"Arimus!" Asher exclaimed. He paused to make sure he hadn't awakened her since his voice made her whole body twitch. He wondered if the man responsible for the bruises yelled at her often. When he spoke again he made sure to keep his voice down. "What do you mean she's not the girl's mom? I was confused enough when I saw her standing there looking back at me but what do you mean? Are you telling me she's not Mea Carter?"

"No," Ari visually tensed, in preparation of his anger. "She's the neighbor."

"The neighbor!" Asher couldn't think. His mind was a tumult of mental mayhem and nothing made sense. The rings were burning, and he knew Ari understood how he felt. But, he couldn't see how his anger was his brother's fault when the true identity of the woman, lying at his feet, didn't change anything. With the heat in his eyes, quickly fading, Asher looked skyward. "Where's Nixon?"

"Not sure. He picked a fight with the Blackbirds and I haven't seen him since."

"You should go after him," Asher said.

Ari looked at him and within his expression Asher couldn't help but wonder if his brother hadn't been prepared to go to battle on her regard. "My God Asher, you can't be that cold. It's obvious someone beat the crap out of her and you heard what she said. Besides, the temperatures gonna drop real fast now that the suns gone down. She's not even dressed properly and that burning building was her home. We need to take her somewhere, anywhere. I knew you would behave this way. but I have eyes too and hers look an awful lot like someone I've seen hanging out in your office on a sketch pad for the last year. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with her or how I was going to convince you, but we can't just leave her here."

Asher heaved a sigh, realizing just how right he was. Ari had been mentally preparing. "I didn't say anything about leaving her behind. We have a doctor on staff at the Plaza."

"But," Ari hesitated, "aren't you gonna bark about her being an outsider?"

Ari seemed dubious, even after Asher responded by shaking his head, but Asher was suddenly aware that there was far more pressing matters. Turning away, Asher looked off to the end of the alley. He inhaled the cold air into his lungs but before he could utter a word or Ari ask what was wrong, his cell rang.

"Where did you find your phone?"

"I asked Bart to bring one with him from town when he came to pick me up." Reaching into his pocket, Asher took out the phone and put it to his ear. After listening, he snapped it closed. "Do you still have yours?"

"Yes, I never lost mine. It was in the car."

"I didn't lose-" Asher stopped talking and took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. "We can discuss this later. Bart just informed me that he spotted a few Gothi coming this way. I don't know how they know we're here but either way we need to move, and yes that includes her."

"What about Kennedy and Grant's girl?" Ari pulled the woman forward, and Asher watched as her head lolled forward and hit his shoulder.

"I instructed Kennedy to take the girl on to the Plaza in the truck. But unfortunately Bart is parked in a construction site a few blocks over, and apparently that is where the Gothi are congregating, so he can't come for us yet." Sighing Asher looked to the sky. "Now go and look for Nixon. I'll take the girl."

Asher ignored Ari's shock and instead looked off in the direction of the huge ice cream cone. He pointed to the building. "I'll wait there with her," he said. "Call me when you find Nixon but if for some reason you can't reach us, go to the Plaza and I'll eventually meet you there."

When Asher bent over to pick her up, Ari stood back out of the way, and watched him. Carefully, so not to wake her, Asher positioned her head against his shoulder. He brushed her hair out of her face, and inspected the dark circles under her eyes, along with the busted swollen lip.

"I don't even know her name," he murmured.

"I didn't get a chance to ask," Ari said. "Are you sure you know what you're doing? What about the rules about outsiders?"

"Ari you're like a double edged sword. I leave her and you complain and call me heartless. I take her and you remind me of my rules but either way you cut me."

"Asher, I'm just stunned that you..."

Asher had avoided the touch and company of a woman his entire adult life except for those such as Kennedy and Linn that he was forced to deal with.

But this was different.

Asher knew he couldn't make Ari understand his actions in just a few words. There was no point in trying, so he just turned with her in his arms and walked away.

There would be time for that later.

Chapter Sixteen.

