After a quick lunch at a pleasant little pub we found, we made our way to the little bed and breakfast where Ben had reserved rooms for us. As he’d said, it was absolutely charming. The sitting room we gathered in to make our war plans was decorated in a pseudo-Victorian style, with lots of rich, dark woods and warm colors.

I had been placed - with seemingly careless ease on the part of Athena and Ben - in an overstuffed chair by the fireplace with my legs stretched out on a footstool. I had somehow ended up positioned so that my right knee was closest to the warmth of the fire, easing the sore muscles and tendons without anyone having to make a production of finding a heated wrap for me.

They were so considerate of my feelings that I was a little embarrassed by my sense of humiliation at needing help sometimes.

> Athena said with a teasing smile as she handed me a steaming mug of tea. >

> Artemis muttered from where she was sprawled in front of the fireplace, >

> I replied without even thinking about it, then sighed. >

> She kissed the top of my head, then went to sit beside Artemis in front of the fire.

Ben watched this silent exchange with obvious amusement, right up until I turned my now-knowing gaze on him.

“What?” he asked, smiling.

“Embarrass me into not being embarrassed by needing help?”

“Snitched on me, did she?” he asked lightly.

I nodded.

“It’s a good plan, no?”

I sighed. “Yes, and it’s starting to work.”

“Thank goodness,” Athena murmured.

Ben chuckled softly, and after a moment I realized I was chuckling with him.

Artemis made a disgruntled sound. >

>

Artemis purred. >

I laughed.

“Come on, share,” Ben said, smiling.

I relayed Artemis’s comments to him, and he laughed. “It’s hard to go wrong following Artemis’s advice.”

Artemis purred louder. >

I almost choked on my tea. Athena giggled behind her hand.

Ben raised his eyebrows expectantly.

I shook my head. “Nope, not sharing that one.”

Ben grinned, then sat back down in the chair across from mine. “So, any thoughts on our possible predator?”

I shook my head again. “Not as such. I’m not even sure it’ll qualify as humanoid, really.”

Ben considered that for a moment, then shrugged. “We’ll see. I mean, we barely know anything about it yet. We can’t even be sure it’s contained within the park.”

“That’s probably just a self-imposed limitation,” Athena said.

I nodded my agreement. “I, for one, am not up to going tromping in the woods in the rain. Not yet, anyway. I say we try to lure it out and get a better idea of what it is.”

“I’m going to assume you don’t mean asking those kids to sit on the swings after midnight again,” Ben said. “And I don’t know that you and I can pass for a couple of lovesick teenagers.”

“You can,” Athena said lightly without turning from where she was idly petting Artemis.

I smirked a little and then cleared my throat. “The last time we acted as bait didn’t end so well,” I said pointedly and looked at Ben. “What should we do differently this time?”

Ben smiled faintly. “Honestly, we didn’t do anything wrong last time other than underestimate our quarry.” His smile faded into a sad expression. “It’s not our fault that the Thames Slasher ghost killed two of the five detectives we had shadowing us…we thought he’d go straight for us, not pick off our minders first.”

Sadness washed over me. Two people had died and three had been injured because of my plan. “That might been why you lived, though,” I said, trying to find a bright spot in that dark evening. “It had burned through a lot of energy by the time it reached you.”

Athena turned a little to look at me and frowned. “That was not your fault, sister,” she said, repeating Ben’s sentiment.

“It was my idea - “

Ben cut me off. “And it wasn’t a bad idea,” he said firmly, then smiled lopsidedly and not very happily. “It was an unusual situation.”

“Isn’t every monster hunt?” I asked.

“Actually, no,” Ben said, picking up the mug of tea Athena had brought for him and sipping it. “Most of them go pretty smoothly if they have as many spotters as we had. The Slasher’s ghost - aided and guided by Brenna - was considerably more powerful and unpredictable than we anticipated.” He sighed. “Things like that happen.”

