Clay and Elena Moments
What's for breakfast?
Clay:Pancakes right?
Elena:From scratch. No shortcuts.
Clay: And ham, I assume. What else?
Elena: Steak.
Clay: For breakfast.
Elena: You said I could have whatever I wanted.
Clay:Can I get you some fruit to balance that meal?
Elena: No, but you can dig up some bacon. Bacon and eggs.
Clay: Dare I ask for a little help?
Elena:I'll make coffee.
Elena Going to Work
As we were returning I saw a familiar figure sitting on a bench outside my office building. I made some excuse for not going inside and circled back to Clay.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
He turned and smiled. "Hey darling. Good lunch?"
"What are you doing here?"
"Guarding you remember?"
I paused, "Please don't tell me you've been sitting here all morning."
"Course. I didn't figure I'd be welcome in your office."
"You can't just sit here."
"Why not? Oh, let me guess. Normal people don't sit on street benches. Don't worry, darling. If I see any cops, I'll switch to the bench across the road."
"I don't work in my office all day, you know. I'm covering a rally at Queens park this afternoon."
"So I'll come along. At a safe distance making sure you don't have to endure the horror of publicly associating with me."
"You mean you'll stalk me."
Clay grinned, "A skill that can always use improvement."
"You can't just sit here."
"Back around we go.."
"At least do something, Read a book, a newspaper, a magazine."
"Sure, and let some mutt sneak past while I'm doing the daily crossword."
LeBlanc meets Clay
"Jesus Christ. Where the hell did the pack find you two? At a beach volleyball tournament? Great tan. Love the curls. He's not even as big as I am. He's what, six foot nothing? Two hundred pounds in steel-toed boots? Christ. I'm expecting some ugly bruiser bigger than Cain and what do I find? The next Baywatch star. Looks like his IQ is low enough. Can he chew gum and tie his shoes at the same time?"
Clay stopped playing with his chair and turned to face the mirror. He got up, crossed the room and stood in front of me. I was leaning forward, one hand pressed against the glass. Clay touched his fingertips to mine and smiled. LeBlanc jumped back.
"Christ," he said, "I thought that was one way glass."
"It is."
"Shit."
Elena and Clay breaking into the compound
Step 3: Disable the vehicles.
This was one thing Clay and I could not do. Why? Because we were both so mechanically challenged we rarely pumped our own gas for fear we'd somehow screw up and the car would burst up in flames before our eyes. Here was Adams chance to make up for the botched chokehold. After we snapped the door locks, Adam flipped up the hoods, pulled out a few wires and metal things and declared the vehicles unusable. All Clay and I could do was watch. Worse yet, Paige advised Adam on a few ways to make the damage less detectable, so even the mechanically inclined guards couldn't quickly deduce the problem. Not that I was envious. Who cared whether you could change motor oil when you could snap a rottweiler's neck in 2.8 seconds? Now that was a practical skill.
Elena: Escape from the compound- Take One
Matasumi studied me for at least three full minutes, then said, "Please do not use this opportunity to attempt escape."
"Really?" I looked at the metal bands strapping my wrists and ankles to the chair, then at the trio of guards behind me."There goes that plan."
Elena: Escape from the compound- Take Two
(The Guards)
They stared at me with expressions so blank you'd think they were guarding the chairs instead of live people. I caught one's eye and gave him a shy half-smile. He didn't even blink. SO much for seducing the guards. Damn. And they looked so cute........in a GI Joe, molded-plastic, automaton kind of way.
Elena at the wine and cheese party
"What does your husband do?" Leah asked me.
"Clayton's an anthropologist," Bauer answered before I could deflect the question.
"Oh? That sounds....fascinating?"
Sipping her wine, Bauer gave a giggling laugh. "Admit it, Leah. It sounds perfectly awful."
"I didn't say it," Leah said.
"No, but you were thinking it. Trust me, this guy is no tweedy academic. You should see him. Blonde curls, blue eyes, and a body....Greek god material."
"Got a photo?" Leah asked me.
"Uh, no. So how do you like-"
""We have some surveillance pictures upstairs," Bauer said. "I'll show them to you later. Elena is a very lucky girl."
