Chapter 3
"Daddy!" Annabelle squealed, jumping up from her seat and running into her father's arms. Will wrapped his arms around her, kneeling down to her level and burying his face in her curls; a sigh of relief escaping him as he held her close. "I missed you daddy" she murmured into his chest. I grinned to myself at the sight. Remembering when I was younger and my father was more open in his affections with my siblings and I. Man, I miss those hugs. Shacking myself from those thoughts, I focused again on the situation.
Will was now kneeling in front of her, inspecting her to make sure she was okay. As his eyes roamed her face, she chirped on about how she and Sarah missed him. After they both came out of their little bubble of feeling's; Will finally came to his senses and realized that his daughter appeared to be home alone. His five year old daughter. Was home. Alone.
His smile disappeared in instant as he started to look around as if searching for someone. Licking his lips he looked back to Annabelle. "Sweetie, where's your mom?" he asked her gently.
Annabelle tilted her head a bit. "She went to work" she said with a smile. "But she'll be back later"
"And she left you here alone?" He asked with a frown, narrowing his eyes in obvious disapproval. Ann looked confused for a second and look back at me, probably to make sure that I was still there.
"I'm not alone, Ren is with me" She said, motioning at me with her hand. Will raised an eyebrow at her, moving his gaze to me for a moment before going back to her with a bemused expression.
"The dog?" he asked. Annabelle nodded happily. I internally pouted at the comment, but made no move to retaliate. At least not yet.
"Yeah, She's fun" she said. The somewhat frustrated look of her father not facing her in the least.
"An old handicapped dog is fun?" he said slowly, somehow finding humor in this situation. My eyes widened at the word old. I am not old. I am very far from being old. What an assuming little mortal bastard. He's lucky that his wife is my best friend and I swore not to hurt her. Or else he would be getting an ass kicking.
"Hey! I resent that" I growled deep in my throat in anger at him. Will's eyes snapped to me in half a second. Can eyes get whiplash? Guess not, cuz' he didn't look hurt or anything. But he was definitely affected by something. Maybe freaking out a bit at the prospect of a talking dog. But he's in the military, so he's bound to have come across a Demon at some point, right?
Will stared at me in astonishment—much to my amusement—and pulled Annabelle behind him, using himself as a shield. I narrowed my eyes at him but decided against commenting. He's a father protecting his pup, he has every right to be suspicious. "Who are you?" he asked, portraying nothing but seriousness. Then he looked me up and down once again; confusion seeping through his 'deadly' glare. "What are you?"
"I'm Ren, Annabelle's babysitter" I sighed in a bit of frustration and shook my head to stop myself from being rude at the man. "And I am, by definition a demon." I added, raising my casted foot and inspecting it absentmindedly. Will look at me with skeptical eyes for a long minute; till I lost my patience and spoke again. "And no, I do not eat humans" I almost growled out.
At this Will relaxed considerably and let go of Annabelle who has been surprisingly quiet for the duration of the conversation. "Alright, I believe you." He muttered more to himself than me but I still heard it. "So did my wife hire you?" he asked walking up to me and kneeling down to be face to face with me. I nodded a bit.
"In a way." I said with a toothy smile. "Are you the guy that called earlier?" I asked, having finished informing him of my position in the household.
"Yeah that was me. But, why didn't you tell me who you were when I asked?" he asked with an accusing frown.
I smiled and raised an eyebrow at him. "Uh I didn't know it was you, sorry. And in my defense; you went right into offence mode when I didn't tell you where Sarah was. Not cool man, for all I knew you could have been some obsessive serial killer ex—boyfriend or something. I was just protecting her." I said, turning away from him and jumping up on the sofa. Making myself as comfortable as I could, knowing that Will wasn't being hostile anymore.
Will gave me an embarrassed smile and scratched the back of his neck. "I'm sorry too; though I thought the same thing as you did I guess. It's just that Sarah didn't tell me that she had hired a babysitter or that she's now working weekends" He said, a hint of sadness showing in his voice.
I watched as he ran a hand through his hair. Poor guy, he must feel awful about not being here a lot. "Look Will. You had every right to get upset with me. And Sarah isn't working Saturday's; today was just an emergency and the Hospital was running low on nurses for whatever reason. So don't beat yourself up. They are doing fine." I almost cooed at him.
"That's good to know. Thank you for looking out for them" He said gratefully with a smile. I froze for a second but smiled back at the man and gave him a nod.
"Your welcome, I guess. To be honest I just got here last week, I haven't done much." I mumbled distractedly and then realized something. "Um, where's Annabelle?" I asked looking around trying to spot her.
Will seemed to sober up too and started to look around as well. "Maybe she went outside to say hi to the guys." He mumbled, moving to the front door. I raised an eyebrow at him.
