Текст книги "Forever And A Day"

Автор книги: Ann Gimpel

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Текущая страница: 7 (всего у книги 11 страниц)

Chapter Ten

Tamara kept her mouth shut until they were in a full-sized SUV, following directions from its dashboard navigation system. She peered at the map on the car’s navigational display and zoomed out so she could get some perspective. “It’s a long way,” she ventured. “Two hundred seventy-five miles. Let’s see, that would be just over four hundred kilometers.”

Lars reached across the console and grasped her hand. “We will be driving through some of the most beautiful country in the world, unfortunately it is growing dark. Our journey will not take long. Maybe five hours. We are meeting Garen tomorrow at noon at the Jackson Hole airport.”

“Sure and I wondered why we were going to a ski resort.”

“Depending on what you’d like to do, I had thought we could stop for the night in Riverton. That is just over a hundred sixty kilometers.” He glanced fondly at her, his strong-boned face illuminated by the dash lights. “That way, the most stunning part of our drive will occur in daylight.”

“And we’ll have a few hours to ourselves.” She squeezed his hand. The idea of spending the night with the man beside her thrilled her beyond words.

“Yes, if you wish it.” A formality sat beneath his words, as if he didn’t want her to think he was taking anything for granted. Disappointment pricked. She wanted him to…to what? Bleed enthusiasm? Somehow, she suspected it wasn’t his style.

She leaned back against the well-padded leather seat, inhaling its rich scent. “I can’t think of anything I’d rather do,” she raised his hand to her lips, kissed the back of it, and took a chance, “or anyone I’d rather be with.”

Breath whistled from between his teeth. “You will have to be patient with me. I know little of wooing a woman.”

She snorted. “Not that I’m any great expert in the wooing department. I’m guessing we can help each other.”

He pulled into a well-lighted shopping center. “I like the sound of that. While it would be charming to talk of love and courtship, I fear we must discuss less pleasant things.” He paused for a beat. “Garen will have alternative identification for us. That will not help us tonight. Whoever is after us has probably figured out we are together.”

“Is that why you wouldn’t let me use the money changing machine?”

“Ja. It is bad enough I have been leaving a trail a mile wide, but I cannot help that. I had planned on flying from Nice back to Germany in a twin engine prop plane I left at the airport.”

Tamara considered the implications. “Is Lars your real name?”

“One of them. I fear it has lost its utility.”

“What would you like me to call you?”

He caressed her thigh. “Does it really matter? I am who I am regardless of labels.”

She thought about it. “So long as I can call you something and you’ll be answering, that’s probably good enough.” She glanced at brilliant neon signs. “Why did we stop here?”

“We need a few things. If we wait until we get to Riverton, all the stores will be closed.” Lars got out of the car, walked around to her side, and held her door open for her. He offered his hand and she took it, just before she wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. He pulled her against him. The heat of him seared her, even through her clothes. He tilted his head and kissed her, lips barely brushing hers, before he stepped away and closed her car door. Once he’d hit the clicker to activate the door locks, he took her hand again and leaned close. “I would like nothing better than to hold you in my arms for hours, explore your body, but we are far from safe. Let us purchase a few items and then we shall put a bit of distance between us and Caspar, Wyoming.”

She matched her whisper to his. “Do, um, they know we’re here?”

He shrugged as they walked toward a high rounded arch blazoned with SPORTS AUTHORITY. “It is possible they do not, since our flight plan lists Boeing Field as our destination. After another hour, they will know we did not land there. If they are monitoring an aviation band transceiver, they already know what has happened.” He gestured for her to precede him into the store.

Before she went inside, Tamara turned and raked the semi-dark parking lot, hunting for anything suspicious, her anxiety back in spades. If Chen’s men knew where they were, they needed to get moving straightaway. “What are we buying?”

“Warmer clothing for you. Sleeping bags in case we have an unexplained engine failure on the mountain roads between here and our destination. Maybe a shotgun, but I doubt they will sell me one with my German passport and international driver’s license.” He made a grab for a cart and they worked their way through the store. Because she simply held clothing up to her and didn’t try anything on, they were at the checkout stand in less than half an hour. He’d been right about being unable to buy a shotgun.

