I don't own Lost Girl
Alright, I've decided that we are going to start all over. Because of some dissent among my reviewers *casts a dark look to a certain reviewer* I'm going to start over and try rewriting it since I apparently got into it too fast. Some of the credit for this particular chapter goes to the Grinning Psychopath, hence it not being my normal writing style. Enjoy as best you can, yeah?
The warehouse was silent aside from the slight wind outside rattling the glass windows. The darkness outside and inside was occasionally broken by a crack of thunder and a streak of lightning, sending flickering shadows across the walls and ceiling. The place was nearly completely deserted aside from one worker who decided to take the nightshift just so he wouldn't have to go home. He was relaxed, leaning back in his chair, his breathing silent as his hat covered his eyes and plugs blocked his ears from the storm. In his mind, who the hell was stupid enough to rob a warehouse in the middle of a thunderstorm?
Two pairs of eyes watched him from one of the windows, the figures outlined occasionally in the lightning that flashed and skittered behind them. The pairs of eyes looked at each other, the slightly more feminine set flickering slightly toward the guard. The head the other set was attached to nodded in understanding and all four eyes suddenly disappeared along with the silhouettes they were attached to. Seconds later, there was a slight creak and a soft padding as both pairs of eyes reappeared in the doorway of the warehouse and one head, the feminine one, cocked slightly at the sleeping guard. The feminine figure walked forward confidently, but silently so as not to arouse the guard even through the earplugs. Slowly, one hand raised and the nails grew and sharpened, elongating to claws within a second's time. Quick as any viper, the hand shot out and clutched the guard's neck, digging the claws in until they reached his trachea and then they let him go to breathe in his own blood.
The female figure strolled casually around to the front of the corpse to slowly assess the damage and nodded. "He is dead." She remarked, with a faint happy smile, as if she were wishing someone to have a nice day, other than announcing that a man had just been forcibly shoved off the mortal coil. She licked the blood off her nails and started casually humming to herself as she did so, savoring the crimson liquid like it was cherry sauce.
"Course he is. The day you leave a man with all his fluids where they should be is the day hell freezes over." The male replied nonchalantly. "What is this artifact Sonasi wants?"
The female didn't answer; she was too busy lapping at the blood on her hands and was now eyeing the body of the guard with interest, an interest that the male did not appreciate. "Inari!" he snapped his fingers at her. "Focus. You're the expert on shiny objects, remember? What's this artifact she wants us to steal?" Inari looked up, annoyance clear in her light brown gaze.
"The necklace of Sucellus. It's said to have some sort of teleportation or vanishing properties, made of plain gold and maybe an emerald, depending on who you talk to. It's said that it used to belong to the Norn for the longest time, till some fool stole it and sold it to some lowly human, who then sold it to the owner of this warehouse." Inari shrugged, not really caring to give any more detail than that.
He nodded. "Okay, I got that. Old and powerful artifact with some sort of mystic properties... but why'd she hire us? I mean, one guard? Easy takedown."
"Because it's not in the warehouse; it's beneath it. The room is said to be guarded by the Light Fae and Dark Fae can hardly get past."
"So because we're Neutral Fae, we can get passed it without a hitch?"
"Yes, Lacey, that's why." Inari offered her pale, delicate-looking hand to her mate and asked, "Want a taste? He was A-negative."
The male wrinkled his nose in disgust "No, I don't. That's disgusting. And don't call me that, Inari." Inari gave an annoyed look to the Aswang by her side and retorted, "So says the corpse eater. And what should I call you then my beloved?"
"Lovelace. My name. And at least I don't taste them while they're raw. Hell, you don't even need to do that; that's your own personal kink."
Inari rolled her eyes at this and began picking her way through the warehouse, licking the few last drops of blood from her nails. She loved her mate, but truly believed that his parents hadn't; after all giving a name like that to a child was practically begging for that child to get teased to the point of suicide. She'd asked him once why he hadn't bothered to change it and his reply had been boring so she'd put it down to simple laziness and that was that. As she surveyed the designs on the walls, she caught the faint trace of Fae prints, the markings too deep to be simple human nails. There were also slight wisps of fog near the ceiling a tell-tale sign of Dark and Light Fae both passing through the area.
"Be careful, love." She called to her companion who was already quite a few paces ahead. "Both Light and Dark Fae have been by to see this thing. The Light Fae must be simply testing the defenses and the Dark Fae might have been the ones trying to get at it."
"Relax, Inari, there's nothing to be afraid of, really." Lovelace continued onward.
