Seductive Dreams

Seductive Dreams
Chapter One: Richard
By Selenity Jade (Jadesama@aol.com)

Disclaimer: I don't own BtVS or Anita Blake (though I own the first two seasons of Buffy on DVD. ^_^).


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I walked onto Jean-Claude's private jet with a large duffle bag as well as my suitcase. I put the suitcase in the back whthe the rest of the luggage would be stored, but placed my duffle bag near one of the seats. The bag held my weapons, including the mini-Uzi. I didn't want to be unprepared and we were, after all, traveling on Jean-Claude's plane, so I didn't need to worry about airline security.

I stiffened when I felt him enter the plane. I could feel him, of course. I always could, and it had nothing to do with his being a werewolf and everything to do with the way my body responded to him.

Some days, I wish it wouldn't respond. This was one of those days.

I turned around, carefully schooling my face. "Hello, Richard."

"Anita."

Even that one word was filled with anger and pain. I truly felt bad that I had caused it. I really did. But my guilt only went so far. I was getting tired of Richard lately. Tired of fighting, tired of the backbiting and the bitching, and most of all, tired of his morals and high ideals. They had endangered me too many times, and endangered the rest of the people I protect as well. I was perilously close to hating Richard for it.

We stared at each other, seemingly at a loss for words. Or at least, I was at a loss. What did one say to an ex-boyfriend who was stuck with you and your current boyfriend for the rest of eternity? He looked better than he had in a long time. He had accepted his beast a while ago and now seemed wilder, somehow. It was good that he had finally accepted himself. Before that, he had chopped off his beautiful hair. Not by going to the barber either. He had chopped it off at home with scissors. Maybe it was a way to keep from hurting himself. Either way, it was growing back, enough that he no longer looked like he had a buzz cut.

I was saved from having to answer, though. Zane, one of my leopards, came onto the plane at that moment. He hesitated upon seeing Richard, and then glanced at me for a signal. I nodded at him, giving him a look of gratitude.

"Yes, Zane?"

"We're ready to move the coffins."

I sighed, nodding. Jean-Claude and I had decided that we would leave during the day, so that we could arrive shortly after nightfall, instead of shortly before dawn. But he also didn't want to be so vulnerable and dependant on others to make sure the coffin lid didn't get accidentally opened or his coffin dropped. He had asked me to supervise the move. It implied that he trusted me not to let him get fried. I was strangely flattered, and a bit miffed that he was proving once again how much power he had over me.

"Thanks, Zane," I said, moving towards Richard and the wereleopard. I brushed past Richard and repressed the shiver that brief contact had given me. He hadn't even moved, simply stared at me. I wished I could tell him to get the fuck off the plane. But I didn't.

I really should have.

I could feel his eyes staring at my back and I resisted the urge to glance back at him and give him my infamous cold look. I shouldn't use the psycho tendencies on my ex-boyfriend, no matter how petty I felt.

I walked down the small ramp that was the plane's butt-end, and out into the bright morning sun. I was beginning to think I was turning into some sort of half-vampire with how much the sun bothered me lately. Perhaps it was all the time spent working at night. Perhaps it was all the time spent with vampires at night in basements and such. Or perhaps it was both.

It was both.

It didn't matter. What mattered now was getting Jean-Claude, Asher, and Damian on the plane. I sighed. I was beginning to feel a bit like one of the monsters again.

"Anita!"

I glanced over and smiled at Jason who was waving merrily at me from atop one of the coffins. I assumed it was Jean-Claude's. Nathaniel was draped over another coffin provocatively. The wereleopard didn't even appear to be aware of the sexuality in his pose. Or he was possibly very aware of it. Micah sat comfortably on another, talking with Zane and Cherry. I smiled slightly at seeing him. Micah was a part of my family now. I slept with him often, and he was a part of me.

Yet I didn't love him as I loved Jean-Claude, Richard, or even Asher. It wasn't that love that threatened to consume me. It was the safe kind of love, if what I felt for him was truly love. I wasn't sure. But he was important to me now. And he put up with anything, even having to share me with two vampires.

He was too damn accepting. It irritated me sometimes. But what could I do?

I moved over to the gathering of coffins and lycanthropes. "Let's get them inside."

Jason didn't crack a joke, which was unusual, but he did give me that sexy smile of his that made me think he had one on the tip of his tongue. He showed admirable restraint in not sharing. I was proud.


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AN: Gah. I'm very sorry about the length of this chapter. I'm having writer's block, but I did have these two pages done. I think that if perhaps one of you reviewers of mine read it, you might comment on something that will spark my creativity. I didn't want to 'push' out stuff, because it would end up being just crap. So thus, you get two and a half pages. I apologize again. I'll make the next chapter longer, whenever that will be.

Lovies!