She snugged a green, fluffy coat around herself as soon as the checker scanned its tag, grateful for its protection and followed it with a black knitted hat and leather gloves. Monte Carlo had been warm. The temperature here must be somewhere in the minus rating. Quite aside from the ambient temperature, she felt chilled to her core, certain a band of thugs would jump them at any moment. I’ve got to get hold of myself. Lars doesn’t seem scared.

“Thanks for the clothing. Sure and I wasn’t aware how ice-cold I was, probably because we spent all that time in the airport. How cold is it here?” she asked as they made their way back to their rental SUV.

He glanced at his watch and tapped a few buttons. “Minus seven centigrade, which is about twenty Fahrenheit.”

“Brrrr. It never gets this cold in Ireland. Well, hardly ever.”

“It is early March.” He popped the hatch and tossed their packages inside.

She gave him a long hug before getting back into the car, reluctant to let go. Even better, he seemed as reluctant as she. Where their bodies fit together, she felt the unmistakable bulge of his erection, heard his breath quicken, and felt need in the fingers he wound around her head. “Good thing we got those sleeping bags,” she murmured against his shoulder. “We could be laying them out in the back and—”

He laughed and helped her into the car. “That just might be the most attractive offer I have ever had.” She laid a hand over the belled-out front of his trousers and he leaned into her. “You are not making this easy, liebchen.”

“Maybe I’m not trying to.”

“Imp.” He closed her door, got in on his side, and ferried the car back onto an expressway. They left Caspar behind quickly. Time passed, maybe an hour. Lights thinned and then died out almost entirely. As if he divined her thoughts, he said, “We are passing large ranches. This is cattle country, but they grow hay and wheat here as well.”

She grinned. “I wasn’t needing an agricultural lesson. I was looking for a secluded spot we could pull off the road.”

He groaned. Somehow, she knew his erection hadn’t subsided one whit. Her nipples pebbled and she pressed her thighs together. Even if they only had a quickie, it would take a bit of the edge off her hunger for him. She straddled the console separating them. He shoved a hand between her legs and she writhed against his fingers as they drummed a sensuous rhythm atop her vulva. She pressed her hand over his, showing him what she needed until a climax ripped through her. Once it subsided, she slid back into her seat and reached for him, but he captured her hand. “Wait. An exit is just ahead.”

He ferried the car off the expressway, down a frontage road, and into a thick grove of aspen trees, before he killed the engine. “This is risky,” he panted, “but so is life. Slide your pants off.”

With a bit of awkward maneuvering, he ended up in her seat with her kneeling over his lap. She’d been right about him still being hard. He sank his cock into her body and gripped her ass cheeks with both hands. She closed her mouth over his, delighting in their kiss and the feel of his hard, insistent lips against hers. Lars plumbed her with his tongue and his cock. She squirmed against him, jamming her clit against his pubic bone. Another peak began low in her belly. His cock swelled even bigger inside her. She tightened her muscles around him and felt release zing through her, setting every nerve ending on fire. Moments later, his cock pulsated and semen gushed into her. He tightened his grip on her ass and made an amazing sound exactly like a big cat that had just claimed his mate.

They held one another, panting, for long moments before disentangling limbs and body parts. “Sure and maybe someday we’ll get to do that in a bed like proper lovers,” she teased.

“By then we will be so used to odd nooks and crannies, we may need them to heat our blood.”

“Speak for yourself.” She blotted her pussy with tissues from the glove box. “I’ll take as much of that,” she patted his still half-hard cock, “as I can get. Wherever, whenever.”

He kissed her, slowly, tenderly, and then returned to the driver’s seat. Kilometers passed in a companionable silence. She dozed off in fits and starts, satiated from having had him inside her. The sound of his voice called her back.

“Much as I hate to wake you,” he stroked her cheek with calloused fingertips, “we must speak further about unpleasant things. By now, Chen’s men must surely know we did not land in Seattle. It will not take much sophistication in the way of intelligence to discover where we did land, if they did not know already. We need a hotel that takes cash and does not put our identification on file. What that often means is a lower class establishment.” He set the car’s cruise control and reached for a bottle of water in the console between them. She unscrewed the lid and handed it over.

Tamara glanced behind them. The back seat was huge, and it looked as if it folded down. “I have an idea. Why not just spread out those sleeping bags. Then we could get some supper and sleep in the back of the car if we can’t find a hotel.”

