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"Rom, no." I could barely force the words past numb lips, so it wasn't a surprise when the dog ignored me in favor of the man he clearly viewed as a threat. I had to de-escalate before this got even more out of control than it already was. "No, Romulus! Back off!"

A little better, and it got Rom to stop barking, at least, but he kept his teeth bared, putting himself between me and Typhon. The man growled right back, eyes nearly as wild as the dog's as he took another step forward, ignoring the danger in his need to get to me.

Years of animal-handling experience kicked in, letting me push everything else to the wayside so I could focus on defusing this situation.

"Rom, bed," I ordered, finding a little more control of my voice. It was a command he knew, but he clearly wasn't thrilled with me giving it right now. He side-eyed me, his growl fading. I repeated it and locked eyes with him, which would likely get me bitten at the salon, but this was Romulus.

His ruffled hackles settled, and he reluctantly stepped away, heading for the back deck. He kept looking back at us, though, like he was prepared to protect me if needed.

The distraction of watching Rom to make sure he actually laid down wasn't nearly long enough, and in less time than I'd hoped, I had to turn and face the naked man standing in front of me. He'd somehow closed the remaining distance between us without me noticing, and I yelped, stumbling back a step. His left hand shot out, grabbing my elbow to keep me from falling, but in doing so, he pulled me closer. His nostrils flared, and the wild fury in his eyes exploded.

"Who?" he rasped again, voice tight and strangled. I saw his other hand try to move, to reach for me, but he winced in pain and left it at his side.

"What is happening right now?" I breathed. I kept my eyes firmly above his shoulders, trying very hard to ignore the fact that he was completely naked. "Typhon?"

He nodded, but his attention remained locked on my throat. I winced and reached up to cover the mark I'd seen in Detective Dodd's visor mirror, but Typhon shook his head, sliding his loose grip from my forearm to my wrist to stop me. The look he gave me was one I'd become familiar with during my nighttime conversations with him. When we hit a point where just nodding or shaking his head couldn't say what he wanted, his eyes would go dark and he'd clench his jaw, frustrated that he couldn't make words come out.

It made sense before because his mouth was incapable of forming speech. Now, though, I wasn't sure what was happening.

"Can we sit? I'll tell you what happened," I added quickly when I saw the impatience in his eyes. "I just kind of feel like my knees are about to give out on me." The adrenaline surge and crash from the bookstore, the resulting panic attack, and now this second intense shock had my emotions on a wild rollercoaster, and I needed to sit or I was going to throw up. Actually, even after sitting down, that second option might still happen, but I didn't tell Typhon that.

Ignoring the warning growl from Rom on the deck, he kept his hand on my arm, but his touch gentled, supporting me as we made our way across the yard. He seemed unbothered by his nudity, despite the cool air.

"I should be helping you. Lain said you weren't supposed to move around much," I mumbled. Was this what shock felt like? My thoughts were molasses thick but my head felt light and foggy. We were halfway to the deck before I'd remembered the bullet holes in Typhon's body.

He just shook his head, his mass of unkempt curls falling across one shoulder. That deep tan complexion had to be natural, unless he'd been sunbathing on my deck like this while I was gone.

If that had been the case, I'd have left the security cameras on.

A quiet, slightly hysterical giggle slipped past my lips before I could stifle it, and Typhon gave me a curious look tinged with worry. I just waved it off. After the day I'd had, I deserved a nice little breakdown.

He got us to the deck before I completely melted down and lowered me to one of the two chairs there. The other he ignored, instead kneeling beside me so he could keep hold of my hand. A fine sheen of sweat covered his skin, and his lips pressed together so tightly they'd gone white, but those were the only signs he gave of his pain. He stared at me expectantly, and I realized I was out of time to answer his question.

Stalling for just a second longer, trying to organize my hazy thoughts into some semblance of order, I cleared my throat. That only made the situation worse, though, as the bruising made itself known all over again. I must have winced, because Typhon sat up straighter, his gaze going straight to my throat. Clearly, I just needed to get this over with.

"There've been some strangers hanging around town for about a week now," I began. I flashed back to the day in the salon when Lain first mentioned the strangers, back when they'd just been typical small-town gossip fodder. "They came into my salon pretending to be new to town, then changed it to being on a road trip researching folklore." I filled him in on as much of the interaction as I could remember: how uncomfortable their vibe had made me and how they pushed me about whether I'd seen anything strange in town.

"Us," Typhon growled.

"Us?"

He nodded, pointing to himself. That didn't clear anything up for me, and I gave a helpless shrug. I liked to think that I was relatively intelligent, but this entire situation was so far outside the realm of anything resembling normal that I really couldn't be faulted for my confusion. Blame it on the shock.

Typhon huffed, his jaw working as he seemed to fight his own body, trying to force words out. "Us," he repeated. "Me. Beast."

That made a little more sense, kind of. Were he and the creature two separate beings? But they shared a body, so how could they be separate? Maybe it was like those old horror movies I was too chicken to watch, with the werewolves who lost all sense of self on the full moon? But… that wasn't right either. Typhon clearly knew me in both shapes, and neither one was some raging, out-of-control monster.

A headache started behind my right eye, throbbing through my skull.

Picking up where I'd left off, I nodded. "Yeah, I guessed they were looking for you. That was the night you first showed yourself to me, and I kind of forgot about them after that, honestly. You were a bit distracting."

Was that the tiniest hint of a smile on Typhon's lips? Or maybe a smirk? It disappeared too quickly for me to say for sure, but I was sure I'd seen it.

He gestured for me to continue, and I nodded. Taking a deep breath to bolster myself, I told him about today, when Lain and I had seen three of the four strangers head into Alex Copeland's bookstore. He grumbled low in his chest at my reckless, impulsive decision to intervene and go over there without backup, but he didn't interrupt my story until near the end, when the older man grabbed my throat to stop me.

Typhon's growl set Romulus off again, but he ignored the dog. He released my hand, his long fingers coming up to my throat, but he stopped before touching me. His eyes flicked up to mine, seeking… consent? Permission?

Unlike the strange men or someone else whose name I couldn't think of right now or I'd lose it again, the idea of Typhon touching me didn't send fear jolting through me. Maybe because I'd seen him broken and bleeding on my deck, clawing the wood through the agony of having bullets pulled from his body and his bones broken, and not once had he lashed out. He'd held it in check, holding himself together to avoid hurting anyone else. Despite his razor-sharp claws and deadly tail, he'd never once given me a reason to be afraid of him.