manned the table while Ronnie got us coffee and sandwiches.
The coffee was good. Better than the stuff I had at home. Maybe I'd have to come back here again. Coffee this good outweighed the inconvenience of the crowds any day.
As she stirred her coffee, Ronnie leaned in conspiratorially, "There are two really cute college boys giving us the once over."
I looked over my shoulder, expecting to turn back to my companion and roll my eyes. But I froze. I knew him.
No, I didn't know him. He was a stranger. But something about him spoke to me. It was the exact opposite of the wrongness that had been haunting me. He was real. He was right.
I guess the two of us staring had given the boys the courage to come over and flirt up close. The brunette dropped into the booth next to Ronnie, across from me. The blond slid into the chair at my right. They had decided to go boy-girl boy-girl, pairing me with the brunette and Ronnie with the blond. I had other ideas.
I fully turned sideways to face the blond. My knees brushed his leg. He shook his hair out of his eyes and gave me a thousand watt smile. I smiled back. I couldn't help it. I *knew* him. I knew those sky blue eyes, that smile. Without thinking about it I brushed an errant lock of hair behind his ear.
I tried to pull my hand back, but he captured it in his warm grasp. "Hi," he said.
"Hi," I replied. "Sorry about..." I tried to gesture towards his hair, but he was still holding my hand and for some reason I didn't want him to let go.
"I'm Anita," I added after an awkward pause.
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Jason."
"I know." I responded, without thinking.
"You do?" he frowned at me. Then his face brightened again. "Have you been stalking me? I've always wanted my own stalker."
"No... I don't know why I said that."
I stared into his baby blues and tried to place the feeling, the rightness. It wasn't like love, or even lust, at first sight, although there was a tinge of each. It was this comfort with his presence. It was if I faced a longtime friend, not a virtual stranger.
I had the bizarre temptation to ask where he had been all my life. When he half fell over laughing, I realized I had been speaking, at least that last thought, aloud.
"I thought that was my line, baby," he replied, his face suffused with humor.
Ronnie and the other young man were watching us - stunned. When I met Ronnie's eyes she attempted to tear us away from the college boys. She tried the bathroom ploy and the fake appointment, but I didn't want to escape.
I stood up and kissed Ronnie goodbye. "See you later, ok?" Then I turned and held my hand out to Jason. "Want to go for a walk?"
"Sure." He smiled. "Bye Brad," he said without his eyes leaving my face.
We held hands as we walked down the street, towards the campus. I *never* held hands with a guy.
We found a bench and we sat and talked about everything and nothing. After about an hour -- yes, an hour -- I confessed that I felt that I knew him. He didn't laugh or run away. Point for him.
I was about to add "So what do you think?" when my beeper went off.
"Damn." I looked at it. It was Dolph. "Duty calls."
I stared at Jason a few seconds before hugging him tightly and giving into the strange impulse to brush my cheek along his and bury my face in his hair.
I pulled away and made to leave without another word.
"Wait," Jason protested. "Will I see you again?"
"Somehow I think you will. Thank you for saving my day."
"How did I save your day?" Jason questioned.
I turned back to him. "I woke up yesterday morning and the world was tilting off its axis. Seeing you, talking to you, grounded me. I don't know why. I just know that you did."
Jason grinned. "You know, you are a weird woman."
"Yeah, I know. But I'm an animator, I don't think I've ever been normal."
I turned and walked away to the sound of Jason's laughter.
**********
That night I began to have odd dreams. I dreamt of animals. Animals whose eyes held human souls. They were all around me, eyes glowing with knowledge. I felt their furry flanks brushing my bare legs. I should have been scared, but something about the situation was strangely comforting. I stood among them, a part of them, yet separate. There were no words....
The moon came out from behind a cloud and they howled. Wolves. A honey colored wolf stood alone on a rock throne. He was special. I pushed though the press of bodies to reach him. My outstretched hand needing to caress the warm fur. But just as I reached his side the dream broke leaving me all alone.
