"How did I get home?" It dawned on me that he may have had the power to bring us back from the get-go.

"We both desired to return. Together, we were strong enough to break the illusion."

"Illusion?"

"Yes. We didn't travel back in time. We merely entered another realm. A place of fantasy and dreams," he said this like it was oh so normal.

"Seemed like h.e.l.l to me," I said.

"Not all of it."

"No, not all of it ... happy?" I was so happy he was all right that it was hard to be mad at him.

"Very," that one word penetrated through me. "Am I welcome in your home?"

"Yes, I want you here." That came out too fast and sounded too desperate. I was at a loss as to what to say, so I did the mature thing. I hung up on him.

I stood with my back to the wall in my kitchen and relaxed. It took a minute for me to collect myself. I decided to take a shower.

I turned the water on and let it blast my body. It felt good running down my back. I bent down and picked up a bottle of shampoo. It was vanilla bean scent. I smiled, thinking of Pallo.

I moved my soapy hands over my stomach. The time frame to know if I was with children had come and gone, my belly was flatter now than when I had possibly conceived. Having a h.e.l.lhound rip at it will do that to you. I wasn't sure how I felt about not being pregnant.

I checked the time and date on the weather channel. s.h.i.t! I was supposed to meet Sharon for my birthday tonight. It was the last thing I wanted to do. I mean, I had been rather busy lately having s.e.x with fairies, getting attacked by h.e.l.lhounds, saving a vampire who impregnated me some two hundred years ago, and oh, yeah, thinking I might have been pregnant by the faerie guy. Yeah, that pretty much summed it up.

I knew leaving my troubles behind would be the best thing for met to do. I let the water soothe me, wash away the day's grief. When I was done, I wrapped my hair in a towel and another around my body, walking to my bedroom.

"It's about time," a voice said. I nearly jumped out of my skin.

Ken sprawled across my bed, his long, naked body reflecting the moonlight through the window.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing?"

He smiled. I loved the way he smiled, it showed off his dark brown eyes. "You never called me back. You didn't show up for work. Nana hadn't heard from you, Sharon didn't have a clue where you were. I got worried and came over. I let myself in while you were in the shower. I didn't think you'd mind." He put his hand on his hip, drawing attention to his pelvic area. He was long and hard. He always was.

I bit my lip and looked away. Ken was the second man I'd ever slept with. The first had been in college and was nothing to write home about. I'm not even sure it counted. There should be some sort of minimum time requirement to count it as s.e.x. It was Ken who I spent my first full night in bed with and Ken who turned s.e.x into something I wanted to do, not something I felt I had to do.

"Put your clothes on," I said, looking out the window.

"Why can't you look at me?"

"Because the last time I saw you naked was when you were cramming yourself in that psychotic s.l.u.t." I faced him. "That reminds me. I ran into your little girlfriend. She's a real winner. I wish you two the best. Maybe, you've been asking the wrong people about the Keeper. Maybe, you should ask your girlfriend."

Ken sat up and looked at me. "You ran into her?"

"Yeah, little Miss Fangs and her pets tried to have a little fun with us."

"Us? What pets? Fangs?" His forehead wrinkled.

"What? Don't pretend like you don't know. You're the one f.u.c.king her." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I've already told you, Gwen. I don't know her. She just showed up at the door, and--"

"And you f.u.c.ked her in our bed," I finished the last part for him.

Someone knocked on the front door. I looked at the clock, saw that it was almost eight, and figured it was Sharon. I thought she had told me to meet her there, but I could have been wrong.

"Leave it. Come on, I have a birthday present for you." Ken stroked himself suggestively, and I rolled my eyes, storming out of the room. I marched across the living room and went to the door. I threw caution to the wind and opened it. I knew Sharon would help me throw Ken out.

Sharon was not there. Pallo stood in the hallway. He had a handful of white lilies in one hand and what looked like my cell phone in the other.

"h.e.l.lo," --he smiled wide--, "this was on the floor. I thought you may need it." He lifted the cell phone in his hand.

I stared at him a minute, soaking in his beauty. The sight of him took my breath away. He looked like he was about to jump on a runway at any moment and was merely on break between photo shoots.

"Tell whoever it is that we're busy." Ken called. I'd almost forgotten he was here. I closed my eyes and prayed Ken was dressed. When I looked at Pallo's face, I could tell that he wasn't.

