"Daniel, are you sure you're okay?" Kelly asked, as they made their way through the hallway to the courtyard. "I don't think that wound has stopped bleeding yet."
"I think it has stopped," he said. "I think some of it stopped when I burned through those bars. Remember how the sword healed us after we'd used it to kill a few raptors? The magic?"
She nodded. "Yeah, I know," she said. "But I'm still going to worry about you until I know it's okay. Sorry, but I get like that. Comes with having a kid." She bit her lip and looked away.
They had reached the door. Anders pulled the door open, and the pimple-faced kid, who was carrying the battery, stepped out. "I just set this anywhere?" he said, in a slightly nasal voice that had not yet deepend with adolescence.
"Somewhere away from the wall," Daniel called out. He turned back to Kelly and reached out to run his fingers down her cheek. She looked up, startled. He was a bit surprised to see that her eyes were dry.
"You okay?" he asked, running his fingers through her hair.
She nodded, a little too quickly.
He leaned over and kissed her. Her lips were soft and yielding, but under that, he felt her trembling. He ran his hand up her arm and squeezed her shoulder gently, and she responded by kissing him back, hard, hungrily.
Anders coughed, and they pulled apart, a little embarrassed.
The kid was coming back inside. "I'll be fine," Daniel lied, and went to stand in the doorway.
His thoughts were a nonsensical jumble as he stood, waiting.
Part of him was thinking about how hungrily Kelly had kissed him back, and about how much he wanted time to stop for a while, and to be back in her apartment, making love by moonlight in the hallway -- and the bedroom, and the living room, and...
Part of him was thinking of how Kelly was still blaming herself for Mary's disappearance, and wishing he could stand there and stroke her hair and... well, make it all better. The hero thing, he thought dryly...
Part of him, with an odd wrenching sensation, was thinking about Anna. Oddly, the thing that kept running through his head was an image of making love to Anna while he told her about Kelly...
Joining the thoughts that he usually managed to crowd out of his mind was a fleeting image of Taylor, her narrowing waist and budding breasts. The kind of thought he usually managed to keep out of his head. He knew he would never actually do anything with a girl that age, but there was still that corner of his mind that noticed, whether he liked it or not...
Part of him was thinking about Lance. The coldly rational part of his brain told him that Lance had a point about getting more Guardians. The easily-swayed emotional part told him that Lance was a lowlife, a rapist, that he had raped a child, for Chrissakes, that he deserved whatever he got. Then there was the part that recalled Taylor's developing curves, and called Daniel a hypocrite...
He tried to wonder what Junior was up to. Why had he killed Lance? What was his game? But his heart wasn't in that line of wondering. The more he tried to push the other thoughts aside, the more they crept in through the back door of his mind, crowding in for attention.
He was almost relieved when he heard the flap of wings from above.
It was a lone raptor, one of the more usual black ones. It landed a few feet back from the battery, and looked around with its beady, black eyes. It paused for a moment, looking directly at Daniel. He stood perfectly still.
It stepped toward the battery, cautious but... "confident" wasn't the word. "Dominant" would have been better. It was staking its claim, and making sure Daniel knew that it didn't want him to interfere.
He stared back into its eyes, and something stirred. The tips of his fingers began to itch, ever so slightly.
He pushed the door all the way open and stepped out. The raptor crouched lower and took another step toward the battery, letting out a long, loud hiss.
"Come out and play," he said softly, flexing his fingers.
The raptor's tail lashed back and forth, and he was reminded oddly of a cat. The way it crouched, the way it hissed... it might have been a cat defending a kill from another cat. All right, Daniel thought, bending his legs slightly and spreading his arms for balance. I can do cat.
It tightened its leg muscles ever so slightly, then sprang. If he hadn't been thinking about cats, he would have missed it. As it was, he barely moved out of the way in time. The raptor slipped past him and backed away, crouching again.
Shit, Daniel thought suddenly. I can't let that thing claw me. There's no way Junior will let me near the sword to heal the poison.
Then the door slammed behind him, carried by its automatic closer, and he realized how little time had passed since he came through that door. He also realized that the raptor's attention was drawn away by the sound.
Without a sound, he was in the air, leaping like a cat. The raptor tried to back away, but too late. Daniel's hand closed around its arm, and he... pulled.
The raptor shrieked and stumbled backward, and Daniel lowered himself into a crouch and advanced toward it, flexing his fingers. The tingling had focused, and felt like claws extending from his hands... or like a sword in his hands... or some other kind of weapon that he couldn't quite place.
He was in the air again, and the raptor screeched and tried to get out of the way, but his weight hit it and knocked it down. His hands closed on its skinny neck while they were still in midair, his back legs kicking like a cat. The raptor struggled, twisted, shrieked.
The twisting sensation seemed to stretch, and Daniel suddenly had the distinct impression that he was being watched.
Then the raptor went into a final convulsion that tore his hands away from its neck, arching its back, screaming to the wind, and was gone in a wisp of smoke and a pile of ash scattering in the breeze.
He reached his hands out, and felt the silent, freezing fire that was left behind where the raptor had been. He drew it in, and it burst through him, seeping in through every pore in his skin, freezing his spine and filling his blood with cold fire. The wind sang through his face. The earth drew itself in through his feet. The stars pierced him through with their cold light.
Above, a pale raptor perched on the top of a wall, watching him with its iron-gray, catlike eyes.
Then the cold flame rushed through him again, and everything went black.
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