The Usual Disclaimer: Don't own any character with the exception of the new ones, no profit made except for the gain of writing something I love.

The Author's Disclaimer: This story takes place after Roadkill, but I attempted to keep standing plots intact for Blackout to continue after this story. Hope you enjoy.

UPDATE 7/11/12: No major details have changed in the revisions of this story. Some lines and minor details have been changed throughout several edits. Also, if you enjoyed this story, please try the new sequel just posted called Killswitch.

Crossfire

A Cal Leandros Novel

Cal, half human, half something else, has always been running. Running from death, destruction and whatever else his dark past dredged up. Now he and his half-brother Niko are shown there is a being with a past darker and more dangerous than they my be prepared to face, Its not a job, but a need, and Cal won't rest until it's done.

Chapter One

CAL

There was a times when, despite wishful thinking and convenience and good intentions –not that I ever had many of those– that self preservation finally won out. Surprisingly, it wasn't when the world was ending or guns were blazing. There were many of those times in the past, let me tell you, but even then I'd waited it out in hopes that I could keep this. Should've known better.

I never got to hold on to a good thing for long. The towns Niko and I settled in that weren't half bad we ran from when the Auphe showed their hideous faces. The first girl I'd ever had feelings for that could have very well been love, I had to deny to keep her alive. Every single time the going got good, and those were rare, some thing always gave.

It just wasn't usually in my conscious decision to screw it all up.

Delilah watched me as if she knew. Maybe she did. I didn't usually linger too long after the clothes were put back on. It wasn't wise. Last time I'd been on Kin territory the wolves found out Delilah was boning a creature of the night more evil than them and tried to have me neutered. Funny thing, I'd pretty much done exactly that to the first hydrant-pisser that attacked me. The second wave wasn't even that lucky.

It was beginning to bother me, though. We had a relationship of convenience, something a guy in his mid-twenties certainly wouldn't complain about. It wasn't that she might kill me to gain seniority among the wolf mafia or just when she felt a little peckish after sex that made me pause and reflect. She never promised my safety, just as she tried to shoot one of the few friends that I had to benefit her own plans of grandeur.

That hadn't changed. Not that I expected our road trip to save the world would change anything. But now Delilah was Kin without a pack and all it would take to get back in their good graces would be killing me. Well, maybe more than that, but my head on the family's Thanksgiving dinner table would certainly help. She was a lone wolf sure, liked to take the road less traveled and all that, but she was still Kin and would always be Kin and they weren't keen on leaving loose ends. Besides, she was only a lone wolf because the Kin were still stuck in the fifties with their gender bias. No female would be Alpha; but if that ever changed I knew Delilah would be the first female Alpha.

"You are scared," Delilah commented in that strange exotic voice that sounded more foreign than stuck between human and wolf vocal chords; a side effect of the butt-sniffers trying to breed higher bloodlines. All Wolf all the time was the Kin's motto. They wanted to go back to their fleabag roots and little did they know that the werewolf healer that could –though would never again– fulfill that dream was running around Yellowstone with his All Wolf cousin. The Kin also didn't know that Delilah let him slip through her grasp. But I knew and she knew I knew –yet another reason for her to rip off the half Auphe's head.

"Not scared," I replied. It sounded testy, but anyone who subjected themselves to the ball of sunshine that was me was pretty used to that. "I'm thinking."

"Don't hurt yourself, pretty boy." I scowled at her teasing. The nickname, though not entirely inaccurate by human standards either, was in reference to my battle scars. One of which she healed for me after a homicidal Red Cap took a bite out of my chest as an appetizer.

"Delilah, nothing's going to change between us," Even as I said it aloud it sounded whiny. Like I expected something more from this, more than semi-regular sex with possibly the hottest female that would ever consider sleeping with me. Yeah, I knew this was stupid, but gut instinct and all. It just felt like this relationship's expiration date was neigh and at the end it was obvious one of us would literally expire.

