"You can sleep in here," Tony led me to a small bedroom that held a full-size bed. "The closet is empty so you can hang up your clothes. I don't suppose you'd consider using my room instead?" There was such a look of hope on his face.
"Tony, do you see this?" I fingered my ring. "Both of us would die if I even considered it."
"I was afraid you'd say that," he mumbled. "You have your own bath in here," he pulled me toward a small door in a corner of the room. It led into a small but tidy bathroom with a shower only, no tub. No matter, I didn't usually take baths anyway.
"You have a nice house, Tony," I told him. It was nice and in the neighborhood where he lived, it was probably quite pricy, too.
"I hope you like it. We'll be doing some traveling before long," he said. "I'll fill you in tomorrow night." Dawn wasn't far off and I needed to unpack a little before getting ready for bed. "Goodnight, Lissy." Tony kissed me again before I could stop him and walked out of my temporary bedroom, closing the door behind him.
Tony had placed something on the windows, I learned. They were completely blocked with some sort of film and I couldn't see through them at all. I examined them carefully while I brushed my teeth, pulling the patterned curtains aside to make sure. I had a cooler of blood with me too, plugged into a wall socket so it would stay cold. The key was in my purse, just in case. My bed was comfortable, but it didn't really matter once dawn came.
* * *
"Lissa, what happened to your hair?" Tony walked around me, inspecting my hairless state when I woke and found him in his kitchen the following evening. I hadn't bothered to put on a wig.
"I thought you heard," I said, repeating his words from the night before.
"I guess I didn't expect that." He ran a hand over the top of my head. "It's growing back," he said.
"Slowly. Hair doesn't grow that fast on my kind," I grumped. "I barely have eyelashes and eyebrows, now. Lost the tips of my fingers and the ends of my toes." I wiggled my fingers for him.
"Lissa, why did you do that?" He pulled me into an embrace. He was warm. Humans were so warm. It would be wonderful if I could relax into his embrace and let him have the tension and worry for a while. I just couldn't.
"I'm not allowed to discuss it," I said. He held me away from him.
"Lissa, I'm very good at keeping secrets," he said, gazing earnestly at me. Tony has the nicest gray eyes and his good looks, coupled with black hair means he's not hard to look at.
"I know, but I still can't talk about it. Not now. Maybe someday." I pulled away from him. "Have you had dinner yet?"
"I was going to throw something in the microwave."
"Tony, is that any way to live?" I put hands on my hips. "Tell me you have something to fix in that nice stainless steel refrigerator of yours." I jerked my head toward the appliance in question. We went digging around in it before going to scavenge in the pantry. He ended up with chicken and noodles and the chicken was canned chicken but he liked it. "If I had more time, I'd restock your kitchen," I said while stuffing dishes in the dishwasher. I'd found a boxed brownie mix in a cabinet, so that's what Tony was getting for dessert. The brownies were almost ready to come out of the oven and the scent filled Tony's kitchen. Chocolate still smelled heavenly to me—it just didn't taste the same.
"We can go grocery shopping tonight," Tony suggested, grinning at me. "There's a twenty-four hour market not far away. You can get anything you want. Stock me up, Lissa."
"What do you want for dinner tomorrow night?" I asked.
"Italian?"
"All right. I'll see if they have some Italian sausage and I'll make lasagna or something." Tony ate three brownies before we went out. Two cars were parked in Tony's garage; we chose the Escalade for the room in the back. It was a hybrid, too. I was proud of him and told him so. That seemed to make him happy.
"Salad?" I asked later as we strolled down the produce aisle.
"Yeah."
"How long are we going to be in town?" I asked, before putting fruit in the basket.
"Only two more nights," he said, sounding a bit disappointed as he tossed bananas in the cart.
"Then put half those bananas back," I said. He did. We found ingredients for lasagna and bought chicken br**sts for a second meal. Tony picked out wine and we went through the check out.
A wide yawn nearly cracked Tony's jaw when we carried bags into the house, so I sent him to bed and put the groceries away. I read and watched television for a while afterward, almost shouting at the television screen when I heard that two schoolchildren had been abducted near Shrewsbury in England. I went to grab my laptop, discovering via the internet that Shrewsbury wasn't far from Wales. The journalists were drawing the same conclusion I was; that the man responsible for the other kidnappings was likely involved in these as well—he was still on the loose. The authorities were taking a cautious approach to the entire thing, warning everybody not to jump to conclusions while they were still investigating. Dawn was coming so I went to bed, still fuming a little.
* * *
Tony didn't get spaghetti or chicken. Not as scheduled, anyway. I woke inside a body bag and almost had a claustrophobic fit before he could get me unzipped. "Sorry, Lissa, sorry." Tony was apologizing and trying to block my body from the scrutiny of two men who stood behind him. I'm sure it was the claws; they were out and my eyes were most likely red. At least I wasn't hissing. The floor was also rocking slightly beneath us and that shouldn't be.
"You're on a Navy ship," Tony explained as I drew in my claws. He stepped away from me then.
"Tony, I hope you have a really good explanation for this." I felt like shouting it at him, but we had witnesses so I reined in my temper. That still wasn't good enough for one of our witnesses.
"You allow her to speak to you like that?" The one wearing the white uniform with plenty of little doo-dads on his left breast snapped. He was a bit on the chubby side and probably referred to himself as portly. A balding head topped off a round face with thinning lips, as if he disapproved of most everything.
"She's a civilian and didn't exactly agree to this mission," Tony said, turning and staring the man down.
"Is that why you stuffed her in a body bag?" The man dressed in dark blue asked. He had a few doo-dads but not as many as portly guy. He was also taller and thinner, with thick brown hair that curled a little.