Renegades

Declan: I can sense it in him, the heaviness, the weight of what we are about to do. This little excursion to Caldwell wasn’t about closure, even if Sin thinks it was. No, coming here is about saying goodbye. Goodbye to the mortal world he’s protected, goodbye to the love he’s looked for over and over again all these years. Thanks to him, I never have to know that pain. Celia and I will always be together, and, no matter what he says about just needing servants, all three of us know Sin saw Celia and I as a mirror of he and his late wife. Though he’d lost her, he’d seen allowing our souls to remain together for eternity as an extension of what he hoped for -- that one day he’d be reunited with his twin flame.. And I can see it as clearly as if he’d drawn a picture that he’s given that up. Not a good thing for a man … well reaper … about to go into any battle, let alone one in which the odds are so stacked against us. He has nothing to live for. For a moment, I wish for Sean. He’s the one that’s always been able to help the reapers when they grew cold or despairing, using that gift of his to pull away from the pain. But Sean’s got his tasks and I’ve got mine and right now, Sin is mine. “Boss, why don’t we get off this building and take a walk. There’s no sign of our kind of trouble anywhere and I think we could both use a drink.” Ok. Lame, I get it, but sometimes people talk over a glass of whiskey and if I can get him to talk, maybe I can talk him out of this mood. Make him see the reapers need him. Hell, /Celia and I/ need him. He’s become our alpha. Sin: *Turning from the expanse of the city laid before us below, I tilt my head wryly at Declan.* I thought you were here in the official capacity of “bodyguard” since you and the others seem to believe I am incapable of defending myself. Declan: Snorting impatiently, “We both know you could take any one of us or all of us together without even tapping into that power of yours. You were a warrior before you were a reaper and being a reaper only made you more dangerous. I’ve watched you fight, even sparred with you. You don’t need a bodyguard. I’m here more to be a failsafe in case the Horseman or Lucifer tries to hocus pocus you into some kind of trap. Even /you/ are vulnerable to that kind of crap if you’re not on your guard and no one is on their guard all the time. Besides, it’s been a long time since I’ve walked an east coast city street. I’m not knocking your place in Hawaii, but even paradise gets old once in a while. So about that drink …” Sin: I am not fooled, Declan. *Arching an eyebrow at him.* You have something on your mind. So, yes, we shall talk about it over a drink. There is a Hilton Hotel not far from this abode that has a quiet bar with a fine selection of Irish whiskeys. Attend me and I shall take us there. *As he takes his place at my back, left hand on my right shoulder, right hand not on his blade, but the .40 at his hip, I am reminded that Sean and Adrian have seen to it he has the proper ammunition to combat our foes. Though I am reluctant to abandon the old ways completely, I understand why they believed firearms would be effective for “bodyguarding” me. At a distance, they could prove effective in holding off the enemy and giving us time to demat and reform behind them, and perhaps, if Declan’s aim is true, even removing a few from the battle.* Keep your weapon at the ready. According to Layla, this city has predators of its own. While we may not directly interfere in Annalise’s private battle with good vs evil, neither will we be prey to it. *With that, I mist us to street-level a few blocks from the hotel, reforming us not in the mortal world, but the half-world to observe our surroundings and be sure that we are alone before becoming fully a part of the physical realm.* Declan: My hand clenches on Sin’s shoulders as we hover in the half-world between life and death. “Sin …” Sin: I see them. *Before us in the alley a young female scrambles to retrieve a dagger from the chest of an apparent attacker. There are a pair of bodies lying on the ground and another trio approaches.* What do your wolven senses tell you? Declan: Inhaling deeply to scent the air around us, then wrinkling my nose … “Phew … the attackers smell like road-kill that’s laid in the Georgia sun for three days and then had a mountain of baby powder thrown over it. I’d say those are Layla’s “lessers”. The girl … vampire but not entirely. Not human, but …” My eyebrow raises … “angel? She smells like Zav but not as strongly. She must be a hybrid. Is that even possible? And what would an angel be doing here?. Sin: *Shaking my head as he comes to stand beside me.* I know not. Many angels still living are in the service of El Shadai, the white god. But as her scent is not wholly angel, and as El Shadai disapproved so strongly of the Grigori taking wives, I must believe that her bloodline is descendent of an angel who is not one of his tools. *Briefly, I open my inner vision and allow myself to read her essence. As a partially mortal being she will have a soul as well as grace and I should be able to see it. It will tell me whether she is likely to be friend or foe. My eyes widen at what I see and I tilt my head, disbelief in my eyes.* What are you … who are you …? *I wonder softly.* *Though I only have time for a cursory examination, her soul is unlike any I have seen in my long existence as a reaper. A normal mortal soul will project an aura composed of a myriad combination of colors ranging from yellows and rich golds to reds, blues and greens down to the darkest of blacks and all in between. A soul ready for ascension will be of the purest white, a nimbus of it radiating around the mortal body. But hers is different. It glows, yes, but shimmers with silvery blues that are very like the pulsating aura Zav’s grace forms around him, and there are flashes of a very mortal red woven through it. And there is something else. Even though her soul is something new, her essence is very old, and … familiar. But though I would delve further, now is not the time.* Regardless, Declan, she is outnumbered here and I find her enemies demeanor most arrogant and provoking. *Wrinkling my nose.* As well as odoriferous. I believe you are correct as to her assailants. The miscreants’ bouquet is so potent that even without your wolven nose, I can smell them. While I should not intervene in the Scribe Virgin’s affairs and have no affection for angels beyond our Zav, I am not about to allow any female to be harmed by such as these. If Annalise desires her life, she shall have to find another way to take it. *As the men advance from the alleyway entrance, I gesture to it.* Declan, get behind them and guard the alley. There is insufficient time for me to ward and glamour the entrance so it falls to you not to allow others access. You may do as you will with the lessors but re-direct any humans and vampires as necessary. Leave these three to us. *An admiring smile forms on my lips.* She seems to have done quite well on her own already. Between the two of us, there should be little difficulty in dispatching them. Oh, and Declan, have a care. I understand that lessers can be hard to kill. Go for dismemberment until we ascertain an effective method. A non-magical being who neither walk nor lift a weapon is of little danger and I sense they have no power of their own. Declan: “Remember that then. Your touch may not work on them. Don’t let one get close enough to find out.” With a nod, I ghost through the half-world to reach the alley entrance. Unless needed, I’ll stay in this realm. Sin: *I watch as Declan reaches his destination in milliseconds, then, fully forming in the mortal world, I materialize my scimitar and move to stand at the right of the female, offering her a hand up.* Mind if I join you? Seraphine: <Wondering again, how I was stupid enough not to bring any firearms this night. I truly had only been thinking about healing and therefore some young transitioned vampire male to feed from and test Lassiter’s hypothesis. An image suddenly appears to my right in a sort of mist unlike an instant dematerialization I was used to catches me by surprise and as I hear a deep melodic voice, I look up into the darkness to see a male. Who is he? Did #Cyrehn send him? He must be desperate to reach outside the species. Ignoring the offering hand gesture and I quickly got to my feet on my own.> Whatever, but stay out my way. <I responded as I charged towards the first incoming lesser, I dodged his right hook and stabbed him in the sternum where his heart once was with the retrieved dagger, briefly closing my eyes at the flash of light by leaping into the air to tackle down the next walking dead. As he leaned back from the flare, I took the opportunity to knock him down to the ground landing on his chest. I struck him with my dagger hand to keep him off balance but he was able to get his hands around my neck. I tried to use my left arm underneath his and wound counterclockwise to loosen his grip as I took my dagger and stabbed him in the chest again. I closed my eyes briefly against the light and landed on the concrete. I looked up for the remaining lesser and wondered what happened with the male.> Sin: *For a moment I simply watch her. The fire in her eyes struck a chord deep within me, one that I was loath to silence. I had not felt it in so many years that I actually distrusted the feeling. But she was poetry in motion, moving as fluidly as a dancer with the strength and cunning of a warrior. Murmuring half to myself.* Quite the battle angel, are you not? *Noting the flash of light when her blade penetrated the being… I cannot call him human nor male for he is obviously not… I perceive the way in which they die. Still. A reaper must have some fun from time to time and the creatures pose little threat to me. As the female leaps to her next victim and a flare of light indicates its dispatch, a smile curls upon my lip and I turn to the third, holding my scimitar at the ready. The creature is more wary of me than had been his brethren who threw themselves at what they had supposed was a helpless female. Perhaps it was the size of the blade I brandished as opposed to her smaller, but a highly effective dagger, or perhaps it was the feral gleam in my eye, but he halted as I faced him.* I know not what manner of being you are, but it matters not. Everything dies. *His bravado fades as I move towards him. Near panic obvious on his face, he pulls one of those infernal guns from within his jacket and points it at me. I stop and sneer.* Really? There’s little honor in such weapons. *That I have no fear of the armament is apparent and that unnerves him. He growls at me, his pale visage trying for courage.* “Fuck honor,” he spits out. *As he opens fire on me I lower my weapon and allow him to unload his clip into my chest. Blood flows, and there is pain but for a reaper neither the wounds nor the pain is debilitating. When it becomes apparent he is out of ammunition and I am simply standing there waiting for him to finish, he looks at me in disbelief, his face growing even paler.* “What /are/ you?” Your end. *It only takes a moment to adjust my sight to search for his soul. I wish to ascertain if Declan’s concern that my touch might be insufficient on this new enemy is accurate and I am surprised to find the being has none. Declan had been correct.* But I see that one has been here before me. You, my friend, are literally a dead man walking. *With a thought I exchange my reaper’s blade for a finely crafted dagger as I dematerialize into a fine mist, leaving him gaping as I reform behind him and slide one arm around his neck to immobilize him and thrust the blade home in his chest. A light flares and a resounding pop echoes through the alley. Releasing him to slide to the ground, I look back at the female.* I had hoped for a better match, but *shrugging* what can one expect of the soulless? Seraphine: <As I turn, I see another flash of light and the male shrugging as if killing is NBFD which probably meant it was a regular occurrence. Which meant he was probably a trained assassin or another hired bounty hunter. /Not/ what I needed right now. It’s been a while since I last saw any of #Cyrehn’s goons and have changed my appearance. Regardless, my guard was up and my suspicions on high alert.> Soulless or not, they’re a pain in the ass. <I get up and wipe my blade down my pant leg, black like oil smearing across as I search for my other one. Finding it against the wall of the alley, I clean off the other and keep them by my side since I have no idea who the BMOC that just appeared out of nowhere. My face was slightly throbbing for the lucky shot from the lesser. I need to get out of here and back to my condo.> Thanks for the assist. Laters. <I turned to walk briskly away to try and dematerialize without an audience not knowing what the species the male and his tracking abilities. If #Cyrehn has upped his game … then it looks like it was time to move again. This really sucks since I just found #Lassiter and had some help with trying to find my father. Whatever. Nothing I haven’t felt before but I was growing tired of playing cat and mouse. I needed another training lesson with #Lassiter about using my abilities to hide and train better.> Sin: Wait. Please. *Misting to place myself a few feet in front of the female.* I would know more about these creatures and your expertise at dispatching them tells me you would be a good teacher. *Yes, Layla has already told us a good bit about these things, but I wish to spend more time in this female’s company, and perhaps this is the way. Unfortunately, this is the moment, Declan chooses to materialize behind me.* Declan: I’d caught the sound of far away sirens with my wolf’s hearing and figured it was time for us to go, but as I take solid form beside Sin I catch the iron-tanged scent of blood in the air. Taking a look at him, I huff a sigh... “Dammit, boss, do you know what kind of hell I’m gonna’ catch if I take you back like that? Sean’s gonna have my hide for letting you play. You can replace the clothes, yeah, but the scent of blood is gonna cling to you until we get those holes in you sealed up. It’s so strong you don’t even need my wolf to smell it. The others will know as soon as they get close to you.” Seraphine: <He suddenly appears in front of me in another sort of mist. Teacher? What the fuck? But before I could even respond to the ridiculous request when clearly he had no issues with lessers when someone else dematerializes behind him. Fuck me. Two against one and they were definitely not newly turned lessers and seeing as one took a whole clip of bullets without much of a flinch and just some slow bleeding that smelled definitely non-human. He was dressed in all leather, lean and wiry which would make him strike fast against an opponent. Long hair hanging loose along with scruff … a rebel for sure. Not a conformed soldier … but a warrior none the less. The newcomer looked dangerous as well, I eyed him in his jeans and a tee-shirt. Casual. Then again, he also had bandoleros cross over his chest with steel under his leather motorcycle jacket. I could not put my finger on what he could be … vampire? But I snapped to attention when I heard their conversation. Did he just say wolf? Boss? What the hell was going on here. I take a step back with my daggers low at my hips ready to strike if necessary. Fight or flight was strong. I was outnumbered by beings I was unfamiliar with and whose skills were unknown. What the hell? <My defenses are on high alert, ready to dematerialize around the world to get away from them if I needed to.> Clearly you can dispatch the undead back to their master just fine … so who are you and what do you really want? Sin: *With some irritation, I look at Declan.* A moment here, if you please. *Turning my attention to the female, her distrust is nearly palpable, and I find I do not care for it at all. Reapers are used to striking fear in the hearts of mortals, but this … no. I do not want this female to distrust or fear me. Soothingly, I hold my hands out, in front of me, palms up and clearly unarmed as I begin again.* My name is Sin. And as you have no doubt already discerned, neither I nor my associate are vampire or human. As for the undead …*Barks a laugh.* I will say these beings are something new, but no, I am not unused to dealing with the dead. However, neither the dead nor the living have reason to fear me if their intentions are honorable. I will also own that a vampire of my acquaintance has given me a very basic description of these… lessers, I believe she called them? But she is a Chosen and her knowledge of them was limited. You, on the other hand, are clearly a warrior. I learned how to dispatch them by watching you, which was fortunate as my normal methods would not have been effective. Though it is unlikely I shall need to deal with them often, it is always wise to have knowledge of the evil among us. It proves helpful in dispatching it. Declan: “Boss, the sirens are getting closer.” I hate like Hell to interrupt this. He’s actually taking an interest in this female and it’s the first time in days I’ve seen him act like he’s interested in life, but it is what it is. “If we stand in the physical world much longer we’re gonna’ give them a hell of a story to tell back at the station about the guy just standing there calmly bleeding from a half dozen bullet wounds. We need to disappear. And we need to stop the bleeding. Even you can’t bleed indefinitely without it making you weaker. Sean would come … Sin: No! *My head whips towards him as he suggests contacting Sean. Calming my voice.* I have no need of his healing. These will resolve in a few hours. But, *turning back to her* it would indeed be wise if we could go elsewhere for a bit before I return home. I can take us somewhere we could speak further or perhaps you could suggest a place? *Smiling at her gently.* I would at least know your name. Seraphine: <I continue to take a few steps back as they argued with one another. Seems they have a friendly relationship with one another since the newcomer seemed really concerned with the bleeding. I could also hear the sirens but without any evidence, the police would only find the smell of baby powder and black blood is easily mistaken as oil. Their conversation was beginning to get interesting speaking of physical worlds. Also, the “Boss” named Sin having access to a Chosen. Interesting tidbit.> He’s right, you should check those wounds. You’re bleeding quite a bit. The only advice you need to know is to keep steel on you and aim for the sternum where their heart once resided until they pop from existence. Otherwise, they can keep coming back and really names aren’t necessary. <I backed away from them and then leaped up the building roof to try to escape from their presence so I finally dematerialize home without them tracking me. I decided to demat to different locations around Caldwell before going home not knowing their tracking ability especially since one of them was a wolf? A freaking wolf. Shaking my head as I finally entered my condo from the balcony. I went straight to my bathroom and checked on my injuries. Since I recently fed, the bruise on my cheek was already fading. A great benefit from normal feeding. I needed to see what I could pack quickly … just in case. I wasn’t sure if those guys were sent by #Cyhren but I needed to be on guard.> Sin: Damnation. *Quietly swearing as she dematerializes in front of me.* I do not even know her name. *Sighing as I turn to Declan.* I suppose it matters not. I glimpsed her soul and you have her scent. There is no place in any of the worlds we cannot find her and we have other business to attend to at present. But once it has been dispatched, *I leave the words ‘and if I survive’ unsaid. Somehow I find myself less willing than I had been to give portent to such an end.* I will find her again. *Smiling wryly at Declan.* Let us go back to Hawaii until these wounds heal. Declan: Nodding, “And before you start griping at me, Sean will meet us there. *Shrugging at his dark look.* He’s tapped into my brain until this is all over. I smelled your blood and got worried, so he asked. I ain’t gonna’ lie to him, Boss. Not even for you.” Smiling a little at him. “Sean’s who keeps us all on an even keel. Even you.” Eyeing the blood still flowing slowly and getting a little snarky to deflect is irritation, “You ok to demat or you want I should hold on to you? Sin: I am quite able to get myself … and you, should you forget the way … home, thank you. *Perhaps I am somewhat testy, and I should have remembered Sean was to stay linked to both ghost shifters for the duration, but I really do not need his attention and I would like to have lingered a moment longer to find the female’s abode for future reference.* Follow me. And try to keep up. Declan: I bark a laugh as Sin mists away. If it were possible, I’d say the fine black haze is swirling angrily, and hey, maybe it is. I’ve only been with him the last 35 year or so and he never really loses his composure, so this might be a first. And ain’t it interesting it comes on the heels of meeting that female. Nothing ever really ruffles him. Oh, yeah, I’ve seen him get angry but never truly lose his temper over something. He gets irritated or disappointed in someone, or goes into his commander mode when the ones he considers himself responsible for go off the plan. I’ve even seen him get vengeful when it was warranted. But his actions are always calculated, never stressed. And more, I’ve never seen or heard of him marking a soul to find in the future. Yeah, maybe this worked better than a glass of whiskey and some soul searching. At least, that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it when Sean rips me for lettin’ him get hurt. Smiling at how the Fates seem determined to work things out for Sin, I ghost out and follow my alpha home. #BattleAngel #PhoenixRisingFromTheAshes #PartThree #CROSSOVER #DarkAngelsCreations #PartTwentySeven #RenegadesRPG #RRPG #Renegades #Reapers #AU #BDB #Wolfen #Angels