Delilah raised her eyebrows then slunk from the center of the bed to the edge where I sat. She was still bare to the world and it was glorious. Toned core, creamy amber-colored breasts, long white blond hair cascading over thin shoulders. Her face gave the illusion of Asian decent with almond-shaped eyes the same glowing amber of her skin and thin sultry lips that shifted into a coy smile. "You want change? New kink?"

"No, that's not," I shook myself to snap out of the purely hormonal trance her body put me in. "Can't we just –stop it." She frowned at the admonishment for her nails scratching over my back and growled when I stood from the bed. I ignored the feral sound. "Things aren't changing. We fight like cats and d—" I stopped myself, not sure why since I usually let the insults fly regardless to who I was talking to, but I didn't really want to start our fourth argument of the day. "We're fighting as much as were fucking, it isn't…" I paused again, hoping to gather thoughts out of thin air. Even I didn't know what I was trying to say anymore.

"We're always going to wonder when the other is going to go for the throat," I finished lamely and dropped my arms to my sides.

Delilah continued to smile, sliding her long legs over the edge of the bed and getting up in a slow manner than had me further forget what I was saying. "Makes it fun. Dangerous." She approached me with a look that could melt off clothes. At the moment, I didn't think I would mind if it did. She tangled fingers in my tee shirt and pulled me against her nearly perfect body; the only discolorations being the artistic tattoo of wolf eyes that strung along her neck and the nasty scars on her abdomen that made her barren and therefore a perfect girl for me. "This not fun?"

"I like you. I like having sex with you, but how far does that go? If the Kin offer you an Alpha position if you kill me, you'd kill me. I know this. You wouldn't even try to find another way."

"I might." It was said simply. As if should the mood suit her she'd think about it and if she found an alternative she'd try it. It was honest, but without trust and trust was necessary when you live life on the run and with only your big brother protecting your back. I sighed and indulged myself by running a hand over her warm body.

"I don't want to kill you," I said firmly. She knew well that didn't mean I wouldn't. For years it had been me and Niko, no other baggage, no other concerns but each other. That had changed in recently, but that also didn't change the fact that I knew I could never leave Nik alone. I'd seen what my brother became when he had thought I'd been murdered. I knew what lengths he could go to for vengeance and I didn't want him to ever go through that again.

"You are trying to say no more," Delilah sighed over my collarbone before nipping it. "Pointless words. My body is like addiction. Can't quit me."

I clasped her shoulders and pulled her back to arm's length. "Then I go cold turkey. I'm done fighting with you and God knows I will miss the sex." Oh, how I would miss the sex. "You accepted me, never feared me, and you've…'taught' me so much, but—"

Delilah shoved me against the wall, pinning me there with her body. "One more ride. Then we see how long it takes for you come back to me." And how could I argue? Of course that one last ride caused me to dangerously cut my escape out of there close. If the Kin found out that Delilah was still sleeping with me…ah, who was I kidding? I couldn't care less if the Kin knew and Delilah obviously felt the same way, or she figured if I couldn't defend myself against them I was a waste of space. She'd already set her pack on me in Yellowstone, though she claimed it was because she knew I could handle them and if I couldn't she'd finish the job and still be a free lone wolf.

Yeah, things were looking up for Delilah, but me? I had a pissed off brother to come home to four hours after I promised to be home.

It was never a good thing when your big brother was sharpening the nicks out of a twenty-eight inch blade on your living room couch when you came in. I tried for the casual entrance, a brief wave and a quick duck down the hall to my room. It didn't work, it never worked.

"Cal," Niko said in that tone. He had a lot of tones and most of the time I could tell what he wanted from one word. He, on the other hand, rarely needed words. He could read me like a Dick and Jane book from just the way I stood. This tone was firm, but concerned. Not what I was expecting coming in with the sun rising in the frame of the windows. He eyed me for a moment or two as I shifted to stand in the threshold between the kitchen and the hallway.

