Demona answered the phone as soon as it rang. She could hear her secretary in the front office on the business line and about to send a call to her business phone, so she pushed it to voicemail at the same time. "Christy?"

"I'm back at the apartment," Demona thought Christy sounded tired. "Phase one done. I played sharp shooter for Castaway. Hopefully I'll get a call soon for further recruitment. I was dropped off at Fox's safe house apartment though, so I'm going to have to live here now. He'll probably send someone to watch over me before he invites me in."

Christy had told her this would probably happen before, but Demona didn't like it. She couldn't visit that place, they all needed to steer clear of it so they didn't compromise Christy's cover. The thought of not seeing Christy for more than a few stolen hours while this was going on didn't sit well with her at all. She'd hoped it wouldn't start this soon.

"If you need anything please ask," Demona said, but she would prefer a frontal attack to this drawn out method Christy wanted.

"Will do," Christy let out a loud breath. "I need to get some sleep. I can swing by my place for dinner if you want to meet up." What Christy didn't say was that it would likely be the last time for a while that they could do that.

"I'll see you then." Demona hung up and then stared at her phone, before turning to her work phone and the blinking light that told her she had business to attend to. "Be safe." She whispered, and then tried to lose herself in the daily business of being Nightstone's CEO.

She wanted an ally that could handle herself, and Christy was a very capable warrior. Demona stamped forms for filing with more gusto than needed. They would end the Canmore threat once and for all, long before the quarrymen hurt the clan or Angela. She slammed her hand down on the stapler hard to push it through several sheets of paper. Christy would be fine.

That night Demona picked up Italian on the way to Christy's penthouse apartment. She'd left work early enough for it to be daylight when she arrived just so she could do that.

When the door opened it was Christy's real face there. She was in human form and her smile eased some of the tension Demona had felt clawing at her all day. "Tell me you have lasagna." Christy said as soon as she saw the bag. "I haven't even started cooking. I thought we were meeting after sunset."

"I have lasagna," Demona said as she walked by Christy and into the kitchen. "I also have time to eat before changing, if we get going now."

"Sure thing."

Just as they sat down an unfamiliar cell phone ring interrupted them. Christy didn't look pleased to hear it and she pulled out her phone. "You better be quiet for this one, no matter what you hear. This is my contact." Christy then got up and took a few steps away before answering. Her voice was different. Demona watched her back as Christy took the call.

"Hello?"

"Yep, it's me," Christy said and Demona frowned at the tone and voice that wasn't really Christy's style. This was a quarryman on the phone.

"Wednesday night let me check." Christy took a few more steps away from her and Demona strained to hear the other end of the phone call, but her human ears weren't that good. "I could do that." Christy had only pretended to check a calendar. "I'm in apartment 505." Christy smiled, Demona could see it as the woman shifted position. "Me too, it'll be fun. See you then." That smile faded the minute Christy hung up.

"Meeting Castaway already?" Demona asked and Christy turned to look at her.

"No, Thomas. He's interested and if Castaway doesn't invite me in properly Thomas is high enough in the chain for me to get information."
"Interested?" Demona stood up from the dining table. "No, Christy tell me you aren't thinking of that." Christy's old allies might have thought it was okay to make her fuck the enemy for information, but Demona would never ask that of her. She had to close her mouth and fight back bile at the thought of it. "Please, no, never do that here."

"It's a solid plan B." Christy's expression was closed off and Demona moved quickly to grab her by her shoulders and shake.

"No, never here. You will never have to sleep with the enemy again. Never again. Do you understand me! You are worth far more than that." Demona's voice softened and she let one hand caress Christy's hair, "No, you don't need to do that for us. There are other ways, always other ways. I don't want these monsters touching you. Promise me."

"Even if lives are at stake?" Christy asked.

"Even then." Demona would never do that, and she'd never ask that of Christy. It didn't matter if Christy had done that before in her last world, she wasn't doing that here.

Christy's eyes were glassy and she leaned in, giving Demona a gentle kiss on the lips, a soft peck that froze Demona long enough for Christy to pull away. "Okay, I promise. I'll string him along and give him nothing. I'll find a way."

Demona had trouble following their conversation after that. Christy outlined a few plans based on what the quarrymen did next and Demona added her opinions, but the fact that Christy hadn't even questioned if she should sleep with the enemy bothered her. Demona wanted to crush the last Canmore and all of the humans working with him, but the cost might be more than she was willing to have either of them pay.

# # # # #

Two nights later Demona got a call a few hours after sunset. "Demona, I need help moving a body." Christy said. Demona gripped that phone harder. "We need to fly her out and I can't do that."

"What happened?" Demona asked, because Christy still had another day before she started interacting with that damned quarryman again.

"Ran into an opportunity. Just lucky. I'm setting up the DA for a fall. I've drugged her and have about an hour to get her to another location. Look, I can tell you everything after, but I need someone to move her now and I don't want to spend forever convincing the clan this is a good idea."

