The coffee mugs were still sitting on the kitchen counter when Tria emerged from her bedroom for another night of kicking Daimon tush. Frowning at an uncharacteristic oversight on her Squire’s part, Tria put the mugs in the sink and took a good look around. Most of the things that had been there that morning when she and Ash had returned were still in the same spot.
Since she didn’t trust too many people, Trinity also pulled double duty as Tria’s housekeeper. Leaving coffee mugs out, and a magazine open on the table was something that Trinity would never have done.
It was entirely plausible that Trinity had pulled an all-nighter, and hadn’t had time to tidy up before sleeping all day. At least she hoped so. All this talking and thinking of Gallu made Tria slightly concerned.
She walked out of the kitchen and headed for the stairs, stopping halfway up when she encountered Ash on his way down. “Seen Trinity?”
Ash stopped walking and stared at her as he felt out to find the Squire. “Not since last night,” he said slowly. “She’s not in the house. Does she have a place in the city?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Boyfriend?”
“Nothing recent.” Tria bit her lip, flashing just the slightest hint of fang. “I know you’ve got a lot of freaky powers. Would one of them be an ability to locate someone?”
“Sometimes.” Ash continued walking down the steps. “I can’t really sense her at the moment, but I didn’t feel any sort of death from her.”
“Death?” Tria turned and sat on the steps. Pulling a cell phone out of her pocket, she hit a button and waited, frowning when it rang trough to call answer. “Trinity? It’s me. When you get this message, call me. Immediately. I don’t care what time it is, or what happened. I just need to know that you’re okay.”
Ash could feel the worry roll off her in waves as she slowly closed the cell phone and held it in her hands. “Has she ever done this before?”
“Not since she’s been my squire,” Tria replied. “No, wait… she has remained out all night, but she’s always called to let me know.” She flipped the phone open again and placed another call.
“Yeah, it’s Tria.” She paused and frowned. “Okay, whatever. Look, take a gander at the parking lot across the street and tell me if a metallic black Corvette StingRay is parked there.” She paused again. “Because I asked you to, and because I’m a Dark-Hunter, and if you don’t look, then I’m going to come down there and kick you in the-“ She stopped with a smirk. “Thank you.”
“Threatening the Squire Council?” Ash asked, guessing as to whom she had called.
Tria ignored him as she waited. “It’s not? Thanks.” Flipping the phone closed, she looked at Ash. “Trin’s car isn’t in the parking lot, so she left after we did.”
Pulling his own phone out, Ash made a call. “Have everyone on the look-out for Trinity Wells. All her info should be on file, and call me when she’s found.” He closed his phone and looked at her. “It’s too early to panic, you know.”
Tria stood and walked down the steps. “I know.”
“Time to head out,” Ash reminded quietly.
“Yeah.”
“There’s going to be every Squire in the city looking for her.”
Tria exhaled lightly. “Over the past year, Trin’s become like family.” I can’t lose another one.
Hearing that thought loud and clear, Ash could only offer half-hearted mumbles as Tria walked out of the living room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth woke with a start, her heart racing as she took a panicked look around. After ditching ‘Larry’, she had run for hours, cutting across alleys, doubling back, and making her way through bars in an attempt to throw off anyone chasing her.
Eventually, her sides started to hurt, and her legs refused to move another step. Staggering to an all-night gas station, she begged the worker to let her sleep in the washroom for a while. Not wanting to let her, she continued begging, even offering herself as payment. After a quickie in the storeroom, she had the key in her hand, placed an ‘out of order’ sign on the door, and locked herself in. Sleep had claimed her immediately, and she lay there on the cool floor for nearly twelve hours.
Now, she lay there, shivering with a temperature as pain threatened to explode her head. Assuming she was coming down with something, and wondering whether the government agency she had been with in Nevada had exposed her to something, she pulled herself up to the toilet and laid her head against the cool porcelain.
Hunger gnawed at her stomach, and saliva formed in her mouth at the thought of eating. Her headache was worsening, and she absently scratched at her leg. Pausing to look, she frowned at what seemed to be a bite mark on her calf, although she couldn’t recall ever being bitten.
Her shivering worsened as she thought about it, and wondered if maybe during the attack in that alley less than thirty-six hours before, a dog or something had bitten her. That was all she needed, to be running from some undercover government agents, and suffering from rabies.
Unable to take the chills, she slipped from the toilet, her body landing on the floor as she shook with agony. Then suddenly, it was all over, and she stared at the tiles on the wall as voices sounded in her mind, telling her to get up and eat.