“You would be willing to do that?” He stared at her until the car swerved and he was forced to return his attention to the road.

“I suggested it, didn’t I? We did a spot of camping when I was growing up. I didn’t like getting wet, so when it rained, I’d always make a dash for the car—before anyone could beat me to it.”

He chuckled. “It rains a lot in the United Kingdom.”

“It certainly does. It got so Mum just laid my bag out in the car. Said it saved her the effort of moving things around and getting even wetter than she would have if she just stayed in our big, canvas tent.”

“Thank you for your offer.” Lars’ formal tone was back. “It means a lot that you would offer to be uncomfortable just to…” His words faded.

“Sure and I’d do damn near anything to hold you in my arms all night. Are you kidding? It would be fun. An adventure.” She bounced a bit in her seat.

“Good you did not lose your taste for adventures in Monte Carlo.”

Something about the deadpan undertone in his words brought her up short. “Isn’t that the truth. I know this isn’t a game. Do you suppose they’re out there somewhere,” she gestured toward her side window, “following us?”

“It is what I would do in their place.” His words were solemn. “It is also why, no matter where we wait out the night, one of us must have all their faculties about them at all times. Because you lack training, I will watch over you.”

Something sweet and poignant in his words shook her to her soul. “You’re taking care of me.”

“Ja. I have been taking care of you ever since I saw your taxi jump the curb.”

So he has. “I didn’t understand then how much I needed your help.”

“And now you do?” His wry humor warmed her.

“Probably not as thoroughly as you understand it, no, but sure and I’m getting there.”

“We can teach each other, liebchen.”

“I like it when you call me that. There are Gaelic endearments, too, like mo croi.”

“It does not matter what we call one another.” He raised his hand from her lap and tapped her breastbone before tapping his own. “When one heart calls to another, there is little need for language.”

“That’s beautiful.”

“No, liebchen. You are beauty. Your eyes remind me of a restless sea. Your hair is like a shining crown, and your lips are full, kissable, perfect.”

“Stop.” She stifled a pleased giggle. “I’ll become insufferable. For a gent who was clueless about how to court a woman, I’d say you’re doing a fairly decent job.”

“My cat wants to meet yours.”

“What?” She started, astounded by what he’d said, by the rapid shift of topics.

“Did your parents teach you nothing about shifter matings?”

Defensiveness sparred with embarrassment. “It wasn’t Mum’s fault. She tried, but I’d never listen.”

“Why not?”

“I didn’t figure I’d ever meet up with another one like me, much less fall in love—” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Whoops.”

“What is between us feels like the beginnings of love. It is why our animal sides must meet.”

“See and there’s another reason for us pulling the car off into the woods and sleeping in the back of it. We could, um, shift and run about for a bit.” Tamara forced herself to stop talking. She’d been babbling because she felt nervous. Outside her immediate family, she’d never shown anyone her animal side.

“You do not have to do anything that makes you ill at ease.” His deep voice rumbled comfortably across the space between them. “My other form comes in handy in my work.”

“So much time goes by between when I shift, I sometimes forget about that side of myself.”

“I had surmised as much.” He hesitated. “I am certain your cat is just as beautiful as you are.” Her face heated. She glanced at the nav system and noticed they were only twenty miles from Riverton; a quick conversion told her it was thirty-two kilometers because she still had a hard time thinking in miles. “Did your Mum tell you anything about shifter pairings?” he pressed.

“You’ve asked twice,” she said, thinking what it might mean. “I’m guessing there is something important you want to make certain I know.”

“You are astute. Bright as well as beautiful.”

Tamara rolled her eyes. “Just tell me.”

She watched his profile, illuminated by muted lights from the car’s dashboard. “Though I did not mean for us to make love like a couple of randy teenagers in the car, it happened. So we must be careful.”

“Why? I can’t get pregnant unless I will it.”

He shook his head. “No. Not that. And shifters are immune from human diseases, so that is not it, either. Once we shift—and we will—we cannot make love in our animal forms unless we are certain we want to spend our lives together.”

Her ears perked up. This was the first time she’d heard anything like that. “Why is that?”

A muscle in his jaw worked. “When I meet your parents, I will inquire why they did not do a better job educating their offspring. Shifters mate for life. Making love in shifted form cements the bond and will make it impossible for you to love anyone but me, whether we remain together or go our separate ways. It works the same for me.”

