Ahem, yes. So, it's been a while. Sorry, guys. My bad. But! I'm back! And I will finish this story, dammit!
To that end, I owe a debt of unconscious-kick-in-the-pants-itude to Alchemechanist who, by starting to update "The Almost Ones" again (which you should all go check out if you're not already reading it), reminded me that I had some of my own unfinished business on this site.
Also, the next two chapters will be almost entirely made of 100% pure, unadulterated angst. It'll get better after that, I promise! In that vein, sorry for the terrible Mexican Spanish. If any of you are actually Mexican, I AM SO SORRY. Please feel free to write me with corrections. My Spanish is rusty and was never Mexican, even when it was good. Chapter title from Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning". Trying to get back to this story's roots!
That being said, I recommend you guys give the last few chapters a quick scan. And maybe also the mini episode "Reprieve", this chapter dives right back in where we left off.
And, of course, all possible thanks to my beta, ilex-ferox.
Chapter Six: Not Yet a Breach
1:24 am, November 29th, Mexico City
"Déjalo en pinche paz ¡puta!" By the time Juliet, Lili, and Mulch had made it to the street, the crowd had separated, amoeba-like, into two separate entities. One boy, bigger and better looking than most, was standing between the two groups pointing at a younger girl belonging to the other side, shouting insults at her.
"¡Cógete! ¡Lo amo!" She shouted back with equal gusto.
"Chinga tu madre, es mi hermano, no te dejo–"
"No me dejas, ¿cabrón? ¿Tú no me dejas?" The girl put her hands on her hips, raising an eyebrow mockingly.
Another boy, younger than the one hurling insults but clearly related to him stepped between the two, raising his hands in an attempt to pacify them. "Eh, eh, Bernardo – Maria – por favor–"
"¡Dígalo, Tonio!" Maria turned to the younger boy while jabbing a finger in the older one's direction. "¡Dígalo que me amas!"
"Si, si, ama tus chichis," Bernardo mocked, miming having breasts.
Maria started swearing all over again.
"Man," said Mulch watching the exchange, "Tonio's got it rough."
"Seriously," Juliet agreed. "What is this, Romeo and Juliet Redux?"
"Pretty sure that was West Side Story," said Mulch.
Juliet waved a hand dismissively. "Romeo and Juliet Re-redux, then."
Mulch nodded. "Right. Because re-redux is definitely a real word."
During this exchange, Lili had been following the repartee, head turning from one combatant to the other. Suddenly she swore. "Bernardo's friends are pulling out knives," she said.
"Aw, shit," said Juliet. "These guys aren't even out of high school. Shit, this really is West Side Story."
"West Side Story Redux, you mean," joked Mulch as he eyed the still thumping speakers. "You know, I think I've got just the thing for this. Lucky for Tonio we happened by." He winked at the girls and dove into the centre of the crowd.
Juliet and Lili watched him go with identical looks of confusion on their faces. "I'm not sure if I'm relieved or even more worried," said Juliet. "And re-redux could totally be a word."
"The temporal portal," Tezcatlipoca explained as they made their way down the pyramid, "is a homing device, sent to drag my brother and myself back to our prison."
"But it only activates when you two are within a certain distance of each other," Artemis clarified. "Seems rather inefficient."
The fairy shrugged. "I assume it's to save power."
Holly nodded. "I've heard about these sorts of finding and binding spells, actually; we studied them in History of Law Enforcement, back in the Academy. They were all the rage for about a century before falling out of fashion; chiefly because budget cuts kept forcing gaolers to use one spell for two or more prisoners which, obviously, most escapees cottoned onto pretty quickly. As long as they ran in opposite directions to each other they were more or less guaranteed a clean getaway."
Artemis smiled slightly. "Ah, budget cuts."
Holly chuckled. "Yes. I should tell Foaly that story."
Artemis's smile grew. "I'm sure he would love it."
Holly turned back to their prisoner. "Your brother is sacrificing these girls as part of a power ritual, isn't he?"
Tezcatlipoca nodded. "Blood sacrifice, especially when done correctly, is extremely powerful. If allowed to complete the ritual Quetza would be nearly unstoppable."
Artemis and Holly shared a sceptical look.
"You don't believe me?" asked Tezcatlipoca, slightly miffed.
"No, it's not that we don't believe you—" Holly began, reassuringly.
"It's just that we've heard that sort of claim before," Artemis finished. "It's never turned out to be true."
"Not that we don't take that sort of thing very seriously," Butler added. "'Nearly unstoppable' fairies have, almost always, nearly got us killed."
Holly chuckled a little. "Tell me about it," she smirked.
Behind her, Artemis grew quiet.
"I can't believe this worked," Juliet stared, mouth agape, as the crowd around them cheered ecstatically.
"I can't believe a body can do that and survive," Lili responded.
"I guess his jaw's not the only thing that's double jointed," said Juliet.
Artemis cocked his head to the left, squinting at the scene before him as if trying to bring it into focus. "Is that— Am I in fact seeing what I believe I'm— I think I may actually be speechless."
