"Graceling!"

Kira's head jerked around to see Frank wearing his usual scowl as he threaded through the desks separating them. Her boss had missed her while she was away, sure, but not in a lovey-dovey way.

"Are you finished with those reports?"

"Almost," Kira replied. The stack on her desk was reduced by three-quarters since she'd returned to work four days ago - and that wasn't counting the new things Frank dropped on her desk that she'd completed on a daily basis.

"Good. Clients can't be neglected just because you get sick," Frank said, dropping another inch-thick stack of papers on Kira's desk. "I need these back by the end of the day."

It's a recession economy, jobs are hard to come by, Kira mentally chanted as she forced herself to smile. If the employment market were better, she'd be tempted to tell Frank to bend over so she could get those reports back to him now.

"Will do," was what Kira said.

Frank tapped his finger on her paper stack. "If everything's caught up before the weekend, I'll put you in line for the next missing-person account we get. I know how you want one of those."

It was Thursday afternoon. Kira would have to work until after midnight tonight and tomorrow to accomplish that, but Frank was right. She did want more serious assignments than catching cheating spouses, worker's comp surveillance, or serving subpoenas. Her old mentor's motto rang in Kira's mind: Save one life. Well, Mack, Kira thought, remembering Tina's smile as she checked out of the hospital the day before yesterday, I think I did. Maybe if she were assigned a missing-person case, Kira could make it two lives.

"I'll have everything finished," she told Frank.

He gave her his version of a friendly smile, which still had a mercenary edge to it. "Ol'

Mackey told me I wouldn't regret hiring you."

And he told me you were a prick, Kira mentally added. Mack hadn't been wrong about his former partner, but Frank did display the occasional hint of kindness beneath his normal slave driver mentality. He didn't have to let Kira use the company car on assignments. He could've just hired someone else who had a vehicle. Kira knew she more than made up for use of the car in unpaid overtime, but still. Frank deserved a nod for that.

Her coworker, Lily, leaned over the space between their desks once Frank left the room. "First time you've taken off sick in over three years, and he has to make sure you regret it." Lily's mouth curled downward. "If there's a God, Frank'll be stricken with hemorrhoids. The pain in the ass deserves 'em."

Kira gave her a smile. "It's all right. A little more liquid incentive will help me get everything finished."

Lily frowned, the lines deepening in her forehead. "Coffee isn't supposed to be a substitute for sleep. You've got dark circles under your eyes, girl. You need to take care, or you'll get sick again."

"I'm all right," Kira said. She couldn't tell the sweet older lady that the circles under her eyes weren't from flu recuperation but because thoughts of a vampire kept her awake.

Despite its being several days since he let her go, Kira didn't seem to be able to get Mencheres out of her mind.

It shouldn't come as that much of a surprise. In the six days she'd been with Mencheres, he'd shown her that two other species existed alongside humanity, saved her life, saved her sister's life, fascinated her, tempted her, bitten her, and against the best interests of his kind, released her. Why wouldn't she be thinking about him? Every time she saw or spoke to her sister, Kira was reminded of Mencheres, let alone every time she walked past that warehouse on her commute from the subway to her apartment.

His impact on her life had been enormous, and now that he was gone, Kira felt an acute sense of loss.

She still couldn't believe he'd actually let her go. The first couple days, she'd expected Mencheres to pop up out of nowhere and say she had to come back. Some small, twisted part of her maybe even wanted him to, even though her common sense knew that was seriously unhealthy. Any situation where one person had complete power over the other wasn't just wrong; it was sick. The bottom line was that she'd been Mencheres's captive. A well-treated captive, perhaps, and even one for a good reason, but still.

Prisoner and warden was not the right circumstance for a romantic interaction, even a casual one.

Though Mencheres didn't seem to be interested in any type of interaction with her, romantic or otherwise. He let her go, the one thing that opened up the possibility of Kira exploring the draw she felt toward him, vampire or not, but then he'd given every indication that he wasn't coming back. If he wanted to see her again, he would have said so. He wouldn't have given her all that blood, enough for her to have no reason to contact him again - not that she had any means to contact him. She didn't know exactly where Mencheres had kept her for that week, and he hadn't left his phone number before he jetted off into the night. Face it, Kira thought bleakly. You've been dismissed.

On the bright side, he was probably too old for her by hundreds of years, and really, a human and a vampire? That never worked out. Look at all the Dracula movies. Or Buffy.

"Are you listening to me at all?" Lily's amused voice asked.

Kira yanked her thoughts from the darkly enticing vampire back to her coworker.

"Sorry, I . . . my mind wandered off," she said sheepishly.

"Told you that you need some sleep," Lily said. "But since I know you won't listen, let me at least get you some coffee. That way, you'll be able to get through the rest of the day without nodding off in front of Frank."

"Thanks, you're an angel," Kira said with a grateful smile. She did have a long day ahead of her still, and thinking about Mencheres wouldn't make the pile of papers on her desk get any smaller.

Coffee would help that paper pile get smaller, though. Lots and lots of coffee.

