Lauren Lewis groaned as she was being debriefed by her friend, she thought he was close enough now to be considered a friend, who just happened to work for the police. She wished the wolf shifter would stop chatting, wished she was out of there and could tune out his incessant stream of words, but she had to stay; had to listen. For the sake of another woman that might die next, she just had to.

"Lauren, you have to do this," He was saying as he stood opposite her in front of a white board with grisly pictures of murdered women. "We need you in the house we've set aside and try to find out who is killing these women."

"Dyson, I'm a doctor, not a detective." Lauren sighed and tried not to pinch the bridge of her nose, or any other physical movement that might attract suspicion of her hesitance, and instead said, "I don't do things like this. The preliminaries show the victim's necks being sliced with a three inch serrated blade; a small chunk missing from the end of it. Can't you just look around the area for someone with that kind of unique knife?"

She didn't want to be there, she really did not want to be there. The busy precinct was abuzz with the recent triple murders, in less than a week, making the murderer a real and proper serial killer, and if there was anything Lauren disliked, it was a crowd of people she felt weak in. It was easy, she thought, feeling weak in a crowd. These were all men and women of authority, their weapons clung tightly to their thigh, their professional shirts and pants, their scared and serious faces parading around the room; it was a madhouse of authority, and Lauren didn't like it one bit.

Dyson had called her into the precinct for her report on the construction of the blade she had made a model of after examining the women's bodies, and then, somehow, she was being asked- more like ordered- into going into the suburban area where the murders took place to investigate. All of the women, or so they could gather from their neighbors and loved ones, that had been murdered were very blonde and very out in their community The killer obviously had it out for people who preferred same-sex relationships, and of course, Lauren thought as she glanced towards the ceiling, blondes. The detective, to ring in the murderer to get in good with his human boss, was sending Lauren into a death trap.

"No, we can't just do that, Lauren," Dyson said, pulling the doctor out of her own reverie, "we need probable cause. We need something!" The wolf looked back towards his board and pointed a finger aggressively toward the pictures, making sure Lauren could see every one of them in turn; maybe to shock her into cooperating, she didn't know. "These women are just a few in the slue of murders we've tracked this guy across. Eight other women have been slaughtered in the same way, the same neck marks the knife made on the women here, the same scent on all of the bodies!" Dyson could see he was losing the doctor, her eyes turning dim as she watched to detach herself from the females as she had learned to do so long ago, and his blue eyes calmed slightly. "Please, Lauren, we need you to do this. If not for me, at least for the next victim."

Lauren sighed and said, "Dyson, I don't-"

"Come on, Hotpants. Loosen up, get out into the town for once," A snarky voice said behind Lauren, making the woman jump despite herself. Looking around, she saw the ever so beautiful Icelandic blonde detective sauntering up from the doorway. Her hair was pushed into a bun as it always was and she wore a tight fitting green tank-top with black slacks. A small chain ran across her neck and laced into a small white pendant that looked beautiful against her fair skin.

"You've got to be getting some type of cabin fever from being cooped up in your apartment all day," She sighed, her nose scrunching as it always did. Getting to the chair Lauren sat in, Tamsin leaned onto the back of it, her breasts almost falling out of her tank-top into the blonde's face as the human was still looking at the lighter blonde, and her knuckles dug nicely into Lauren's back.

The doctor tried not to blush, no way was she going to let Dyson- if he didn't already know- of the few times the valkyrie and human had met for some... extracurricular activity, and she turned back around to the detective and sighed. "Fine, I'll go," She said, sighing as she tried not to fidget from Tamsin's knuckles as they hit every spot Lauren loved to be soothed on her back.

"Excellent!" Dyson clapped his hands together slightly and turned. He was about to walk away, probably to tell his boss of an informant he had just indoctrinated into the investigation, when he turned round to Lauren again. She could have sworn he was trying to hide a very wide grin as he said, "Oh, and Tamsin will be your wife on this case."

