Sometimes hot.

The weather was balmy to begin with but in the small club named ?Coined? it was sweltering. The air conditioning was on, no doubt, but when you added so many bodies dancing in a small space it was going to get warm.

A beat was constantly thrumming through the floorboards and one song flowed neatly to the next but that wasn?t why Summer hung out here. It was the line of old-school arcade games that made up the northern wall of the place. She was pretty sure they were meant to just be decorative, but they worked and she found herself wasting a lot of time and even more quarters a few evenings a week.

The path from the door to the games was a winding one, you were forced to cross by the bar, and cut across, or edge around the dance floor. She typically stood out because she was always dressed in jeans, and a t-shirt with some geeky joke or another and her biker boots. More often than not her hair was pulled back in a ponytail so she?d stay cooler, the air got oppressively hot by the third hour of the crush of dancers having at it.

Most of the women present were dressed to impress. One thing she?d noticed about Rhy?din was that women outnumbered men a good seven or eight to one, it lead to some strange and desperate measures. When she?d first started coming to this club some of the regulars attempted to hit on her, probably because she was so steadfastly not throwing herself at them. Soon enough they realized she?d be polite, extremely polite by Rhy?din standards, but no more than that. A few men were given access to her sofa when they needed a place to crash but it was made plain that the offer was for the sofa, not for additional company there on.

Sometimes muggy.

The place was closing up before she moved from the table, hoping that the stranger would either stay away from the club or decide not to be a jerk about allowing others to use the table. That night she hadn?t taken her bike, thinking she might drink more than usual so she had a long walk home. Eric had left with Diana thirty or so minutes before her, and although he offered to get her some transport she waved him off, she enjoyed a nighttime stroll.

When she walked down a street, solitary and thoughtful she always found herself reciting the same poems over and again. They resonated with her and soothed her mind, keeping it from wandering too far afield. That night was no different and the words began to spill forth, her Southern accent nearly suppressed. ?I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light.?

Usually she was more alert when walking down the streets near the spaceport. It wasn?t Georgia, it sure as the sun would rise in the morning, not Thomaston where everyone knew to mess with her was to invite a pack of Daniels to tear out your throat, sinew by sinew.

?I have looked down the saddest city lane. I have passed by the watchman on his beat and dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet.? She stopped then, but it was reflex to stop at that point, if she had listened she might have caught the sounds of the man shadowing her path. ?When far away an interrupted cry came over houses from another street, but not to call me back or say good-bye; And further still at an unearthly height, a luminary clock against the sky proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.?

The man had to have been stalking her from the moment she left the club to have been that close. Realizing that she wasn?t paying mind to her surroundings he waited for her to turn down one of the smaller streets before he made his move. One large hand gripping at her arm and tugging hard enough to turn her around to face him. ?Oh, but I have come to say good-bye, and the time is very right to do so.? His voice was gruff and brought to mind gravel, it scraped clear of his throat begrudgingly.

It was the stranger from the club, Summer was sure of that even though there were stark differences in his appearance. In the club he had been tall but slender, lithe. Now it was as though he?d taken some of his height and compressed himself down to turn those inches into massive muscles. The grip on her arm was going to leave bruises but that wasn?t really what was on her mind then. The key difference between him in the club and him now was the murderous intent that shone clear as a freshly polished diamond in his dark eyes.

?So, you have been one acquainted with the night?? She was sure he wouldn?t get the comment but it was the only thing that she could think of while working on some clever way out of the situation she?d gotten herself in. Sometimes she carried a small pistol when she was out on her own, but she wasn?t really a good shot and it seemed a good way to get herself hurt. A gun, in her hands, was more a matter of a scare tactic and this guy didn?t look the type to be scared into using some common sense.

He shook her violently and she felt her feet leave the ground a moment with the force of it. ?You?re not funny.? He coc ked his free arm back and hit her with a balled fist. He made contact with her cheek and she finally understood the expression ?hit me so hard I saw stars? as her vision swam.

?I.. I am funny. You jes ain?t smart enough to get tah jokes.? It should be noted that there was a part of her mind that was screaming for her to shut the hell up, but that simply wasn?t in her DNA.

She saw the arm pulling back again for another blow and she tried to jerk herself free. Cringing in preparation for the blow landing she had her eyes closed so she missed seeing the pale form part from the shadows nearby. Missed seeing the long slender fingers grip the wrist, already in motion, and twist it hard enough to snap the bones therein, then connecting a punch to the strangers jaw that dropped the man like a sack of rotten apples to the ground.

He still had ahold of her arm and so she went down with him, her weight against his dead weight was really no contest. The unconscious form half fell on top of her and she let out a sound of decided distress as she felt the air forcefully expelled from her lungs.

With all its changeable whims, welcomed, especially since they lead to Summer nights.

She didn?t blush. Not often. Thinking back she could recall maybe three times she?d blushed in the entirety of her life and she hated it every time. Blushing was for the homecoming queen, or ? anyone other than Summer Daniels. The blush that rose to her cheeks hurt, both her pride and physically as it burned it?s way across her aching cheek.

A dozen responses crossed her mind in a moment but what came out at the end of the moment was ?I think I need to see tah doctor. Though I ain?t sure if they can do nothing for a bruised cheek, nor for shattered pride.? It was as close to an apology as she could manage.

Jacks nodded slightly. ?We have a private doctor, I will take you there and he will do what he can for you. If nothing else he can give you something for the pain.? As he spoke he slid an arm around her waist and supported her in that manner until a sleek black horse drawn carriage arrived and he loaded her in and they were off, leaving the stranger and the pieces of her pride on the cobbled street.