David pointedly didn't look at Riley, though his body treacherously decided to flush when her elbow brushed against his bare arm. What the hell was wrong with him? He muttered something unintelligible under his breath and walked a little faster, hardly noticing the dead weight of one Judah Bishop slung over his shoulder. They were slowly making their way through the streets between the Red Dragon and the Precinct One Watch House. Salvador Delahada had attacked and seemingly killed Judah...again...and Riley had asked Neo Eternity, fellow Watch Constable and some kind of angel with a magical glowing sword, to take Sal into custody, while Riley and David took Judah #2 and put him on ice in the morgue at the Watch House.

Riley glanced sharply at him, hearing the grumbling but wasn't able to make out the words.? She frowned softly and figured that her accidental touch had somehow upset him so she took a big step to the side, putting further distance between them.? "Why are you so pissed off at me?" she asked, trying to keep the accusation out of her voice.? The last thing she wanted or needed right now was to put him on the defence.

"Deals with murderers?" he asked, glancing briefly at her as she stepped further from him. He wasn't about to mention the other reason for his grumbling; neither of them needed that sort of complication at the moment. Of course, it didn't help that he had the sneaking suspicion that she somehow already knew exactly how he was feeling towards her. Hell, maybe she could smell it. She had so many other animalistic characteristics, it would only follow that her senses were much better than his. He looked surreptitiously at her again, trying to see whether it looked like she was smelling him.

She was determinedly not looking at him.? Her arms were folded over her chest and her eyes were on the street in front of them.? "Oh, come on.? How long did you work for the Force?? Didn't the DA ever make deals with defendants?"

He stopped and turned to face her. "Not before the f*cking arrest."

She turned to face him, an exasperated expression clouding her eyes.? "You are not on Earth, anymore, David.? You have to get out of that mindset.? Earth rules, Earth laws do no - cannot - work here.? You have to be willing to adjust and adapt.? I hired you because I thought you could do that.? Don't prove me wrong."

Okay, she totally had him there. He looked down at the ground and nodded slowly. "Yeah." Then he looked up again, still mad, even if it was less now. "Still. Facing down killers yourself? Ordering Watchmen to back off?" He shook his head. "You hired me for a job you're not letting me do."

"Ever work with the Bureau's HRT or SWAT?"

"No."

"Did you ever learn about hostage negotiations?"? She turned away from him again and began walking towards the Watch House.

"Of course. Did you? Part of lawyer training, now?" He shifted the corpse to a more comfortable position and followed behind her.

"Are you always such a brusque assh*le?? I'm trying to make a point to you about rapport.? Something you clearly need to learn."

"What you need to learn is that the time for f*cking rapport comes after the goddamn psychopath who just broke a man's neck in plain sight of all us and is now preparing to take a knife and carve his f*cking eyes out has been arrested and restrained. Not while he's still waving the motherf*cking knife around!" Apparently, David can be quite long-winded if someone pisses him off enough. "You also need to learn that a f*cking judge doesn't climb rooftops to face the same psychopath while some other f*cking psycopath is shooting crossbows at her. That's a cop's job." He fell silent, breathing hard and somewhat red in the face, glaring defiantly at her.

"Oh, right.? Well, excuse the f*ck outta me, Constable.? Next time, I'll just let you get your butt handed to you by something that's not human and could snap your spine just by looking at you cross-eyed.? I'll just make sure that I'm well out of the way and in no way, shape, or form anywhere near so you can do your f*cking job."

"Something like you, maybe?" he snapped back. "I haven't seen anything here yet that I couldn't handle."

She stopped walking again and turned very slowly to face him.? She cocked her head to the side, as if studying him.? She was debating the merits of Shifting into her War form just to prove a point. He waited, stubbornly silent, not even putting down the corpse that still adorned one shoulder. She finally just shook her head and turned back to continue the walk to the Watch House.? "One of these days, you'll run up against a mage or a really pissed off dragon or an ancient vampire and you'll wish you'd learned rapport."

"If you want someone who's going to have a goddamn tea party for the killers and rapists and ask them why their mommies and daddies didn't pay enough attention to them, you really did hire the wrong guy." He said to her back, not moving yet.

Oh.? He should not have said that.? She turned on her heel and stalked back to him, anger radiating off her in waves.? She got right up in his face, and in her shoes tonight, they were standing eye to eye.? In a low, inhuman growl, she said, "F*ck.? You."