Pulling herself first to the toilet, then to the sink, she looked at her reflection, shocked to see an incredibly scary face looking back, with fangs instead of teeth. A small voice inside told her to stay away from mirrored surfaces, since it reflected a Gallu's true self. The demon face that stared back at her gave an incredibly evil smile.1
Her head whipped to the side as someone knocked on the door, and a male voice demanded entrance. That would be the employee that she had screwed in order to have someplace safe to sleep. He said he would be back at three that afternoon, and he was probably checking to see if she as still there so he could screw her some more.
Licking her lips, she opened the door, and pulled the surprised man in, shutting the door behind him. He immediately forced her against the wall, and started to undo her pants with one hand as he fumbled with his own. Feeling a sexual hunger that matched the need for food, she decided to let him have his way with her before she had her way with him.
Her back slid up and down the door as he moved against her, and just when the moment was right, she wrapped her fingers through his hair, pulled his head back, and sighed in contentment as she sunk her fangs into his exposed throat and ripped it out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Images fragmented through his mind, each one a shattered piece of a puzzle not making any sense on their own, yet completing a haphazard picture when joined together. Staring at the ground, Ash tried to sift through the kaleidoscope that ran through his thoughts.
Dark and damp. Those were the two things that stood out the most. That, and a fear that was almost palatable, yet oddly resigned. Opening his eyes, he blinked as he looked around the lot they were parked in. He had no idea where Trinity was, but he had a bad feeling about it. It was never good when a Squire disappeared, and he hoped that when she resurfaced, that she was without a head.
Trying not to feel callous at that thought, he attempted to rationalize it. Chances were that Trinity had been attacked, and although he hoped it was by a Daimon, that wouldn’t explain why her car was nowhere to be found in the city.
If Gallu attacked her, then that wouldn’t exactly explain the car missing, but would at least give a little credence to the theory that he was now forming. And by finding her body minus a head, at least they wouldn’t have to worry about having to kill one of their own to keep her from infecting others.
“You have to change your security codes.” The words were out before he could stop them, and he could have kicked his own ass for the look that crossed Tria’s face.
“What?” she asked. “No, wait, what?” Turning away from him, she inhaled, then let the breath out with a sigh. “Okay. Yes. I understand. No, I don’t, not really, but I can see where you’re coming from.”
Her tone and reply sounded a little too automatic for his liking. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he said softly.
She turned back to him. “No?” Leaning against the pole behind her, she crossed her arms over her chest. “You mean that you didn’t mean to imply that Trinity has been compromised, and that it now represents a threat to me?”
“Okay, yes, I did mean that.” Ash sat on the hood of her car, ignoring the warning look she gave him. “You can’t get emotionally involved at a time like this,” he said. “You have to start thinking objectively.”
“If you really believe that, then why are you standing here with me, instead of off patrolling for Daimons?”
“Besides the fact that you’re driving?” He stood as Tria stiffened and stared at him. “What?”
“Global positioning.”
“The GPS in her car has been disabled, and the cell phone isn’t responding.”
Tria glared at him. “You’re just thinking of mentioning that now?” She sighed in annoyance, and stopped as something else occurred to her. “The bank on the other side of the parking lot.”
“What about it?”
“There’s an instant teller there,” she said as she walked to the driver’s side of the car. “They take pictures every three seconds.”
Ash walked to the passenger side and got in. “Go to the Squire building, and I’ll handle the rest.” He wasn’t sure if the images would provide anything, but it seemed better than nothing. It also seemed to calm Tria a bit, and suddenly that seemed like the most important thing of all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dark and damp.
Those were the words that sprung immediately to mind as Trinity looked around. She could have added dingy, but that would be giving the small room far too much credit. She had no idea where she was, but she knew one thing for certain; she was undeniably up shit creek without a paddle of any sorts.
Then again, if she had a paddle, then she would most assuredly use it to beat the hell out of the next Gallu that gave her that ‘you’re dinner’ look. As a Squire, she had been subjected to a few different demon forms in her thirty years of life, but not one of them had looked as repulsive as the Gallu. Daimons were sexy-looking all the time, while even Charonte demons had an oddly beautiful look to their true form. The Gallu, on the other hand, when not in their good-looking human disguise, where u-g-l-y, with a capital ‘UG’.
At first Trinity had wondered why the man hadn’t killed her when he approached her in the parking lot, and spent a few hours tied up in the back seat of her Corvette as it sped along the highways contemplating it. All she could remember was having her gun on him, then the next thing she knew, she was in the cramped backseat, cursing her luck, and the Gallu as he chatted away on her cell phone while he drove.
When she got to their destination, she was shoved into a small room with crude bars closing her in. After checking her entire body for any bite marks, and finding none, she calmed slightly as she took in her situation. The only thing she could think of was that they knew who she was, and planned on pumping her for information before most likely changing her into some mindless drone.
