Shadows of the Night

so here we are. back once more to the dark corners of my mind. i honestly don\'t know if this chapter will be grisly or not. but i suppose its best to give a warning here and now. in case you\'re easily offended or sickened or what have you. wouldn\'t want to make anyone feel sick to their stomachs, would i? ~looks around~ would i? someone answer and quit smiling at me like that! its really quite scary!

anyhow... this comes purely from my imagination. you know, work of fiction. please feel free to let me know what you think of this little venture. as i am my own beta, there will be mistakes. i am, sadly, only human. i was stripped of my godhead once upon a time. i mean.... honestly! who knew Ares could be such a whiner? as i was saying, feel free to leave a review and let me know what you think. please be gentle with me. i\'m fragile.

Chapter Five: Whose Body Are You Guarding?
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MacKenzie stared down at Katya and smiled softly. She had fallen asleep staring up at the night sky and was now sprawled almost bonelessly across the soft blanket he\'d spread over the ground for them both to lay on. He\'d brought her to the old mansion that was one of his properties so that they could relax and talk. She\'d still been rather shaken when they\'d left the diner earlier and he wanted to help her rid herself of the images provided by the police detective.

The grounds of the old Victorian were well maintained, a small army of groundskeepers employed for nothing else. He\'d brought her out into the backyard, into a small clearing at the center of a ring of trees that had been there since before her grandparents had likely been born. He\'d planted them himself, before the turn of the century. This was his haven and he hadn\'t shared it with anyone before. Until now. Until her. It was time to take her inside and give her a room. She needed to sleep in a safe bed. Tomorrow night, he would talk to her about moving out of her apartment and into his house. This house. He just had to know she was safe. It was some kind of deep, driving need that felt as if it\'d been coded into his genes.

He stood and leaned down, scooping her and the blanket up in one swift movement. She felt so light in his arms, as if she were nothing more than a dream. He hated to think that the events of the past weeks had done this to her, but there was no help for it now. He would simply have to ensure that he did whatever he could to improve the quality of her health. He hadn\'t even cleared the line of trees when he sensed the trespasser.

\"Come out, MacKenzie!\" a low voice growled at him from somewhere in the darkness. He stopped and used his senses to locate the individual. Off to his left, on the other side of the trees. \"I know you\'re in there.\"

MacKenzie smiled and faded into the shadows. There were advantages to his state of being and this was one of them. He was capable of moving at great speeds in minimal amounts of time. Before his intruder could guess what had happened, he would be standing behind him. \"Don\'t you know you shouldn\'t ever try to sneak up on a vampire?\"

\"And you should know that I knew where you were the entire time. I could smell her,\" his guest growled in a deep voice. MacKenzie nodded and waited for the figure to turn and face him. Drummond \'Call me Drum\' Kendricks was wearing no expression as he looked down at the other man. While MacKenzie was no short man, standing at nearly six foot four, Drum was pushing six-ten. The man would tower over Katya, were she standing. Those cold green eyes swept over both MacKenzie and Katya dispassionately before once more returning to stare the other man in the eyes. His nose wrinkled in disgust. \"She stinks of shapeling.\"

\"She was attacked by one not that long ago,\" MacKenzie told him. Drum nodded his blonde head and finally cracked a smile.

\"So this is why you\'ve inivted me into your inner sanctum?\" one of Drum\'s massive hands indicated the slumbering form MacKenzie held. The vampire nodded his head and motioned to the house.

\"Let\'s go inside and I\'ll tell you all about it,\" MacKenzie said and turned for the door. He heard Drum follow after him, the larger man\'s steps almost as light as his own. They made the door leading into the large, spacious kitchen in silence. Drum followed MacKenzie through the spotless kitchen and into the sitting room. It was done in earth tones, warm and inviting to man or woman or beast. \"Have a seat. I want to put her to bed.\"

Drum grunted noncommitally and settled into a large arm chair, picking up a current issue of Fortune to thumb through while MacKenzie moved out of the room and into a hallway of gleaming wood. The hall was long and wide, with a set of stairs climbing up to the second level on either side. He took the stairs nearest him, climbing them slowly up to the landing at the top. He turned to his left and made his way down the hall until he came to a door at the very end.

