Contact with Lucy White.

She was… pretty, I guess. Dark brown eyes that contrasted with her wavy, almost blonde clear brown hair. The form fitting black leather riding suit she was wearing forced me to remember that one woman I saw driving past me a week ago, but the motorcycle parked behind had me believing and accepting that she was the same one. The bike was 100% the one Alex and I had been working on, and… the woman’s figure had left an impression. Curvy, fit, tall, busty.

Those were the least… annoyingly distracting things about her.

It felt wrong having to fight my own instincts, and I don’t mean the baser, animalistic ones. I mean the ones I’d been passively honing the past year, the ones I had learned to trust. But this time my brain was forcing me to push them away, the situation we were in calling for caution more than anything else.

I’ve never been particularly good at hiding my feelings, and at times like these they show even more. And despite Luke’s backing, my alertness and mistrust were plain for her to see.

“You have questions, I know,” she said, smiling wryly with a hand on her hip. “And I promise to answer them all. But first… one of Luke’s men is waiting here in a van to take these two away. Unless you want to call the police here and have them do it, but that’s gonna be a whole thing.”

“...” I sighed. “They’ve been here for three hours, right? Why not take them away sooner?”

“None of us can get in, of course,” she answered, nodding towards the two trespassers. “They passed out the moment they jumped the fence. Your domain defences are pretty strong.”

“...” Right. My domain. Ugh, I feel like an idiot. I should’ve known that, but now I look like someone who doesn’t even understand his own powers.

I looked down at the two men. It was true that if the police came, they’d ask questions. And as much as I wanted these two to get some form of punishment for trying to invade my home, it was better to keep this under wraps, considering how the supernatural was involved.

I peeked outside the gate and saw the van she was talking about. After a sigh of resignation, I picked up one of the men and effortlessly threw him over my shoulder. The woman raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as she stepped aside to let me pass.

I felt a bit of relief seeing the driver of the van. Not someone I knew well, but someone I was acquainted with. He was the head of security at the hotel, so our jobs didn’t have us interact much, if at all, but we’d been introduced.

He was a tall, burly man of dark skin in his early 40s. I believe his name was… Jason. He smiled kindly and apologetically at me. “Sorry for the awkward start to your morning, kid, but this sort of thing happens sometimes. Good thing it was solved before anything could happen.”

I nodded. “Yeah. So… What’s gonna happen to these two?”

“The boss will ask some questions they’ll willingly answer without a speck of pain. What happens next depends on what they say, but they'll likely be let go after a little memory wipe.”

I flinched. “Luke’s going to erase their memories?”

“You’d prefer they remember the reason they tried to infiltrate your home in the first place?” he asked me.

I clicked my tongue. “I suppose not.”

It was like Frey had said plenty of times. Getting involved with this side of the world wasn’t pretty. Even something like this left a very bad taste in my mouth.

“Throw them in the back for me, yeah? It doesn’t look like it, but you’re stronger than me,” he said, laughing.

How many times had he done something like this to treat it as just another day of work? Unlike him, I could feel my hands trembling from… I don’t know. A bit of fear, stress or something like it. Maybe it was a shot of adrenaline meant to keep me alert. Still, it made me feel clumsy.

I threw both guys in the back of Jason’s van and he waved goodbye after telling me the boss would give me an update and to not let this worry me too much.

Now… there was someone else to pay attention to.

I turned back to look at the woman. She was still patiently waiting by the opened gate, not having moved a step. Red was still watching her carefully, but he had stopped growling.

“...” She’d been watching us for weeks without us knowing, huh? Can’t say it sat right with me, but… if it was to protect us… And it was Luke who gave her the task, anyway. “Have you eaten anything?” I asked her.

Her eyebrows shot up and she blinked. “Um… No, not in the last five hours,” she admitted.

“Come on in, then. I’ll make you breakfast.”

She swallowed. “That’s not… necessary,” she said, feeling awkward.

“We’re not going to talk out here. It’s cold. And I won’t have a guest in my house going hungry.” I could tell my tone was harsher than usual, and it bothered me. Again, it was like my brain was fighting my instincts and trying to make me not trust her fully yet. That didn’t mean I had to be rude, but…

I went past the gate and waited for the woman to walk in as well before closing the gate.

Red slowly approached her, wary… but the woman let him smell her hand. “I’m not here to harm them, I promise,” she said to him, almost whispering.

I blinked. I could feel a sort of… unnatural warmth in the air, and it was like Red understood immediately. His entire body language changed, and while not exactly friendly, it was clear the German Shepherd had dropped his guard.

“What did you do?” I asked her.

The woman flinched. “Sorry. Of course you’d notice. It’s a harmless spell, I assure you. I like animals, so… I learned to talk to them, sort of. It’s more like… understanding intentions than talking.”

Noticing how on edge she was made me realize something like a slap on the face. She was the one who had something to fear, not me. This was my territory, and I was the one possessed by a higher spirit. By her understanding, she was the one at a massive disadvantage.

I swallowed a groan and rubbed the back of my neck. “Come on. Let's have something to eat. I’m starving, too.”

And so… I invited Lucy White into my home.

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