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Susan

My brain locked up for a good ten seconds as I stared down at my former lover I could smell the scent of her hair, the subtle perfu with the new-leather scent of her jacket and another, new sarded me, uncertain and nervous She had a s with drops of blood that looked black in the red light of the blasting rod&039;s fire

"Harry," Susan said, her voice quiet and steady "Harry You&039;re scaring me"

I shookrod, stepping over to her, "Stars and stones, Susan Are you all right?"

I offered her ers were feverishly warm, and wisps of winter steam curled from her skin "Bruises," she said "I&039;ll be fine"

"Who was that?"

Susan glanced the way her attacker had run and shook her head "Red Court I couldn&039;t see his face"

I blinked at her "You ran off a vampire? By yourself?"

She flashed me a smile that mixed weariness with a sense of pleasure She still hadn&039;t taken her hand fro out"

I looked around a bit more, and tried to reach out with y that hovered around the Reds Nothing "Gone now," I reported "But we shouldn&039;t hang around out here"

"Inside then?"

I started to agree, and then paused A horrible suspicion hit o of her hand and took a step back

A line appeared between her eyebrows "Harry?"

"It&039;s been a rough year," I said "I want to talk, but I&039; you in"

Susan&039;s expression flickered with comprehension and pain She folded her arms over her stoht to be careful"

I took another step back and started walking toward my reinforced-steel door She walked a few feet away, and at my side, where I could see her I went down the stairs and unlocked the door Then I pushed out an effort of will to temporarily disable the protective spells laid over ical equivalent of a land lanced at the candleholder on the wall by the door, and y flowing out ofe

My place is basically a cave with two cha area Bookshelves lineda couple of tapestries and an original Star Wars s all over s to a black area rug with Elvis&039;s face, fully two feet across, doured sos eclectic I just thought of the-cold stone floor

My furniture is ot most of it secondhand None of it matches, but it&039;s all coh to let nore it A small alcove held a sink, an icebox, and a pantry for food A fireplace rested against one wall, the wood all burned down to black and grey, but I kneould still be glowing under the ash A door led to my tiny bedroom and the apartment&039;s three-quarters bath The whole place ed, but it was very tidy and clean

I turned to face Susan, and didn&039;t put down htly step across the threshold of a hohtful residents invites them in Plenty of nasties can put on a false face, and it wasn&039;t inconceivable that one of the to be Susan

A supernatural being would have a hell of a ti invited in If that was some kind of shapeshifter rather than Susan or, God help one all the way over to the vampires, she wouldn&039;t be able to enter If it was the real Susan, she&039;d be fine Or at least, the threshold wouldn&039;t hurt her Getting paranoid suspicion froe

On the other hand, there was a war on, and Susan probably wouldn&039;t be happy to hear I&039;d gotten uinated

Susan didn&039;t pause at the door She stepped inside, turned around to close and lock it, and asked, "Good enough?"

It was Relief, coupled with a sudden explosion of naked e up after days of anguish to find that the pain was gone Where there had been only hurt, there was suddenly nothing, and other feelings rushed in to fill the sudden void Excitee nervousness that accoe of war glee

And in the shadows of those, a few things darker but no less vibrant Sheer, sensual pleasure in the scent of her, in looking at her face, her dark hair again I needed to feel her skin under my hands, to feel her pressed to er Now that she was standing there in front of me, I needed her, all of her, as much as I needed food or water or air, and possibly more I wanted to tell her, to let her knohat it ood at expressing myself verbally

By the tiainst her She let out a quiet gasp of surprise, but I leaned gently into her, pressing her shoulders to the door

I lowered my mouth to hers, and her lips were soft, sweet, fever-hot She went rigid for a second, then let out a low sound and wound her ar th and softness of her body My hunger deepened, and so did the kiss,She responded as ardently as I did, her lips alh her mouth and into mine I started to feel a little dizzy and disoriented, and though soainst her

I slid one hand over her hip, beneath the jacket, and slipped up under the T-shirt she wore to curl around the naked sweetness of her waist I pulled her hard againstone leg to press againsther skin, and she arched againstently biting, sending quivering shock waves through her as she shook againstneed I found her eager lips again, and her fingers tightened in ainst her

My dizziness grew Soht did a quick flyby of led to take notice of it, but the kiss made it impossible Lust and needhiss startledwildly around

