The humans talked together for some time, and then one of them, the smallest, suddenly shoved at another one. A voice, unnaturally vibrant in the muggy air, snarled, “I said no, dammit! I told you I don’t do that sandwich crap! You want a blowjob, fine. He wants a blowjob, fine. But I don’t take you in twos!”

High voice. A female? Perhaps. It was difficult to tell at this distance. She, if it was a she, was bargaining for something, but Kane didn’t know all of the words she used. The voice was cross but not desperate, wary but not afraid. Not the best qualities in a captive, but Kane was in no position to be choosy. He moved closer, but kept low.

One of the larger humans had gripped the defiant one by the arm. The other was speaking, not loudly, but furiously. “—cut your fucking throat and roll you down the mountain, whore, how would that be?” He struck, and the sound of the slap echoed on the empty road. “You knew the deal when you got in, so don’t go changing it now.”

The female (Kane was now a little more than half-sure of its sex) gave an exasperated groan and shook herself free of the human who held her. “Don’t get so fucking hostile. I said I’d do you, I just don’t like that backdoor shit. How ‘bout a compromise? I could ride you and suck off your friend at the same time, huh?”

Kane got maybe one word in ten, but the gist was clear. The bargaining was almost done, and that meant the humans would either return to their groundcar and clear off, or they’d soon be distracted by whatever exchange they’d negotiated. In case of the latter, Kane had a good chance of getting right up next to them while their attention was elsewhere. He was willing to try, at any rate.

Without warning, the small human suddenly stepped back and drove her foot ferociously into the largest one’s groin, which apparently hurt. He dropped like a rock and the small human spun and punched the other human square in the nose. Then she ran from the roadside. Ran to the woods.

Ran to Kane.

He grinned at her in the dark as she came to him, and then slipped aside and let her pass him and vanish into the trees. He stayed low to the ground, watching the injured humans right themselves, and waited to see if there would be pursuit.

They did some shouting. Some words he knew, some he did not, but the important thing was, they weren’t running after her. They came up to the edge of the road, but no further, and eventually they got back into their groundcar. Soon, even the red lights of their leaving were gone.

Kane rose and went to collect the prize for all his patience.

She was crouching in some scrubby bushes where she could see the road. She was laughing to herself, and it wasn’t frightened just-escaped-thank-the-gods laughter, but a fierce and victorious kind. Kane allowed himself another brief moment of misgivings before he closed in on her. Good slave or bad slave, made no difference. If the human was a female, it was coming with him.

Kane was a practiced hunter and he knew he made no sound, but prey have a way of sensing predators and this one sensed him. She stopped her laughing all at once, swinging around and leaping away at the same time, and forcing him to lunge for her.

He aborted her startled jump with one expert blow of his hard knuckles just below her breastbone, sending her crashing to the ground. He put his foot on her throat and shoved her flat, and then grabbed a handful of the flowy garment she wore around her waist and yanked it up. The scent of female musk wafted up, but after all this time, that just wasn’t enough. Kane got hold of the edge of her thin loin-cover and pulled it away enough to see the proof for himself.

Female. Kane found himself considering the possibility of gods in a somewhat more favorable light than he ever had in the past.

“I have it,” the female croaked savagely.

Kane leaned back and looked down at her. She was gripping his ankle in both hands, like an animal that knows it’s caught, yet still damned well means to bite. “Have what?” he asked finally.

“Everything. The clam, crabs, warts, herpes, HIV…” She seemed to founder there, but rallied back almost immediately, her eyes blazing out of her pale face. “Come on, sport!” she snarled. “Fuck me and die!”

Kane didn’t understand very much of that, but he knew the word ‘die’. Bemused, he flexed his talons against the human’s throat…the human he had pressed flat and completely helpless and who had just threatened to kill him. This was just about the worst human he could have possibly run across if he wanted to take one captive.

On the other plate, she was the first female he’d seen in five days, and if he had to wait another five days to find another one, he was going to die. If not from Heat, then because he had ripped himself open in a maddened frenzy and bled to death.

Kane let her clothing fall back in place. He took his foot off her and seized her by the hair before she could do more than scramble into a half-seated position. He hauled her to her feet and said, “We need to have an understanding.”

He would have said more, but just then, two white lights streamed into the woods. A groundcar was coming.

The human slapped at his arm, and then at his chest, and finally twisted around and kicked him in the groin.

The groundcar slowed and stopped, exactly where it had stopped before. That was no coincidence. The humans had returned for the female.

The female kicked him in the groin again, harder this time. He thought he might bruise. Distractedly, he said, “I am going to break your arm if you keep provoking me like that. Behave yourself.”

“Motherfucker!” she snarled, and bit his hand.

Kane hissed and slapped her across the face with very nearly all his strength. She banged back into a tree and he got her by the hair again and dragged her forward. He shook her once, just to get her attention, and then showed her his claws. “I need every part of you but your face,” he said, and then slashed the bark from the tree behind her.

She had gone limp, her eyes huge. She stared at him, really seeing him, and he glared back at her and let her see everything he was. Shock became eclipsed by fear in a thunderstrike of recognition.

It was about fucking time.

There were voices coming from the road. The humans, calling for their escaped prey. “Hey, Raven! Come on! You’ll die out here! Don’t be stupid!”

Kane understood every word, save one. “Raven,” he murmured, and the female in his grip eyed him warily. “That’s you, isn’t it?”

She didn’t answer immediately, but at last, she nodded.

Kane watched the humans pace around the edge of the road. The lights of the groundcar were still on; they searched slowly, but they were coming this way. He glanced back at his female, considering his options.

“If you try to run from me, I will kill you,” he said finally. “If you warn them that I am here, I will kill you. Now. I’m going to let go of you, and you are going to want to run.” He leaned close to her, close enough for her to see the points on his teeth, if she were so inclined. “And you are going to want to fight that urge, Raven, because I’m much faster than you are. And I’m in a really rotten mood.”

He released her.

She stood there.

“Where are you?” one of the humans shouted. It sounded like Kane’s wasn’t the only temper fraying here tonight. “Bitch, are you really this stupid? You’re going to die out here!”

“Go to them,” Kane ordered, and slipped back into the shadows.

She did not react right away. She seemed frozen in place, her eyes like pools of starry night as she watched him go. Just when Kane had decided that she wouldn’t move at all, that he’d managed to fuck up another female just like the yellow-haired one, she raised her voice and called, “I’m over here!”

The humans both turned in her direction, and Raven went towards them, her eyes darting back to the trees where she no doubt thought Kane was hiding, never realizing that he kept pace with her as she returned to the groundcar.