Even Vampires Get the Blues

Chapter 6

 

  The next two days passed like. . . well, like two days. Busy, mostly. Frustrating, definitely, both on a personal and a professional level.

  "Are you coming back tonight?" Clare's voice was rather breathless against my ear as I cradled the phone to hear her over the noise and confusion of the Glasgow train station.

  "Yes. I should be home around dinnertime. What's been going on there today?"

  A smothered giggle followed by a deep rumble of a masculine voice answered that question. "Um. . . we don't have much to report, actually. Finn and I have been working through the list of antique buyers, but with no new information. Oh, Mr. Race called to see if we'd had any progress. I told him you were in Glasgow working on a tip for another case, and he was a bit put out. He said he wasn't paying us good money to work for other people, and he demanded that we put all our attention on his case. He also said he was in London for a day or two, and he'd really like you to meet him there. "

  "London? I thought he was in Barcelona?" Something rustled in a nearby trash bin. I hoped it wasn't rodents.

  "He left. He said he could put you up for a couple of days if you wanted to contact some of the English collectors in case some of them have heard anything about the manuscript. "

  "I hope you told him we already have, with no luck. "

  "I tried to, but he doesn't seem to want to listen to me. He just kept saying that people are more forthcoming if you approach them in person, and what a good idea it would be for both of us to go to London and search. "

  "He can just go soak his head," I grumbled, eyeing an itinerant man to make sure he didn't decide to relieve himself near the phone cubicle I occupied. I spent a few minutes damning whoever it was who stole my cell phone a few days earlier, then pulled my mind back to the present. "Did you tell him we were devoting all possible energies to finding the book for him?"

  "Yes, but he didn't like the fact that you were away working on another case. So, the private auction lead was a total failure?"

  "Not just the lead, the last two days have been a bust. " The homeless man curled up on a bench and quietly picked at various parts of his body. I turned away to stare at the graffiti in the phone booth, depressed and oddly unsettled. "It took me an entire day to track down the collector who was selling off part of his collection, and another day to convince him to let me take a peek at it before the bidders got at it. I'm just sick at the waste of time, Clare. Paen's mother doesn't have two days for us to waste like this. "

  "You had to check it out," she consoled, stifling another giggle.

  I sighed to myself over that, too. In the time I had been gone, Paen had been absolutely silent, not even bothering to check in with me by phone. It was as if he had lost interest in me personally - which even I realized was ridiculous. I'd known the man only three days. There wasn't time for us to establish an emotional bond.

  Yet I had spent the last few days thinking about Paen, feeling as if a part of me was missing because he wasn't around, and dreaming the most lascivious, erotic dreams about a man I barely knew.

  "What's that?" Clare asked, her words dissolving into a squeal.

  I poked morosely at the coin return. "Nothing. I'll be there by suppertime. Tell Finn hi for me. And if Paen calls. . . " I stopped, furious with myself at the demanding urges buried deep within me. He wasn't a potential mate. He wasn't even boyfriend material. He was a client, a man who didn't believe in the importance of emotional attachment.

  And I was starting to think I was close to falling in love with him.

  "Tell him what?"

  "Nothing. See you in a few hours. "

  I argued with myself all the way home, until I was too tired to see reason anymore. The last few nights I hadn't slept much - no doubt that was affecting my sanity.

  "Oh, now this is bad," I said to myself several hours later as I hauled my wheeled bag off the train platform. "I'm so obsessed with the man, I'm starting to see him everywhere. In a kilt, yet. "

  "Sam," the kilt-wearing, Paen-shaped vision greeted me, taking the handle of my luggage. He must have noticed my confusion, because he added, "Clare told me you were coming back tonight. I take the fact that you haven't called to announce you found the statue to mean your visit to Glasgow was unsuccessful?"

  I stared at him in sleep-deprived bemusement for a few seconds. He paused and raised an eyebrow. "Is something the matter?"

  "No. Yes. Maybe. It depends - why are you here? And why are you wearing a kilt?"