Sin: We re-form on a penthouse balcony overlooking Caldwell. The darkness, ever my friend, hides us well, our dark clothing blending into the night. The city lights stretch out before me, some sure and steady, some flickering, as though unable to maintain illumination. So like the mortals of this world. So like their lives. Some are focused and steady, with purpose. Others are unsure, flitting from one activity to another without achieving anything, going from one person to another without finding fulfillment. The memories swirl around me as the wind surges, whipping my hair back from my face. Recently, one such from this very city had entered my life for a brief time, only to slip away, too young and uncertain for my jaded soul. Inhaling deeply I, raise my eyes to the night sky just in time to see a shooting star streak across the sky. The last bit of regret over that young one is exorcised from me as I close my eyes, that shooting star sending me further back, to remember the one soul I have sought for in vain for the last 35,000 years. My wife, my Ishtar, my Eve. Her face is still as clear to me as it was the day I had met her. Her father had sought an audience with the young warlord who had conquered the lands and united the tribes into a kingdom. He had been lucky I had let him keep his head, let alone gave him an audience. I had been neither so young, nor so foolish as to accept his artful groveling as sincerity. Ostensibly, he had been asking for safe passage through my land for a trade endeavor. While he fawned over me, I had others searching for evidence of his true intentions. But no one was more surprised than I at the quarter it came from. His daughter had accompanied him on his journey. Partially veiled, as was the custom in some cultures for young unmarried women when in the company of strangers, she had stood behind him, head bowed and hands folded in front of her. But when she lifted her head our eyes had met and I had seen the fire that was to light my way and warm my soul throughout my mortal life. Ever could I discern lies and ill-intent, as far back as my memory could carry me. As a child in slavery, it had saved me many a beating. As a youth taking my freedom back, it was the sword with which I had slain my enemies. As a king, it still served me very well. When I had tired of her father’s prevarications I had dismissed him to his tents for the night. I had no intention of allowing him to stay within the walls of the city I was building, and it was well I had not. In the night Ishtar had crept from his tents and found her way through the city gates and into my rooms. Though she thought I slept, I had been immediately aware of a presence in my room. When she reached out to shake me awake, I had lunged for her throat, the dagger I kept under my pillow in my hand ready to gut the intruder. Her startled gasp alerted me that it was not the assassin I had anticipated and our eyes met. Hers were wide, but unafraid. Even then she had known it was not in me to ever harm her. As I loosed my hand from her throat, she warned me that her father and his men were but an advance force, here to infiltrate the city and then open the gates to an enemy warlord. There was a price on my head and he’d intended to collect. I’d smiled and thanked her. I had long known about the price and been wary of my enemies’ machinations. The guard had been doubled and many patrolled throughout my city in small groups disguised as roistering dilettantes. I had even dismissed my personal guards. I had wanted my prey to remain unwary, perhaps believing I had grown arrogant and lax, and baited the trap well. That a slip of a girl had slipped through all that made me rethink my assumptions about what an assassin might look like, but that in this event it had been to protect me at the risk of a beating, or worse, from her father should he find out, intrigued me. Women were considered little better than property in that era, to be disposed of at will by her oldest male relative. And when that man was powerful, as was her father, great lengths were often taken to beat out any traces of independent thought or will. Her decision to take her future into her own hands and risk all to warn me caused the fire that had sparked when our eyes had met during her father’s audience to kindle higher within me. I could not allow her to return to his tents to risk such harm, so I had asked her to remain and converse with me. It would have been easy enough to command her to stay and to enforce it, but I wished her to be in my presence of her own volition, so I had called for my servants. They had rushed into the room, daggers drawn in anticipation of finding I had thwarted an assassin, but she had not moved, only calmly surveyed them, waiting for my intervention. She had shown herself a true queen in that moment, regal in her demeanor, courageous in her manner. I had smiled at her and raised my hand, stopping their advance, and commanded them to bring refreshment to my room as well as admonishing them to keep her presence secret for the time being. It would have been, perhaps, more proper to remove to the audience hall, or even the main dining venue, but, in truth, I wanted to keep her to myself for as long as I could. When the food and wine had been brought and a table set on my balcony overlooking the private gardens, we had sat and talked until the early hours of the morning. After the servants had been dismissed she had removed her veil and allowed her scarf to drop to her shoulders. Her dark hair had fallen in a silken sheet to her waist and the long-lashed, velvet eyes that had been revealed to me earlier had been but a hint of the beauty of her face. As she stood at the railing, she had turned to face me, and in that moment a shooting star had arced above her. I knew in that moment she was mine. She would always be mine. I had taken her that night and our souls had joined in an eternal flame that still burns within me. In the morning we were wed. A priestess of Astarte blessed our union before my court and afterwards I had invited her father to join us for a wedding feast. And after it had finished, my men had surrounded his and I had confronted him with the evidence of his treachery. I had asked my new wife if she wished to excuse herself from this judgement. Even a bad father can still evoke some emotion in a child, and hers was about to die. I did not want her to have that memory. But she rose to the occasion. She told me that if she were to be queen of Sumer there must never be any doubt about where her allegiance lay. She must have the confidence of the people and of the army. And when my captain-at-arms had brought my sword, she had stepped in front of me and held her hands out for it. Questioningly, he had looked at me. I had merely inclined my chin at him, my trust in her innate. He had laid it in her hands and then bowed his head and stepped back. Turning to me with the sword still in her outstretched hands, she had kneeled before me and offered it up, a symbol of her acceptance of my will, whatsoever that should be. I took the sword from her, and then raised her to stand beside me. “This is your queen!” I had shouted to the crowd, my blade raised high and my people had knelt and shouted “Ya hila, ya hila, arkae lilmalika” – ‘hurrah, hurrah, kneel to the queen’. I had smiled at the crowd fiercely, then turned to my lady and nodded. She stepped back to allow me room, but not too far back. A reminder that though I was king, we would ever walk side-by-side, equals in all we did. Her father had been brought shoved to his knees before me and I had separated his head from his body with one swift blow of my scimitar. Raising it up by the hair, I had shown it to all, proclaiming “Death comes to my enemies, life comes to my friends. Spread the word far and wide. Come in friendship and prosperity is yours. Aggress upon me at your peril. This is the reward for treachery.” I had allowed her father’s men to depart, tasking his captain with taking the head back to the warlord they served with a warning. That he did not take it to heart…. Well, that is a story for another night. With a deep inhale I bring myself back to the present. The shooting star had faded, leaving only the normal night sky. The memory of that first meeting left me filled with bittersweet regret. Regret that I had accepted the Horseman’s offer in my anger rather than allowing myself to simply move on to find Ishtar again in another life. Even after all these thousands of years, I still yearned for her, for that other half of my soul that completed me. I had looked for her for interminable eons, always searching the eyes of those mortals I met and souls I reaped looking for that spark, that connection. I must face the reality that I will never find her again. She had ascended. She must have. For all the darkness that haunts the corners of my own soul, hers had only had light. We are forever separated. I do not expect to survive the coming battle and reapers do not ascend. The darkness is coming and my only solace is that the night has ever been my friend. #TBC

Without waiting, I walk away, and turn down an alley before dematerializing into the half world to do my scouting. Celia: *Sliding off my bike, I go to the glass storefront and admire the pastries and cakes displayed* She’s good Zav. Those look gorgeous. If they taste as good as they look she’s better than good. She’s excellent and I am going to find a way to bond over flour and vanilla. Zav: *Nodding,* She’s the best. Let’s go in. *Walking into the store, a cheery bell, reminiscent of the one I’d had on my storefront door in Miami, jangles. The front counter isn’t manned at the moment, so we walk forward and I call out,* Excuse me, is anyone here? #TBC

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*Grabbing her hand, we mist out to find my destiny.*

  Ok, kink in the timeline but we will manage. Tina, get to mixing the cookie dough. I need 3 dozen within the hour. I'll be decorating the Chinsky wedding cake and getting it delivered. Then, I'll place the ad.

