Chapter Ten – Lighting Up and Getting Dark
Bo and Lauren did not, initially, realize the lights were out. They did not, initially, grasp the fact that they were surrounded by a room full of shouting, incredibly confused Fae. In fact initially, all Bo could process was that Lauren was on top of her, feverishly making out with her. And initially, all Lauren could process was how soft Bo's lips were, how good Bo's curves fit against her own, and how relieved she was that Bo had finally thrown in the towel.
In fact, neither woman realized anything was amiss until someone stepped on Bo's hand.
"OUCH!" Bo shouted.
"DAMMIT!" Lauren fell backward, her eardrum nearly blown out by Bo's yelp. The mood was effectively destroyed. Lauren opened her eyes, then blinked twice to make sure there wasn't something wrong with them. "Power's out," she stated the obvious, and rubbed her sore ear. "What do you suppo…" Lauren paused, unable to finish her sentence.
"What, what is it?"
"Your eyes." Lauren leaned in, full of scientific curiosity. "When they're blue, they glow in the dark. It's extraordinary."
"Well thanks, Doc." Bo crossed her eyes, drawing a chuckle from the Doctor, before the blue faded and Lauren couldn't see them anymore.
Around the room, Fire Fae and others with bioluminescent properties were lighting up, casting a dim and undeniably beautiful glow over the ballroom. Lauren had never seen anything like it. A tall, dark Fae stood at the front of the room, flames erupting from both his hands. A leprechaun glowed green at his table by the picture windows – his reflection lit up on the glass.
Lauren stood, and reached out to help Bo to her feet. As her eyes adjusted, she was able to make out Bo's silhouette. "This is incredible." Lauren said, as a blue-tinted fairy hovered above their heads, bathing them in azure light.
"Meh. They're just showing off," Bo retorted.
"Jealous?"
"Please. I slept with a Fire Fae once. The whole shtick is really impressive, until he almost burns your nipples off. I wouldn't recommend it."
"Duly noted."
Sturgis Santiago's voice erupted in the ballroom. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm so sorry but it appears there is an issue with the power to the main house. We'll have the backup generators up momentarily. In the meantime, please continue to enjoy your evening."
"I wonder what happened," Lauren said.
Bo sighed deeply. "I think I have a pretty good idea."
"Shitballs!" Kenzi watched as an electric wire danced along the blade of the bulldozer, spitting sparks in every direction. "Okay okay okay," she tried to calm down. "Safety training. Think. Stranger danger? No. Look both ways? No...what are you supposed to do if a freakin' live wire lands on your car? Aha!" She stepped to the edge of the carpet, making sure not to touch the metal.
"Land on both feet at once. Screw up, and you're fried chicken." She crossed herself, closed her eyes, and jumped.
She felt her feet hit the pavement, but it took a few seconds to work up the courage to open her eyes. She creaked open one eyelid, then another, and looked down at her feet. "Okay, okay! You're good. You're breathing. You didn't get electrocuted. Now…two footed hop for twenty yards, then sprint like the devil's chasing you." She looked back at the mansion filled with Fae freaks. "Which will probably happen any second now. Okay." Kenzi glued her feet together and bunny-hopped few feet. She did it again, and again. "Here comes Peter Cottontail," she sang, as she speed-hopped away from the bulldozed scene of the crime.
"She never gave me the signal, so I wasn't in position. I don't know how she did it or why she even bothered," Bo finished explaining to Lauren as the generators kicked in and the lights came on.
Lauren ran a fingertip along the crook of Bo's elbow. She'd been listening, but it was hard to concentrate on anything except Bo's lips. "Perhaps it's a rather exceptional case of – what was it you accused me of the other night – Doc-blocking? In a precognitive region of her brain, your partner knew you were about to acquiesce to my demands. And she put a stop to it."
"I think you're giving Kenzi too much credit. And I don't know or care what acquiescing means." Bo wrapped her arms around Lauren's waist. "Why don't we find a private room somewhere in this huge mansion and do something dirty."
Lauren grinned. "Mmmmm…I could go for that." She cupped Bo's face in her hands, and pressed her lips to Bo's.
"Lauren! Lauren! Hey, Doc!" Hale shouted, running towards her. "Stop suckin' face. We need you, now!"
"So do I," Bo growled, but Lauren had already turned to her teammate. Hale grabbed her arm and practically yanked her away.
"What's going on? Is it Ciara? Dyson?"
"No," Hale said, pushing people aside. "It's Naia. Something happened to him." They rushed towards the stairs. Bo followed, a few paces behind. Ciara and Dyson were standing at the top of the stairwell, looking down.
"Hale I don't know what you want me to do, I don't have any of my medical equipment with me." She stood next to Ciara, "So unless he needs to be...oh wow." Lauren turned away. She covered her face and mouth to compose herself before looking again.
About halfway down the stairs were the charred, still smoking remains of Arthur Naia. Lauren took a deep breath and descended the steps. She squatted next to what was left of the very unlucky Luck Fae. As a doctor for the Light, she witnessed new levels of freaky almost every day. But there were some things she still hadn't gotten used to even after six years. "What happened, Ciara?"
"I haven't the slightest idea." Ciara sat on the top stair and held her head in her hands. "The lights went out. Something ran by and knocked me over. He…it tackled Naia, I heard a scuffle, and then I felt an enormous burst of heat. Is sleazy cologne really that flammable?"
Lauren jumped back up and ran to her friend. She did a quick once-over of Ciara's exposed skin. "Did you get burned? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm fine. I've been through much worse, believe me."
