A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 58

My only saving grace is that I've got a brother, so I know some stuff about guys."

He raised is eyebrows, "I'm kind of impressed at how far you can, ..."

She laughed, "Oh, awesome. We can have a contest next time. Come on, Beautiful, we'd better get going or we'll never get moved."

He nodded and they walked off together. "Did you get that feeling that you were looking for?" he asked as they walked.

"Uh-huh," she chuckled, "even better. I not only feel like I've got a male, it's even better than that. I've got a guy who lets me hold it for him and that I can have contests with!"

She put her arm around his waist as they walked, "I think I felt that way about having my own male if you'd let me do that because my brother would never let me hold it.

Actually, I remember now and it even makes sense," she said. "I was just a little girl and I saw Sonja do that with Cor. I asked her why later and I think she must have been flustered at me seeing that. So she handed me some nonsense about it being something that a man lets his wife do to show that he's hers.

I don't think I believed it even then, but it got me into a lot of trouble with the mothers of any boys that I used to play house with for a while."

Talon looked like he needed to pee all over again but she didn't appear to notice as she walked on remembering, "Oh yeah, Sonja really regretted telling me that pile of crap."

Talon laughed until he had tears in his eyes.

They must have gone a couple of hundred yards in silence when she looked up, "Thanks for letting me do that, Talon. Can I do that again sometime?"

He doubted if anybody else would have understood it, but he sure did and he put his arm around her shoulder and just said, "Sure, Katje. Especially if it shows you that I'm yours."

They got to the lock-up and he grabbed a few magazines and told her that they'd have to come back later because there were cases of ammunition, but it had to be loaded into empty magazines. He asked Katje if she wanted a rifle and she was about to decline, but then selected a CAR-15 and told him to do the same. When he looked at her quizzically, she just said, "Two words, Talon.

Full Auto. Plus they're smaller and easier to carry."

They were on their way back when she stopped to listen and sniff for a moment. She held her finger to her lips and motioned for him to stay there.

Katje stepped slowly to the corner of a building, sweeping her long hair back over one shoulder. She took a peek and then ducked back and walked to him.

"Demons," she whispered in his ear and held up three fingers.

"I wasn't crazy about the way that Sonja was telling you to just go kill demons last night," she whispered, "Sometimes they're not all crazy. Sometimes they have families, so I try to allow for it. The ones there sure aren't acting like they're family-oriented, so if you want to finish this development of yours, hand me your weapon, take off the suit and go mess one up. I'll cover you."

He was about to object when she set her rifle leaning against a wall and before his eyes, she was something else.

The brown shape with the stripes was very pleasing to his eyes, but Talon tried to think of what she'd said, so he did as she told him and felt like an idiot standing there, just a naked guy, out for a stroll in March with his tackle in the breeze.

Katje shook her head, "Think. Try to think that you want this – what I am."

He fought down the desire to joke that he was thinking that he wanted that what she was, but he knew that it wasn't the time. They heard what sounded something like a woman screaming from around the corner, but didn't put too much into it. Talon was the only one who lived here so it had to be one of the demons.

He did his best, but though he felt different, nothing was happening. He didn't think it was all that bad a thing; deciding that he could just step around the corner and stitch them all with his carbine and be done.

Before he could say it, he heard a sound behind him and he saw Katje's eyes widen.

She just called out his name in warning when he heard the screech behind him and turned.

There was a demon already running for him and another running around the corner.

Talon felt strange, but he didn't feel fear for some reason which eluded him at the moment, frankly.

He saw a sandy streak shoot past him to pass the nearer one by and bash the second demon over in a collision. In one half-second, he saw Katje with the second demon under her and she was ripping parts of him off furiously.

She amazed him yet again when he saw her turn and though her face was very different, he knew it was her and her features hardened then and she yelled at him, "Do it!"

The demon between them had slowed and stopped, looking back now, but then he – and it was very obviously a he – turned to Talon again and growled.

Talon's perspective changed a little then. He felt himself crouching without the conscious thought to do that and then he felt the growl down low in his own throat. Everything fell into some sort of order to him and his rifle slipped from his fingers to clatter a little on the gravel that he was standing on.

It came to him that the rifle had fallen because it didn't fit his hand.

He looked down and his hand was a clawed thing and it was a gray color. It didn't make sense to him. His vision was changing a little. It swam from what he'd always seen to something a lot more grainy and sharp and back.

He suddenly knew why he'd never really felt cold the same was as everyone else in the winter; why he'd been able to kick the crap out of Jerry so long ago, why he could see well in the dark, and why he'd known that he would have survived a demon attack in the bomb shelter all at once.

"Stop thinking and do it!" he heard from behind him and when the demon there in front of him snarled and screeched at the same time with wide eyes, something inside Talon Caldwell let go.

Three steps, each one quicker than the last and he was in front of the thing. His surprised opponent swung at him, but Talon was the only one who connected and he watched the demon fly backward to land on his back, dazed, bleeding from his torn cheek and struggling to get up.