 #TBC

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 #TBC

Sin: *As expected, Celia was not being receptive.* Celia: You want me to WHAT? *It bursts out of me.* After the argument we had about accepting protection, now Sin wants to farm me out to babysit a human?* You are NOT sidelining me! Sin: *Gods save me from the female of /any/ species!* I am doing no such thing. I am asking you to protect a human that matters to one of us. We have clear evidence that not only are Lucifer’s demons in league with the Horseman’s thugs, they are working together to target us and willing to use those we care about to do so. It was a near thing with Sean’s female. It cannot happen again. And to be truthful, I cannot have my lieutenants distracted in this moment and Zav will be if he feels his newly found soulmate is in danger. Celia: You are just trying to get me out of harm’s way! *fuming at his masculine arrogance.* I’ve trained with Declan since coming into your service. I might not be as strong as he is, but I’m also a better shot. Ask him! Declan: Pushing off from the doorway I’d been leaning in, I raise my hands, “Don’t bring me into this.” The idea of my mate being away from me raises my hackles, but don’t like the idea of her in the middle of this battle either, no matter how capable she is. And the truth is, she is the better shot, but the way I see the coming battle breaking down is that guns are going to be useless. Yes, the special ammunition will take out anything, reaper and demon alike, but it’s most likely going to be such close quarters that you’d have as much chance of shooting a friend as a foe. This sounds like a better use of her strengths. Sin: *sighing* Celia, it is not a matter of physical strength. Bryn is not nearly as physically strong as Adrian, but she is just as competent on a battle field. I do not question your skills or your courage. But this assignment is one that uses talents you have that the rest of us do not. Hear me out. Celia: *Still fuming, both at my mate who did /not/ back me up and my master, I fold my arms and glare at him.* Talk then. Sin: Targeting our loved ones is a tactic designed to distract us and sow despair. It cannot be allowed a foothold. If it succeeds at the top, they will surely spread it down through the ranks. Therefore, it is imperative we stop this in its tracks. It is true we do not have evidence that Zav’s woman is being targeted, but we didn’t have evidence Sean’s was prior to the attack either. And we /do/ know they were targeting Zav in Miami. If Zav takes this on himself they have succeeded in depriving us of one of our ranking leaders. If he doesn’t, they have succeeded in distracting him. Either could be the blow that turns the tide against us. *Inhaling deeply. It is imperative I make her understand.* Placing a warrior with her who can blend into her life is the best solution, and you are the only one who can do that. She owns a bakery, and you have a rare talent in that field. At best, you could find a way to work with her and at worst simply befriend her over your shared passion. She lives alone, and as a disembodied soul, you can stay in the half-world when it is not possible for you to be visibly in her company to watch over her. You have weaponry that can take on any aggressors and the skills to use them appropriately. Your links to me will allow me to maintain an open channel with you should you need assistance, and *noting her stormy look at the suggestion she might run into something she couldn’t handle alone* there is no shame in calling for help. Sean and Adrian did just that and the outcome was all we could have wished for. *Pausing for a moment as the storm clouds recede.* Celia, I will be perfectly fine with Declan at my back until the final battle. Truely may not be. And isn’t protecting mortals what we are fighting for? Not every battle in this war is going to be fought at Callanish. This is not a “safe” posting. You’ll be alone, something I do not like but do not see an alternative to. You will have to rely on your shifter senses to discern friend from foe and your skills to protect her. If they come for Truely, they can kill her with a touch. . Your shifter senses will allow you to scent them from a safer distance and your weapons skills will enable you to kill them before can get to her. The danger to you is, *growing even more serious,* that once they realize you are actually a disembodied soul they will attempt to contain you and take you to Lucifer. My connection to your soul should alert me, but I do not want you in their clutches. If there were another way, I would not ask this, but with the resources we have now, only you are capable of safeguarding her, and in doing so, safeguarding the reaper corps. Declan: Coming up behind Celia, I place my hands on her shoulders, a gesture of affection and a reminder that I really do have her back. I know she’s pissed I didn’t immediately defend her abilities to Sin, but that wasn’t what this was about and I had known that. Sin had laid out an impenetrable case for her taking this assignment. I didn’t like it. Hearing him detail the potential dangers of it made me like it even less, but he was right. She was a natural fit for this and the only choice. We’re a mated wolf shifter pair. My natural instinct is to protect her, and hers to protect me, but this assignment was a better fit for her skill set, just like being on the front battle lines in the final conflict was a better fit for mine. Still, I won’t show her disrespect by trying to sway her in front of Sin. “Celia, what do you think? I /can/ protect Sin on my own if you decide to do this.” Celia: *I huffing at both of them.* You’re a smooth talker Sin. You make a good case. So how do I meet this woman? Sin: It’s a mortal lifetime of experience in negotiations with other kingdoms finely honed as a reaper by my interactions with the gods. Tact, diplomacy, and solid reasoning are always the first option before the sword. Violence is always the last resort in war. *Smiling at her, because this is where it will get more interesting.* As a ghost, you can travel where you please, but only if you have a visual sense of your destination. I am the exception to that in that the link we have by virtue of my connection to your soul allows you to find me, *much as the Horseman could find me before our link was dammed by the Inguz rune* You have never been to the safe house in Brazil, so I will take you there to meet Zav. *I hold my hand up as both Celia and Declan erupt in protest* I will be fine going directly from my own well warded home to another and Declan shall go with us. From there Zav will take you to his lady. The two of you will need to devise a cover story, as she does not yet know what he is, but I have confidence in your ingenuity. Declan: “I’ve got some things she needs to have with her. Since she’s undercover, she’s going to need a pair of .38’s and holsters that let her hide them as well as plenty of special ammo.” Turning her to face me and speaking to her directly, “I think one that lets you wear one at the small of your back and another around your ankle. And sheaths for your daggers. I’ve been working on one that fits over your shoulders and lets you access it from behind your neck. You’ll need to practice getting it and throwing in a smooth movement but you won’t have a problem with it.” Forcing a grin, “My girl’s good with sharp things. The other one should be an ankle sheath. So pack shirts with collars and pants that cover your ankles. And, since you’re going with Zav, some leathers. I’m sure he’ll find a way to bike it into town as part of his cover. Oh, and this….*pulling out a cell phone and handing it to her as I glance at Sin* There’s one for you too Sin. I know you dislike modern tech, but this makes sense. Zav wants us all to have them so we can stay in touch without the mental links. Your family is growing with the addition of Layla and Truly. They don’t have that ability and neither do we. This will let us stay in touch with each other. Sin: *Shaking my head a little at this reliance on something I’ve never needed before, but he is correct. Layla and Truely are to be part of my family now and this is part of not risking them. With a slightly disgruntled harrumph, I dismiss them.* I’ll leave you two to get outfitted and pack. We leave within the hour. #TBC

Sin: ‘Report.’ *The words are spoken mentally, but curtly nonetheless. I am not pleased by last night’s encounters, though my displeasure is not that they occurred so much as that I was not enlisted to help dispatch them.* Adrian: *Sin’s tone of voice snaps me to the Spartan version of attention and I can’t help wincing. Even mentally, his power is such that it causes a frisson of electricity to run down my spine when he’s angry. And today he’s angry.* ‘Sean and I were attacked by four demons as we prepared the holding location. We’d just completed the warding and Sean used the seal to spring the trap on them. We didn’t want one getting away and alerting Lucifer. They told us that they’d heard we were touring the corps. I swear, we did not ask any questions which should have aroused suspicions, but we did speak of you and the old days to gauge reactions. It must have been enough. Someone with loose lips tried to broker an advantage with the demons directly. It came out before we killed the last one that not only had Zav been followed by demons in Miami, demons had been tailing Sean as well. They’d traced him to his female’s home in New York State, although they were unable to penetrate it’s defenses. So they partnered with some of the Horseman’s boys -- DeAndre and his bunch-- to penetrate the mhis, *my brow furrows angrily* the reapers attacked Sean’s female, the Chosen Layla. We called for Bryn and Zav’s help, had Bryn remove Layla to the Brazil safe house, and dispatched the reapers. Sean’s there now with Bryn and Layla. Zav and I split up, with him warding Layla’s home and me resetting the seal. But we are abiding the pair’s directive. Zav called up a pair of reapers he’d just finished tattooing, Kojo and Aniel. Kojo’s with Zav and Aniel’s with me.’ Sin: *They had done their jobs, efficiently, I might add, but I was still unhappy.* ‘Why was I not called? And why am I just learning of this from Declan?’ Bryn: The call Sin put out had come to all of us. Adrian had just been the first to answer, but now I chime in… ‘You weren’t called because we can’t afford for you to lose you. You are the only one who can take on the Horseman. The.Only.One. The rest of us are expendable. You aren’t.’ Sin: ‘NONE OF YOU ARE EXPENDABLE!’ *it may have been mental, but it was a shout, none the less.’ Bryn: ‘Shhhh! Sean and Layla are sleeping. They needed it.’ Sean: ‘Well, I was…’ groggily. I’d been spooned around Layla, walking in her dreams. It was of the future she hoped to have with me and I wasn’t happy being awakened but as I register its Sin doing the yelling, I gently disengage from her and slip from bed to walk into the bathroom and shut the door. There won’t be any noise, but when I’d realized it was Sin, my body had automatically become alert and I didn’t want to disturb her. ‘Mo Chaptaen, we /are/expendable if it comes down to it. That’s the way it has to be because even combined we can’t do what you can. None of us are looking to die, but we knew what we signed up for with this. And besides, if we can’t handle a few demons and bad seed reapers, what the hell are you doing with us as your lieutenants?’ Zav: ‘You know he’s right, Sin. You taught me long ago that you don’t risk your biggest asset on minor skirmishes. And that’s all this was.’ *I’d been listening as I finished the warding and now spoke with the surety of more than a lieutenant. Though we were all family, I spoke as an old friend as well. I’d known Sin when he was human and I was still a living angel. I’d once taught the art of governance as Gregori teacher to his mortal king. In death he’d taught the art of war to my reaper.* Sin: *That Zav turns back the very thing I had taught him as a reaper I feel the urge to tear my hair out. But I refrain, because he /is/right. They are all right. I just do not like it. They are my family and I do not consider them “expendable” under any circumstances. However, his words serve their purpose and calm my irritation.* ‘What of the disposition of the slain?’ Adrian: ‘The demon souls have been dispatched for Sheol. What goes to Sheol, stays in Sheol. Lucifer won’t miss them for a while, and if he does, he’ll assume we caught them tailing us. That’s enough reason for us to kill them. He won’t look for further reason.’ Zav: ‘Kojo’s got custody of the reaper souls, but I’m not sure what to do with them. They belong in Hell where they should have been sent in the first place, but if he takes them there, the first thing Lucifer will do is tell the Horseman and you know as well as I do that Lucifer will just give them back to him. Or at least the information on Layla and our preparations.’ Bryn: ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got this,’ chiming into the mental conversation. ‘You need a Dybbuk box. Have Kojo bring them here…No, not here…’ Somehow, I don’t want their eternally damned and permanently deceased souls anywhere near my workshop or this safe house even if they are secured. ‘Ask Kojo to take them to Death Valley,’ chuckling mentally, because, hey, I can make a joke. ‘I’ll meet him there with a Dybbuk box big enough for 4 souls and bury it in the salt flats until this is over. Nothing will get them out of that.’ Sin: *Huffing a mental sigh at them all* ‘It seems you are quite capable of running things without me. I needn’t worry.’ Sean: ‘Sin…we’ve had to. You left the reaper corps to us a thousand years ago. We were capable lieutenants then and we’ve learned even more. We had to. We always knew we were just the caretakers and we wanted you to have something to return to when you were ready. Sin: *Softening a bit, because, he is right. I left them and they grew into their responsibility. I cannot fault them* ‘It is well you have done so. And I will be leaving you to shoulder the burdens again for a bit. I need to speak with Freya. As Celia and Declan have me under what is popularly known as “house arrest”, I am going to attempt a vision quest. Though my body and soul will remain under guard in my Hawaiian retreat, my consciousness will contact Freya to gain her help in removing the Inguz rune. I shall not be available during this process. Though you are all capable, Sean shall serve as first among equals during my absence. Be alert. Be wary. And most of all be safe.’ Zav: ‘Sin, I have a request before you go incommunicado.’ Sin: *In our long history Zav has rarely made requests. Occasionally he has negotiated, but asking for something without prelude tells me it is important.* ‘What troubles you Zav?’ Zav: ‘Sean is not the only one who has found his other half. I found Kalare‘s soul just as this was all beginning. She’s human again and just walked into my tattoo shop. It was later that a day I had to torch it. After this incident with Layla I’m worried about her. They could have put a tail on her since she was the last one seen coming into and going out of the shop. I’d like permission to go see her and to install Celia in her household, if possible. I know Celia and Declan are watchdogging you, but if you’re planning on doing your business with Freya metaphysically from your home, it should be safe enough to have Declan there alone with you.’ Sin: *So Zav has finally found the soul of his late wife. I am a bit envious at it. My Eve has long since ascended, I am quite sure. I will never see her again. But I cannot begrudge my oldest friend his good fortune, and in any case, I will not put a mortal’s life at risk.* ‘I do not require two bodyguards even if I do choose to leave my sanctuary. Declan would still be sufficient. I will have a discussion with Celia and help her see that this re-assignment is a gesture of trust on both our parts. She has not reaper powers, but I am sure she is more than equal to handling a demon or two should the need arise. I shall ask her to meet you in Brazil for further instructions.’ Zav: I breathe a physical sigh of relief at his easy acquiescence. It’s a long shot that Truely could be traced to me, but not one I’m willing to take. ‘Thank you Sin.’ Sin: ‘You are quite welcome my old friend.’ *Cutting off the mental communication, I find myself feeling some pride. There is a reassurance in knowing that, should this war end in my death, all will still be well. These four will restore the balance between death and the mortal worlds. Squaring myself off for an argument with my ever vigilant female bodyguard, I speak aloud,* Celia, would you attend me? I have a request. #TBC

