"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."

- George Bernard Shaw

                                                                                ***

Galloway felt like she'd stepped off an airplane at fifty-thousand feet without a parachute. Everything about what had just happened flew around in the whirlwind of her brain. Her mouth tasted like mint and she looked at Sirius to find him already looking at her.

He tilted his head. "What does this really change?"

She exhaled a laugh, brushing the pad of her thumb against her lower lip. 

"I wish you wouldn't do that while you're driving," Sirius murmured.

Immediately dropping her hand, she answered his initial question. "Well for one, I'm actually flagrantly disregarding the rules now. For another, everyone I know is going to have a field day with this. And third, it scares me."

"Scares you?" Sirius echoed. "Nothing scares you."

"You know, I used to think that," she said. "But doing this means that if anything happens, it's my fault."

"This was in motion a long time before you," he reminded her. He was quiet for a moment. "I'm willing to take the risk. Are we just driving through the night?"

She frowned, then raised an eyebrow at the double meaning his last question contained. "I think that's probably best. And two days ago you were saying that you didn't care to have any more reminders about how Hell enforces its rules."

"Liar," he said flippantly. "I've been lying since I met you. Mostly. The thing about spending as much time down there as I have is that demons aren't actually all that creative. Can't give me anything I haven't already lived through before. It scares me like pain scares all things with nerve endings, but it's not something I'm fearful of as far as myself is concerned and that's the difference. Are you okay to drive all night?"

"Well whatever I choose I don't think I'll be getting much sleep either way," she snapped, then sighed, taking her hair out of its ponytail in an attempt to relieve the tension headache that had taken up permanent residence in her skull. "Hand me my phone."

Sirius raised an eyebrow, but she flapped her hand at him and he obliged, grabbing the back of her hand before placing the phone slowly in her palm. He didn't let go immediately and she said, "You realize that we still can't just do anything we want, right? We still have to make sure we don't get caught."

He scowled. "So we just get to admit that we want to do something?"

She shrugged apologetically before dialing Logan's number. Frowning as it rang and rang, she glanced at the clock on the screen to find it was close to three in the morning and almost hung up. 

Then, a sleepy voice croaked, "What?"

"Caleb?" she asked and Sirius huffed, turning to look out the window.

"Galloway?" he said around a yawn. There was a shuffling sound and he groaned. "It's three in the morning."

"We can sleep when we're dead," she responded. "I'm sorry, I didn't think you would be asleep."

She could imagine his scowl as he said, "I haven't slept more than four hours in the last two or three days."

"My heart breaks for you," she said dryly, not finding much sympathy considering she'd had her share of late nights and long stretches without sleep. "I'd feel for you if I could reach you, honestly. But I need to talk to Rhys, anyway."

Now Sirius growled and she threw him a look. He thought, I don't have to like the last person you slept with.

Both eyebrows shot up toward her hairline, but he didn't back down from that comment. She turned her attention back to the road with a sigh, listening as Caleb looked for Rhys. 

"He's not here."

"Not there? Where does he have to go?" Galloway asked.

"Dude, I'm not his keeper," Caleb said. "Maybe he thought of something that could help us figure out what marker Hell needs on you. Why do you need to talk to him?"

She gave Sirius a side eye, then decided she didn't want to get into that. "Never mind. I think it can wait."

Caleb grumbled, then said, "Well since you have me awake, any more thoughts on what may or may not have been watching you?"

A shiver skittered down her spine at the reminder, but she just sighed. "I'm not even sure if anything was watching me. I mean, Sirius didn't smell anything and I didn't actually see anything."

"Maybe you're just getting spooky," he offered. "Happens when you hunt monsters for a living. Start seeing your death around every corner."

"Sounds like you're speaking from experience," she said. "But you're probably right. I just didn't like the feeling."

"Mm-hm," Caleb hummed drowsily.

Finally taking pity on him, she said, "Okay, I'll let you get your beauty sleep. I'll probably come by sometime Sunday, I think."

"This week?" Caleb asked, suddenly sounding wide awake.

"No, next Tuesday. Yes this week." Galloway frowned at his change in tone, wondering why he sounded a little upset.

"I, uh..." he hesitated, then said, "I won't be here. Rick called me, and I guess he's got a lot on his plate somewhere in Washington. I told him I'd come and lend a hand. I'll be leaving tomorrow."

