As she stripped out of her clothes, she thought about Talan McKenna. He’d been kind. That wasn’t a trait she often associated with the Transfigured. Her opinion was incredibly biased for both obvious and much more personal reasons.
She settled under her covers and closed her eyes. After a few moments, the throbbing in her head became more dull. Today had been fucked up. Tomorrow would be better, she decided.
****
When Lilly awoke the next day, her head hurt, but it was only a dull ache, thankfully. A glance at the clock informed her that it was 2:19 p.m. Man, when she slept in, she did it right.
She eventually made herself get out of bed and wandered downstairs. She saw a key sitting on top of the white box along with a note and an envelope on the kitchen counter.
She read the note first. Naturally, it was Marissa begging to know what was in the box. She smirked and pushed the mass of tangled curls out of her face. Now, the envelope.
Miss Ferguson,
I hope this finds you well. Inside you’ll find what I hope is a suitable replacement for your casualty of war.
Regards,
Talan McKenna
Lilly thought back and realized that she’d referred to her torn bag a casualty of war last night. Talan McKenna had gotten her a purse? Really?
She opened the lid on the box and her eyes widened. This was no $29.99 faux leather knockoff. This was Miu Miu. She reached in to run her fingers over the grey puckered leather surface. There were crystals that were embedded in the polished silver latch. It was stunning. This had to be worth a grand, easily. She put the lid back on the box. She had no idea how to return it. He hadn’t exactly provided contact information. There was no way she could accept this.
Chapter Two
Talan McKenna paced the floor of his darkened suite. It had been three days since he’d encountered the feisty Lilly Ferguson, yet he couldn’t get her out of his mind. He tried to maintain a safe workplace for his employees, human or otherwise. Not only because it was required of him by law, but because he had felt enough fear and seen enough violence to last him several lifetimes. Maybe he was becoming soft in his old age, but he didn’t want to play any part in that.
There had been a time that their kind, the Transfigured, had roamed freely. They ate freely and took whatever they could get their hands on. That had all changed since The Great Reckoning. It had been a fifteen-year battle with huge losses on both sides. In the end, everyone finally realized there would be no winner. Instead, they had organized a way for the Transfigured to live in peace among the humans.
Even though there had been some growing pains during the inception of the treaty, the peace hadn’t been broken. They had agreed to research alternate methods of feeding, through use of animals, blood banks, and later, synthetic blood.
They primarily policed themselves, though some of them had even helped humans devise ways to contain them if necessary. Along with night vision, they’d been granted speed. Ostensibly this improved their hunting abilities, but it certainly helped in other arenas too.
On each side there had been some rogue factions that fought against peace, but for the most part those were eliminated fairly quickly. It had been over one hundred and twenty years since the last skirmishes had ceased. In that time, he had gone from a solitary man hiding himself in the dirt to a man of power and distinction.
Now the owner of this and several more hotels and casinos, he had become a keen judge of character. In order to thrive in this business, he had to be. That was why he was so intrigued with the beautiful Ms. Ferguson. Though he suspected her bag hadn’t contained much, she had defended herself fiercely.
The type of tenacity it took to face down a would-be attacker was something that he both appreciated and identified with. Even in spite of her skeptical look last night, he’d felt compelled to tell her that. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt compelled to share anything about his past with anyone.
It would be best, Talan realized, to distract himself somehow. He frowned. The thing that most didn’t realize is that the older the Transfigured got, the more difficult it became to distract themselves. Books were still relatively entertaining, but music and movies had mostly lost their thrill. He was a man with nothing but time on his hands and very little to fill it.
Perhaps he would go downstairs to his office and work for a few hours. There was always something that needed to be done, even on the weekends. He glanced down at his dark slacks and dress shirt. It wasn’t likely he would be receiving any visitors. Even so, the receptionist could field almost any requests.
A little over an hour later, he was going through the most recent marketing budget and enjoying a late meal. Well, enjoying would be a bit of an overstatement. The synthetic blood, while perfectly acceptable as a part-time substitute, was watery, unappetizing, and very nearly unpalatable.
He sat the half-consumed beverage on his desk and refocused his attention back on the screen. He was startled when his intercom buzzed a few minutes later. As he listened to the receptionist, his eyebrows rose. Interesting. Lilly Ferguson was here to see him.
He gave his approval for her to come in and then leaned back in his chair. Moments later, he heard a light tapping on his office door. He bade her to enter. He immediately noticed she was holding a large shopping bag. He suspected he knew what was coming, but still he greeted her.
“Miss Ferguson. I trust you’re doing well?” he asked.
“Better. I wanted to thank you again. I appreciate the kindness. I can’t accept this bag though,” she finished, looking apprehensive.
“Is it not an appropriate substitute?” he asked.
She snorted rather indelicately and then said, “My old purse was fake leather and cost me about thirty dollars. What you gave me has to cost more than a grand. I can’t accept that.”
Closer to two thousand, but he didn’t bother to correct her. “Is your old bag in usable condition?”