  He ignored both questions, gently rubbing his thumb under my left eye. "You have dark circles under your eyes. "

  "I know. It's because I haven't slept well the last couple of nights, thanks to you. "

  "To me?" He frowned, then took my elbow and propelled me toward the main doors. "I have left you completely alone for the last forty-eight hours. How can I be to blame?"

  "Because you've left me completely alone for the last forty-eight hours. "

  "That doesn't make any sense," Paen argued.

  I stopped outside the doors, moving to the side so we were out of the flow of traffic. "Of course it does. Paen, three days ago we met. You told me you wanted to sleep with me. I, against my better judgment, agreed to do that simply because I wanted to prove to you that sex without emotional commitment was shallow and meaningless. "

  "You agreed to sleep with me because you fancied me," he said, his beautiful eyes lightening.

  "That too. The point is, you made a big deal about us sleeping together, then you just left me!"

  He frowned, his brows pulling together in a black slash over his eyes. "You'd had a trying day. You yawned three times on the way back from Dunstan Moor. Clearly you were not in an optimum mood to appreciate my sexual technique. "

  "In other words" - I poked him in the chest - "you chickened out. "

  "Don't be ridiculous," he said, grabbing my elbow again and pushing me along the sidewalk toward the parking lot. "I was being considerate, just as I have been the last two days, a fact you totally seem to have misunderstood. "

  "Given that you never once called to see how I was doing in Glasgow, I think it's reasonable to assume you were avoiding me because you regretted ever making those rash statements regarding personal relationships. "

  "Or I could have been letting you do your job while I was tied up with SEPA," Paen said, unlocking the trunk of his car and throwing my suitcase into it.

  I stood to let him unlock and open the passenger door for me. "SEPA?"

  "Scottish Environmental Protection Agency. They've been claiming a bit of my land is contaminated with runoff from a nearby smelting plant, and I had to meet with the officials to prove again that it isn't. I doubt if you've had much experience dealing with Scottish political red tape, but it's just as unpleasant as the Canadian version. "

  "Oh. I'm sorry. " I nibbled on my lower lip for a moment. "How did it turn out?"

  He flashed me a quick grin before starting the car and backing it out of the parking spot. "Chemical analysis of the soil and water table showed they're unpolluted, as I've said for the last six years. "

  "Good. "

  "It was damned annoying timing on their part. I planned on helping search the antiquities network for news of the statue, but was tied down with the minutiae of officialdom. "

  "That's OK. Clare and Finn worked on that while I was gone. "

  He glanced at me before pulling out into traffic. "Why haven't you been sleeping well?"

  I hesitated about telling him. I'd already made a fool of myself by sounding jealous and possessive of him when there was no relationship to be jealous or possessive about, but the urge to protect my delicate ego was strong. In the end, though, I told the truth, because. . . well, just because I figured it might mean something to him. "The time not spent in incredibly erotic dreams about you was mostly spent tossing and turning, wondering what you were doing, why you hadn't called me, and whether you regretted making the proposition you did. "
r />   "You didn't call me either," he said, picking the one thing out of my embarrassing confession that I knew was the weakest.

  "I did. You didn't answer. And I. . . er. . . didn't leave a voice mail. "

  "Why?" he asked, shooting me another quick glance.

  I looked out the window at the lights of the city as they passed by. It was painful having to admit how much I missed him during the two days away. "I didn't have anything to report. I just wanted to talk to you. "

  "Well, I'm here now," he said, pausing to let an elderly couple cross the street.

  "Yes, and that's something I'm rather curious about. Clare knows full well there's a bus that goes from the station to less than a block away from our apartment. I've hauled a lot more luggage than what I have now. So why has she sent you to fetch me?"

  His eyebrows flattened out to a straight line. "I just thought it would be polite to pick you up since you'd been away on my behalf. "

  "Doing the job you're paying me to do," I pointed out, secretly delighted by the revelation that Paen had missed me while I was gone.

  "I was in town anyway," he said, avoiding my eye.