She had spent the first few hours trying to make a fire by hitting stones together, but all she got were a few pitiful sparks, and nothing else. Her plans on lighting herself on fire to deny the Gallu her information was, ironically enough, on the back burner. The most she could do was play dumb, and hope that they just killed her outright and dumped her body in some remote location to never be seen again.
Not knowing if Gallu were telepathic or similar, she tried to avoid thinking about Tria and Ash, although it was hard. Tria was like a sister to her; and annoying, bossy, permanently PMSing sister, and Ash was just too sexy for words. Since he had been in the house, she had woken on more than one occasion sweaty after dreaming of him, and had to rely on long cold showers to douse the burning he seemed to place in every woman that saw him.
Another noise in the hall outside prompted her to feign sleeping, and she had to force herself to keep from opening her eyes as her ’cell’ door creaked open. Her charade was abandoned when hands grabbed at her shoulder and pulled her to her feet. Instinct took over and she brought her head down to ram it against the other person’s, resulting in making him stumble back and lose his grip on her.
Seizing the chance, she ran for the open door, pausing long enough to link her hands together and slam them across the Gallu’s face. Trinity had just made it through the door when five Gallu appeared out of what seemed like nowhere, and grabbed on to her. Screaming, she raked at one face with her fingernails, while kicking another and biting a third. Too soon, she was brought to the ground, and pinned there by bodies sitting on her so hard that she was having trouble breathing.
Screaming curses at those holding her down, she didn’t notice the person that walked up to her, bent down, and easily hoisted her to her feet. She was still cursing as the man turned and dragged her down the long dark corridor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Getting the images from the bank’s security system was easier than Tria thought it would be, and she shook her head at the inner power the Squire Council had. Having been around for nearly as long as Dark-Hunter’s, squires had their hands in all levels of government, and had access to more technology than she had ever heard of.
The angle of the camera was slightly to the right of where Tria remembered Trinity’s car to be parked, and the fuzzy image showed them nothing but empty streets. Two people appeared at the far corner of the screen, and then split up, with one running across the parking lot, and the other in the opposite direction.
“Go back,” Tria said, waiting for the squire to rewind the tape to a point. Tria held up her hand to tell him to stop, then leaned forward as the couple split up again. Closing her mind to visualize the area, she cracked her eyes open, and drew an imaginary line to where the man had run.
“That man,” she whispered, suddenly remembering something, “he was on the sidewalk when we came out of the building. Him and some woman… probably the one that ran the other way.”
“Why run?” the squire asked.
“Freedom.” Tria stood and walked to the window and looked out over the parking lot. Leaning against the glass, she turned her head to look down the block. “Did you guys check Nevada for her car?”
“Not yet.”
“Do it.” She stepped back from the window and walked out of the room. Continuing out of the office area, she took the steps to the ground level, then walked out into the cool nighttime air. Walking quickly, she made it to the spot where the couple had been, and stopped to look around.
Not able to see anything, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, coughing as the smells of the city and alley assaulted her. She could sense the lingering scent of sweat and fear, along with something that held the unmistakable odor of something non-human. Daimons had a particular scent, but this one was raw and slightly animalistic. Opening her eyes, she looked into the alley, and holding out her hand with a small fireball in it, took a step in.
“Find anything?”
Tria spun at the deep voice, instinctively closing her hand over the fire to extinguish it as she took a defensive step back. Ash returned her surprised expression with a calm one, and silently waited for her to speak.
“Nothing,” she finally said. “There’s a scent here, though.”
Ash nodded. “Gallu.”
“The man that ran across the parking lot.” She produced another fireball in her hand and held it up as she looked around the alley. Although she could see quite well without the light, it seemed to help her focus her gaze on certain spots.
“We have to head back,” Ash said after a few minutes of watching her. “You won’t be any good to anyone if you’re a pile of ash on the sidewalk.”
Tria snorted at that. “You’re a pile of Ash,” she muttered, “and no one seems to mind.”
“Cute,” he replied in a dry tone. “Come on.”
Facing him, Tria stared into his silver eyes. “Do you think that some Gallu took Trinity?” She frowned as he remained silent. “Never mind. Let’s go.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
Pacing from one end of the small room to the other, then back again, Trinity glared at the man that was seated at the table, watching her. She snarled when he had the audacity to smile at her pacing, and swore at him in every language she knew when he tried to ask her questions.
She had been swearing ever since the man dragged her from the hallway to the small room, her pretense of being naïve completely gone. Although she was legally listed as a housekeeper on her taxes, they had her purse, and her identification, and if they were smart, then they knew who she really was.
“Who is the woman with the brown hair?”
“I know a lot of women with brown hair,” she said and motioned to her own head as she paced. “It’s a common color.”
“You were seen speaking with her last night, along with a tall man.”
