Jin watched on the monitors as Hayato stared after Natalie in shock. Hayato looked over at the camera and shrugged, then clipped the walkie talkie back to his belt and followed Natalie out into the garden.

In the darkened room, the light from the screens glinted off of Jin’s glasses and cast strange shadows over his face. He bowed his head, shoulders tightening, pulled his glasses off, wiped the lenses carefully with a cloth from his pocket, then put them back on.

They hadn’t had the foresight to set up any cameras in the backyard. There hadn’t seemed to be a need. All the activity Mr. Beckett had experienced had been inside the house. Now, Jin found himself staring at the tiny scrap of garden he could see through the glass doors in the feed monitoring the master bedroom. It was the only view he had, and it was useless.

There were the walkie talkies, however, and it was unlikely that Hayato could get into too much trouble with Natalie around. She already seemed to be a moderating influence on him, and if anyone needed moderation it was Hayato.

But Natalie was new to this. Natalie did not know how dangerous it could be to hunt with them. When Lightning had first suggested it, Jin had doubts about bringing someone who so clearly had no experience in such matters on a case with them, but Lightning had been unusually insistent. He’d said she had the right abilities for their team, and Jin had trusted him. That trust had never steered him wrong before.

Jin took a deep breath and released it slowly, letting it take the tension from his shoulders.

Hayato could take care of Natalie if such a thing became necessary. And she was taking very well to everything, better than he had expected. Besides, it might be that the events of this night would not escalate. More often than not, that was the case.

Jin sat, bringing the monitors to a comfortable eye level. Nothing to do but watch and wait.

・・・・・

A full moon hung high above the garden painting everything in stark shades of grey softened here and there by blues and greens. Natalie took a deep breath of crisp, cold air, letting it soothe her nerves and calm her mind. It was a perfect night. She closed her eyes and took another breath, this time slowly and deliberately. No. There wasn’t anything out here that smelled like what she’d smelled in the bedroom.

Hayato stepped out onto the deck and stood beside her. He breathed in deeply.

“I don’t smell it out here,” said Natalie.

Hayato let his head drop forward as he exhaled.

“No,” he replied. “Neither do I.”

Natalie walked further into the garden, stepping off the deck. She found herself charmed by the place. Tall shrubs hid the fences and neighboring houses from view. Clusters of tiny golden flowers scented the air lightly with a sweet, heady fragrance. The grass was still green between heavy flagstones placed to create paths from the deck to a small ivy covered shed and to a swing bench surrounded by dormant rose canes. All along the way were small shrubs and green leaves. Three trees stood along the edges of the garden. Their bare branches reached high into the sky, cradling the stars like black lacework.

“I wonder if it’s his garden or hers,” mused Natalie aloud.

“Both, probably.”

Natalie started at Hayato’s voice. She’d forgotten he was there. He grinned at her, amused by her reaction, and nodded his chin toward the shed.

“We should check it out. You game?”

“Lead the way,” said Natalie.

A stray breeze set the swing creaking. Natalie shivered and rubbed her upper arms with the palms of her hands. She wished she’d brought her jacket out here. A heavy, enveloping warmth dropped down around her shoulders. Hayato’s blazer.

Startled, Natalie looked up at Hayato. His expression was impossible to read in the dark.

“I’m fine without,” he said simply and set out for the shed before Natalie could protest.

Natalie bit her lip. She was grateful for his gesture, but she resented the fact that he made it. She wasn’t some helpless girl in need of rescue. Her hands clenched into fists. She reached up to pull the coat off, but the chill of the air against her skin made her pause. Sighing, she let her hand drop. It would be stupid and stubborn to refuse a kindness freely given. She slipped her arms through the sleeves, quickly rolling up the too-long cuffs, and hurried to catch up to Hayato.

The garden wasn’t very big for all its beauty. Hayato had already reached the shed and was checking to see if it was locked. Apparently determining it wasn’t, he dragged the doors open. The hinges protested, creaking loudly. Hayato and Natalie stepped inside.

There was a dusty, earthy, damp smell in the shed. Moonlight slanted in through the open doors revealing cobwebs and leaf litter covering everything. It was obvious that nothing in there had been used in quite a while. Hayato switched on a flashlight and started looking around and behind things. Natalie pulled her flashlight out and joined him.

A few minutes search revealed nothing out of the ordinary. Hayato called Jin over the walkie talkie.

“There’s nothing out here,” he said.

“All right,” said Jin. “Come back in. Lightning and I can take a turn while the two of you warm up.”

“Copy.” Hayato replaced the walkie talkie on his belt and turned to Natalie. “You heard.”

Natalie nodded and moved toward the shed doors.