Stepping in, MacKenzie moved over to lay Katya on the bed. It was a large, four postered thing that was done is shades of blues and grays. It wasn\'t exaclty a woman\'s bedroom, but he thought that she would appreciate the uncluttered lines of the heavy wooden furniture and the crisp, cool, soothing colors that dominated the suite. She had a bathroom to herself off one side of the main room, a dressing room and walk in closet off the other side.

He settled her gently on the thick mattress, watching as she rolled and nestled deeper into the bedding beneath her. Once he had spoken to Drum, he would come back up and make her more comfortable. The clothing she wore was now two days old and completley filthy. She needed a bath and a change of clothing to start with. She\'d likely feel better then. After caressing her cheek with his hand, he turned and left the room.

Drummond was still thumbing through the magazine when MacKenzie rejoined him. Wordlessly, the vampire moved to the far wall where he had a wet bar installed and poured out a generous measure of whiskey into a tumbler. A pair of ice cubes were dropped into the glass, then he moved back to where the other man sat and wordlessly handed it to him. Drum took a drink and then looked up at MacKenzie, chuckling mirthlessly. \"Must be big if you give me the good stuff.\"

\"The woman needs a bodyguard,\" MacKenzie told him flatly. One of Drum\'s golden colored eyebrows lifted questioningly. MacKenzie sighed and wished he was able to imbibe some of the golden fluid currently swirling about the glass in Drum\'s hand. He felt he needed the courage. \"She was attacked by a shapeling over a week ago.\"

\"And she survived?\" Drum sounded surprised. MacKenzie nodded. Drum gave him a look that said he was clearly surprised and impressed.

\"At the same time, her friend was killed by the shapeling. The police have no clue and have ruled his death an accident because of an animal attack. The shapeling is dead. Two of the family killed it. But the attack has left both physical and mental scars on Katya. She suffers from constant pain as a result of the attack. She arrived at the hospital, hemorrhaging badly because my people were not fast enough to...\"

\"The thing tried to fuck her?\" Drum\'s voice rose. Again, MacKenzie nodded. \"Son of a bitch!\"

\"This is why I need you to watch her,\" MacKenzie pushed on. If Drum was pissed now, he would only be more so by the time the tale was told.

\"She suicidal?\" Drum asked, his voice sounding as if he had a hard time believing it.

\"No,\" MacKenzie sighed. He only wished it was something so trivial. \"She is being hunted. She has a theory and I believe that she is right. She is certain that the shapelings hunt her so that they can breed on her.\"

\"Shapelings can\'t breed. We know that. Any human they have contact with ends up dead. History has proved that true time and again.\"

\"And yet, Katya still lives,\" MacKenzie pointed out evenly. Drum nodded his head and took a pull off his glass. He made a motion that told the vampire to continue. \"Just this evening, she was in the proximity of a shapeling and had no notion. If the beast had gotten his claws on her, I shudder to think what could have happened.\"

\"Ah. Now I understand why you\'ve called me here,\" Drum smiled. It wasn\'t a completely nice gesture, though it was something that was nothing but nice on the man. Drum wasn\'t one who smiled much. He\'d been a solemn person as long as MacKenzie\'d known him, which was a very long time.

MacKenzie nodded and added a few things he thought were pertinent to the conversation. \"I believe that Katya is not far off the truth. We do not know what the shapelings can or cannot do because we cannot communicate with them. To us, they are simply animals. But perhaps there is more to them. We know that they are becoming more organized and focused. Who or what is to say that they are not able to speak to one another in some way?\"

\"What does that woman have to do with it all?\" Drum grunted.

