Richard Castle, Watcher: New York, May 2009 - Part 3
Richard Castle, Watcher
Author: Starfox5
Rating: FR18
Crossover: “Castle”
Written for: TtH August Fic A Day Challenge
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Castle Characters belong to Beacon Pictures and ABC Studio. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Summary: Thuggees and Snake Demons and angry cops, oh my!
New York, May 2009
“What are you doing here?” Becket was livid, and it seemed not just because Vi had greeted her with a blade near her throat. His Slayer’d be hearing about this, Richard Castle promised - Vi would have heard the two coming long before they opened the door, so this had been an intentional gesture, not a mistake.
“Vi wanted to buy a new sword. It’s been a month since she got the last, after all.” Castle answered. Judging by the darkening expression on the two cops - one cop, one fed, he corrected himself - that didn’t help.
“I told you: I won’t tolerate interference with this case!” Sorenson growled. Touchy, probably compensating for something, Castle thought. Or hoped.
“Interference?” Rick did put as much innocent confusion into his voice as possible. “We’re regulars of this fine shop, you can ask Ray.”
“Yes. Rick’s purchases put my daughter through college,” Ray cut in. “The girl knows her blades. They’re some of my best customers.” The unspoken ‘don’t hassle them’ was clearly understood.
Vi nodded emphatically. “I’ve got a great sword collection. I’d gladly show it to you, Agent Sorenson.” The agent in question blinked at her, then apparently decided to ignore the redhead’s flirting. Castle had seen that before - some men simply couldn’t handle a Slayer’s attitude. They were used to be the hunter, not the hunted.
“Her insurance premiums are about to rise past the mortgage payments on her flat,” the author added. Vi smiled as if that was a good thing.
Beckett’s glare shifted from Rick to Vi and back before the detective addressed Ray. “We’ve got a few questions about a special weapon you might have sold. But we can wait until Castle bought a new toy for his girlfriend.
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Castle answered. “Are you sure? Vi hasn’t finished browsing. Between testing each blade, and picking one, and whining about not getting two…” he dodged the elbow he knew was coming at that barb “... this could take another hour or two.” Which was only slightly exaggerated.
“Can we speak to you privately, sir?” Sorenson apparently hadn’t any patience. Go figure. Rick almost shook his head.
“We can go to the backroom. But please do not touch any of the blades there. The oil on your skin could damage them,” Ray gestured, and then went behind the counter.
Castle smirked at the expression on the agent’s face as the man walked past him, then made a ‘who, me?’ face at Beckett’s glare. Once the two had disappeared into Ray’s backroom, Castle and his Slayer chuckled, then Vi did some more test swings and Castle looked at a display of 19th century hunting knives.
Beckett and Mr. FBI emerged from the back after a few minutes. The detective narrowed her eyes at Castle while Sorenson turned to Ray. “Thank you for your cooperation. I have to remind you though that sharing any of the information you have given us with anyone else is not permitted and can lead to charges brought up against you.”
“Oh, please!” Rick sighed theatrically. “If you are so worried about us forcing our friend to tell us anything about this so-called case of yours, you can stay until we pay for Vi’s new toy and leave.”
The agent looked like he was considering it, but Beckett rolled her eyes and nudged him. Far too familiar, Castle thought with a frown. Vi of course found it amusing.
Once they had left, Castle’s Slayer grinned. “They’re off to check on the man who bought the pair of bagh nakas, Raj Godara. I’ve got the address as well.”
“If that’s a cursed weapon, they’ll be in danger,” Castle sighed.
“It didn’t look like it, but I didn’t exactly test it,” Ray answered. “The chance of a cursed weapon reaching me without triggering on the way is very low though. What are the chances it would happen twice to me?”
“A lot higher than you might think, given my experience,” Castle grumbled. Sometimes he wondered if he had picked up a curse in Sunnydale.
“It’s Rick’s fault then,” Vi declared, still swinging her new saber around. As usual, his glare didn’t impress her at all.
He quickly grew serious though. “Let me pay for your new piece, then follow the agent and the detective, in case they find a beastman or berserker. But please, do not get caught.”
“Have I ever been caught?” Vi grinned impishly. When Castle opened his mouth. “Caught and not gotten away, I mean.”
And with that the Slayer was off.
Castle rubbed his forehead. “I’ll look into curses, I guess. And sacrifices.” He looked at Ray.