Lauren had no time at all to protest, she knew she would have thought of something really good to say, before Dyson sauntered away and she was left alone with a devilishly smiling Tamsin. The valkyrie looked Lauren up and down as she smiled and she scrunched up her nose again before walking away to her desk.

Just wonderful.

Tamsin held a very sneaky grin as she slapped Lauren's ass as they walked up to the house the light fae had held for them. The aching sun was beating onto them, it raced Lauren's heart, and Tamsin knew it wasn't the only thing racing after she slapped the doctor. The human held back a small yelp, Tamsin saw with a sinful smile, as she wasn't expecting any type of physical attachment from the valkyrie, and she glared back at Tamsin.

"Just keeping up appearances," The detective said innocently as she shrugged. The luggage she carried didn't seem to weigh her down once soever and Lauren just rolled her eyes as she turned again. Tamsin bit her lip as the doctor turned away, her hair falling into her face again as she tried to lift her bag, and the valkyrie could see small streams of perspiration crawling down Lauren's neck and back as they moved their heavy luggage into the house; she was turned on way too much by the simple movements of the doctor and she had to calm herself down before she did anything... oh so delectable.

Getting into the house made Tamsin cringe as she looked around. The fae had taken care of the furniture, it looked like Martha Stewart had a vomit fest in there Tamsin decided with a dissatisfied look, and all the couple needed to bring was a weeks worth of clothing. The artwork mirrored that of Lauren's, naked women every which way, and Tamsin had to hold back a chuckle from the many times she had banged the human against those same pieces of art back at her place.

Tamsin, who was watching Lauren struggle with carrying both of her bags- what, did she have her freaking lab equipment in there with her- sighed and moved past the human. Taking the heavier of the two bags from the doctor's grip, Tamsin eyed her as Lauren looked up surprised.

"Shouldn't be so surprised, doc. I can be pretty damn nice when the need arises." Tamsin's voice had rose a few octaves as she tried to sound nonchalant and she wondered if the darker blonde would notice. Instead of wondering, Tamsin carried Lauren's things into the house and dumped them at the foot of the stairs.

She watched as Lauren moved into the house, carrying her remaining bag with both of her hands, and rolled her eyes while she looked up the stairs; wondering if she should take her things or Lauren's up first, she couldn't decide. As she looked at Lauren as she bent down to discard her luggage on the ground, Tamsin saw the doctor's shirt lift up ever so slightly to expose beautiful, sweat beading skin.

This is going to be a very fun time.

It was the first time they ever had sex after months of pretending they never had any type of interaction before. The first time Lauren had felt the valkyrie's touch and it wasn't under the allusion of trying to get over Bo. It had been the second day they had to share a bed together that it happened, not as though the two women would ever try to stop it.

Lauren had moved too far into Tamsin's space, her back barely arching into Tamsin's chest, and the valkyrie had taken advantage.

Her hand had been propping up her head as they watched TV together, some mindless cop show with two female leads that swore they were both straight but the valkyrie had found the subtext too incredible to ignore, and when Lauren stretched her back, Tamsin let her other hand fall gently onto the human's stomach. They laid like that for a few minutes until Lauren, yet again, moved backward into Tamsin just a little bit more.

Tamsin's eyebrow rose in a silent question as Lauren made it a point to watch the television intently. There was no use in going back to watching the show, and Tamsin brought her nose down onto Lauren's neck slowly, through the blonde's wonderful curls, and nuzzled it as she sent long languid kisses up the human's neck to her ear and back again. She grinned as she heard the doctor's breath hitch and she continued to kiss the woman in the area of her neck Tamsin knew she loved.

She played gently with the blonde's curls as she moved her lips around Lauren's neck, to her chin, to her mouth. Capturing the doctor's lips with her own, Tamsin heard Lauren moan with want, a slightly different moan than she had used all those months ago for the numerous one-night stands they had both shared. Was it really still called one-night stands if they had done it more than eight times?

Regardless, it had been a long time for both of them.

This wasn't like the fucks Tamsin gave to poor folk in the bars she had visited, like she had given Lauren no matter her feelings before. For some reason this human, the woman that could get her to come back again and again, the doctor, captured the softness of the valkyrie and held her there suspended in that small space just before the storm; the eye. Everything was calm, nothing was frantic, Tamsin made everything last.

