Embrace the Heat (23 page)

“Now is that any way for Tinker Bell to
dress?” called out Danny.

Only half a block from her home, Layla cursed
her luck. Of all the people, it had to be Danny.

“Looks to me like Tinker Bell had a sleepover
with a certain vampire,” Mark said as he joined them.

“Don’t you two have patrol or training?” she
asked. “Don’t you have anything better to do than stalk me?”

Mark looked at Danny.

Danny cocked his head to the side as if
giving the matter great thought. “What could be more important than
making sure our good friend is okay?”

“Can you really turn into a lynx?” Mark
asked.

Layla shook her head and continued walking
toward her home. “You two are unbelievable. Will you still be
acting like immature little boys when you’re old men?”

That thought brought the sad realization that
her friends were going to grow old and die. Okay, they had just as
much chance of being killed on patrol, but she’d always lived with
the knowledge that she shared the same mortality with her human
friends. Why wouldn’t she? She’d believed she was human too.

Mark slipped an arm around her shoulders and
pulled her close. “What’s put that frown on your face?” he
asked.

Layla shook her head to clear it. This wasn’t
something she was ready to discuss. “Just lamenting the fact that
so many of my closest friends are so juvenile.”

“Liar,” Danny said and grabbed the keys from
her to open the door. “Raven already told us a little about what’s
going on. Bet you were thinking about the fact that we’re probably
going to die before you.”

Layla stepped into the house and nodded.

Mark shut the door and went over to hug her
close. “Don’t be sad about that. You’ve always said we’re both
idiots who would get ourselves killed anyway.”

“Admit it,” Danny said with a boyish grin,
“you never expected either of us to outlive you.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at their attempts
to make her feel better. “True, but I always suspected I’d be the
one to kill you for saying something really stupid.”

“Well, now you’ll have an easier time killing
us,” Danny said.

“Go make yourselves comfortable while I
change clothes,” Layla said and headed upstairs. She’d already
showered at Simon’s, but he’d destroyed the only clothes she’d had
there, leaving her to walk home in shorts, a t shirt, and
boots.

While she changed clothes, Layla tried to get
her worrisome thoughts out of her mind. Her extended life
expectancy was going to take some getting used to. This gave her a
whole new understanding of what Raven must have suffered living in
a human settlement for so long. After slipping into a pair of her
own shorts and a loose fitting shirt with a sports bra underneath,
she headed back downstairs barefoot. It was a hot day, and she
wasn’t scheduled to be anywhere, so she figured she should be
comfortable.

When she went back downstairs, she found Mark
and Danny helping themselves to cookies. The abundance of cookies
she’d baked was quickly dwindling. She snagged one out of Danny’s
hand before he could take a bite and laughed at his scowl.

“Hey! That was the last triple chocolate chip
cookie in the house,” he complained.

“Shoulda eaten faster,” Mark said as he
tossed the last piece of his cookie into his mouth.

“Stop acting like a big baby,” Layla said.
“I’ll make more.” She pulled the butter out, put it in her mixer,
and then hit the button to warm it to room temperature. While the
butter warmed up, she grabbed the other ingredients.

“How are you really doing with all of this?”
Danny asked.

“Are you really with Simon now?” Mark
asked.

“Better than I would have guessed,” she said
and started mixing the butter and sugar. “When Raven told me what I
was, I kind of freaked out a little bit. Changing into an animal
didn’t sound like anything I wanted to deal with. Then I had my
first change, and it was incredible. Suddenly I felt complete.
Before that, I hadn’t even realized there was a part of me missing.
It’s truly amazing.”

“And Simon?” Mark pushed.

She thought for a moment. What she had with
Simon was hard to describe in words. It was intense. There was part
of her that wanted to play it off as no big deal, not because she
feared being teased by her friends, but because she was still
having trouble believing it.

“You’re thinking too hard about this
question,” Danny said. “I’m going to make this easier for you.
Simon held back because you were human and he wasn’t willing to
change you into a vampire. Now we all know you aren’t human, so
there is nothing standing in the way of you being together. You
spent two nights at his house, and I saw the way he was looking at
you the day before yesterday. I’ve also seen the way you look at
him.”