Sean: Leaving behind only the residue of the black mist that we become as we travel interdimensionally, I reform almost immediately in the bedroom I'd claimed in the safe house. I knew Bryn would put her somewhere safe and the room I used had thick black out curtains. And, as I'd mentally predicted, she was there, beneath the covers of the large bed. Lowering myself carefully to the edge, I watch the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest, the delicate features, the mussed hair. Mentally I'm beating on myself for not having foreseen this could happen, not protecting her from the dangers of the war I'm fighting. But she will be. I can count on Zav for that. Gently, trying not to wake her until I've had a chance to wash the disgusting mixture of dried demon blood and fresh reaper blood from my body, I move a lock of hair that threatened to fall into her barely parted lips back from her face. And as much as I don't want to touch her until I'm clean, I know she'll kick my ass for not waking her if she wakes up and hears me in the shower. Very quietly, running the back of my forefinger along that fragile-looking profile, I breathe out... “Layla, baby, I'm back.” Layla: *I was in that lovely place where dreams erase memories from the day left behind. I was in my cottage, holding Sean in my arms whispering how much I love him while messing with his hair. The next scene was blurred as my mind started kicking me awake. There was a scent that was drawing me to it though it was muddied with unpleasantness. I slowly open my eyes when I hear my name called by the voice of my angel.* Sean, mo chridhe, you're here! Are you injured? *I sit up and start looking him over trying to decipher what was his blood and what was not.* Sean: Placing my hands on her arms to stop her as she frantically begins to search me for injuries... “Baby, I'm fine. Not a scratch on me. This all belongs to bad guys.” Leaning in to kiss her lips, careful not to let my blood covered chest and arms touch her, but the need to do so much more is almost overwhelming. I pull back with an effort of will. “I want to hold you but I don't want this stuff on me touching you.” Inhaling, “I hate that what I'm fighting came for you Layla. I hate I didn't protect you baby and I am so sorry. It's being taken care of right now. You'll be safe and so will your family, I promise.” Layla: Sean, you are not responsible for the actions of others. They chose their demise because they choose to mess with family. The bonds of love and family will always beat hate and evil. No matter the form. I've seen this, I believe this. You need to as well. Now let's get you cleaned off so we can hold each other properly. *gets off the bed and takes your hand leading you to the bathroom. I turn on the water and wait for it to warm.* Sean: As I let her lead me to the bathroom I have to smile at the female that's chosen me. “You're a wonder, you know that? Most females would be dissolved in a corner in hysterics at what you just went through.” Stripping off my ruined black leathers, I drop them in a pile on the floor before stepping under the hot water pulsing from the showerhead. Streams of bloody water begin to flow down my body. As I rub shampoo into my hair and beard rivulets of pink flow down my face and neck and I begin to realize just how I must have looked to her. It's a fucking miracle she didn't scream when she saw me. I don't blame her for thinking some of it would be mine. It wasn't like it was impossible. I'd been cut up my share of times, both by someone else and by opening them on my body with empathic healing. If I had scars from all of them there wouldn't be a square inch of /any/ part of my body that wasn't scarred up, but a perk of being able to heal others is my own body doesn't scar permanently. I only have two. One on my gut from the healing I did that killed me as a mortal. And one from when I was a kid. Both had left a scar on my soul and since my reaper body was just a projection of my soul, they showed. As finally begin to feel clean and revitalized, I stick my head out of the shower and grin irrepressibly at her. “I don't suppose you'd want to join me?” Layla: *While you were washing the remnants of battle away I stripped and waited my turn. When you peeked your head out asking me to join you I was already halfway there. I stepped inside the shower and let the water spray us both as my hands roamed your body unconsciously making sure you were whole.* "You look marvelous Love." Sean: My head tilts back against the wall as she runs her hands over my muscled chest and abs. Regardless of how tired and filthy I'd been a few minutes ago, my cock springs to life in response. “Gods, you're killing me baby....” Looking down at her as I pull her against me, my hard body against her soft one, I take her mouth. I want to be gentle with her... I always want to be gentle, she's been through so much, but the residual from the adrenaline spike of fight and fear for her is still running through me and I ravage her mouth, demanding, taking what's mine. Tongue and teeth move down her neck as I grip her hips and switch our positions, her back to the tile, then move my hands to grip her wrists and press them over her head against the wall as I move against her. Layla: Oh Sean, mine male. I need you. *I grab on tight as you spin me to the tile wall. My arms play with your hair, just like in my dream, as my mouth connects again with yours* Sean: Murmuring against your neck, “Baby, you /are/ my dream.” Sliding my hands down to cup your hips, I lift you, bracing your back against the slick tiles and thrust into you, your hot, wet sex parting from my cock, your tight body clamping around me. “Fuck....” Taking your mouth again as my body begins to piston into yours, hard and fast. My lips move to your neck as I groan... “I need you Layla-mine, I need you. Don't leave me, don't ever leave me...” It's a chant I can't stop, all my fears of what could have happened to her today flooding out as I claim her... “Mine...Mine...” Layla: *I am in the midst of an intense pleasure as he pumps into me hard and fast. I hear him chant over and over, "mine". I realize this need we have to claim each other again is more from the fear of what might have been than anything else. He needs to know I'm his always.* Sean. Sean look at me. *he raises his eyes to mine* I'm here and going nowhere. I'm yours, take what you need...my body, my blood, all of me. It belongs to you as you belong to me. *I hold him tighter as we thrust in time together. Our need building as we reaffirm our love and commitment to each other.* Sean, please...I need...more. Sean: “Gods... so tight...” The words are gravelly and ragged. Moving harder in her, stopping my thrusts for a moment to circle my hips against her, moving my cock inside her, searching for that one spot that will make her come apart. She gasps in my ear and I adjust the angle of my thrusts so I'm hitting it with every stroke, so that the tip of my dick is tapping the entrance of her womb. I growl as I bury my face in her neck and bite hard, knowing in my head I can't give her what a male of her species can but it doesn't matter right now. I'm going on instinct, guided by the gasps and cries to tell me what she needs. “Layla-mine....” I'm so fucking close. Her tight channel grips my dick with each thrust, trying to milk cum from my body. My balls are drawing up hard against my body as I fight for control a little longer. “Come for me baby... give yourself to me. Give me all of you.... I need you.... I need you...” Layla: *I cry out as he adjusts position and moan with each thrust that hits me just right* Oh Sean! Mo Chridhe! Yessssss.... *I cry out into the air as I cum hard. Stars of white are flitting in front of me as my breath is taken away.* Sean: “MINE!!!” It bursts out of me, a roar of claiming as throw my head back and my body explodes. I thrust into her again and again as her body spasms around mine, hot jets of cum filling her body. The orgasm is so hard it feels like time has stopped and all there is in all the worlds, on all the planes is the two of us in this moment for eternity. Finally, I'm spent, and I drop my forehead to her shoulder, her legs still wrapped around my waist, her back still braced against the tiles. “Mine...,” It comes out softer now, a promise. “I love you.” Layla: *His roaring claim wraps itself around my heart like velvet steel. No one can break is now or ever. This joining was a promise, a vow, and means everything to me.* Mine, eternally. We bend, we don't break, we are forever, this I vow. Sean: Breath coming hard now as my racing heart begins to calm, but I recognize the vow. I recognize the promise, more binding than any mortal ritual will ever be. Our souls our bound together now, forever one. I pull back and gently kiss her. “Hold on to me Layla-mine. I'm taking us to bed.” Holding her tightly against me, I move her from against the wall. With one hand I reach out and turn off the water, then I mist us back into my... no, OUR bed. I re-form on my back with her on top of me, and then settle her against my side. Grinning down at her, “I’m looking forward to doing that with you every night for the rest of our lives. *teasing* Maybe several times.” Layla: Several times works for me. *I smile as I snuggle into you accepting your physical warmth as well as the love I feel emanating from your soul. This moment is important, it begins a new chapter of 'Us' and as I close my eyes and just let myself feel, I smile.* Sean: Kissing the top of your head, I let myself be enfolded by the warmth that is love and family, and, for the first time in my existence...wholeness. “I never knew it, but I've been looking for you for over 2000 years. The other half of my soul.” Sighing deeply as I shut my eyes, happy in ways I've never been. “Sleep Layla mine, and dream. Give me your dreams to walk in forever. I love you. Goodnight baby.” #TBC