"Looks aren't everything," Leah said, flashing a wicked smile. "It's the performance that counts."
I studied the bubbles in my wine glass. Oh, please, please, please, don't ask.
Leah downed her wine. "I have a question. If it's not too personal."
"And even if it is," Bauer said with a giggle.
Oh please, please, please-
"You guys change into wolves right?" Leah said. "So when you and your husband are wolves, do you still... you know. Are you still lovers?"
Bauer snorted so hard the wine sprayed from her nose. Okay, that was the one question even worse than asking how Clay was in bed. This was a nightmare. My worst nightmare. Not only thrown into a wine-and-cheese party with two women I barely knew, but with two women who knew everything about me and were getting a wee bit tipsy. Let the floor open up and swallow me now. Please.
"This is really good cheese."
Jeremy
I made the mistake of giving Jeremy a copy of the St Johns Ambulance Official Wilderness First Aid Guide. He'd liked it so much he had me buy copies for all of us so we could keep them in our glove boxes and fix our own emergency amputations. Call me a wimp, but if I ever lose a limb, and there's no one around, I'm a goner, even if the guide does have wonderful instructions (complete with helpful illustrations) for tying off the injury with a stick and a plastic garbage bag.
Jeremy and Elena's summary of witches and vampires
"I see the witches drove," I said, gesturing at the Accord.
"So much for teleport spells and magic broomsticks. And look at this place. It's a legion Hall. We're going to a meeting of a supernatural races in a Legion Hall. On a beautiful summer day, without even a thunderclap in the background couldn't they have found a rotting Victorian Mansion somewhere?"
"The mausoleum in the cemetery was booked. If you look up in the far left corner under the eaves, I believe I see a cobweb."
"That's a streamer. A pink streamer. From a wedding reception."
"Well, I'm sure you'll find some cobwebs inside."
"Sure, right next to the Ladies Auxilary snack table."
Jeremy bent to read the schedule posted behind a cracked glass ease. "So what are we booked under?" I asked. "The New Age Alternate Lifestyle Conference?"
"No, the corporate Technology Workshop."
"Great. Witches without broomsticks, teleport spells, or imagination. What's next? If there are any vampires in there, they probably don't drink artificial blood plasma substitute. Sterilized, of course."
Jeremy: Ypu missed lunch. Did something go wrong?
Clay: Nah, We just got hauled down to the police station for questioning.
Elena: After we took care of Cain (I said before Jeremy suffered any major chest pains.
Jaime and Jeremy moment
"Uh, oh, Jeremy,"she stammered. "It's me Jaime. Jaime Vegas, from the uh-" A short embarrased laugh."Right. Well, just thought I'd make sure in case you didn't recognize my voice, er, not that I'd expect you to recognize it, but you might know other Jaimes...or you might have forgotten who I was since the council meeting , uh...oh, I guess that was just last month, wasn't it? So, uh,oh, right, I was coming for Elena," Jaime finally managed to get out. "Is she there?"
Slight pause. "Oh, umm, yes I have her cell number and I could call, but, uh-" nervous laugh. "Well if she's out with Clayton it can wait. Or it had better wait. Not that he's- well, you know-"
A pause and a high pitched laugh. Jaime closed her eyes and mouthed an obscenity. The only thing worse than acting like a fool is hearing yourself doing it and not being able to stop. "So I'd better not disturb them if I want to stay on his good side- well assuming I'm on his good side , which of course I can never tell, but i figure as long as he's not paying much attention either way, that's probably not a bad thing." She took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut, wincing. "Anyway, I'll let you go and I'll call Elena later. I just wanted her to check the newswire for me-"
Pause. "No, past stuff. Well recent past. Murders. Not the kind of thing you'd read of course -" another pause. Another spine-grating laugh. "Oh right. That's exactly the kind of thing you read. Gotta keep your eye out for those brutal wolf slayings -er, not that all werewolves are brutal or, uh, well-" deep breath. "Let me run it by you." Within ten minutes, she had a page filled with cases, a few complete with names, but most with just locations or details that would further searching a snap. "Wow," she said. "You're amazing- I mean your memory is amazing. Not that you aren't- Oh someone's at the door. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. Really appreciate-"
Nick
He made a show of unbuttoning his shirt and shrugging it off, making sure I saw a good display of his muscles. Undressing was like some damned mating ritual with these guys. They seemed to think that the sight of a handsome face, muscular biceps, and a flat stomach would turn me into a helpless mass of hormones, willing to play their juvenile games. It usually worked, but that wasn't the point.