"Rapport," he said, quietly, and very, very dryly. Then he stepped around her and continued in the direction of the Watch house. And tried very hard to ignore the part of him that was pointing out how totally hot she was when she was pissed off like that.

She turned to watch him go, letting out the breath she'd taken in preparation for having a punch thrown at her head.? It was rather like letting the air out of a balloon.? She muttered, ?Chikusho! Mou, manuke!*? and trotted after him, catching him up quickly and falling into step next to him.

She nodded and tugged open the door to the Watch House.? It was pretty quiet, just one elderly, greying Watchman behind the desk.? His eyes grew wide when he saw his boss and another Constable behind her, a Constable who was carrying a body.? He snapped to attention and scurried around the desk to give David a hand.

David let the other Watchman help, even though it wasn't really necessary. "Putting this one on ice, too?" he asked her.

She nodded and slipped around to the other side of the desk to begin looking for the correct forms to fill out.? "Yeah, put him next to the body in cooler number 3."? The Watchman helping David gave Riley a round-eyed look and glanced at the body in his arms.? "Holy Mother of God," he said.? "How is that possible?"

David snorted. "Good question." He took the body to the cooler, dumped it in, the came back up to see if Riley wanted help with the paperwork.

The Watchman shook his head.? "Lived here my entire life, and I'm still not used to it."? He moved to stand next to Riley and handed her a file.? "Here's the file on number 3.? Just copy it for the new one."

Riley smirked and took the file from him.? "Can I use the Commander's office?"? The Watchman nodded and Riley jerked her chin towards the rear of the building, inviting David along if he wanted to help or hear more. He definitely wanted to hear more, and would suffer through helping with paperwork in order to do so. She seated herself behind the Commander's desk and opened the files, set them side by side and began copying information from one into the other.? "So."? She didn't expand on that.? She left it for him to fill in.

He thought for a moment, then just cut to the chase. "What do you need from me?"

She glanced up at him, across the desk and shrugged a little.? "Honestly?? I need you to trust me.? I do actually know what I'm doing.? I may not be a cop, I may not have had your training, but I'm not a babe in the woods."

He nodded. She'd earned some trust, at least. More would have to wait until he understood the situation a little better. "Okay. What else?"

She shrugged and turned back to her paperwork. He waited for a few moments, until it became obvious she wasn't going to say anything else. "There's nothing else?"

She shook her head slowly, looking up at him from under the fan of her lashes.? "No.? Do you have something you need from me?"

Christ. That kind of straight line could land a man in serious trouble. He had to bite his tongue in order to stop it from blurting out exactly what he wanted from her. This resulted in a muffled exclamation of pain and no words at all.

She blinked at his outburst and raised a brow.? "Problem, Constable?"

He shook his head. Nothing a cold shower wouldn't fix, at least. "No problem," he said.

She nodded and went back to her paperwork.? "This might take a while.? Do you wanna stick around?? I won't be upset if you want to cut out and head home."

"I'll wait," he said. After the way he'd yelled at her earlier, it didn't seem fair to just bug out. It had nothing at all to do with how she looked in that dress, of course.

Twenty minutes later, the paperwork was finished and filed and Riley and David were leaving the Watch House.? "Oh, crap," she said.

"What?" David asked, looking over at her.

"I'm supposed to go to see Neo and Sal tonight."? She sighed heavily and started digging through her bag for her cell phone.

"Little late, isn't it?" he asked.

"Justice waits for no...woman."? She dialled her home phone number and waited for Daniel to pick up.? Once he did, she explained that she mightn't be home tonight, and then told him why. "No, I'm going to be questioning a suspect," she said in answer to his question about whether he should join her.? After saying good-bye, she hung up and turned to David.? "You can probably go home, too."

"He's dangerous," he replied, obliquely hinting that another Watchman might be a good idea.

"Neo?"? She was deliberately being obtuse and reminding David that there would be another Watchman there with her.

He just shook his head. "Right."

She reached out and lightly laid her hand on his arm.? "I'll be fine, David."

He looked down at her hand; it was hot against his skin, hotter than a hand ought to be. Maybe that was just him, though.? A little quiver went through the muscles of his arm before he nodded and turned away. "Better be," he said over his shoulder, walking out of the Commander's office.

