Welcome to Haunted, yet another installment in the Hybrid series!
For the record, we did not enjoy having to rebuild after the Fangirl War of 2014. Just sayin'.
For you newbies, here's the deal: This is AU. This is OOC. This has cussing and demons and the occasional lewd remark. If you didn't read Hybrid or its sequel Hunter, don't expect to know what's going on. Also, don't expect me to explain it, either. You were warned.
Anyways, let's get started with Haunted! Ysthry?
"Zara doesn't own Lab Rats or anything you recognize. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers."
"Remember: As far as everyone knows, we are a nice, normal family."
Unknown
"Insanity does not run in my family. Rather, it strolls through, taking its time and getting to know everyone personally."
Unknown
Ra'Zara the First proudly presents Haunted.
Chapter One - Our New Normal
Bree
Downstairs, a loud scream of surprise sounded.
Bree was in the living room in seconds, ready for anything. Who knew what Krane was planning next? However, she was greeted by a less-than-threatening scene.
Tasha was swatting at a random imp - it reminded Bree of a fox, if one looked past the purple fur and six eyes - with a newspaper. The imp was dodging around, the source of the problem held in its mouth: A dead pigeon, dripping blood everywhere the demon went.
"I got it!"
Chase's voice was followed by a roar. A lynx barreled into the fox with reckless abandon, pinning it to the floor, where it struggled pitifully. Bree ran through the planes - the charmed bead she wore around her wrist warming and vibrating slightly - and grinned when she saw the lynx become Chase by plane four.
"Don't eat me!" the imp pleaded around the dead bird between his teeth.
"Who summoned *this* one?" Tasha demanded, her eyebrow raised threateningly at Douglas, who had watched the whole thing from behind a laptop in the kitchen with a shit-eating grin.
Douglas threw his hands up innocently. "He's not mine."
With a frustrated sigh, Tasha pinched the bridge of her nose. "Where are Leo and Adam?" She and Mr. Davenport figured out that Leo and Adam were not going to stop summoning no matter what. So - a week after Douglas and Chase moved in and several imps kept creating mischief - they decided that summoning was no longer banned. They had an experienced Summoner living with them now, anyways, so it wasn't as much of a safety issue. Douglas was more than happy to teach Adam - when Adam paid attention - which meant that Leo learned, too, since he tended to accompany Adam when they asked questions.
Bree shrugged. She hadn't seen her brothers since breakfast that morning.
Chase growled. "Hold still!"
The imp he was sitting on went still instantly.
"They were in the Lab earlier," Douglas offered.
Tasha nodded curtly and started towards the elevator. "Can someone get rid of that bird? Now."
The imp bit down on the pigeon possessively. Bree wrinkled her nose in disgust at the slight crunching sound it made. It bothered her how imps randomly killed birds and rodents, but either hid them in interesting places or buried them. According to Chase, demons had no problem eating people. Why didn't they eat their smaller victims?
Well, some did, so she wasn't being totally fair. Most, though, enjoyed leaving small corpses in random shoes or beds.
A gray gargoyle with rhinestone-studded wings dropped from the ceiling to the floor, landing gently on her feet in front of the fox. She pried the bird out of his mouth and loudly declared, "Master, I got you a present!"
"Bury it outside, Oly," Douglas responded, rolling his eyes.
Oly winced and muttered something, but leapt out the opened window anyways.
Near the kitchen, the elevator rang. Tasha strode out, followed by the fearful Adam and Leo, both with an imp on their shoulders. How Leo kept the acid-dripping dragon-imp called Ysthry around, she would never understand. Yahn - perched on Adam's shoulders - tilted his head at the scene. "I warned you that Daxal was prone to mischief," he said, pointing at the fox.
Chase jumped off of Daxal as Tasha picked the imp up by the scruff. "Get rid of him."
Adam took Daxal gently from Tasha and cradled the little imp, who snuggled against him. "But he's so soft."
Tasha glared at Adam. "And he got blood all over the floor. You are cleaning it up, by the way. Daxal goes. We already have a destructive imp: Oly. We don't need more."
"All right," Adam conceded. He turned on his heel and boarded the elevator again, hitting the down button so that the door closed.
Ysthry hissed. "That Summoner has his own master."
"Mothers are everybody's master," Leo answered, rubbing the top of Ysthry's head. She shifted from one foot to the other repeatedly with contentment.
"Can we leave the bloodstains, actually?" Chase asked. "They smell nice."
"Crimson ties this room together," Douglas added, giving Tasha a cheeky grin.
Leo rolled his eyes. "Won't it start to stink eventually?"
"The stains aren't staying," Tasha said firmly. "That's final." She gave Douglas one final glare before she ascended the stairs to find her husband.
Lynx-Chase sighed and vanished into a cloud of oily blackness before turning into his normal self: Essentially human, if one ignored his fangs, slit pupils, raven wings, tail and cat ears where his used to be. It had taken some getting used to initially, but the idea that Chase was half demon was nothing more than a casual fact now.
It was sunny outside, the sky was blue, and Chase was half-demonic.
"You could always just go kill something," Douglas said, nodding at Chase before he returned his attention to the computer.
Chase glanced at the window before shrugging. "Too much effort."
Bree wrinkled her nose again. "Why would you even want to kill something?"
Chase frowned at me. "Hello: Mother Nature. Demons kill stuff."