\"Katya is able to communicate with her mind. Perhaps she can speak to them. I do not know. But there are prophesies abounding from as far back as when time began involving those of us who belong to the Shadows. Perhaps there are such things involving the shapelings. All I know is that Katya needs protection from the shapelings and I cannot be there to give it to her all the day.\"

Drummond watched as a look passed over MacKenzie\'s face. It was a look of such intense sorrow that he knew what the vampire was thinking. The look on Drum\'s face softened and he set the glass down. \"Don\'t do it, Mac. Don\'t blame yourself. Not now.\"

\"It is my fault,\" MacKenzie shrugged.

\"Damn it, man! How many times do I have to tell you that you couldn\'t have stopped it. Not without...\" Drum began, but MacKenzie looked up at him, such an intense look of anger and self-hatred in his eyes that the other man faltered and fell silent.

\"It is my fault and this is my penance. To live my life as I do,\" MacKenzie replied in a tone that allowed for no further argument or comment. The room fell to silence, only the clinking of the ice cubes as the danced around the glass and one another to occasionally bring life to the repressive feeling of death that settled over the two men.

~*~*~*~*~

\"You are my life, Fia. I will not live without you,\" his voice promised her gently. She stared up into his eyes, so full of love. She smiled at him, knowing that he meant it with all his heart. She reached up and touched his face, her fingers trailing across the softness of his cheek. She moved her hand down, over the broad expanse of his shoulder and along his arm. He was her knight in shining armor and he would always be there to protect her. He\'d told her that so many times, she had no choice but to believe it.

\"And you are my life, Dare,\" she told him softly. He leaned down to kiss her, his hips rocking against hers in a slow, leisurely pace. He was buried inside of her deeply, stroking her body ever upward toward that final release. Her muscles were going tighter by the moment, the feel of him filling her so fully sending tiny spasms of pleasure skittering along her nervous system. \"I love you, Dare.\"

\"I love you, Fia,\" he grunted her name as he pushed himself deep into her body. His hands stroked her flesh with reverence, as if she were something sacred and holy. His fingers, rough and calloused, found her nipples and teased them. She arched beneath him and cried out his name, his thick length bringing her over the edge in a blinding storm of passion.

The door crashed open behind them, slamming against the wall. He stopped and she looked over his shoulder. Biast stood there, his eyes smouldering with hatred. She could see death in them. Hers or Dare\'s, she didn\'t know. But it was there all the same. \"You ungrateful whore!\" he roared at her.

Dare rolled from her, reaching for his sword. She pulled the coverlet up over her body, hiding herself from her brother\'s gaze. Dare was up on his feet, sword held out before him. He cared nothing for his state of undress. She could tell by the look in his eyes that all of his concentration was going to the fight between himself and her brother. Biast looked from her to Dare and back again. The smile that spread over his face was nothing close to being kind. There was evil intent there. His eyes glittered like dark jewels with it. She was suddenly very afraid.

\'So you would spend your nights with this knave? Have you no honor, sister? What of the betrothal to Lord Kintyre? Does that mean nothing to you? You would throw all of our hopes and dreams away on this.... this child?\" Biast snarled at her, his hand gesturing to Dare more than once.

\"That I should wed Lord Kintyre is your hope and dream. `Tis not mine!\" she shouted at him, huddling closer to the headboard.

\"Silence, bitch! I shall deal with you after I deal with this one,\" Biast ordered in a frightening tone. She knew then that he meant to kill Dare. She couldn\'t let that happen. Forgetting her nakedness, she hurled herself at her brother, tossing the blankets aside and literally throwing herself at his arm. She tugged on it. Her eyes already begged. She couldn\'t let her love die.

\"Nay, Biast. I\'ll do as you command and wed Lord Kintyre. I swear it. But please! Please spare Dare\'s life! For me, brother. For me,\" she pleaded, her hands curled tightly around his arm to convince him of her sincerity. \"Please, brother mine!\"

\"Fia, do not do this. `Tis madness!\" Dare told her, his voice full of his love and fear.