She smirked and followed him out into the night.? She wisely did not comment on the insane amount of pheromones he was sending out, or the quiver of his muscles under her hand. When they reached the Red Dragon, she gave him a slight smile and a wave before heading inside. David continued his journey back to the Zen Gardens Building in WestEnd. He had a feeling that he wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight.

((* Japanese translation: ?Damn it! Enough, silly man!?

Adapted from live scene. Thanks to David Lo's player.))

"All of that.? Heal nearly instantaneously...and this."? She closed her eyes for a moment and then Shifted.? Black fur poured over her body like water as she grew nearly a foot and a half in height and doubled her weight - all muscles.? Her hands and feet became paws, tipped in lethal claws.? Her face elongated, becoming vaguely feline, mouth and nose becoming a muzzle that was lined with razor-sharp teeth, her ears moved to the top of her head and became triangles.? And ooh!? A tail, too.

He took a step back, eyes widening a bit. Christ, it was like something out of a high-budget horror flick. Only standing right in front of him. If he'd seen that a month ago, he'd probably have sh*t himself and ran away screaming like a school girl. The effect was a little lessened now, after spending two weeks mingling with dragons and vampires and who knew what else. Still, it was a shock and a half. "Damn," he said. She looked like she could have a dozen of those Makos for breakfast without working up a sweat. If they were fool enough not to run like scared rabbits.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and the process began, only in reversal, leaving her standing before him again, Human, utterly naked, and weak with exhaustion.? Shifting like she'd done in such a brief span of time was extremely taxing. She stumbled a bit, reaching out and catching herself on David's arm so she didn't land face first in the dirt at his feet.

"Jesus," he said, reaching forward quickly to support her. In the shock of seeing her change, he hadn't even noticed that her clothes didn't change with her...they were lying in the street now, torn to rags. His eyes moved over her without conscious volition.? Her body was everything he'd expected it to be; strong, supple, and scarily sexy. He was surprised to see the amount of scars on her, but somehow it didn't diminish her attractiveness one bit. After a second or two of frozen immobility, he managed to ask, "You okay?"

She nodded and let go of him, straightening and holding herself proudly.? Each of those scars had a story and she could point to any of them and tell him where and when it'd happened, though the majority of them had happened at the hands of a vindictive, sadistic Faerie Queen.? "We should probably go inside."

He nodded. "Yeah, we should." He remembered the bundled Watch uniform he was still carrying and held it hesitantly out to her. "Want this?" he asked. He was trying hard to keep his eyes on her face, and mostly succeeded.

She plucked the shirt from him and slid it on.? It hung down to mid-thigh, covering her up nicely.? "Thanks.? Uh...want some coffee or something?"? She headed inside, her fingers lovingly moving over Harry and Sally as she passed by them.

"Hell yes," he said, more strongly than he'd meant to. Yeah, he was a bit flustered. He followed her in, staring at her long, strong legs. Even after standing there naked and apparently exhausted, she moved better than some martial arts instructors he'd known.

She nodded and headed to the only door that marked the right side of the ground floor hallway.? She opened it and stepped inside, waiting for David to follow. He came in behind her and looked around. He'd never been in this room before, though he'd glanced through the windows a couple times on the way in or out. This was an interesting looking room. He glanced to either side where large open archways led to what looked some of kind of gym or dance studio. He remembered that he'd seen signs for yoga and dance classes around the building, so dance studio seemed more likely.

She passed a desk, the computer that sat atop it was turned off, and went to another closed door.? This one she knocked on before opening it after there was no answer.? Inside, there was another desk, another computer, a bookshelf, a coffee maker and a comfy looking couch.? She headed to the coffee maker and flipped the lid open. He stood in the doorway to it, watching her.

She glanced over her shoulder at him.? "Come on in.? Mr Cheung's apparently gone home...wherever that is.? You've met him, right?"? She began making coffee - adding the filter, the ground beans, the water - and then sat down on the couch while it brewed.

He almost smiled at the mention of the little Communist super. "Yeah," he said, coming into the office and standing irresolutely near the couch.

She looked up at him and crossed her legs demurely, tugging the hem of the shirt down as far as it would go, trying to cover as much of her thighs as possible.? "You're too tall."

"I'm not," he retorted, tearing his eyes away from her legs to look into her eyes. He was usually pretty good at reading how a person was feeling, but it seemed a lot harder tonight. He could guess why, though.

She laughed.? "Sit.? You're making me nervous.? You can sit at the desk, though I promise I won't bite if you sit next to me."