"Getting primal up in here," Douglas commented as he wrote something down.
Bree rolled her eyes as Oly flew back through the window. "Got it buried."
"Where?" Douglas asked, eyeing her suspiciously.
"In Tasha's flower garden," Oly answered, snickering.
"Awesome," Douglas responded.
"Dude, not cool," Leo huffed. "That's my mother, asshole." He then glared at Ysthry, who was laughing. "Shut up." Ysthry winced and fell silent.
"Think of it as a fertilizer," Oly reasoned.
"We're just doing her a favor," Douglas defended. His words turned melodramatic as he continued. "That you're implying that we have any kind of vendetta against your mother is highly offensive."
Bree frowned. "You do. What was it you told me a few days ago?" She used her vocal manipulation to sound exactly like Douglas. "'That she-beast is getting on my last nerve with all of her rules. I have half a mind to -'"
"Keep your voice down!" Douglas hissed, looking at the top of the stairs with a fearful expression. "You're going to get me killed."
"If it helps, she doesn't like you, either," Chase said, grinning innocently as Oly climbed onto his shoulders.
Douglas rolled his eyes. "Really? I couldn't tell."
The elevator rang again, signaling the return of Adam and Yahn. "Couldn't tell what?" Adam asked.
"Nothing important," Leo answered.
Adam shrugged. "All right. Does anyone know how to get blood out of carpet?"
"Rub mud in it and let it sit for about an hour," Ysthry suggested.
"Got it," Adam agreed eagerly. He started for the door.
Bree caught him by the arm with a sigh. "Ysthry's trying to get you in trouble," she explained, glaring at the dragon on Leo's shoulders. "Come on; I'll show you how to get these out." She lead Adam out of the room before anything else could go wrong.
"Family is like music: Some high notes, some low notes, but always a beautiful song."
Unknown
"Bad habits are like a comfortable bed: Easy to get into, but hard to get out of."
Unknown
Chase
"Master, how is it that your son is so stupid?" Oly asked when Adam, Yahn and Bree were safely out of earshot.
Well, Adam wasn't stupid at everything. Or was he? I never could tell anymore. But I didn't recall him being hopelessly idiotic.
"I don't know," Douglas sighed, "but everyday is like a kick in the nads with him."
"Hey," Leo huffed. "Adam has his moments!"
Douglas glanced at Leo before nodding. "He just frustrates me sometimes."
Now that was better.
Are you going to lick the blood off of the carpet or not?! my inner demon voice huffed suddenly. It had been urging me to do so since Daxal showed up with that dead bird.
No, I'm not, I responded.
All of that delicious blood, wasted!
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "So where is Krane today?" I asked to change the subject. It was what Douglas was working on in the kitchen.
You see, every third day, we got to monitor Krane's movements. Two days to hack into his GPS and one to watch until the code changed amd blocked us out again.
"He's still in Italy," Douglas answered. "Looks like he's taking time to heal and get used to partial blindness."
Good. The psycho was homicidal and had a total hard on for our blood. That we could slow him down with a gunshot wound and a gouged eye was nothing short of a relief. He had been in one spot every time we had spied on him in the past week. As far as I was concerned, it was a much-needed respite from our hunt.
Adam walked back into the room with a stain remover, Yahn yawning on his shoulder. Bree followed behind him. "Spray it on the stains and rub until it comes out," she was explaining.
"This seems like a job for Chase," Adam said, smirking. "He won't be a young girl forever. He needs to learn this stuff."
Did I mention that this shit - though not as frequent - had started again? Adam may have had the voice of an angel, but still.
I mean, did I have to make another hurricane for this guy?
I just pinned my ears and hissed.
"Chase isn't a girl," Douglas drawled from the kitchen. "I promise; I saw everything when he was a baby."
The freaking room blushed at his frankness. While Douglas continued writing, Bree was covering her eyes while Adam, Leo and I looked at anything but each other. I didn't know about them, but my cheeks were burning. "Really, Douglas?"
"The human body is a beautiful thing and absolutely nothing to be ashamed of," Douglas responded absently.
Even so, I was still embarrassed. Oly had started laughing. "It's probably still the size of a Tic-Tac!"
I grabbed her tail and tossed her off of my shoulder. It was petty, but it made me feel better when she hit the wall.
"Oh, I want in on this! I bet I can throw farther!" Adam declared suddenly, dropping the stain remover and advancing towards me.
Oh, hell no.
I turned to run, but he caught the back of my shirt and lifted me into the air. "Help!" I yelped.
Douglas looked up immediately at that, taking in the scene that was new to him, but too familiar to me. "Adam, what in the hell -"
Too late. I went flying across the room, screaming as I cleared the freestanding counter. I crashed into the kitchen cabinets with a yelp before plummeting to the floor, hitting the counter that graced the wall on the way down. I met the cold tile with my back, the breath forcibly released from my lungs.
"Hey, you cleared it!" I heard Leo say, followed by laughter in the background. All of this was silenced by an extremely angry statement by Douglas, but I couldn't make the words out. Instead, I was focusing on a few words of my own.
Commando App: Engaged.
Oh, hell. This wouldn't end well.
Woo! Douglas was pissed when he saw that. But Spike might take care of it on his own.
Anyways, feel free to review. Or don't. I don't care. But I hear that every review makes Chase grow a quarter of an inch...
Probably a rumor, though.
Anyways, enjoy.
*Bows and exits*