“So how can we know - “

“We can’t,” Ben cut me off again, gently this time. “But while we’re dealing with another unknown here, and you’re not completely up to snuff, you can’t let one unexpected twist rattle you like this. We’ve seen no indication that this thing is openly hostile. With Athena and Artemis backing us up, and maybe a couple of local cops within shouting distance, we’ll be fine.”

“So,” I said slowly, “It’s you and I for the swings, with Artemis and Athena lying in wait?”

> She lifted her head from her forepaws and turned to give me the sort of nasty look that only a cat can muster. The sort that freezes prey animals in place and wilts plants.

“I’m not too keen on wet fur either,” Athena added, rubbing her lightly furred arms and pretending to shiver.

The weather chose that moment to let us know what it thought of their concerns. Thunder rumbled restlessly somewhere overhead.

Athena sighed and Artemis flopped over on her side with a little groan.

Ben smiled teasingly. “You two could always stay here...”

“That’s not going to happen,” Athena said firmly. “Not ever.”

> Artemis agreed - perhaps a bit reluctantly - from where she was now sprawled on her back, forepaws curled in. She looked like an overgrown kitten when she did that.

I chuckled softly. “I didn’t expect anything else.”

“Nor I, really,” Ben agreed, smiling. “Besides, there’s a gazebo not too far from the swings. You can use that as your base of operations.”

Artemis looked relieved. Athena nodded contentedly and turned back to the fire.

I sipped my tea. “So, we try to lure it out into the open in the hopes of getting a better look at it. Even if we can’t do more than that tonight, having a look at it will give us something to work with.”

“I just wish we knew why it stopped chasing them at the edge of the park.” Ben ran his fingers through his short brown hair. “If we don’t see anything tonight, I might have to hit the woods tomorrow in force, whether I like it or not.”

I grimaced a little.

Ben smiled gently. “You don’t have to come,” he said. “I’ll bring Yard and local police with me. We can even have a couple more police Mages up here by noon tomorrow.”

I am not ashamed to admit that part of me wanted to take him up on that offer. Yes, I was in much better shape than I’d been in when I’d gotten out of the hospital, but I definitely wasn’t back to fighting fit, so to speak. I was just a consultant…there’d be no shame in me hanging back on this and just providing advice when needed.

But if I started doing that, would I always end up doing that? Was I doubting myself, or being realistic about my current abilities?

I shook my head firmly. “If it comes to that, I’m not going to let this,“ I tapped my right knee lightly with one finger, “stop me from doing my job.”

Ben smiled a bit more, and I felt relief from my sisters.

“Well, it probably won’t even come to that,” Ben said confidently. “I’m sure we’ll deal with it tonight, or at least learn enough about it to figure out our next steps.”

“Do we catch, or kill?” Athena asked, leaning back against my footstool and looking up at Ben. She had a drowsy look on her face...evidently she was being lulled into a sleepy state by the heat of the fire. She might look almost like my identical twin, but there was still a lot of snow leopard in her. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Artemis, of course, was already dozing. She was probably taking in every word we said anyway.

“Catch,” Ben replied, then took a sip of his tea. “If it’s safe and possible to do so. Kill if not.”

“Shouldn’t we just kill it and make sure it can’t hurt anyone?” I asked, irritated. “Why risk it?”

Artemis opened her eyes and craned her head a little to look at me. Athena tipped her head back and frowned up at me.

Ben frowned across at me, looking confused. “Capture is always preferable, especially if it turns out to be intelligent. You know that. For all we know, it’s perfectly harmless and was just curious about those kids. It might not have meant to scare them at all.”

“Things that lurk in the dark and have claws like that are rarely harmless,” I argued. “We should be prepared to try to stop this thing, whatever it is, before it does anything more serious than - “

I broke off as Athena reached up and touched my ankle lightly. >

I frowned down at her and took stock of myself. I realized that I was flushed, angry, and my heart was thudding in my chest. With an effort, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as I counted to ten. Then I did it again, ignoring soft rustles of movement around me.

I tuned out everything, concentrating on the rhythm of my breathing and slowing my pulse. I felt the reassuring calm presences of Athena and Artemis in my mind, helping me focus and center myself.

