Man…no one said this was going to be easy.
Carlos winced softly as he watched the building behind him go up in flames. His inner voice was panicking. And he tried really, really hard not to regress with it into wanting to run back to his mom’s skirts for protection.
This is really not going well He surmised, his eyes scanning over the ‘battlefield’ or what was really becoming more like a ‘slaughter-field’. They were taking out Red Courters…but not as fast as Red Courts were licking or draining or simply taking out wizards, and him and the few remaining wardens left were stretched to thin to help everyone.
The thing that…perturbed him the most was that the red court vampires seemed to have lost every sensible cell in their very, very ugly bodies. He ducked and covered as a spell was lobbed over his head, incinerating a red court vampire about to launch off at him. He threw a quick, grateful smile in the wizard’s direction, and decided to keep his inner dialogue running as HE ran.
He rolled, pulling out his sword and cleanly disemboweling the vampire, effectively shedding its stolen blood onto the ground below, and kept running. He would’ve just used bullets, but his bullets had ran out a long time ago, and if he stopped to reload right now, well, that would be very bad. They’d be picking him up with the rest of the Venom-ized ones.
There was, really, one thing keeping him going right now. And, it was really, the beginning of this little fight.
Up in the condos that signified Red Court territory at the moment, was Harry.
And, of equal importance, Molly. Possibly already dying, or worse.
“Expluda!” He snarled, and through the foci bracelet on his wrist, an anger-powered blast launched at the next closest, and took it screaming to the ground, where his sword made quick work of the rest of it.
The Warden kept moving, taking out what he could, and helping those in his way that were on their side, but his eyes hadn’t left the towering condominiums for a second.
Molly….
-=-
Daddy… Molly’s eyes flew open as she groaned. “Oh, god…five more minutes and three more aspirin.” She said, turning over in her…cold, hard, concrete bed.
That woke her up. She rose to her feet, surprised to see ankles shackled to the concrete floor, the thick enough to house a full strength vampire.
“Or be way too strong for a teenaged wizard girl to try and break out of or freeze off…” She murmured worriedly, her eyes narrowing in concern. Now, now she looked up, trying to find out exactly where she was. As she turned, she saw no windows, and only one door, which was about as heavily locked down as she was. Apparently, they didn’t want her to get out.
She slowly stood, and by how sore she was, she figured she’d been asleep, or unconscious, for a few days. She tried to remember anything, anything that could help her figure out just what the hell was going on here.
She got a very good hint when the door opened, and something was thrown at her feet. It skidded on its black trench coat for a few feet before coming to rest nearby her. By the malformed hand and the extreme height, she figured it to be…
“Oh my god, Harry!” She tried to run to him, and stumbled over her chains to come to a kneel next to him, and looked up, seeing a woman a little too pretty smirking at her.
“I wouldn’t get too close. He might bite.”
The color drained out of her face. “No…” She eked out a whisper, and turned him, so he was lying on his back, her eyes looking over him. “No…Harry…Harry, wake up and tell me she’s joking!”
After a moment, his eyes flashed open, disoriented and fuzzy, before they focused on Molly.
“Kid? W…What are you…” Disorientation devolved into fear…and hunger, and Molly nearly died inside. “…Molly, I want you to get away from me…” He said, his voice strained. She scrambled into her corner, and he did the same into the other, his eyes going from afraid to desolate.
Molly bit her lip as the tears began to stream out of her eyes. “No…no no…you can’t be.”
“Yes I can, Molly, don’t go there…don’t even think you can curl up into a little ball and pretend this isn’t happening.” He said shortly, but she could hear the underlying panic in his voice. “Because if you go into your little happy place, and I…I submit to this thing inside of me…I will eat you. And I will enjoy it.” He said, trying to startle her back to alert ness. “That’s why you’ve got to stay with me, okay?”
“O..Okay, I get it, Oh God Harry…”
“Stop it!” He snapped. “Stop feeling sorry for me, and start worrying about yourself! If I stay locked up in here I can’t get to anyone now can I? Once this mess is over, there are ways to …to control it. But I need you to get out, and lock me up.”
She sniffed, nodding, looking up at him. “One problem, boss.” She said, pointing to the cuffs on her ankles. Harry gave a small smile.
“Pfft. Cuffs? Come on Molly, what do you take me for?” He said, and shifting into his coat, finding the keys. “Managed to snag them before I got bitten…and other things.”
