AI debut

[safeashouses]

I was no stranger to waking up disoriented and in new and unusual places but this was a stretch even for me. I had grown used to the island, the ins and outs of it, and while it would never be ideal (I was missing some very important members of my family, after all) it was something that I could live with. If nothing else, I felt guilty that I had a place that was safe from Souls and any other external threats where I could live openly as a human and not have to worry about getting hijacked again.

I had a little hut with a garden that I shared with Wanderer and I spent...an inordinate amount of time with Nick and for the first time since the Souls first showed up on earth, I was happy, relaxed and free to do anything I wanted. So of course that all had to come crashing down on me, didn't it?

It started with disappearances. People were being snatched up left and right and I lived in constant fear that Wanderer or Nick was going to be next. I didn't know how to ensure that they would stay on the island with me because it seemed like the disappearances didn't care about families at all; a mother might disappear and leave her children behind, a father next. I didn't want that for my little family, small as it was, and I didn't know how to stop it.

So I fought. The only thing I have ever known how to do in my short life was fight and I took my aggression out on Nick's heavy bag more often than not. I didn't put a dent in it, thank god, but between the two of us it got plenty of work. I had just finished working it over something good and had headed up to the Compound for a shower when it happened. One second, I was pulling open the door and expecting the fresh, cold air of the air conditioning to hit my sweat-soaked face and the next I was faced with air conditioning...but not the right room.

Instead of the haphazard quality the Compound always had with so many people living there and using it at any one time, this was a cool, quiet hotel lobby. There was a clerk at the desk and a few people milling around and I panicked, remembering the night I had originally been caught by the Souls when I was trying to hide my brother. Was I back home? Were these people or had they already been caught? I ducked around a corner into a hallway and backed up, running straight into a laundry bin full of dirty towels. Great. Even better was the fact that I had been spotted and I instantly cast my eyes down, hoping they hadn't noticed I was missing the tell-tale ring around them.

Maybe I could just hide under the towels until everyone left.

Comments

[malachai]

"Better than I've ever been since it happened. I think all the time spent human, working through a lot of the things that kept me angry all the time, and the break away from that incessant voice, helped a lot. I can still feel all of that, but it doesn't affect me like it used to."

Nick risked a little quirk to one side of his mouth. "There's a little bit of a perk with the whole demon thing."

[safeashouses]

"What's that?" I said, brightening just a little. I had been worried that he had found someone else and the relationship I cherished was over and I was definitely glad that wasn't the case. I don't know if I could be really welcoming to Nick's new girlfriend if he'd found one that wasn't me.

[malachai]

"When I shift into my demon form, I look a little strange. Or a lot strange, but I can control it as well as I control the other aspects of it and I can partially shift if I want to."

He let his eyes go, watching through eyes that made his vision red-tinged at the edges which told him his eyes were the demon's bright blazing yellow. After a minute, he locked it back down again until his eyes were back to the blue she expected. Better she see that first before he threw the wings at her.

[safeashouses]

"Huh. Well, it's kind of weird," I said, wanting to be honest, "But also cool, and more cool than weird. Congratulations, Nick, you're a badass."

I had the sneaking suspicion he didn't need to be told that but I was nothing if not sarcastic sometimes. Besides, it was true.

[malachai]

"I think I can handle cool weird," Nick said on an exhale of relief, but he wasn't out of the woods yet. She had to see it all before he'd completely relax.

Her badass comment, though, made him laugh. "I am, huh? Too badass to kiss?"

[safeashouses]

"I'm down for kissing if it won't ruin your rep," I said, grinning at him and looping my arms around his neck. I hoped it still felt as good and easy and natural for him as it had felt on the island.

"I am always down for kissing."

[malachai]

In any other time, he would have made a quip of some sort. But not now. "Melanie," was all he managed before he lowered and took her lips in a deep kiss. The first touch of her lips, the first taste of her tongue on his, and he groaned low. His arms tightened around her, nearly lifting her off her feet.

[safeashouses]

It was almost like I hadn't ever kissed before. This kiss was something new and different and it felt like coming home after a long time even if I had just seen Nick before wandering through the door to the hotel from the island.