That was assuming her didn't want her to bite him, which was more than a little debatable at this point. He sat down next to her on the couch and glanced over at the coffee maker, then back to her. "I'm making you nervous?" he asked. He was, needless to say, wound pretty tight just then.

She nodded.? "As nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs."? She grinned and stood up, smoothly, gracefully, flashing more than a little of that long length of muscular thigh as she moved to the coffee pot.? She poured two mugs and added sugar and cream to hers and nothing to his.? She brought both back to the couch and hand David's to him, before settling down on again, curling one long leg beneath her and tugging the shirt down again.

Okay, now he was pretty sure she was teasing him. With what she'd told him about her abilities, and what he'd already seen, she had to know exactly what kind of effect she was having on him. That realization, of course, did nothing at all to stop him from staring at the revealed flesh as she went to the coffee maker and back. He accepted the coffee she offered and took a gulp of it, not even noticing that it was still too hot. "Funny," he said.

She gave him a soft smile and sipped her coffee, caramel-brown eyes resting lightly, curiously, on his face.

"What?" At least it was easier for him to keep his eyes on her face when she was sitting that close to him. He could feel the heat coming off of her body, though, which offered its own set of distractions.

She shrugged a little, but didn't stop staring at him.? "I'm curious about you."

He shrugged right back. "Ask."

((Note: This post contains mature content. If don't want to read it, please skip to the next post.))


His paralysis broke when she moved closed to him, and so did the chains of propriety and common sense that had been holding him back all along. He leaned in the rest of way, brushing his lips very gently against hers. He was more than half-expecting her shove him violently away, but there was no way he was stopping now, short of her actually doing so.

She froze again for a moment, too shocked to believe that he was actually kissing her.? Some small part of her brain - it was probably called the conscience - was screaming at her to remember that she'd practically promised both Mindy and Danny that she would keep her relationship with David on a purely professional level.? And unless she'd suddenly become a prostitute, this was not professional.? But...then she kissed him back, her hands sliding up his arms, over his shoulders to cup his face gently and hold his mouth against hers.

He could hardly believe she was not only accepting his kiss, but returning it with clear passion. The heat of her mouth was a purely pleasurable burning sensation against his. He made a soft sound, somewhere between a moan and groan, sliding both hands onto her bare legs, moving slowly higher. He wanted to tear that shirt off of her and touch every part of her at once, but he forced himself to move slowly, still expecting her to pull away.

She beat him to the punch, as it were, and fumbled with the buttons of the borrowed shirt and then shrugged it off her now-bare shoulders, tossing it aside.? She climbed to her knees, her mouth still locked onto his, and pressed herself against him.? Now that the floodgates were open, there was no holding back.? She was fully committed to the current course they found themselves on.

He realized then that she wanted this as much as he did, had probably wanted it all along. His hands slid up her legs, tracing lightly over the lines of the scars on her thighs, then up over her hips to her sides. He pulled his mouth away from hers, moving it down the edge of her jaw to her throat, kissing every inch of skin on the way.

She growled softly as his mouth left hers and her hands busied themselves with tugging his shirt out of his jeans, running her hands up that deliciously washboard stomach, her fingers curling not-so-delicately to dig her nails into his muscles.

He bit down on the side of her neck, little shivers running through the muscles of his stomach under her fingers. It hurt some, but it was a good pain, one that he welcomed. He liked rough play, and the long, self-imposed restraint he'd put on himself had only heightened it.

She pushed herself against him harder, pushing him down so that she was lying atop him, straddling him, one knee on either side of his hips.? Her hands grabbed hold of his shirt and a brief tearing sound indicated that she'd ripped it from his body.? She let her hands wander over his chest and stomach and sides, while her mouth captured his again, kissing him now hungrily, lips and teeth devouring him.

His hunger matched hers perfectly, one hand rising to the back of her head, crushing her mouth against his. The other hand slid over the scars on her stomach, then up to her breast, pressing his fingers into her flesh. His body strained upwards, lifting her with him.

She was making small, needful noises in her throat, somewhere between a moan and a growl and a sigh.? Her hands slipped down to fumble with the belt at his waist, finally growing impatient with it and ripping it from him.? She left a trail of fiery hot, wet kisses across his cheek and captured his earlobe between her front teeth.

His hand left her head and joined the other, fingers teasing and pulling on her nipples almost roughly. The sheer heat of her body on his was making it hard to think, but he didn't need to think right now anyway. He arched his neck enough to get his mouth onto her shoulder, biting and kissing in succession.

