Moonlight

~ (New York City, NY)


Kaylen McKenna rubbed his eyes as he sat at his computer, doing his best to try to reconstruct the damaged data files from the burnt hard-drive that had been given to him that morning. Upon seeing that the package had been marked 'Project: Predator' he immediately knew that something was going on within the ranks of the daimon council. Apparently, his suspicions were answered upon seeing a few of Stryker's trusted brethren taking a tour of the Lab.

"Any luck yet?" asked Sarah St. Laurent, a fellow scientist and a human unlike Kaylen who was a daimon. She was a tall, attractive blonde and she had hinted an interest in the computer genius and DNA scientist, however, the feeling on Kaylen's part wasn't mutual.

"None so far," he replied. "The computer is still trying to decipher the files, so it's going to be a while."

"He's demanding answers as to why Shadow Cat had not been put down as ordered and how Predator managed to breech security at the London lab. Their escapes were exactly one year apart, which is strange. Same month and same day," said Sarah as she walked over to his desk, gazing over over her colleague's shoulder. "It's as if they knew somehow."

"I can't explain it either. Did you find the files on Shadow Cat?" he then asked, clearly uncomfortable with Sarah standing in such close proximity to him.

" Nothing," she sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Most of those files were destroyed when 'Project Shadow Cat' was terminated. But as you know, the subject escaped before it could be euthanized."

'So it had worked,' Kaylen thought to himself with a mental sigh of relief. He had hoped the self-destruct program he had secretly written into the computers at the lab where Shadow Cat had been held had worked and wiping out the entire computer information systems and its servers once she escaped. It ran as a hidden program and would only activate once Shadow Cat had managed to leave the laboratory grounds.

"Did you find anything on Predator besides the burnt hard-drive?" asked Sarah.

"Other than my word, no."

"What do you remember about her, Kaylen?"

Taking a breath while keeping his eyes on the monitor, he answered, "Predator was very intelligent and learned at a rapid rate. However, her temperament was very volatile and highly aggressive to anyone who entered her space. Thus, why they kept her in a submersion tank. That and plus Dr Lyons swore up and down that Predator was generating electricity, which is impossible for Weres."

"I always wondered why he insisted on keeping Predator in a water tank," she said thoughtfully. "Even Stryker thought he was losing it."

"He probably was but Predator put him out of his misery." He entered a few commands into his computer then clicked on the icon to activate the 'reconstruction' program. As much as Kaylen despised being a daimon and doing experiments on Weres, he had no choice on this matter. He knew that he was being watched so he had to play along until he was able to sabotage the hard-drive in order to permanently lose all of Predator's files. 'She doesn't deserve this and neither does Shadow Cat...'

~****~

Las Vegas, NV

Moaning softly as she regained consciousness, Roxane slowly opened her eyes as she tried to remember what happened. Suddenly the feel of cold metal wrapped around her wrists told her that she wasn't in a safe haven. Looking down her body, she cursed under her breath when she realized that her weapons and clothing were missing as well and that she wasn't even in her hotel room. 'So where the hell am I?' Roxane asked her, carefully stretching out on the bed.

"Good morning, Gataki," a deep accented male voice said to her, which made her eyes snap open wide and she looked over to her side. "Looks like you slept well."

Max held a cup of steaming coffee in his hands as he rested his elbows on his knees. His long blond locks were tousled around his face and shoulders and all he wore were a pair of dark gray sweatpants, no shirt. Roxane's breath caught in her throat upon seeing the lion sitting there in close proximity to her and her body began to react to the steely muscle covered by impossibly smooth tawny flesh. 'Dammit don't think of him that way,' she scolded herself. 'He's the enemy!'

"Let me GO NOW!" she growled, the chains rattling noisily with her movements. "I swear to the GODS I'll rip your head from your shoulders once I get loose."

Shaking his head as he reached down and picked up one of her many knives he had removed from her body when he stripped her, Max dangled it from his long fingers and said, "I don't think you'll be escaping from those chains anytime soon to use this, Gataki. After all, I do have my own personal safety to worry about since you did try to kill me earlier. Question is, I want to know why?"

Roxane glared at him then turned her head away from him. No wonder why she hated men so much! They were all so arrogant and fully of themselves. Always so demanding and believed that the woman should submit to them. Well it wasn't about to happen this time.

"Alright," he said as he took a breath. "Who sent you to kill me then? You can at least give me the benefit of that, Gataki."

"I am not your damn Gataki," she hissed back. "So stop calling me that!"