Lauren turned to Dyson. "The stone?"
"Gone. The lights came back on, Naia was char-broiled, and his necklace wasn't there."
"Shit." Lauren went back down the stairs to inspect Naia's body.
"Whew, smells like bacon over here." Bo appeared at the top of the stairs and surveyed the scene. "Holy hell! Did you people have to kill the guy?"
"You!" Dyson growled, and reached the top step in a single leap. He grabbed her arm and bared his teeth; his canines stretched to their wolf shape. "What did you do to him?"
"What did I do? Excuse me?" She snapped her arm out of his grip.
"Dyson!" Lauren snapped. "She was with me the whole time. She had nothing to do with this." She lifted Naia's eyelid and put it back down. She looked up at Dyson and Hale. "You need to shift into Day Job Mode. Set up a perimeter, keep onlookers away, and get this body transferred to my lab immediately."
Dyson ripped his glare from Bo, and grabbed his cell to start making calls.
"Day job mode?" Bo wondered. She knew the Doctor was a doctor, but had no idea what the others did.
"What's your professional opinion, Doc?" Hale asked.
"He's dead."
"Glad I consulted an expert." Hale rolled his eyes.
"It's all I have for you right now. I won't know what killed him until I run some tests."
"This had to be someone on the guest list," Hale said. "No one else could get in."
"Which means you and Dyson have the happy job of interrogating five hundred grumpy Fae." Lauren smiled humorlessly.
Hale turned to the Succubus. "I'm gonna start with you." He pulled his detective badge from his pocket, and showed it to her.
"Wait, you guys are robbers and cops? That's not even fair! How the hell am I supposed to compete with that?" Bo stomped her foot immaturely. "This is your fault, Kenzi!" She shouted to the air, as Hale led her to a table in the corner.
Dyson reappeared at the top of the stairs. "You're not going to believe this."
"Try me," Lauren muttered.
"Earlier this afternoon, someone broke in to the Morrigan's Compound and stole the Llangareth Stone. Apparently The Morrigan doesn't remember a thing about it except seeing a man dressed like," Dyson consulted his notepad, "'Hades, Lord of the Underworld, if Hades shopped at Walmart.' That's a direct quote."
Lauren bit her thumb. "This can't be a coincidence."
"No. It' can't."
"There's a new player in town."
"Highly likely."
"It's going to be a long night."
"Most definitely."
Lauren sighed. "Shit."
"Agreed."
One Day Later
Lauren clicked a button on her remote, and soft piano music filled the empty spaces of her apartment. She played along on an imaginary keyboard on her kitchen counter, uncorked a bottle of Bandol rosé and poured herself a glass. It had been almost twenty-seven hours since she'd last been home. Hale and Dyson were in the same boat – while she had been stuck in the lab, they had been stuck at the police station. They had no leads, and even worse Lauren still wasn't sure what kind of Fae killed Naia. Lauren didn't like not knowing things. But that wasn't what was bothering her at the moment.
She sat down on her couch and pulled the coffee table closer, to use as a desk for her laptop and notebooks. She took a sip of wine and frowned as she waited for her computer to power up. Was there even a point in trying to get work done when all she could think about was Bo? Kissing Bo. Touching Bo. Dancing with Bo. It seemed like all she'd been thinking about for the past week, ever since the Succubus came barging into her life, was Bo. It all led up to that glorious moment of capitulation, and for Lauren, victory: "Take me home," the Succubus had said.
Lauren looked around her apartment and couldn't help but wonder what Bo would make of her art collection, or the shelf full of notebooks written in Lauren's own hand, or the cabinet packed with Fae medications.
"She'd probably break something," Lauren thought to herself. But still…when she thought of the dance, it sent shivers down her spine. The good kind of shivers. They'd been thisclose.
She opened the project she'd been working on before the Naia incident – a molecular diagram of rare Naga venom collected from Lachlan before he died. She bit her lip and tapped her pen on the table. She stared at the chemical composition, but her brain drifted away from the carbon and oxygen symbols on the screen, the C's and O's. All she saw in her mind's eye was Bo, wearing nothing but a C cup bra, making an O-face.
"Oh for fuck's sake." Lauren tossed her pen away and rubbed her eyes. She looked at the clock – just past midnight. Lauren had come home from the lab and taken a long, hot bath, hoping it would ease her mind into sleep mode. But she realized she should know better – her mind was never at ease. There was no idle, or even first gear, in the Lamborghini brain of Lauren Lewis. So she sat in front of her computer, in a comfy pair of worn out jeans and a tank top, staring into space, mulling over her options.
She could go over there. She sent the flowers, she knew where Bo lived. But it was already so late – what would happen if she just showed up and knocked on the door? Would she wake Bo up? Lauren licked her lips, wondering about what the Succubus wore (or didn't wear) to bed. Flannel PJ pants and a tank? A skimpy nightgown? Red, lace, see-through lingerie? Or maybe nothing at all…
Lauren hadn't even realized her hand was travelling south until it reached its destination. "Dammit!" She snatched it away and stood up, pacing back and forth across the living room. She didn't want hollow self-gratification.
The Succubus was right.
"Fuck it," Lauren said.
She wanted Bo.
She hurried towards the door, stopping only to shove her feet into a pair of sandals. She had no intention of getting changed, or putting on makeup, or styling her hair – that would take too long. She grabbed the keys to her bike from the side table, ripped her jacket from the hook, flung it over her shoulders and threw open her front door.
Lauren stopped in her tracks. She gulped. There, standing in her doorway, was Bo.