Hellfire

Chapter One: Shadows in the Night

Shadows danced across the brick walls of the buildings surrounding the courtyard as Spencer Reid stood alone in the dark at the edge of the large arched window that opened to a small rot iron balcony that was actually more of a fire escape. He twirled the stake in his hand as he watched the people, or rather creatures, dancing around the fire, seemingly taunting him with how easily they could become victims of that very blaze. From the third story loft window he could see many points where the group below was weak, venerable, and he gritted his teeth, bit his lip, and tapped his empty hand against his leg as he itched with a longing to take them now.

The anticipation must have shown in his body and radiated through the room because suddenly a voice was soft behind him. "Easy, kid." Derek Morgan had entered, silent as a ghost, and was now lounging on a couch off to Reid's left, his leather jacket strewn over the arm and his tight black shirt hugging every inch of his muscled torso.

"How long have you been there?" Reid asked, never pulling his eyes from the spectacle below.

"Long enough." Morgan had moved to stand at the other side of the window. "The team will let us know when they've reached their positions and assessed the area."

"Speaking of, here comes Emily and JJ." Reid pulled himself away from the window and turned to watch as the two women opened the door, walked in and stopped, staring at the men with calm eyes.

"That's an uncanny skill, kid." Morgan nodded at the two, who had entered as silently as he had.

Emily Prentiss had her hair in a pony and the shadows of the night accentuated her sharp cheek bones and nose, giving her beauty a dark edge. The low cut tight shirt and curve hugging pants did the same for her body, heeled boots adding height and danger to her frame. JJ was clad in an outfit eerily similar, though shirts differed in color, but her hair hung in loose curls that framed her shadow ridden face.

"Boys." JJ softly acknowledged before quickly and silently moving to the window to check on the view from this position. "Rossi and Hotch are in position." She said as she moved back away from the window.

"Good." Morgan moved closer to the women and lowered his voice, trying to exclude Reid's ears from what he was about to say. Luckily for him Reid had turned his attention back to the event on the street below. "If it isn't obvious to anyone else… My partner over here is a little… well…"

"Overly restless." Prentiss stated as she watched him. He had on heavy black boots, not unlike the ones on Morgan's feet, and tight fighting pants. His shirt was dark in color, as was the clothing everyone wore, and a simple button up. Emily had noticed with pleasure he wasn't wearing a tie, as was normal with him, having seen them cause more than one difficulty. She didn't understand why both he and Hotch seemed insistent on almost always wearing one. To top everything off, Reid had his black leather jacket on, zipped halfway up in the front and surly concealing more weapons than the others were now underneath its bulk. When the time came for the mission to begin, they would all have theirs on.

"My question…" Prentiss continued. "Is, is that restlessness from excitement, or from nerves?"

JJ nodded in agreement with the question. "Well we can't question Hotch's decision to call him back so soon. He must have known what he was doing. Do you think Reid's ready for this though, Morgan?"

"I don't know. He hasn't spoken to me much. But… I would be willing to bet she is weighing on his mind right now. More than what can be healthy, given the situation."

Prentiss placed a hand on her hip as she sighed in agreement. "His third hunt back and this time we couldn't find any Intel that would suggest she wasn't involved with this group."

"Well, keep a close eye on him, would you?" JJ said to Morgan before patting his shoulder and turning to leave. "Hotch told us from this point on to only use our radios in an emergency. So we'll be in position in about ten minutes. Not long after that, watch for our signal. That's when we move."

Morgan simply nodded and returned to his post next to Reid at the window.

After the girls had made it out and far enough away to satisfy Reid, he spoke up softly. "She's hear, Morgan."

"Look, Reid. Just because this pack has seen a few new faces recently doesn't mean-"

"That's not it." Reid cut him off, still not looking away from the window.

Morgan sighed. "Did you see her?" When Reid nodded a no Morgan continued. "Then maybe s-"

"I can feel her."

Morgan's eyes traced over the other man's face as he watched the mass below. He knew Reid could sense the presence of a woman from a distance, and if he knew them well enough he could pick her out in a crowd, like how he had known it was Prentiss and JJ approaching them earlier. It was his gift, their hearts like their own physical presence that only Reid could see and feel, sometimes up to miles away. But normally none of the team's gifts worked on the dead, or un-dead. Normally.

"Are you… Are you sure it's her, Reid?"

Reid shot him a look that revealed the question had angered him a little. Of course he would know her.

Morgan chose his next words carefully. "How, then? Why would your gift work on her now?" Morgan watched his unmoving face and when he didn't respond he asked the next thing he needed to. If he answered this in the affirmative Morgan would be concerned that Reid wasn't in the right mindset for battle. "Do you think she's still alive?"

"No." One word and not even a twitch to reflect the inner hell the young man was experiencing. How he wished his answer could be yes, but when someone dies in front of you it really couldn't be.

After a few moments of silence both men jumped when Morgan's phone bussed. It was on vibrate but in the silence of the room it was a blaring noise. "I got to take this, Reid. It's Garcia."

Reid simply nodded and listened as Morgan moved into the hall, his greeting of 'Baby Girl' the last clear words Reid heard before the door shut and Morgan's voice became a mumble.

It had started to rain and Reid sighed as he noticed the bonfire below not suffer at all from the rain. Hellfire. Harder to put out but still effective in turning Vampire flesh to ash.

"I thought he'd never leave."

Reid's head snapped to the right, where the all too familiar voice had come from. The stake he hadn't stopped fiddling with was now clutched tightly in his hand, poised and ready for use. "And I thought you wouldn't be foolish enough to try and approach me."

A woman moved slowly from the shadows next to the other window in the room, which was now cracked open, her pale skin perfect and almost iridescent in the little amount of light filtering up from the fire and down from the moon. Her dark hair fell in flowing curls around her face and shoulders and her darkly colored eyes shown brighter than he had ever known them too. The deep sapphire dress she had on hugged every one of her curves beautifully and Reid couldn't help but feel that pull deep inside of him as he let his eyes wander over her body for a second. She held a leather jacket in one arm but threw it over a chair as she took one more step into the room.

"Was I wrong to think you wouldn't want to hurt me?" Her voice was soft and pleasing to the ear.

Reid's voice was strong as he spoke. "What I want and what I have to do are two very different things, Nicollet."