"I am sorry to drop by unannounced. You are busy," Pallo said. He looked hurt and turned to leave.

"Don't go!" I said. The words came out too quick. "It's not what it looks like."

I moved aside and held the door open for him. He just stood there looking at me. His gorgeous eyes widened as he tipped his head slightly to the side. It hit me that he couldn't enter without my permission.

"Please come in. You're always welcome here. I'm sorry. I thought that I already covered that with you on the phone."

"You did." He grinned, nodded in thanks, and entered. I took a deep breath, sucking in the sweet smell of vanilla mixed with a hint of expensive cologne. I closed the door and turned around. Ken stood there with one of my towels wrapped around his waist. He glared at Pallo. I was happy that Ken was naked. If he would have had his clothes on, then he most certainly would have been armed. He was the type that never left home without a gun. With the temper he had, he would have shot Pallo right were he stood and not thought twice about it. I don't think the bullet would have killed Pallo, but I didn't really want to test that theory, nor did I want to spend the rest of the night scrubbing blood out of my carpeting.

The tension in the small room was thick. "Pallo, this is Ken. Ken, Pallo."

Neither man moved to shake the other's hand.

"Christ, Gwen, he's the vampire I sent you to talk to." Ken's body tightened as he gripped the corner of the towel. "I send you down to just talk to someone, then this guy, excuse me, corpse, shows up at your door with flowers?"

Pallo took a step towards Ken, his anger palpable.

"No," I said to Pallo. He stopped in his tracks, keeping his eyes on Ken.

Ken started laughing and looked at Pallo. "You f.u.c.ked her, didn't you? She threw her legs in the air, and put you on a leash in the process. She's good, I'll give her that, but come on, you're a freaking corpse," he looked at me, "that's low, even for you, Gwen!"

Ken pulled his hand across his chest leaving scratch marks on his tanned skin. He directed his anger at me. "It took me months to get down your pants, and then you just throw yourself at the first f.u.c.king vamp you meet?" He slammed his fist back and hit my living room wall. "h.e.l.l, if I would've known that, I'd have let you come into all the crime scenes with me. After all, dead people make you h.o.r.n.y." The last word came out of him quietly.

Instantly, Pallo was on him. He had his hand pressed against Ken's throat, pinning him to the wall. The two of them stood silent. Pallo's pale hand clutched at Ken's tanned throat tighter and I ran to him.

I put my hand on Pallo's arm. "It's okay."

Pallo turned and looked at me. His eyes were on the verge of turning black. I'd seen this in my vision of him in the corridor, and I knew that when his eyes were black he was at his worst--maybe unstoppable.

I ran my fingers over his bare skin lightly. "Let him go, Pallo."

He loosened his grip on Ken's neck. I looked at Ken and shot him a 'don't even think about it' look. I eased Pallo's arm down, and let my hand slip into his.

"He's hurt, he didn't mean it." I whispered softly.

"Like h.e.l.l I didn't." Ken's voice was raspy.

I had to pull on Pallo's arm with my entire body weight to keep him from lashing out at Ken. I slid my body between the two of them. My towel came loose and I had to reach up and tighten it.

"Enough, boys," I said, and put a hand on each of their chests. Pallo's was smooth and felt like a statue, Ken's was fuzzy and warm beneath my fingers. I pushed them both back slightly, and my towel gave way. I s.n.a.t.c.hed it up and wrapped it around me.

"Go!" I said to Ken, and pointed to my bedroom. He went, grinning at Pallo all the way.

I looked to Pallo. "I need to get dressed. Are you okay now?"

His eyes widened. "You're going in there with him?"

"Relax! I'm a big girl and can handle myself."

"That is not what I am worried about. I can sense your feelings for him." He hunched his shoulders slightly. "He is the one you were to marry, is he not?"

"Pallo, what do you want me to say? Do you want me to lie and say I feel nothing for the man? Do you want me to confess some undying love for you, and run off into the sunset? I can't do that. It's not that easy." I pushed my body into his. "Real life doesn't work that way."

He backed up slightly and handed the flowers to me. "No, I suppose not."

I felt like such a bully. He defended my honor, and I verbally abused him. I took the flowers to the kitchen, put them in water, and went straight to my room. When I opened the door, Ken was already wearing his navy Dockers and had pulled a white polo shirt over his body. I shut the door behind me and walked right up to him.

