“I said I was sorry.” I heard Emily say as my mind slowly swam back to the surface of consciousness. “She’s been agitated all night. I didn’t realize it was anything different at first.”

As the voices sank in and reality started to solidify around me, I realized my cheek was resting against soft fabric instead of the cold concrete I remembered, and a hand was gently stroking my hair. My eyelids felt like they were being held down by weights, and the last thing I wanted to do was try to force them open. Instead, I laid there, listening to an argument that had apparently been going on for a bit.

“I know how to do my job.” Do you seriously think I would let this happen on purpose?” Emily continued, responding to a comment I hadn’t heard.

“No one’s saying that,” Justin said, a touch of warning in his voice.

“Of course not.” Tish said defensively. “I’m just saying that with everything going on, maybe you’re not the best person for the job right now. You’re under a lot of stress already, and it’s not like you want to do it anyways. You don’t always have to be the one in charge of everything; you can let someone else take over for once.”

"That's enough, Tish." Justin’s voice took on a hard edge.

"Someone like you?” Scorn practically dripped from Emily’s words. “Because you did such a bang-up job. She was just as much your responsibility tonight as mine. You were the one who was supposed to physically keep an eye on her, and where were you? Making a fool of yourself, mooning over that arrogant, good for nothing Prince, just like last time.”

“What I do is none of your business.”

“It is when you’re supposed to be working. Fraternizing with the enemy, your actions make us all look bad.” I heard leather crinkle, and I could just imagine Emily turning in her seat to glare at Tish.

“Like your near-meltdown at the beginning of the night hadn’t already done that? You would have attacked that woman if Eurie hadn’t stopped you.”

“That’s enough, both of you, this isn’t helping anything.” Justin again tried to deter their argument, but they ignored him.

“He’s not our enemy.” Tish snapped, leaning forward. “You’re just hateful and jealous.”

“Jealous, jealous of what? Your imaginary relationship with him? Your complete infatuation with a man who couldn’t care less about you. He’s using you; you’re just too stupid to see what’s obvious to everyone else.”

“Your wrong; he’s a good man.” Tish said, her voice trembling.

“Yeah, and you’ve shown yourself to be such a good judge of character.”

I felt Tish’s body go rigid beneath me, and the gentle stroking of my hair turned painful as her fingers clenched around the strands.

“Ow.” I said, unable to stop myself, my hand reaching up to loosen her grip.

“Sorry.” Tish said, quickly releasing my hair.

Not wanting to admit that I’d been eavesdropping, I sat up slowly, rubbing at my head and trying to act like the pain had just woke me up.

"How are you feeling?” Tish asked, concern replacing the anger in her eyes.

I had been so focused on their argument that I’d forgotten about what had led up to it, but her question brought it crashing back. “It tried to drain me.” They were the only words I could manage to say as my body began to tremble. Tish reached out to me, and I leaned over. Resting my head on her shoulder, I buried my face into the fabric of her dress and let the tears slide down my cheeks.

"I know. It's all my fault,” she said, rocking me back and forth. "I was supposed to be keeping track of you, and I didn't. I'm so sorry."

She let me sit there for a few minutes, my tears soaking her dress as she rubbed my shoulders and back as if I was a child in need of comfort, which I guess at that moment I was.

“How are you feeling?” she asked again, once my tears subsided.

Sitting up, I realized that physically I felt fine. My leg no longer hurt, and though I couldn’t really see it, I was sure the wounds were gone. I had a vague memory of someone forming a healing weave over me before I lost consciousness. Physically I felt fine, but I had a hollow, empty feeling from a fear that I hadn't even wanted to acknowledge.

Our awen was finite; eventually, you ran out, but as long as you never use the last little bit, it was able to regenerate. Sometimes it took hours or days depending on an individual's ability, but you would always come back to full strength. It wasn't the same if someone or something forcibly took it from you. If they took it all, there would be nothing left to regenerate and your awen would be gone, permanently. It was called draining; that’s what the creature had been trying to do. Thinking about it caused a shiver to run down my spine.

“I’m okay,” I said.

“Are you sure? No pain or anything?” she asked.

“No, I’m okay,” I said again. Tish clearly felt terrible about the situation and was trying to make up for her perceived lapse.

“What happened?” Justin asked from the driver’s seat.

My memories seemed jumbled and out of focus, but I tried to recall what had happened.

“Was it waiting by the SUV?” Emily asked after I’d finished.

“No, I think it approached because I set off the alarm with the key fob,” I said, after some thought. “What was it.? Do you think it was there for me?”

“We don't know yet, but it's doubtful. It had no way to know you'd be down there alone.” Justin said.