  "Uh-huh. And the kilt?"

  "I'm a Scot. I'm allowed to wear one. "

  "I know that, silly. I just meant, what's the occasion?"

  He maneuvered the car slowly through a busy, pedestrian-laden street. "I don't need an occasion to wear a kilt. "

  "Riiiight," I drawled.

  He sent me a quick glance. "Most women fair drool at the sight of a man in a kilt. "

  Oho! So that was the way things were. I fought to keep my smile from showing, and tried to look only mildly interested. "Do they?"

  "Yes. " He glanced at me again. "They find it sexy. "

  "I'm sure they do. " I pointed out the next turn, and Paen swung around a corner, entering the narrow street in the old part of Edinburgh where Clare and I shared an apartment. "Did you miss me?"

  He pulled into the tiny parking area behind our building, giving me a startled look. "Did I what?"

  "You heard me. Did you miss me while I was gone?"

  "Where should I park?" he asked, ignoring my question.

  "There, next to Clare's car. It's the spot assigned to me, but I don't have a car, so you can use it. And stop avoiding answering the question. "

  He pulled into a spot and turned off the engine. "I regretted that you were away on business when I couldn't help you. "

  I smiled to myself as I unhooked my seat belt. "Not good enough. Did you miss me?"

  He got out of the car, going to open the trunk.

  I followed, my arms crossed over my chest as I leaned a hip against the car. "Well?"

  "Let me ask you this - did you miss me?" he said, slamming the trunk closed.

  "Very much," I said, waiting.

  His eyes lightened another few degrees. "I see. In that case - yes, I missed you. "

  "Good. Are you going to spend the night this time, or are you not yet ready for such a thing?"

  "That was our original agreement, but I thought perhaps you might have changed your mind. "

  "I don't change my mind that easily," I said as we walked to the building, waiting as he opened the door for me. The faint sound of music from Mila's sex shop was the only sound to permeate this part of the building. I started up the stairs to our apartment, but Paen stopped me, pushing me up against the wall of the stairwell, his body blocking out the dim light that hung over the stairs until all I could see was the silver gleaming brightly in his eyes.

  "You're tired," he said.

  "I haven't yawned once. How can you possibly imagine I'm tired?"

  "You said you weren't sleeping well," he reminded me.

  "I slept on the train coming home," I answered, thankful that I had dropped off for a few minutes so I could tell him that.

  "You look tired," he insisted.

  I smiled. I couldn't help it; he was so cute trying to deny the obvious. "I do not look tired. I checked a mirror before the train arrived. The dark circles under my eyes are hereditary, not due to lack of sleep. I am exhibiting no obvious signs of fatigue. "

  He leaned into me. "I can feel that you're near exhaustion. "

  "Nuh-uh, that won't work either, because according to you, we don't have a psychic thing. So you can't possibly know what I'm feeling," I argued softly, my body turning into one gigantic tingling erogenous zone as he pinned me against the wall.

  "Then you won't mind at all if I ascertain for myself your feelings on the subject of our having sex?" His voice was likewise low, but roughened with arousal.

  "Good god, no. Ascertain away," I said, gasping as his hands slid up my waist to cup my breasts, causing me to rub myself against him like a cat begging for stroking. I clutched the back of his jacket to keep myself upright, my senses overwhelmed with the scent and feel of him.

  "I'm going to kiss you now," he said, as if he had to warn me. My answer was to move sinuously against him, twine one leg around his, and grab his head with both hands to pull him into a kiss that I figured would make him see stars, if not actual galaxies.

  The elf in me wanted to distance myself from the situation and analyze just what it was that made Paen so attractive to me, but bless my dad's mortal genes, there was enough of him in my chromosomal makeup to let me ignore the elf part and go into a full swoon of delight when Paen's lips touched mine. That touch was brief, but I didn't mourn its loss because what followed was enough to have my shoelaces melting.