"Then tell me why have you been haunting my dreams for the last five years? You told me in my dreams that you were here in Vegas and to come and find you and I did...well, you found me so it seems."

"I don't even know you, so how am I suppose to tell you in these so called 'dreams' to come and find me?" she retorted. "If you ask me, I think you might be missing a few marbles up there."

Max said nothing for several moments as he regarded the pantheress who laid in his bed. She was the woman from his dreams, he knew it with every fiber of his being but somehow he had to convince her of it. Right now, she was angry and scared, which was understandable but he was not under any circumstances letting her go. "So call me a little crazy for having feelings for you, Gataki," he said. "But can you at least do me one favor?"

"What is it?" she snapped.

"Can you at least tell me your name?"

Looking over her shoulder at the man behind her, Roxane thought for a moment. Upon coming to the conclusion that she had nothing to lose, she finally answered him. "It's Roxane, Roxane Yamagashi. Codename Predator."

"So you're the one who has all the daimons in Vegas in hiding," he said with the hint of humor in his voice. His eyes roamed over her curves once again for he had a hard time believing that this beautiful pantheress was the cause of chaos and panic among Vegas' bloodsucker community. But then again, she nearly took him out with a few swift but very effective hits before she passed out, so it was reasonable to believe that they considered her a very real threat to their well-being. "You know the city has been rather quiet since you've been in town. I think you've made the Dark-Hunters lives easier for the time being."

"They'll be out in force, just wait," she said, her voice devoid of all emotion.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I'm nothing more than their bloody weapon, that's why!"

"Why were you sent here to kill me, Gataki?" Max asked once more, hoping to finally get an answer out of her.

"It's because of Weres like you that Weres like me were created...in a lab due to brutal and inhuman experiements. And it disgusts me when a one of my own kind turns his back on his own and sells them off as though they were nothing but garbage," Roxane hissed. "I happened to take such actions very personally since I was raised in a lab and genetically altered into what I am now because of the likes of you."

This made the lion get to his and with a growl he reached out, grabbed Roxane by the shoulder and forced her onto her back. She held a defiant look in her eyes as she glared up at him as he straddled her. Max growled lowly as he lowered his face dangerously close to hers, their gazes locking. "I have never in my life ever betrayed my own kind to those barbaric places! In fact, Argona and I have been working to shut those labs down for years. We've managed to rescue and free SC, for heaven's sake!"

"Well whoop-de-doo good for you," snapped Roxane. "Now get the hell off me!"

Instead of doing so, Max leaned down and buried his face against the side of her neck and inhaled deeply, the scent of her hair and skin filled his senses like an addicting drug. Unable to help himself, he gave the side of her neck a long slow lick then moaned deeply. "You smell just like you did in my dreams," he murmured when he finally raised his head to nuzzle her ear, giving the lobe a nip. "And you taste like heaven, Gataki."

Roxane's eyes widen for she had never been so intimately close to male before and the situation with Maximus Leon had quickly turned from one of hostility to one of growing passion. "Get off me," she growled once again doing her best to try to toss his massive six-foot-two muscular frame from her body. "Release these chains now and let me go."

"Not a chance," he growled as he slid a hand along her side to feel the smooth satiny skin there. "I just found you and I don't want to lose you again."

"You never had me in the first place."

"In my dreams you were so willing and compliant. You said you were real and now you're here..."

"Screw the god damn dreams! That's all they were, Max, dreams! This is reality! I'm not your Gataki and I'm sure as hell not your mate. So let go of those insane thoughts of yours and let me go. Dreams mean nothing to me or anyone!"

A deep, pained expression darkened his handsome face when he finally slid off her to lay beside her. Could this possibly be the same woman who had comforted him on those cold lonely nights? "They mean the world to me," he whispered softly, pain edged in his voice. "You were the reason why I stayed sane when I wanted to give in to the madness."

Gazing into his eyes, Roxane saw the hurt and strangely for the first time in a long time, she felt bad about going off on the man. He seemed so, so...sincere about his feelings toward her. No man had ever dared to put both his body and life on the line to ever get this close to her for they knew that she could easily tear them apart and yet this one didn't care about the risk just as long as he was able to touch her at least once. The look in Max's eyes was a pleading one. It was one that was begging her to have mercy on him and to show some sort of affection. He desperately needed her to accept him, even if it was just for a moment.

Then he said the words that nearly made the usually stoic pantheress doubt both herself and the orders to take his life. "Please, Roxane, please..."