"Oh, thank Frond you're seeing this too," said Holly, without taking her eyes off what was happening in front of them. "I was worried I was hallucinating."
"I—" started Butler. But, like Artemis, he found speech beyond him.
"You people are seriously weird," said Tezcatlipoca, sulking in his handcuffs.
"Oh, you have no idea," Butler agreed, finally finding his voice.
Just then a scream erupted from the crowd around them. The performer they were watching had just executed a particularly complicated triple backflip.
"No," Artemis said more to himself than anyone else, "that is definitely Mulch and he is definitely breakdancing. Maybe we're in an alternate reality?"
"Is it wrong that I would accept that more easily than the fact that Mulch is breakdancing?" Holly asked.
"Not at all," Butler assured her.
"We're bad friends," said Holly.
Artemis nodded.
"Guuuuuuuuuys!" Juliet pushed through the crowd. "How awesome is this? Who knew Mulch could break dance! Not to mention, he— oh, who's this, then?" She'd caught sight of Tezcatlipoca. "You caught the guy? Just like that?"
"I am not 'the guy'," the fairy huffed. "I mean, talk about stereotyping - just because I misspent my youth does not make me a serial killer."
"Oh," Juliet looked unreasonably disappointed to be told she wasn't talking to a murderer. To be fair, it was mostly because this meant— "We have to do another stake out now, don't we? Ugh. Bo-oring," Juliet blew her fringe out of her eyes.
Butler sighed. "If Madame Ko were dead right now she'd be rolling in her grave."
"Eh," Juliet shrugged. "She never liked me anyway."
From the depths of the crowd, Lili appeared next to Juliet. "Who's the new guy?"
"Not the murderer," Juliet said.
"More stakeout," said Lili, pouting.
"Right? Exactly what I said."
Holly finally tore her eyes away from Mulch in order to roll them. "You guys are the ones who were so keen to come along. You can stay home if you want. Frankly, this investigation is becoming a little crowded." She flashed Lili a grin to show she was joking.
It didn't go unnoticed. "Well, you're the one who couldn't say no to a pretty smile," Artemis pointed out, with just a tad too much spite to be a joke.
Holly looked at him with a mixture of hurt and bafflement. "What's that supposed to mean, Artemis?"
"I think you know perfectly well what I mean."
Tezcatlipoca shook his head. "See? This is why there shouldn't be females in the LEP. All of a sudden it's all turmoil and hormones."
"Oh, for the love of—" Holly ground her molars to keep from losing her temper. "Tezcatlipoca, you know nothing about us so just butt out. And Artemis, get over it." She glared around their small circle, suddenly fed up. "And now, if everyone's finished being a smart-ass, we are going back to the hotel. There's a lot to go over. Lili, get Mulch."
"But he's not—"
"Get him. Now. Or you can both go home."
"Okay, okay, getting him. Jeez."
Artemis closed his eyes briefly, his eyelids so pale they were nearly translucent. Only Butler saw.
"So, let me get this straight," Juliet put her hands, palms down, on the island's counter-top. "You're being chased by a giant blue lightning bolt?"
"More of an electric blue miniature tornado," Tezcatlipoca clarified.
"But, sorry, Tezzy – do you mind if I call you Tezzy? Too bad, I really don't care - you're gonna have to tell me one more time, how does it find you guys?"
"Tezzy" frowned. "The spell is like a homing device," he said through clenched teeth. "But it can only pick us out when we are both within a few metres of each other."
"Okay, well, aside from that being the dumbest retrieval system ever, if you get too close to your brother you both get sucked back to 500 A.D.? Cool. The real question then is: why the hell are you chasing your brother all around Mexico, Tezzy?" Juliet asked.
Tezcatlipoca twitched. "Look, if you must, you can call me Tezcat. That's what they used to call me. And I'm chasing him because he's gone crazy. He's convinced that these blood sacrifices will make him a god once more. He doesn't understand that our time has passed. There's no place, no use, for that kind of power anymore." The fairy contemplated his obsidian foot before meeting Juliet's eyes. "My brother and I are not what we once were and we must accept that. There's no dignity in going around murdering young women in some pathetic, overly-dramatic attempt to regain lost glory. It's not my brother's place to say who lives and who dies. He's acting like a spoiled child. It shames the family name."
"Well," Juliet shrugged, "I guess one reason's as good as another to stop a murderer."
"That's all well and good," said Mulch, who was consoling himself over his abrupt removal from the breakdancing circle by eating a gallon tub of Neapolitan ice cream, "but what are we going to do next?"
All eyes turned to Artemis. He raised an eyebrow. "Your faith in me is flattering," he said sarcastically. "Unfortunately," he continued in a more composed tone of voice, "there's not much we can do, other than plan our attack and wait for the full moon. After all, we know when he'll kill the next victim and we know where."
Tezcat nodded. "I have to admit I agree with the human's assessment of the situation. My brother's become a fundamentalist. Even if he knew we were after him there's no way he could pass up the Temple of the Moon. His pride, if nothing else, would drive him to it. He'd want to prove he could outdo us."