The hall was packed. I hadn't been in a lecture room on a college campus for years, but the esteemed preternatural bio expert Dr. Hutchinson was giving a lecture on lycanthropy and I had to be there. Yes, it was part of my job with RPIT to keep up with the latest findings in the preternatural community, but it was also a personal passion of mine. If I wasn't an Animator, I might have been some sort of preternatural Jane Goodall.
The hall was mostly filled with college age students and an obvious professor here and there. I was still young enough that I could pass for a grad student, especially dressed down in jeans, tennis shoes, and a t-shirt. My Browning was tucked away beneath a faded denim jacket.
I scanned the packed rows as we waited for Dr. Hutchinson to arrive. A man in the front row drew my attention. He reminded me of someone. He looked like a professor. He was talking to several students. I shook my head. I probably just saw him before at one of these lectures. But my eyes still drifted back to him, again.
Finally the lights dimmed and a woman stepped on stage to introduce our speaker. I idly watched the mystery professor take his seat. I was just about ready to give up my strange obsession and focus on the stage when the students standing behind the professor sat down and I caught a glance of the man sitting next to him.
He took my breath away. It was physical attraction, yeah, but there was something more. I could swear I could feel his heartbeat in my head. All I could see from my seat half way up the lecture hall was broad shoulders, strong arms, and long honey brown hair tied back to expose a tanned neck.
Almost as if he could feel the weight of my stare, he turned and flashed a quick look over his shoulder in my general direction. His eyes were dark in the dim light, his features strong. And the feeling that one glance filled me with was indescribable. He was someone important to me, this stranger.
RPIT be damned, but I didn't hear a word of the lecture. I watched my mystery man like a teenager with her first crush. If I could have summoned the will to move, I would have gone to him, but I was frozen in the moment.
I watched him nod occasionally, taking in the lecture. He turned once or twice to whisper something to his friend. My paralysis didn't lift till I saw him rise and head for the door. I followed as quickly as I could but I lost him in the crush of students.
**************
I started dreaming of them. Men. Beautiful men. Some were typical dream men, faceless, just vague impressions of hair color and shoulder width and height. But the mystery man from the preternatural bio lecture was there, as was Jason.
Some of the men courted me. Some talked with me. Some kissed me. Some embraced me. I felt this heat boiling though me and they made the flame burn brighter, but they also cooled the fire.
I woke more aroused than I'd ever been in my life. My body screamed for satisfaction. I rarely touched myself. I just wasn't that sexual a person ... until the dreams began. Just one touch, one small push... I threw my head back and screamed, my hands clawing the sheets, my body thrashing.
*********************
One advantage of getting off work in the hours just before dawn, you don't have to fight rush hour traffic. It was me and lots of night creatures getting ready to bed down for the day. I was tired, and the trip home was familiar, so I let my mind autopilot, while I tried to make sense of my strange week.
No cars crossed my path so I didn't "wake up" till I pulled into a stranger's driveway in the middle of nowhere. Why was I here? This neighborhood wasn't even close to my apartment, and as far as I knew I hadn't ever been here before. Then why did this house scream home?
Why did I expect to see the curtain next to the door flutter and the door open for me? Why did I expect someone to greet me, someone I loved?
Why was I being haunted by someone else's life? Why was I being forced to face the things that my life was lacking?
I'm not an emotional person, but this was too much. And still the ghosts of what might have been haunted me - the feeling of being hugged not just by one person, but by many. The feeling of belonging.
I tried to get angry, to find that familiar place deep inside me, but there was nothing to get angry with, no one to fight. With a groan of frustration I jammed the car into reverse and broke a dozen traffic laws racing home, unseen tears trailing down my face.
I was happy, wasn't I? I had work and a few close friends. Why did I suddenly want more, need more, viscerally need more?
I hadn't thought about having a man in my life since my college fiancée dumped me. But I needed someone now, tonight. I never thought about the whole white picket fence, but I found the house of my dreams tonight.
I sat in the parking lot sobbing uncontrollably. Then dawn came, and a part of me died.
Of all people, my kindly neighbor Mrs. Pringle found me in the parking lot when she got up to take her dog Custard for a walk. She brought me in and gave me hot tea. I had no words to express what was wrong. I felt numb now. I was losing my mind.