"What happened to you don't have anywhere to be?" Galloway momentarily let go of the wheel to shift gears.

His tone became a little defensive. "Look, Rick's a friend. He said he needs my help, so I'll help him. Logan said he and Rhys could handle things on their own for a few days without me. I'll be gone a week, maybe a little more. I just thought you wouldn't be back for a few weeks since Logan told me your assignments usually keep you busy for long stretches."

"Okay, okay," she soothed. "Sheesh, I was just asking. Let me know if you need any help and I'll see you when I do."

There was a long silence, then Caleb let a big breath gust out and quietly said, "You know, I am glad that I met you before I...before I got killed by some freaking monster or cirrhosis or something. You're not quite what I expected but, hey, nothing ever is, right?"

Her lips parted as she listened, her eyebrows drawing steadily closer together. "Caleb are you...you don't sound okay. If you need to leave now you can. No one will think you're just skipping out on us. Don't be worried about leaving, we all survived without you this long, we can manage a few weeks while you go help your friend."

Sirius had been watching her with a scowl but now he frowned, leaning toward her to listen. Caleb huffed out a laugh and said, "Aw, you're not getting rid of me that easily. No, look, I'm just sayin' it because I might not get a chance later, but Collector or not, I'm still glad you didn't just let the Hound kill me back in Minnesota."

She shook her head, a little bewildered. "Well...I'm...glad you didn't shoot me in Minnesota."

There was another pause, and for a moment she thought he'd hung up, but then he said, "You're a good person, Galloway. You should know I think that."

The words made her stomach sink, and Sirius cast her an odd look.

"Okay, now you're officially weirding me out. Caleb, if something's wrong, tell me." She worried at her lip, wondering why it sounded like he was saying goodbye.

"Rick said he's dealing with wraiths. I just get a little nervy," he said abruptly. "Can you blame me?"

No, no she could not. Her confusion cleared away and she let out a reluctant sigh. "Okay. Well, just be careful."

"Yeah, sure thing," he said distantly before finally hanging up.

Biting her lip, she handed the phone to Sirius, sitting back in her seat. She jumped when he said, "Wraiths aren't that hard to kill."

She shook her head. "A wraith is what killed his family. Usually when that happens you get one of two things: either they avoid that monster like the plague, or they go out of their way to kill every last one of them."

"Huh," Sirius said under his breath. More loudly, he continued, "I would have pegged him for the latter."

"Me too," she muttered. "I hope this Rick person watches his back."

"What's his deal with you anyway?" he asked. "He looks at you like he's some kind of lost kitten and you're taking in strays."

"No he doesn't," she scoffed. Briefly she wondered what that made Sirius, then turned her face away from him, trying to hide a grin.

"Yes he does. Whenever he thinks you're not looking at him, he just watches you." Sirius growled. "Kind of pisses me off."

Now she rolled her eyes. "Sirius, I don't do very well with people being overly possessive. You're just going to have to deal with the fact that there are a lot of men in my life. I've always gotten along better with boys than I ever did with girls."

"I should hope so," he muttered. Then he sighed. "Fine. But I don't have to be graceful about it. Now back to the Hunter. What's his hang up with you?"

"I saved his life when he was a kid. He knew my sister. I'm the reason he's a Hunter and he's been looking for me for a long time." She said all of this with barely a breath, then looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Did you know who he was before?" Sirius asked quietly.

She shook her head. "No. The last time I saw him he was eight years old. After that werewolf bit me, he got me out of that town and brought me home. We worked together on a wendigo in North Dakota and I almost got him killed."

Sirius pursed his lips slightly. "Okay. How?"

She sank her teeth into her lip. "I made the mistake of thinking about you," she murmured.

His head turned to her, but neither of them said anything for a long time. Then, like it was a revelation to him, he said, "Theron took me because of you, not because of me."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her throat tightening.

He laughed, shaking his head. "No wonder he wouldn't tell me what I'd done wrong." Turning to face her, he said, "Good luck that the Hunter was there then. Convenient."

"Don't you start," she said with sigh. "We can't keep throwing suspicion at each other. Not if we're actually going to pull this thing off."

Sirius nodded, leaning his head against the window. "No suspicion. Someone like him doesn't have anything to do with Hell. He doesn't have the stomach for it. You're just lucky."