Motivated by his seriousness, she dropped her bantering tone. “Och, I see. Mum tried to talk with me about the mate bond, but I wasn’t having any of it. Is any of this written down?”

“Ja. And carefully guarded. Are none of your brothers married to shifters?”

“None of them ever married.” She raked through her memory, recalling shrouded conversations between her parents and other shifters. “Things got so bad for us in Ireland, we hid what we were. If anyone trolled for a mate, they were damned quiet about it.”

He pounded a fist on the steering wheel. “It is why I choose to spend my time among shifters. Humans are afraid of their own shadows, but they have done a hell of a job intimidating us by slapping rules atop other rules. What I have never understood is why we did not mobilize, fight back.”

“That’s an easy one.” She blew out an exasperated breath. “When you’re taught to be invisible, well and it’s a hard habit to break.”

Chapter Eleven

Lars took them to a charming log building for dinner where they’d shared rare steaks, crisp greens, and bread fresh from the oven, along with a bottle of excellent Cabernet. They were on their third motel, had just pulled into the parking lot, when Tamara laid a hand on his arm. “Let’s just find somewhere out of town and sleep in the woods. It’s late, nearly the middle of the night. We won’t be there so long as to arouse suspicion.”

“If you are certain.” He felt protective of her and didn’t want her to be cold, or to want for anything. He’d begun to resurrect the conversation about shifter matings and mate bonds over dinner, but the restaurant had been too crowded for such a sensitive conversation.

“I’m certain. The last two inns refused cash without running your identification. Like as not, so will this one. I’d rather be out of doors than in some of the down-at-the-heels places we went past.”

He leaned toward her, inhaling her unique scent. Privately, he’d been convinced after the first motel that none of them would accept anonymous guests, no matter how empty their parking lot was. Lars nosed the big car west, heading toward Jackson on Highway 26. Though he hadn’t spent much time in this part of the United States, he recalled convoluted country, filled with buttes and mesas both to the north and south of them.

Thank Christ the car had a huge gas tank. He hadn’t been forced to use plastic since hitting the ATM machine at the Caspar airport. It would have been a piece of cake for Chen’s men to trace their emergency landing in Caspar, and easy for them to discover Lars had rented a car. What would be more difficult would be deciding which way out of Caspar to deploy manpower hunting for them—unless someone either bribed or threatened the car rental agency to reveal their destination.

Sixty-five kilometers clicked by. He’d spent enough time in the States, he made the transition from miles to kilometers seamlessly. When he figured they were about as deep in mesa country as they were likely to get, he hunted for a promising side road. No point in getting too far off the highway. He glanced at Tamara. She was dozing again. Good. She needed rest.

Running on instincts that had rarely failed him, Lars flipped the car into four wheel drive and guided it along faint, sandy roads until he was satisfied they were about as hidden as they were likely to get without a whole lot more effort. Small ice and snow patches butted up against stark rock formations. He turned off the engine. Silence, so thick it was almost palpable, rose around them.

“Are we there?” she asked sleepily.

He reached over to ruffle her hair, but she still wore the knitted cap he’d insisted she buy. “Ja, liebchen.”

She cocked her head to one side, leaning into his hand. “It’s quiet. Sure and I don’t even hear any animals.”

“There is much empty land in the United States. It is very different from Europe and the United Kingdom in that respect.”

“I was thinking—” she began.

“And here I thought you were asleep.” His chest swelled with caring for the woman next to him.

“Well, that too,” she admitted. “Now that we’re here, I’ll be taking you up on your offer.”

Lars felt confused. “What offer, fraulein?”

“Och, and I like liebchen—beloved—better. The offer to let our cats meet.” He sucked in a breath. She’d been so gun-shy, he’d just assumed that part of things wouldn’t happen for quite some time. She must have mistaken his hesitation because she added, “Isn’t it safe here?”

“Safe enough. At least I believe it to be. You took me by surprise. Give me a moment or two outside and I will let you know.” He got out of the car and inhaled deeply. The frigid night air seared his lungs, but it was fresh and dry and smelled of the desert. Of little rodents and desert plants. He dialed in his cat senses and did it again. Nothing else human was anywhere close. Beyond the distant thrum of cars on the highway, he didn’t hear or smell anything that might indicate someone was tracking them.