But Talon was faster than that and he just waded in. He saw the clawed hands coming for him but Talon didn't care and felt little when they connected. He was dealing his own then and it took three seconds or less from the time he had the creature down, lifting his head to expose the weak point.

He sank his teeth into the demon's throat, hearing the scream right next to his head and it angered him somehow. Without a thought, he closed his strangely larger-feeling mouth and felt his teeth sink in deep. Once his jaws were almost closed, he shook his head and just tore and pulled back, shaking his head again.

The muscled flesh pulled free and it didn't even occur to Talon to spit it out. He raised his head and looked down into the stricken eyes of a beast a little like him and not like him at all, but larger than he was and nowhere near as powerful as he was now. He chewed and swallowed looking right into his prey's eyes, before lowering his head to rip out a pectoral muscle to do it again.

The beast under him was dying, but Talon didn't stop, doing it again and again, four, maybe five times more, realizing that Sonja hadn't lied about the taste either. Great gouts of blood were surging from the thing's throat and Talon began to lap at it until he noticed that he could see his tongue.

It had gotten longer, and the shock of that was what caused him to stop. The creature underneath him was beyond caring what his tongue was like now.

Three seconds or less and he wanted another one of them to kill.

Talon felt the surge and the burn. He felt all of it and he didn't know what to do. He had a thought that if there were a hundred more here; it would begin to make him happy. He shook his head and felt the blood of another creature leave his face, seeing the spray of it as his motion flung it away. He looked down and made the only sound that seemed to fit.

He heard the sound, in there somewhere amid the heaving breaths in and out. He liked the feel of drawing this much oxygen for some stupid reason, and then there it was, that sound that told Talon just what he'd become.

What came out was a deep grunt.

He stood up a little slowly and looked back. All that he saw was another demon and it looked to be in a more advanced stage of destruction than the one at his feet. He looked at his legs and other than the way that they were attached to him, he didn't recognize them.

There was no one else in sight.

Talon walked to the corner and looked around it as he came. Katje was there, looking like a bloody and naked goddess once more as she tried to help a female demon to sit. The demon's eyes widened and Katje pulled her face toward her own and just spoke quietly.

Talon thought about the way that he'd woken up that morning and then he felt - "usual" to himself. When he looked down at himself, he knew that he was back except for the blood which covered him. He stepped forward slowly. "I'm not sure that I understand," he said.

The demon was crying and very upset, looking from Katje to Talon and back before lowering her head to weep some more. Katje was a bloody mess too.

She shrugged, "I didn't see it right away. She was attacked."

She looked up at Talon and she said, "Those ones were just the regular kind who get dumped here somehow and fuck up everything. Once in a while, one or two of them calm the hell down and try to live here. Sometimes they learn to hide by looking human and trying to learn human behavior."

She shrugged, "Sometimes they have kids like you and me, but they're half-demon. Those are the ones that I don't ever want to hurt."

She turned to the demon and whispered as she cradled her head gently, "What's your name?"

There was no answer for a few seconds, and then in the middle of the sobbing, they heard that her name was Ellie.

It took a while, but Katje was able to determine that other than scrapes and bruises, they'd come to distract the demons at about the right time, give or take, and the physical assault had only just gotten started.

"Maybe we ought to just get another pair of beds and think about moving tomorrow," Katje said and Talon nodded.

They got Ellie into the gate house and Talon left them while he dragged the dumpster away, stopping to pick up the two bodies and toss them in with the rest. He stopped at the lock up to pick up the rifle that he'd 'left there earlier and then he was off to find two beds.

By the time that he got back, Katje had calmed Ellie down and explained everything truthfully – what they were, why they were there where they'd found her and what they were going to do. From what he could see, Ellie was feeling a lot better for the moment, and Katje had figured out how to work the pump so that, with a lot of pumping, they'd been able to have a bath and get cleaned up, though the bath had been a cold one with Ellie going first, since she was the one with the contusions and Katje climbing in after Ellie was out, since she was just covered in dried blood and other unpleasantness.

Talon pumped enough water to get himself cleaned up, but by then, he wore enough dried blood to likely scare a ghost and it took a fair amount of scrubbing to get clean.

The two females had apparently managed to cooperate on a level that allowed then all to have a really good meal and then they sat down to hear Eiiie's story.

It was pretty much as Katje had spoken of; the only things missing were names and places. In her human form Ellie was nineteen, pretty with sandy blonde hair and soft brown eyes, broke and homeless after the passing of her father. She'd thought that demons of any sort would be a little friendly to a half-breed such as she was. Katje explained with Talon's help that the ones who flew around messing things and people up were a little unhinged and weren't to be trusted by anyone.

They had about the expected degree of difficulty in explaining to Ellie that she'd be safe with them for a little while. Ellie had seen the wreckage when they'd helped her to get to Talon's place, but Katje explained it all honestly.