"The guys who are outside on the ridiculously cool looking cars?" I asked holding back a laugh when he tensed. He turned to me and gave me a nervous smile.
"Yeah them. They are a part of my team at work." He explained "We are all pretty close, I guess you could say." He said.
"Okay then, I don't judge Will. What you do in with your team is your business." I giggled out, after getting some pretty M—rated images in my head. 'God that was so wrong. What if they're not into that... I Kind of hope they are, that would be an interesting scenario to walk in to' I laughed in my head. 'Bad choice of words there William'
He stammered for a while face flushed and eyes wide. I just shook my head and got off the sofa and headed to the door. Intent to freak the hell out of this super special secret military team. Will walked beside me quietly but just as he made to reach for the door I stopped and turned to him.
"Don't tell them what I am. I like freaking people out sometimes. This is one of those times." I told him, all amusement gone from my face. "Please?" I said, giving him my best puppy eyes. Will nodded mutely again. Probably astounded by my adorableness of adorable.
We walked out to the porch to see the same line up of men and cars from the picture in the living room, surrounding the little five year old bundle of energy known as Annabelle. They were all focused on her, speaking animetly like in those fell-good family sit-come things. So cute... and sappy. We should stop this before people cry. Thankfully Will was way ahead of me.
"Alright guys, false alarm. Everybody's okay" Will exclaimed, gaining the men's attention as I sat down at the edge of the stairs. The Boss man Optimis or Optimus I think his name was, was first to speak out.
"Is Sarah Alright? Did you find her?" he asked worriedly sparing me a glance and dismissing me quickly.
Will nodded with a sheepish smile at him. "Yeah she's fine, she's at work." He said, glancing at me for some sort of reassurance, I don't know why though. That's when Epps decided to talk too.
"And who's watching Annabelle?" he asked with a slight frown as he picked up the little girl and balanced her on his hip. Will grimaced and looked down at me for an answer. I smirked at him and raised my non-existent eyebrow at him as if to say 'This'll be good'
"Ren has been watching her" He said motioning for me, all eyes then turned to me. I nodded my head at them with a toothy grin. Just enjoying the look of confusion and astonished looks they gave me. Hey, I may like peace and quiet but there's nothing like pulling someone's leg every once and a while. I'm no saint. The young blonde spoke first; I think his name was Bumblebee.
"That's a dog." He noted, my smile turned into an annoyed pout at his words but restrained from speaking yet. "Her babysitter is a pet?" he asked; tilting his head cutely, Damn him.
Will grimaced again at turn to me. I looked back at him with a blank expression. No way I was giving in now. "Well she's not a pet Bee', she's a demon" Will explained to the young man, but addressed the rest of the group as well. Bee' looked confused, a small frown gracing his lips as he looked at me again. I looked back at him not quite sure what he was thinking. Bee' then looked back at Will and spoke the seven words that made me explode with laughter.
"She doesn't look like the devils spawn."
I couldn't hold it. It was too much. I snorted and went into an uncontrolled fit of giggles. Will sighed and ran a hand over his face as I had my laugh attack. The group was awestruck by my outburst to say the least; they all stared at me with wide shinning blue eyes, sans Epps brown ones. I'm still suspicious of those eyes. There's something up with them. Anyway, I was laughing so hard that I had to lean down and lay on my stomach so I wouldn't lose my balance and fall over.
Once I was calmed down enough I decided to speak between breaths and giggles. "I'm sorry... it's just... That was... so cute... " I said. Trying to look up at Bumblebee and apologize. At this point Annabelle decided to join in on my laughter, giggling along with me as she held on to Epps' arms.
"No Bee', not that kind of demon" Will started, trying to clarify the whole species situation. "Demons are another species of sentient being on Earth. They're like humans... but very different. They are stronger, faster, they have better senses and they live a lot longer than humans. Ren here is one of those Demons." Will explained slowly. Letting the group process the information, though I'm not sure why he had to explain the whole concept of Demons to them. Demonology is a required subject in most schools. But I brushed it off for later contemplation.
By now I had calmed down enough to speak coherently, and sat up again. Preparing to address the group. I shook my head to clear my mind of humor for the moment and held my head high with pride.
What? A girl's gotta to represent. Clearing my throat to get their attention.
"Hi there. My name is Ren, Annabelle's babysitter and Sarah's close friend. And yes I am a Demon. Don't worry though, I won't kill you" I said with the sweetest I could muster without laughing. Then removing all expression on it, mirroring my own father's expression 90% of the time. "Well, not without reason of course" I finished.
All their eyes bulged at my comment, sans Annabelle and Will. The later just laughed humorlessly, scratching the back of his neck nervously. And Annabelle—bless her heart—was laughing hysterically, clutching Epp's shoulders for support.
