On the Prowl

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    She lacked the wind to sigh. She’d pushed herself hard enough this morning, she supposed. Her thighs were burning. She slowed to a jog.
    “What’s up?” she asked as Nathan drew alongside her, not the least bit winded. He never was, which had irritated her at first. She was more resigned now. He did sweat, at least. In the summer. If he ran more than a mile or two, that is, and it was really hot. Like a hundred.
    “You’re out running. A killer wants to drink your blood, and you’re out running.”
    “ My blood?” Startled, a little frightened, she looked at him. He faced ahead, his features set in an odd frown. But his thoughts—! They weren’t muddy—Nathan’s colors were always clear—but they were sure jumpy. Indigo twitched into purple, slid back to blue, flashed into green flickering with tips of angry red.
    “You’d make a good meal for it. You’ve a strong Gift.”
    “But you don’t have any reason to think it’s after me, personally. Do you?”
    The thought-fish around him slowed and flattened. His voice turned wry. “No. I was…generalizing.”
    Overreacting, more like. Which was very interesting. She jogged along in silence for a moment. “I take it the newest victim was Gifted.”
    “I suspect he was, but a body drained of life and blood doesn’t tell me that.”
    “Does it tell you other things?”
    “Almost always. This one…didn’t.” Trouble bubbled beneath the even surface of his voice. She saw it in the dark swirls that lifted from him, then fell again. His breath huffed out in a rare show of frustration. “This wasn’t at all what I came here to tell you. I don’t know why I…no, I do know. It just…surprises me.”
    He was seesawing, saying one thing, then another; and that was not like him. When he fell silent she wanted to stop, grab him, and shake a few more words out. She settled for a civilized prompt. “And that reason would be…?”
    His feet hit the ground three more times before he answered. “I was frightened. I went to your door and you weren’t there, and I was afraid for you.”
    She could have sworn her heart slid around in her chest in an unnatural way. “That’s natural, I guess. You’d just come from a murder scene.”
    “I’m not used to it. Sometimes I…friends are rare. I don’t find one often.”
    Now he was squeezing the heart he’d just sent sliding. She couldn’t think of what to say. The urge to grab him hit again, but this time she wanted to hold him. To just hold on.
    He discovered smiles again and offered her one. “Usually I’m the one who has trouble with words. I seem to have stolen yours this time.”
    “They’ll come back.” Eventually.
    “I didn’t know. That you were my friend, that is. Until last night, I didn’t realize you had…come inside me that far.” He paused. “This isn’t what I wanted to talk about.”
    “I’m enjoying the subject.”
    “Are you?” This smile arrived so quickly and so lightly it was almost a grin. “Am I inside you, too, Kai?”
    The flush of heat hit too fast for her mind to have any chance of controlling her tongue. “Don’t I wish.”
    He stopped, and he did the grabbing, seizing her shoulders and making her stop, too. “I’m sorry. I should have thought about how that would sound.”
    Humiliation rolled over her with its very different heat. “ Joke. That was a joke. You’re supposed to grin and say something stupid back.”
    “Stupid, I might be able to handle, but I’m not good at jokes. I’m not good at sex, either.”
    She rolled her eyes. “So not believing you here. About jokes, maybe. You don’t always get them, or sometimes you think something’s funny that I don’t get. But sex?” She shook her head and found her own smile. “Come on.”
    “I can do sex, of course. But it’s too…” He shook his head, clearly frustrated. “This doesn’t fit into words well. I need a connection. Sex without that connection is too lonely.”
    Her heart was pounding and it had little to do with her run. “Friendship is a connection.”
    “Yes.”
    She searched his face, seeing something different there, but unsure what. She tried to speak lightly. “You’re giving me ideas, you know. If that isn’t what you had in mind—”
    “My mind has become strange territory. I don’t know what’s in it myself, so I can’t tell you.” He dropped his hands. “But you’ll get chilled, stopping like this when you’re sweaty. We should keep