Catch Me a Catch, Pt. 1
Catch Me A Catch, part one
Disclaimer: See chapter one for how much I don't own
Master Post
Previous: Find Me a Find...
It was four hours between St. Louis and Bedford, Indiana and Anita was ready to kill Spike within the first two. It was like driving with a hyperactive toddler with a penchant for leather and chain smoking, the later of which she forbid him to do in the car which, in turn, only made the fidgeting worse. Why couldn’t he sleep during the day like a regular vampire?
During a brief stop for Spike to get his nicotine fix before Anita went completely insane, her phone chirped, informing her that she had a new text message.
remind him his phone has 30 games on it
-Dawn
Was all it said and Anita blinked down at the screen for a moment. Tucking it back in the little holder on the dash that Nathaniel had gotten for her, she pounced on the duster lying in the back seat. Rummaging through the pockets, Anita almost crowed when she fished the phone out but didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when it informed her that the battery was almost dead.
“Damnit!” she swore and her phone chirped again.
chargerq in the frmt pocket o3 his bag CONNOR
At the very least, she was glad that she wasn’t the only one who couldn’t text perfectly and angled herself into the back seat for Spike’s bag.
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The vampire took in one last lungful of smoke before grinding out the smoldering cigarette butt and turning back to the car. One eyebrow went up at the sight of Anita’s shapely backside bobbing between the front seats, the rest of her hidden in the back. Her head came up as he opened the passenger side door, dark hair hanging in her eyes.
“Lookin’ for something, Princess?” he asked and jerked back as her arm came up, something thin and black whipping toward his face.
“Plug that thing in and use it or I’m going to shoot you,” she told him and Spike realized that it was his cell’s car charger dangling from her fingers.
“Sure thing, luv,” he replied, taking the thing from her. “All you had to do was ask.”
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Apollo let himself into Narcissus in Chains through the back door, dreading the report he’d have to make to his Oba. The leader of the St. Louis cackle was incredibly possessive of the blond vampire, Asher, and it had only gotten worse in the months following the Quad’s arrival; not long after Apollo himself had settled in St. Louis. He didn’t understand Narcissus’ extreme dislike of the four, more so of the witch lately, but figured that if had something to do with the vamp. They’d apparently had a thing going on before the four had shown up but, since the Quad’s arrival, the vampire had been spending less and less time with the Oba. Apollo knew what it was like to get dumped, and it sucked, but personally, he thought his Oba was taking things a little far to get Asher back. Seriously, no one was that good of a lay.
The hand at his throat caught the hyena off guard and he lashed out briefly until he realized that it was his Oba who held him. Apollo immediately stilled, tipping his head back as far as he was able and baring his throat in submission. Narcissus pressed his nose to the bared flesh, directly over Asher’s bite from last night, and inhaled deeply.
“You fed him,” Narcissus growled, more animal than human voice and Apollo whined softly.
He remained perfectly still as his Oba scanned the different scents upon his clothes and skin and Apollo silently cursed himself for not changing before coming here. He knew the instant Narcissus caught Ghost’s faint scent mingled with Asher’s and the heady musk of sex. The hand around his throat tightened, cutting off his air.
“You fed him so he could fuck her,” came the accusing snarl and Apollo felt his feet leave the floor. His mouth gaped as he tried to draw breath, his nails drawing blood as he clawed at Narcissus’ hand but the grip remained firm.
“I told you,” the Oba growled. “I told all of you! You’re not to let her near him! She and her Master are poison! They’ll spirit him away if we let them and I will. Not. Loose. Him!”
His hand tightened a little more with each word until a harsh crack sounded in the tight space and Apollo went limp. Narcissus let the body fall, opening his link to Ajax and Bacchus and calling them to take care of the mess as he stalked back to the main floor, which was being set up for tonight’s show. The hyenas gathered there all followed him with wary, fear-filled eyes. Narcissus ignored them as he scanned his people’s faces. You’d think they’d never seen someone punished, the way they watched him.
“Cassidy!” he called, and then again, louder, when the hyena failed to appear.
“Oba,” said a voice at his feet and Narcissus glanced down into Ajax’s face. “Cassidy isn’t here, Oba.”
Narcissus frowned. Not here? Where was he? He’d always been there before, when Narcissus needed him most. The other hyena had stayed with Narcissus through the brief pregnancy that had ended not long after Chimera’s death, had mourned the child’s death with the Oba, had kept his confidence when Narcissus voiced his fears about losing Asher… Cassidy had to be there! Narcissus needed him now more than ever after Asher’s latest betrayal! Where was he?!
