Kate Daniels 05.5 - Magic Gifts

leaned forward, and kissed the Beast Lord. He tasted like of toothpaste and of Curran, and the feel of his lips on mine made me forget the lousy day, the bills, the clients, the two gallons of slime drenching my clothes. The kiss had lasted only a couple of seconds, but it might as well have been an hour, because when we broke apart, it felt like I had come home, leaving all my troubles far behind.
    "Hey," he said, his grey eyes smiling at me.
    "Hey."
    Behind him Andrea rolled her eyes.
    "What's up?" I asked him.
    Curran almost never came to visit my office, especially not in the evening. He hated Atlanta with all the fire of a supernova. I didn't have anything against Atlanta in theory - it was half-eroded by the magic waves and it burned a lot - but I had a thing about crowds. When my workday was over, I didn't linger. I headed straight for the Keep, where the Atlanta shapeshifter Pack and His Furry Majesty resided.
    "I thought we'd go to dinner," he said. "It's been awhile since we've gone out."
    Technically we had never gone out to dinner. Oh, we had eaten together in the city but usually it was accidental and most of those times involved other people and frequently ended in a violent incident.
    "What's the occasion?"
    Curran's blond eyebrows came together. "Does there have to be a special occasion for me to take you out to dinner?"
    Yes. "No."
    He leaned to me. "I missed you and I got tired of waiting for you to come home. Come grab a bite with me."
    Grabbing a bite sounded heavenly, except Andrea would be stuck here by herself. "I have to wait for the Biohazard to get here to pick up the jellyfish."
    "I've got it," Andrea offered. "Go, there is no use in the two of us sitting here. I have some stuff I need to take care of anyway."
    I hesitated.
    "I can sign forms just as well as you," Andrea informed me. "And my signature doesn't look like scratches of a drunken chicken in the dirt."
    "My signature is just fine, thank you very much."
    "Yeah, yeah. Go have some fun."
    "I need a shower," I told Curran. "I'll see you in ten minutes."

    *** *** ***
     
    It was Friday, eight o'clock on a warm spring night, my hair was brushed, my clothes were clean and slime-free, and I was going out with the Beast Lord. Curran drove. He did it very carefully, concentrating on the road. I had a feeling he learned to drive when he was older. I drove carefully too, mostly because I expected the car to fail on me at any second.
    I glanced at Curran in the driver seat. Even at rest, like he was now, relaxed and driving, he emanated a kind of coiled power. He was built to kill, his body a blend of hard, powerful muscle and supple quickness and something in the way he carried himself telegraphed a shocking potential for violence and an entitlement to use it. He seemed to occupy a much larger space than his body permitted and he was impossible to ignore. This promise of violence used to scare me, so I'd bait him until some of it came out. Now I just accepted him, the way he accepted my need to sleep with a sword under my bed.
    Curran caught me looking. He flexed, letting the carved muscles bulge on his arms, and winked. "Hey baby."
    I cracked up. "So where we're going?"
    "Arirang," Curran said. "It's a nice Korean place, Kate. They have charcoal grills at the tables. They bring you meat and you cook it any way you want."
    Figured. Left to his own devices, Curran consumed only meat, punctuated with an occasional desert. "That's nice for me, but what will your vegetarian Majesty eat?"
    Curran gave me a flat look. "I can always drive to a burger joint instead."
    "Oh, so you'd throw a burger down my throat and expect making out in the back seat?"
    He grinned. "We can do it in the front seat instead, if you prefer. Or on the hood of the car."
    "I'm not doing it on the hood of the car."
    "Is that a dare?"
    Why me?
    "Kate?"
    "Keep your mind on the road, your Furriness."
    The city rolled by, twisted by magic, battered and bruised but still standing. The night swallowed the ruins, hiding the sad husks of once mighty, tall buildings. New houses flanked the street, constructed by hand with wood, stone and brick to withstand magic's jaws.
    I rolled down the window and let the night in. It floated into the car, bringing with spring and a hint of wood smoke from a distant fire. Somewhere a lone dog barked out of boredom, each woof punctuated by a long pause, probably to see if the owners would let him in.
    Ten minutes later we pulled into a long empty