"So, I guess it's a date then," said Juliet. "Temple of the Moon in, what, two weeks?"
"Six days," corrected Artemis.
"Not a lot of time, that," said Mulch.
"Nope," Juliet agreed, nodding. She rubbed her hands together. "I guess we better get down to it, then!"
Artemis smiled his vampire smile for the first time in a long time. "Yes, we had better."
"But not tonight," said Butler. "Tonight or, I guess, this morning, we're having dinner and getting a good night's rest, for once in our lives. I want everybody in their respective showers and back here in forty-five minutes ready to eat. Juliet, Lili, I'm entrusting Tezcat to you; he can sleep on the couch in your room. And one peep out of you..." Butler said, looking at Tezcat without bothering to finish his sentence. His voice was quite calm but somehow that just made it all the more terrifying.
Tezcat rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, messy, bloody death. I know."
"Good," said Butler and left it at that. "Now, everybody out!"
Artemis was watching the dim light on the horizon, the only sign of the approaching sun, when there was a knock at his door. "Come," he said, with all his usual imperiousness.
The door opened and shut softly. It wasn't Butler. He turned to look.
"Hi," said Holly.
"Hello," he smiled. There was something tight in the corners of the smile, though, something controlled.
"We should talk," she crossed the room towards him.
"Such ominous little words," he said. He wondered which of them was more nervous.
"I'm sorry I snapped at you today."
He nodded. "It wasn't undeserved," he said at length. She knew this was as close to an apology as she would get. Gently, she laid a hand on his arm.
"You're unhappy," she murmured.
"What makes you say that?"
"You're being mean when you don't need to be. You're mad at me."
He sighed and shook his head. "No, Holly, I'm not mad at you." He gave her a half-smile. "I don't know that I've ever been mad at you. Not truly." He chuckled faintly. "Touch wood."
Her fingers tightened on his arm. "Artemis..."
He looked down at her. She craned her neck to meet his eyes. With a frustrated huff, she clicked her tongue and her body magically grew, bringing her to his shoulder. "Giving me a crick in my neck, always looking up at you," she said simply.
He nodded silently.
"Artemis..." she tried again.
"Yes, Holly?"
She licked her lips again. He wished she would stop; it drew his attention to places he didn't want it to go. "Artemis, I know what you want."
He raised an eyebrow. "I want an awful lot of things, Holly."
"But you want one of them more than the others."
"Oh yes? And what might that be?"
"Me," she said.
He looked at her expressionlessly, his eyes holding hers, unblinking. She looked away first.
"Excuse me?" he said at last, swallowing.
"Artemis," she kept looking out of the window, "we need to sort this out."
"There's nothing to sort out."
"Please, Artemis—"
"Is this because of what you saw in Japan? While we were...sharing my head, as it were?" His voice was even.
"No. This is because of what I see now."
"And what exactly is it that you see, Holly?"
"That you want me."
"How tawdry that sounds," he said, disdain clear in his voice. "What about you, then? What do you want?"
"I – I don't know," she admitted. She looked up at him again. "I don't know what I want."
"Well, then, that solves that, doesn't it?" he said frostily, removing her hand from his arm. "As it seems you have me quite figured out, pray tell me, what did you expect would come next? That I would throw myself at your feet and thank you for this second chance?"
She shook her head as if to negate the possibility of ever figuring him out. "Please, Artemis, I don't want to fight. That wasn't the point."
"Then what was? I was good, Holly. I played by the rules. And, when I lost, I accepted it as gracefully as I know how. I gave you up. So now there's nothing more for us to say on the matter. You chose her. And I've made my peace with that."
"Have you?"
"Yes. It's over now." It was his turn to face the window. "It's done."
Holly felt something tear somewhere deep in her internal organs. Something delicate and frail and vital. She looked down at the wood floor, half surprised to see that there was no blood.
"Artemis—" she said again. He looked back at her. His mismatched eyes were cold.
"I'm very busy, Major," he replied. "And I'm sure you could do with a shower."
"Artemis..." she repeated. And suddenly his eyes undid her. He never looked at her like that, not any more. She couldn't bear it. She took his face in her hands and kissed him.
Startled, he froze. Slowly, his lips softened, parted; one hand gently touched her wrist, his fingers brushing the delicate skin above her pulse. Then suddenly, as if just waking up, he started, drawing back, pushing her away.
They stared at each other from their respective corners, their breathing shallow.
"It's been a very trying few days, Major," Artemis said at last, when he had caught his breath. "You're clearly exhausted. Perhaps a nap would do you more good than a shower."
Holly put a hand to her lips, her eyes wide. "Artemis, I'm sorry. I—"
"Go now, please."
"Artemis—"
"I said go."
His eyes were those of a stranger'.
She went.
But, just as her hand closed on the doorknob, he spat out, "And just so you know, Major, it's not that I want you—"
Her temper flared. "Good," she snarled back, interrupting, "then that makes two of us." She jerked the door shut behind her.
The silence she left in her wake was deafening.
"It's that I couldn't do without you," he told the empty room.
