LITMIR.BIZ

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for weeks and she’d missed out on it!

      With a sigh, she told herself to call an end to the pity party. She would need to start getting ready for work soon but, for the moment, she was just enjoying sitting in her kitchen, doing nothing of any great importance. Drinking coffee, with long-life milk because the fresh milk was stale. She considered reading a book; there was a new one she’d been meaning to sink her teeth into for ages, but hadn’t had the time. Maybe now was a good time to start. Yet as she ran a hand through her wet hair, she realised she’d need to blow-dry it and get her crap together for work before she could truly relax into a good book, otherwise she’d lose track of time and have to rush.

      Tamriel gave the novel in question, currently sitting looking lonely on her coffee table, a long, wistful glance, and strode over to the recycling box to shove the paper into it. As she bent down, something in her mailbox caught her eye. Another newspaper. With a grunt of confusion, she lifted the lid on the thing and tugged it out, along with several others. Why did she have so many newspapers in her box? She was only supposed to get one a day for Christ’s sake!

      Glancing at the date on the first one she frowned, October 6^th. The next, October 7^th. What on earth? Frantically grabbing the paper she had been reading out of the recycling box, she read the date. October 10^th? What now? Last time she’d checked, it had only been the 5^th!

      How in the hell did she lose five days? No wonder she’d lost the story; that was a full working week she’d just… Forgotten? What on god’s earth was happening?

      Memories of a medical clinic flooded back to her, broken memories. A man with a deep voice.

      As a headache came on hard and fast, she pushed the memories away, taking a deep breath.

      Crap. She’d missed an entire week of work! Grabbing at her coat, she searched frantically for her mobile. Where was the damn thing?

      The zombie smashed it, her inner voice said. No, she thought, that was crazy. Zombies?

      That kind of thing was all fiction, wasn’t it? She must be going mad.

      Giving up on the mobile search, she grabbed her house phone and dialled work, gritting her teeth as the hold music kicked in.

      ‘Hello, Kent News. Jennifer speaking.’

      ‘Hey, it’s Tam. Is—’

      ‘Tammy! Oh my god! Are you OK? Are you feeling better now?’

      ‘What? Yeah, I’m good. What do you mean, better?’

      ‘Tam, you phoned in last week and said you were feeling really rough and wouldn’t be in for a few days. We’ve all been worried about you!’

      ‘Oh, I did? I must have forgotten. Yeah, I’m much better, thanks. I’ll be in later on today. Thanks, Jen. Bye!’

      What the hell? Maybe she’d been so sick she’d just forgotten the last few days? Can that even happen? It would explain why she ached so much though.

      Storming into the bedroom she had another quick search for her phone but to no avail, and decided to start getting dressed. Surely putting some make-up on and some nice clothes would make her feel better. Grabbing her make-up bag, she sat at her dressing table and… Holy crap, what had happened to her hair?

      The formerly black, silky strands were now streaked with red, highlighted with the stuff. What the—? Had she been to the hairdressers? No, she never dyed her hair, not ever!

      Yanking a brush through the long waves, she smoothed it out and leant in, checking her roots. What on earth was going on here? She felt like tearing her hair out, screaming, slamming doors, throwing the contents of her tiny flat around. She was just so frustrated with the many questions running through her mind that she just couldn’t answer, she felt as though she was on the brink of bursting into tears. Giving up on the make-up front, she looked around for her handbag. Work. She needed to work. Get back to something normal. It might be dull. She might hate the place. But at least it was normal.

      Leyth watched Tamriel through her flat window. She was up and looking pretty healthy. That was good, right?

      He should leave. She would be fine now.

      But he couldn’t seem to tear himself away from the window.

      When she’d come out of the shower naked, he’d practically had a heart attack, dipping his eyes to give her some privacy. He’d figured she’d go and put some clothes on but no, she had stalked straight into the living room and poured a coffee, butt-naked.

      He had to respect a female who was so comfortable in her own skin. And when she’d ordered herself a meal fit for several kings, and proceeded to wolf the entire lot down, he just stared at her in awe. A female that could pig out with the best of them? He never thought he’d see the day!

      Shaking himself, he tried desperately to pull himself away, but he just couldn’t leave her.

      ‘Hey, it’s Tam.’ He heard her voice.

      Damn, he’d forgotten that he’d asked Sapphire to call in to her workplace and pretend to be her phoning in sick. After all, the last thing he wanted to do was get her fired!

      Tamriel had got through the fever well, her body had handled it and she’d slept like a baby for two days afterwards.

      Leyth, on the other hand, felt like death. He hadn’t allowed himself to sleep all the time she was suffering, and when it was finally over he’d carried her to her bed and sat in the corner of the room, just watching. He could really use some shut-eye. But the storm wasn’t over yet…

      Snapping back to reality, he found her gasping at herself in the mirror. Her hair looked beautiful. Halfway through the fever it had started to change colour; bright streaks of red running its way through the silky black strands. Generally when females or males went through the fever they took on the colours they were born into, but red? He’d never seen anything like it. It was such a beautiful colour. Staring at Tam, Leyth reached out and touched the cold glass. What he wouldn’t give to be able to stroke those silky strands once more.

      A wave of exhaustion hit him. He’d been awake for five days now, and he barely had the strength to stand up, let alone consider talking to Tam and trying to explain away the last few days.

      More than that, he wanted to keep details of her heritage to a minimum. If she didn’t go through the fever again, he wanted her to live a normal life, not constantly wonder about what could have been.

      The bone-shattering tiredness hit him again, making him wobble on the windowsill he was perched on. He tried to wrap the darkness tighter around himself, trying to stay relatively invisible in the early morning sun, but the energy it took to keep himself hidden sent him over the edge; his muscles failed him and he lost his grip on the windowsill. In that brief moment of weightlessness he tried desperately to shift in mid-air, to turn and land on his feet. No such luck, he passed out before he even hit the floor.

      Tamriel heard the whimper loud and clear and snapped her head round in the direction of the noise. She practically jumped out of her skin! There was a huge man with shaggy dark hair crouched on the ledge of her window. Hell, he barely squeezed into the tiny gap; his broad shoulders pressed against the edge of her window, a black bomber jacket dominating the small space. His heavy boots were perched on the little flower basket she had hanging from the windowsill, and she couldn’t help but wonder how he hadn’t broken it. How the hell did he manage to climb two storeys up to her window? And how had he managed to squeeze himself onto such a small window ledge?

      Why hadn’t she noticed him before? And what was he doing, watching her?

      As hundreds of unanswered questions assaulted her mind and she locked eyes with the man, she recognised him instantly; not that she could understand why or where from, she just knew him.

      Working for a newspaper wasn’t necessarily a good thing; she’d researched stories on criminals, abusive men, rapists – the works. He could easily be one of the people she’d written about, maybe

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