"Yeah, I used to think I didn't have the stomach for it either," she said bitterly. "Turns out you just have to get the right buttons pressed."

Sirius didn't say anything. There wasn't really anything to say.

"Anyway." Galloway brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Do you think we should go all the way home, or just stop in the next town and wait to see if Theron's going to send us to, I don't know, freaking Oz?"

"Would that make you Dorothy?" he asked.

She grinned and said, "Then you'd be Toto."

He rubbed at his forehead with his middle finger, then shrugged. "You decide. I thought you wanted to go home?"

"I don't have any ruby slippers to click together," she deadpanned. "I really just wanted to talk to Rhys. Beyond that, I think maybe a little space would do me some good, especially since I can already hear the three-part lecture I'm going to get from them."

Galloway grimaced, rolling her neck from side to side, trying to get the muscles to loosen.

"Why do you want to talk to him?" Sirius asked, his tone petulant.

"He had...a theory, involving you and me, and I just want to know why he had that theory," she said, trying to avoid thinking about how he had told her that particular hypothesis right after she'd slept with him. She didn't think that would do anything to help this particular conversation along.

"What was his theory?" Sirius asked. The lonely road was dark in front of them.

Galloway pressed her lips together painfully, then muttered, "Something along the lines that...being...with you would be the trigger." More quickly, she said, "He was involved with a demon before they tried to use him. I'm just wondering if there's anything a little more specific he might have to offer. If that was just supposition on his part and he doesn't think it played any part in the ritual..." She trailed off, not sure she wanted to keep following that train of thought.

Sirius snorted, surprising her. The snort turned into a laugh, and she frowned at him. "What?"

He shook his head, taking in a deep breath to stop laughing before he said, "That's not something that's powerful enough to leave a stain on your Soul. Trust me. If that was the case we'd see way more marked Souls than we do."

She frowned. "That's a little disturbing."

"Normally I'd say something mocking about you making out with a Hellhound, but since that Hellhound was me, I think I'll refrain," Sirius said with a grin and she smacked the back of her hand against his arm. Shaking his head, he finished, "Maybe if you were sleeping with, say, a prince of Hell, or something in that weight class, it would leave a mark on your Soul. But otherwise, no. Sex is a tool employed by Hell. If it caused something that drastic every time someone hooked up with a demon, not many people would be interested. Getting a brand on your Soul isn't exactly a walk in the park."

"Hm," she said, chewing on the inside of her cheek.

"Hm, indeed," Sirius all but purred, and she shuddered as he leaned over, nipping at the side of her neck. "Do you really want to drive around all night?"

"I...said we'd stop in the next town," she said, having to struggle to focus. Her eyelashes fluttered and she drifted a little into the other lane. With a hiss, she pushed Sirius away, straightening the car out. "Don't wreck my car," she gasped.

He pouted at her for a second, then brightened as something caught his attention. Galloway's jaw dropped a little when she topped a small, rolling hill to find a moderately sized town spread out below them. Sirius looked over, then smiled at her. "You have spectacular timing." Then he frowned. "I don't think you're going to be able to check in anywhere. Most places don't check people in this early in the morning."

Disappointment and relief fluttered in her chest. But he did have a point. In all her life, she'd come across only a handful of places that just checked people in at whatever time they happened to arrive. 

Sirius sighed. "Is it worth our time to look around?"

She looked at him, heat suddenly flooding through her veins as what he'd said clicked into place. "Uh-uh. No," she muttered, shaking her head.

"Are you—," he started, then swore when she turned off the main road onto a small dirt path that might have gone completely unnoticed if it hadn't been entirely too convenient for her.

Sirius watched her, crossing his arms and frowning. He scowled when she pulled off the track into a small clearing of dead grass surrounded by pine trees. Killing the engine, she said, "No point. That town has a chain motel. Usually means you won't find much else in a town that small."

"Is that right?" Sirius asked, looking unconvinced and a little displeased.

But she just smiled, getting out of the car to stretch, trying to work the kinks out of her back. Her breath puffed out in a cloud, and she looked up to find purple edges of daylight towards the east. Shivering, she turned around and leaned against the car, folding her arms as she waited.

With a sigh, Sirius finally got out of the car, coming around to stand in front of her. 