Their breaths hitched as Tamsin brought Lauren to climax again, her blonde curls clinging to her sweat drenched forehead, her mouth being captured again by the valkyrie's. Tamsin's name was drowned out again by Lauren's moans of ecstasy as the fae began to move her fingers, without giving Lauren any time to come off from her recent orgasm.

Everything was calm.

Nothing was frantic.

Tamsin made everything... last.

It had been the fourth day they had been there, in the small home, by themselves. Dyson checked up on them every day in the morning, mid-day, and evening but that was the only interaction with the outside world other than the very nice, yet vain, neighbors.

Tamsin had just come back from recon of the suburban area and she was tired as hell. Talking nice to people, trying to interrogate them without them knowing, and sneaking through their homes when she asked for a bathroom really wasn't her style as she preferred the in-your-face approach best. But as she came in and saw Lauren in the kitchen cooking for no one else but Tamsin, the valkyrie's tiredness slipped from her like sand from a child's fingers. She would have been lying if she told herself she hadn't been glancing at the small ring that lined her left hand, the finger, when she was out. She liked it there, even made light conversation with quick glances towards the ring when out with the neighbors.

Tamsin really liked it there.

But she knew she couldn't. She was a valkyrie, a maiden of Him, she wasn't supposed to get involved. Her mentor's words echoed in her head over and over again throughout the day, and it was all she had to drown out the words. Besides, Tamsin thought, it wasn't like she really gave a shit about the doctor. No way, it was just for the free screwing, who would care for someone like Lauren Lewis?

You do, a small voice rang in the back of Tamsin's mind; you do.

When she had walked in, Lauren had smiled at her with a glint in her gorgeous brown eyes, and said, "You like pasta right? I didn't know, since you never stayed for dinner," Lauren's eyes dimmed a smidgen when she thought of their one-night stands and smiled after shaking her head as she looked back towards Tamsin, "and I wanted to make sure to cook you something you liked."

"You're a great cook, doc," Tamsin said instead of touching on the moments the doctor was most likely thinking about, "I think I can manage with whatever you make."

That made Lauren smile even wider as Tamsin sat down at the table, waiting to be served, like a real couple.

A real goddamn couple.

"Tamsin-" Lauren was cut off as the very harsh, very wicked gleaming dagger, cut into her throat. The man they were after, the killer, was holding her from behind, the knife biting into the doctor's strong neck.

Tamsin was sweating. She couldn't use her abilities. Not with Lauren standing in front of the man, and even if she wasn't, her abilities wouldn't promise them a swift capture of the murderer. If Dyson was late, Tamsin would be knocked out and wouldn't be able to protect Lauren yet again. They'd both be dead and it was all because Tamsin was too old, was too dumb, to even think about what she was doing. Her valkyrie powers were strong, but she had no directionality anyways, she couldn't make just the killer experience her doubt, for it would reach Lauren first and Tamsin had no idea if she had it in her for a prolonged exposure.

But still, she had to do something.

You're not good at this shit. You're going to get her killed.

Tamsin shook her head, expelling the thought, and tried to talk. "Hey buddie, just let her go. She's not going to hurt you, no one's going to hurt you here, alright?" Her voice was too high pitched, too shaky, it was even foreign to her own ears, there was no way an insane person like the man standing opposite her would fall for what she was saying.

"Heathens. We're all heathens. Thou shalt not lie with a man as thou lies with a woman. Thou shalt keep thyself pure."

Yeah, yeah, Tamsin thought, whatever. "The woman," She said instead, "that woman in your arms," Tamsin tried to get through to the man that was obviously brutalized as a child, "she's the purest person you will ever meet in your life. Just let her go, man. Let her go." Chipper, Tamsin decided, her voice sounded psychotically chipper. It held none of her snark, none of her defensive mechanisms, it only held that stupid chipper and decisive tone.