Molly watched him, frowning. “How are you staying so calm?”
“…Molly, I had a fallen angel tempting me for a few years…I think I can deal with a lesser whiny demon for a couple hours.” He muttered, and throwing the key ring in her direction. She caught them, and went to work trying each key.
“Okay…so just what the hell is going on here? Why are we locked up in here…why did they-”
“Because the Black Council paid them to do it.” He muttered bitterly. “They’ve been wanting to for years now…ever since this whole war got started. They take me off of their hands, there is no impetus for the war anymore. They can have the bastard that killed off Bianca and a few dozen of the Red Courters, the one who injured their Red King, and the Black, and White Councils will be free of the senseless war.”
“Oh, Harry…”
“You unlocked yet?”
“I…yeah.” The last key worked, and the cuff broke open and she could feel the blood rushing back to them in a flush of pins and needles. Making quick work of the other one, she got out, looking up to him. “Now what?” As her eyes turned on him, his turned away. “Uh…stand in the doorway, but veil yourself, and watch me until I lock myself up, and then lock the door behind you.”
“I can’t just leave you here…”
“You want to live? You want me to stay moderately human? Get out.” This time, the strain was heavier laced in his voice, as he rose to his feet, and locked himself up within the cuffs.
Molly watched for a minute, torn, unsure of what to do. Harry was always with her…Yelling at her maybe, but always helping her…what would she do without him?
“You don’t have time or power to hold that veil up for very long. Go, get out of the building…there’ll be people to help you below.” Harry said, and then, to get her to leave, added. “I’m starting to get hungry.”
Molly finally closed the door behind her, and started to hurry down to the exit, going down the stairwell and trying to find a window. When she did, she quickly decided that was a bad idea.
Downtown Chicago? Ruins. She nearly swooned on the steps, when Harry’s voice rang out in her mind, and charged her feet to move. All you have to do is get out of the building, Molly…then you can collapse into a puddle of goo.
She was down to the second floor before she ran into problems.
-=-
Carlos had just made it to the building, when he was surrounded by Red Court, his eyes scanning the odds, before he gave a soft sigh. “Good enough odds, I figure. I mean, one powerful, handsome, charismatic wizard, against a bunch of ugly ass vampires? I think I can deal with that.” He smirked.
The vampires screeched and dove for him, and he pulled out the semi-automatic he’d finally had time to reload, shooting at hearts, stomachs and heads, hitting or missing he managed to hit someone, as they were piled thick around him.
Vampires were falling, but they were crawling back, trying to get their hands on the wizard, screeching and hissing.
It was then that the earth around them began to shake.
Santa Maria, God Bless good earth mages He thought gleefully, as he watched the earth open up around him, only the small patch of ground his feet rested between was safe.
“Ramirez! I’m not your babysitter! Do your job!” He heard the deep rumble of Morgan’s voice, and snapped to attention. The vampires were not just going to the depths of the earth themselves. And if they could get out, they certainly wouldn’t stay there. His target changed from heads and hearts and stomachs to arms and wings. Now they were falling faster, and he saw Warden Morgan nearby, making short work at whatever scaly, flying thing got in his way, and sending them into the very depths of the earth.
Ramirez wondered just how long Morgan could hold the earth apart, before he ran out of bullets. “Força He shouted, raising switching from gun to staff as he began sending blasts of energy through wings, leaving smoking, gushing holes. He didn’t have enough power to do this for very long though, and, thank God, he may not have to, the vampires seemed to be retreating to their territory.
Morgan let the earth roll back as the rest fled back to the condos, and joined the younger warden, just as confused as he was.
“Where are they going?” Carlos asked, more to the air around him then to Morgan, who gave a shrug.
“Regardless, we have to go there anyway; they have some of our people in there.” He said softly. When Carlos nodded, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of electric green, and her eyes widened.
“Molly…shit!” He took off running, and Morgan, seeing what he was talking about, swore under his breath, and followed.
-=-
One vampire, Molly can handle. With enough time, preparation and luck, one vampire was no problem. She’d taken it out with a well placed kick and a good fire spell.
But…then she saw the swarm coming, and her already pale face was beginning to turn a ghostly shade of white, as she saw another dozen vampires flying her way, away from the death outside, and into the stairwell she was making her getaway into.