Eight hours later, Kira stepped off the transit car, pushing her hair behind her ear in weariness. It had blown free from its low bun sometime during her walk from her office to the ll station, and she hadn't bothered to clip it back. At least it wasn't long enough to obscure her vision as she walked up the steps to the street above. In fact, with it trailing inches past his shoulders, Mencheres had longer hair than she did . . .

Stop thinking about him, Kira reprimanded herself. She turned down the first of the three streets that led to her apartment, picking up her pace. It was one thing to be grateful at the strange twist of fate that had made her path cross with Mencheres, because though she had almost died, she'd also garnered the ability to keep her sister's disease at bay. But she wasn't musing about her sister's condition when she kept thinking about him.

She remembered how his black eyes could glitter with humor, how graceful and stealthily he moved, how mouthwatering he'd looked naked, and how she wished she'd spent more time learning about him when she'd been incarcerated at his house.

Mencheres was the only person she'd confided to about her instincts and how strongly she took them. To her surprise, he hadn't found that the slightest bit laughable or unusual.

Instead, he'd advised her to focus on them. To listen to them. Apparently, her inner compass hadn't seemed at all odd to someone who could fly and manipulate things with his mind.

Though if she listened to her instincts now, they'd keep repeating the same thing that had nagged at her the past several days - that she'd lost something important when Mencheres disappeared into the night. Was there something more she could have done to prevent him from going? Like, telling Mencheres she wanted to see him again instead of just asking if he was leaving for good without stating her preference in the matter?

Kira was so preoccupied with her thoughts that it took several seconds before she saw the dark form in the shadows by the front of her building. She tightened her hand on her backpack strap and kept going, pretending not to notice him even though every muscle tensed. When she was almost at the front door of her building, a hand shot out toward her. Kira's adrenaline surged as she ducked and swept out a hard kick to the man's ankle, slamming her heavy backpack into him next. Graduating from the police academy followed up by self-defense classes made her actions more reflex than planned.

"Ouch!" her would-be attacker yowled, staggering and hopping on one leg. "Kira, what the hell?"

She stopped herself just in time before she rammed her foot into his groin next. "Rick?

"

The man straightened, overhead streetlight revealing her half brother's face. "Yeah, it's me. Goddamn, you hurt me!"

Her heart was still racing from thinking he was a potential mugger she had to fight off, making her voice sharp. "It's after midnight, and you're lurking around wearing a damn hoodie and jumping out at me. You're lucky I haven't gotten a new gun yet, or I might have shot you!"

"I was just trying to get your attention." He sounded more petulant than apologetic. "You almost walked right past me."

That was so like Rick; not thinking before doing something stupid. Kira heaved a sigh.

She didn't feel up to lecturing her little brother right now.

"What're you doing here this late?"

His gaze darted around the street. "I tried your cell for days, but you didn't answer. I couldn't remember your work number, so I thought I'd come by and just hang out until you got home. Didn't think it would take you this long."

Of course her cell didn't answer. Mencheres hadn't given it back to her when he dropped her off on the roof with only his blood and her apartment keys, and she hadn't gotten a new one yet. She assumed he still had her backpack, too, since that was where he would've gotten her keys. Unless he'd thrown everything away right after he unloaded her that night.

"Come on in," Kira muttered. So much for her plans of showering and going right to sleep once she got home.

Rick smiled, his dimples making him look younger than his twenty-five years. Despite knowing better, Kira felt some of her irritation lessening. Maybe Rick had just been worried about her when he couldn't reach her, and that's why he was here.

Bullshit, her inner voice whispered.

Kira hoped that was her tired cynicism talking and not her instinct. It would be nice to think Rick was here without ulterior motives.

"You hungry?" she asked, as he followed her inside the building. "I have some frozen pizzas you could heat up."

"Um, I don't think I'm going to stay that long," Rick hedged, glancing away.

Her hopes plummeted. Told you, that inner voice whispered.

Kira didn't go into the elevator even though the doors opened. She dropped her backpack and gave her brother a tired, hard stare.

"I told you, Rick, I'm not going to keep doing this."

"I just need a couple bucks," he said, meeting her gaze now. His green eyes, darker than hers, widened in that beseeching way he'd perfected. "It's been really hard trying to find work, and - "

"Maybe if you could pass a drug screen, you'd have an easier time getting a job," Kira said coolly.

Rick waved a hand. "I quit, I swear. I just smoke a little weed now and then, that's all.

Look, Joey says he's going to throw me out if I don't give him a hundred bucks by tomorrow. I've got an interview lined up in the morning, and it looks really good, but if I'm hired, I still won't get paid before Joey throws me out."

"bullshit," Kira said, echoing her inner voice. "It's after midnight already, no way you're going to an interview tomorrow morning. Even if you did have one set up, you'd just end up sleeping through it. You can't keep coming to me for money. I told you before, I don't have a lot of it, and - "

"And what you do have, you give to Tina for her bills," Rick interrupted bitterly. "You wouldn't think twice about handing over a check if this was her asking." Kira felt anger rising, covering her weariness. "Don't you dare. Tina's disease keeps her from working a regular job, not laziness like you, and she almost died last week. Not that you'd know because you hardly keep in touch with her anymore." Rick dropped his head, having the grace to look ashamed. "Sorry," he mumbled. "She better? still in the hospital?"