“Just say the words,” Mark encouraged.
“You’ll be surprised how much better you feel after that.”

Layla took a deep breath. “I love him. Simon
wants me to live with him and have a baby with him. He says he
wants me with him always, but I’m terrified that it’s just the
pheromones I’ve been putting off causing this reaction in him.”

“It’s not,” Danny said.

“Nope,” Mark agreed. “That vampire is crazy
about you and always has been.”

Layla walked over and gave each a kiss on the
cheek. “You guys are great. I don’t know what I’d do without
you.”

“Can we see you change?” Mark asked.

“That would be so cool!” Danny added.

Layla closed her eyes and shook her head as
she finished up the cookie dough by adding the chocolate chips. “I
don’t think so. There is no way I’m getting naked in front of you.
I’d never hear the end of how pale my butt is.”

“You’re clothes are pretty loose,” Danny
said. “I’ll bet you could do it with them still on.”

“We can help take them off if you get caught
up in them,” Mark added. “Come on, we’re your best friends.”

“Fine,” she said and hoped she wouldn’t
regret her decision. Layla went upstairs to slip out of her sports
bra and shorts. She left the t shirt and panties on and went
back downstairs.

The guys were waiting in the living room
looking both nervous and excited. Layla was feeling both of those
things too. The one time she’d shifted to her lynx form had just
sort of happened. She’d consciously changed back to her human form,
but that was just one time. That time she’d focused on being human,
so this time she focused on being a lynx. The energy hummed along
her skin again and got more intense until her vision blurred.

When the shift was complete, she realized
that she was trapped in her shirt. Her front paws were inside of
the shirt pressed against her body. The panties had slid down
around her back paws. She struggled to free herself until she heard
Danny’s voice.

“Calm down, Layla,” he said. “We’ll help you
get out of there. I’m going to cut the shirt off.”

Mark moved in beside her and crooned stupid
nonsense words as if she were a skittish animal, which made her
snarl at him.

“Be nice or we’ll leave you trapped in the
shirt,” Danny warned as he used his knife to carefully cut the
shirt off of her.

Once free, Layla stretched and did a
turn.

“Beautiful,” Mark said in awe.

“This is really amazing, Layla,” Danny said,
and then his eyes widened. “Your eyes are blue.”

Mark laughed. “You’re such an idiot. She just
turned into a lynx, and the fact that her eyes changed color is the
biggest shock to you?”

Danny shook his head and laughed too. “You’re
right, but that really is the thing that has me most perplexed with
this.”

“This was a bad idea,” Mark added. “She can’t
finish making cookies like this.”

Layla bared her teeth.

“I’m just kidding,” Mark said with his hands
up in surrender. “Well, sort of. I really do want more
cookies.”

Layla carefully went up the stairs. The wood
floors were slippery in her lynx form, and she didn’t want to fall
in front of Danny and Mark. They would never let her live it
down.

Once upstairs, she shifted and felt a little
drained. Maybe she needed more time between changes. She’d have to
remember to ask Raven. After dressing, she headed back downstairs
to finish baking cookies.

Mark and Danny watched her in awe.

“Thank you for sharing that with us,” Danny
said seriously.

“Yeah, we know it’s kind of personal, and it
was really awesome that we got to be a part of it,” Mark added.

Layla was a little embarrassed by their
praise, so she went to work on the cookies to avoid having to look
at them.

“When are you back on rotation?” Mark asked,
throwing out a much appreciated subject change.

“Tomorrow,” Layla said. “I’m going to talk to
Connor later today about it. I sent him a message already to see
when it would be a good time to meet with him.”

“Are you sure you’re ready? You don’t need
more time to get used to all of this?” Danny asked.

She shook her head. “I know it may sound
crazy, but I don’t really need to adjust to any of this. This is
who I always was.”

“How does Simon feel about you going back on
rotation?” Mark asked.

