She had no intention of ever revisiting that fiasco.
Talon had been a fun afternoon diversion, but that was all he was. Her life would now go on just as it always had.
Her heart lighter at the thought of him, she took Snoopy into her bedroom and set him on the nightstand by the bed.
Sunshine smiled. She'd never had a memento before. But that's what Snoopy was to her. A token reminder of a wonderful day.
"Have a nice life, Talon," she said, turning off the light by the bed before she headed back to her work. "Maybe someday we might meet again."
It was just after one a.m. when Talon found himself outside the club Runningwolf's on Canal Street. He'd tried to tell himself that he was here because Daimons were often found hanging in and around clubs where drunken humans made easy pickings.
He'd tried to tell himself that he was just doing his job.
But as he looked up at the dark windows above the club and wondered if Sunshine was up there in her bed or if she was at her easel painting, he knew better.
He was here because of her.
Talon cursed under his breath. Acheron was right. She was inside him in a way no one had been inside of him in centuries.
No matter what he tried, he couldn't get her out of his mind.
Over and over, he could feel her. Feel her body under his, her breath on his skin. Hear the sound of her soft Southern drawl whispering in his ear.
And when she had touched him...
It was like a song from heaven.
The physical comfort and companionship she'd given him this afternoon had touched him profoundly.
He'd felt welcomed in a way that wasn't sexual.
What had she done to him? Why after all these centuries had a woman crept inside his feelings?
His thoughts?
Even more frustrating, he knew if he were human, he'd be with her now.
You're not human.
He didn't need the reminder. All too well, he knew what he was. He liked what he was. There was a special kind of satisfaction that came with his job.
And yet...
"Speirr? What are you doing?"
He tensed at Ceara's voice coming out of the darkness and at the fact that someone had caught him doing something he shouldn't be doing.
"Nothing."
She appeared beside him. Her shimmering face smiled knowingly.
He let out a disgusted breath. Why did he bother trying to hide anything from the ones who could see straight into his thoughts?
"Yeah, okay," he admitted reluctantly, "so I wanted to check up on her and see how she's doing."
"She's fine."
"And that really irritates me." The words were out before he realized it.
Ceara laughed at that. "You were expecting her to be sad?"
"Of course. She should at least have had a moment or two of regret or something."
Ceara clucked her tongue. "Poor Speirr. You found the only woman alive who doesn't think you hung the moon and the stars."
He rolled his eyes at her. "So maybe I'm being a little arrogant..." She arched a brow and he corrected himself. "So I'm being a lot arrogant, but damn, I can't get her out of my thoughts. How can she feel nothing?"
"I didn't say she felt nothing, I only said she's not sad."
"So she did feel something for me?"
"If you like, I could do more investigating."
"Nae," Talon said quickly. The last thing he wanted was for Ceara to find out what he and Sunshine had been doing all afternoon.
Ceara was naive and he wanted to keep her that way.
His sister walked a small circle around his body. For some reason she'd always liked to do that. As a little girl, she'd made him dizzy as she raced around him at a dead run, giggling as she went.
Even though she was a young woman before him now, in his heart he always saw her as that chubby little toddler who used to sit on his lap for hours, playing with his braids as she gibbered her baby speech at him.
Just like Dere...
His stomach clenched at the memory.
Ceara hadn't been his only sister. Three more had been born between them. Fia had died her first year of life. Tress had lived to age five when she perished of the same illness that had claimed their mother.
And Dere...
She had died at age four.
She'd gone out at sunrise, wanting to see the fey folk Talon had teased her with. He'd told her how he often saw them out the window at daybreak while she slept.
Only five years old himself, he had heard someone leave their hut. At first he had thought it was his father. But as he snuggled back down to sleep, he'd realized Dere wasn't in their bed.
He'd gotten up immediately and rushed out to find her.
She had slipped on the rocks along the edge of the cliff that looked out onto the sea where he'd told her the fey frolicked in the early dawn's light.
He heard her scream and had run as fast as he could.
By the time he reached her, it was too late. Her young arms had been unable to hold on until he got there.
She lay below on the rocks with the waves rushing over her.
Even now, he could see her lying there. Could see the looks on his parents' faces when he had awakened them with the news.
Worst of all, he could see the accusation in his father's eyes.
Neither of his parents had ever uttered the words aloud, but in his heart he knew they had blamed him for it.
Not that it mattered. He blamed himself. He always had.
It was why he had been so protective of Ceara and Tress. Why he had been so determined that nothing bad would ever happen to his youngest sister.
Tonight, he saw a hesitancy in Ceara's steps.
"So, what's the news from the Daimon world?" he asked her.
Ceara paused. "How did you know?"
"You've been strangely quiet tonight. It's not like you to stay hidden while I hunt unless you're conferring with the others."
Her eyes glowed warmly. "I never could hide from you." She wrapped her arms around herself. "There was talk. There is a force here. One not Daimon born."
"Goblin, ghoul, demonic? What?"
"No one seems to be sure. There are Daimons surrounding the source of it, but it is not one of them. It's something else."
"A god?"
She looked up, exasperated. "I'm trying to find someone who knows, but as yet..." She paused and wrung her hands. "I want you to be careful, Speirr. Whatever this thing is, it holds a great deal of malice. Hatred."
"Can you locate it?"
"I have tried, but it moves whenever I draw near. It is as if the source knows to avoid me."
This wasn't good, especially with Mardi Gras right around the corner. When Bacchus came to town, even the most moderate of things went wild. To Talon it sounded like something or someone was counting on the excesses of the celebration to propel whatever plan it had.
Talon's thoughts were distracted as a car drove down the street in front of him. It was an old VW Beetle. Someone had painted the top of it dark blue with glow-in-the-dark stars and the lower half was bright sunshine yellow with red peace symbols.
He smiled at the sight. It had been parked outside the club earlier when he had left. Instinct told him it had to belong to Sunshine. No one else would be caught dead in such a monstrosity.