“Cassidy is visiting family, Oba,” came the soft reply and Narcissus blinked wet eyes at Ajax. “He said he’d return by the end of the week.”
Narcissus blinked again, frowning. Had he? Yes, he had said something about it not long ago as they’d lain in bed together, coming down from a bout of lovemaking. They were trying to give Narcissus another baby, one that would survive. He remembered now and getting excited like this wasn’t good for Narcissus or his baby.
Ajax didn’t miss the way his Oba’s hands covered his belly as he announced that he would be resting for the remainder of the day, and spared a few violent thoughts for Cassidy. Narcissus had always been a little… odd, and it had only gotten worse during the Chimera fiasco those few years ago but the panwere’s death and the loss of his child so close together seemed to have irrevocably broken something in the hyena leader. At first, Cassidy had seemed like a God-send but now Ajax didn’t trust him, didn’t like how quickly Narcissus had become enamored of him or how easily he seemed able to sway their Oba’s mind. Leaving Bacchus to the grizzly task of disposing of Apollo’s body, Ajax guided his Oba to his rooms above the club and wondered, not for the first time, what Chimera’s favorite was really doing in Indiana.
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Connor was on his way to his first client meeting of the day, and very first by himself, when his cell phone rang.
“Connor Reilly.”
“You need to come home right now,” pleaded a teary female voice.
“Constance?” he asked. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“Mrs. Cleary’s yelling at Laura,” Constance told him. “But we didn’t do anything wrong!”
Connor sometimes forgot how young most of the Slayers actually were, still kids really.
“I’ll be there in five minutes,” he told her and turned the car around.
Laura was a dark-haired 16-year-old from Nebraska that kept an eye on the younger girls while the Quad and older three Slayers worked. She was the most timid of the younger slayers, unless she was patrolling, and Mrs. Cleary was their nosey neighbor from across the street. She was loud and opinionated but harmless. The woman had been really nice when they’d first moved in, especially after they fed her some BS story about being cousins, or siblings, he couldn’t remember which, who had moved to St. Louis to start over after a fire. For a while they’d had her sympathy, not to mention her awesome peach-ginger cobbler, but then she’d seen the footage of the squid incident and started shunning Spike. Connor had lost her favor during his short stint as the Pied Piper of Roadkill-ville, and she was uncomfortable around Ghost, deeming witchcraft unnatural. She also didn’t approve of Dawn working so far from home. Connor kind of wondered what the woman would say if she ever found out that the Lunatic Café was run by shifters.
He turned the corner onto their street and began to re-evaluate Mrs. Cleary… what the hell was Child Protective Services doing in their driveway?
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Dawn chose to stick around the Circus of the Damned, seeing as how she had the day off, and was attempting to find a way to amuse herself until her boyfriend woke up for the night. She’d finally decided to track down Ghost and maybe pry a straight answer from the witch about her relationship with Asher and was striding down the hallway with purpose when the air split in front of her and two figures tumbled out.
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The CPS guys had apparently just arrived and didn’t seem to know what was going on any more than Connor did. One of the agents, a middle-aged woman with dark red hair, was on the front steps with Mrs. Cleary while Laura blocked the doorway, her ‘I-mean-business’ Slayer look fixed firmly on her face. Connor wondered what Cleary had done to trigger that look on the normally timid girl. The second agent, a man of about forty with thinning hair, was standing at the base of the steps and approached Connor as he exited the car.
“Are you…” the man checked a small notepad, “William Pratt?”
“No, I’m Connor Reilly. William is out of town right now… what’s going on?”
“Connor!” came the shout a moment before Constance shoved past the women on the steps and barreled into him. She hugged him tight as she buried her face in his chest. “They’re gonna take us away!” she wailed.
“Hey, hey,” he soothed, hugging her back. “No one’s going anywhere, I promise. There’s just been a misunderstanding, that’s all.”
“You!” came a cry from the steps and Connor looked up to see Mrs. Cleary advancing toward them.
“Ma’am,” the female agent said. “I need you to remain calm and stay over here.”
Cleary ignored her.
“Take your hands off of her!” she demanded. “Don’t think I don’t know what goes on here! Witches and vampires in and out at all hours and these poor girls caught up in all of it!”
“Excuse me?” Connor said.
“You may have sold your soul to the Devil but I won’t let you drag these innocent children into the Pit with you!”
She made a grab for Constance and Connor reacted, pushing the slayer behind himself he grabbed Mrs. Cleary’s outstretched wrist, twisted her arm behind her back and had her cuffed and on the ground in the space of a few heartbeats. Immensely glad that CPS didn’t arm their agents Connor flashed his badge.