I drank her tea, but I excused myself as soon as I could. I went back to my empty apartment, my empty bed. I discarded my clothes, leaving them on the floor, and crawled into bed. I felt so alone.
I slept fitfully throughout the morning. Neither men nor animals haunted my dreams. When I finally dragged myself out of bed, I dressed all in black. I was in mourning for the life I wasn't living.
Before I could make any plans for what was left of my day, Dolph called. He needed to talk to some big vamp in the Blood Quarter and he wanted his monster expert on hand. He gave me the directions. Simple enough.
As I drove across town my mind traced over the events of the week. Nothing was out of the ordinary, but everything was different. It felt like my life was a coat that no longer fit me. I could stretch it or roll up the sleeves, but I couldn't make it fit like it once did.
Somehow I knew that another life waited out there somewhere. My frustration of the night before had given way to this determination to find myself. Maybe the deja-vu like feelings were signs pointing the way to this new life.
I absentmindedly fondled my cross as I approached the club. Guilty Pleasures. The feeling was back. Not the wrongness, but the rightness I had felt with Jason and the mystery man from the lecture. Even the vampire bouncer felt familiar. It wasn't like Jason, I didn't need to touch him, to talk to him, to see him smile, but still it was there.
I flashed my RPIT ID at the bouncer, having a momentary image of a real badge. I shook my head to clear it. The bouncer let me in without any protests. I guess they were expecting me.
Dolph and Zerbrowski waited inside. Zerbrowski was flirting shamelessly with who I later learned was the holy-item check girl. Luckily I had dropped my cross when I pulled out my ID. The pendant and chain were invisible beneath my shirt.
A fair-haired boy led us back to the manager's office. His revealing attire and the brief glance I had into the main room of the club lead me to conclude that we were following one of the male strippers who worked at the club. He was familiar, like Jason, only there was something extra there. I watched his hips sway and it registered. He was a lycanthrope. The moment that it clicked in my brain I could feel the otherworldly energy pouring off him.
He opened the office door and stood aside to let us pass. Dolph and Zerbrowski entered. I paused. I let my hand hover above the bare skin on his chest. He assumed I was going to flirt with him. That was expected. Instead I startled him by leaning close and whispering, "I can feel the energy rolling off you. What shape do you take when the moon is full?"
His blue eyes searched mine for a moment before whispering back. "Wolf." He then turned towards Dolph and Zerbrowski and added in a louder voice, "The manager will be with you in a moment."
"Thank you," I replied a bit more breathy than I intended. Why did my body yearn to feel the energy of a lycanthrope. It was bizarre. This whole week had been bizarre.
I walked into the room. Dolph was reviewing his notes and Zerbrowski busied himself making a few quick calls, while I examined the office. It was all familiar. It wasn't just people now. It was buildings, rooms, furniture, objects. I was caressing an old-fashioned leather bound ledger when I heard the door open and close.
"Should I leave you alone so you can complete your inspection of my desk?"
The words didn't register, but the voice did. It made my body tingle, my heart race, my skin flush, and pleasure course though my veins. I kept my hands on the desk to steady myself. I didn't know if I had the strength to turn. Everything in me was begging me to rush into the arms of a compete stranger ... a powerful master vampire. I felt him approach me slowly. It was as if his very aura was drowning me.
"Ma petite, are you well?"
I turned at the French endearment. I broke all the rules I had with regard to vampires. I met his eyes. They were a drowning sapphire.
"Jean-Claude," I whispered.
"Oui, ma petite, are you well?"
I shook my head trying to clear the strange feelings.
Dolph took mercy on me by directing the conversation. Unlike me, he was being a good boy and avoiding the vampire's eyes.
Their conversation barely registered. I was too busy studying the vampire before me. I knew somehow that he felt my eyes on him.
There was a knock at the door. Jean-Claude said "Enter" without turning around.
A young man with long auburn hair stepped into the room and stood quietly waiting to be acknowledged. *He* was here too? Another one from my dreams. I knew the scent of his hair and the feel of his skin. I knew how his violet eyes could sparkle with laughter and with tears.