I struck his cheek. I went to hit him once more for good measure, but he grabbed my wrist.

"You son of a b.i.t.c.h! You come in here and accuse me of being a s.l.u.t? You're a fine one to talk." I tried to keep my voice low, so Pallo would not hear.

"I didn't know you were that easy, Gwen, or I wouldn't have bothered dating you. I'd have just asked for a quickie." He leaned down into my face.

I had to hand it to him. He wasn't one to back down from a fight. I gave up. "What does it matter to you who I sleep with?"

"You mean what you sleep with, don't you?" The prosecutor in him showed through.

"What, are you mad at the fact that I slept with someone else? Or are you mad that he's a vampire?"

Ken moved closer to me. His lips were almost touching mine, now. "Both," he said.

"Why, if I remember correctly, you were the one who started f.u.c.king vampires first, not me," I said, turning my face to the left to keep him from pressing his lips to mine. "Turnabout is fair play."

"Don't do this to us. Please, Gwen." His voice was soft now.

The anger receded in me. "You did this to us, Ken, not me."

"Why the h.e.l.l did you go f.u.c.k the first thing that showed you some attention? How could you let some dead piece of s.h.i.t demon touch you?"

I slapped him across the face hard. "Don't! Don't you ever talk about them that way again, ever!"

"Them?" he asked, shock in his voice. "You f.u.c.ked more than one?"

"Ken, it's none of your d.a.m.ned business who I choose to share my bed with!" I spat the words as I said them.

"You're right," he said.

I pulled myself away from him and walked to over to my dresser.

"I don't want to fight with you anymore, Ken."

"I don't want to fight either," he said. He followed me. I put my hand up to stop him.

"That doesn't mean I want you back." I turned and opened my top drawer to get out a pair of underwear. "Go, I'll be out in a minute."

"Did you really f.u.c.k him?" he asked quietly.

"No, I didn't have s.e.x with him," I said. I wasn't lying. I hadn't had actual s.e.x with Pallo. I'd had s.e.x with Caleb. It was so very Clintonesque of me.

"Are you going to? I mean, he's, you know...?"

"I know what he is. And I know who he is." I was still whispering to keep Pallo from overhearing us.

"Could you let something that should be rotting in the ground stick it's d.i.c.k in you? Could you honestly spend your life with that? There's no future with him."

"Ken, you lost the right to plan my future six months ago, remember?" I tried to stay calm, but was having a hard time.

"You told me once that you wanted children someday. Is that still true?" His voice was getting louder.

"Quiet down," I whispered. What Ken said made me think of Pallo's wish to give me what I wanted in life--a family, a husband, and a d.a.m.n house with a white picket fence. I was a sucker for the American dream.

"Do you still want a family?" Ken asked, smiling as he lowered his voice.

"Yes," I said. My thoughts went to Caleb and being ripe for him. My chance at a family was dead now. I pushed the painful thoughts away. I couldn't cry now. I wanted to start getting dressed, but didn't want to give Ken the satisfaction of watching me.

Ken's chocolate brown eyes held no hate for me. He looked concerned. "Can you settle for something that can't ever give you that?"

"He's not a something, he's someone!" I shouted in a low, hushed voice. It wasn't easy, but I think Ken got my point. "What do you want from me, Ken? Do you want me to take you back? Forget it! Do you want me to say that I'm going to chain myself to someone who can offer me nothing but blood and death? Pallo's not like that, he's different. I have strong feelings for him. Oh h.e.l.l, let's face it--I'm infatuated with him. I don't know if I can spend the rest of my life with him...I never thought I would end up with a monster. Is that what you wanted to hear?" I just glared at him.

"No, I want you to admit that you miss me. Admit that you miss us." He tucked his shirt in as he talked to me. "I know that you miss the way we were, too. I can see it in your eyes. Admit it!"

"It doesn't matter anymore. Get out, I need to get dressed."

He came up behind me. "I've seen it all before."

"I know. Go!" I pointed towards the door. I pulled a pair of black lace undies out of the drawer.

"Those were always my favorite," he said walking towards the door.

I turned and flashed him a dirty look. "Hey, Ken." I called to him before he left. He turned. "Play nice out there. You're in enough trouble with me as it is."