Outsider A thick layer of film covered Elle's tongue. She tried to swallow but her throat was dry and burned like fire. She was cold, very cold. The room was dark save for a faint light coming in through a broken window. She couldn't remember where she was. Blinking hard to adjust her eyes, she looked straight ahead. As her vision cleared she made out an old soda fountain and a stove. Yes, a stove, the kind restaurants used. She turned her head ever so slightly to look out the window. Just as she made out the huge ice cream cone, something moved out of the corner of her eye.

Stifling a gasp, she tensed up and felt pain-sharp and real tighten across her stomach. A hand touched her shoulder, found what it was looking for and pulled it up. The cloth that touched her bare skin was hard and cold but comfortingly warm all the same. Glancing downward, Elle saw that her body was lying on a tile floor. She was covered in a long coat...a long black leather coat.

She could also smell cologne, a musty manly kind of scent, mixed with something else, something minty. And then she noticed the hand beside her head resting on a black clad thigh, and odd enough the hand was holding a tin of peppermints, which accounted for the minty smell. The fingers held two rings, both dark and large. On the wrist she could make out a blob of a tattoo. The room was too dark to make out any details other than that.

"I know you're awake."

Tilting her head back she noticed him, the form of a man silhouetted against the glow of the alley streetlamp. He sat with his back to the wall with her head resting on his right thigh. Her heart began to beat wildly as images began to flood her mind...of attacking birds and shifting people and then she remembered everything.

"I thought it was all a dream."

"If it were so, I would have no purpose in being here with you now," he said.

Elle tried to move but the pain only intensified. "Just what is your purpose here?" She groaned and felt something clamp on her left shoulder keeping her in place-keeping her from moving. She realized it was his other hand, the one out of sight hidden under the layers of his coat and her hair. She didn't know whether to be afraid or thankful that he was watching over her.

"My purpose here is to wait for my brother and then see you to a doctor." Leaving the mint tin balanced on his thigh he reached up and rubbed a hand over his face. When a set of glasses joined the tin on his thigh, she recalled the image of the man-the man in the long dark coat wearing the glasses with the mirrored surface-the man who shot out blue lightening from his fingers, who had invoked strange stirrings unlike any she had ever known. She knew she should be afraid or at least a little freaked out, but she wasn't.

"Your brother...you mean the dog-man?"

Softly he grunted, "Yes, often on many levels.

Elle thought hard recalling the dog-man in the green army coat. He had said his name was Ari Lake and he was some sort of adopted brother to Grant Lake, Mea's Grant. "You mean brother like Ari said he was to Grant?"

"My relationship to Grant was in name only. On the other hand Ari is my half-brother. We share the same mother. I don't expect you to understand the complexities of the Lake name, or my equally complicated family, especially when there is no longer a need, so please be still and silent."

"I saw blue lightening come from your fingers," she told him.

"You saw blue lightening?"

"That's what I just said. I saw blue lightening."

"Whatever color it may have been you saw magic-magic not lightening. I am not a weatherman," he irritably said.

"But I did see it...everything...it was all real?"

"Yes, and the fact you could see any of us baffles me."

"The firemen couldn't."

"Exactly." The hand clinched tight on her left shoulder once more. "Again, I must ask you to be still and silent." He exhaled a long minty breathe.

There was a definite tone-a matter in which he delivered his words that merited caution but Elle couldn't stop the words from coming, she never could. "So...if you're not a weatherman what are you a mighty morphing Power Ranger?"

Once again his fingers held tight, this time right in the center of Julio's teeth marks. She grimaced and forced herself up. The pain in her abdomen caused her to lean forward dizzily. "I was just trying to ease the tension. I'm here in the dark with a stranger I don't know, in a cold abandoned building. The least you could do is talk to me."

"I fear you're going to lose your child."

Turning in his direction, she noticed him where he sat calmly picking up mints, one by one with his fingertips, from the floor and placing them back in the tin. She must have dislodged them from their perch when she got up. He sat with his head down in the radiance of the streetlamp with long dark hair falling forward. From what she could tell there was no expression on his face.

"W-what? How could you say such a mean thing?"

