Another trap door sprang shut.

~*~*~*~*~*
Jo had searched and there was no Amy Astin in the
wonderful U.S. of A. That woman had kept her promise, how had she done
it? Was Amy dead? She was sure she’d feel that in her soul, she pushed
into her office, her lair. She came to a halt, Shane was kneeling at
the end of her desk. Her longer hair in her eyes as she searched the
floor that would never give her any answers.

“What are you” Jo began, catching her voice. It had suddenly lost all the edge to it; she didn’t much like that feeling.

“Tina had to take a meeting with the designer, Doyle. They went to
lunch and she told me to amuse myself.” Shane said softly. Jo
swallowed, not feeling very much like herself at the moment.

“That led you here?” Jo asked, seeing the pulse in Shane’s delectable
neck, closing her eyes to the sight. She had to focus, she had to
figure out what was going on, even if she couldn’t be with Amy, she had
to have her alive, and well. There was no doubt about that. What was
going on that someone could disappear off the face of the earth like
that?

“Shane” Jo began and Shane knelt up, standing and Jo saw the blood on
her hands, she’d been playing with a razor, small nicks in her arm and
Jo turned away.

“Please” Shane begged and Jo shook her head, she couldn’t. Her body
revolted and Shane turned Jo, touching her lips with her fingertips
coated with her blood. Jo sighed, her eyes flashed open and Shane
didn’t flinch, unlike Amy. Jo licked her fingertips. Savoring the power
in the blood, then she looked at Shane, leading her to the couch and
sitting her down. She knelt between her legs, swallowing.

“I’m not rejecting you.” Jo began, reaching into her pocket for her
knife, slicing her thumb with the sharp edge, healing Shane’s self
inflicted wounds. Jo suddenly worried about what her blood might do to
Shane if this happened again, just healing the wounds was iffy. It
meant that her DNA sliced and spliced blood was mingling with Shane’s,
and that might not be safe. “I need a clear head right now, Chere,
something is going on I need to know what it is” Jo began, fighting
the darkness in her heart. The darkness that wanted to claim Shane for
her own, she batted it down, and Shane sighed.