Biast\'s head turned slowly so that he could look at her, his eyes boring down into hers evilly. She could see nothing in them that would help her. No kindness, remorse, or forgiveness called those piercing blue orbs home. He was mad and he intended to kill Dare. \"You\'re lucky I\'ll allow you to still draw breath after this!\" he spat, trying to shake her off his arm.

She refused to let go. Her hand cramped as it held on, while the other reached for the dirk at his belt. She wouldn\'t allow him to kill Dare. Not while she still drew breath. The blade sang as it slid free of it\'s home and she lifted her arm, prepared to strike. Biast\'s meaty fist lifted to clutch her smaller wrist, the strength in his arm forcing hers down so very easily. It all happened in slow motion. She watched the dirk drop past her chin, then she saw the smile that lifted Biast\'s lips.

\"FIA!! Dare screamed.

Then pain exploded in her chest and a cold like she\'d never known found its way into her heart. And then there was nothing.

The scream echoed off the walls of the lush room long after it had sounded. Kat woke in a sweat, her heart pounding in her chest madly, as if she\'d just run a great distance. She clutched the sheet to her body, her eyes searching the dim recesses of the room for.... something. The door slammed into the wall and she jumped, another scream tearing from her throat. Her eyes, wide with fear, turned to the doorway and half expected to see the man from her dreams standing there with that nasty looking dirk in his hands. But he didn\'t.

Instead, she found herself staring at a bear of a man. He was looking at her oddly, his lips lifted in what she could only call a feral growl. She looked him over and saw the claws where his fingers should have been. Kat froze a moment, then pulled herself from the tangled sheets and stumbled to the floor. Memories of Jer\'s death and the thing that had done it gave her the extra strength it took to gain her feet. She didn\'t want it to touch her. She had to find a way out and get away before it tried to...

\"Katya, please calm down. I won\'t hurt you,\" a low voice broke through the hysteria that threatened to overwhelm her. She stopped and turned to look back at the door. The man still stood there, the expression on his face one of concern. His hands were normal now, the claws gone. She blinked at him, no long irrational. But she still kept a close eye on how far from her he was. If she had to run, she wanted to have a good head start. \"See? I\'m not here to hurt you. I promise.\"

\"Then why are you here? And how do you know my name?\" she demanded sharply. He smiled at her, which she found comforting against her better judgement, and leaned casually against the wall.

\"I\'m here at MacKenzie\'s request. He wants me to look after you during the day. I get to be your bodyguard,\" the man told her. She let her gaze rake over him, starting with the top of his head. His hair was a golden blonde, the kind of blonde that looked like pale honey in the light from lamps and sparkling golden honey in the sun. It was a natural color, given that his eyebrows were almost the exact same shade. His eyes were like emeralds, glittering in the dim light that filtered through the curtains like the eyes of a wild animal.

He was large, not just in height but in width. He was so tall that, even standing where she was, she found herself craning her neck back to look at his face. His shoulders were wide, almost as broad across as the door he\'d just come through. A t-shirt in light gray was stretched tight across his chest, his legs hugged by incredibly tight jeans that she thought could have been painted on. He wore black runners on feet she thought might be as large as small boats. She thought that, if it hadn\'t have been for his incredible bulk, he was the kind of man whom she could walk past in a crowd and not be noticed.

He wasn\'t exactly handsome and he wasn\'t ugly. He was simply an ordinary man with ordinary good looks. Kat thought she should be afraid of him but she wasn\'t. He hadn\'t made any advances toward her and he wasn\'t looking at her like she was food or his own personal plaything. He just stood there and watched her. She relaxed slightly and watched as he did the same. She thought it odd that his body slackened at the same moment she did. She tensed, as if to run, and he tensed with her. It made her stop and think a moment.