  It started out like a regular kiss - our lips were there, smooshing up against each other, tongues present but not yet engaged. There was a sense of aroused excitement with the first couple of passes of lip action, followed by a tentative, questing touch with the tip of my tongue. Paen's tongue answered, and suddenly he wasn't just kissing me, he was feasting, supping on my mouth, drinking me in like I was the source of all being. His body was hard against mine, but it wasn't an unpleasant sensation - far from it. While he was busy making love to my mouth, my body curled around him, trying to get closer still.

  Wanting more, I poured into him the feelings he was arousing in me, the sensations he fired up deep inside me, the desires and wants and a whole slew of complex emotions that I couldn't even begin to imagine. I flooded him with what I was feeling - and he froze.

  Is something wrong? I asked as his body turned into a statue. He pulled back, looking down at me with his quicksilver eyes, now so bright I swear I could read a book by them.

  "This is not really an appropriate place to continue," he said, answering, but not really answering, the question I had mind-zapped him.

  "Oh. " I looked around at the dimly lit stairwell. "You're right, it isn't. Shall we go up to my apartment?"

  He stepped back and indicated I should precede him. Speed on stairs has never been my forte, having inherited my father's tendency to clumsiness, but I made it up this flight in record time. I hurried into the apartment with an excuse on my lips for Clare to explain why I was dragging Paen off to my bedroom, but there was no Clare to be seen. Nor Finn.

  "Huh," I said, peeling off my jacket and tossing it on the coat-tree. "I wonder if she and Finn went out?"

  Ethereal giggling, followed by deeper, more masculine laughter, drifted out from behind the closed door to Clare's room.

  Paen cocked an eyebrow at me. "I would say they stayed in. "

  "Geez!" I said, looking for a moment at Clare's door. "They just met! And now they're in there going at it like bunnies?"

  The other eyebrow rose.

  "We're different," I told both eyebrows. "She's not conducting an experiment, she's just giving in to her libidinous faery nature. "

  "Elves don't have a libido?" he asked, taking off his coat.

  "Of course they do. They're just not as flighty as faeries. They don't feel the need to have sex on a daily basis, as most Fae folk do. They are circumspect. They have restraint. They can wait for the proper time and place, and most importantly, the
right person to come along before they. . . rawr!"

  Paen reeled back a few steps from the impact of my body being flung onto his.

  "I want another one of those kisses," I said, wrapping my legs around his waist.

  "Circumspection and restraint having gone out the window?" he asked as he hoisted me a little higher, staggering ever so slightly in the direction I pointed.

  "I'm also human," I mentioned, nuzzling his neck as he struggled to open my bedroom door.

  "Would you mind. . . thank you. "

  "So very polite. I love the Scots," I said as I reached behind me to open the door, closing it as Paen carried me across the threshold.

  "Our politeness is just one of our attributes. " He stopped a foot into the room, looking around it in surprise.

  "My mother's idea," I said, unhooking my legs so I could stand. "She and Dad went to Africa last spring, so for Christmas last year she hired a decorator to come in and redo my bedroom. Don't let the malacca and mosquito netting fool you - the bed is quite sturdy. "

  "And the elephant head?" he asked, looking at the wall above the headboard.

  "Fake. Mom wanted to get the real thing, but I had to draw the line somewhere. There's a matching foot basket I use for trash around here somewhere. "

  "I see. And the machete is for. . . ?"

  I picked it up and gave it a twirl before hacking at an aggressive palm that blocked the path into the bedroom. "The plants are very real, and were tended by my mother before she turned them over to me, so they grow like crazy. I'm dreading what will happen this summer, once some actual sunlight gets to them. There, I think you can get by. Mind the rhino. "

  "Bench?" he asked, eyeing the large wooden figure that lurked in the shrubberies my mother insisted live in my room.

  "Yup. " I skirted a faux-leopard rug in order to fling a few dozen accent pillows off my bed. "You can ride him, too, but he's not very comfortable. I use his horn as a backscratcher when I have an itch I can't reach. So. . . um. . . here we are. Do you want to get naked?"

  Paen thought for a moment. "Do you?"