Next came the buttons on the fly of his jeans.? Luckily she managed to undo them without having to resort to shredding the offending garment from his body.? She kissed down his neck, nipping gently at the big tendon in the side of his neck as she moved lower.

He groaned softly, tipping his head back, one hand reaching down to help shuck his jeans and boxers off. The other hand clawed down her back, nails digging into her skin hard enough to leave marks.

She arched her back against him, her head tipping back as a soft growl of pleasure escaped her parted lips.? She rose up a bit, bracing her hands on his shoulders, and looked down into his eyes, a soft subsonic purr rumbling forth from her as she ground her hips down against him, teasing and taunting with the promise of tight, wet heat.

His hands found those teasing hips, fingers digging in as he pushed up to meet her. That purr seemed to reverberate right through him, forcefully remind him, once more, that she wasn't human. It didn't matter. He didn't think he'd ever been harder in his life. It almost hurt, but again, it was the kind of pain a person didn't want to stop.

She stopped for a moment, having reached another apex in the night's activities.? She opened her eyes and looked down into his face, searching it for something, permission, a request, some kind of clue as to what he wanted.

What he wanted was her. Wanted her so badly that he was practically shaking with need. He didn't know what he'd do if she stopped now, but he met her eyes, ready to do whatever she wanted.

She leaned forward, capturing his mouth again and then shifted her hips so that she was balanced right above him.? Slowly, carefully, she lowered herself down onto him, enveloping him within her body.? She held herself perfectly still, kissing him still as she adapted to the feeling of him inside her - so different from Danny, who'd been her only lover in the past year.

It was like being slowly immersed in pleasurable fire. His muscles trembled, but he didn't move, savoring the sensation of her taking him in. His teeth closed on her lower lip, and he exhaled in a soft hiss. His hands slipped up her back to hold her shoulders. Then his hips started to move, very slowly.

Just that tiny movement was enough to set off a spark within her and she began thrusting her hips, grinding down atop him, meeting his movements even as she devoured his mouth.? Her fingers tightened in their grip on his shoulders, nails scoring his flesh.

He gasped when her nails bit in, arching his hips harder against her, driving up into her and kissing her mouth hungrily. His hands pressed into the hard muscles of her back, fingers digging hard. There was something incredible about being under a woman so strong. It was far beyond anything he'd ever felt with a normal woman, a human woman. He didn't want it to stop.

She lifted up off him, straightening and changing the pitch and roll of her hips so that it was a smooth, though driving, pace.? She trailed her fingers down over her breasts, down her sides, over her hips.? She tipped her head back a bit, her eyes fluttering closed, her bottom lip caught between her lower teeth as she lost herself to the sensations.

His hands caught hers for a moment at her hips, holding them against her as he matched that exhilarating pace. Then they slid up her body again to cup her breasts, kneading them in the same rhythm as she was moving on him. His breath came hard and fast, a barely audible moan accompanying each exhalation.

Faster and faster she drove her hips, rocking back and forth, side to side atop him.? She was breathless now, gasping for air as she began the long downward spiral to oblivion.

He was lost in the ecstasy of the moment, lifting her body easily with each smooth thrust, fingers never once ceasing their play over her body. He felt how close she was and drove even harder into her, moaning louder now.

The scent of his body, the sounds he was making, the touch of his hands - all these conspired to drive her closer and closer to the edge and eventually shove her over.? She shuddered once...twice...three times as her orgasm rocked her body.? A long, gasping moan escaped her lips and she collapsed atop him, her face pressed into the side of his neck, arms coming up to snake around his shoulders to pull him closer against her.

He cried out when her orgasm gripped him, hands crushing her hips against his. For a moment, he tried to hold back his own explosion, but it was losing battle. His body tensed and quivered as he came into her, groaning deeply. He was drenched in sweat, gasping for breath and holding her against him.

Coasting down from the high of her climax, she shivered as the cool air hit her body.? She snuggled closer to him, eyes closed as she pressed sweet, butterfly wing kisses into the side of his neck.? Her mind was a blissful blank, all her senses attuned to him.

His arms wrapped tightly around her as if was afraid she would disappear. He heaved a deep sigh, relaxing and turning to kiss the side of her face. He wanted to say something, tell her how incredible that was, but he couldn't find the words.