\"You\'re not human, are you?\" she asked softly. She could tell she\'d startled him by the look on his face. It flashed there for a brief moment, then was gone in the blink of an eye. Now he stared at her with almost no expression, but she saw the tightening of his eyes. They narrowed on her minutely, letting her know she\'d either offended him or made him mad. \"I\'m sorry. I didn\'t mean it like that. I only meant that no one who was human could move in the same direction as someone else at exactly the same moment without some kind of signal. I don\'t think I gave you one. Did I?\"

Her words seemed to relax him because the tighness around the eyes gave way and he cracked a partial smile at her. She thought the expression held a hint of chagrin to it, too. He held a hand up before them and she watched, horrified and fascinated as his fingers went from normal fingers to elongated claws that looked like they could shred the flesh from her bones. In an instant, his hand was just that. His hand .The claws were gone and he once more held his fingers up before her.

\"I\'m human and I\'m not,\" he told her, then motioned to a small suite of furniture near a giant hearth. They moved toward it as one and sat, Kat in a chair and the man in one directly opposite her. When they were both comfortable, she studied her a moment before speaking again. \"What do you know of MacKenzie?\"

\"I know he\'s a vampire. He saved me from Niki the other night. And he came to me when I was in the hospital and gave me a bit of relief from the pain,\" she replied honestly. He nodded and took a moment to think on how to broach the subject.

\"Do you know what it was that attacked you?\"

She nodded. \"He said it was called a shapeling.\"

\"Shapelings are an abomination. They\'re half shapeshifter, generally werewolf, and half ghoul. The ghoul is always the male and its always rape. A shapeling is the by product of such a union,\" he said gruffly and she could hear the disgust in his voice.

\"So you\'re a...?\" her voice trailed off as she stared at him. She didn\'t want to offend him again, so she didn\'t dare guess.

\"I\'m a werewolf. A shapeshifter. But I wasn\'t always like this. Once I was simply a man. Then I was bitten and infected,\" he shrugged his huge shoulders and the motion looked so fluid that she could do nothing but believe him. Big men never moved like that. It was as if they were too bulky for graceful motion.

\"So MacKenzie asked you to keep an eye on me?\" she stared at him, uncertain as to whether she should be mad or not. The fact that he cared was sweet. But the idea that he thought she wouldn\'t be able to take care of herself was something that made her a little upset.

\"He\'s convinced the shapelings are after you and he wants you kept safe. Since I can be with you during the day and he can\'t, I get the job,\" the man across from her told her with another of those fluid shrugs.

\"But... why?\" she was puzzled.

\"The shapelings may be hunting you. Since the strength of a mortal man or woman is no match for them, you need someone not human,\" he returned and there was a chill to his voice that hadn\'t been there before.

\"They\'re not bound by the sun and moon?\" she asked him. He smiled and shook his head. Something told Kat he was impressed with her questions. As if he hadn\'t expected her to be rational enough to use her brains.

\"No, shapelings have no boundaries like the vampire and the werewolf,\" he informed her in a gruff tone. She sighed and wondered how the hell she\'d ended up in this mess.

\"So, the shapelings are chasing me and I can\'t stop them. I need you to do that for me,\" she spoke mostly to herself, but he nodded in response all the same. She glanced at him and frowned. \"Can the shapeling kill you?\"

\"What does it matter?\" he semed puzzled by the question.

\"I don\'t want anyone to get killed because of me. Jer\'s dead and I\'ll never be able to forgive myself for that. I couldn\'t live with your death on my conscious, too.\"

The smile that came to his lips then was gentle and out of place on his rugged face. \"You would worry more about me than you would about yourself?\" he sounded amazed. Kat nodded and frowned.

\"Yes,\" was the simple reply.

\"But why? I\'m a stranger. You don\'t know me from Adam,\" he sounded amazed.

\"You\'re a person, just like me. Just like Jer. I couldn\'t live with myself if something happened to another human being because of me. I just couldn\'t,\" she shook her head, her eyes now haunted with unpleasant memories.

