Heat

“I’m not sure,” Tabatha answered. “Is this the first time you’ve been here?”

“No,” Kane didn’t bother lying to her. Why lie when he could just make her forget he’d even been here?

“Then I am inviting you in. Have a seat,” she pointed toward the other in of the sofa. If he was here to hurt her, then he’d already have done it… right? She watched the way he kept his movements slow as he did as she asked. It was a lie… she’d seen the speed at which he moved when he wanted to. He was being careful not to frighten her and that made her even more nervous.

Kane cocked an eyebrow, “Is this how you treat all of your stalkers?” he asked in all seriousness. “Invite them in for tea and crumpets?”

Tabatha shook her head, “I don’t drink tea and I hate crumpets. A cup of coffee and a bagel will do just fine.”

Kane smiled wanly at her. “How do you know I won’t hurt you?”

“If you were going to hurt me, you would have by now,” Tabatha answered, voicing the thought she’d had just moments before. On second thought she quickly added, “Despite the fact that I tend to get injured whenever you’re in the same vicinity.”

Kane inwardly winced at that and finally took the place she’d indicated at the other end of the sofa, turning to face her and leaning against the opposite armrest. He brought his right leg up, bending it at the knee and sat in a half Indian style with one arm folded over his stomach.

“So tell me love, why did you invite me in?” Kane asked.

“Why are you here?” Tabatha sidestepped the question.

Kane smirked, “You do know that it’s bad manners to answer a question with a question.”

Tabatha was momentarily taken aback by the way the smirk changed the contours of his face slightly, making him appear just as dangerous and seductive as she believed him to be.

“That may be true,” Tabatha said thoughtfully. “But I’m the one you’ve been following and I want to know why.”

Kane shrugged, “Because I want to.”

Tabatha glared at him, “Because you want to?”

Kane tilted his head to the side. “Why does a vampire do anything?”

Tabatha opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again not able to articulate an answer.

“Because they want to,” Kane answered for her.

Tabatha sighed, “Look, if you don’t want to tell me the truth then I can’t make you. But, if we’re going to be friends, we need to exchange at least one truth about each other.”

Kane’s eyebrows rose and he actually smiled, “Ah, so we’re going to play truth or dare now?”

Tabatha blushed remembering the few times she’d played the game while in high school… talk about embarrassing situations. “Without the dare and you will answer first.” she whispered.

Kane nodded, “All right. Since I’m the stalker, we will play by your rules.”

Tabatha felt a thrill run through her at his easy admittance that he was indeed stalking her. “Why does Kriss not like you? He won’t give me a reason why.”

“Because you don’t belong to him,” Kane answered a little too quickly.

“What kind of answer is that?” Tabatha demanded.

“Your turn,” Kane pointed out.

Tabatha grumbled, “Fine,” then she tensed not knowing what to expect.

“Do you like dogs?”

Tabatha blinked. That question was about the furthest thing from what she’d been expected. She relaxed then smiled fondly, “I love them. When I was little we had a little Yorkie puppy but he ran away. I never really got over it… I still miss him sometimes.”

Kane returned her smile with a slow smile of his own as their eyes locked, “You must meet my Yorkie sometime then… his name is Scrappy.”

Tabatha got cold chills through her body and literally jumped out of her seat when the phone rang. Getting up, she rushed to the phone to pick it up hoping it was Kriss calling in. Picking it up, she turned around to look at Kane but he was gone without a trace of him ever being there.

She did a quick search of her bedroom, only to find nothing. With a sigh, Tabatha pressed the phone against her ear, “hello?” she cringed when she heard Jason’s voice.

“What happened to you? You just disappear and don’t call me to let me know why?” Jason paced back and forth. “Damn it Tabby, You had me worried sick.”

Tabatha smiled into the receiver. Somehow being yelled at by Jason made her feel a little more normal. She quickly did the math in her head as she started explaining what happened without giving him a single detail about anything that had to do with the paranormal.

Kane moved the limbs of the bush over a fraction as he watched Tabatha relax for the first time since Trevor had dropped her off. His lips hinted at a smile as he listened to her tell the truth to whoever was on the phone and lie like crazy at the same time. His smile faded and his expression turned longing. What he would give to have her smile at him with such ease. Backing away from the window, he knew it was time to go… he could feel Kriss closing in on him.

“Hold on a minute Jason,” Tabatha frowned as she got the odd feeling of being watched. Turning her head toward the window, she froze seeing Kriss standing there watching her. “Jason, I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?” she turned and hung up the phone but when she looked back Kriss was gone.

Chapter 3

Mrs. Tully shook her head as she came out of Micah’s room and closed the door behind her before turning toward the crowd gathered in the hall. “He’s fine… still sleeping, but he is fine.”

“Then he’ll make a full recovery?” Quinn asked skeptically.

Mrs. Tully positioned herself between them and the door. “I mean it looks like he may have already made a full recovery. He doesn’t seem to have a single scratch on him.” She backed up a step and threw her arms out like a barrier when several of them tried to dart around her to go look for themselves.

“No,” she said firmly. “For now, I don’t want him disturbed. He’s in a deep sleep and that may be part of what’s speeding the healing. If you wake him up before he wakes up on his own, you may disturb whatever magic is being used on him.”

“Magic?” Jewel asked in confusion. She was starting to understand where the term ‘you learn something new every day’ had come from.

“Magic or miracle… they're both the same as far as I’m concerned,” Mrs. Tully smiled at the new edition to the cougar family.

“Already healed?” Steven said with disbelief then held the arm that was still in a sling up a couple inches and pointed at it, “This still hurts like hell and nowhere near healed yet.”

“This isn’t no time to be getting jealous over your brother's good fortune,” Mrs. Tully pointed toward Steven’s room, “Maybe if you listened to your doctor and stayed in bed, it would heal faster.”

Steven turned and looked down at Jewel. “Bed sounds really good.”

Jewel’s eyes widened and she blushed ten shades of red making Steven smirk.

Mrs. Tully just shook her head at the honeymooners knowing love was one of the best miracle healers available. He’d be fine within a couple days… exhausted but fine.

“I’ll make sure he isn’t disturbed,” Quinn added as he gazed longingly toward his own bedroom where he’d left Kat sleeping.

“Off with you too,” Mrs. Tully shooed him away.