Layla’s temper flared. “Simon was in charge
temporarily. Connor is the one who will decide whether or not I go
back on rotation.”

“Easy,” Mark said. “I wasn’t trying to start
a fight or say he could tell you what to do. I just thought he
might be worried about you going out.”

Layla’s cheeks flushed. “Sorry about jumping
down your throat. I’m still a little bitchy.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Mark said. “Feed us
cookies, and we’ll call it even.”

Simon really hoped Layla was at his house
when he got back from patrol. The day had been a long one. Nothing
had really happened, but he’d been missing Layla like crazy. The
heat had been more extreme, and he was sticky with sweat. All he
wanted was blood, a shower, and Layla’s body, not necessarily in
that order.

Simon walked into his home, pleasantly
surprised by the smell of food cooking. He had no idea what it was,
but it smelled great. Layla rushed out to greet him wearing shorts
and a sports bra. His mouth went dry at the sight of her.

“How was patrol today?” she asked.

Before answering, he pulled her into his arms
and gave her a much too brief kiss. “Hot and boring,” he said and
kissed her again. The sweet taste of cookies on her lips had to be
a good sign. It wasn’t long before he found himself backing her up
against a wall and leaning into her body as his tongue explored her
mouth.

He broke the kiss and asked, “Do you need to
get back into the kitchen to take care of the food right away?”

Staring forlornly at the kitchen, she sighed.
“Yes,” she said. “I probably shouldn’t have left it this long.”

Simon followed her into the kitchen where a
pot sat on the stove. A plate of cookies sat beside it, and Simon
grabbed two before leaning against the counter.

“Don’t eat too many cookies before dinner,”
Layla warned. “I went to a lot of trouble making a new dish for
you.”

Simon grinned at her. “There is no such thing
as too many cookies.”

Layla shook her head and stirred the pot.
“Now you sound like Danny.”

He pretended to shudder. “Do I really deserve
an insult of that magnitude? What are you cooking?”

“Vegetable stew,” she said. “I was planning
to make chicken, but Eloise told me vampires don’t digest animal
fats very well.”

“I didn’t know that,” he admitted. “Would
chicken make me sick?” he asked.

“No,” she said, “but you probably wouldn’t be
able to eat solids for a few days. That would mean no cookies.”

He frowned. “Then I want to avoid eating
chicken.”

“Eloise also gave me an egg substitute and
recommended I use it in your baked goods from now on. She said the
eggs could become a problem if you eat too many baked goods.” Layla
handed him a bowl with a spoon in it.

“These aren’t the dishes Eloise gave me,” he
said.

Layla shook her head. “I washed those and
gave them back to her. These are from my house. I brought over a
few things so I’d be able to cook here.”

Simon smiled. “I like having your stuff here.
Hopefully I can convince you to bring it all over soon.”

They walked into the living room, and Simon
was once again annoyed at how awkward eating at his coffee table
was. He took a bite of the stew and savored the unfamiliar spices.
“This is fantastic.”

“Glad you like it,” she said with obvious
pride. “I should probably confess that I don’t know how to make
many dishes. Baking is my passion. Most of the meals I make are
designed to feed a lot of people because we tended to eat with our
entire team at the human settlement. Actually, I should also
mention that they’re used to eating at my house several times a
week.”

“You don’t have to cook a lot to impress me,
and I don’t mind eating with your friends,” Simon assured her.
“Eloise stopped by here today?”

Layla shook her head. “No, she was visiting
Raven when I stopped by Connor’s house. Eloise said she was going
to visit a friend and insisted that your house was on the way, but
I think she just wanted to check up on you. Guess she heard the
rumors about us even before she went to visit Raven.”

“You stopped by to see Raven today?”

“No, I wanted to talk to Connor about getting
put back on rotation,” she explained.

Simon stilled with his spoon halfway to his
mouth and stared at her. “Why?”

“The pheromone thing isn’t a problem
anymore.”

Simon started to argue, but closed his mouth.
Layla was right, but he didn’t like the idea of her going out on
patrol. That was a sentiment he really needed to think about before
he opened his big mouth.