"You wanted me to talk, so I did." His answer was curt, to the point.

"Not like that, not something so mean and cold," She hesitated, looking for the right words. "I wanted you to explain what we're doing here, why we're waiting, why you can change into animals like in the books I read to the kids at the library. I wanted you to tell me that Mary's safe, and that I'm not crazy. Jeez, don't you know how to talk to a woman?"

"I've had very little experience in that regard and I really wish you would just shut up!"

The words were there but before Elle could either open her mouth or exhale the deep breath of frustration that now filled her lungs, he leaned suddenly forward and clamped his hand over her mouth. She could see them now, the eyes he had carefully hidden behind the mirrored glasses and his hair. Even in the darkness of the room they reflected the smallest of light, appearing the brightest of shimmering blues, and in their depths she witnessed both power and sadness.

"What are you?" she whispered as he lifted up his hand, testing her.

"Are you afraid of me?" he demanded and when she didn't answer, he repeated the words this time softer. "Are you afraid of me?" Without thinking, Elle shook her head. His eyes narrowed in doubt, then skimmed over her face. In the end his brow relaxed and even though she could tell that he was clearly shocked, he accepted her answer. He pulled his hand away, but stayed close enough that she could feel the heat emanating from his body.

"Then you need to do as I say. I thought they would just walk on by but they heard you talking. No matter what, don't move. Don't make a sound. You're an outsider so I'm not sure this will work, but I'll do my best." His eyes slowly lifted to hers and then darted quickly away. In that mannerism she thought he looked like a shy nervous boy. "My name's Asher and I do apologize for what I'm about to do."

Reaching forward, he gripped her arm and drew her back, this time she found her head against his chest. She could feel everything, his tight hard stomach, beating heart and strong arms as they circled around her body. He pulled her up farther, so that she was sitting on his lap, and with one hand, he flicked the tin of mints and glasses away from them.

He dragged the coat over their bodies, took gloves, fingerless gloves from a pocket, and quickly pulled them on. She kept silent and ignored the pain as he moved and manipulate her body as he needed to. Closing his hands together, he worked them in a circular pattern until a blue orb appeared.

Elle didn't question reality. After everything that had happened she didn't see the point. Moving his hands apart the blue orb expanded to a transparent bubble that engulfed their bodies. With the shield in place, breathlessly, he rested his head back against the wall just as a crunching of feet neared through a room in the back. Elle saw them. Two men came into view, men not animals.

She couldn't make out features just dark clothes and bulky shapes. They were different somehow the way they moved but she wasn't sure why. She held her breath watching as they walked right on by to the front of the restaurant where the tables and chairs once existed-where families ate ice cream on hot summer nights. The thought seemed so normal.

Every muscle in her body tensed and once again Elle was reminded of his harsh words as pain tore through her midsection. She stifled a moan and dug her fingers into his wrist. Mouth close to her ear, he hushed her quiet. He stayed close and she could hear and feel his hot breathes against her skin. An involuntary shiver worked through her body and he exhale noisily.

"Please," he pleaded, "be quiet." Elle closed her eyes and willed herself to be calm. She could hear them coming back.

"What's this?"

The voice snapped her eyes open. A man stood close just on the outside of the bubble, close enough that she could see that he had glowing yellow eyes. Asher's hand went over her mouth, surprising her since she wasn't even aware that she was about to gasp. He on the other hand must have anticipated her response. She watched the man pick up the glasses and the tin.

"Claude, come here. Look what I found."

*Shhh," Asher whispered in her ear, as the second shape, a burly chested man neared. He took the glasses from the first man and examined them.

"These belong to Asher Lake," he said. "He never goes anywhere without them on the account of his freak eyes. He was here."

The man moved across the room and the taller, thinner man followed. They looked up in the rafters and behind the stove. They turned over a cabinet to inspect the wall, and then crossed to the window to peer outside.