Strange thing, genetics were. Niko was all Romani; Roman nose, olive skin. His hair was a dark blond in a braid that fell over his shoulder and his eyes stark gray, both of which came from the Vayash tribe that mixed with our European brothers, but otherwise he was Rom. And me? Sure, I had the dark hair, but that about summed up my gypsy heritage. I was paler than the vampires of fabled cinema, and most of my features were handsome but weren't really identifiers. Where I was lazy as shit, Niko was ambitious. Where I was dumb, or rather too lazy to pick up a book, Niko was scholarly. Polar opposites with only a pair of matching gray eyes to give any indication we were brothers. Physically, at least.

"Hey." It wasn't much to break the silence, but I wasn't sure which of my many vices Nik was going to lecture me about. My room being a mess, the laundry not being done, the dishes left in the sink, the fact that I was out all night sleeping with a werewolf that might kill me in my thoroughly exhausted sleep, or that I missed the morning run.

"You want to talk about it?" I let off a short laugh through my nose. Should have known Niko would sense what happened the moment I walked into the door. The pain in my ass/savior was more supernatural than half of the monsters we fought and he was the only one among our circle of friends that could claim the title of human.

"No."

Nik stared for another moment, then shifted his attention back to the sword resting on his thighs.

"If you're going to take a shower you might as well wait."

I groaned. Apparently, I didn't miss the morning run. I started to complain. I mean, come on, I just got six hours of exercise why did I need a five mile run? Niko didn't wait for the whine to form into words though, he just swiped the bledstone over the blade pointedly. "And pick up your clothes, you lazy bastard."

I almost smiled at that, almost. "You got it, Cyrano."

By the time I got through the painful jog through Central Park and a shower set to massage to pound out all the aches, I was starving. Surprising that hadn't happened sooner. Nik already had breakfast out for me. Seemed he felt bad for me breaking it off with Delilah for the greater good, because it was sunny side up eggs and bacon instead of egg whites and whole wheat cardboard. He didn't ask and I didn't discuss. I left her apartment confused and convinced that I hadn't actually gotten my point across. I was determined not to go back to Delilah, but I doubted she would honor that request. If she got a hankering for Auphe, she'd find me.

Scarfing down every scrap of the meal was my thanks to Nik and he needed no more than that. He even did the dishes without scolding me for leaving them in the sink and dropping onto the couch to watch television. I had to take advantage of these moment; usually, I had to die or almost die to get this kind of pampering.

"You working tonight?"

I grunted an affirmative. Work was bartending at a bar called the Ninth Circle. Owned by a temperamental peri, who was currently holed up with a puck. Talk about an odd couple. Peris, thought to be angels or decedents of, were all for that pure and righteous path and then there was Robin Goodfellow. Spend more than a few seconds with him and you'd hear more stories of sexual exploitation and benders than physically possible. He was also a car salesman and if that wasn't the opposite of pure and righteous I didn't know what was. He was a friend though, stuck with us through near-death situations that we never thought he would. It was very un-puck like, but so was being exclusive with a peri.

Ishiah hadn't been around as of late and neither had Robin, so as assumptions went I had a pretty good one. Ishiah was my boss though, which made it extra annoying. Without him there I had to listen to Efferih attempt to order me around. Not sure when he showed up, but it had to have been within the weeks Nik, Robin, and I road-tripped it out to stop an anti-healer trying to kill the world with super-Ebola goodness. I'd also taken a few more weeks off to adjust.

That adventure had ended in my almost death as most of them did, but this time I was also coming off an Auphe addiction. Traveling…damn, did I hate to admit I missed it. Of course, now my power had a safety lock. No ripping open space portals to get to work on time for me anymore. Not unless I wanted my heart to blast from my chest like a c-4 explosive. Then again the alternative was me gleefully murdering all of those near and dear to me….

Right, thanks for that, dad.

"You seemed more contemplative and less dawn of the dead zombie today," Niko hedged. He even eased into the arm chair next to the couch to catch my attention.

"Nostalgic moment. It's gone now." I offered him a sly grin. "So when did you come home last night?" He wasn't the only one who could be insightful. Niko was always a little less tightly wound after he spent time with Promise. At least, one of us could have a functional relationship. If you could call a human dating a century old vampire functional. Well, Promise used science and medication to curb her need for blood, so yeah, I'd say they were functional. Good enough.