After a couple of minutes I felt calm and normal again. When I opened my eyes, Ben was crouched beside my chair, watching me closely.

“Are you all right?” he asked quietly.

I nodded, embarrassed. “Sorry. It’s been two weeks since the last time that happened.”

“Lingering after-effects of Brenna’s spell, still?”

Athena stretched and turned to face us, nodding. “It happens sometimes, but it’s getting better.”

Ben took my hand and squeezed it gently. “When’s the last time you slept well?”

I shrugged a little. “I don’t know. Probably before I was injured, unless you count the time I spent sedated in the hospital.”

He leaned in and gave me a little kiss. “Well, you can rest for a while this afternoon if you’d like.”

“Once we finish planning...”

“I think we’re pretty much done,” Athena said with a smile. “Of course, that last comment of yours was a bit underhanded. After all, I have claws and lurk in the darkness sometimes.”

I laughed and reached out with my free hand to caress her cheek gently. “Sorry, sis.”

> Artemis interjected, closing her eyes and yawning. >

Athena repeated Artemis’s comments to Ben as I let my head drop back against the chair’s cushions. Reining in my little uncontrolled emotional burst had left me feeling drained, and I was already tired from the early morning physical therapy, not sleeping well, and...

The next thing I knew I was waking up in a darkened room. I was stretched full-length on a bed, lying on my left side with my head on a soft pillow. A warm body was pressed against my back and an arm was draped lightly around my waist, and I was positive they didn’t belong to Athena.

No breasts, for starters. Also, too tall.

Ben? Who else could it be. As far as I could tell we were both still fully dressed - I was, at least, and assumed that he was too.

That was a shame.

“You awake?” he asked quietly, his voice rumbling in my ear.

“Mmhm,” I replied sleepily. “Did you take advantage of a sleeping woman?”

“Yup,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “I’m a terrible fiend. How’re you feeling now?”

I took stock. I was warm, comfortable, pleasantly relaxed and still a bit fuzz-brained from sleep. Oh, and my right knee didn’t hurt. That was good.

“Better,” I admitted. “And I think I could stay right here forever.”

He chuckled quietly. “Nah. You’d get bored after a while.” He hugged me gently. “It’s about eight in the evening. You slept almost half the day. You really haven’t been sleeping well, have you?”

I shook my head a little. “No. Sometimes I can’t relax enough to sleep, though the meditation trick you saw me use to regain my self-control before has helped some. Other times I have pretty bad nightmares and can’t get back to sleep afterwards.” I paused for a moment, then sighed and admitted, “I haven’t really had a full night’s sleep since I woke up in the hospital. I think this is the first time I’ve slept any length of time without having a nightmare.”

Ben made a thoughtful sound. “That sounds to me like a good excuse to start sleeping together.”

I knew he was only joking and I laughed softly. I hadn’t done a lot of laughing over the last few months...not nearly as much as I had previously, and it felt good. “Maybe it is,” I agreed, letting my voice sober. Then I very intentionally and purposefully shifted and stretched against him.

Ben tensed and froze in place, making a little sound that I was coming to translate as somewhere between desire and frustration.

I grinned and relaxed again. If I were Athena, I’d’ve been purring.

“You know it drives me crazy when you do things like that,” he complained jokingly.

“I know,” I said, then slowly sat up and stretched again, lifting and bending my right knee carefully. It was stiff, so I did a few of the stretches Trish had shown me. By the time I was done, my knee felt almost normal again.

Ben had sat up beside me to watch. As I finished, he wrapped an arm around my waist and pressed a soft kiss behind my ear. “Okay now?”

I shivered pleasantly. I’d had no idea my ears were sensitive until the first time Ben had kissed one. “Functional,” I said with a smile. “I think I’ll put on my knee brace tonight, just in case. How’d you convince Artemis and Athena to leave us alone?”