When Dolph made no move to finish asking his last question, Jean-Claude turned to acknowledge the young man.
"Oui, what is it, Nathaniel?"
"Robert said you wanted to see me when I got off stage."
"Give us a moment, please. I will find you when the officers are finished with me."
Nathaniel turned in a swirl of hair and was one step from the door when I said "Stop. Stay."
He stopped and turned, eyes going to Jean-Claude, awaiting his wishes. Jean-Claude turned to look at me.
"Is Nathaniel involved in your case in some way?"
I didn't answer his questions, but asked some of my own. "Am I dreaming? Are they all around here somewhere?"
"Blake?" Dolph interrupted. "What's going on?"
"Who are you speaking of, ma petite?"
I ignored Dolph and Zerbrowski. They had faded, become unsubstantial. Only Jean-Claude and the pretty wereleopard were real.
"All the other beautiful men. I've been dreaming about you, and Nathaniel, and Jason, and the brunette with the broad shoulders, and the other French dude with gold hair and pale blue husky eyes..."
"Gold hair? Not blond, but gold? Pale blue eyes?" The vampire looked paler than usual. That was a good trick.
"Yes, you must know him. The two of you are together all the time. Did I mention the brunette with the kitty cat eyes, or the red haired Viking?"
"Viking?"
"Yes, with the big-assed sword."
The vampire had frozen in place the way only the old ones could.
My eyes kept flickering back to the auburn haired wereleopard. He stood frozen with a deer in the headlights look. I had the desire to go to him, to comfort him. I gave into the impulse to walk over to the startled wereleopard. I buried my hands in his loose hair and held it to my face. Vanilla. "I missed you" escaped my mouth before I could censor myself. "You cuddle better than Sigmund does."
There were hands on me. Zerbrowski was trying to pull me back but I clung to Nathaniel. It was so much better now that we were touching.
I wanted to touch both of them - Nathaniel and Jean-Claude.
Jean-Claude had walked over when Zerbrowski approached me. I reached out to touch him. A casual touch on the arm. But when we touched my necromancy flared. It felt so much stronger than it had ever been before. And there was something else. Something connected me to these two men. Something metaphysical.
"Marks?" I whispered.
"Marks?" Jean-Claude parroted.
"Vampire marks, your marks, they bind us."
Jean-Claude stepped closer and touched my cheek, looking deep into my eyes. His were drowning blue.
"I'm afraid..." Jean-Claude paused and his eyes widened.
As soon as he reached for me mentally, I felt him, I felt them, I remembered. Then everything went black.
I opened my eyes to the darkest blue eyes I had ever seen, framed by coal black lashes. I pressed my head back into the pillow so I could see the rest of the face. Beautiful.
I sighed and let my eyes flutter closed again. I must be dreaming of those men again.
A flurry of beautiful but totally incomprehensible words floated over me. French? Why was I dreaming in French?
Mid-sentence the words went back to English, but the French accent remained strong.
"Ma petite, ma petite, can you hear me?"
I blinked sleepy eyes at the man. "Let me sleep. Whenever you visit my dreams I don't get any sleep."
I heard laughter beyond the man hovering over me. I tried to see beyond the curtain of black curls, but I could seem to get my body to listen to me. The man must have sensed my desire, because he sat back and I could see the men crowded around the dimly lit bedroom. The dream men.
"My, I thought two of you at once was a bit extreme, but tonight I've summoned a crowd." I sighed. "Come back tomorrow night, I'm much too tired."
The black haired angel with the blue eyes swam back into my vision.
"Ma petite, you are not making sense. Do you know who you are? Do you know where you are? Do you recognize any of us?"
I smiled then spoke with my eyes closed. "I'm Anita Blake, Animator, occasional police consultant, and local vampire executioner." My eyes drifted open again. "And you are the man ..." I laughed and took in the other men. "... or rather, the men of my dreams. You know you usually skip the conversation and go right to the kissing."
