She let her eyes close. She really was very tired from her ordeal tonight. The net and the prodding she’d taken from those electrified spears had taken more out of her than she’d wanted to let on. And now that she’d magically shifted to human form, she feared it was taking even more of a toll.

She let her thoughts drift back to what had happened moments before. Elisa Maza was obviously a very capable woman, to have taken on so many and won through as she had. And there was just something about her eyes… she had such beautiful eyes. Honest, reliable, open, true, even brave… Rare qualities, in anyone, but even more so in a human. As she fell asleep, she thought, Elisa Maza reminded her of a gargoyle… Maybe that’s why she’d been so willing to trust her somehow…

—————–

It was sometime after one, getting close to one-thirty at night, and Dominique found herself in Elisa Maza’s car, heading to the other woman’s apartment. She was having trouble staying awake – Really they both were, she could tell that much at least. ”Long night, detective?” She asked absently.

”I’ve been on my feet since five, yeah. A cup of peppermint tea would be heaven. I wish that coffee shop had been open so I could’ve got one.” Elisa replied, yawning.

”Just don’t crash the car, and it’ll be fine.” Dominique commented, yawning herself – Evidently it was contagious. She closed her eyes. Tea would be nice, she had to agree (or coffee – a chi latté preferably, she reflected). In any case, Elisa was taking her home to her studio apartment. Apparently, she had a guest room for when her sister would come to the city. Her sister was away at college now. Elisa’s home was close, her own home was on the other side of the city, and Elisa apparently trusted her enough to extend the offer of sanctuary. She supposed it made sense – Elisa had to know she’d given her plenty of opportunity to kill her back at the office building, so why wouldn’t she trust her now if she had been able to trust her with her life then? She supposed also that she could have declined the offer and asked Elisa for some change to use a pay phone to call for her driver, but she felt that would be testing the limits of even Lockland’s discretion. And she didn’t want questions being asked. The less you left yourself exposed, the less chance there was that you could be hurt. No, she’d trusted Elisa Maza this far, she thought she might just as well trust her a bit further. Besides, something in her just wanted to know, she admitted to herself – Once and for all, if was it possible to find a human who was really worthy of her trust. She’d gotten to know a good many humans over her lifetime, mostly in recent years as she’d been magically disguising herself as one of them, thanks to Titania’s gift. None of them had impressed her with their character that very much (a few might have at least shown themselves to her to not seem to possess particularly morally objectionable character traits, and there was one she currently almost considered something approximating a friend, but that was all). The last human she’d really trusted in the way she was now trusting Elisa Maza had, well, she supposed she would have died long ago but for the bargain that had been struck between them, but that hadn’t made his betrayal sting any less. If she were to befriend Elisa Maza now, she wondered, how long would she have to wait until she felt betrayal’s familiar sting?