He walked to her side of the car and opened the door. She scrambled out, ignoring his extended hand. He felt her draw magic, concentrate it, and lunged for her arm. “Take your clothes off first, otherwise they will be ruined.”

She looked sheepish, and then began to laugh; tension bled out of the moment. “If I hadn’t already told you how infrequently I do this, I’d surely have given myself away. It’s lucky I remembered when we were back at the airport terminal before I healed myself.”

He moved next to her, tugged the hat from her head and the gloves from her hands. She bent, untied her shoes, toed them off, and tossed them into the car along with her socks and the rest of her clothes as she removed them. She was so beautiful, he just watched her body emerge, mesmerized. Though he’d seen parts of her, he’d never seen her totally nude. The perfection of her sleekly muscled form stole his breath.

She wrapped her arms around herself. “Aren’t you going to join me?” she asked through chattering teeth.

He sought words to tell her how striking she was, how incredible, but English eluded him. All he could come up with was German. He swallowed hard. “I will lock the car with your things in it. The keys will be in front of the left front wheel.”

“What about your clothes?”

“If something untoward happens, they will be the least of my problems.” He began to strip, starting with his shoes. “Go ahead and find your cat form.” He grinned. “She will keep you warm.”

The air around her shimmered. A knockout of a mountain cat emerged with a thick, tawny pelt, and Tamara’s beautiful, blue eyes. The cat grinned at him, licked her chops, and purred long and low. His cat raged for release. Lars forgot about folding his clothes. He stuffed them beneath the car, along with the keys, and opened the pathway to free his cat.

“You’re silver,” she murmured. “Just like your eyes.”

He rubbed his flank against her and licked her snout. She nuzzled him back. His cat cock hardened. To quell the sexual heat flaring painfully in his loins, he suggested, “Shall we run?”

Tamara made a noise between a purr and a snarl. “Sure and I’d rather make love, but running is good too.”

“Remember what I told you about joining in this form.” Hope speared him. He wanted nothing more than to be bound to this woman, but he understood the need for caution. Now that he saw her as a cat, he felt the mate bond and was even more certain she was his chosen one, but they had to have at least a small space of time when they weren’t running for their lives to make a decision that would bind them forever.

She leaped into the air and took off at a dead run. He charged after her. They chased one another, nipping, rolling, playing, until both were breathless. His sense of time was diminished in this form, but he was certain over an hour passed. Without exchanging words, they loped back to the car and called their human forms. He shook sand out of his clothes before getting back into them and opened the car so she could dress. By the time she was covered, he’d folded down the back seat and laid the sleeping bags out. It wouldn’t be the most comfortable bed since he hadn’t thought to buy air mattresses, but it wasn’t all that long before dawn. He wanted to be at the airport in plenty of time, and it was still a couple hours’ driving time. Plus, they’d want to stop for coffee and breakfast.

He tucked her into the nest he’d made when he’d unzipped the bags and laid one atop the other, got in the other side, and hit the clicker to lock the car. When he held out his arms, she snuggled against him. Tenderness flooded him as he wrapped his arms around her. “I was right. Your cat is just as gorgeous as you are.”

“Not that I’ve seen that many shifters in shifted form, but sure and I’ve never seen a silver cat before. You’re amazing.” She quieted, but he sensed she wanted to say more.

“What?” he prodded. “We should have no secrets between us.”

She propped herself on an elbow and gazed at him, her heart in her eyes. “I had no idea it could be like that. I’ve never shifted just to play, and it felt incredible, like I was born to be her.” She took a measured breath and went on. “My cat is happy too. I don’t ever remember sensing her emotions before, but her joy is so deep and so poignant, it’s as if she’s dancing inside me.”

He felt the smile begin in his heart before it found its way to his lips. “It is the same with me. I have always embraced my dual nature, but my cat has never been so exultant. We have been waiting for you all our lives.”

Tears formed in her eyes, making them glow. “My mum, she tried to tell me I shouldn’t settle for less than a shifter mate. I told her sure and wishful thinking it was, since the odds of meeting another of us was so remote.” A single tear tracked down one cheek.

He pulled her into his arms again. “The past does not matter, liebchen. Only the future. Our future.” He covered her mouth with his. Lars didn’t plan to make love with her, but his cock was still hard from when he’d been in cat form. Even beyond his physical need, Lars craved the woman in his arms with his soul.