“ICWS,” he announced to the wide-eyed agents.
The ensuing silence was broken by Constance’s delighted laughter.
“That was awesome!”
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Ghost heard Dawn’s shriek all the way in the living room. Abandoning her tarot cards on the coffee table she called her magic and flung herself to the Key’s side, bypassing inconveniences such as walls and doors. Her second sight was firmly in place as she materialized between Dawn and the others and all she saw was black demon aura. She’d summoned a ball of magic, momentarily forgetting the safety wards she’d placed on the Circus only two nights before, and prepared to let it loose when Dawn grabbed her shoulder and placed herself between the witch and the demons.
Dawn’s voice penetrated the defensive haze enough for the witch to recognize that neither demon was a threat only moments before several black-shirted guards rounded the corner, guns drawn and searching for a target. None of them, however, compared to the streak of red and white that snatched Dawn away from the perceived danger and to the far end of the hallway.
Damian crouched, naked and snarling, in front of Dawn, daring any to make a move toward his lady, but what caught Ghost’s breath in her throat wasn’t the vampire’s nakedness or the fact that he was awake hours earlier than she’d ever known him to be… no, it was the vampire’s eyes which sparked with the same green lightening she’d seen dance within Dawn’s when the Key called her power.
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With Mrs. Cleary handcuffed and seated on the couch in their living room, they were finally able to find out what was going on. Cleary had made several calls as a concerned citizen over the past two months and the agents, Bourke and Tate, had been sent out to establish the validity of the woman’s claims.
There were obviously no animal sacrifices or wild orgy’s going on but the agents did raise the points about how none of the four legal guardians were certified as foster parents and that their current residence was nowhere near large enough to house the number of people currently residing there. Connor had assured them that larger accommodations were being arranged and even put them in touch with his ‘supervisor’, Director Wells.
While the man, Bourke, talked with Andrew, Connor contacted Animator’s, Inc. to inform Bert of the sudden family emergency that prevented him from making his meetings today then hung up before the man could complain too much and settled in to listen in on Bourke’s conversation with Andrew. The St. Louis side of the conversation seemed to be mostly a repeat of what they’d told Connor, but then Bourke seemed to be caught off guard by something Andrew told him and turned to Connor.
“Mr. Reilly,” he said.
“Yeah?”
“Were you aware that these girls are preternaturals?”
Connor narrowed his eyes at the man as the agent’s heartbeat picked up and the sharp tang of fear began to waft from him, the agent’s dark eyes seeking out the Slayers scattered about who were trying to look like they weren’t listening in.
“Do you have a problem with preternaturals, Agent Bourke?” Connor asked and watched the man quickly compose himself.
“Of course not, it’s just that it’s very difficult to find placement for preternatural children. It’s commendable of you to take on so many with… uh, special needs.”
Connor frowned at the man’s words but asked, “Does that mean that the girls will be staying with us?”
“I’ll have to speak to my supervisor but Agent Tate and I see no reason to remove the girls from your custody. How soon do you believe you can acquire larger accommodations?”
“Pretty soon,” Connor replied.
“Good,” Bourke replied. “And the four of you will have to attend the certification classes, but I don’t foresee any problems there.”
Connor could practically see the man thinking, but of what he had no clue and wondered if this was more Ten of Swords playing out.
The agents took their leave not long after, making noise about regular check-ins and the like before leaving Connor and the Slayers with Mrs. Cleary to deal with. She’d heard the entire conversation and glared at them all as Connor pulled her to her feet.
“You had me fooled,” she spat at Constance and the other girls. “Not innocent at all.”
“I’m gonna let you go now, Mrs. Cleary,” Connor said, unlocking the cuffs and guiding her firmly toward the door. “But if this happens again we will press charges.”
She stepped away from him, rubbing her wrists.
“You can’t hide your wickedness forever,” she hissed and Connor sighed, rolling his eyes.
“You have a good afternoon, Mrs. Cleary,” Constance called smugly as the older woman stepped onto the lawn, keeping a wary eye on all of them. At the girls words her gaze turned icy.
“There is no evil so great as that which presents itself as innocence.”
“Whatever, Looney Tunes.”
“The flames will find you,” Cleary said. “In this life or the next.”
Connor narrowed his eyes, a low growl trickling from his throat.
“That sounded like a threat, Mrs. Cleary.”
She remained silent but glared defiantly until she reached the curb then turned and ran across the street to her front door. Upon reaching it she turned back and made a large sign of the cross at Connor before retreating into the safety of her house.
“Friggin psycho,” he muttered the entered the house to call Jean-Claude and ask how soon they could begin building that new safe house.
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