"You're so funny Ren!" Annabelle giggled from her spot. My eyes softened at her and I allowed a small smile to show.
"I try Ann" I said, then turned my attention to Boss man Optimus who cleared his throat. "Yes?"
"I apologize Miss Ren, were you honest in that warning?" He asked expression unreadable. I tilted my head a few degrees to the side then shook my head with a chuckle.
"No no, that was a threat sir. I mean no ill will though; I just wanted to make things clear that if you give me any reason to attack you then I most likely will. So next time you come barreling into my territory, engines blasting and a plan of attack. Know that you first have to go through me." I said calmly. I know this doesn't sound like much of a threat since I'm in casts. But I can still kick ass... I think. The point is that if I intent on making this my new home I have to protect it. Whether I'd like to fight or not. I turned to Will as I finished my words and offered him a smile. "Not you though Will, this is your house. You can come and go as you please." I almost chirped, turning my attention back to Boss man after Will nodded at me.
"I understand Miss Ren" He said, in turn offering me a smile of his own. "My team and I apologize for disrupting your afternoon." I nodded and accepted the apology without another word. Then Will piped in, establishing introductions by clearing his throat.
"Ren, this is my team at work. This is Optimus" He began, motioning to Boss man who nodded in greeting. I already sort of knew their names from when Annabelle told me but I liked the refresher. "And this is Jazz and Bumblebee" he said pointing to each respectably; they each waved at me, Jazz sending me a playful wink. "This is Ratchet and Epps" he said pointing to them. They each nodded at me with a smile.
"Oh and this is Ironhide" Will added. Motioning for the last one who was either glaring at me with a passion or concentrating on something really hard while looking in my direction. Either way it wasn't the best experience, no matter how hot he is. But then I actually looked at his eyes, and holly shit. They were intense—Like tropical storm ready to relocate whole cities intense—Their color was darker than the rest of the group and made me just want to look at them for hours on end. We stayed eye looked for quite some time I guess. I'm not sure if time even passed, I was too distracted by him. All I knew was that I was not going to mess up the opportunity to look into those eyes, and my guess is neither is he as he hasn't moved an inch since Will said his name.
That's when the doctor guy 'Ratchet'; spoke interrupting out little battle of wills. "Territory?" He asked, curiosity shining through his eyes. I looked at him, but not without running my eyes over Mr. Tall, dark and gorgeous one last time. Nodding at the doctor I made to speak.
"Yes, I haven't been able to set up the perimeter yet dew to my condition, but it is mine. There are only a few demons in this area so setting that up is not a priority. By few I mean none of course." I explained with a smile. "All demons have territories, which house kin—or family members in other words. Some demons leave their family territory to find and establish one for their own. I am one of those some." I said, using my 'Listen here cuz' I'm smarter than you' tone that my tutors used regularly with my siblings and I.
The doctor went to speak again but he was interrupted by Annabelle. "Ren, can we eat now. I'm hungry." She whined, rubbing her belly with a pout. I chuckled and shook my head at her.
"Sure thing Ann" I chirped and turned to Will. "So big daddy, could you do us a favor and call the pizza place?" I asked him, raising my un-casted leg and waving it around. "I'm lacking thumbs at the moment" Will smiled at me, amusement blatantly showing on his features. He nodded at me, accepting the request. Giving him one last nod I turned to go and fetch the phone, but not before sparing them all one last glance. Only to find them all exchanging odd looks with one another.
I shook my head internally, casting off their behavior as just shock from meting a demon or something. Whoever they are, they must have had a sheltered life if they hadn't ever heard of demons.
"That, or they aren't human themselves." A voice piped up in my head; I recognized it as my inner beast, the more primal part of me. I paused at her words, glancing at the group again in surprise at my beast's assumption. 'What makes you say that?' I asked, continuing on my search for the telephone.
"Well, for one; they are all inhumanly attractive. Especially that Ironhide one." She started, her voice coming to a soft purr when she mentioned Ironhide. That's the only name I bothered to remember, Gods that man is gorgeous. 'True, but they could be genetically engineered for whatever the military needs them for' if so, then gods bless the scientist who did that copulation... "Yes, that might be true, but didn't you sense the aura coming from their cars? It's like they have souls, like they are alive." I hummed to myself, confirming her thoughts. But shook my head to concentrate on my task. 'We'll talk about this later, they are watching' I told her, sending her back to the depts of my mind where she can mull over her thoughts without bothering me. Once she was gone for now; I refocused my energy on getting the phone, that Annabelle had left in her room when I had told her to hide.