She opened her mouth beneath his and curved her arms around his body, holding him tight against her. Unlike earlier, Lars didn’t hurry. He kissed her until the body in his arms melted against him and she made delightful mewling noises deep in her throat. When he raised his mouth from hers and strung kisses down the side of her face to the hollow in her neck, she murmured, “We could have saved a wee bit of time by not getting dressed.”

“I did not plan this.” He nuzzled her neck. “You are nigh onto irresistible.”

“You’ll be turning this poor girl’s head with all that fancy talk.” She slipped a hand between their bodies and curled her fingers around his erection, still covered by his trousers. His breath quickened. In the small corner of his mind that wasn’t swamped with lust, he didn’t understand why he couldn’t keep his hands off her. It hadn’t been that long since they’d sated themselves.

He tugged her top up to expose her breasts. Moonlight spilled into the car, lending her skin a silvery glow. Her nipples were already puckered. He bent and kissed first one, and then the other. She arched her back, wove her fingers into his hair, and murmured in Irish. Her hips thrust rhythmically as he suckled her and he sensed her increasing arousal. It stoked his own until he trembled on the edge of orgasm. It was as if everything he did to her amplified itself until he felt it in his own body.

Lars drew away and gazed down at Tamara. She gazed back, eyes liquid with need and warmth. Slowly, she reached between them, undid his pants, and drew his cock out. He felt her spread liquid heat around his exquisitely sensitive glans, and understood his own fluid had escaped. She gripped his shaft and milked it with her hand. So aroused he could barely contain himself, he reached down and laid his hand over hers. “I need to be inside you. If you keep that up, I will spend on your beautiful belly.”

“Such an old-fashioned word.” She helped him undo her pants and pushed them down so she could free one leg.

“Maybe I am an old-fashioned man.” Lars took hold of his cock and guided it between her legs until his cockhead seated firmly against her opening. She moaned, drew her legs up, and latched them around his back. He took his time pushing into her and savored every centimeter of him surrounded by her lush heat. When he hit bottom, he stopped moving and contracted his muscles until he felt an answering twitch from hers.

He supported himself on his arms and drank in her beauty. Ever so slowly, he began to move in tiny little circles. Her hips bucked beneath him; her head fell back on her graceful stalk of a neck. She made a grab for his hips and ground herself against his body. He felt her pussy convulse around him as she came and he rode through her peak alongside her, feeling her ecstasy in his heart. He wanted release, but he could wait. Pleasing her was everything. He’d never felt that way before. He’d always been a considerate lover, but he’d always been anxious to get up and get moving once sex was over with. The emotions cascading through him, where he wanted to shield Tamara, protect her from harm, hold her next to him forever, were something new.

Tamara made a satisfied, purring sound and clamped her muscles around him. She moved her hands off his body and cupped her breasts, twirling and teasing the nipples. Watching her touch herself was a game changer; it amped up his arousal to white heat. When she moved a hand to her mouth, licked her fingers, and placed them atop her mound, he almost forgot to breathe.

Gazing at her while she touched her nipple and her clit unraveled him. Control crumbled. He withdrew and slammed himself home, never taking his eyes from the show she put on for him. His balls tightened and snugged against his body. The deep blue of her eyes drew him in, and held him. “Yes, my love.” She met him stroke for stroke, breasts and cheeks splotched with lust. “Now. Come with me now.”

As if his body danced to her command, a powerful orgasm shuddered through him as her muscles contracted and released around his shaft. English abandoned him, so he murmured to her in German, telling her he adored her, that he’d care for her forever. He came back to himself gasping and panting atop her, with her arms and legs twined around his body.

“Amazing, incredible,” she crooned and stroked his back. “All that aside, learning German is at the top of my to-do list.”

He started to answer her, and then froze. “Ssht.” He pulled his cock from the heat of her body, collected his pants and dragged them over his still throbbing member. A moment later he reconsidered. His cat form was ideal for night work, much better than his gun. Clothes would only be an impediment.

“What is it?” She kept her voice low and gathered her own clothes.

“Hold off on those clothes. I heard a car.”

“But it’s the middle of the night.”

“Exactly.” He reached for his gun, loaded it just in case. He worked automatically, without needing eyes to see what he was doing. “Have you ever fought in your cat form?”