The burly man shook his head. “I haven’t sold a sacrificial dagger in months.”
Just as Castle was about to leave, his phone beeped. He read the SMS, and frowned. ‘GO STR8 HOME NO RISK W/O ME’? Did Vi think he couldn’t take care of himself? He had been hunting vampires when she had still been in pre-school!
And now he felt old. And the need to buy something expensive to compensate. Good job, Rick, he told himself.
*****
Vi returned in the evening, right on time for dinner - Castle’s ‘Lasagna Surprise’. Which he still felt was an unfair and misleading name, given that that particular surprise had only happened once, but his redheads had outvoted him. Women!
While the redheaded Slayer wolfed down an entire casserole by herself - Castle’s family had vetoed his idea to simply replace her plate with the casserole as well, Alexis had even scolded him for not having any manners, as if Vi was showing much manners right now - she reported: “Well, it was quite anti-climatic. The guy wasn’t at his job - bouncer in a bar catering to Indian immigrants. A co-worker told the cops that Raj had told him about planning to enter an illegal pit fighting circuit, but he thought it was just empty boasting. He wasn’t in his flat either, hadn’t been there in days. But your dear Detective found a garotte in the flat.”
“Thuggees?” Alexis asked. Castle frowned at the reminder that his innocent angel was getting a bit too worldly.
“They revered Kali. If the man is planning to sacrifice the baby… I guess we’ll have to check out this pit fighting rumors.” Castle pressed his lips together. This case was looking uglier and uglier.
“The cops got three names for possible locations. One of them is the ‘Delhi Dancing’,” Vi smiled in anticipation as she mentioned the not-quite demon bar. Castle remembered their last visit. His leg had taken a month to heal up.
He looked sternly at his Watcher. “This time, don’t piss off the half-snake Bouncer!”
“Cross my heart and hope to die, boss!” Vi raised one hand while she shoveled more pasta in her mouth with the other.
“That’s what I am afraid of!” Castle sighed.
*****
“I thought you promised not to piss the bouncer off!” Castle yelled while ducking under debris sent his way by Vi slamming a half-snake demon into a rather fragile table.
“I didn’t! This is the pit fighting champion!” the redhead answered. “And he attacked before I had said anyoof!” Vi was cut off when the demon’s tail slammed her into the back wall, cracking the plaster there.
On second thought, maybe they shouldn’t have taken the sewer entrance. But he’d never have gotten in through the normal entrance wearing his Ack Pack. Who’d have expected that there was an illegal pit fighting pit in the basement with direct sewer access? Didn’t the demons know about security and hygiene? Castle brough his flamethrower to bear on a pair of demons slithering towards him. “That’s far enough!”
They didn’t listen. They never did. Though maybe those demons didn’t understand English. He pulled the trigger. They understood burning fuel well enough though, and hissed and screamed as they thrashed around, tails slapping each other as they tried to put out the flames. It didn’t work.
Meanwhile, Vi had jumped back into the fray and was pounding the larger demon. He opened his mouth, baring impressive fangs dripping with poison, but the Slayer was prepared and jammed a piece of wood from the broken table into the monster’s mouth. His frustrated screams were quite a bit muffled afterwards.
“We need one of them alive!” Castle yelled, and stepped closer to help his Slayer. Unfortunately, he had misjudged the reach of the demon’s tail and found himself swatted aside and slammed into a wall, shoulder first. “We might not need that particular demon alive!” He shouted in pain.
“Roger!” Vi yelled back and kicked the demon into the chest. It fell down, and before it could recover, Vi had drawn her Glock and put half a dozen rounds into its head. It took half a minute to stop thrashing around, even with half its head gone.
Castle checked his shoulder - why did they always hurt the same one? - and got up again, groaning. He might be getting a bit too old for this. Vi was already moving towards the doors to the side. “Throw the burning ones down into the pit first! We don’t want to set fire to the house.”
Vi sent him a glance that showed she didn’t understand why they shouldn’t set fire to the demon-infested building, but complied. Two kicks later, the smoking snake corpses were in the pit.
One door revealed a room with a small altar to Kali and several pots. Vi sniffed the dried blood on it. “Not fresh enough for the kidnapping.” Castle nodded, and opened a pot. The stench of rotten meat made him close it at once, and he fought not to hurl. Maybe setting fire to the whole building wasn’t a bad idea. The visitors in the bar above them surely would get away in time.
