Chapter 23
SHE OPENED HER EYES A LONG TIME LATER, VAGUELY aware that it was still dark outside and that some faint sound had awakened her. Her pulse beat a little faster.
It took a few seconds for her to orient herself. The unfamiliar weight beside her was Slade. He had fallen asleep almost immediately after the fast, hot sex. It could take a strong talent a few hours to recover from a heavy burn, she thought. If there was something wrong, she would have to deal with it.
The sound came again, a faint, muffled chortle. Rex.
Reluctantly she shoved aside the covers and got out of bed. Slade stirred but he did not awaken. She pulled on a robe and went down the cold hall. When she reached the living room she paused to twitch the curtain aside and peer out the window.
Rex was sitting on the porch staring intently at the door as if trying to will it open. She dropped the curtain and unlocked the door.
Rex sauntered across the threshold, chortling a greeting. He still had the clutch purse but it did not look as full as it had earlier.
“You gave away the paperclips, didn’t you?” she asked softly. “Trying to impress some new friends in the Preserve?”
Rex chattered happily and headed for the kitchen.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she said.
She followed him into the kitchen and flipped on the light. Rex was sitting on the floor, his gaze fixed on another door, the one that opened the refrigerator.
“What? You expect me to feed you again? You just came back from a hunting expedition, didn’t you?”
Rex did not take his attention off the refrigerator door. She gave up and opened it. Together they both studied the glowing interior.
“Oh, look,” she said. “You’re in luck. There’s some leftover zucchini bread.”
Rex bounced a little and chortled.
She took the foil-wrapped bread out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter. She found a knife in a drawer and cut off a hefty slice of the bread. She put the slice on a plate and set the plate on top of the refrigerator. Rex bounded up to the top of the appliance and fell to his late-night snack with his usual enthusiasm.
Charlotte rewrapped the remaining loaf of zucchini bread and put it back in the refrigerator. She was about to close the door when she realized that she was hungry, too. She took out a wedge of cheddar cheese and cut off a hunk for herself.
She leaned back against the counter and studied Rex while she ate her cheese.
“What’s going on with you and the guy in my bed?” she asked softly. “You’ve bonded with him somehow, we know that much. Is it because you’re both hunters at heart?”
Rex concentrated on his bread.
“Now that he has his talent back, Slade will probably return to his old job at the Bureau. Or maybe he’ll decide to go ahead with his new security business. Either way, he’ll be leaving in a few months.”
Rex finished his snack and bounded down to the floor. He fluttered out of the kitchen and disappeared.
“I’m going to miss you both,” she said softly to the empty kitchen. “I’m really not much good at this rez-with-the-frequency thing.”
She finished her cheese and went back out into the shadowed living room. She moved cautiously through the dark space, afraid of tripping over Rex but there was no sign of him.
She made her way down the hall to the doorway of the bedroom. A pair of glowing blue eyes watched her from the vicinity of her pillow. Rex was not asleep in the living room. He was curled up on her side of the bed.
“Oh, no you don’t,” she hissed softly. She made shooing motions with her hand. “Off you go. There isn’t room for three of us.”
Rex did not stir. His second pair of eyes opened, revealing amber coals. She hesitated, not sure how to proceed. This was no ordinary animal. Regardless of his strange attachment to Slade, Rex was a feral creature. She had read somewhere that truly wild animals could never be successfully tamed. She could try moving him forcefully off the bed but she was not sure how he would react. He might decide to defend his position. She knew enough about dust bunnies to know that they could be dangerous if cornered. And even if she was successful there would probably be dust bunny fur all over her pillow.
The only other option was to try to wake Slade and ask him to get Rex off the bed. But that was probably not doable, not unless she managed to trigger his survival instincts. In a heavy post-burn sleep that was the only thing strong enough to bring a person back to a wakeful state. The problem was that Slade was a hunter-talent of some kind, a very powerful one. If his core instincts kicked in he would no doubt slam to the surface prepared to do battle. He might accidentally hurt her before he realized who she was.
She was doomed to spend the night on the couch.
“You win,” she said to Rex. “But the three of us will have a long talk in the morning. This sleeping arrangement is not going to become a regular habit.”
She could have sworn that Slade stirred a little at the sound of her voice but he did not awaken. Rex closed all four eyes.
She left the two hunters sleeping in her bed and stalked back down the hall to the closet. She found a spare sheet, blanket, and pillow and hauled the lot into the front room. The couch was not going to be comfortable but she wouldn’t have to endure it for long. Dawn was not that far off.
A short time later she settled down on the cushions. When she pulled the blanket up over her shoulders moonlight glinted on her pendant. She touched the silvery metal and thought about what she had seen earlier when Slade had pushed into the higher regions of his talent.
During that time the room had been awash in waves of energy, Slade’s energy. The hot, dangerous currents had stirred her senses and heated her blood. She’d had to concentrate hard to read the ultralight rainbow cast by her pendant. Her objective had been to make certain that the reflecting bands of energy created by his aura were strong and steady.
The colors and the clarity had been right, she thought. The dark rainbow had been fierce and brilliant. It had also been extremely powerful and quite unlike any rainbow she had ever viewed before.
Slade said he did not yet know what he could do with the new aspect of his talent, but one thing was certain. Whatever the nature of his ability, it would be based on his core talent. He was a hunter.
He had been dangerous before he had been hit with the mysterious vapors from the exploding gas canisters during his last assignment. He was even more lethal now.
Chapter 24
SLADE AWOKE TO THE FIRST LIGHT OF DAWN AND THE realization that he was not alone in the bed. That was the good news, he decided. The bad news was that there was something very wrong about the size and shape of the other occupant. He put out a hand and touched a warm body covered in fur.
“Rex,” he said into the pillow. “What did you do with Charlotte?”
Rex nuzzled his arm, rumbled a greeting, and then jumped briskly down to the floor. Slade opened his eyes in time to watch him flutter through the bedroom doorway. A moment later the front door opened.
Charlotte’s voice floated down the hall. “Take your time. No need to hurry back. I’m about out of zucchini bread, anyway.”
Slade groaned and sat up on the side of the bed. Charlotte appeared in the doorway. She wore a pink terrycloth robe and a pair of matching slippers. Her hair stood out in a variety of interesting angles. She looked like she had spent a less than restful night.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi, yourself. How do you feel?”
He thought about the question. “Good. Real good.”
“Lucky you. I’m stiff and sore from sleeping a goodly portion of the night on the couch.”