Elena and Clay snuggling on a couch
Nick:What's this? Bedtime?
:You look positively content Clayton. That wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that Elena is cuddled up with you, would it?
Elena: It's cold in here.
Nick: It doesn't feel cold.
Clay: It's cold.
Nick:I could start a fire.
Clay: I could start one too. With your clothes. Before you get them off.
Nick held up a half pair of white panties and grinned at me. "Wild dogs? Or just Clayton?"
"Oh, god." I walked over to snatch the underwear from him, but he held it over his head, grinning like a schoolboy."I see Paris, I see France, I see Elena's underpants!"
Karl Marsten
"I'm suprised he doesn't send Christmas cards," Antonio said. "I can see them now. Tasteful, embossed veilum cards, the best he can steal. Little notes in perfect penmanship,"Happy holidays. Hope everyone is well. I sliced up Ethan Ritter in Miami and scattered his remains in the Atlantic. Best wishes for the new year. Karl."
Paige
"Walking is good, though I can just imagine what the humidity has done to my hair. I'm going to meet your family looking like a poodle with a live wire shoved up it's butt." -Paige
"Three hundred dollars for photocopying? What did you do? Hire Franciscan monks to transcribe my file by hand?!"
So we ran-away from the gun-toting state troopers, through a swirling mass of spirits, pursued by baying hounds, surrounded by screams of the damned. You know, I think the mind has a saturation point beyond which it doesn't give a damn. Spirits? Hounds? Cops? Who cares? Just keep running and it'll all go away.
This whole running-away business is getting tedious, so here's the condensed version: Run to water. Tramp through water. Fail to evade hounds. Throw fireballs at hounds. Make mental note to send sizeable donation to RSPCA. Reach road. Jog to car. Collapse, wheezing, beside car. Get dragged into car by Cortez. Mutter excuse about childhood asthma. Make mental note to join a gym.
Meeting Troy- take one
"Benicio wants to talk to me," I said. "I'm honored. Tell him to come on up. I'll put on the kettle."
Red Ties mouth twisted. "He's not going up. You're going over there."
"Really? Wow, you must be one of those psychic half-demons. Never met one of those."
Meeting Troy - Take Two
"You ever seen this scene in a movie?" he asked.
I looked around. "Now that you mention it, I think I have."
"Know what happens next?"
I nodded. "The hulking bad guy attacks the defensless young heroine, who suddenly reveals heretofore unimaginable powers, which she uses to not only fend off his attack but beat him to a bloody pulp. Then she escapes out the handy escape hatch and shimmies up the cables. The bad guy recovers conciousness and attacks, whereapon she's forced, against her own moral code, to sever the cable with a fireball and send him plummeting to his deah."
"Is that what happens?"
"Sure. Didn't you see that one?"
Meeting Lucas
"You are not my lawyer. Want to know when I'd hire a sorcerer to represent me? Ten minutes after being hit by a transport and declared brain-dead. Until then, scram."
"Scram?" His eyebrows rose an eighth of an inch.
"Leave.Go. Get lost. Beat it. Take your pick. Just take it with you."
Embracing Vampire Heritage
My light-ball hung over the only object in the room, a massive, gleaming, ebony black, silver-trimmed coffin.
"Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, huh?" I said. "At least it's not a mausoleum."
"He's sleeping in a box Paige. It doesn't get any worse than that. A mausoleum, at least you could fix up, add some skylights, perhaps a nice feather bed with Egyptia cotton sheets..."
"He might have Egyptian cotton sheets in there,"I said. "Oh, and you know, it might not be as bad as you think. Maybe it's just for sex."
Eve
Jaime:"It keeps me toned."
Eve:"So does kickboxing. And it's a damed sight more practical too. Some guy jumps you in an alley, what are you going to do? Assume the lotus position?"
"We can't bother ghosts in purgatory? What the hell is purgatory for, then?!" -Eve
