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I sighed "Sin, fine; you know the nicknaht?"

"What taboo?" he asked

"You&039;re a kid that I&039; care of; I think it was the parent-teacher conferences that really capped it for me, Cynric - Sin" I put lare on ood, justified even "You shouldn&039;t be going to parent conferences for so them, Sin, okay? There, that&039;s the truth, that&039;s the problehed then and leaned against the glass of the door, ar to the parent-teacher conferences"

"What?" I asked

"Stop cos; I don&039;t think of you as a parent, Anita The closest thing I&039;ve had to a as, and she&039;s not exactly ht of you that way" He frowned, unrolling his shoulders enough to put ainst it, putting his hands flat against the sun-warainst the light, and I realized that the pale blue silk of his shorts wasn&039;t exactly light proof

I looked away, so that I wouldn&039;t keep looking harder to see howto see hihtparental toward hi too in to blush and wished, so wished, I could stop doing that

"You don&039;t think of yourself as my mom" His voice was a little lower as he said it

I shook ht I didn&039;t, I just "But by going to the parent conferences and things, it puts me in that role Don&039;t you understand? I can&039;t do stuff like that and still" I waved a hand vaguely toward hiuardian, and he enjoys going to the parent stuff Nathaniel likes it, too All big brother on me," and there was real happiness in his voice when he said the last

I looked at him then, and the happiness was there plain on his face He leaned against the door in that fall of sunlight and was happy, relaxed, himself, more hiht not to look lower on his body, because I liked seeing that look on his face He&039;d done ot to St Louis I enjoyed watching hirow into himself, become the person he could be That part I liked, the same way I&039;d enjoyed it with Nathaniel, or Jason, or or Micah We&039;d all grown ht; Jean-Claude does enjoy the whole parent thing"

Sin laughed "He&039;s a little puzzled by the sports, but he enjoys co"

"He&039;s proud of you," I said

Sin grinned "I think he is"

"I know he is"

Sin looked at ht, you can feel what he&039;s feeling if you&039;re not shielding tight enough, even more so than with one of your aniainst Jean-Claude"

"Than against Nathaniel, or Damian?"

"Da on e&039;re doing"

"You mean sex," Sin said

I smiled, and shook my head "Sex with Jean-Claude is pretty full of abandon, too, but Nathaniel doesn&039;t control his emotions as well as the vampires do"

"They&039;ve had centuries more practice," Sin said

I nodded "True"

"Just stop cos, as my parent, Anita" He held his hand out to me

"Just like that," I said, "and that&039;ll make it okay?"

"I don&039;t know, but I&039;ll certainly trade you sitting there all uncoled the hand he was holding out in the air

I went close enough to take his hand We stood there holding hands Neither of us tried for anything closer We just stood there, hie to pull against his hand, and looked at each other

The s a much low that lingers pushing against the dark when the sun has gone below the horizon, but you know that true night is only a thought away - night, when the monsters come out to play

I didn&039;t want to be the monster to Cynric, the way I was to Larry It wasn&039;t a fair analogy, but I was tired; not physically, I&039;d slept, but emotionally I was just tired of the shit, everyone&039;s shit I was also wondering where Brice was, not because I wanted a rescue froet these bastards before nightfall

Cynric squeezedtoo hard, and it&039;s not about race to look e when the other cops will coive me a ride to the party"

"You know it scares me every time you leave for ith the police"

I nodded "I know" We had anotherhands fro I can do would hed "No," I said

"Can I hug you?" he asked

I looked at hie in conversation was too fast forme, yeah I hting, and you&039;ve gone all work serious"

"I don&039;t think we&039;re fighting"

"We were both thinking about having a fight," he said, sht about it"

"But we&039;re not going to," he said, and made it a question with the uplilt of his voice

"I don&039;t think so"

He frowned and pulled on, Anita, but why aren&039;t we fighting?"

I realized he&039;d stopped pullingme a few inches of distance, so I could decide if I wanted to close the distance or not Cynric had learned what not to do in the last year It was figuring out what to do that was the proble me, or so one ofthe distance between us I was left standing al up at him, his ar that last bit of distance

"I don&039;t want to fight," I said

"Me either," he said

I nodded "Good"

"You&039;ll stop co to the parent-teacher stuff"

"Yeah," I said

"And you&039;ll stop being weirded out by our age difference?"

I laughed then, and shook my head "I&039;m twelve years older than you are, Sin"

"I know"

"But it&039;s not just the age difference; it&039;s the when of the age difference You&039;re eighteen and I&039;m twelve years older than you are I&039;e difference"

"You said I could hug you," he said

"You can," I said

He glanced down atthe issue, and you don&039;t like that, at least not from me"

Ithe firmness of his body and the softness of his skin, so that I wasn&039;t sure whether to say his body was muscled and hard, or soft and tender He was both, all of it

His arainst his body I let e of his spine, the muscles of his lats where they traced under his skin like the faint shape of wings, as if without of the skin and rise like a white feathered dream above his back One of , the leader of the swanmanes I knehat it was to have sex surrounded by feathers and the strength of wings, but Sin didn&039;t need wings to be special I wrapped ainst his bare chest, so I could hold the warainst er to call, er, and it wasn&039;t just his I could tie people toto be bound to theed sword, and I could cut so to be cut

Sin wrapped his arainst his body, and I let hiainst the front of his taller body, so that he could hold e I was, in the end he was bigger than I was, and no ae that One day he would be twenty, but I&039;d still be six inches shorter than he was, and I could admit, at least silently in my own head, that it wasn&039;t always bad to be sainst my hair, and asked, "Can I kiss you?"

"Why ask? Why not just try?"

"Because you&039;re in one of those es every few minutes"

"God, a," he said

"Oh, that was diplomatic," I said

"I want to kiss you"

"Yes," I said

"Yes, what?"

"Yes," I said, and went up on ainst his chest He took the hint, and leaned over to bring his face next toof lips

He drew back, studying , but whatever he saw on ain, sliding one hand through my hair, so that he cupped the back ofchaste to a caressing of lips and tongues, and then a sainst , and there was a reason that lycanthropes weren&039;t allowed to play with hu into ile I ht have been more than bruised, but I wasn&039;t hu, the pain, tore an eager sound froainst hiain and press harder against hiainstrise of his beast flared acrosseverywhere along lireat blue-and-black beast that rose to hi and a knock on the doorway We both turned, startled, toward the sound Nathaniel looked apologetic "You guys are fun together"

"How long have you been watching?" I asked

"Not long, but the police just pulled up outside"

"Shit," I said I looked back up at Cynric "I have to go"

"I know" And then he smiled "But I know you&039;re sorry to leave me now, and that helps"

I wasn&039;t sure how to take that, so I ignored it and went for the door, adjusting the weapons and straps as if the et back into work headspace I touched the weapons, rab theave Nathaniel a quick kiss Micah was at the door, standing with one of s in his hand I kissed hietahead, already settling into theabout killing people, you don&039;t want to think about kissing your sweeties, or at least I didn&039;t It was a way to separate that part of the job froot to go," I said

"We know," Micah said

"We&039;re scheduled with Jean-Claude tonight," Nathaniel said, re otten and wondered where you guys were" I started out the door Micah let s frouys carrying your bags; you just didn&039;t

"Do whatever it takes to come home safe to us, Anita," he said

I looked into those eyes and said, "Always" And I had to go, but now that Brice was calling ataway, there was that edge of exciteuys, but a part of me still loved this, too How do you divide yourself between killing people and loving theuys, and love the good guys, and hope the two lists never crossed