Thinking fast, Trinity paused to look confused. “Those two?” she asked, then continued pacing. “I was asking them if they were interested in a three-some.” She paused to smirk. “They said no, by the way.”
“Is that your official story?”
Having enough of this man’s attitude, she moved quickly, vaulted over the table and landed directly beside him. “Fuck you,” she said to his calm demeanor, although she could tell that he was calculating her actions in his mind. “If you’re Secret Service, then just say so,” she spat, willing to play dumb for the time being.
“We’re not.”
“Then whoever you happen to be, just get to the fucking point, and tell me what you want.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she gave him an ultra-snotty look. “Then I can tell you to fuck off, and you can decide whether to off me, or let me go.”
“Fine.” The man stood, went to the door, and took a step out. He was immediately replaced by a handsome man that seemed deadly even as he gave her a polite smile.
“We need your help,” he said in a respectful tone.
“With what?”
“World domination.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Standing on the sidewalk, Beth looked around, her vision taking in everything at once, and ignoring the non-essential elements to her needs. After a delightful meal on the gas station attendant, she had made her way back, by near instinct, to the place she had been the night before.
The streets were a little busier, even at this early hour, and she sniffed the air as the smells of humans called out to her. Although it would be easy to just grab one, some inner survival told her that she needed secrecy to do that. Killing in the open was one excellent way to get her own self killed, and she couldn’t do that.
In a sudden case of déjà vu, she watched as a blood red Roadster traveled down the street, and stopped at a street light. Suddenly, the car stopped, and two people got out, looking back at her.
Abandoning the car at the corner, the occupants started back to where she was standing, and not wanting to deny them the chance to be her next meal, she stood her ground.
Ash put his hand on Tria’s arm as she walked quickly beside him, slowing her slightly. “Gallu,” he said.
Opening her mouth to display her double row of fangs, Beth let herself change to display her demon form. “You,” she hissed, staring at Tria.
“Where’s the woman from last night?” Tria asked, ignoring the look she was getting. She cursed as the Gallu female turned and ran to the alley.
“Follow,” Ash said with a sigh. “But stay behind me.”
Not even thinking about arguing that excellent piece of advice, Tria stayed slightly behind as they entered, keeping an eye out for the woman. She wasn’t hard to miss as she jumped from a fire escape and landed directly behind Tria.
Before the Gallu’s feet even settled on the ground, Tria felt Ash turn, wrap one arm around her shoulders and pull her to the side as his other arm came up and over with a retractable sword in his hand. The sword came out at the same time the Gallu lunged, the blade slicing neatly through her neck.
Tria stared at the body on the ground for a few moments before she realized that Ash still had his arm around her shoulders. As if hearing her, Ash took a step back, removing his arm. Flicking a button, and pushing on the ground with the tip of his sword, he placed it back neatly in the handle and slipped it into his pocket.
Watching as he set to burning the body, a dozen emotions coursed through her. First on the list was the comfort she had just felt, as if nothing would harm her. Then she realized that she was standing in an alley, watching an immortal burn the body of a demon, and could have laughed at how completely messed up that seemed. Then, Tria suddenly felt angry. “Why’d you kill her?”
“She’s Gallu.”
“She was also the woman from the corner last night,” Tria said. “The one that took off when the man ran across the parking lot.”
Ash looked at her. “You sure?” He sighed when she nodded. “You,” he hissed in a whisper. “She was looking for you.”
“Me?” Tria shook her head. “You’re the ‘Big-Bad’ Head Dark-Hunter.”
“She wasn’t looking at me when she said it.” Using his powers to speed up the burning, he kicked the remnants around the pavement, scattering them. “Got fifteen minutes until sunrise. We have to go. Now.”
“She could have told us where Trinity is.”
“Discuss it in the car,” Ash said as he started to walk. He stopped when he realized he was alone. “Move your butt, Tria,” he said in a dangerous voice. She continued to glare at him, which unexpectedly completely pissed him off. “This isn’t the time for some silly little power struggle, got it?”
Continuing to glare, she walked straight past him and headed for her car, which was still at the intersection and about to get a ticket.2
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Comments
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i like how fast this got intense. both the sections with trinity and beth were very captivating and ash was well.... ash and therefore perfect. i love the end when he gets grr with tria because ash angry just makes him sexier.
once again, strong and intense and looking forward to more. at least i dont have to wait! read more later... -
Oooohhh.. the plot thickens. Nice.
Nice description of the conversion on Beth(is she going to be around long?) And kind of icky in the killing.. yuck.
I like the inner feelings you give for Ash. He may be as old as dirt, but he still has feelings.
Trinity is goona go bad!
Okay, so Beth *won't* be around long. And this Ash Tria thing?
Good thng I read fast... I'm off for the next part..
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