Walking through the trees at the edge of the village Casidhe ran a hand through her short silver hair and sighed in irritation. She had been called here, much against her visions and better judgement, to deal with what the villagers believed to be a particularly violent ghost. She knew better. The cold, crisp autumn air carried on it the acrid burning taste of a dark spell; it filled her senses, leaving an awful taste in her mouth and making her tattoos burn whenever they came in contact with the evening air. The entire left side of her torso was a mass of tattooed markings and symbols, intricately linked into a beautiful and powerful design that not only marked her for what she was, or how powerful, but also bound her chosen spirit's to her. The marking etched into her flesh with thrice blessed ceremonial ink were her proudest achievement, showing that she had mastered an art that was almost forgotten to a level previously unheard of. Pulling her leather biker jacket closer around her slender frame she proceeded to return toward the town where she knew this new group of 'Paranormal Researchers' were waiting. They had arrived the previous day and she had been steadfastly avoiding them, and with good reason. In their midst was the one man she never wanted to see again so long as she lived: the man who had broken her heart and left her, alone and uncared for, almost 5 years ago.
Upon re-entering the village she noticed the camera's that were set up in the 'hot-spots' that the villagers had pin-pointed. She let out a very un-ladylike snort; even someone with the weak gifts of a common medium could have told them the area's most likely to have activity-there was no need to speak with the villagers. But then again, not everyone had the gifts she had. She kept walking, her black knee high boots crushing the autumn leaves covering the path beneath their heel. That was when she saw him. She was rounding the corner to the hotel where she, the people she cared for most, and this new team were staying and saw him, her old friend Lin and a small brunette girl emerge from the hotel followed shortly by a tall, elegant red headed woman who was arguing animatedly with a sandy haired man who looked more at home at a rock show than in this sleepy backwoods town. Her ice blue eyes narrowed on him, he had barely changed at all; he was slightly taller, his hair a little more unruly than she remembered but he still had the same flawless, unemotional face and cold midnight blue eyes that could pull her in and drown her in their depths. She stood staring at him, her shoulder length hair blowing out on the soft breeze in a ribbon of sliver behind her as the last rays of the day's sun lit up her porcelain skin making it appear to glow. He looked around from the tall Chinese man he had been conversing with and stopped short on spotting her. Light and dark blue gazes collided, the former narrowed in anger and pain, the latter widening infinitesimally in shock.
Pulling herself together she prowled over to them, moving with the practiced, sensual gait of a predator about to attack it's prey. The others around him seemed to notice his preoccupation and saw the ethereally beautiful woman descending upon them like an avenging angel, wreathed in the flames of the dying sun.
"It's been a while Noll." She said in flawless Japanese, her voice as cold as her arctic eyes. She held herself with the animalistic pride of an alpha, a woman who was used to being obeyed and would destroy anyone who didn't.
"Casidhe, what are you doing here?" the man responded. He could not take his eyes off her; her body was clad in skin tight black jeans and a leather biker jacket that clung to her slender frame and showed of her modest curves in all the right ways.
"I was asked to deal with the villages 'problem'. You are not required. I would advise you to leave before you and your friends get hurt." Casidhe replied, sneering the word friends with obvious disdain. Noll narrowed his eyes in annoyance.
"I and my team were also asked to come here, we were hired to deal with this case and I would thank you to not get involved in our investigation. You do not have the authority to say we are not required, my client is the only one who can terminate our services and until that happens we will remain."
Casidhe flipped her hair away from her face and glared at him.
"You're in way over your head. You don't have to power or the knowledge to deal with the thing that is preying on these people so just be a good little boy and run home to your lab. That is after all what you do best Noll." The silver haired woman snarled, her eyes flashing dangerously.
"Casidhe, please calm yourself." Lin interjected quietly. He placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, drawing my attention to him instead of the insufferable man I was arguing with. I forced my anger down with an obvious effort and allowed a small smile to curl on my lips at the older man.
"Lin, a pleasure as always. I have missed your soothing aura; it's hard to find someone with such a serene soul as you in this world." She said. He smiled down at her in response and removed his hand before returning to his usual stoic disposition.
"Would someone mind explaining what the hell is…?"
"Máthair!" a sweet, small voice squealed from behind the tall silver haired woman, cutting through the sandy haired man's question. She turned and saw a streak of jet black hair before a tiny body collided with her legs and she stumbled back slightly on impact. Looking down she saw her beautiful baby girl, almost the exact image of her father, gazing up at her with a smile gracing her angelic face. She bent down and scooped the four year old girl into her arms.
"A Stóirín, I thought I told you to stay with your uncle while I was working." Casidhe said, brushing the hair out of her daughters face.
"Uncle said he had to see his special friend soon so he went to our room and said to come find you." She replied with a pout. Her mother sighed inwardly, 'that man is going to get me into so much shit' she thought to herself. Resolving to beat on the stupid medium later she turned to meet Noll's questioning gaze.
"Noll, Lin: meet my daughter-Kiara." Noll's eyes widened and even Lin looked shocked. Kiara turned in her mother's arms to see the two men before squealing in delight and stretching her arms toward Noll, a look of pure delight on her face.
"Deadaí! Máthair, it's Deadaí!" She squealed happily.
"What did she just call me?" Noll demanded, glaring at me with his cold emotionless eyes.
"I called you Daddy silly 'cause that's what you are. You're my daddy and mummy's mummy." Kiara replied before her mother could even get the chance to speak, speaking to him as one would speak to a child or someone of lesser intelligence. She giggled at the looks she was receiving from the people around her before patting the arms encircling her, signalling wordlessly she wanted to be down. Placing the small girl on the ground she bounced forward and kissed her cheek before skipping over to Noll and gazing up at him. He looked down at her face which was an almost perfect replica of his own in silent analysis of the child before him. Suddenly her face hardened as she looked into his eyes and her smile fell into a frown.
"Uncle was right. You are an idiot scientist." She stated simply before flouncing off toward some flowers leaving Noll gawping after her and his friends giggling in both shock and amusement at the small girl's blunt manner of speaking.
"Casidhe. Explain." Noll demanded. She hardened her face and glared at him.
"No. You don't deserve an explanation. Hell you don't even deserve the breathit takes to tell you that so kindly go back into whatever pit you crawled out of and stay there." Her face remained hard and impassive even as her eyes glowed blue with icy fury, Noll recoiled slightly. He did not expect the vehement refusal he received and was shocked by the sheer hatred he could see boiling in her eyes.
"Casidhe I know your upset about what happened between us…"
"Upset? You think I'm upset about you? Dear Gods, you are the most vain, arrogant, self-absorbed bastard I have ever had the misfortune to meet. I am not upset over you. I despise you. You abandoned me and our unborn child with not even a word. You just fucked off and left me to give birth alone. I almost died! So did your daughter! And you weren't even there. So quite frankly you can fuck off because I'd rather fight a whole host of demon spawn than spend another second in your presence. Kiara, a stór, come here. We're going inside now." She snarled, cutting through whatever the black haired ghost hunter had been trying to say. She spat her words out like daggers, aiming to injure and injure she did; Noll recoiled in shock and mounting horror the longer she spoke until she turned to call her young daughter over. The small dark haired girl ran to her mother, completely oblivious to the tension surrounding the adults and the turmoil running through her father's mind, and jumped into her waiting arms. Casidhe swept her up and stalked off with the little girl balanced on her hip leaving a shell shocked Noll and a thoroughly confused SPR behind her.