Bryn: Linking my arms with her after she and Sean say their quick goodbyes, I throw a look at Sean that says 'you-me-we're-going-to-talk' as I speak to her soothingly… "Come on. Let's let the boys be boys." Not that she really needed me to be soothing. She'd been scared, sure, but not in the panicked-deer-in-the-headlight way. No, it was the kind of scared that gave a warrior their edge in battle. The kind that sharpened your mind and reflexes. Adrenaline pumping, awareness of the danger, but not surrender to it. Boudicca would have approved. Without saying more, I mist us back to the Brazil safehouse. The three story Mediterranean style mansion could only have been Sin's idea of a safe house, but again, hiding in plain sight is his style. And he’d been right. The coffee plantation the home was on gave it the cover it needed. If the locals thought we were drug lords, well, it kept everybody in line. Rematting in the grand foyer I try to see it through her eyes. The foyer opened into a sumptuous open concept living/dining room with a fireplace at the end. The walls were done in earth-tone stone that extended up to fame the balcony/hallways of the second and then third floors. The floors were done in native hardwoods that mirrored the walls and the furnishings were a soothing, crisp cream and taupe. A bar lined one wall; the bottom painted the same crisp cream, the bar top finely veined black granite. Instead of screaming 'rich' at you and expecting you to be impressed, it invited you in where the luxury would gradually seduce you into comfort. A far cry from the cave in Wales I'd called home until Sin gathered us in to fight this war. And I'd probably continue to use it as home afterwards now that I had my workshop in place. Turning to the delicate-looking female, I smile... "So, are you ok? Sean healed that scratch, but I wouldn't blame you if you could use a shot of whiskey right about now." Layla: *This female had a power about her that made a fine warrior. If she was like my family she wasn't pleased to be here. Much preferring the action.* "A cold water would be lovely, please." *I wandered the area in a bit of a circular fashion taking in the immense home I'd been brought to. This place was not as big as the Manse but it was finely crafted and the decor was lovely without being gaudy.* "This home is very lovely, is it yours? Bryn: Laughing as I move behind the bar and take two glasses from the open shelving behind it. “No..... Sin is the one who likes to play the human money game. He has a lot of places like this around the world. He calls them "safe houses" for us. Places for us to use as bolt holes when we needed a respite and didn't want the Horseman to find us. Even though he wasn't leading the reaper corps any longer, he still tried to help us.” I dish some ice in both glasses and then take a bottle of water from the mini-fridge beneath the bar and pour it over the ice. Then I remove a bottle of Laphroaig Lore single from the liquor shelf and pour two fingers over the ice. Handing the glass of water to her, I raise mine to hers* Slainte' Layla: "Slainte" *I return the raise and good cheer and drink heartedly from the glass relishing the chill down my dry throat.* "So, this Horseman is the enemy you must fight to make things right?" Bryn: I tilt my head quizzically at her. “Sean really hasn't told you a lot has he? I'd take that up with him, if I were you. You may look like a fragile flower but there's steel in your spine, girl. He believes it in theory but you need to make him believe it in fact. He needs to understand that keeping things from you isn't protecting you. It's keeping you from protecting yourself.” Taking a long sip of my whisky, I inhale as it burns a comforting path down my throat. “The Horseman is the Horseman of Death. He's in charge of the reaper corps. Or was supposed to be. See, everything dies and the Creator of all worlds knew that death would be a traumatic experience for mortal souls. Some deities took better care of their creations than others, but in general, most needed some help. Unfortunately, The Horseman was a corrupt, lazy bastard almost from the get. He recruited Sin to be his first lieutenant and basically turned things over to him. Sin recruited a lot of reapers from souls that were moving on, including Sean's, Adrian’s, Zav’s and mine. But he couldn't take the corruption and he hit a breaking point. He went rogue to keep from becoming the same monster the Horseman had become. And now it's finally gotten bad enough that Sin's come back to us to take the position he should have had all along. And when he does, balance will be restored. Layla: *I take in all that Bryn had said, nodding when she finished* "When a general has gone astray, he should be put down much like a rabid dog. There is no balance or justice to his reign, that never ends well. As for Sean not telling me the whole story, he didn't want to put a strain on my mind that was still healing from my captivity. I understand why he didn't, but the time has come that I needed to know. Thank you for telling me Mistress Bryn, I appreciate it very much. Is there anything I or my family can do to help? " Bryn: Smiling as I fold my arms and lean onto the bar. I like this one. To paraphrase a quote from an old Indiana Jones movie, 'Sean chose wisely.' "It's just Bryn here. And I appreciate the heart that made that offer but I'm afraid this is above the mortal paygrade. You and your family would be at a massive disadvantage against beings that can kill with a simple touch. I know the vampire race creates fearsome fighters, but we won't put even our own people in harm’s way if we know they don't have a chance in this fight. It's why we're technically outnumbered. I think the best way for you to help is the way you have been. Giving Sean a reason to live through it.” Layla: *I nod in understanding* "My mo chridhe will always have my strength added to his blade in battle and my love as his shield. I would offer my prayers and support to you all as well. You are his family and important to him, therefore you are important to me.” Bryn: Smiling gently at the valiant soul in front of me, I see what drew Sean to her. The soul of this mortal glows. “We'll take all the help we can get. We'll be grateful for your prayers. And I kind of think we're your family now too. Sean's an honorable soul. He may not make it what humans call "legal" until we're out of this, but you're already his and that makes you ours.” Taking another sip and then setting the glass down on the counter. “We're not really set up for vampire needs here...yet.” I'm sure every place Sin owns will be as soon as he knows the species of Sean's soulmate, but for now we’ll have to make do. “But there are heavy curtains that we can draw shut in Sean's room. The place is warded against all comers so you'll be safe enough from intruders, too. Would you like to clean up before he returns?” Layla: "Yes, that would be amazing. Those reapers left a horrid scent. One I wish to rid myself of. Even lessors smell a bit better than that." *I shiver at the thought of anything smelling worse than lessors.* "Where is his room? If it's alright I'd like to rest a bit as well." Bryn: “He's on the second floor. C'mon, I'll take you up.” Slipping my arm through hers as we walk to the stairs. “You know, it's been a long time since I had a sister,” smiling at her. “I think I'm going to like it.” We walk down the hallway to a room on the end and I open the door. The focal point of the room is a large California King bed. And not much else. “I'm afraid Sean lives like an ascetic. It comes from his druid heritage I guess. Before Sin insisted we move here for the duration he had a shack with a cot in it he called home in the Highlands. At least this is an improvement on that.” Gesturing to a door to the left of the bed, “There's a bath in there and,” eyeing your tall form and knowing nothing my curvy 5'3" self has is going to fit your tall slender figure even if leathers were your style, “I can get you something to wear.” I can materialize something from a shop I saw on Rodeo Drive when I picked up a heart attack a few weeks ago. Zav will figure out how to get the money in its accounts. “It'll be in the armoire when you're done with bath.” Layla: “You needn't go to much trouble on my account. One of Sean's shirts and perhaps some yoga pants (I believe that's what humans call them) are all I need. Thank you for your kindness and watching over me, though I suspect you wish you were in the battle. I'm proud to have you as a sister." *I give you a quick hug and head to the bathroom, shutting the door and turning the water on to warm it.* Bryn: “Hmm, yoga pants...” thinking back to the shop, I focus on a pair and rematerialize them here. I make an estimate on sizes and bring some lacy underthings with the pants. Sean can thank me after I'm done laying him out for keeping me out of the fight today. Putting them on the bed, I add a tee-shirt from Sean's closet and I'm done. After pulling the drapes shut and making sure there no light can enter, I quietly exit, shutting the door and making my way downstairs to sip my whiskey as I wait for the boys to come home. Layla: *I undress and get under the warm spray of water relishing the feel of today being washed away. Those bastards were nasty but Sean and his family will prevail. Of that I have no doubt, just wish I could do more to help him. I finish scrubbing the blood and dirt from my body and wash my hair. Once that's done I step out, dry off, and use the brush I see to comb out my hair. I step out into the bedroom and see the clothing Bryn left for me. Smiling I put on the undergarments and Sean's shirt. I put the pants on a chair I spot in the corner.* "Won't need those for sleeping," *I say as I climb on the bed, lay down, and instantly fall asleep.* #TBC

Layla: I decided to enjoy the evening beauty and went into the field near Glory's stable to draw what I could see with the moonlight. It was such a peaceful time. Hardly any noise and just the barest of breezes. I was just drawing the moon when I sensed a shift behind me. Not sure what it was but the scent was unappealing. I stood up, turned around, and barely got out of the way of these creatures that wanted to be human but clearly were not. One grabs at me again, getting my arm but I manage to yank it out of his hand getting a deep scratch as I start running. "HELP!" I cry out as I run to get away. Hopefully someone from the Manse hears my cry although that is probably not possible as I'm far away. "No one is coming for you, not even your precious Sean. See we are reapers and our job is to take the dead...or make the dead." My eyes widen at the mention of his name, tears threatening to spill. "Where is he? What did you do to him you bastard!" "You'll find out shortly dear female. To endure so much only to die now, slowly." He laughs joyfully. Oh Dear Virgin Scribe, not Sean. My heart is wrenching but I cannot let these creatures take me. I must know for sure that Sean is gone before I go to the Fade. I run as fast as I can. I aim for the barn where Glory is housed. I can hear them behind me and I push myself to go faster. The barn is just ahead and I dive inside and shut the door then look for a hiding place. I hear them cackling and banging at the door. Something says they are just toying with me. They could end me in an instant but aren't, why? It must have to do with Sean. If he was dead they'd end me quickly. They want him to suffer. Fuck that! I decide to run through the barn and out the other side must have to do with Sean. If he was dead they'd end me quickly. They want him to suffer. Fuck that! I decide to run through the barn and out the other side just as they come through the door. If I can keep them running, maybe that will give Sean or someone from the Manse enough time to help me. I hear them coming and I keep running. I decide to head toward the Manse as there is help there unlike at my cottage. I manage to get to a small grove of trees and stop to rest. I can't make it much longer, I'm out of breath and strength but I know my spirit will keep my body going nonetheless. Just as I'm about to take off again I see a shape emerge from the ether, Sean! I run to him and it's then I notice how much blood is all over him, the scent the same as those reapers who are chasing me. "Are you hurt mo chridhe?" Behind him another male forms, this must be Adrian who he has mentioned before. He, too, is covered in blood. "They are coming up behind me from the right." I tell them, knowing warriors as I do, I realize they need that information more than they desire healing. Sean: In the seconds it takes us to mist back to mountains outside Caldwell I open reaper senses full throttle and let it guide me to her much as I would a soul I was to collect, but in this case, I could feel she was very much alive. As the mist gathers and reforms my body, she runs to me and I wrap my arms around her. I can sense Adrian reforming behind me covering my six and protecting us. "I'm fine baby. None of this is my blood. A demon just got a little messy when I slit his throat." Holding her away from me a moment, I look her over. "Are you ok? Did they hurt you? Adrian: *My senses are wide open and I can feel them* They're close Sean. They're hunting her like she's a fucking deer. We need to get her out of here. Layla: “Just a scratch from when I grabbed my arm away from him." I show you the scratch on my wrist area. I look over at Adrian, "Does he require healing? " I start looking around knowing they are close. Sean: Laughing a little at that despite the situation… "The day Adrian requires healing I'll have ammunition against him for the rest of his life. You on the other hand...." Pulling her arm straight, I lay my hand over it, not touching it, just hovering over it. Inhaling deeply I as I focus, knowing Adrian won't let us be interrupted. As I open my empathic healing abilities, I can feel them warring with my reaper powers. Life vs death. It's always an internal fight when I open it up to more than feeling emotions. Sin has warned me against using it to physically heal. He’s said the dichotomy it causes between my powers could kill me but I won't tolerate a single scratch on my Layla. A light glows from my hand as the healing generates heat and the scratch quickly disappears. "I'm going to have Adrian take you someplace safe baby while I deal with this. Trust him, ok? It'll be ok.” Adrian: *My senses are on high alert as they close in and I move behind Layla to provide a physical barrier between them and the Horseman's henchmen. I don't like the idea of leaving him but he'll be distracted if she is here while we fight and that isn't good either.* Layla, how many are there? Layla: "Four. Three with fair hair, the leader has dark." Sean: I hold her to me and glance over her head at Adrian. Mentally I speak to him 'It sounds like DeAndre and his bunch. They're some of the Horseman's biggest bastards and most ruthless. We take them down now we hurt him. But I want her out of here.’ "We're going to take care of them. Trust me.” Adrian: *I nod at Sean and reach out to Zav and Bryn. 'Sean and his woman are under attack. We need you in Caldwell now. Follow my trail.' Bryn responds immediately. 'On our way, big man.'* Sean, they are close. Zav and Bryn are on their way. *I believe Layla will feel more comfortable with another female, even though Bryn will likely try to kick my ass later.* Bryn will take you to a safe place while we deal with this. Layla: "Alright. I'll go where you need me to." Bryn: Zav had just finished with the last reaper and was cleaning his space when I shout out... "ZAV we've got a 911 from Sean and Adrian. The Horseman's boys are after Sean's lady." Without waiting for an answer I mist out, knowing he'll find Sean the same way I do, with reaper senses. In an instant I've found them and am rematting beside Adrian, with Zav right behind me. Zav: *I'm right behind Brynn. Having just re-found my own soulmate, I know what it would cost Sean to lose his and I'll fight for my brother at any cost. Reforming at Sean's right, I place my hand on his shoulder* How many and how close? Sean: As the two of the five reapers who have become my family materialize I breathe a sigh of relief. Layla would be safe, no matter what. I had no doubt I could take these fuckers, but Adrian's right. I need her away from this to focus. "Baby, these are two of my closest friends, Zav and Brynn. Bryn, will you take Layla to the safe house until this is over? We won't be long.” Layla: "Alright. I'm ready. My family will be ok, right?" I say with a bit of worry knowing these reapers, my male and his family were about to face, are very dangerous. Sean: Looking her in the eyes, I promise, "They'll be fine. These f....guys won't get past us, I promise." Bryn moves beside Layla and links arms with her even while giving me "the look". The one that says "I'm going to kick your ass for relegating me to weaker female status later". Quickly I hug Layla and then step back. "I'll see you soon." Layla: "I love you Sean. Kick their asses then come home to me." Bryn: If the situation hadn't been so iffy I'd have laughed at Sean trying to clean up his mouth in front of his lady-love, but I'll let it ride. For now. "C'mon Layla. Let these mooks take out the trash. I'm sure we'll see them later, bragging about their kills." Smiling with not a little admiration at the vampire who had captured Sean's heart and was maintaining such cool in what had to have been a frightening situation, I mist us back to the main house in Brazil. Zav: Even as I watch Brynn mist out with Layla, I'm looking for strategic spots to lay a trap. “We can get them in a triangle and attack. If we keep them inside they don't have room to maneuver.” Adrian: *Nodding,* They're not far now. I'll take that tree *pointing to my left* and wait behind it. Zav, you take the one on the right. And Sean... Sean: Heaving a sigh of relief as Layla disappears with Brynn in a black mist, I turn my attention to the situation at hand. I can hear them, laughing and calling out to her, trying to intimidate her into hopeless fear, but these assholes didn't know my female. Even if I hadn't gotten here in time... a fate I did /not/ want to contemplate.... she would never have quite fighting them. "And I'll take point. I'm going to mist out there and lure them back here. They're cocky assholes. They'll assume I'm alone. And then we've got 'em.” Zav: “It’s a plan.” Adrian and Sean, I take up my position. Mentally I broadcast to Sean...'When this is over I'll ward the whole damned mountain just inside the mhis. It has trees close enough together to make it work. We'll protect her and her family. Sean: I mist out and reform directly in front of the four. I recognize DeAndre immediately and he recognizes me. We'd always had a rivalry. He was one of the Horseman's pets, one who ran the Horseman's /other/pets and I was a legitimate leader of the reapers. He hated it. "As usual, too little too late DeAndre," I taunt. "Whatsa' matter, couldn't you manage to take one little vampire?" He growls and lunges at me as I demat back to the clearing where Zav and Adrian were waiting lying in wait. Adrian: *I tense as Sean remats at the top edge of the clearing. He was playing this right, luring the rogues where they'd be easy pickings, but still, his heart was involved. I knew he was boiling with anger and fear and it’s easy to make mistakes in that state. But I shouldn't have worried. Our resident empath had locked down his emotions to play his part. He was the best of us but he'd also been a warrior in mortal life and he understood compartmentalization.* Zav: As Sean materialized each of the four rogues followed, stupidly re-forming in a tight formation. Stepping out from behind the tree as Adrian does the same, I taunt, “Well, well, well. Cannon fodder. If you've got the balls.” Sean: They take in the fact that there are three of us but it’s obvious from their sneers that they figure they out number us. Their mistake. I'm not sure what they'd all been in life but it hadn't been soldiers. Hitmen, serial killers, organized crime muscle, even wife beaters, any kind of bully, but they hadn't had the kind of training we'd had and they'd been allowed --by the Horseman-- to opt out of the boot camp we'd put on for the woefully inadequate reapers he'd saddled us with. Grinning, I advance, twirling my katana in an intricate set of movements that distracts them from Adrian and Zav's movements. Adrian: *While their attention was on Sean I slipped up behind one and swung my sword in a two handed grip over my head, then lowered it to take the head of the one furthest back. He fell without uttering a sound. As I moved to the next, Zav advanced.* Zav: Adrian, as always, was efficient. As a human he'd been raised to be a killing machine in battle. I often wondered what it had cost his soul but Sin had seen enough in him to make him one of us and that was enough for me. While Sean taunted their leader and Adrian advanced on another, I moved behind the one closest to me and wrap my arm around his neck, pinning him to me. As he gasps for breath, I eschew my sword in favor of the dagger at my hip and slam it home, piercing his lung, and then throwing him to the side to drown in his own blood. By that time the other two were aware of us. Sean: Adrian's prey had fallen without making a sound but Zav's had gasped and that had drawn DeAndre and his last remaining henchman's attention. Rather than let them get spooked an demat out I sprang forward, katana in hand and buried the entire blade in his chest to the hilt while Adrian took care of the last with a dagger thrown through the throat. As blood began to burble through DeAndre’s mouth I hissed... "No one touches my female. No one." And then I pull my blade from his chest and let him fall. Zav: As the last two fall I sheath my dagger. “I'll ward this entire mountain and the cabin and barn to boot, just to be sure Layla is safe. When I'm done she and her family will be safe from rogue reapers, demons and even angels. The amulets I created for us will allow us in, but no one else. Even mortals will feel a frisson of dread on their skins and want to turn back.” Placing my hand on his shoulder, “She'll be safe Sean. I promise it.” Adrian: *Nodding at Zav,* I'm going back to the cave. I need to reset the seal so we can use it again, and dispose of the demon bodies. After that I'll join you at the safe house. And don't worry about either of us, Sean. I'll call in a couple of the others we can trust to watch our backs. You need to go see to your female. Sean: "I can't tell you what you just did for me." The emotion I'd cordoned off floods my voice and I put my hand out. Adrian lays his over mine and Zav lays his over that. “I know you don't think' it’s anything out of the ordinary, and, for us, it's not. But I owe you. And I'll never forget it. You are my brothers, my family, and together, with Bryn and Sin, we can't be beat." Letting my hand fall, I mist out to the Brazil safe house and to my Layla. #TBC