Mister, my bobtailed, battle-scarred tomcat, had leapt up onto the stones before the fireplace, his luhs about thirty pounds, and thirty pounds of cat can make an absolutely impossible amount of noise

Susan shuddered and pressed her pal her face away froentle rather than insistent My lips burned to touch hers again, but I closedbreaths Then I backed away froo stir up the fire-not that fire, the literal one-but the room tilted wildly and it was all I could do to stumble into an easy chair

Mister leapt up into ht to be able to do, and rubbed his face againstout a purr I fumbled up one hand to pet hi

"What the hell just happened?" I ed from the shadows and crossed the candlelit rooh the ashes until she found so wood to the fire from the old iron hod beside the fireplace "I could feel you," she said, after aunder It -" She shivered "It felt nice"

Boy, did it And I bet it would feel even nicer if all those clothes hadn&039;t been in the way Aloud, all I said was, "Under?"

She looked over her shoulder at me, her expression hard to read "The venom," she said quietly "They call it their Kiss"

"I guess I can&039;t blame them It sounds a lot more romantic than &039;narcotic drool&039;" Soless chat and an iht that would lead to discarded clothing upon the floor I ignored theht I&039;d iined it"

Susan shook her head, and sat down on the stones before the fireplace, her back straight, her hands folded sedately in her lap The fire began to grow, catching onto the neood, and though the light of it curled around her with golden fingers, it left her face veiled in shadow "No What Bianca did to ed er now My senses are sharper And there&039;s -" She faltered

"The Kiss," IThey liked the real thing a lot better I ignored them, too

"Yes," she said "Not like one of them can do Less But still there"

I mopped at my face with er Susan or else a liquid-nitrogen shower "A beer You want one?"

"Pass," she said "I don&039;t think lowering ht now"

I nodded, got up, and went to my icebox It&039;s an actual icebox, the kind that runs on honest-to-goodness ice rather than Freon I got out a dark brown bottle of Mac&039;s ho drink Mac would be horrified that I drank his beer cold, since he prided himself on an old-world brew, but I always kept a couple in there, for when I wanted it cold What can I say I&039;m an unlettered, barbaric American wizard I drank off ainst uess you didn&039;t come over to, uh-"

"Tear your clothes off and use you shaain, but I could sense the underlying tone of her own hunger I wasn&039;t sure whether I should be unsettled by it or encouraged "No, Harry It isn&039;t - that isn&039;t so I can afford to do with you No matter how much either of us wants it"

"Why not?" I asked I knehy not already, but the words jumped from my brain to my mouth before I could stop them I peered suspiciously at the beer

"I don&039;t want to lose control," Susan said "Not ever Not with anyone But especially not with you" There was a silence in which only the fire made any noise "Harry, it would kill ht, it would probably kill rip It&039;s just a kiss Let it go

I drank the rest of my beer, which wasn&039;t anywhere near as nice as other things I&039;d done with e and asked Susan, "Coke?"

She nodded, looking around Her gaze hesitated on the fireplace mantel, where I kept the card and three postcards I&039;d received frorey jewelry box that held the dinky little ring she&039;d turned down "Is soot out a couple of cans, and took one over to her She took it froers "Why do you ask?"

"The place looks so nice," she said "And your clothes smell like fabric softener You&039;ve never used fabric softener in your life"

"Oh That" You can&039;t tell people about it when faeries are doing your housework, or they get ticked off and leave "I sort of have a cleaning service"

"I hear you&039;ve been too busy to clean up," Susan said

"Just "

Susan smiled "I heard you saved the world from some kind of doom Is it true?"

I fiddled with hed "How do you sort of save the world?"

"I only saved it in a Greenpeace kind of way If I&039;d blown it, there ht have been a historically bad storm, but I don&039;t think anyone would have noticed the real dae takes time"

"Sounds scary," Susan said

I shrugged "Mostly I was just trying to savecynical I suspect the only thing I acco up the place so that we could screw it up ourselves"

I sat down on the chair again, and we opened the Cokes and drank in silence for a bit My heart eventually stopped pounding quite so loudly

"I miss you," I said finally "So does your editor She calledin"

Susan nodded "That&039;s one reason I&039;m here I owe her more than a letter or a phone call"