  "Well. . . " I looked at him, really looked at him. He wasn't movie star handsome, but I liked his face. It was a typical Scottish face, kind of long, with interesting cheeks, and a jaw that made my knees go a bit melty. His eyes were unparalleled - going from dark, cloudy grey-almost-black, to a silver so bright it came close to scorching me. I was still more than a little bewildered by my instant attraction to him, but there was no denying it was there. So where was the harm in giving in to it? "I think I'd like you to be naked first, and then I'll get naked later. "

  "That hardly seems fair," he said, frowning just a little. "You'd have me at a disadvantage if I was nude and you weren't. "

  "You saw my boobs already. That gives you a point up on me - all I did was get to feel you. "

  "I didn't see your breasts. I saw your bra. "

  "With my boobs in it. It's the same thing," I argued.

  "Is that really an important distinction?"

  I wrinkled my nose as I thought about that. "Well. . . not in the world peace sort of sense, no, but I'm trying to establish my footing with you. I'm a bit nervous. "

  "And you are taking advantage of that fact by dictating to me a bizarre set of rules you just thought up?" Paen may have been grumbling, but he kept unbuttoning his shirt.

  "Maybe. OK, I am. You got away with all that experiment stuff, so I'm going to be the rulemaker. Rule number one is that you get naked before me. "

  "Do you have body issues?" he asked, shucking his shirt.

  It took me a minute to answer. I clutched the malacca, mosquito-netting-wrapped bedpost to keep from running over to touch that magnificent chest again. "Just the usual. Nothing out of the ordinary. Why, do you think I should have body issues?"

  "No," he said quickly as I looked down at myself. "I just wondered. So many women seem to be unhappy with themselves, it's refreshing to find one who isn't. "

  "Oh. Well, as far as that goes, I'd like pretty much everything improved, but since that's not going to happen without a new set of genes or a really expensive plastic surgeon, I'm resigned to living with this body. "

  "It's a very nice body," he said politely, sitting on the rhino's back to pull off his shoes and socks.

  "Thank you. I wouldn't mind being taller than five foot four, having bigger boobs, and less in the hip and thigh area, but eh. I can live with myself. "

  "That's a good attitude to take. I never understood women who feel driven to surgical enhancement to match a society's ideas of beauty. "

  "Well, I did have my ears bobbed," I reminded him, watching with interest as he stood back up and put his hands on his belt.

  "Yes, but I assume that was to lessen the taunting that you must have undergone as a child. "

  "Yup. Although my dad says he thinks my mother's pointy ears are sexy. He likes to nibble on them. Mom says that to an elf, ears are an erogenous zone, but I've never found that to be true. "

  He unbuckled his belt, dropping it and the sporran on the chair. "Would you like me to nibble on your ears?"

  "They're not pointy," I answered, a little shiver of mingled anticipation and excitement doing a number on my nervous system. "Are you purposely stalling? Are you not dropping kilt because you suddenly realize that making love is a hundred times better than just plain old fucking?"

  "No," he said, his hand on the waistband. "Why, are you having second thoughts?"

  "You asked me that before. I said no then, if you recall. "

  "That's right. Well. . . " He hesitated for another moment, then with a quick move unbuttoned his kilt and let it drop to the floor. He wasn't wearing underwear, something that mildly shocked me. "There. I'm naked and you're dressed. Now it's your turn. "

  "Don't rush me," I said, not sure where to look first. Oh, OK, I looked there first, but just because I wondered. But once that curiosity was satisfied, I gave the rest of him the once-over. "I'm guessing you have no body issues whatsoever. "

  "You guess wrong. Are you going to just stand there and stare at me?" he asked, picking up his kilt and neatly folding it to sit on top of his shirt.

  "I'm an elf. I'm a visual person. I like looking at you. "

  "You're human," he said, marching over to me and pulling me up against his naked body. "You're also one of the sexiest women I've ever met, bobbed ears and all. Now take off your clothes before I rip them off. "

  "Oooh. Aggression. Dominance," I said, my breath catching as my hands slid up his ribs. He was warm, hard, and male. My senses went into overload as I rubbed myself against him, stroking all that lovely flesh.

