Title: Rain
Week 6: Thunder/Lightning Storm
Novel: CotN Kerry/Michel

Note: I saved the best for last.

It was a dark and stormy night, or at least that's how the story would go. The sky was hidden behind a smoky tulle of clouds, giving the usual dark atmosphere a sense of quiet light. From her position, the air was misted with fog, leaving a haunted look to the city view she knew so well. There seemed to be an earthly magic in the air as the rain sharpened and then lulled, splashing her feet with small droplets which did nothing more than bring a slight smile to her face. On the cool breeze, she could smell the ocean and in the warmth of the night she could feel the nature surrounding her, ebbing out the sounds of the city so that the cars driving through puddles below became the tide lapping against rocky shoreline.

If she believed in such things, she would be romantic enough to entertain the notion that she had been a siren in another life, feeding off the tempestuous waters. Kerry raised her head as a gust of wind blew the rain directly in her face, the water calming her in a way that massages or therapy never could.

"That's a strange look on you," he said from the doorway, two champagne glasses balanced easily between his fingertips. He looked suited to a storm far more wicked than this one.

"It's the rain," she responded, even her own voice sounding melodious in the sigh of the weather. She could feel the cold against her bare feet and she idly watched a person exit a car far below and scramble indoors. She looked at him again, allowing the calmness to wash over her. She was Calypso raining over her charges, blessing them with her mighty power. She was deeply in love.

"Is it, now?" He handed her a glass, tipping his own so that it clanked against the side of hers in a toast. He took a sip, his blue eyes staring out over the place he had adopted as his own.

"It makes me feel alive again."

But this was not the first time Kerry had stood with him in the rain.

The night had been incredibly dark, black storm clouds covering the moon and stars in the sky so that the only light came from electricity and succinct flashes of lightening. The ice of the rain froze through her white dress shirt, flattening her hair against her forehead as the water poured down her face and dripped from her nose and chin. She stood outside an apartment building in St. Louis, shaking hands in her jeans pockets, not to keep them warm but to stop the overt sign of nerves. Kerry's teeth were chattering, and she could barely see through the rain stinging her eyes to the man exiting the building. Too tall, she thought, but she wondered if she would truly recognize him from shape alone. She knew that if she saw Michel again, she'd know his face, his hair, the way his shoulders looked in a nice button-up shirt, but she didn't know if she would identify a shadow hunched against the rain and wind.

A shiver went up her spine and she resisted the urge to swing around as a breath of air emerged from the alley behind her. Fingers pressed against the cold, wet cloth of her shirt, and the cool cloth pressed into her back so that she gasped. His hand was not warm. "I told you not to find me," he whispered in her ear, his voice rough like the roar of the rain. "Did you think the rain would hide you from me? That I wouldn't feel your eyes watching for me? Smell your need?"

Kerry didn't respond, keeping her eyes straight ahead as he pressed his body against her arm. She could see a hint of him from the corner of her eye, a wavering and haunted form in the storm. His black hair was plastered against his forehead and dripped into his shadowed eyes. She couldn't see the blue of them in the dark, but his shirt was a midnight shade of the same color. He smiled at her, and it wasn't his friendly mask of a smile but one that emphasized his dark nature, hinting at promises and death. "I warned you of what would happen if you came."

"I know," Kerry whispered, shivering from the warmth as he slid around her so the fronts of their wet bodies were slicked together. His hand slipped over her soaked hair, sliding over the silk of her skin until two fingers rested on her neck, feeling her pulse thud and thump, dad um da dump, against his touch. His other hand looped around her back, palm pressing her body tighter against his.

"I'll have you tonight." Lightening flashed, illuminating the embrace for a split second. The same time it took for Kerry to turn her beating heart into his hands.

"You thought you were so smooth," she said with a smile on her balcony, the wine glass held gently between her fingers. A gust of wind softly blew rain droplets over them as she laughed at him with her eyes. "Leaving only enough hints to where you were so that I would get curious and try to find you, just to see if I could." She reached out, skimming her hand along his arm in a familiar caress. "Did you really think me so foolish that I could be lured by my own curiosity?"

"No," he told her, twining his fingers around hers. "I wanted to see you play the game."