The next room had a very soft but oddly stained carpet, and scented candles and cushions spread out through it. Castle was puzzled until Vi sniffed the air and grimaced. “Ew. This smells like a Snake Demon mating chamber!”
Castle looked at what he was standing in, and cursed. Those shoes had been expensive! Then he cursed again - he had just sounded like Buffy in his head! “Why would you know how a Snake Demon mating chamber smells?”
“Well, there was this time I was with Faith, and we surprised one of them mating…” Vi started to explain.
“Too much information, Vi!” He held up his hand and shuddered. One more reason to make sure Faith never, ever got to teach Alexis anything.
Their exploration of the remaining storage room - where first aid supplies as well as spices and sauces were found, a rather weird combination even for demons - was interrupted by someone pounding on the door that led to the stairs to the not quite demon bar above them. He was shouting something in Hindi, probably - Castle wasn’t certain. He could read a bit of Sanskrit, to decipher some prophecies, but not Hindi. Maybe it was Punjabi instead. Vi looked as lost as he was.
Both clearly understood the “NYPD! You’re under arrest!” though. Beckett’s voice. From the stairs. Castle looked at Vi and nodded.
While the sounds of a brief struggle were heard through the fortunately sturdy door, Vi dropped the third snake corpse into the pit, and then Castle emptied his flamethrower into it, before setting it afire.
It had been an ugly bar anyway. Unsavory too.
*****
The next morning, Castle and Vi headed to the Precinct again. With their latest lead turning out to be a literal dead end - through no fault of them, of course - they needed a bit more information. It shouldn’t be too hard for Rick to serve as a distraction for Vi. At least that was the plan. If it failed he hoped the gourmet doughnuts and bear claws would serve as a bribe to avoid bodily harm. His shoulder and face were still hurting from last night.
Agent Sorenson didn’t glare at him, but had such a smug grin on his face while looking so tired, Castle feared the worst. Doubly so when he spotted Beckett in a similar condition. “Ah, Mister writer. I am pleased to inform you that despite your meddling, we solved the case and saved the baby.”
“You solved it?” Castle blinked. How had they managed that?
“Don’t look so surprised, Castle!” Beckett cut in. “We’re professionals, after all.”
“Wow. So, who was behind it?” Maybe they had been mind-controlled. Some demons could do that.
“Apparently, an uncle of the father of the baby was involved in a crime in India, and needed money to pay off the victim, and possibly the local law enforcement officers as well. Money Mattu didn’t want to give to him, so he opted to send a relative of his, Manish Kaur, to kidnap the child. But the kidnapper’s contact here, Raj Godara, turned out to be untrustworthy and greedy, and wanted the ransom money himself. It came to blows, and Godara killed Kaur, then took the baby to his step-sister. Everyone involved has been arrested,” Sorenson smugly explained. Castle felt relieved - that explained why Sorenson and Beckett were looking so tired and rumpled.
Still, he couldn’t let such an opening slip by. “You arrested the baby? Wow, that’s harsh. Was she an accomplice?”
Sorenson snapped “Don’t be an idiot! We saved the baby and arrested everyone else!”
“Ah. That’s… a good thing, but rather boring.” Boring was good, of course, if it meant less deaths.
“What’s with your face?” Beckett stepped closer, narrowing her eyes. “Where did you get those bruises?”
“Would you believe a Snake Demon slammed me into a wall?” Castle smiled at her. She cared!
“No. I would believe you meddled in this case, and got into trouble looking for a pit fighting ring!” Beckett said, smiling far too sweetly. Vi giggled, but then Beckett added: “I guess it was past your bodyguard’s bedtime?”
“It’s not my fault!” the Slayer bristled with indignation.
“I fell down the stairs,” Castle interrupted before the situation could escalate. Sorenson and Beckett exchanged smirking glances.
“A likely story. So, it looks like you’ll not be able to use this case for your book, Castle,” the Detective stated with a faint smile.
“Oh, I’ll just have it involve Kali-worshipping Half-Snake Demons who run illegal pit fights.” Rick smiled while Beckett shook her head. Sorenson muttered something Castle didn’t catch, but judging by the frown on Vi’s face, it hadn’t been complimentary or funny. “I am still wondering where to insert the undercover stripper scene though.” As Beckett opened her mouth in outrage, he quickly added “Using the bumbling male undercover FBI agent, of course.”