I pressed up close, so close that I didn't know where he ended and I began, and kept kissing him as if my life depended on it.

[malachai]

Nick groaned against her lips, one hand fisting in her hair to keep her head anchored to his, as if he could keep her from disappearing again. He knew no amount of grip could do that, but for now, it felt like enough.

And then it didn't because he wanted more and standing in the middle of a hallway wasn't the place for that.

"Melaine," he repeated, trailing his lips along her jaw and down her throat.

[safeashouses]

"Hmm?" I was the kind of hazy that only happened after a long stretch of toe-curling kisses and Nick could get me there faster than anyone else I had ever known. I was not really functioning on all cylinders.

"What's the plan?"

[malachai]

Nick's hands were inches away from cupping her ass and lifting her right off her feet, his instincts screaming at him to do just that. "I should let you get settled, take you to see your sister."

His tone indicated how little either option appealed.

[safeashouses]

"Yeah, probably. I need to make sure she's okay." I had the slightest bit of disappointment in my tone because I loved my sister and I was responsible but I was still human and wanted to be selfish for a moment.

My unselfish moments were solely the result of Wanderer having been in my head all those months.

[malachai]

Because he knew the little alien was fine here, but also knew how protective Mel was, he nodded.

"I'll take you to her," he said. But it had been a long time since he'd seen her, touched and tasted her.

"In a minute." Then his mouth was on hers again.

[safeashouses]

I wanted to protect my sister but I couldn't really protest when Nick's lips were on mine and he hadn't seen me in so long.

I wrapped my arms around him, holding him close.

[malachai]

"I know you want to see your sister, and I won't get in the way of that," Nick spoke hoarsely against her ear, "but all I want to do is throw you over my shoulder and carry you off to my cave."

To emphasize that, he let his hands drift down to her ass, giving it a healthy squeeze.

[safeashouses]

I couldn't help it, I sighed. Nick totally pulled this caveman thing on me on a regular basis and I was okay with it, even though I had other responsibilities.

"Do you promise my sister is doing all right?"

[malachai]

And just like that, he knew he was going to have to tell her. It would kill the mood, but so would the guilt he'd feel later when he finally did fess up, then spent the next hour being pissed he didn't tell her when she'd asked. Rightfully so.

So instead of distracting her with kisses, he took a step back and rubbed his arms up and down her arms. "She's fine. But she's made a new friend here."

His tone gave away pretty much all she'd need to know about his feelings about the friend in question.

[safeashouses]

"What kind of friend?" I was cautious and wary. I knew that Nick wouldn't lie to me about this and I knew that Nick, if nobody else, had mine and Wanderer's best interests at heart.

"I'm not going to like this, am I?"

[malachai]

"No, you're really, really not going to like it at all," Nick agreed. "Her friend is a vampire named Eric."

As the saying went, he braced for impact.

[safeashouses]

I narrowed my eyes. "And I'm guessing that he's a vampire in the whole I vant to suck your blood sense, right? Not some demon like you are?"

I flashed him a quick grin. "No offense, of course. I like your demon."

[malachai]

Nick answered her grin with one of his own. "And I don't mind saying that I like that you do very much, cher. If it helps, he's more than a little worried about what I'd do to him if he so much as bruises her." He shrugged. "And I can read his mind, so he won't be able to hide anything from me."

[safeashouses]

"That's a creepy trick." I waited a beat and then asked something that I thought I might end up regretting.

"You aren't reading my mind, are you? You know I hate that stuff."

[malachai]

"Nope, I can tell just by looking that you're pissed," Nick grinned, then took her hand and squeezed it. "I don't peek into people's heads on a whim, Mel, no matter how much I might want to. The demon doesn't see a problem with it, but I'm still the man my mother raised, and she'd slap the back of my head if I tried it."

[safeashouses]

"Well, thank God for your mother," I said, sighing in relief. Nothing freaked me out more than knowing someone else could see my thoughts and feel my feelings. I wanted that part of me sacred and closed off from everyone else.

[malachai]

"The only time I'd ever violate that is if you were in danger and I had to find you," Nick told her, his face solemn as his promise.