He watched her for several long moments, seeing the shadows crawl across her face and through her eyes. She meant it. She was living with the ghosts of the death of her friend, watching them play out time and again in her mind. Just the pained look on her face was enough to convince him she was serious about her declaration. She would have a very hard time living with his death if it had come because of her.

\"Tell you what. I\'ll make a deal with you. I promise not to get killed while watching you. You promise not to frown like that again,\" his voice was gentle. She looked at him a moment and then smiled, her face lighting up with the promise.

\"Its a deal,\" she nodded. He knew she was too smart to actually believe it. But the words went a long way to making her feel a little better.

\"Alright, then. How does breakfast sound to you, Katya? I\'m starved. Its been a long god-damned night and I could use something to eat,\" he suggested.

\"Sounds good. Just do me a favor,\" she smiled at him. He nodded, indicating she should go on. \"Call me Kat. Please. Only my mother and grandmother ever called me Katya, and that was when I was in trouble.\"

He threw his head back and laughed. The sound was warm and masculine and it echoed thickly off the walls. Kat found herself smiling at him, wondering why he\'d found that so amusing. When he stopped laughing, he had to wipe tears from his eyes. She could only stare. \"You say that in such a way that I\'m lead to believe you were in trouble quite a bit.\"

\"Oh yes,\" she grinned a moment, recalling times when she\'d had both her mother and her grandmother yelling her name. There\'d been a few of those, too. \"I was a magnet for trouble.\"

\"Something tells me that you still are,\" he grinned. She nodded, feeling better than she had in quite some time. He stood and held a hand out to her. \"Should we go get some breakfast?\"

\"I make it a point to never have a meal with someone who hasn\'t given me his name,\" she told him, not moving from her chair. He blinked at her, then shook his head.

\"I\'m sorry. I forgot my manners. My name is Drummond. But you can call me Drum,\" he grinned at her and she thought she could see some of the little boy he\'d once been in that look.

\"Very well, Drum. As a matter of fact, I\'m starving. Let\'s find some breakfast,\" she stood and moved toward him. He took her hand and tucked it in the crook of his elbow, the led her from the room.

~*~

Katya watched as Drum flipped the omlette ingredients over, using nothing more than his hand and the pan that it held. She was slightly awed by his ability to simply toss the food into the air and catch it. She couldn\'t crack eggs without making a mess and she could never get water to boil. She felt that she was missing the cooking gene that seemed to have run rampant in both her mother and grandmother. The pan went back on the burner while he turned to a bowl of eggs and whipped them with a whisk to within an inch of their lives. She was pretty sure that, had they held state secrets, they\'d have given them up by now.

Another pan sizzled with sausage in it, while he\'d already toasted bread for them both and had it set aside, buttered and awaiting consumption. He\'d already poured glasses of juice and was about to finish off the omlettes. The whipped eggs went into the pan with the frying vegetables and then he had a spatula in his hand.

Drum seemed to be at home in the kitchen. His hands were never idle and she was amazed at how quickly he had the eggs cooked and was spooning the omlette out onto the two plates before him. He added sausage to each one, then set the pan on the stove and shut the burner off. He picked up the plates, settling one into the crook of his arm while the other rested in his hand. Then he scooped up the two glasses of juice and moved to the table where Kat sat, completely obsorbed in his actions. He set the juice down first and then the plates, putting one of each before her first, then setting his own place.

Kat was polite and waited until he\'d sat and picked up his fork before she took up her own utensil and cut off a small forkful with the edge of one tine. She actually groaned when she slid the morsel into her mouth and it hit her taste buds. It was simply divine. \"Good, huh?\" he asked her as he lifted his first bite to his mouth.

Kat could only nod, another forkful already crammed into her mouth. He watched her eat a moment, noting that she was almost inhaling it. MacKenzie had mentioned something about making sure she ate, but he hadn\'t believed that she could possibly be that hungry. Until now. Kat stuffed the omlette into her mouth as if she hadn\'t eaten in days. And perhaps she hadn\'t. He didn\'t know what the touch of a shapeling could do to a person. The vampire had mentioned that the girl was always in pain. So who was to say what she had and hadn\'t done?