Demona got directions and left her house for the city. She found Christy and Fox Xanatos on the roof of the building. "There was a party, and when Fox realized Margot here came alone she called me," Christy started explaining even as she opened the stairwell door and picked up the unconscious DA. "I snuck in as part of the wait staff so I can leave as her."

Fox added, "I found out about a temporary brothel for the rich and famous running a few blocks from here. That's where you need to deliver her." Fox chuckled and Demona's eyes widened. "They have men and women working there so it'll be up to Christy how much of a scandal she wants to cause, but Christy will sneak her into a bedroom there. The police are already planning a raid on the place, so you and Christy just need to get there first."

Demona smiled, "Well, I'll see you there." She picked up the troublesome DA, got directions, and took off. It took Christy a bit longer to get into position, but after a half hour of waiting a look alike for the woman by her feet opened the rooftop stairway door. "Got a room, got an escort, and now I just need the client."

Demona stayed on the roof. From there she had a great view of the action below. The police escorted the city's DA into the back of a paddy wagon, along with others who that had been soliciting the prostitutes in that building. The DA looked groggy and horrified. For once, Demona saw her without her cellphone to her ear as the police kept her hands cuffed behind her back. Maza held the door open for the group with a scowl on her face. It wasn't clear if Maza was in on this mission or just happened to be here.

The door opening behind her startled her, but when Demona looked back she saw Christy step out. "Do you think the charges will stick?" Demona asked.

Christy gave a dark chuckle. "Yes, everyone saw her walk into that place under her own power and order a lovely dark skinned prostitute to teach her how to relax properly. She also said a handful of racist things that would be unforgettable to the people working here." Christy walked up beside her and looked down at the flashing lights below. "Oh look, the press got my phone call." A warm hand rested on Demona's back as Christy leaned forward to see the chaos they created. "Wow, she'll have to fly right if she keeps her job, because everyone will be watching everything she does for a long time now."

Demona chuckled before saying "I don't think she'll keep that job long." Castaway's influence with this DA wasn't going to buy him any benefits now.

"Thanks for delivering that package," Christy said as they stepped away from watching the disaster below. Demona felt a giddy victorious feeling and pulled Christy into a hug. They'd destroyed a powerful enemy tonight. This victory fell into their laps. This was far better than the evening working on budgets she'd had planned.

"We should celebrate," Demona offered with a wide smile.

"Wish I could, but I needed to sneak back into the apartment building, because I have a quarryman tail on me tonight. I have to take them on a late night jog and give them something to report."

It took a lot of effort not to follow Christy back to the staged apartment to make sure she got there alright knowing that the enemy was outside her door. She did patrol the park, but she couldn't find Christy jogging or the people who would have followed her.

# # # # #

Elisa called and demanded Christy come debrief the clan, and since Christy had a 'date' with Thomas she put it off until Thursday. That meant she had to put Demona off until Friday. That call to the gargoyle made it clear that Christy had some work to do with her. Demona sounded upset with the cancellation and Christy didn't want to ruin all the hard work she did to get Demona interested in her by neglecting her now. It was hard because Christy was just so damned busy.

On Wednesday she giggled at Thomas's jokes, leaned in to him as they walked and kissed him a number of times, but she pulled back at anything more than making out. He wasn't pleased, but she played the 'good girl's don't' card and said it was just too soon. At the end of the night he clearly wanted an invitation into her apartment and she made a date for the weekend instead. Through all of this Christy noticed they had a tail, a tall man that followed them from the restaurant and sat in a car across from Christy's building.

In her real form, Christy slipped into the elevator at Xanatos Enterprises a half hour before sunset Thursday night. Fox met her in the castle courtyard, along with David. "We've got our scientists lined up. We should start work in a couple more weeks."

"That's good." Christy said and then looked over the stone gargoyles. They didn't have much longer to wait for them to awaken, the sun was already starting to set. "Are you basing them here?"

"Here and an off-site warehouse. We're going to investigate cloning more heavily than altering the current gargoyles, it seems less risky." Fox looked over Christy's form, lingering over the leather pants. "You're looking sexy tonight," she smiled as she said it.

Christy shook her head and grinned. "Why thank you." She then ignored the hungry looks to gaze out over the city. She could hear the elevator opening and suspected Detective Maza was here. "Did Elisa know you borrowed that information about her raid?"

"No, I just overheard her talking about the bust before heading to the party." Fox smiled. "We might want to keep the work we did with the DA to ourselves. She's in the middle of a crisis of faith."

Christy watched Elisa walk up to Goliath's stone form without noticing them. "Is she going to be a problem?" Christy whispered as she studied the detective.