Thanks to Mencheres, Tina was even better than she knew. Out loud, Kira said, "She's home now. You should call her. She'd like to hear from you."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll call her tomorrow," Rick said at once. "You know I'm not as close to her as I am to you, but I still care about Tina even if she's not my blood." Their parentage did make things more complicated. Kira's parents had been former flower children who were all about free love, even after they got married. Kira and Tina shared the same mother, but different fathers. Kira and Rick shared the same father, but different mothers. Technically, Rick and Tina weren't blood related, but Tina had always considered Rick to be her brother despite that, and despite their not growing up in the same house like she and Kira had.

"I swear, this'll be the last time I ask you for anything," Rick went on, giving her more of the puppy eyes. "And I'll pay you back, I promise."

If Kira had a dollar for every time she'd heard that, she might have been able to buy herself a car. But on the off chance that Rick really had kicked his habit and was trying to turn his life around . . .

"This is the last time," she told him, pulling out her checkbook. "I mean it." Rick smiled in the way that reminded her of when they were children, and she was so excited to have a little brother. It had almost taken away the sting of her parents splitting up and her dad moving to another state when he fell in love with someone else.

"You're the best, sis."

Kira wrote out of the check for a hundred dollars and gave it to Rick. He pocketed it immediately, then shuffled his feet while glancing away.

"You don't happen to have a twenty so I can catch a cab back to my place, do you? It's kinda late to walk it. You know that neighborhood. Besides, my ankle hurts. You kicked it pretty hard."

Kira gritted her teeth. If she hadn't seen where Rick lived, she would have flatly refused this second donation, but it was a scary neighborhood.

She handed over a twenty, which disappeared into Rick's pocket as fast as the check had.

"Love ya, sis," he said, giving her a quick kiss. Then he headed out of the building, whistling.

Kira pressed for the elevator, ignoring that inner voice telling her she'd been swindled by her brother yet again.

Mencheres quietly leapt onto the roof across from Kira's building, sitting down on the cool concrete floor. How close he'd come to murdering Kira's brother, neither of them would ever know. Perhaps now you'll cease this insanity of following her night after night, he berated himself.

When he saw the man reach out for Kira as she approached her building, he'd already jumped down from the roof, intending to tear the throat out of whoever threatened her, when her attacker called her by name. Kira and her brother were both oblivious to the dark form careering toward them from above, or how it had abruptly swooped to the left when Kira also addressed the boy by name. If either of them had been silent for just a few seconds longer . . .

Though the boy's death would not have been a great loss, from what Mencheres overheard of their conversation. The boy's scent confirmed he was lying about the interview, lying about being off drugs, and lying about the taxi, as he proved by sauntering off on foot down the street instead of calling for transportation. If Mencheres hadn't heard the miscreant call her "sister," he would have killed the boy on principle after he'd deceived Kira out of her money. By her own admission - and from Mencheres's observation - Kira did not have adequate funds to support herself, her dishonest sibling, and her ill sister. To see her kindness taken advantage of made anger burn in him. You are lucky you share her blood, Mencheres thought at the foolish youth still strolling down the street. Or I'd be sharing yours with the gutters tonight.

In the next minute, the window in Kira's apartment glowed with soft light. Mencheres relaxed. She was safely inside now. He caught a glimpse of her as she passed by the window on her way to her bedroom. Even if she went to sleep immediately, Kira had less than seven hours until she would be at her desk again. Her long work days bothered him.

She hadn't returned home before ten o'clock even one night this week, and tonight, she had stayed out even later. It wasn't right that she toiled such long hours at her job.

You must stop this, his common sense railed at him. Here he was, perched like a gargoyle on a roof staring at a woman who had begged to be free of him. There was an appropriate modern word for his actions: "stalking." He didn't even bother to pretend that he'd only shadowed Kira these past several nights to ensure that she kept her word not to reveal what she'd learned about vampires. He knew he was here for one reason - he wanted to see her again even if he didn't alert her to his presence.

Though Kira was no longer under his roof, she still managed to dominate his thoughts to a dangerous degree. Even now, he wondered what she would do if he appeared at her door. Would she welcome him into her home? And if she did, would he be strong enough to leave? Or would her nearness, her tantalizing scent, and the smooth melody of her voice be enough to make him abandon all his careful planning in favor of the chance to be with her?

Better not to find out. Kira made him want to live, to fight Radjedef to the bitter, bloody end regardless of the consequences, and he couldn't afford that sort of thinking. His people couldn't afford it. They'd suffered enough the last time he'd let his emotions for a woman sway his actions.

Mencheres forced himself to turn away though the soft glow at her window proved that Kira was still awake. He had to cease this madness. From what he'd seen the past several days, Kira had settled back into a life of working hard and caring for her sister, similar to how his time was spent on duties related to his people. But even if it looked lonely - another thing they had in common - it was still her life, and it didn't include him.

He gave himself up to the embrace of the wind as he flew away. This would be the last night he followed her. It had to be, but he would do one tiny, additional thing before he purged Kira from his life completely.