A Bigger Fish: Raek
"Raek! Hurry up and bring that plate out to the corner booth!" The fox, his fur brick red with dark guard hairs that made him look as though he had been dusted with coal dust, dropped what he'd been doing and headed for the kitchen exit. As he...
A Bigger Fish: Jake
It had been a long, hard day. An extra shipment of goods had arrived late, and offered the chance to earn some overtime, Jake had seized the opportunity. His life didn't, outwardly, cost much - he lived in a cramped, badly-maintained apartment, he...
The Gift of Rosiel - Chapter III: Wings of Ash and Acid Tongue
Roxeen must have fallen asleep at some point, because he woke up feeling stiff and miserable on the cold floor, to say nothing of the pain in his injured hand. He could remember the events of the previous night all too clearly, and he could remember...
The Gift of Rosiel - Chapter II: In the Devil's Home
When Roxeen became aware again, he felt more than anything like a passenger in his own body. He was sitting, though he'd slumped over to the side, and the chair he was on was vibrating roughly in time with the rumble of an engine. He couldn't see his...
The Gift of Rosiel - Chapter I: All's Not Well in Avelyon
The employees-only hallway connecting the door used for deliveries to the main room of The Rabbit Hole was by no stretch silent, but the noise from the club was muffled enough by the sturdy wooden door to facilitate conversation. Out there, especially...
Sister Mine
"So how was your day, short stuff?" Ravaethinne Griffon lay on her stomach on her much younger stepsister's bed, watching the three-quarters wyvern girl's tails sway lazily where she sat by her computer. She'd stopped by to return a book she'd...
Second Meetings
A day off. A day he could, guilt-free, spend with his lover who wouldn't call him more than that. No need to worry about being alert when he went on his shift, late evening. Better yet was the fact that his lover's tenant, a law student who...
The Way He Loved Me
I don't know how long it was until things started to change, but they did. Oh, it was pretty harmless at first. Even a bit flattering, in its own way. I didn't notice, or didn't want to notice, when Jake went from telling me how beautiful I was to how...
He Was Different
Everything was different when I first met Jake. Most of all _he_ was different, or at least I thought he was. Because I came to know him as a gentleman, a gentle, caring person who loved me when no one else would. When no one else could, or so he told...
Biology Lesson OR Why You Don't Have Sex With Canids on a Deadline
Arvel had come over early to help Raven tidy up for the movie night, and had even been nice enough to offer to get groceries on the way, sparing her the trip that always seemed to eat through most of her afternoon, regardless of when she left work. As...
A Rainy Day
It was not a good night. It was by no stretch of imagination a good night. The rains had apparently decided to start weeks earlier than what had been expected, he hadn't bothered to bring a coat, his cell phone battery had unexpectedly gone flat, and...
Can I Buy You a Drink?
She _had_ just been leaving the dance floor for a glass of water; she'd spent enough time in the hot, just-this-side-of-crowded club for her shirt to sport a damp shadow below her breasts, and a few stray strands of brightly colored hair were plastered...