“You don’t think the shifter could have sent it?” I didn’t like the thought that that thing might be stalking me. I wanted to believe that my encounter had been random, an unfortunate accident, but it seemed too coincidental, after all, I was sure other people had been down in the garage off and on throughout the evening. Why hadn’t it gone after one of them?

“We can’t be sure, but there are better and easier ways than hoping you’d happen to be down in the garage alone and that no one else came upon it first. I don’t think you have anything more to worry about it,” Justin reassured me as he steered into Maggie’s drive.

Parking the car Justin jumped out and immediately came around to help me. I tried to wave him off and climb out myself, but he reached into the car anyways.

“Trust me.” He said, ignoring my protests as he placed a hand under my elbow and wrapped his other arm around my waist. “Your leg was pretty messed up, and even minor healings can take a lot out of a person.”

Though I had felt fine while sitting down, my legs nearly collapsed the moment my feet hit the ground. Supporting most of my weight, Justin carefully guided me up the porch steps, my knees weak and unstable the entire way.

Maggie was waiting on the porch, and she pulled me into a tight hug the moment we reached her. Releasing me, she stepped back, her eyes examining every inch of me as her hands fluttering around me. Green strands of her awen brushed against me, checking to make sure I was indeed okay. As if she thought the others might have missed some serious injury.

“She’s fine, Maggie,” Justin said.

“I’ll decide for myself if she’s fine,” Maggie said, shooting him a reproachful look. She might have been retired, but the old dynamics still seemed to be there at least a little bit. “You look worn out, dear. Let’s get you to bed,” she said, taking my weight from Justin and leading me inside. She was surprisingly strong, not faltering even slightly as I leaned heavily on her. “You three wait in the sitting room, I’ll be right back down.” She called back over her shoulder as we made our way slowly up the stairs.

“Are you sure you're okay, dear?" she asked once we were in my room. She placed a cool hand against my forehead, tsking at the heat radiating from it. "You look like death. Though I guess, that’s to be expected."

"I'm okay, just shaken up." I tried to reassure her. It felt nice to have someone around who seemed to genuinely care, but I had never been much for being fussed over.

"Well, there’s some warm chicken broth on your nightstand,” she said, pointing to a large steaming mug. I could see the weave laced around the cup, keeping the liquid hot. "Make sure you drink it all. It will make you feel better."

After securing a promise that I would drink the broth and go straight to bed, she left. Once the door closed, I listened for the squeaking of the floorboards indicating she had gone back downstairs. Waiting a moment to make sure she wouldn’t suddenly return, I opened the door and crept down the hall. I carefully skipped the second to the top step as I snuck downstairs, stopping when I was able to hear their conversation.

“There’s no need for you to double-check.” Maggie’s exasperated voice reached me. “I’ve been setting wards longer than you’ve been alive, I know what I’m doing.”

“It’s probably overkill, but I think we need to take precautions just in case," Justin responded. "It concerns me that it managed to get down there at all, with security being as tight as it was. This and the fact that we still haven't been able to make contact with more than half our Crossers," he continued, his voice trailing off.

“I agree. It’s unlikely it was there for her, but precautions don’t hurt,” Maggie said. "Has there been any word on Tom?" she continued, her voice dropping so that I could barely hear her. If there was an answer, it was too low for me to hear, though I thought I could hear someone crying faintly.

I didn’t hang around for the rest. The fact that they hadn’t just been placating me in the car made me feel a lot better. If none of them thought it was related to the shifter, then it probably wasn't. Changing into my pajamas, I drank the mug of broth before climbing under the covers. I had thought that despite my exhaustion, I would have trouble sleeping, but I felt my eyes drifting shut the moment my head hit the pillow. If Maggie came to check on me, I was out before it happened.

It was late the next morning when I finally woke to sunlight streaming through my window and birds chirping outside. Groaning, I rolled over and pulled the covers over my head, willing myself to fall back to sleep. Last night I had been too tired to do anything but fall into bed, and I was unwilling to get up and examine the damage. But it was a beautiful morning, and I was already wide awake. Sighing, I sat up and reluctantly pulled back the covers, already wincing at what I might find.

It was perfectly fine. Shocked, I turned my leg back and forth, running my hand up and down the surface, amazed to find the skin smooth and unbroken. I’d known someone had healed me last night, but I hadn’t expected this. I could clearly remember the jagged nails tearing down the length of my calf, and even with a skilled healer I had expected at least some scaring, but whoever had healed me knew their stuff, there wasn’t a single mark or blemish to show where the creature had torn into me. If it weren’t for the stained and torn dress tossed over the chair, I could have believed last night was nothing more than a bad dream.