I brought the phone back outside to Will, who was speaking to Boss man Optimus, Doctor Ratchet—hah! I remembered his name—and Epps. Annabelle had changed carriers and was now in the arms of Ironhide; giggling and whispering at him, he smile in spite of himself and whispered back at her about whatever. For some reason, watching him interact with Ann' was heart-warming, I felt like he being this nice was an oddity in it of itself. Shaking myself from my thoughts I walked over to Will, holding up the phone to him in my mouth, which he took with a smile.
"Any preferences?" he asked, fingers poised and ready to dial. I shook my head at him and smiled.
"No, I don't really eat human food. But don't worry, I had a big lunch; I'm good till tomorrow." I said with a toothy grin. He looked at me in confusion; I could practically see the question forming in his head. But Doctor Ratchet beat him to it.
"Why not Miss Ren? Do you not like it?" he asked, his eyes borring into me as if ready to memorize anything that came from my mouth in the next few seconds. I grimaced at his expression but saw no reason not to answer. If Sarah husband trusted them then I guess I can two.
"Well, it's not that I don't like it. You can't hate something you've never tried." I started, somehow earning the attention of the rest of the group sans Will who had left the conversation to use the phone. "Demons can't digest some foods that humans seem to like. Like chocolate, candy, soda, synthetic cheese's and certain grains, just to name a few. Our stomachs are surprisingly sensitive compared to humans, if we eat something that we are not supposed to we become sickly and weak. That's a 'nono' for demons. A weak demon is a dead demon." I explained, my expression going from easy going to deadly serious as I finished. All who were paying attention, tensed up at my words. Unreadable expressions on their faces except for Bumblebee and Optimus, who looks sad for some reason. As I watched them Doctor Ratchet spoke up.
"I'm sorry Miss Ren, I did not mean to upset you in any way" he apologized; face forming a frown as he pushed up his glasses with his fingers. I lowered my ears in a bit of discomfort, attempting to lighten their mood I gave Ratchet a toothy grin.
"Oh don't worry about it Doc. I was just stressing the importance. I'm not upset" I said with a laugh; raising my casted paw to my snout to giggle discreetly, without much success. Ratchet and everyone except Annabelle tensed at my mention of his tittle. Looking at me now with astonishment.
"How did you know he was a doctor?" Boss man Optimus asked, suspicion and wariness coming from his eyes.
I tilted my head to the side and scrunched up my brows in confusion. "Lab coat." I said plainly. At my words; Will burst out laughing out of nowhere, making me jump in surprise. After blinking at him for a few seconds I joined in nervously, not understanding why he was actually laughing. Unbenounced to me, every other adult in the group sighed in relief.
"You're hilarious Ren" Will laugh, patting me on the head with an obviously nervous smile. I was about to comment on it when the sound of an engine reached my ears. I snapped my head in the direction of the road and began to walk past the team's cars and dodging the huge Semi that was in the middle of the road to see what it was. Will and the rest of the group followed me silently, probably curious as to what it was that I was looking for.
"What is the matter Miss Ren?" I heard Optimus ask from somewhere behind me. I answered without looking back.
"Somethings coming" I muttered, narrowing my eyes at the horizon waiting for the car to come into view, my ears flying all around. I felt the mood shift instantly at my words. The wind flew in our direction, possibly bringing the identity of whoever was in the vehicle. Sniffing the air I relaxed. It was just Sarah, returning home from work. I was about to voice this information when Optimus interrupted and spoke.
"I believe its best if you take Annabelle inside Miss Ren" he rumbled seriously. I turned to him in confusion. He looked back at me, almost daring me to not follow the order. Not that I cared, we were completely safe.
"Why? It's only Sarah." I said, raising an eyebrow at him. All eyes were on me in a millisecond.
"How do you know that?" Ratchet asked me.
I rolled my eyes at him, "I can smell her" I said, mater-of-flactly at him. Ratchet merely nodded at me but didn't ask anything. I turned, walking passed, stopping in front of Ironhide who still had Annabelle balanced on his hip. I stared up at him, and he stared down at me for what felt like hours. His eyes were blue, but not bright sky blue like Bumblebee, his were deep and mesmerizing like the bottom of the ocean; mysterious and intriguing sapphires. Dammit, what is wrong with me? I internally shook my head at my behavior and tore my gaze from him to Annabelle.
"Come on Ann' let's get you cleaned up and ready for dinner" I said giving her a small smile. Annabelle nodded and Ironhide moved to place her on the ground next to me. As he pulled back I could feel his gaze burning wholes at my head. I refused to be captured in his intense stare again and kept my eyes planted on Ann' who was dusting herself off. Once she was ready I started my trek to the house with her at my side, one hand holding onto my body cast as we walked.
Just as we were at the door I stopped and looked back to the group of unnaturally handsome men, focusing on Optimus. I waited until he looked at me before speaking. "Oh and Optimus, move that truck out of the way before she gets here." I basically ordered, before turning again and heading inside.