  "Does it arouse you?" he asked, nibbling a path up my neck toward my ears, his hands moving down my sides, around to my butt.

  "Not really - oh dear god!"

  I've had boyfriends who've done a little earlobe nibbling before my mind took its usual coital walk, but never has anyone ventured beyond earlobe territory to the rest of my ears. When Paen bit gently down on the top of my ear, I just about passed out from the bolt of arousal that zapped through me. My legs literally shook from the tremors of pleasure that were coursing down from the touch of his mouth. "Rip them off!"

  "Hmm?" Paen asked as he nibbled the top arch of my ear. My knees buckled.

  "Rip my clothes off! Right now!"

  He pulled back a little to look at me. "You want me to rip your clothes off?"

  "Yes! Right now! Rip them off, then ear me again!"

  "I thought you didn't find aggression and dominance - "

  I slapped a hand over his mouth. "Too much talking, not enough action. "

  "Very well," he mumbled under my hand. "But I want you to remember that the destruction of your clothes was your idea. "

  In the end, he didn't rip my clothes off, although he did help me out of them in a time that would do a quick-change artist proud.

  "There, I'm naked. Now do my ears again!" I demanded, lunging at him as I kicked off my
underwear.

  He chuckled as I turned my head for maximum ear position. "Changed your mind about ears being sexy, have you?"

  "You have no idea," I said, quivering as his hot breath touched my ears. Something occurred to me then. As his tongue swept a long stroke up the side of my ear to the top, I sent him the sensations of sheer, utter arousal that he was generating, alongside a hunger that I hadn't known existed in me. For a moment I could feel an answering hunger in him, and then gently I was closed out, as if a door had shut between us.

  Stop doing that!

  "I thought you liked this?" he asked, nipping my ear. Every bone in my body turned to pudding.

  I do. I mean stop shutting me out of your mind. It's not fair. I'm willing to let you into mine. I just want you to feel what I'm feeling. I want to know what it is that I do to you, too. Why won't you let me in?

  He stopped nibbling long enough to take one of my hands, place it on his belly, and slide it down the intriguing trail of hair that led to points south. "Does that answer the question of what you do to me?" he asked as my fingers closed around his erection.

  Only partially, I answered, wanting more from him, but unable to express what I wanted without sounding like an idiot. I wanted to tell him that I needed some sort of emotional attachment, but I knew what his answer to that would be. And since I had agreed to his ground rules, I couldn't change them now.

  I'd just have to make him realize how shallow sex was without anything behind it, my inner elf decided. The human in me wanted to point out that most men were completely and utterly happy with nothing but a physical relationship, but I squelched that thought. Paen wasn't most men. He was different, in more ways than the obvious. He was so. . . needy. He needed someone to show him how much more there could be to life.

  "I'm going to lick you from head to toe," he mumbled against my neck, his voice thick with desire as he backed me the couple of steps to the bed. "Then reverse the route until I end back at those tasty little ears of yours. "

  "Sounds like a plan to me," I agreed, grabbing a foil packet from my nightstand drawer before beating back the mosquito netting and getting into the bed - without allowing his mouth to break contact with my skin - as gracefully as possible.

  One eyebrow twitched at the sight of the foil packet.

  "For later," I said, pulling him down onto me.

  "We don't need that," he said, his tongue making a swipe across the top of my ear. I shivered with ecstasy and rubbed my hips against his erection. "You're immortal. "

  "No, I'm half elf. That means I have approximately double a human life span, but I can still get diseases. Not to mention pregnant. And since I'd like to avoid both at this time, we'll just have to do this my way. "

  "If you insist," he said, pausing to suck his breath in when I trailed both hands down his sides to find the proof of his interest again.

  "No more ears. I'm on the verge of an orgasm now, and I don't think I could stand much more," I told him as his head dipped toward mine.