"If you did anything about it you wouldn't win any friends here." Fox's teasing smiles were all gone and Christy didn't like the look of suspicion on her face. Sure, Christy knew the best thing for the mission was to silence the cop, but she also knew it wouldn't help with her end goal of creating a life here at all. No, it just meant she had to be more careful with Detective Maza.

"I'm not going to kill the cop, so don't look so concerned." Christy sighed at how tentative this alliance with the clan was and looked toward the sunset. The clouds covered most of it. "Let's just keep her in the dark when I have to kill people."

"Probably a good idea." The cracking of the gargoyles day forms and the roars made any further conversation impossible. The clan only came out at night.

Elisa finally noticed them out there. After the quick greetings with the clan they were ushered inside and David joined them for the demanded debriefing.

"So, what have you done?" Goliath asked.

"I've shown off my shooting skills to Castaway and I've been in contact with one of his top men. They've followed me around on two occasions, so I'm under investigation right now. I'm hoping to get an invitation to the big boy party soon."

"That's not a lot yet, Lassie," Hudson frowned as he said that.

Many of the gargoyles looked concerned at the lack of progress. "This is an infiltration job, and they take time. This is what I do, trust me with this."

"How far in are you?" Detective Maza asked.

"I'm living at the safe house, and I'm 'dating' one of the senior members of the Quarrymen." Christy said.

"Dating?" Angela looked sick, she wasn't the only one with that disgusted curl to her lips.

"I'm a spy, and I can handle this. It's just my plan b if I don't get an invite fast enough. It's very PG. I promise." She didn't add that she'd planned to do whatever it took, because the clan looked very relieved to hear it wasn't going in that direction. It was nice to not be expected to sell her body to save people.

"So you haven't done anything else?" Elisa asked her eyes narrowing.

"Not yet," Christy made sure to lie properly, "If things don't move in another week I'll push them along, but the less I have to do that the better." She looked around at them. "I don't know the schedule I'll end up with, so these debriefings need to be my call in the future."

"We need to know what you're doing." Elisa crossed her arms in front of her.

"Do you really. You aren't even helping." Christy said to the Detective, but the guilty look on Angela's face caught her attention. "I've got this. I'll tell you if I run into issues, but this is a hurry up and wait game right now."

"Well, at least things got a little easier. DA Yale was arrested a few days ago and she's under investigation. They found evidence of a few contributions from Castaway. Things aren't looking good for her." Elisa's report made Christy smile.

"Luck strikes again," she said and shared a brief glance with Fox.

"That seemed unreasonably lucky." Elisa spoke slower and her eyes stared into Christy's when she turned back to the detective.

"I know, Annie was a miracle worker at times. I didn't think her power share would be that good for me, but I want to keep moving and see what that spell can really do." Christy kept a somewhat joyful expression on her face and Elisa's suspicion seemed to die away.

David Xanatos leaned forward in his chair, and that alone gained him attention. "We've hired some of the best geneticists in the world and we're about to open up a genetics lab in this building."

"Again," Detective Maza scowled. A few gargoyles squirmed in their seats.

"They will need samples to work with and I've taken the liberty of retrieving the last clones' bodies."

"What?!" Goliath roared and stood up, so Christy stood up as well since she was between the clan leader's side of the table and David's.

"Sit your ass down!" Christy spoke coldly, her hand slamming on the table to compensate for the fact she couldn't yell. "We need to know what went wrong or we're going to make a bunch of poor little babies that never get to hatch. This is what desperation leads us too, buckle up, this shit show is just starting."

Things got quiet around the table as Goliath didn't sit down and his eyes glowed in anger that he shared between her and David. Fox, by virtue of not saying anything, wasn't part of this confrontation. "This is wrong, desecrating the dead."

Christy barely managed to not give a dark chuckled to that. She'd heard these words before. "If the dead can help us live, wouldn't they want that? Shouldn't we do that? They are gone, but they have the chance to be heroes even now." Her mind filled with the dead of two worlds ago, but she believed this just as strongly. She knew that the dead and dying would give for the clan just as her own had given for the tribe.

Goliath's shoulders slumped. "They have no say in this. We'd hoped a cure could be found."

"Perhaps one will be. We aren't destroying them in this. We can determine if they really are dead." David said, but Christy was going to talk to him later about perhaps destroying one of them. Thailog was a danger and the risk of him coming back was worth a little accident.

"Very well." He looked defeated as he sat back down.

"But," Broadway said, but a dark look from Goliath stopped him from finishing that thought. Elisa rubbed Goliath's arm on the table.

"Okay, so anything else?" Christy asked. There wasn't. Christy slipped out of there earlier than planned but she'd already cancelled her night with Demona.

She switched her form back to her cover while getting out of the subway. A block from her temporary apartment she noticed the Quarryman tail had showed up outside of her place again. Thomas was in the car with him, so something was happening. Christy pretended not to notice but she could hear the car doors open and close across the street as she passed their sedan.