"I looked around the corner and it looked to me like it was just three demons raising hell or something. It didn't get through to me that what was going on might not be with your agreement. I figured that if there were a couple of nutty demons less it wouldn't matter and it would get Talon to know what he really is."

She looked at Ellie as she handed her a glass of water, "If I knew what was really going on – or what was about to go on, I'd have just gone to you and gotten you out, leaving a couple of dead demons anyway. Neither of us wants to hurt anybody, but Talon needed it for what he is and they were there.

We don't know what we started out as and Talon only just found out, Ellie. All we know is that we're half-human like you and half something that can kill demons without much trouble. We don't want to hurt you. It's not a hobby or anything."

They told Ellie that if she wanted, they were moving the next day and she could have the gate house to live in and Talon would teach her to get by if she wanted.

Ellie asked where they were going and why and they told her about the bomb shelter.

She asked if she could live there with them and they looked at each other and tried to find an answer.

Katje pulled Ellie aside. "I don't know how to say this. ... Talon and me, we're trying to start out together and, well can you imagine that you just found a guy that you really want to live with and, ... Well, sometimes you just want to fool around together."

"I'd stay out of your way," Ellie said, "I'd make myself useful and I'd help with anything if you show me. I don't eat much and, ... and, ... "

She looked down, "And I'm afraid to be alone now. I'm not like you. Can I stay? Please? Just for –"

They looked at each other and after a short discussion, they agreed, not wanting to cast Penny adrift so soon after the incident since it had become very clear that she had no street smarts at all.

That night, Talon and Katje made love like parents who'd run out of Vaseline for the bedroom doorknob. It was quiet and slow and they liked that, but it was too cautious to really please them as it normally would.

--------------------------------

"No, I'm not coming home," Katje said with a grin the next day, "at least not soon and for more than a visit."

Sonja looked a little angry, but Cor got it and he nodded, happy for his little sister.

"But what about us?" Sonja asked a little pointedly as they watched Talon come struggling out of his door with a few things in crates to set them down on a flat trailer behind the tractor.

Katje smiled and she moved closer to her sister, "Look, I know what you wanted. I understand that, I really do. But he's not ready for that yet. You should have heard him talking to himself after you left the other night and before he knew that I was there listening. He thought that he was dead meat for screwing somebody's wife and you weren't exactly fair in how you kept that from him and only told him about it after. And he wasn't kind to himself, either.

We've talked a lot since then, and, ... "

She smiled, "I've got him to the point where he's admitted to me that he might like it with Cor, but if you try to get him there any time soon, it won't ever happen at all, so just give it some time.

And I'm happy with him. Two nights and I'm really happy, thanks for asking," she laughed.

Sonja looked down and realized that she was being pretty selfish. "You're right," she smiled, "and I'm sorry. What we wanted was something as kind of an extra. We still have each other and there's never been anything wrong with that. If you've got Talon now, well good for you."

"Hey," Katje smiled as she stretched up to kiss Sonja's cheek, "It's still us, Sonja. He knows that we get together and play now and then. He's fine with it. I know he's even thinking about it a little. He just needs time and we need to get to know each other. You can't do anything like that with somebody if you aren't sure of what you have between you as a couple.

He's my male already and I'm his girl. Give us a chance, that's all."

Ellie walked around the corner and Katje introduced her to her siblings. But that was pretty much all that she did for a couple of reasons. She thought that Ellie was a nice girl and she was beginning to hope that she might have made another friend. There was just the aspect of her wanting a little privacy with Talon, but she was worried about Ellie living on her own at the moment because of the attack the previous day.

The other reason was that Sonja's eyes were lighting up and Katje didn't like the thoughts that she was a little certain were crossing her sister's mind. She wished that they'd just go and make kids like everybody else and she planned to tell Sonja that very soon if that look persisted.

But Ellie solved Katje's difficulty for her when Katje saw the girl trying to make time with Talon, who – to his credit – was doing everything but moving furniture to block Ellie's path.

Not long after that, she saw her hanging around Cor and then she saw Sonja talking to them both. When it was time to leave, Ellie informed them that she was going to live with Sonja and Cor. They said goodbye and wished her well.

"I've got a feeling that they've just gotten their second female, "Katje smiled, "Maybe not today or next week, but sometime." She turned to Talon and hugged him, "And you can stop worrying about Cor. You're all mine, Talon. I can't wait for your tail to come in along with your wings."

He was going to ask, but he guessed that he really didn't need to. Katje was wearing her "you'll find out" look. He sighed.

He really loved it when she wore that look.

That night, the two of them laid in bed side by side for a total of eight minutes while Katje explained to Talon what she'd wanted to tell him the day before about the different shapes and the best ways to 'access' them. After that, he tried out her advice and after that, they both changed and began to actually have fun.

But they couldn't do it if they were both in the hard shadow shape.

Every time that they tried, the clacking just made them laugh too hard.