"He has to be close. Pagan said-"

Loud music erupted on the quiet night. Asher's hand swiftly moved from her mouth to the coat. The phone was his. While he fumbled for the pocket, Elle's eyes shifted to the two men. They didn't seem to hear the music. They didn't seem to be aware of his movements inside the blue bubble. They just stood with their backs to them looking out the window until Elle reached for the coat, and Asher's hand slapped over hers. His head shot up as the two men quickly spun around.

"Did you hear something?" the thinner man asked. "Wait..."

Elle could feel a wave of nausea washing over her. She slapped her free hand to her mouth. Softly cursing, Asher turned his head toward her and evenly said. "Things...are about to get interesting."

Afraid to move, afraid to make the slightest of sounds she just sat there, hand over mouth, trying not to throw up, even when the rings on his fingers dug into her knuckles, even when her gut felt as though it would explode. Everything was quiet, until the phone rang, once more. Turning hastily around, the thinner man's yellow eyes focused on her "Lookie, a pretty little girl."

"Aww, and just when I thought you meant Asher Lake." The big one chuckled drawing a soft growl from Asher.

"Hey, Pagan said Asher was with a girl," the man said, "that girl with the blonde hair."

At that point, Elle realized that they could see her but not Asher even though he sat underneath her.

That quickly changed.

In a blur to fast to follow, Asher pushed her off his body and leapt to his feet.

"Well Pagan was right!" he said.

Asher sent his palm into the thinner man's nose before he could fully register that he was there. Taking him completely off guard the man sailed backward. Glass shattered and the man went through the window and disappeared on the other side. With a deafening roar the second man rushed forward. Ready, Asher sent a crushing blow to his windpipe, then ducking under his flailing arm he spun around and sent an elbow into his attackers gut.

Staggering forward, the burly guy fell to the ground with a thud, grunted and stayed that way. Everything had happened so quickly, just within a matter of seconds that Elle didn't even realize she had yet to move, breathe or blink. How they had managed to fight over and around her was a mystery.

Very abruptly Asher lowered down and gathered up the coat, glasses and mint tin. He put the smaller items in a pocket and then pulled the coat over his arms. He hesitated under her stare and then decisively looked up. She took in the red glare and another involuntary gasp escaped her lips. In all the action, she thought she was merely seeing things. Several heartbeats passed in tense silence before she responded.

"Wow, I guess those are the freak eyes the big guy mentioned."

Asher stood and looked down at her. When she lifted her eyes slowly to his she saw that he appeared to be honestly stunned, even more than before. "Are you afraid of me...now?"

Yet again Elle shook her head. "Do you plan on hurting me?"

His brow creased and the red glare faded. "I'm no coward. I only hurt those who deserve to be punished. "

Elle looked toward the window where the first man had fallen, to the man collapsed on the ground, and then back up to Asher. "I guess these two deserved it then."

He planted his hands on his hips and spoke brusquely. "Well, I don't like being called pretty. You can stay with them or take your chances with me. Either way, I need to leave. More will come in their place," he announced.

Elle nodded and pushed off the ground. The pain was intense but she fought through it. Her only other choice was to remain behind alone. Holding her stomach, she followed after him. By the time she reached the back door he was standing outside next to a trash dumpster talking on his phone. His words were just as rushed to whoever he was speaking to as they had been with her.

After years of abuse, Elle had developed a high tolerance to pain but luckily for her, the more she moved and tried not to think about it, the aching seemed to subside, along with the nausea.

When Asher noticed her coming he snapped the phone closed. "My driver is detained." He gestured with his phone down the alley. "Can you walk?"

When she gave him a nod, he slipped the phone into the front pocket of his black jeans. When they passed by the building Elle could see the other man lying in a crumpled heap just below the broken window. At the sight of his hand twitching, she walked on to catch up with Asher. He was tall; at least six-two and he didn't spare her shorter five-foot-six frame any consideration.

Only when they passed her apartment building did she beg him to stop. The look of reluctance on his face told her he didn't really want to. Then, the only reason he more than likely relented was to gain her silence. Walking the gap he had created back to her, he removed the glasses from his pocket and put them on. A second later he cursed and threw them to the ground. They must have been broken in the fight.