Sorenson looked so shocked, Castle was sure even the Detective was smiling behind the hand covering her face.
Author: Starfox5
Rating: FR18
Crossover: “Castle”
Written for: TtH August Fic A Day Challenge
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Castle Characters belong to Beacon Pictures and ABC Studio. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Summary: Thuggees and Snake Demons and angry cops, oh my!
New York, May 2009
“What are you doing here?” Becket was livid, and it seemed not just because Vi had greeted her with a blade near her throat. His Slayer’d be hearing about this, Richard Castle promised - Vi would have heard the two coming long before they opened the door, so this had been an intentional gesture, not a mistake.
“Vi wanted to buy a new sword. It’s been a month since she got the last, after all.” Castle answered. Judging by the darkening expression on the two cops - one cop, one fed, he corrected himself - that didn’t help.
“I told you: I won’t tolerate interference with this case!” Sorenson growled. Touchy, probably compensating for something, Castle thought. Or hoped.
“Interference?” Rick did put as much innocent confusion into his voice as possible. “We’re regulars of this fine shop, you can ask Ray.”
“Yes. Rick’s purchases put my daughter through college,” Ray cut in. “The girl knows her blades. They’re some of my best customers.” The unspoken ‘don’t hassle them’ was clearly understood.
Vi nodded emphatically. “I’ve got a great sword collection. I’d gladly show it to you, Agent Sorenson.” The agent in question blinked at her, then apparently decided to ignore the redhead’s flirting. Castle had seen that before - some men simply couldn’t handle a Slayer’s attitude. They were used to be the hunter, not the hunted.
“Her insurance premiums are about to rise past the mortgage payments on her flat,” the author added. Vi smiled as if that was a good thing.
Beckett’s glare shifted from Rick to Vi and back before the detective addressed Ray. “We’ve got a few questions about a special weapon you might have sold. But we can wait until Castle bought a new toy for his girlfriend.
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Castle answered. “Are you sure? Vi hasn’t finished browsing. Between testing each blade, and picking one, and whining about not getting two…” he dodged the elbow he knew was coming at that barb “... this could take another hour or two.” Which was only slightly exaggerated.
“Can we speak to you privately, sir?” Sorenson apparently hadn’t any patience. Go figure. Rick almost shook his head.
“We can go to the backroom. But please do not touch any of the blades there. The oil on your skin could damage them,” Ray gestured, and then went behind the counter.
Castle smirked at the expression on the agent’s face as the man walked past him, then made a ‘who, me?’ face at Beckett’s glare. Once the two had disappeared into Ray’s backroom, Castle and his Slayer chuckled, then Vi did some more test swings and Castle looked at a display of 19th century hunting knives.
Beckett and Mr. FBI emerged from the back after a few minutes. The detective narrowed her eyes at Castle while Sorenson turned to Ray. “Thank you for your cooperation. I have to remind you though that sharing any of the information you have given us with anyone else is not permitted and can lead to charges brought up against you.”
“Oh, please!” Rick sighed theatrically. “If you are so worried about us forcing our friend to tell us anything about this so-called case of yours, you can stay until we pay for Vi’s new toy and leave.”
The agent looked like he was considering it, but Beckett rolled her eyes and nudged him. Far too familiar, Castle thought with a frown. Vi of course found it amusing.
Once they had left, Castle’s Slayer grinned. “They’re off to check on the man who bought the pair of bagh nakas, Raj Godara. I’ve got the address as well.”
“If that’s a cursed weapon, they’ll be in danger,” Castle sighed.
“It didn’t look like it, but I didn’t exactly test it,” Ray answered. “The chance of a cursed weapon reaching me without triggering on the way is very low though. What are the chances it would happen twice to me?”
“A lot higher than you might think, given my experience,” Castle grumbled. Sometimes he wondered if he had picked up a curse in Sunnydale.
“It’s Rick’s fault then,” Vi declared, still swinging her new saber around. As usual, his glare didn’t impress her at all.
He quickly grew serious though. “Let me pay for your new piece, then follow the agent and the detective, in case they find a beastman or berserker. But please, do not get caught.”
“Have I ever been caught?” Vi grinned impishly. When Castle opened his mouth. “Caught and not gotten away, I mean.”
And with that the Slayer was off.
Castle rubbed his forehead. “I’ll look into curses, I guess. And sacrifices.” He looked at Ray.
The burly man shook his head. “I haven’t sold a sacrificial dagger in months.”