Little bursts of panic were erupting in her mind, and she, on instinct, jumped down the stairs, landing on one of the Red Court vampires, and then jumping down to the ground floor below, screaming the entire way loud enough to grate on the vampires’ enhanced sense of hearing.
They turned as fast as they could in the narrow hallway, but before they could, the ground began to shake around them. Molly looked down, and saw an older grey Cloaked warden, the same one who’d been sweeping down on her with that giant sword a few years back flashed his hand up and yell “Umgeben Sie !”
The shaking grew quiet, and the vampires grew nervous, backing away from the green haired apprentice, and starting to go back up the stairs, when there was a shattering of glass from above them, as earth began to tumble into the stairwell, taking the form of a pillar straight downward, pummeling whatever was in its path down to the stairs below, and then through them, the creatures being driven back to the earth.
Before Molly could get clear of the cave in, a hand reached for her leg, encircling it and pulling her down with him. Molly screamed, trying to find something she could hold onto, and looked up, seeing the elder Warden slumping against the wall, the extreme use of earth magic wearing him out too much to follow after the girl, she could read in his eyes guilt, and remorse.
“Oh, hell no!”
Molly paused briefly, her eyes lighting up. That voice sounded familiar. The swarthy young Hispanic skidded around Morgan and, literal gun blazing, took apart the arm that was holding Molly, shattering the bone and tearing the flesh off of it. The vampire struggling to hold on screeched in agony and finally succumbed to the earth, as the stairwell grew silent. Only a dull echo of the last screech remaining. Carlos abandoned his gun and scooped Molly up, holding her close to his chest.
“I’ve never been happier to see you.” Molly said, hugging him.
“I’ve never been happier to have more weapons than just a sword.” He smiled back, moving her out of range of any last-ditch attempts of vampires.
“While this reunion is…touching, where is Dresden?” Morgan spoke up, “We need to find him and flush out the rest of the vampires in this area before anything else can be done.”
Molly looked down, her hair falling in her face to shield her expression, and a tear, which dropped onto Carlos’ arm. “I…he’s upstairs….fourth floor, I think….He locked himself in.”
“I know Dresden is dumb, but why would he…” Morgan trailed off as realization dawned. “Oh, you can’t be serious…”
“Wait, what the hell?” Carlos looked from the slowly angering Morgan to the softly crying Molly, and put two and two together to make four. “Oh, Dios Mio…”
“Fourth floor, you said?” Morgan asked again, and Molly nodded.
“Come on, Ramirez…” Morgan said, hurrying for the hall that led to the other, stair well, as the cave in Morgan had created had destroyed the one they were staying in. Carlos looked to Molly.
“Are you alright, Molly?” Carlos said softly, , leaning heavily against the wall as if physically hurt by the blow. Molly shook her head.
“He…he can’t be turning…I…I don’t understand why it has to happen this way. There’s no escape from that, Carlos, none. And at best scenario he has to live with that hunger, that temptation, for the rest of his life…It’s not fair!”
“No, it isn’t.” Carlos murmured, still holding her. “But Harry’s a tough guy…he’s dealt with his share of temptation, I mean…” Carlos paused, and threw her a charming smile, determined to cheer her up. “If he can maintain his heterosexuality with my perfect face and body near him, then he can do anything, right?” Carlos chuckled.
Molly laughed despite herself, and kissed his cheek lightly. “You know, I knew there was a reason I liked you…” She said, brushing a bit of dust off of one of his cheeks. “You always make me smile…you always make me happy…” Molly murmured wistfully, and, even though her eyes were sad, he saw something he didn’t see before, hope.
Carlos felt himself falling faster, and, to ground himself, responded to her chaste kiss with one of his own, starting on her cheek, but landing on her lips.
Molly, the jumble of emotions that she was, let it happen, and soon enough, pushed all of her emotions into the kiss, kissing him back hard enough that he let his eyes flutter open with surprise before close again. It was a perfect kiss…if a little ill-timed.
Molly’s hands ran over his neck and then cupped his cheeks, as Carlos’ stayed gentlemanly and simply held Molly, the thumb of his right hand though massaged her tummy faintly, before they finally pulled loose, both of them panting.
“Mmm..ah…Harry needs us…”
“Mhm.” Carlos said, nodding in agreement.
“And Warden Morgan, he’ll need to know the way…” Molly said softly, stealing another kiss off of Carlos’ lips. Carlos nodded again.