Sean: We’d made the rounds of the reaper corps without incident so far. Reading the emotions of 4000 reapers was exhausting, and, even when you can manipulate space and time like reapers do to walk the different planes, it had taken longer than I liked. It gave too much opportunity for news of our ‘casual tour of the troops’ to arouse suspicion. But Adrian and I had finally finished weeding through the ranks. Our estimates had been close. Of that 4,000 there were at 3,757 that were either totally appalled by The Horseman’s alliance with Lucifer and the subsequent open season he’d allowed on reapers or remembered Sin and wanted him in charge. The attack on Bryn when she’d been delivering a soul to Hell had pushed a lot of them over the edge of disgruntlement into outright rebellion. They’d just needed a leader and now they had him. The remaining 243 had been shiftier than we’d thought. Their emotions towards what had been happening were either ambivalent or self-serving. We’d corral those with the 1,000 we hadn’t even bothered to talk to. We’d had enough exposure to them to know they had no loyalties to anyone but themselves and we hadn’t wanted to risk them getting suspicious about our motives for checking in. Unfortunately, of the 3,757 only 200 were weapons-capable enough to join us at the Callanish Stones for this battle. They were all in, but the fifth column of thugs and murderers The Horseman had established in the reaper corps numbered 500. As we’d expected, we were going to be outnumbered. The ones who were going to make up our troops had been directed to the Brazil safe house in pairs so Zav could tattoo his protection runes on their skin and Bryn could give them the crystal protection stones she was charming. Both would be out of sight, the tats their groin and the crystals wound into a necklace that would lay beneath a shirt. These would protect our squads against the trap Bryn would lay for the enemy reapers, but, again, we had to be careful they weren’t noticed by anyone we hadn’t taken into confidence. We’d given instructions to the entire core to react to a code word sent mentally. Adrian, with his morbid sense of humor, had picked “Masada” as the alert. Leave it to him to select a siege in which every man, woman, and child had died. He’d said it would help them remember the stakes of this game. We win or everyone dies. And maybe he’s right. When I send the all out to the entire corps, the fighters will meet us at Callanish. The loyalists who aren’t battle capable will disperse to various safe locations. Most will shelter with the gods who were already alarmed by what they saw happening with The Horseman. Danu had opened Tir nan Og to us, Freya had persuaded Odin it was in their best interests to appear to throw a banquet for those reapers who frequently made stops in Valhalla in order to shelter them, Bastet had persuaded Anubis to offer hospitality to a select group, and Kali had planned a festival that could be initiated at a moment’s notice that would serve as subterfuge for those she was fond of. None of these activities were out of the ordinary. The honorable among us were popular with most gods. While the majority of souls were delivered to the Elysian Fields for rest and reflection before rebirth, when one was slated for ascension we took it to the paradise it was scheduled to go to and usually we’re invited to break bread with them or stay for a few days of rest. These activities will all appear normal to the Horseman if we lose. There were other destinations. Heaven we couldn’t trust with our people because of the white god’s long standing beef with Sin. Some, like Nirvana, assumed they were beyond the reach of “petty” conflicts. Much like humanity, their deities assumed conflicts between good and evil had nothing to do with them. They’d ignore what was happening until the barbarian hordes were on their doorsteps. There were other gods and goddesses but through the eon’s belief systems changed and, though still on the plane of ascension with their followers, they rarely got new ones. Maybe it would have been safer for our people to hide in their realms if things went south but hiding in plain sight gives the other reapers an out if we fail. They can claim they had no knowledge and were just enjoying hospitality where it had been offered. And besides, the deities who offered all had a special ‘friendship’ with Sin. Oh, nothing current and none had ever been exclusive, but they all had a loyalty to him that assured us they wouldn’t betray our people. Now all that was left for Adrian and I to do was to find a place to corral the 1,243 reapers that we couldn’t trust not to sell us out. Their instructions had been different. When they heard “Masada” they were to mass at a central location for further direction and that location would be revealed only to that group moments after the call. Adrian had found a remote limestone cavern in New Mexico buried in the mountains. It was huge, big as an American football field with ceilings twice as high. I was standing on top of a huge boulder in the center of it now, looking it over. Throwing out my arms, I shout… “YO, ADRIAN!” Adrian: *My back to Sean, I’m focused on carving the Enochian runes into the walls that will trap the potential turncoats when I hear my name echoing off the ceiling. Turning back to him, I sigh in exasperation.* If you’re done channeling your inner Rocky, you could help me finish the last section. *grumbling a little* Painting would have been easier. Sean: Grinning at Adrian – he was such a serious guy that teasing him was easy— I jump down from the boulder to land lightly on the sandy floor. “But you’re doing such a good job! And anyway, I finished mine already.” Letting the teasing fade, I add “Painting them in anything but blood is too superficial for this job. And the blood would have had to been sentient mortal. I dunno about you bud, but I’m not up for draining a couple of dozen mortals to get enough to cover this place. Not my gig. Yours either. And even then, if one of the trapped figured it out and scraped off some the runes with a knife, they’d be out. The limestone is ancient and has strength. Short of blasting caps or an industrial sander, it’ll hold. The symbols Zav had given us were intricate, but my history as a human Druid had played in my favor. I’d learned to carve Ogham runes into stone by the time I was 6. These were more complicated but I’d got the hang of working with the stone quicker than Adrian had. Still, the sooner we got done, the sooner I could get back to @ChosenDarkened. “How about I do the seal on the center boulder? Zav said the symbols didn’t have to be linear and the seal would activate all of them from any location. Seems to me the center is the best spot for the energy to hit all of them at once and it gives you a 360 view while they’re coming in. Kind of like the center monolith in a stone circle.” Adrian: *Ok, so he’s right about carving versus blood. Blood sacrifice was never my way as a human anyway, and if he’d been part of it in his Druidic past he never talked about it. I suspect that after seeing his mother die as a sacrifice it was a ritual he would have avoided like the plague. The only blood we’d really need was when it came time to bring the warding online.* You do that. I’m almost done here. You’re better with the stone than I am anyway and that one especially has to be exact. The power of the others overlaps but that one stands alone. *The seal was what would trap the reapers in the cavern. We wouldn’t trigger the runes that would hold them there until they were in the cavern. When I slammed my bloodied hand against the seal it would activate and energize all the other symbols. The only way out was with the medallion Zav had given the five of us. No one could get in or out. Not reapers, demons or angels. Not even mortals. The magick of this barrier was old and powerful and without the right key, the lock wouldn’t open from either side. And only the five of us had the right key.* So, *turning back to my task and changing the subject* how is life with a mate in it? You’ve spent more nights at her place than you have at the safe house the last few weeks. Sean: I mist back up to the top of the boulder I’d been standing on to grab my chisel. It was a good strategic viewpoint, even if it was defensively given reaper abilities. But if all went as planned he wouldn’t need to defend himself. All I need to do is carve the seal where I stand and when all have arrived all Adrian will have to do is kneel down, slam his hand against it and demat out. It will take bare seconds. No time for anyone to communicate outside the cavern, no time to mount an attack. They should all be in place within 20 seconds of having the location. There might be a few who are late or won’t heed the call, but we’d deal with them later. The aim was to keep as many of that 1,243 as possible from joining the fight on the wrong side. Sin could decide what to do with them later. “You should know. You’ve been standing guard on the front porch when I do. And by the way, if I haven’t thanked you for that yet, thank you. Life’s really good,” kneeling to begin carving the seal with the sharp edged instrument. “She’s amazing. Brave, beautiful, talented…I didn’t think I had a soulmate. I never found one as a human and now I guess I know why. Vampires only get one life. I had to wait for her soul to become mortal. We’re gonna make it official when this is over, you know? According to her traditions, so you guys are gonna be involved. I just wish I could give her everything she needs. My blood isn’t going to be able to sustain her and she wants kids.” Pausing and looking up for a moment, then returning to my work. “You know how that whole ‘no life from death’ thing is. I can’t do either for her. But she doesn’t care. She’s so positive, certain we can overcome anything.” Smiling to myself, “She’s more important to me than my own life. I’d die for her.” Suddenly my head shoots up as the sound of a pair of hands clapping echoes through the chamber. Demons. Four of them. Gods damn it! Zav had told us he’d been being surveilled in Miami. But he’d had a permanent location in the tattoo shop. We’d just gotten here. How the fuck did they find us? I freeze in place, making no sudden moves as I assess the situation. Their mojo doesn’t work on reapers, but before he’d killed them, the demons had told Zav they had a weapons supplier who could get them angel blades. And if I’m not mistaken, that’s what they have on them right now. ‘My, my, what a profession of love. Tell me, what will it cost you when we kill her?’ Adrian: *I’d just finished the last rune when I heard them. The boulder Sean stood on was blocking them from my line of sight but that meant I was blocked from theirs too. As none had chosen to trace in on my side of the rock I’m guessing it means they think Sean’s alone. On a tight mental wavelength I reach out to Sean. ‘Stay cool brother. They want you to react. Don’t. I’ll mist behind them.’ Sean: My jaw sets in stone and eyes go glacial blue as I stare into the depthless black eyes of the speaker. “How did you find us?” It comes out a growl but I stay frozen, crouched to the ground, unwilling to give away any advantage until we have a plan. The demon sneers at me and answers, ‘You’ve been asking a lot of questions lately. And some people just /will/ talk, won’t they? One talked to some of the Horseman’s “special” boys, and those boys talked to us. So,’ he smiles mockingly at me,’ we decided to follow your trail. You disappeared sometimes, though. Apparently there’s some kind of field around your little piece of tail’s mountain that keeps demons from getting in. It doesn’t keep reapers out, though. And they let us know all about your cozy little love nest. My blood freezes in my veins and cold fear for Layla runs through me. They know where she is. Without changing expression I send back to Adrian ‘Cool is my middle name. But these fuckers are going to die in the next five minutes. Will my blood activate the trap? We can’t let them get out.’ Adrian: *sending back curtly ‘Yes. Zav just said fresh blood. This one’s not keyed to either of us.’* Sean: A muscle in my neck flexes as I channel back ‘Hold position until I activate it. Then get behind them. No holds barred brother.’ My hand holding the chisel is still against the rock, too low for them to see from their vantage point. High ground’s always a good thing in a battle. In an instant I drop the chisel and grab the dagger that’s always in my belt. Slashing my hand I slam it against the barely finished seal, hoping I’d done enough to get it to activate. Blue light flares around the perimeter walls of the cage, bringing the carved Enochian symbols to blazing life. Adrian demats and reforms behind them as I spring to my feet. With a war cry, he engages as I throw the dagger at one just behind the leader. I have the pleasure of seeing the dagger strike home as I leap to the ground, the lightening flashing through the demon’s body and behind his eyes as he dies. “ONE!” Adrian: *My longsword is in my hands as I reform and heed Sean’s admonition. ‘No holds barred’ he’d said and I took that to mean no rules. I’m barely fully formed behind a demon when I swing the blade in a mighty two-handed slash. In that moment I thank Apollo for the attention he once paid my grandmother. His strength flows through me, my heritage from him, as the blade smoothly separates the demon’s head from his body.* TWO! *The other runs at me with his shorter, lighter blade, foolishly confident that the angel steel makes up for the difference in reach. It does not. The longsword is a much longer blade than that I’d wielded as a human, but in the Middle Ages I’d discovered its heft and longer grip suited my physical strength better than the traditional Greek sword. While humans generally had wielded it two-handed due to its weight, my heritage gave me the strength to use it in one hand if I desired, even to be able to use it as a spear. Which is how I use it now. Easily, I avoid the attempt to skewer me, stepping aside, then turn and throw it at the demon’s back. It makes a satisfying “thunk” as it runs him through embeds between the shoulder blades.* THREE! Sean: The leader of the bunch jerks his head to follow the dagger as it flies by him just in time to see not only the one I’d thrown it at die, but Adrian’s victim fall as well. He snarls as he turns back just in time to see me land in a crouch a few feet in front of him and charges me with the angel blade now in his hand. Without time to rise, I roll to the side and come up on my feet as he blows by me. My katana materializes in my good hand and I lift it to block as he turns and leaps at me. The clang of metal rings out and, knowing even bespelled carbon steel won’t hold out long against angel metallurgy if that keeps up, I shove the demon back and thrust my weapon at him, slicing his side as he dances away. He hisses at me as blood drips and swings his sword at me, forcing me to parry with the blade raised in front of my body. As the metal rings out again, I flick my wrist, circling my blade against his and forcing it towards his thumb. As the angel short sword flies from his grasp I step into him and sweep my leg under his, hitting him with my free forearm and forcing him to his back. Falling on him with my knee to his chest and the edge of my blade at his throat, I want nothing so much as to shove it through his miserable throat for his threat to my female, but I need information first. “Talk.” My voice is a low deep growl I barely recognize, “Who talked to the Horseman’s crew? Who followed me female’s home?” He laughs at me, his breath wheezing from the pressure of my knee on his chest. ‘Why should I tell you? I’ll smoke out of this meatsuit before you can shove that sticker home.’ Subtly I increase the pressure of the sharp edge of my katana against is throat, a fine trickle of blood beginning. On some level I feel Adrian’s presence as he walks towards me, stopping just a few feet from the demon’s head. I can sense his anger and his worry. But it’s all background noise now. Layla’s name is a drumbeat in my head, beating in time with my heart. “I don’t think so.” Jerking my head at the glowing emblems on the wall. “You’re not going anywhere even if you get out. So let’s try again. Who talked?” His upper lip curls into a sneer, his arrogance keeping his yap running. But his words… ‘Why don’t you go find out reaper? They know I’m keeping you busy so they should be having a little fun with her about now.’ My brain freezes, but my body doesn’t. My right arm swiftly presses and slashes the demon’s throat, covering my chest and neck with arterial spurt, blood spattering my face as I look up at Adrian and force a whisper through nearly paralyzed vocal cords. “Layla.” And I’m gone. #TBC