Just as Castle was about to leave, his phone beeped. He read the SMS, and frowned. ‘GO STR8 HOME NO RISK W/O ME’? Did Vi think he couldn’t take care of himself? He had been hunting vampires when she had still been in pre-school!
And now he felt old. And the need to buy something expensive to compensate. Good job, Rick, he told himself.
*****
Vi returned in the evening, right on time for dinner - Castle’s ‘Lasagna Surprise’. Which he still felt was an unfair and misleading name, given that that particular surprise had only happened once, but his redheads had outvoted him. Women!
While the redheaded Slayer wolfed down an entire casserole by herself - Castle’s family had vetoed his idea to simply replace her plate with the casserole as well, Alexis had even scolded him for not having any manners, as if Vi was showing much manners right now - she reported: “Well, it was quite anti-climatic. The guy wasn’t at his job - bouncer in a bar catering to Indian immigrants. A co-worker told the cops that Raj had told him about planning to enter an illegal pit fighting circuit, but he thought it was just empty boasting. He wasn’t in his flat either, hadn’t been there in days. But your dear Detective found a garotte in the flat.”
“Thuggees?” Alexis asked. Castle frowned at the reminder that his innocent angel was getting a bit too worldly.
“They revered Kali. If the man is planning to sacrifice the baby… I guess we’ll have to check out this pit fighting rumors.” Castle pressed his lips together. This case was looking uglier and uglier.
“The cops got three names for possible locations. One of them is the ‘Delhi Dancing’,” Vi smiled in anticipation as she mentioned the not-quite demon bar. Castle remembered their last visit. His leg had taken a month to heal up.
He looked sternly at his Watcher. “This time, don’t piss off the half-snake Bouncer!”
“Cross my heart and hope to die, boss!” Vi raised one hand while she shoveled more pasta in her mouth with the other.
“That’s what I am afraid of!” Castle sighed.
*****
“I thought you promised not to piss the bouncer off!” Castle yelled while ducking under debris sent his way by Vi slamming a half-snake demon into a rather fragile table.
“I didn’t! This is the pit fighting champion!” the redhead answered. “And he attacked before I had said anyoof!” Vi was cut off when the demon’s tail slammed her into the back wall, cracking the plaster there.
On second thought, maybe they shouldn’t have taken the sewer entrance. But he’d never have gotten in through the normal entrance wearing his Ack Pack. Who’d have expected that there was an illegal pit fighting pit in the basement with direct sewer access? Didn’t the demons know about security and hygiene? Castle brough his flamethrower to bear on a pair of demons slithering towards him. “That’s far enough!”
They didn’t listen. They never did. Though maybe those demons didn’t understand English. He pulled the trigger. They understood burning fuel well enough though, and hissed and screamed as they thrashed around, tails slapping each other as they tried to put out the flames. It didn’t work.
Meanwhile, Vi had jumped back into the fray and was pounding the larger demon. He opened his mouth, baring impressive fangs dripping with poison, but the Slayer was prepared and jammed a piece of wood from the broken table into the monster’s mouth. His frustrated screams were quite a bit muffled afterwards.
“We need one of them alive!” Castle yelled, and stepped closer to help his Slayer. Unfortunately, he had misjudged the reach of the demon’s tail and found himself swatted aside and slammed into a wall, shoulder first. “We might not need that particular demon alive!” He shouted in pain.
“Roger!” Vi yelled back and kicked the demon into the chest. It fell down, and before it could recover, Vi had drawn her Glock and put half a dozen rounds into its head. It took half a minute to stop thrashing around, even with half its head gone.
Castle checked his shoulder - why did they always hurt the same one? - and got up again, groaning. He might be getting a bit too old for this. Vi was already moving towards the doors to the side. “Throw the burning ones down into the pit first! We don’t want to set fire to the house.”
Vi sent him a glance that showed she didn’t understand why they shouldn’t set fire to the demon-infested building, but complied. Two kicks later, the smoking snake corpses were in the pit.
One door revealed a room with a small altar to Kali and several pots. Vi sniffed the dried blood on it. “Not fresh enough for the kidnapping.” Castle nodded, and opened a pot. The stench of rotten meat made him close it at once, and he fought not to hurl. Maybe setting fire to the whole building wasn’t a bad idea. The visitors in the bar above them surely would get away in time.