Niko frowned for the intrusion on his business, but answer nonetheless since that what us brothers did. No lies between us. Maybe not whole truths, but no lies. "Earlier than you by several hours. Rewarding me with the luxury of sleep."

"Bull, you didn't sleep," I argued. He couldn't when I wasn't there. And if he did he had nightmares about my gruesome death fifty times over. I hated it, but the only way to stop it was me being here, present and accounted for. I slouched in the worn couch cushions and flipped to the next channel. "Remember when things were simple and filled with ketchup packets and crackers for dinner while our whore mother screamed at us in a drunken stupor?"

Nik's mouth twitched in one corner; his version of a smile. Apparently, the comment assured him I was fine and he stood from the chair, batting my head sharply. "I didn't sleep then either."

I grimaced as I watched him retreat into his bedroom. He probably had to get ready for his own job as TA at the local college a few stops from us. I was glad he kept that up. Too many times he sacrificed living his own life for maintaining mine.

Nik had raised me. No other way to put it. He raised me, saved me, protected me, loved me…the list went on and most of the time I didn't really deserve half of it. While I was watching cartoons in ignorant bliss, he was watching the kitchen window in fear of my other half of the family tree. Monsters were real, oh how well we knew that now. "I'll be back tonight after closing," I called to Nik. "I promise."

I ended up late to work by five minutes for no particular reason other than my aspirations to never show up on time. It was amusing how Ishiah always seemed annoyed even if it was commonplace now. This time it was Efferih that stated the obvious, "You're late," when I ducked under the bar gate. I snorted at him and readjusted my jacket over the Glock holstered underneath. Swords and blades were Niko's thing and I had no chance of ever challenging that title. Not that I couldn't use one in a pinch, but I preferred the more permanent bullet to the head that worked with a little more than fifty percent of monsters and assholes.

Efferih eyed it with scorn, then eyed me with an insurmountable amount of venom. He wasn't even a particularly intimidating peri, almost gangly compared to the bulk of our boss and many of the other peri that worked at the bar. A cropped fuzz of brown hair and beady brown eyes too close together on a square jawed face. It made me laugh when he tried to bully me. Peris weren't too fond of my kind; must be the whole murderously evil thing. To be fair, no being on earth was very fond of the Auphe. Good thing I was the only one left alive.

"What?" I grinned and pivoted around the newbee to get toward the center of the bar. I was pretty certain that Efferih was some sort of family member indebted to Ishiah for one reason or another, otherwise I didn't know what bet he lost to have to babysit the bar with me.

"Would you like to continue this glaring contest or should I get to work?" I offered. The constant contempt did grate after a while. I got used to it most of the time. The side-long looks of fear or fury. Some, like Wolves, turned their noses up at one whiff of the murderous concoction that was my genetic make up. Some, like Wolves again, saw some sort challenge in trying to kill me. Some just knew what I was and those bastards never appreciated my dashing good looks and superb wit. And those that didn't know assumed I was human which made me either food, entertainment, or wasted space.

"Get to work," Efferih grouched and moved off down the bar to speak to some patrons he felt more deserving of his presence. Samyael approached from behind me, patted me on the back and dropped a large black bag of trash in front of me. Or maybe Efferih was from Samyael's blood line. They both had the dark brown hair and close set brown eyes -granted Sammy's looked far more natural that Effie's. I would not have even been surprised if Efferih kept his hair short because it was as curly as Samyael's.

Sammy didn't say anything, but the brief touch was more than he normally offered. When Cambriel was killed by the Auphe because of me, my standing among my peri co-workers went to rock bottom for fear alone. It'd been a while since they'd even been able to stand beside me, so actually making contact was a big step. I sighed and hoisted the bag over my shoulder to take it out back. The bar had opened only a half hour ago and they certainly didn't need me with this thin a crowd.

Entering the hall that led to the storage area and the back office was an entirely different thing though. Several voices were arguing on top of each other like a heated debate on Judge Judy. Well, a heated debate from a foreign country because I certainly didn't understand a word of it. I assumed it was the peris' language, which none of them had ever really spoken in front of me, but peeking around the opened door I could see several of them all with their wings out in rage and all gesticulating in each other's faces.