The two began feeling along the walls, being careful not to leave markings of their own so as not to tip off any Light or Dark Fae that they'd been there. Inari examined as much of the wall as she could until she felt something prick her hand. The walls were in very good condition for a warehouse, not a splinter out of place anywhere else. Looking closely at this particular piece of wood, Inari realized that it resembled something of a handle. Feeling around it, she found a hatch and opened it, finding a hidden staircase.
"Lovelace, over here."
The male of the duo walked over and thoroughly examined the hatch. "Seems fit." He stated, nodding when he noticed that it led fairly deep. "Guess there's nowhere to go but down, huh?"
Inari nodded and slowly climbed into the hatch. "Wait." She stopped and climbed back out as Lovelace motioned for her to stand off to the side. "Let me go first. I don't want us getting caught off guard by a trap and I'm less susceptible to injury than you are."
Inari rolled her eyes. "Chivalrous of you."
Lovelace gave her a lopsided smile and slid down the hatch. When Inari didn't hear anything coming out of little holes in the side, she figured he'd made it through. "Don't come yet, I want to scan the perimeter of the room, make sure there's nothing that'll jump out at us while we look for this thing."
Inari rolled her eyes once more and climbed into the hatch. "Boys." She hissed softly, taking a moment to close the hatch before sliding down to join her companion in the room below.
"Inari, why don't you ever listen to me?" Lovelace inquired, not even bothering to look up.
"Because I don't want to." She replied calmly.
"Of course not. And if that stubbornness were to get you killed one day? What would you do then?"
Inari shrugged nonchalantly and began examining the floor. "Die." Inari was used to Lovelace being protective over her, but she worried far more about him than about her own life. Her life had been full of nothing but misery, brief trysts with guys who didn't give a damn about her and loneliness. They'd only met and gotten together a couple weeks ago, but they'd been some of the best weeks of her life. Finally, after all her years of hardship, of being alone and without friends or succor or even family, she had someone now, someone who really cared about her and not just her body or her abilities. She had someone who loved her as much as she did him and she wasn't about to let him go without a fight. Without him... she'd be back to being nothing more than a Kitsune pariah, loved by no one and hated by quite a few. And she honestly would rather die than go back to that.
Inari halted before a case full of pretty metal things and her eyes glazed over, her mind taking a leave of absence, and a slightly goofy smile spreading across her features. Her stomach rumbled slightly and her teeth turned to the small, serrated edged diamond hard weapons of her kind.
Lovelace smiled fondly as he saw this and reached a hand to her shoulder to tug her away gently. "Now, now Inari, I know it's been a while since you've had breakfast, but you can't eat all the pretty objects."
Inari whimpered, "B-but they're so... shiny!" She licked her lips and strained just a bit against his grip, trying to touch the nearest trinket, a silvery medal once belonging to some long dead Fae warrior.
Lovelace tugged her away and hugged her to him, soothing her quietly with his touch and his words. "It's okay." he murmured close to her ear. "With what we're being paid, I can buy you a thousand shiny silver and gold objects and hell, once we get what we came here for, we can come back for the rest of the trinkets."
A voice sounded in their heads "Don't take anything but the necklace. If they notice anything else missing they'll know it was you two and I didn't pay you to keep your mouth shut. Just get the damned necklace so that we can get it to the correct destination."
Inari rolled her eyes for the third time that night, and pouted, still unhappy with being forced to pass up all the shiny expensive trinkets. Continuing their search for any precautionary security measures, the two managed to easily disable the majority of the devices that could kill them, but left the more easily seen ones where they were so as not to raise too much suspicion too soon. Once all of the precautionary measures were finished, they commenced the real search.
"What's it look like again?" Lovelace inquired, fingering a feathered hat with a skull atop it.
"It's a plain gold chain with a small emerald and bronze hourglass on it. The hourglass only holds a second, so there's likely to only be one stone inside."
"Works for me. Let's just get the damned thing and get out."
Inari chuckled as she prowled through the shelves, examining all of the artifacts. Many of the items were still dusty and unpolished, so they didn't hold as much appeal to her as the others had. Suddenly, Lovelace called out to her and he pointed to a pedestal that held a necklace just like the one she described. Looking closer, Inari shook her head to him and he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "That's a minuteglass, not a secondglass."
Lovelace scoffed and continued his search. The pair had each nearly reached a wall when Inari noticed a slight glint coming from beneath a hat with a vulture's eye an eagle's eye and a falcon's eye all glued to it. Slipping the necklace from beneath the hat, she grinned and fingered it slowly between her claws before calling, "Found it, let's go."
