Jayne Castle - Canyons of Night

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.

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.”

He winced. “Rex?”

“He came back late, made me feed him, and then took over my side of the bed.”

“You should have shoved him out.”

“Easy for you to say. Personally, I try not to get into arguments with anything that has more teeth and sharper claws than I do.”

“Rex wouldn’t hurt you.”

“Are you sure of that? I saw his hunting eyes. They tell me that is not a good sign when it comes to dust bunnies.”

He looked down and was reassured to notice that he was wearing his briefs. He got to his feet.

“Pretty sure,” he said.

“He’s a feral animal, Slade. He appears to have formed some kind of psychic bond with you but I don’t think you or anyone else can predict how he’d react if someone else tried to push him around.”

She had a point, he realized. He rubbed his jaw. He needed a shave.

“I apologize for Rex’s behavior,” he said. “Would you mind if I took a shower before we finish this conversation?”

“You can have the bathroom after me. I’m the one who had to sleep on the couch.”

“You know, we could shower at the same time. That way we wouldn’t have to worry about running out of hot water.”

She gave him one of her radiant smiles and for a couple of seconds his hopes soared.

“It’s a very small shower and I’m not worried about using up all the hot water because I’m going first,” she said sweetly. “By the way, would you mind stripping the bed while I’m in the shower? I want to wash the sheets.”

For some obscure reason, that hurt. He reminded himself that the sex had been hot and wet. The sheets probably did need washing.

“Sure,” he said.

“There will be dust bunny hair on my side of the bed,” she explained. “And on my pillow.”

He relaxed. It was Rex she wanted to wash out of her sheets, not him. Rex could take care of himself.

“No problem,” he said. “I’ll get right on it.”

She turned on her heel, went halfway down the short hall, and vanished into the bathroom. A moment later he heard the shower running.

He looked at Charlotte’s pillow. There were a few scruffy gray hairs but the damage didn’t look all that bad to him. Still, he knew enough about women to know that they could be picky about that sort of thing.

He bundled up the quilt, tossed it onto a chair and went to work stripping the sheets off the bed.

THE ENERGIZING AROMA OF BREWING COFFEE GREETED him when he emerged from the bathroom sometime later. He followed it into the kitchen and found Charlotte at the stove. She drew a long-handled spatula slowly through a large pan of creamy-looking scrambled eggs.

For a moment Slade stood in the doorway, allowing himself the luxury of watching Charlotte make breakfast for the two of them. She was dressed in black trousers and a deep blue pullover that skimmed her gently rounded breasts. Her hair, still damp from the shower, was tucked behind her ears and secured with a thin black headband.