She had brought her gun down to her side as she spoke, her palm facing the man as she tried to calm him. Tamsin tried to channel the times she had witnessed Lauren talking to a scared suspect, even Dyson as he tried to keep people calm, and wondered why she had never taken that mandatory class on the subject. If she had, Tamsin thought, it would help her now.

Because right in that moment, it wasn't working.

The man was getting more agitated and Lauren's breath hitched again. The man was almost choking her with the knife. If she breathed too harshly, if she dared to move just a fraction of an inch, the knife would rip into her neck; if she breathed at all, she'd die.

"Please," Tamsin pleaded, "please just let her go."

"Heathens. Heathens!" The man was getting hysteric as every word he said he would lift Lauren to the tips of her toes with just the force of the knife.

The pained expression, the fear in Lauren's eyes made something snap in Tamsin. Something so primal, even more primal than her own abilities, and she brought her gun up to aim at the man's head.

"Let. Her. Go," Tamsin breathed, her breath coming in sporadic huffs as she glared into the man's brown eyes.

It was the wrong choice.

The man screamed, he screamed bloody murder, as he moved the knife from Lauren's neck. Tamsin thought it was over, she would get Lauren, get out, and everything would be fine.

How wrong she was.

The man brought it so quickly into Lauren's side, it took a moment for Tamsin to understand the squelching sound at first, for her centuries of battle to kick in on what was happening. It wasn't until Lauren's face contorted with pain as the knife was taken out of her, the man raising it to strike again, when Tamsin finally understood as it clicked in her head.

There was no hesitation, no second thought, Tamsin aimed down her sights and fired off her entire clip, she shot square between his eyes and his chest, until he lay on the ground dead as a doornail.

Tamsin didn't wait, didn't even acknowledge the man falling away from the wounded doctor, when she discarded her gun onto the ground and ran to Lauren, her breath catching as she saw the blood profusely bleeding from the human's side.

"Tam...sin..." Lauren tried to say, a small smile spreading across her lips as the valkyrie bent down quickly and covered her wound with a strong hand. She tried to bring a hand up to touch the valkyrie's face, she didn't realize she had fallen onto her back, but it failed her and instead it laid gently at her side. Tamsin tried to hush her but the blonde continued sarcastically yet passionately, "My... hero..."

No. No. No. NO.

Tamsin grabbed the side of Lauren's face, tried to see her soul as it faded, tried to grasp that remaining essence and force it back into the doctor's body as she stared intently into her eyes.

"She's good, do you hear me! She's good. She doesn't deserve this. You give her back, give her back to me! I am a maiden of the great Odin, I am a shieldmother to the Sisters of Death himself, you will obey my command and give her back!" The order was not of anything of this world, not of anything Tamsin would have ever thought to order from the primal forces of the universe, but for some stupid and strange reason, she was risking herself for the woman.

Tamsin looked toward the ceiling, her face turning into that of a skeleton, her eyes sinking into their sockets and cracks appear next to her darkened mouth. The room went dark as she called upon the forces of death, destruction, and discord. The forces that were taking her Lauren away from her.

If she had a mind left in that instant, she would make some snippy remark on how she thought the blonde woman bleeding below her was hers.

It didn't' matter, nothing would stop her.

Even if she gave her life, her own essence, for the doctor's, nothing on the earth would stop her.

And just for a moment, for such a small moment as the valkyrie looked down at the human who's eye lids rested lightly in unconsciousness, Tamsin rembered how real serenity felt like. The last week with Lauren, even the minuet times in the human's bed months ago, it was all complete serenity. She wouldn't give that up after spending her entire life thinking she couldn't, she was forbidden, to have something so beautiful.

She wouldn't.

But it wasn't really her choice; was it?

For anyone reading the first chapter over, A: you're marvelous for doing so, B: you'll notice that this is a reboot of the story. I wrote it over four months ago and my writing style wasn't all that great. So this is the same exact story, just with a longer word count, and it's simply rewritten as a contemporary piece for my writing style now. Hope you still enjoy and like all the little details I wrote in. Thank you for choosing to read my work. You're in for a fun ride.