The next room had a very soft but oddly stained carpet, and scented candles and cushions spread out through it. Castle was puzzled until Vi sniffed the air and grimaced. “Ew. This smells like a Snake Demon mating chamber!”
Castle looked at what he was standing in, and cursed. Those shoes had been expensive! Then he cursed again - he had just sounded like Buffy in his head! “Why would you know how a Snake Demon mating chamber smells?”
“Well, there was this time I was with Faith, and we surprised one of them mating…” Vi started to explain.
“Too much information, Vi!” He held up his hand and shuddered. One more reason to make sure Faith never, ever got to teach Alexis anything.
Their exploration of the remaining storage room - where first aid supplies as well as spices and sauces were found, a rather weird combination even for demons - was interrupted by someone pounding on the door that led to the stairs to the not quite demon bar above them. He was shouting something in Hindi, probably - Castle wasn’t certain. He could read a bit of Sanskrit, to decipher some prophecies, but not Hindi. Maybe it was Punjabi instead. Vi looked as lost as he was.
Both clearly understood the “NYPD! You’re under arrest!” though. Beckett’s voice. From the stairs. Castle looked at Vi and nodded.
While the sounds of a brief struggle were heard through the fortunately sturdy door, Vi dropped the third snake corpse into the pit, and then Castle emptied his flamethrower into it, before setting it afire.
It had been an ugly bar anyway. Unsavory too.
*****
The next morning, Castle and Vi headed to the Precinct again. With their latest lead turning out to be a literal dead end - through no fault of them, of course - they needed a bit more information. It shouldn’t be too hard for Rick to serve as a distraction for Vi. At least that was the plan. If it failed he hoped the gourmet doughnuts and bear claws would serve as a bribe to avoid bodily harm. His shoulder and face were still hurting from last night.
Agent Sorenson didn’t glare at him, but had such a smug grin on his face while looking so tired, Castle feared the worst. Doubly so when he spotted Beckett in a similar condition. “Ah, Mister writer. I am pleased to inform you that despite your meddling, we solved the case and saved the baby.”
“You solved it?” Castle blinked. How had they managed that?
“Don’t look so surprised, Castle!” Beckett cut in. “We’re professionals, after all.”
“Wow. So, who was behind it?” Maybe they had been mind-controlled. Some demons could do that.
“Apparently, an uncle of the father of the baby was involved in a crime in India, and needed money to pay off the victim, and possibly the local law enforcement officers as well. Money Mattu didn’t want to give to him, so he opted to send a relative of his, Manish Kaur, to kidnap the child. But the kidnapper’s contact here, Raj Godara, turned out to be untrustworthy and greedy, and wanted the ransom money himself. It came to blows, and Godara killed Kaur, then took the baby to his step-sister. Everyone involved has been arrested,” Sorenson smugly explained. Castle felt relieved - that explained why Sorenson and Beckett were looking so tired and rumpled.
Still, he couldn’t let such an opening slip by. “You arrested the baby? Wow, that’s harsh. Was she an accomplice?”
Sorenson snapped “Don’t be an idiot! We saved the baby and arrested everyone else!”
“Ah. That’s… a good thing, but rather boring.” Boring was good, of course, if it meant less deaths.
“What’s with your face?” Beckett stepped closer, narrowing her eyes. “Where did you get those bruises?”
“Would you believe a Snake Demon slammed me into a wall?” Castle smiled at her. She cared!
“No. I would believe you meddled in this case, and got into trouble looking for a pit fighting ring!” Beckett said, smiling far too sweetly. Vi giggled, but then Beckett added: “I guess it was past your bodyguard’s bedtime?”
“It’s not my fault!” the Slayer bristled with indignation.
“I fell down the stairs,” Castle interrupted before the situation could escalate. Sorenson and Beckett exchanged smirking glances.
“A likely story. So, it looks like you’ll not be able to use this case for your book, Castle,” the Detective stated with a faint smile.
“Oh, I’ll just have it involve Kali-worshipping Half-Snake Demons who run illegal pit fights.” Rick smiled while Beckett shook her head. Sorenson muttered something Castle didn’t catch, but judging by the frown on Vi’s face, it hadn’t been complimentary or funny. “I am still wondering where to insert the undercover stripper scene though.” As Beckett opened her mouth in outrage, he quickly added “Using the bumbling male undercover FBI agent, of course.”
Sorenson looked so shocked, Castle was sure even the Detective was smiling behind the hand covering her face.