white shirt from his closet. Louis Vuitton, for the up-yours attitude spoiling through him. He stripped off his sweatshirt, letting Babineau see the hard strength of his body and the scars on it. Deep tears in his upper arm. The pucker of bullet wounds; two to the chest with one exiting the back, and one to the stomach. Fatal shots no
man
could have survived.
“Leave my house, Detective. You can wait for Charlotte in your car.”
As Babineau began to turn, Max continued, “We’ll be there tomorrow at noon. I wouldn’t want to disappoint your wife or your son—my brother.”
Babineau’s expression hardened at that reminder. He spun and was gone.
Then there was just Cee Cee and her fierce glare.
“Are you quite finished with all the big dog posturing, or do you plan to piss on me to stake your claim a little more dramatically?”
He proceeded up his shirt buttons. “What do you want from me, Charlotte? He comes into my house, insults me, threatens those I care for, and I’m supposed to do nothing?” He grabbed a jacket with enough violence to send the coat hanger flying. “You know what I am, and now so do
they
. How am I supposed to be comfortable with that? They could crush everything I value with one careless word.”
“I’ll talk to them.”
He was far from comforted. “Sure. Smooth it over like it was nothing more than a social blunder.
Talk.
”He flung the jacket onto the bed and peeled down his jeans.
For a moment she said nothing. Even knowing what he was, she continued to think of him as a man. He looked human. He sounded arrogantly, maddeningly, like an everyday, testosterone-fueled male of her species. If she got closer to him she’d smell man next to the pulse at his throat, she’d taste man all hot and salty when she took him in her mouth, she’d feel man as her palms moved over him in restless appreciation. When she parted her lips beneath his, she wouldn’t be thinking of creature feature monsters.
But that didn’t change the fact that he wasn’t a human male. Something else flickered behind his unblinking stare. Something different, something other. Something more.
And it was this difference that drew her, not the sameness he tried to project.
She loved him and trusted him with all that she was precisely because he
wasn’t
a man. Men had failed her, harmed her, betrayed her. They didn’t possess the singular, all-consuming sense of loyalty intrinsic in Max Savoie. When they said
forever
they meant until next month, next week, next commercial, next orgasm.
When Max said it, he meant for eternity.
He’d been raised to mimic humans, but what prowled through him was wild and unpredictable. Max didn’t look at things the same way she did. He didn’t react to the same circumstances with socially acceptable actions. And it would be foolish and dangerous to assume she knew what he was thinking at any given moment.
So she asked him.
“How would
you
handle it, Max? Would you kill them to keep them silent?”
“Yes.”
She took a step back before he gripped her elbows to hold her in place.
“That’s what everything I am tells me to do. To eliminate the threat quickly, completely, without thought or conscience. To come at them from the shadows and end their lives, before they take mine and threaten the safety of all I’ve sworn to protect. It’s what I am, Charlotte.”
“But it’s not
all
you are, Max.” Her need to believe that glimmered in her eyes.
“Only because of you,
sha
. Otherwise they’d be dead right now, and I’d be safe.” His thumbs brushed across her cheeks. “I stop myself from doing what I should because I love you and it would hurt you. It would make you look at me differently, and I won’t take that risk. Not ever.”
She made a soft sound.
“But you have to understand, Charlotte. This involves all my kind, Oscar, and even you—because you know and have said nothing. It’s a secret truth that will damage all of us should it become known.
man
could have survived.
“Leave my house, Detective. You can wait for Charlotte in your car.”
As Babineau began to turn, Max continued, “We’ll be there tomorrow at noon. I wouldn’t want to disappoint your wife or your son—my brother.”
Babineau’s expression hardened at that reminder. He spun and was gone.
Then there was just Cee Cee and her fierce glare.
“Are you quite finished with all the big dog posturing, or do you plan to piss on me to stake your claim a little more dramatically?”
He proceeded up his shirt buttons. “What do you want from me, Charlotte? He comes into my house, insults me, threatens those I care for, and I’m supposed to do nothing?” He grabbed a jacket with enough violence to send the coat hanger flying. “You know what I am, and now so do
they
. How am I supposed to be comfortable with that? They could crush everything I value with one careless word.”
“I’ll talk to them.”
He was far from comforted. “Sure. Smooth it over like it was nothing more than a social blunder.
Talk.
”He flung the jacket onto the bed and peeled down his jeans.
For a moment she said nothing. Even knowing what he was, she continued to think of him as a man. He looked human. He sounded arrogantly, maddeningly, like an everyday, testosterone-fueled male of her species. If she got closer to him she’d smell man next to the pulse at his throat, she’d taste man all hot and salty when she took him in her mouth, she’d feel man as her palms moved over him in restless appreciation. When she parted her lips beneath his, she wouldn’t be thinking of creature feature monsters.
But that didn’t change the fact that he wasn’t a human male. Something else flickered behind his unblinking stare. Something different, something other. Something more.
And it was this difference that drew her, not the sameness he tried to project.
She loved him and trusted him with all that she was precisely because he
wasn’t
a man. Men had failed her, harmed her, betrayed her. They didn’t possess the singular, all-consuming sense of loyalty intrinsic in Max Savoie. When they said
forever
they meant until next month, next week, next commercial, next orgasm.
When Max said it, he meant for eternity.
He’d been raised to mimic humans, but what prowled through him was wild and unpredictable. Max didn’t look at things the same way she did. He didn’t react to the same circumstances with socially acceptable actions. And it would be foolish and dangerous to assume she knew what he was thinking at any given moment.
So she asked him.
“How would
you
handle it, Max? Would you kill them to keep them silent?”
“Yes.”
She took a step back before he gripped her elbows to hold her in place.
“That’s what everything I am tells me to do. To eliminate the threat quickly, completely, without thought or conscience. To come at them from the shadows and end their lives, before they take mine and threaten the safety of all I’ve sworn to protect. It’s what I am, Charlotte.”
“But it’s not
all
you are, Max.” Her need to believe that glimmered in her eyes.
“Only because of you,
sha
. Otherwise they’d be dead right now, and I’d be safe.” His thumbs brushed across her cheeks. “I stop myself from doing what I should because I love you and it would hurt you. It would make you look at me differently, and I won’t take that risk. Not ever.”
She made a soft sound.
“But you have to understand, Charlotte. This involves all my kind, Oscar, and even you—because you know and have said nothing. It’s a secret truth that will damage all of us should it become known.
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