You are NOT COMING! *It came out gutturally between gritted teeth. I refused to shout at the shifter whom I had THOUGHT I had brought into my household as a housekeeper but whom now seemed to believe she was some kind of bodyguard. She just tossed her red hair over her shoulder with a jerk of her head and put her hands on her hips as she drew all 5’8” of her body up into a defiant posture.* “Oh.Yes.I.AM!” *Of course Celia, on the other hand, did not hesitate to end her declaration in a shout. Shifters, I fume. Their emotions are always close to the surface. Swallowing the exasperated retort I had been about to throw out, I fix my gaze on her while I try to marshal logical arguments. Not that they will probably sway her. Indeed, her green eyes were practically throwing out fire. And of course, she and Declan had been listening in on a meeting that they should never have been close to. I had intended to send them out of harm’s way before taking my next steps. Now, apparently, she and Declan weren’t giving me a choice. Having heard that I had commanded my forces to operate in pairs to watch one another’s backs, they had decided I needed someone to watch mine as well.* Celia, be reasonable. I am going to Valhalla. It’s friendly territory. I’ll hardly be in danger there. "Then my going shouldn’t be a problem, should it?” *She adopted a sweetly reasonable tone that didn’t fool me one iota. She was not going to be reasonable at all.* Just what do you propose to do if I am attacked? The weaponry Sean and Adrian gifted you with won’t stop what I am in the most danger from. Your daggers and your guns with their enchanted ammunition are well and good against anything from demons to Unseelie, but they will not stop reapers, and reapers are where the danger is right now. *She just smirked at me.* “That’s being taken care of as we speak. Sean and Declan are having a conversation that will see us armed with angel blades and bullets made from melted down reaper weapons. Though…”She pauses as though listening for a moment, “Declan will need a couple of days to have the bullets prepared. But I’ll have an angel’s short sword in my hands before we leave this place.” *Sean. He must be speaking to her. The wolf shifters did not have the natural ability to communicate with others that reapers did, but reapers could communicate mentally with anyone they chose to link into. Apparently Sean had made that connection with my housekeeper and groundskeeper.* I could just go without you. *She narrowed her eyes at me* “You could. And as I’m no longer a mortal shifter, but a ghost with a wolf’s tracking ability, I can follow you anywhere. And if you leave without me,” she continues, “I will have no choice but to follow you without the angel blades and put myself at greater risk. But at least I would be your early warning system if anything goes south. Cannon fodder, I think you’d call me.” *I press my eyes shut tightly and squeeze the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger, seeking to avert the burgeoning headache this woman was giving me.* “We aren’t staying out of this Sin.” *Her words were no longer angry, just factual. And that, more than her emphatic anger, convinced me I had no choice in this even before she continued.* “What the Horseman of Death has done, hoarding power, communing with demons, allowing himself to be duped by Lucifer in the pursuit of power greater than the Creator’s…, it’s a threat to every realm, every plane, and every being in existence. That the lesser gods have turned to the reaper corps to deal with this rather than uniting and dealing with it themselves both infuriates me and makes me determined to see they don’t end up with more power in the end.” *My brow furrows and head tilts quizzically at this assertion. I had not seen it in that light* It was logical for them to come to us with this. Everything dies, even gods in the end. Their fear of the Horseman’s actions was intelligent. And as Freya and I have a longstanding…connection, it was equally logical that she be the one to come to us. Though, I would have preferred she come directly to me rather than through my former lieutenants. *And now she truly is exasperated with me. Sparks of earth magick are literally swirling around her.* “What choice did you give her, Sin? She knows you too well. Rather than convening a war council that would draw those you love into it, you’d have tried to handle it yourself. And from what I overheard from that meeting you just had, you would have died doing it. Then not only would the pantheons no longer have the strongest weapon in their arsenal – YOU –, they wouldn’t have been able to recruit the reaper corps because the Horseman /owns/ their souls. Even your friends’. The magical blockade that Bryn has put around the four of them is the absolute only reason they retain any autonomy from him at all. Through that she’s protected all the rank and file that support them. The threat of you going ham on Him is what’s kept Him from eliminating her. If you tried this on your own and died, the Horseman would eliminate all four of them and cow the common reapers into submission. So no, Sin, you /didn’t/ give Freya a choice!” *Now the exasperation is mine. Pacing and running my hands through my hair, I finally turn to her.* So what would you have me do? Cower at home while the others make preparations. I cannot do that. At the very least I need the Inguz rune dealt with. *Calmly she looks at me, obviously satisfied she has made her point. God save me from the females of all species.* “Contact Freya and ask her to come here where you can consult with her behind your wards. This place is well-protected and the best hidden of all your properties. Only those you love most know of it. While you’re doing that Declan will be working on the weapons for us so we’ll be prepared to watch your back before the battle and be in it when it comes. You can keep in touch with the others from here and if they need you, they’ll let you know.” Softly now, she adds, “You were a soldier, a general before you were a king. Zav was there and he’s told the stories. You know you have to let your subordinates do what they do best without interference if you’re to succeed. And you need to spend some time getting your head in the game Sin. I’ve known you long enough to know you don’t care if you survive this, only that you succeed in killing the Horseman, too. That’s not enough. Once he’s dead they are going to need you more than ever. If your council of war was right and it’s actually Lucifer pulling the strings? It won’t stop with the Horseman’s demise. The others are strong leaders. Sean could keep them together. But he doesn’t have the power to stop Lucifer.” *Ruefully I drop down onto the steps of the lanai.* In life you weren’t a soldier or a strategist. You took care of logistics for your pack. You arranged supplies, schedules for the pack’s common non-security tasks. School, childcare, food. You were always organized and smart, but you left the fighting to Declan and his security teams. When did you become this...* smiles reluctantly* Amazon? *She sits down on the steps beside me and smiles back* “When I agreed to keep house for the most powerful being I’d ever encountered.” She sighs and continues. “Your life isn’t easy Sin, though you like to pretend it is. You’ve got powerful enemies and powerful friends. Pack life taught me it’s smart to keep an eye on the agendas of both. In your context, it’s literally a life or death proposition. You didn’t have to offer Declan and I the chance to be together for eternity. You could have let the reaper assigned to take our souls do his job, and there would have been no guarantee Declan and I would have met again for lifetimes, if ever. But you interfered. And not because you really needed a housekeeper or a grounds man. I’m not sure you even know your reasons. But I do know we owed you our allegiance from that moment on. And that you’ve earned our respect and affection since. So we became what you needed us to be. And we’d do it again.” *I breathe out a sigh and nod in acknowledgement of her words. I understand this because I too have respect and affection for them both. And I too would do whatever was necessary to assist them. Which is precisely why I would have kept them safe, but who am I to deny them their choices? I will dishonor neither their decision nor their courage.* Then so be it. I will have an honor guard until the battle comes. When it does you shall have a part in it. I will take your advice and ask Freya to come here. *smiling a little* She likes the ocean. It is very different from Asgard’s offerings. And you have my word I shall not venture out without either you or Declan at my back. “I’m going to go inside and get you a glass of wine. And then I’m going to go help Declan at the forge. It will go faster with us both working on the ammunition. Just remember what I said, Sin. They need you alive when this is all over.” *She leans over and kisses my cheek – something she has never done before, and all the more meaningful for it. Then leaves me to my thoughts. Rising, I walk down onto the sandy beach and gaze out at the ocean, losing myself in the infinite expanse of dark blue shimmering beneath the full moon. Perhaps she is right. Perhaps I need to find a way to survive.* --End Solo- #TBC