A skittering noise made them both freeze and look at each other. Hayato pulled the walkie talkie back out.

“Jin. Did Lightning check the garden for animals?”

“Yes,” Jin’s voice crackled loudly in the small space. “There shouldn’t be any animals out there right now.”

“Copy.” Hayato seemed to be scanning the room with his gaze. Natalie did the same, searching for the source of that noise.

“Are you two all right?” came Jin’s voice.

“Let you know in a minute,” said Hayato. He clipped the walkie talkie back to his belt and gestured for Natalie to leave first.

“Come on. Let’s go.”

Natalie didn’t even stop to nod. She just headed for the open doors.

A skittering sound made them look to the side just in time to see a heavy shelf piled high with lumber topple forward with Natalie dead in its path.

For Natalie, it was as if time slowed down. The shelf fell slowly, but she was rooted in place, unable to move or think. Her breath caught in her throat and her eyes flew wide open.

Something slammed into her torso, knocking her backward to the ground. Her eyes squeezed shut against the impact. She heard the lumber came crashing down, clattering and skidding on the cement floor.

Natalie waited, eyes closed, for the pain to hit. No one could escape something like that unscathed. She’d have bruises, cuts, maybe even broken bones. She waited, but nothing happened. Tentatively, she opened her eyes to find Hayato above her on his hands and knees. His sunglasses had fallen off, so she could see his eyes were tightly closed. This close, Natalie noticed he smelled oddly of rainswept wind and leather. Her heart began to beat more quickly.

Hayato pushed back against the shelf, shifting it to fall to one side, shedding two by fours and panels of plywood and moving to sit on his heels. Natalie scooted back, away from him, and sat up.

“Are you all right?” she asked, hesitantly.

“I’m fine.” He put a hand up, hiding his eyes and forehead.

Natalie cast a glance at the large pile of lumber he had saved her from.

“You can’t be fine,” she said.

“I am.” With his free hand, he sifted through the small debris that had fallen near him.

“Really? Then let me see your face.”

Hayato snorted. “If I were injured, logically, it wouldn’t be my face.”

“No? Why are you hiding it then?”

“I’m not hiding. I need my sunglasses.” He started moving the pieces of wood closest to him, searching under them.

“Seriously? It’s the middle of the night! What do you need sunglasses for?”

Hayato stayed silent, continuing to search with one hand while shading his eyes with the other. It seemed too ridiculous to Natalie. He’d just saved her from randomly falling lumber, resulting in bruising and worse in a dozen different places, no matter what he said, and he was upset because he’d lost his sunglasses? Natalie rolled her eyes and put a hand down to help her stand up. It landed on a pair of sunglasses. She smiled.

Instead of standing, she held up what she’d happened upon.

“Is this what you’re looking for?” she asked.

Hayato’s attention focused in on what she held.

“Yes.” He held out his hand for them. She pulled them back from him.

“Not until you let me check to make sure you’re not hurt,” she said.

“I told you I’m fine,” he growled.

“You can’t be fine. Look at all of that!” she gestured at the shelf and all the wood that surrounded them. “You’re probably in shock or something.”

“I’m not in shock. I need my shades.” He lunged for the sunglasses in Natalie’s hand. She jerked them back out of his reach. Hayato overbalanced and had to drop his other hand to catch himself. Natalie gasped.

“Your eyes… They’re glowing.”

Hayato sighed and stood, brushing himself off. He looked down at her with eyes of luminous blue. They shone like sunlight through seawater, shimmering and shifting, with all the depth of the ocean. Natalie felt she could fall into them and keep falling forever.

“They’re always glowing,” he said. “Why do you think I wear sunglasses?”

He held out a hand.

“But… I saw you,” protested Natalie. “In the bookstore. I saw your eyes. They weren’t glowing then.”

“It’s not as obvious in daylight.” Hayato held out his hand insistently.

Natalie placed his sunglasses in it. He snorted, put the sunglasses on, and held out his hand again. Natalie stared at him a moment, perplexed, then understanding dawned. Reflexively, she put her hand in his and let him help her up. He dropped her hand immediately.

“We’d better get back,” he said. “Jin will be worried.”

Without waiting for an answer, he turned and headed back to the house. Natalie followed close behind. It wasn’t until she’d reached the hallway that an astonishing fact struck her motionless.

Hayato had touched her.

Hayato had touched her, and she hadn’t had a single vision.

This had never happened before. The first time anyone touched her she always got lost in the visions. Always, always. But this time, nothing had happened. Natalie stared after Hayato as he walked down the hallway and vanished around the corner. Was it him? Something about him? Something about herself when she was around him? Natalie wasn’t sure, but she knew she had to find out.