Her feelings.
Her love.
It would haunt him forever.
Sunshine went to the bathroom to freshen up while he turned on his desk lamp.
A few seconds later, someone knocked on the door.
Talon pulled his srad from his boot. Visitors didn't come often to his house.
"Who is it?"
"It's Ash, Celt. Don't have a coronary."
"Is it Acheron or Styxx?"
"It's T-Rex and I'm not wearing sunglasses."
Prepared for a trick, Talon opened the door carefully. It really was "old spooky eyes" and he didn't look pleased.
"What are you doing here?" Talon asked.
"Fighting Daimons. What about you?"
He caught the sarcasm and the condemnation in Ash's voice. "There were Daimons here? Where?"
"They attacked the Katagaria den and I went to help Vane and Fang."
Talon winced at the news. He should have been here to help fight. Damn, he'd screwed up royally. "Are they okay?"
"No. Their sister and her pups were killed in the fighting."
Talon's heart clenched at the news. That was one pain he knew all too well. The brothers would be devastated over her loss. "Man, I'm sorry."
"So, where were you?"
Before he could answer, Ash answered for him. "Wait, I know this one. You were at Sanctuary showing off your powers to a busload of Japanese tourists who were armed with digital cameras and camcorders. Congratulations, bud, we just went global."
Talon covered his face with his hand. "Oh jeez, are you serious?"
"Do I look like I'm kidding?"
No, he looked really pissed off.
"I can't believe this," Talon said.
"You? You can't believe this? I'm the one who has to go to Artemis to save your ass. She was freaking out over Zarek, now how the hell do I explain to her that Mr. Cool-Calm-and-Collected was doing his impression of Spider-Man in a bar loaded with tourists and ended up as the main feature on Tokyo news as what's wrong with American culture?
"Question. How many rules did you break in less than a minute?
"Worst of all, I now have Nick calling me up, wanting to know why he has to keep everything secret while you guys are running around exposing yourselves at random. The little prick even wants a raise because he can keep a secret while none of you can."
"I can explain."
"Okay, I'm waiting."
Talon tried to come up with a reason for what he'd done.