"Bout time." Lovelace grumbled, not noticing the wire at his feet. Forgetting that it was one of the traps they had left in place, his foot caught on it and triggered the trap waiting for them. Several hatches on the wall opened up and crossbows emerged from each one, aimed down each aisle. Both Fae stared at each other in horror before racing for the hatch as bolts began shooting from all directions. One grazed Inari's leg, but she paid no mind as Lovelace shouted out. Glancing back, she found him stumbling his way to her, a bolt stuck in his shoulder. Inari did a series of flips to get to him and quickly pulled him along, both leaping into the hatch at the last moment.
As the bolts continued flying, Inari slowly pulled the bolt from her partner's shoulder and watched the wound heal. "Thanks." Lovelace gruffed, beginning to climb the shaft. Inari hid a grin and followed right behind, picking her way slowly up the metallic surface.
Climbing from the hatch, the two Fae glanced around to make certain no one was around and stole quickly out into the night, moving through the thunderstorm with ease as they made their way to the location they had been told. Coming out of the bushes to another warehouse, the two stared at it incredulously. Sighing, the duo made their way inside to find the security guards already dispatched. There, atop a stack of bodies, sat their most recent boss. Scarlet tresses cascaded along pale shoulders that were bare due to the halter quality of the top. Emerald eyes surveyed the two thieves calmly and a clawed hand was held aloft as if waiting for something.
"Yeh have it, yes?" she inquired with a slightly thicker than usual Irish accent.
"Yeah." Lovelace huffed. "What do you want it for anyway?"
"That is none of your concern. Hand it over so you can receive the other half of your payment."
"Not til we know what it does and what you want it for. We might be able to make a reasonable profit off it."
Inari felt her skin prickling, sensing the danger Lovelace was invoking. "Lovelace, Sonasi is more powerful than we are."
"Tch, so?" Lovelace snorted. "We have something she wants."
"And soon, I will have it." Sonasi told them in a deadly calm voice. Pointing one simple finger at Lovelace, she let loose a stream of fire that caught his clothing. He tried patting it out, but that simply made the fire spread across his skin. Inari screamed in surprised horror at what was happening. Within minutes, he collapsed to the ground, his skin sizzling and his eyes wide with horror. Inari shrieked in despair, watching the last of the light fade from his eyes. Growling, she raised her eyes to Sonasi. "You bitch!" she screeched, leaping at the taller woman.
The redhead nonchalantly batted her into the wall. "The necklace." She stated calmly.
Inari snarled and scrambled to her feet, too enraged and grief stricken to think of anything but revenge.
"If ye wish to live," Sonasi growled, her eyes flashing. "I suggest you hand over that necklace now!" There was power in her words and had Inari been another type of fae, it might have worked. But Inari was a Kitsune and a slightly psychotic one at that. She knew all about vocal suggestions; after all, that was partly how she'd convinced so many of her sorority sisters' boyfriends to take her to bed... not that they'd really needed that much convincing really. Point was she knew the power of suggestion pretty well, including how to resist it. Inari rushed the woman; she was fast, being the little fox Fae that she was, but Sonasi was even faster. The redhead didn't even move so much as a toe, she just let Inari charge forward and, lightning fast, she had one hand around Inari's pale her throat, slowly strangling the life from her. Inari coughed and sputtered, but the redhead's attention was diverted by the glint of gold around the lesser Fae's neck.
"Ah, there it is." She hissed gleefully, ripping the necklace from the other woman's neck and dropping her. Inari coughed softly and moved away, gasping for breath as she watched the redhead begin pacing. "Let's see, to get rid of her, I need to make certain it is a legitimate number of years. Shouldn't be too hard. Alright." Slowly, Sonasi began chanting under her breath. Inari glanced over at the lifeless corpse of her companion and growled under her breath. Standing, she rushed Sonasi, slamming her weight into the other woman and causing Sonasi to lose her grip on the necklace.
"Yeh ignorant bitch!" the redhead hissed, grabbing Inari's arm. "I'll take care of you just the same as your pathetic boyfriend."
Yanking Inari to her, Sonasi grinned sadistically when she heard a crack followed by Inari's pained scream. The lesser Fae grunted as she lifted her foot and slammed it against the redheaded woman's jaw. Sonasi let go of her for a moment, but that moment was just long enough for Inari to transform and get away, her dog-like form disappearing out of the warehouse door. Sonasi coughed and wiped blood from her lip, glaring after the girl. Glancing around, she realized that she couldn't find the necklace, so she growled and stalked out of the building. A pair of large brown eyes watched her leave and a reddish form sank deeper into the bushes, running for dear life in the opposite direction.
And there's your prologue. That should clear up some questions those of you who read it before may have had, but for you newbies, just read and enjoy. And hopefully drop a review, yeah?