They ate in companionable silence, Kat finishing long before Drum did. When she was done, she sat back in her chair and watched him as he ate. He savored each and every bite, taking his time with the omlette and the juice. When he was finally through, he pushed his plate away from him and leaned back in his chair as she did. She grinned at him and closed her eyes. \"That was wonderful. Thank you. Where did you learn to cook like that?\"

\"I was a chef, once upon a time,\" he said, his voice sounding almost choked. She thought it might be a painful memory for him, so she changed the subject as quickly as she could.

\"Well, its very good. Thank you for sharing with me,\" she told him, then searched for a different topic. She found it with out much need for looking. \"MacKenzie. How well do you know him? How long have you known him?\"

\"Oh, Mac. I\'ve known him for some time. Quite some time. So I know him better than most. He doesn\'t share with alot of people, but I seem to be the one he confides in most. That\'s probably why he asked me to look after you.\"

\"Does he really think I\'m in that kind of danger?\" she seemed astonished by the idea.

\"He does. He wouldn\'t have called me if he hadn\'t,\" Drum assured her, his voice shifting lower to so that he growled the words out. \"Much as he doesn\'t want to, I think he cares about you. In some manner.\"

\"I don\'t understand,\" she shook her head, her bloody copper locks falling into her face. She batted her hair away absently.

\"Mac has spent much of his lifetime alone. He does what he\'s told by Templer, but he doesn\'t really have a life outside of the family. He made a choice a very long time ago to remain alone and he\'s lived by it. And now he has you and I don\'t think he knows what he\'s supposed to do,\" Drum explained.

\"Templer?\" she frowned.

\"Yeah. Templer\'s the head of his family, or coven. Mac is his second in command. Templer probably told him to look after you, so Mac is. But its more emotional for him than he first thought it would be.\"

\"I don\'t understand. Why would Templer want him to look after me? And why would MacKenzie be emotional about me?\"

Drum shook his head. \"That, I can\'t tell you. That\'s his secret and I can\'t break an oath I made to him.\"

\"But...\" Kat began to protest but Drum shook his head again.

\"I can\'t tell you. If you want to know, you\'ll have to ask Mac. And I don\'t think he\'ll tell you what you want to know either,\" Drum said, his voice holding both finality and an edge of sadness. Kat looked at him and shook her head. She was definitely going to ask him those questions. And more. She got the distinct impression that there was more going on here than she knew. She really hated to be left out in the cold.

Oh yes, Drum could bet his tight ass that she was going to ask McKenzie about it.

end chapter five.
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once again, this is entirely not beta read by anyone other than myself, so all mistakes are my own. please be gentle with me.

if you like this, let me know with a few words. thanks so much for reading.

to Dixia: thank you kindly for all the nice compliments. i realize that this isn\'t everyone\'s cup of tea, but for me... this is a way to excercise the daemons. in a manner of speaking. as for the relationship growing between MacKenzie and Katya, i realize it is moving faster than what might be considered the norm. but there are circumstances dealing with that that will be revealed in good time. please continue reading and i hope that this chapter lives up to your expectations.

to Anon: since you pointed it out and i took a look, i\'ve tried to be a little more conscience about what i type. the sentence structures might be a bit off here and there, but that\'s on purpose. i write the way people think and act, not the way we\'re taught to write in school. its rather an unrealistic thing, when you look at it. most people are like that. they write the way they think. since though processes are scattered.... there you go. anyhoooo.... i\'m glad you still like my slightly dark and bloody vision, twisted as it is.

to DarkMystic: a bunch of missing pieces? hmmm. this one might end up doing the same. there are some twisted bunnies at work here, so bear with us. i hope that, with the direction i\'ve taken here, it won\'t seem too.... cliché or anything. only time will tell.

to Zephyr: you think you got it, huh? care to take a guess? you can always email me privately and i\'ll happily let you know if you\'re right or not.