"You know for a fact everything you just said?" she asked, breath frosting between them. "Can't brand your Soul?"

He nodded. "I think I would have noticed something like that before. I don't have that kind of power and I don't care to."

She scowled and he braced a hand on either side of her, his warmth cutting away the chill prickling at her skin. His eyes matched the dark blue edges of the sky. Her heart beat in her throat, and he waited. 

Deciding to shelf her own self-control for the remainder of the night, she deliberately bit her lip, looking at him through her lashes. Sirius growled and pressed her harder against the car. Abandoning any pretense, she slid her hands up his chest, tangling her fingers in his hair, crushing her mouth to his.

Sirius whined against her mouth, then kissed down her throat. She looked up at the shivering stars, holding him closer. She sucked in a small breath when his fingers hesitated at the buttons of her shirt. But only for a moment before she nodded, and he peeled that layer away, leaving her in just her tank top.

Her hand scrambling behind her, she opened the door, then deftly slid into the backseat of the car. Sirius tilted his head, peering in after her. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, raising an eyebrow.

He laughed, the sound coming from deep in his throat. "I should have known."

Not willing to wait any longer now that she'd committed herself, she leaned forward and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him in after her. He turned and shut the door behind him, before twisting back around as soon as she touched him. Her fingers scrabbled over the buttons of his shirt as he kissed once more down her neck to her shoulder, where his mouth stopped.

He pulled back, his fingers exploring the scar left there from the werewolf. She knew how it looked, raised and knotted where the werewolf had torn out chunks of her flesh. Sirius shook his head, then placed his teeth over the scar, biting lightly at her shoulder.

She tossed his shirt into the front seat, kicking her boots off.

As various pieces of clothing were shed, she silently thanked whatever might be listening for the fact that her vanity had gotten the better of her, instead of her sensibility making her take the Audi and its distinctly smaller backseat. She bit his collarbone and he pressed harder into her, hand on the side of her neck to guide her mouth to his. Then he rose up abruptly, tearing his mouth away from hers.

Panting, he hovered over her for a moment, just looking at her. In what little light there was, she could see how blown out his pupils were, nothing of the iris left except a thin blue ring. He pressed a kiss to the hollow of her throat, then said, "I'm an idiot."

She gave him a half smile, her finger following the line of a jagged scar down his oblique. He shivered, then trapped her hand. Frowning, she said, "What are you saying?"

"That I'm the only Hellhound in all of history to break all the bloody rules and fall for his Collector," he admitted. The words looked like they cost him something to say, but at the same time, he didn't seem to mind spending them.

Her breath gusted out and he leaned forward, his claws scraping a path down her stomach. Breathlessly, she said, "Weren't you the one who said things like you and me don't follow rules?"

He laughed, the sweet mint smell of him washing over her. She put one hand on his shoulder to pull herself up as she bit his throat, feeling his pulse through her teeth. Sirius shuddered again and rasped, "If I'd known how easily corruptible you were, I wouldn't have said something so careless."

She tried to say something back, but he was moving and she was swept away with him.

She dug her fingernails into his back, gasping as she clung to him. He placed his mouth against her throat, teeth grazing skin as he braced one hand on the seat next to her head, his other arm wrapping around her waist, fingers splayed over her ribcage.

He made a small sound of surprise when she accidentally scratched him, but she wasn't willing to release her grip. She met his gaze, challenging him and he drew his mouth in a line up the side of her neck, a fang scratching lightly against her skin. He let his mouth hover over hers for a moment, barely touching, then he leaned in and bit her lip.

Galloway turned her head slightly, trying to get in a proper breath, and flinched when he snarled, the harsh sound surprising her. Looking back up at him, she frowned and he grimaced, kissing her for a long moment.

"I'm not human," he reminded her.

She blinked, then said, "Me neither."

He groaned, obviously delighted by her answer. She rolled her eyes, then arched up against him, lips only reaching his jaw until he tilted his head down and she slid her tongue along the edge of his mouth. He growled again, the sound pleased.

She tangled herself around him, her nails digging into his back. A sound that was very nearly a whine slipped from her. He knew what he was doing.

He let out a soft laugh as she bucked beneath him with a choked on cry. He really knew what he was doing.

Every breath, every movement of his was wanting, needing, taking.

But that was fine. 

He gave as much as he took.