A good night’s sleep had done me wonders, but Maggie insisted I spend the weekend in the house recovering, which was fine by me. Maggie’s idea of recuperating included copious amounts of homemade chicken broth enhanced with various herbs from her garden, while mine include frightening amounts of chocolate ice cream. She agreed to get me the ice cream as long as I agreed to drink the broth.

While Maggie ran to the store, I decided to catch up on my schoolwork. Working with Tish every night had left me little time for anything else. I was only a week into school and already woefully behind in nearly every subject.

"Hello," I said, picking up after the fifth ring.

"Desirae." The voice practically sighed on the other end. "Hey, I was just calling to check on you. I heard about last night. Dad said you were okay, but I wanted to make sure. I came by earlier, but your warden turned me away. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine and don’t call her that. Maggie's nice, she's just doing her job."

"If she’d been doing her job earlier, this might not have happened. To think you're under Vanguard care and you get attacked under their very noses. Are you sure you’re okay?"

"Donovan, I’m fine, and Maggie wasn’t even there. It wasn’t her fault or anyone else’s. I asked to go wait in the car; they couldn't just leave their posts to come babysit me."

"Maybe not, but the guards definitely have some explaining to do. There's no excuse for letting that thing get past them. What happened exactly?"

It already sounded like he knew most of it, but I told him what I could remember. I don't know if it was the fear or exhaustion, but a lot of the night was a little fuzzy, though I could remember every minute detail of the creature itself. I doubted I would ever forget what it looked like.

"Do you know what it could be?"

"That doesn't sound like anything I've heard of before," he said, after a pause. “They did some readings at the scene last night, but from what I’ve heard, it didn’t match anything they’re familiar with. I wouldn’t worry about it though, they’ll find her eventually, they already have their best trackers working on it," he continued, almost like he was trying to reassure himself as much as me.

"That’s what Justin said, not to worry, it wasn’t after me, but why was it there at all. How can anyone be sure it wasn’t there for me?”

“Why would it be after you?”

It was the perfect opening to tell him what I’d done, why I was back. Though I wasn’t supposed to be telling anyone about it, I was pretty sure he already at least knew something. Not the whole story probably, but something. It might be nice to be honest with someone about it, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“No reason, paranoia I guess.” There was no response from the other end, but at least he didn’t call me out on my lie. “You'll let me know if you hear anything, right," I said quickly, in an attempt to break the awkward silence.

Donovan seemed to have access to a lot of information, which wasn't surprising considering who his father was. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility that he would know something the others didn't or something they weren't willing to tell me.

"Des, don't worry about it, okay. Trust me, it wasn’t there for you. Let the professionals deal with it."

"You can’t be sure about that, and even if it wasn’t specifically there for me, it still tried to drain me, Donovan. How can I not worry about it?"

"I know, but there's nothing more you can do. Stay out of it, okay." He said agitation straining his words.

"I didn't say I was going to try to get involved. I just want to know what they find out, and I'm not sure anyone here will tell me." He was acting like I was going to try to track this thing down myself, and there was nothing further from my mind.

"I'm sorry, I just don’t want you doing something that will get you hurt," he said, his voice calm again. "Want me to come over?"

The sudden change of direction threw me. "Maggie has me pretty much on lockdown, I don’t think she'd appreciate company right now," I said, fumbling for the words.

"I'm sure I can convince her to let me come over. I can be quite charming when I want to be, and I’m great at playing doctor."

The abrupt shift from angry to playful took me by surprise. There had been more than a hint of innuendo in his voice, and I wasn't sure what to do with it. I'd always been a little attracted to him, but more than just his looks had changed while I was gone. Neither of us was the same people we used to be, and with everything going on, I wasn't sure I was ready to deal with this on top of everything else. I wasn't ready to explore a new relationship with him yet, and I was glad to have Maggie as an excuse.

"Earlier, you couldn't convince her to let you in the door," I said, trying not to make it sound like I didn't want to see him. Though I wasn't ready to explore our relationship now that didn't mean I wouldn’t be interested down the road once things settled down. "I don't think that would be a good idea right now. I'm just going to be napping and doing homework most of the day anyway."

"Well, if you're sure," he said, sounding disappointed.

"I'm sure, but thanks for the offer, and thanks for calling."

“Des, you know you can trust me, right? With anything.” He said quickly before I could hang up.

“I know.” And surprisingly, I did.

“Okay, as long as you know,” he said when I didn’t say anything further. “I’ll talk to you later.”

Hanging up, I felt the butterflies from last night return. I couldn't help but smile slightly at the phone.