  "As you like. No. No more of that right now, either," he answered, plucking my hands from his crotch.

  "Am I too rough?" I asked, worried for a moment that my (relative) inexperience was causing me to do things wrong.

  "Not at all, but tonight is for you. I want to give you pleasure, and if you keep touching me that way, it'll all be over and I'll just go to sleep. "

  "You're a vampire!" I said, nipping his shoulder. "You're supposed to be above that sort of mortal behavior. "

  "I'm also male," he said with a grin that made my toes curl. "Let me do it my way this once. Let me give you pleasure. "

  "You can try, but no promises I'll be here to enjoy it. "

  His head dipped again and he took one of my suddenly impudent nipples in his mouth. "We'll see. "

  Streaks of pleasure blossomed in all sorts of interesting spots, making my body hum with interest.

  Unfortunately, my brain had other ideas. The feeling of disassociation washed slowly over me, a feeling that I knew would end with me drifting off while my body enjoyed the benefits of Paen's attention.

  "No!" I yelled, desperately trying to grab his head to anchor myself. My hands drifted bonelessly to the bed despite my efforts to fight the lethargy that filled me. "No, dammit, not this time! Paen, stop! It's not working. . . god damn it all!"

  My being floated gently out of my body, hanging over the figures on my bed for a moment, just long enough for me to appreciate the fact that Paen might be a vampire, but he had the nicest ass I'd ever seen on a man. While I sobbed in silent, impotent rage at being taken away against my will, I drifted out of the room and into our living room.

  Which was in the process of being burgled.

  "Paen!" I shrieked, trying to grab the doorframe as I drifted through the room toward another. I dog-paddled wildly to get myself back into the living room, somehow managing to keep myself from being sucked into the tiny kitchen. "Clare! Burglars! Help! Someone! Oh, this is just fine and dandy. Son of a poodle, what are you?"

  A glimmer of light from a streetlamp that peeked in through the blinds touched on the dark figure of a man as he moved around the bookcase where we stuffed bills and assorted items of a sundry nature. At first I had thought it was someone intent on robbing us, but the light revealed that this man evidently had six arms. As I watched, he flitted from one object in the room to the next, examining everything almost soundlessly - almost, because each time he moved an item to look at it, there was a soft pattering sound.

  "Look, I don't know what you are, but I don't want you here. So leave and. . . hey!"

  A loud groan audible from Clare's room caused the whatever-it-was to pause for a moment before it started toward her bedroom door. I lunged toward the figure, but it passed right through me, sending me spinning toward the other side of the room in a cold eddy of air. I screamed silently in sheer frustration at my helpless state. "Stop it! You can't go in there! Clare! Something's coming in! God damn it! Paen! PAEN!" Paen!

  Samantha?

  There's something out here, something cold. And it's going into Clare's room -

  I didn't even have time to finish thinking at him. In the time it takes between seconds I was back in my body, naked and extremely warm.

  And alone, the door to my room slamming back against the wall.

  Be careful, I yelled, grabbing Paen's shirt and yanking it on over my head as I ran toward the door. It's got six arms.

  "It doesn't have any now - it's gone. " Paen's voice rumbled out of the darkness of the living room. I felt along the wall for the light switch, but he was right - the room was empty of all but him. He started toward me. "Are you sure you saw - "

  "Yes, I'm sure I saw him. It. Whatever. "

  He bent to pick something up.

  "It had six arms and moved really quickly, like he was being fast-forwarded. It was really creepy, and I couldn't do a thing to stop it - what's that?"

  "Stones," he said, an odd thoughtful look on his face. I touched them. They were small and round, as if they'd been washed up on the shore, about the size of a penny.

  "Stones? Where did they come from?" I looked around and noticed a couple more near the bookcase. "What the heck?"

  "They're apports," Paen said, turning as Clare's door opened. I flung myself forward to stand in front of him as Finn loomed in the doorway, a sheet wrapped around his waist, Clare peeping anxiously over his shoulder. "The being you saw was a poltergeist. "