"Anita ... this is not a dream," he paused, then continued dramatically. "You are Anita Blake, Master Necromancer, Federal Marshall, and the Executioner, but you are also the Human Servant of the Master of the City of St. Louis, the Lupa of the Thronnos Roake Clan, and Nimir-Ra to the Blood Drinker's Pard."
I looked at him again. The fog was clearing a bit. I knew him and apparently he knew me. Unlike Jason who didn't know me ...
I looked beyond dark haired man's shoulder to the blond sitting on the foot of the bed. The hair was shorter and the clothing a bit more risqué, but ... "Jason?"
He smiled and crawled over to me. I watched the liquid smoothness of his movements. Lycanthrope. Wolf. I looked beyond Jason at the brunette man with the short hair. The man from the lecture. Wolf. My eyes sweeped across the room. More lycanthropes. Cats. Leopards. And the others... vampires.
I opened my shields and tried to feel the magic in the room. Four of the men tugged at me more strongly than the rest. The red-haired vampire. The auburn haired leopard. The brunette from the lecture and the dark haired vampire. "Jean-Claude?"
"Oui, ma petite, come back to us."
"Is this a dream?"
"No, ma petite, this isn't a dream."
*************
When I woke again, the men were all still there. They were familiar this time. I had names for all the faces. I knew what we meant to each other. The last week felt like a dream and this reality. What I had been seeking in my dream I found upon waking. Tears filled my eyes.
Jean-Claude leaned over me so his face took up my entire field of vision, his hair a silky curtain around us. I looked up into those beautiful eyes, filled with concern. I smiled and reached for him, overbalancing him so he fell against me. I wrapped my limbs around him, holding him like he was the last solid thing in the universe, in my universe.
"Ma petite... ma petite..."
"Oops! Sorry." I let him go so he could lean back and see my face. "I missed you. I've never been so miserable, so confused, so alone in my entire life. Hold me. Be with me always."
"Ma petite, I have never left your side." He brushed my hair back. "When I woke, your body was here but you were gone.. The marks weren't merely closed, they felt like they had never been. Jason told me you would not wake. I feared you were lost to us."
I looked around and saw all the concerned faces watching us. All of my friends and lovers. All of the men in my life. Richard and Jason behind Jean-Claude. Asher and Damian at the foot of the bed. And Micah and Nathaniel on the other side of the bed. Everyone except for Jean-Claude stood just out of reach.
"You do the sleeping beauty thing and you draw a crowd," Jason teased.
I gave him a faint smile and reached my hand out to him. He sat on the bed next to Jean-Claude, and took my hand.
"I was dreaming. Life before I met any of you. And it felt wrong. Everything felt wrong. Then I saw Jason and it felt so right. You made me feel better. Thank you." I told Jason. "I was ready to go find a shrink before I saw you."
"And I saw Richard at some preternatural bio lecture." I met his eyes. "Though I couldn't get close enough to talk to you, to touch you." Richard sat down and ran his hand over my leg.
"Then Dolph dragged me down to the district, to Guilty Pleasures. It felt so right to be there. I saw Buzz and Stephen. They were familiar. Then you came in..." I looked at Jean-Claude. I couldn't even form words. I couldn't do my job. All I could do was stare at you."
"Then Nathaniel came in. I thought it was a dream. A dream within a dream. I knew you both. And when we touched, we all touched, I could feel the marks."
My eyes were tearing as I looked around the room. I reached for Nathaniel and he molded his body to my side. I buried my face in his hair. "I was so lonely with just Sigmund for company in my big bed." Micah sat behind Nathaniel and took my hand. I smiled at him. My leopards.
I turned back to the other side of the bed and pulled Jason close. I brushed my cheek along his and took in his scent, the scent of pack. "I think I freaked you out giving you a werewolf greeting. You were still human. Do you regret...."
"No. Never." Jason and I smiled at each other.
I felt like Dorothy at the end of Wizard of Oz. I was so happy to be back in Kansas … well, St. Louis.
"Part of me always wondered if I would walk away if I had a chance to live a normal life. I wouldn't. I'd track you down. I need you. I need you all."
Fin