Apparently, Ishiah had come to work tonight if only to have a secret meeting of feathers in his office. The three peris with my boss looked enough like him that I decided they were probably family. It was a peri family reunion all around. All these guys had tall, wrestle-mania built bodies. They had the pale gold hair with eyebrows just a shade or two too dark, and all of them wore that haughty peri scowl that spoke out loud just how much better/virtuous they thought they were compared to you.

Ishiah's eyes, currently flashing amber-gold, caught mine and the glare worsened. "Cal, go." I decided not to argue, not with three other peris that would probably jump at the chance to rid the world of the last Auphe in that room. I could probably take one of them out with my Glock, but not the other two before Niko became an only child. Peris might be squares moralistically, but they had the devil's temper and the strength and sword fighting skills to back it up. I turned around the continued down the hall as they ramped back into biting each other's heads off.

While the main bar of the Ninth Circle was immaculate and full of life in the form of indoor trees and birds nesting in said trees (so I guess immaculate save for the occasional bird shit splat), the back of the Ninth was spartan. No knick knacks or motivational posters, just dry wall and an employee bathroom that never got cleaned when it was my turn. The door to the back alley was heavy iron and once painted green, though that had chipped off considerably over time. There were also three deep gashes renting the lower portion of the door; a calling card left by the Auphe, no doubt.

I shoved it open, holding it ajar with the heel of one boot as I chucked the plastic bag overhead into the large trash bin and promptly froze when I felt I wasn't alone. It wasn't a sensation I got often, or at least before my brother. Out of habit my hand went to the gun holstered under my arm, but the shadowed figure didn't so much as flinch at the motion. "Hey."

I paused, back straight, and let the heavy door clip shut behind me; thankfully it wasn't the kind that automatically locked. The girl, or woman –in this light I wasn't quite sure and either could be more or less as deadly as the other given the right species– watched me with a small smile. The glowing embers of a cigarette in her hand gave off about as much light as the dying flood light behind the bar. Just enough for me to tell that she looked human, was rather cute, and didn't seem at all disquieted that I was there ready to pull a gun on her.

"Hi." I replied lamely, glanced back at the closed door. I doubted she'd randomly come down the back alley to this exit, which meant she'd come from the bar. And this bar could get rather rowdy sometimes. I eased my hand off my gun. She could still be foe; something inside my gut was tugging, but I couldn't figure out which way. "You all right?"

It was temperate out; summer wasn't as viciously sweltering as it had been during our road trip out west. Of course, it was nearing the end of September so cooler temperature would take over Manhattan any day; it was odd that it hadn't already. She was slightly huddled in her tank top and jeans and it seem pretty slasher-film-esque for a young girl to be sitting on rotting palettes in the middle of the night behind a peri bar on a strip of rather a tough neighborhood.

She gave me another little smile, very cute since her lips had a bit of pout to them, and nodded. "Fine. Are they done the bitch-fest in there?"

And race revealed; if she was referring to the chicken fight inside then in all likelihood she was peri as well. She looked like she had dark blond hair, eyebrows a little darker, but her features weren't long like the rest of Ishiah's clan. A round face, with a little pointed chin and a button nose. She was, in a word, adorable. "Still at it."

She sighed at my answer and took a slow drag off her cigarette. A bit of an odd sight. Peris were normally goodie-two-shoes on vices and sins; don't drink, don't smoke, don't have promiscuous sex. They really took the fun out of life and had those tempers that could put the Hulk to shame. Ishiah was like a priest behind the bar sometimes, but probably not looked too highly upon by his cousins since he owned one. That and he was currently boning a puck. Maybe that was what all the arguing was about.

As if to prove my internal musings a loud crash resonated through the back door and into alley. The girl's dark eyes flickered toward it with a rather weary expression and she sighed out her drag. "Still at it. Clearly."

