"Ciaro is dangerous to everybody here. He needs to go."

I looked up, shocked at Zeth's comment. Normally he believed in fair trials so thi was extremely out of the ordinary. "As long as he pays," I growled. "He has as much right to stay here as everyone else, Zeth. What is wrong with you today?" My voice was a cool, clean whiplash. Comebacks were always a forte.

Cara nodded beside me in agreement. "Jess is right. Cairo has the Rite of Blood and the Lore of the Sidhe to stay. And he always pays a little extra on top of the rent or his IV bags like the others who have the Rite," she adimonished. "You don't like him because he bit you when you tried to manhandle him."

He growled under his breath. Zeth was a cross between a were leopard and an incubus, which left him with an ever-changing skin tone, strped eyes and the ability to drain energy from sexual felings. Like half succubus Cara, he liked having the other were animals here at Passage, since they would mostly just have sex before and after the full moon. We called it Luna Fever.

Passage House was a large mansion located in between Kent and Essex and housed the outcasts of the paranormal world such as myself, Cara and Zeth. We currently had a total of twenty-seven outcasts who paid rent religiously. Even our most unruly residents like Drake Mendez and Taro Una would pay for their stay withou argument.

But one of the resident was too closed-off, too frightening, to many of the residents. Cairo Blackthorn, a vampire-faerie hybrid, knew the rules and abided by them and paid his rent. Unlike the others, he would be calm instead of panicking during the full moon. He would leave everyone alone and not speak at all. When he had first come to Passage, Zeth had tried to be rough with him and Cairo just lost it. He bit Zeth so savagely the guy had bled for the rest of the night. I had been the one to settle him into his single room with the en suite and explain the rules. All he had done was stared at me hard, like I was his next meal. Thankfully, he was always there in a crisis.

"The hybrid is a psycho, Jess," Zeth snapped. "He makes empaths like Cara and me nervous because of all the pain and suffering he has-"

Cara cut over him. "Cairo doesn't make me uncomfortable. If anything, its Jess he makes nervous. Maybe we should give Gibbs a call to try and talk to Cairo."

I sighed and got up to leave. I would get a word out of Cairo. I had heard him speak in his sleep on the first night he was at Passage. Muttering something about someone named Tyrannez hurting a girl. Although frightened, his voice had been deep, husky and delicious. I wanted him to speak again, to say my name.

Quietly, I made my way through the house to where Cairo was stting on one of the bay windows, just staring innocently at the lake where the Mer folk playing and sang to the moolight. Like always, his jet dark hair was brushed back and held in a flowing ponytail. He was dressed in blue jeans, a tight white T-shirt and a grey henleys with a pair of Nike AirShox. His deep gold skin glittered in the low light and his crystalline eyes were clouded with some unfathomable emotion.

"Cairo?" I murmured, making my approach cautious.

He looked up at my voice and smiled shyly, flashing boyish dimples. He gestured for me to join him and held out a hand to me. For reasons unknown, Cairo really seemed to like me. I didn't know why or wht for, but he did.

I sat beside him and he gently kissed my cheek. An unstoppable blush covered my cheeks. "What was that for?" I asked calmly.

He said nothing and smiled. He was a mystery I wanted to solve like Agatha Christie's detective characters Poirot and Marple. I had a thing for mystery book of all kinds, especially fantasy mysteries. James Patterson made my day with his Maximum Ride books that always kept the mystery going.

"Are you happy here, Cairo?" I asked gently, hesitantly taking hs hand.

His palm was rough, his fingers callused, but still soft. And large - I had a strange thing for guys with big hands and broard shoulders. Cairo had both.

"I am happy here," he said in a hushed whisper. Those pale eyes locked with mine. "I can feel the emotional history of places. I stay here because of the relaxed atmosphere."

I wanted to start crying in relief. I had had a feeling that Cairo only stayed here because it was safe from any kind of harm. I was so happy that he had spoken to me.

"Are you happy here, Jessie-Rose?" he asked whilst playing with a lock of my hair. "You always look happy but I can sense that there is a part of you that you try to hide from others." He shifted around to look me right in the face. "Free that part of yourself, little Rose."

Without another word, he got up and held his hand out to me. "Do you want me to show you what freedom is truly like?" he whsipered.

I bit my lip for a moment, thinking about it. Did I trust Cairo?

His eyes silently pleaded with me. "Please, Jess?" he said, playfully twitching his fingers.

I grinned and placed my hand in his. "You know, my parents always said I would end up with a dangerous kind of guy," I teased, getting to my feet.

"And why did they say that?" he smirked, taking my other hand.

"Because I was always like this - cautious, quiet, the kind of personthat usually ends up a librarian, then a cat lady," I answered with a smirk.

He laughed in deep, rich peals, the kind that send shivers down your spine. "Little Rose, you are far from a librarian or a cat lady," he growled playfully. "Now let me show you what your librarian sie brings out in my bad boy side."

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Author guidance for This story

Okay...Cairo is a name I saw in a story a friend wrote ages ago and I thoght it was very original. I got the idea for Cairo's style when i saw some guy in a Spliknot jacke with a suit underneath. Total rebel but it really worked well and so birthed Cairo Blackhorn. Also, Jess' hyphenated name is Jessie-Rose and roses have thorns.

Jess' character, on the other hand came fom watching Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil: Afterlife. Her personalty is loosely based on both mine and my friend Amy's because Amy is the cautious one and I'm the total rebel. Jess also is based in looks on a girl in the new film I Am Number Four I saw the day I posted this. FYI, its awesome, so go see it.

updated Feb 24 '11 by CASStorme