“It was Athena’s idea, actually,” Ben replied with a smile. “For some reason, she thought maybe having me here would help you sleep better. They watched over us for a while, then left about an hour ago to take another look around the park. Athena said they’d go into the edge of the woods a little too, before the sun went down completely.”

I mentally reached out and felt their reassuring presences, not close by but still very strong. Athena felt disappointed and Artemis felt bored.

“I don’t think they found much,” I reported to Ben. “Artemis is bored.”

Ben chuckled softly and gave me a little hug. “I didn’t think they’d find anything at all before full dark, but it never hurts to look. It rained for a while this afternoon, but it stopped about a half-hour before they left. The sky isn’t clearing though, so...”

“So there’ll probably be more rain before the night is through,” I finished for him, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and rising slowly. My right knee felt okay for now, but I was relieved to find my cane leaning against the bedside table.

“We can grab a late dinner at one of the pubs in town, then go fool around on the swings,” Ben said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

I smiled and headed for the door. “I want to change my shirt for something that’ll be warmer at night, put on my knee brace and grab the rest of my gear.”

Ben nodded and clipped a clamshell holster onto his belt, holding the compact Magearm pistol he usually carried when he was working. The Magearm was designed to channel Anima quickly and easily into a prepared spell matrix (he, like most police, favored lightning) and fire the spell as if it were being cast normally. It couldn’t do complex spells, but it could do simple combat spells really well, really fast, and really efficiently. So I didn’t tease him about it. Much.

Instead of the sports jacket he’d been wearing earlier, he put on a short brown leather jacket. “Mind if I come with you?” he asked in his most innocent voice.

I considered the question for a moment, decided I was feeling playful, and opened the door. “Sure. Come on.”

I must’ve caught him flat-footed, because it took him a moment to catch up to me. I had already opened the door to my room, and we went inside together. We frequently flirted for the fun of it, and done a bit of what Artemis (and some teenagers) had termed ‘petting’. But Ben was a gentleman, and was firm about letting me set the pace of our relationship. So sometimes I had to push a little, and other times I got away with embarrassing him a little.

He closed the door behind us as I asked, “Did the forecast say what the temperature tonight is supposed to be?”

“High 40s to low 50s,” he replied, “And probably wet. Woah!” He turned away from me suddenly, and I thought I saw a hint of a blush on his neck.

I had half of the buttons on my shirt undone before he’d realized what I was doing. He, of course, had no idea I wore a lightly armored (and lightly enchanted) leather bodysuit identical to Athena’s beneath my clothes. A safe practical joke that doubles as flirtation is an opportunity not to be missed.

I grinned impishly and deftly tossed my shirt so that it landed on top of his head, draping down over his face.

“You have no shame,” he said in a muffled voice.

“Very little,” I agreed, “at least about my body. Oh, come on, it’s perfectly safe for you to turn around.”

He pulled my shirt off his head slowly, glanced over his shoulder, then turned to face me. “I thought you were joking when you said you’d be willing to wear one of those.”

“Well, I wouldn’t wear one openly in public without something on over it,” I admitted. “Not that I’d be uncomfortable doing so, but no one would give me the time of day if I did.”

“Some people would,” he said dryly, a smile twitching his lips, and I granted his point with a wry nod.

“I’m a little surprised that you’re surprised,” I said. “As I understand it, it’s not uncommon to wear light armor under clothing in our line of work.”

“It isn’t,” he said. “I just didn’t realize...” He paused, then gave me a searching look. “How often do you wear it?”

“All the time,” I admitted reluctantly.

“Since when?” he asked, moving closer to me.

I hesitated. I trusted Ben, and yes, I was falling in love with him. Even if those statements weren’t true, I wouldn’t have wanted to lie to him. “Since I got out of the hospital,” I replied quietly.

He rested his hands on my shoulders and squeezed gently. “Have you talked to Dr. MacMoran about it?”

“At great length,” I said with a sigh. “She says it’s a sign of insecurity in the wake of being beaten up so spectacularly by Brenna. She also says it’s a fairly rational response and not a bad precaution to take.”