Zav: --Giving the area a last look around, I step into the old church and stand behind her. – Damn, woman, you brought the whole thing. That expended a lot of energy. You know, you could have just brought the important tools and materialized the furniture and raw materials from closer by. It wouldn’t have taken as much out of you. Bryn: “I wanted my own things. I know the herbs were cut at the right time of the moon and a consecrated athame was used. I know the crystals have already been purified.” And I wanted to keep the last connection to the one who’d helped me furnish the cavern, made the tables and cabinets and taught me so much. But I wasn’t about to say that out loud. “Besides, it all comes from somewhere. We don’t just “make it” out of thin air. Sin might be powerful enough to do it, but when we do, it comes from somewhere.” Zav: --with a shrug, I look the place over and pick out a corner near the front with good natural light— That may be, but I figure with the risks we take, we earn it. When I materialize stuff, I picture it from a catalogue or someplace I’ve seen it on sale and get it from there. --That I generally find a way to compensate wherever I got it from goes without saying. Unlike the Horseman, Sin recruited honorable souls. Or in my case angels. Walking to the corner I’d scoped out…— This is good. It’s got good light. It’s open to your work area so I can be near if you need me, and vice versa, and I can see the door. We’ll ward the rest of the place against anyone, reaper, demon, angel or any other creature except through that door. --The shop… damn, I’m going to have to let some of my local people know I survived after this is all over. Dragon for one. And what if it made national news? What if Truely saw it? Panic spurts through my brain. What if she thinks I’m dead? What if she turns to someone else before I can get there…? No, no, no….I’m going to find her number and call her just as soon as I get this set up.— I think the chair right hear near the 10 foot tall leaded glass windows. And there are outlets in the wall along the back…. – When Sin had renovated he’d had this place wired for electricity and had installed generators too. After all, drug lords needed electricity to process product and they wouldn’t want the amount of energy used to alert any Polícia Federal. And I’m sure the local police were getting regular bribes from him as well. It would be expected. Sin made it a policy when dealing with humans to /always/ do the expected. Well, meeting those expectations worked for us too. Bryn was used to conjuring her own light in that cave she’d worked in, but I’d needed electric power to run my shop and I’d need it here too. Thinking back to a catalog I’d looked through a couple of weeks ago, I materialize a set I’d looked at. Tattoo chair with an adjustable head rest and arms and hydraulic control to raise and lower it, an artist chair, and a rolling tray. I look at the back wall and materialize a counter I’d seen there and then extra ink, pots, an autoclave and gauze and wrap from the same catalog the chair had come from on top of it. Later, I’d tally up the totals and move some money into the company accounts. Dropping my backpack on the counter, I turn to Bryn...— Ok, let’s get this show on the road. Where do you want me? Bryn: While Zav had been building his workspace I’d done basic anti-demon warding. He’d have to show me the symbols and spell for keeping out angels and reapers later, but for now we were safe. “Why don’t you lay down on your new handy dandy reclining tattoo chair?” While he moved to it, I unwrapped my ritual athame from it’s soft leather bindings and examined the edge. Sharper was better for skin. Less painful. The edge gleamed in the sunlight and drew blood as I ran my thumb along it lightly. “Perfect.” Zav: --eyeing her with the knife—You know what you’re doing with that thing? How to cut me to get enough without bleeding me dry? Bryn: Laughing, “Don’t be a sissy. You’re not the first ‘blood’ donor I’ve worked with, although you are the first grace donor. But it has to work the same and you’ll heal faster than humans. I’m going to slice along your arm and hold it pointing to the ground while your grace drains into a bowl. You’ve explained the magick of making a grace stone and once we’ve done this I’ll do a small one as a test. I won’t take more than I need.” Zav: Take /more/ than you think you’ll need. I’ll recover faster than if you have to cut me twice. And if you have extra make grace stones for you, Sean and Adrian, too. You won’t be able to handle as much as Sin, but a little in a stone will make you faster and sharpen your senses. –shrugging— It can’t hurt. If we had the time I’d ask you to put some in the protection bracelet you’re making for the fighters, but we don’t. So instead I’m going to add a few drops to the ink when I do the protection tats. Bryn: Frowning down at him as I stretch his arm out on the chair’s armrest. “Just don’t be a hero, ok? Your grace will regenerate but we don’t need you down for days. Let me know when to stop.” He nods in agreement, but I’ve known this guy too long. I’ll have to watch the cues. Taking the athame in hand, I draw it vertically along his arm, laying open the radial artery. I’d never take this risk with a human, no matter how powerful. They’d bleed out too fast. I’d have gone for the cephalic vein. Slower flowing and quicker clotting. But I was counting on reaper healing to make sure that didn’t happen to Zav. Shimmering blue liquid began to flow and I quickly move his arm off the chair’s armrest and squat on the floor holding it over a deep bowl. It runs down his arm and over his fingers in a stream. “You doing all right up there Romeo?” Zav: --I grunted as she made a long deep slice in my forearm. It’s funny how that same injury in the heat of battle is numb but sitting here, knowing what she’s going to do, it hurts like a bitch. – I’m fine. Let it flow little witch. You’re just sad because it isn’t real blood. Bryn: “Ok, I take that as an insult. And it’s never a good idea to insult the lady with the knife.” The truth is, I /have/ done blood magick before. It’s ancient and powerful and the more powerful the subject, the stronger the magick and the less you needed. Which is why I usually used my own, but there had been times when I’d needed volunteer donors. And I always used volunteers only. Anybody that has to kill somebody to get enough blood for the spell is either an amature or not using powerful enough blood. Shifter’s were good, as were vampires, other mages, fae and phoenix. All those beings’ blood had earth magick that blended nicely with my own. Zav’s grace, though, is a different story. Grace is empyreal, coming from the Creator of both the divine and the earth. He’d made empyreal magick and earth magick each unique in their powers, and they weren’t made to mesh. That’s why the white god had gone apeshit when the Gregori had fallen in love with humans and chosen to have children with them. The children had grace, yes, but they also had a soul and the soul is at the essence of earth magick. If one of those chosen by the Grigori had been a being of power, their children would have been a threat to the white god’s view of himself as top of the heap. So he’d had them killed. All of them. Grigori, their human mates, children, infants, babes in the womb...it hadn’t mattered so long as it was bloody and violent and sent the message to other angels what happened when you broke the white god’s rules. Not that I’d been around to see this, mind you. But Sin had, and he’d shown it to us when he formed our cadre so we would understand how dangerous an enemy the white god was. And –frowning at this thought,- once I completed the grace stone Sin was going to use it combined with his own human soul and reaper magick to bring down the Horseman. It was going to make him very, very powerful. I’ve got to wonder if that isn’t going to draw some unwelcome attention, but –mentally sighing- one disaster at a time. Zav: --snorting a laugh – You’d never hurt me. You love me and you know it. --As the iridescent blue fluid begins to flow my I turn my mind back to Truely, trying to ignore the sensation of my grace flowing down my arm. It isn’t the same as a mortal’s perception of blood flowing on their skin would be. Blood is warm and sticky, but grace is cool and slick. Everywhere it touches it tingles like sparks flaring. It was the raw magick in it, the power, the essence of life. And I can feel that essence seeping out of me. It’s like I’m falling backwards into a black velvet night. Fighting against the darkness, I twist my head to look down at her and force a cocky note in my voice— We about done here? I got a woman I need to call. Bryn: The deep bowl is nearly half full, with what I estimate is at least 2 pints. In a human I’d have stopped well before this, but I needed everything Zav could give for this to work. Glancing up at his question, I start to pop off a smartass response, but I pause. The skin under his tan is pale and he has sweat beading on his upper lip. He should have said something, dammit. His body is smarter than he is, though. The slice on his arm is already closing up on the ends, the flow of grace slowing naturally. “I think we’re done here, Romeo.” Standing, I reach my hand out and call the gauze from his counter to me. Lifting his arm, I lay it on the chair armrest and bind the wound to stop the ooze. “Gotta love reaper physiology. In a few hours that will be healed and, so long as you don’t head to the coast for an ocean dip, you won’t even have a scar.” Zav: --Swinging my legs over the edge of the reclined chair, I sit up. And almost immediately grab the edges of it as the world sways.— Bryn: “Hey, watch it big guy!” Grabbing his arm to steady him... “I really don’t think you want me to tell Sean and Adrian that you broke your nose falling on your face after losing a little grace. They’d never let you live it down. C’mon, lay back down in the chair for a while.” Carefully easing him back down on the reclined tattoo chair. Zav: --muttering as I ease back onto the chair— Fuck it. Hand my the phone in my backpack, will you? Bryn: Sighing, I grab his backpack from the floor beside his counter and rummage through the pockets until I find his cellphone. Turning back to him, I hold it up in the air. “You get this on one condition. You don’t try to leave that chair for the next two hours and if you need anything, you don’t try to materialize it yourself. You ask. I need you to be up and alert when I start on the grace stone. You taught me the magick, but I want you there if I need back up. And don’t worry, it doesn’t hold anything up. I’ll do the wards and start on the bracelets to the protect our forces from the trap. I just need you to send me the warding against angels and reapers. Demons are done already.” Zav: --raising my head in a mock glare — Tyrant. Give a person a little power and next thing you know they’re telling you what to do. -- with a sigh, I rest my head back on the padded head rest. The truth is, I probably couldn’t walk six feet right now, let alone swing a sword, so her plan’s good. Mentally I open to here and visualize the symbols in the order she’ll need them.-- Everywhere but the main doorway. I noticed there’s a place for a bar on the inside of the double doors that can be used to barricade the doors. The church must have initially served as a last ditch sanctuary against indigenous peoples when the land was being colonized and the brackets were left when the church was turned into a ballroom. Find the bar and put them on it. That way we can bar the door while we’re working and not have to be on high alert all the time. Now give me the damned phone. Bryn: Leave it to Zav to come up with that. After he’d become a reaper, the only way he’d really used his angel’s magick was to protect. He’d become an expert in defensive protocols using empyreal magicks and he’d studied strategy. Definitely our cadre’s go-to guy for this. The images he sends to me mentally are slender, and some are intricately drawn, but I’ve got an ediectic memory so I’m good to go. “Got it.” Zav: Leave no more than an arm’s span between them and repeat them in a line around the walls, on the ceiling and on the floor. And Bryn?” -- Lifting my head to look at her with a grin, because I’m about to get some of my own back.— It needs to be in blood. --laughing as she gives me a death stare and easily catching the phone she throws at my head.— Bryn: “FINE!” Zav: --Smirking as she walks off to take care of it, I settle back on the chair and Google “Truly Good Sweet Treats” in Pascoe on my phone, only to have it correct me on the spelling. Even though Sin’s pretty dismissive of technology, I’m grateful to it at the moment. The correct spelling of her name, Truely Goode, would have taken me a few minutes to puzzle out. Google had a website for Truely Goode Sweet Treats, and hallelujah, the website had a phone number! I punch it in and take a deep breath as it rings.— Hello? Can I speak to Truely, please?