30 FINDING THE MYSTERY

Following breakfast I went with EZ back to his place. Well, it was more like the guest house at his parent's estate. EZ said a man like him needed his space and privacy, even with very open minded and accepting parents.

We didn't bother stopping by the main house to see his parents, we went straight to the house that was set off to the left. EZ had turned the two bedroom abode into his personal paradise. It was a standard looking house originally with its two bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, you know the typical type of house you would find. Then EZ took it and made it look anything but typical.

The main portion of the house was very colorful, right from the minute you walked in. There were pieces of art and posters that took up so much of the walls. The walls themselves had been done in bright blue, though oddly enough he had left the carpet a bright white. The furniture was loud and modern with lots of fun accents. The things that could be found in the house were the hot pink loveseat with purple pillows, the canary yellow armchair, the metallic tables that reflected rainbows in the light, it all just screamed EZ.

The only place in the entire house that didn't fit that color scheme was the second bedroom which was down the hall from EZ's favorite place, his bedroom (more specifically his closet full of clothes). This bedroom was actually dark. It wasn't black, there wasn't a goth bone in EZ's body so black was so not his color. No, this room was a midnight blue, one of my favorites.

The windows had been covered with dark colored curtains to block out the light of the outside world. The desk was a dark gray and so was the massive gaming style rolling chair. The most color in the room came from the computer equipment. The computer towers, all four of them, were giving off a rainbow light as soon as EZ powered them on. The eight keyboards and the four different computer mice were also giving off a rainbow light pattern. It all looked really fun, but I knew what these machines were capable of.

I had seen EZ hack into some of the most complicated security systems and leave no trace. I had seen him get details on a bounty in seconds flat. He was definitely a world class hacker.

This time though, instead of helping me with work, he was using his skills to do a personal favor for me. I had mainly agreed to let him do this because he would have done it anyway, just without telling me about it until he was done.

I watched as EZ sat in his large chair. This chair always looked like it was going to swallow EZ whole whenever he sat in it. The screens were instantly on one's with the black coding symbols that completely baffled me. I was not bad with electronics, I could manage as well as any other normal citizen. But these things that EZ did with a computer was just beyond me, he could run circles around me with his tech talk and I couldn't hack my own computer let alone someone else's.

I just watched on as the letters and numbers sped across the screen at a dizzying pace.

"What time did you leave the bar?" He asked me with a serious voice. EZ always seemed like a completely different person when he was hacking or playing games online. It was like he had a completely different personality.

"We left probably half an hour before closing time, maybe a little less. At least I think we did. I don't really remember."

"Do you remember what time you got to the bar?" His voice was so much more focused when he was like this, a lot of his usual flare just seemed to vanish.

"Probably around one. I really don't remember that either."

"Seriously, you're no help here." There was laughter in his voice as he ridiculed me.

"Well, I was really drunk that night, it's all a bit of a blur."

"How much did you drink?" He asked, sounding serious for a moment before he spoke again. "Oh, that's right, you don't remember." The laughter was back again. The little prick. "I will just search for you starting at midnight."

He was already pulling up some videos on his monitors, all eight of them. There were different angles of the bar showing up on all eight of the screens. I could see the bar and the stools, the groupings of tables, booths, the doors, front and back, everything. EZ truly was a hacking god.

The video footage was moving fast. The images were flashing by so fast that I could barely keep up with them but EZ seemed to have no problem at all. He was watching all eight screens simultaneously and acting like it was nothing at all.

"There, that's you." He was pointing to the screen with the front door on it. "I see you had to show your ID again." He was laughing yet again, he always found it funny that I got carded every time I went out.

He zeroed in on me and soon I was showing up at a couple different angles on the screens. It looked like EZ was running his filters on the video right now, that way it was much more clear than usual. I could tell he was paying close attention to everything and everyone that was around me.

"What did you do, order the whole bottle?"

"I don't remember." I said again as I watched myself down shot after shot while the bartender looked at me with fear in his eyes.

"I think that might be our guy."

I heard excitement in EZ's voice as he looked at the man who had walked up behind me. The video didn't come with audio but I saw that he sat down smoothly next to me, almost perching on the seat like a cat.

The man was sitting comfortably and lounging lazily all at the same time. He was so full of authority and confidence that I could sense it even now. He reached across to where I had the bottle of whiskey in my hand and took it away from me. That was when he turned to the bartender and spoke to him. The scared looking man behind the counter started making a drink that he sat in front of me.

The man on the screen, who looked dreamy as hell, was drinking from the bottle of whiskey while I started on the mixed drink that he had ordered for me. I think I remember something about him saying a pretty lady like me needing to drink a more feminine drink even if I wanted something strong.

"Hey J, if you don't want him, I will take him. He is hot as fucking hell. Do you think he would swing my way?"

"I don't know EZ. How would I know when I don't know anything about him?"

I turned my attention back to the monitors and saw that I now had several more drinks in front of me. It seemed that Mr Mouth Watering and I got along nicely and I was drinking all those drinks fast. No wonder I couldn't remember anything. I had all those drinks plus the shots I had when I first got there. I had literally drunk myself into oblivion, but it was a delayed effect since I still seemed to be mostly sober.

After my drinks were all gone the man that had perched like a cat in front of me was getting up to pay.

"There, that's the transaction I need to look for." EZ was already getting to work but I was busy watching as I let the man wrap an arm around me and lead me out of the bar. I can't believe that I don't remember any of this. How could I have blacked it all out? I could see the pictures in my head and on the screen but they just wouldn't mesh. That was probably because all I could see inside my head was his intense looking eyes.

While we were walking toward the door, in the video that is, I saw that he was walking very gracefully. The way he sat, the way he walked, the way he carried himself, he really did look like a cat. I just really hope that he wasn't, I couldn't handle it if he was a supernatural like me, not if he really had bitten me.

If he really was like me, if he was a feline shifter and he marked me then that would mean that he and I are supposed to be a mated pair. That was the only reason for him to mark me. Did he sense it and I didn't? Was I too drunk to notice it? Or had I kept my wolf in the shadows for far too long?