Without a word, he pulled me into his arms and hugged me close. I was just tall enough for him to rest his chin lightly on top of my head as I turned my cheek to his chest and closed my eyes.

“You’re going to be fine, you know,” he said softly.

“I know,” I replied, and winced to hear a hint of uncertainty in my own voice. But I wondered...was I teasing him now because I was relaxing around him, or...

Brenna’s father...our father...had used her body against her. Was I experiencing some weird echo of her emotions, that had imprinted on me?

Ben held me for a minute longer before quietly saying, “You know, I thought your new preference for high-necked shirts was just an affectation.” He gave the low collar of my bodysuit a gentle tug. “You were covering this up.”

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I didn’t want people to know I was wearing it all the time now.”

“How’d you wear it during the summer? I saw you wearing t-shirts…”

“Oh, there’s a scoop-necked version of it too,” I said with a grin, feeling my doubts and dark mood receding. I had no reason at all to doubt my feelings for Ben or that I wanted to drive him a little crazy with desire. That was all me, no question.

“Is it comfortable?” he asked curiously. “The body armor vests they give us at work are pretty bad.”

“Very,” I smiled. “It’s very flexible, and has an all-weather enchantment on it that’ll keep me cool when it’s hot out, and warm when it’s cold.”

“Huh,” he said, his expression thoughtful. “Maybe I should dress like this...”

I burst out laughing at the mental image, the last of my dark thoughts evaporating.

“Okay, okay, not really,” he said, smiling down at me. “But they must make a men’s version. I ought to look into it. It’s not a bad idea to have the extra protection on nights like tonight. I can’t exactly go around wearing riot gear all the time.” He sighed. “I do wish it weren’t so expensive to put those all-weather enchantments on normal clothes.”

“You, me, and everybody else,” I replied. I lifted up on my toes and gave him a little kiss. “I should get my things together.”

He released me with a nod. “We’re not exactly pressed for time, but I like a leisurely dinner before going monster hunting.”

I found a heavy, dark green cotton turtleneck in my bottomless bag and pulled it on over my head, then tucked it into my jeans. The bag had been a gift from my mother when I left home...it’s dimensionally transcendent, so I can put pretty much anything into it up to some ludicrous cubic footage of space. It’s amazingly useful.

Then I buckled on my utility belt, a recent birthday present from my mom and Jonathan which has a number of small pouches on it that were miniature versions of my bottomless bag. I checked its contents quickly, decided that I had a good generic sampling of magical components and geegaws, and sat down to begin the onerous task of buckling on my knee brace.

Look, I know the thing is a huge help, and that sometimes I’m just going to need it. Especially when I’m going out at night to hunt a monster, and even more so after the warning I’d had earlier when my knee had almost given out on me. But the contraption of neoprene, straps, metal strips and hinges is a real pain to put on.

To my surprise, Ben knelt down in front of me and took over, carefully lining it up with my knee and buckling it on over my jeans. When he finished, he looked up at me. “Too tight?”

I slowly flexed my knee, then shook my head. “No, that feels just about right.” I smiled. “Thank you.”

He returned my smile and rose. “You’re welcome.”

When he held out his hand to me, I took it and let him pull me to my feet. I tested my balanced and did part of a deep knee bend, found that my knee had decided to feel relatively sturdy and not hurt, and smiled. “I guess I’m good to go.”

Ben handed me my cane, then grabbed my coat and draped it over one arm, offering me the other. We went out together to find Athena and Artemis waiting for us just outside the B&B, both looking a bit disappointed.

“Didn’t find anything?” Ben asked.

Athena shook her head. “Nothing, I’m afraid. We went about twenty yards into the woods and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, and it’s not dense growth.”

> Artemis added, lifting a paw to rub her nose. >

“Artemis says says the smell she found earlier was everywhere,” I reported, “and stopped at the street.”

Ben sighed. “Well, let’s go get something to eat. Then you and I,” he patted my hand on his arm, “will play bait. And let’s all pretend we don’t remember how that worked out last time, okay?”

It was going to be a long night.