"Throw some cats and dogs in there and it'd be a pet shop riot." The comment came out before I realized it might insult her as did the image of Delilah, Ishiah, and Robin's mummy cat Salome in a cage match. Wasn't too sure who would win that one, but my bets would be on Salome. The girl laughed though, a musical sound. Not in a bubbly pop way, but more sinister, or rather almost sultry. I watched her for a moment, then jutted a thumb at the door. "What's that about?"

"Me," she answered honestly. "My existence and how most of the peris wish it were non."

I shifted on me feet. I was supposed to be inside working the bar, but I truly was never one for honest labor and any information I could get on Ishiah that wasn't his puck boyfriend's dirty bedroom tales was a bonus for me. It was great getting dirt on your boss, especially one as guarded as mine. And I still couldn't figure out which way my instincts were taking me. She didn't smell like a threat, not human but not the cold sting or metallic warning of most predators' scents. She actually smelled pretty good and considering the stink of alley and trash around me, that fact that I could smell her perfume at all was surprising.

I moved down the concrete blocks that served as steps to the uneven alley floor. "I can relate."

"I'm sure you can, little lamb." Her tone had that same coyness that didn't match her doe-eyes at all. It was sexy though, I wasn't going to deny that. And call me a tool or an idiot or a glutton for punishment for flirting with another woman right after breaking it off with the previous, but I was intrigued. She didn't seem very peri at all and if they wanted her dead, she'd obviously done something very naughty.

"Little lamb?" I laughed. Most powerful species considered humans nothing more than that. Sheep, lambs. "I'm not human."

That smile slipped over her features again and I decided I really liked it. "Not entirely."

I shook my head, unable to not smirk with her. I didn't realize peris could sense an Auphe right off; it made me wonder why Ishiah even served me a drink the first time I came into the bar with Robin. "Who are you anyway?"

"Cassie, niece of the four idiots bickering like ruffled roosters in the office."

"Niece? Of Ishiah?" So those were his brothers in there.

"Sure, he has two hundred and eighty some of us." I just stared for a moment, probably looking baffled by this. Cassie laughed again. "You do know how old he is, right? How old most of us are?" I nodded; I didn't but I had a round about number that reached a few tens of thousands. So I guess it made sense that he'd have a shit ton of descendants. He just never seemed like a family man.

"I thought peris were one-mate kind of people?"

"They are, but female peris also lay eggs, so it's more a litter. Several litters over many, many years. We don't pop them out as often as humans, but it still adds up."

"Wow." I eased down on the palette beside her, when it was obvious she didn't mind the company and I didn't mind avoiding work. Beside the fact that her perfume was really interesting. I couldn't place it, but I liked it. "So you probably have like fifty siblings." I had enough trouble with just one.

"No. Just me." Cassie's tone slipped into something darker at those words. It still had a lackadaisical music to it, but harsher. "My mother was young, died after having one brood, and I was the only one that survived."

I waited, but that was all she had to say. "That's not why they hate you, is it?"

"It is. Part of it," Cassie sighed and dropped her cigarette to the alley floor, crushing it with a worn sneaker. The door creaked open before she could continue and now Samyael was scowling at me. Why was everyone so grouchy tonight?

"Does it really take you so long to take out one bag of trash?"

I pushed off the palette with a roll of my eyes and trudged off to serve the scum of Manhattan. "Hey, little lamb." I turned back at the door; Samyael had already ducked back down the hall which could only mean we were picking up inside. Cassie's sly smile had returned, dark eyes hooded. "Watch yourself. Wolves like to bite."

And I wasn't sure what to say to that; she must have smelled Delilah on me or maybe heard that the Kin wanted me dead. I just responded with a chuckle. Unfortunately, it sounded strained. I slipped back into the hall just as Ishiah and his brothers were exiting the office. By their faces, the issue wasn't resolved but a temporary compromise might have been placed. Ishiah eyed me as I strolled past, but didn't speak, so I kept going. Dragging my feet through the work night, I tried to sneak out back again right before closing, but Cassie was gone. So I packed it up and headed home; determined to make good on my promise to Niko tonight.