Her frown deepened. "He was there when Talon got me away from Camulus?"
"Yeah and I was too. Don't you remember?"
She shook her head. All she could remember was Talon. "How well do you know Talon and Acheron?" she asked Vane.
He shrugged. "I just met Talon, but I've crossed paths with Acheron a time or two over the centuries."
"Are you immortal too?"
He shook his head no. "My kind just lives a lot longer than humans."
"How long?"
"About a thousand years, give or take a century or two."
Wow. That was quite a while.
Sunshine couldn't imagine what it would be like to have that long to plan her future. But something inside told her that it might be as big a curse as a blessing to live that long, especially if you had to live it alone.
Sunshine watched Vane as he scanned the crowd around them. Those hazel-green eyes seemed to take in everything.
"Why are you so open to talk about this while Talon refuses to tell me anything?"
He shrugged. "I didn't swear an oath of secrecy, and I figure you've seen enough spooky shit the last few days that knowing about me is the least of your problems. Besides, I dare you to tell anyone I'm really a wolf pretending to be human."
He paused and grinned devilishly at her. "I double dog dare you," he said slowly. "That, my friend, will get you locked inside a rubber room."
She had no doubt about that at all. And it explained why he felt so free to talk about his "differences."
"Are you really a wolf?"
He nodded.
"Then how can you be human?"
"We're a different breed than your people. My race was created about nine thousand years ago when my greatgrandfather decided to save the lives of his sons by magically splicing their DNA with a few choice animals. Thus we were born. One son made two half-blooded creatures. One that held a human heart and one that held an animal heart. I'm directly descended from the animal."
"So you have the heart of a wolf?"
Again, he nodded. "And the morals and the self-preservation instincts of one too."
"Do you ever wish you were human?"
"No, never. Why would I?"
And yet she sensed he was hiding something. There was a lot more to his feelings than he was willing to admit and it was obvious he didn't want her to delve into it.
So she changed the subject. "Does it hurt when you change forms? Is it like the movies where you get all hairy and bones crunch?"
He snorted at that. "No. That's strictly a Hollywood dramatization. Since we're born of magic, for the most part we wield it painlessly. I feel about as much pain transforming as you did when we bopped from Talon's cabin to my bike. All you get is a little electrical frizz going through you. It's actually kind of pleasurable if you do it right."
"It must be neat to be able to do all that." She tilted her head, squinted her eyes, and looked at him.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to imagine what you would look like as a wolf."
"Pray you never find out."
She stepped back from him. "You know, I think you guys really get off on scaring people."
"Sometimes we do."
Not willing to investigate that any further, Sunshine continued to wait.
Unfortunately, Cameron didn't show.
Vane tried to get her to go back to Talon's but she refused. "Maybe he's just late. Maybe he had a meeting or something. I can't just leave."
Vane gave a low, very wolf-sounding growl at that and took up a seat behind her stand, leaning back against the black iron fence while she sat on her stool, hawking her wares and sketching.
The afternoon dragged on, but nothing happened.
Cameron still hadn't shown up.
Selena left at four for a brief break.
Vane was now sitting on the curb behind her. His long legs were stretched out on the street, and he had them crossed at the ankles. He was leaning back on his arms. The position pulled his cotton T-shirt tight over his impeccable body.
"You do this every day?" he asked.
"Pretty much."
"Man, this is boring as hell. What do you do to keep from going insane?"
"I usually sketch or paint, and before I know it, the day has passed and it's time to go home."
"Well, I don't get it."
People who weren't artists never did.
"Hi, Sunshine, you got anything new?"