“If he needs any help, we should be there, in case there’s a rough spot.” He murmured, as her hands settled on his shoulders, and pulled him in for another kiss.
“Their lips though, they hadn’t touched again, before they heard the footsteps of Morgan coming back. Carlos stopped, and, sighing, set Molly down on the ground. Molly thanked him, blushing, and stealing another kiss off of his cheek, before hurrying after Morgan.
It took Carlos a bit longer to recover, but soon enough he followed after them.
-=-A Few Days Later-=-
“So…he’s going to the Fellowship of Saint Giles to learn, and then he’s reestablishing his investigation office?” Carlos said, sipping the rich coffee, before setting it down and looking up to Molly, who seemed alight with energy, despite her efforts in the push to help clear out and rebuild the areas affected by the siege. Wearing her neon green hair back in a bun, a black tank top, denim shorts, and, as instructed by the police, boots (hers just happened to be combat boots, but whatever, she could walk, break and kick butt in them just as easily as she could in construction boots), she still looked great to Carlos.
“He says he won’t be staying long…just long enough to make sure he doesn’t get out of control. He says too much time around Susan would be…bad for his health.”
“I say as long as he gets laid, who knows, he might calm down a little.” Carlos chuckled, and Molly couldn’t help but giggle either. “Anyways, a deal’s a deal, one follow-up on Harry for some information on the siege, right?”
Molly nodded, her smile had faded for now. “Yeah, well apparently the Red Court Vampires, angered by the White Council’s lack to throw Harry to them, got enough nerve up to take down Chicago, which was rash, but, they apparently had already paid al the news teams to be mysteriously absent, and apparently, they’re all writing it off as a terrorist attack that also dealt out hallucinogenic gas that made people see things. Besides, even if a news crew had gone in there, with the amount of magic we were slinging around, there wouldn’t have been a camera left functioning. No one knows its vampires except the few human witnesses who lived through it without being bitten or killed, and the White Council and practitioners of magic. A carefully planned and stage assault to a major area without blowing their cover.”
“…those bastards”
“Just try not to think about it yet…please…” Carlos took her hand, squeezing it gently. “We have to help this city before we can start our witch….well…our vampire-hunt…Chicago will need time.” He murmured. “And we need time, before we let our emotions run away with our logic and our common sense.”
“Harry could become one of them, and you want me to not think about it?” Molly nearly shrieked, her eyes filled with anger, scary, coming from the normally laid back Carpenter. She stood to her feet, preparing to walk out on him.
“Don’t make the mistake of thinking I don’t care about him because I don’t think we should yet try to go in there all proverbial guns blazing.” He murmured, softly. “Because I do. But our resources are low, the morale is lower, and most of the practitioners and wardens strong enough to fight are injured or recovering from the amount of power they threw down in Chicago.” He murmured, standing up to meet her, about the same height as she was in the combat boots. He hugged her from behind, setting his head on her shoulder.
“I want to help Harry too, but, Harry’s getting help right now, the kind of help he needs. Afterwards, when he comes back, there will be plenty of time for kicking ass…now is a time of recovery.” Molly gave him a soft sigh, and nodded, looking up to him.
“Thank you, Carlos.”
“My pleasure, bonita.” He smiled, and was about to let go of her, before she pulled him closer.
From the novel series 'The Dresden Files' this is a bit of fluff made for one of my friends. Please, enjoy ^_^
“I never said it was time for you to let me go.” She smiled, running a hand against his arm, and looking up at him. “I still have to repay you for that kiss.”
“…Oh…” He said, smiling gently, and looking up to her. “I…ah…I see.”
“Carlos Ramirez has run out of words…” Molly giggled, turning to face him. “That alone can make a girl speechless.”
“…Well…I can think of a few things to do that don’t require any words.” Carlos mused, running a hand across the small of her back, and giving her a roguish grin. Molly gave him a smile, and kissed him again, pulling him close. This wasn’t the same sweet, pure kiss he’d gotten in the destroyed stairwell…this….this was hot….and, teasing. Carlos felt the lush swells of Molly’s chest brush against his own athletically toned one, and tried hard to suppress a moan.
“Uh…Molly…s…should we really do this in public?” Carlos asked quickly. Molly mused, a bit, kissing him again.
“Who said anyone could see us…”
Carlos gave a soft smile, and kissed back. This…this was something he could get used to.
Chapter Two here:
http://museinme8.livejournal.com/7946.html#cutid1