The first time it rang the phone only barely stirred the Valkyrie from her sleep. In those initial moments as she opened her eyes Tamsin battled to remember where she was or how she got there. Weeks of sleeping in her truck and then Lauren's couch had trained her away from the comfort she was immersed in. As she tilted her head she saw for the first time the body next to her; wrapped intricately around her. With her head tucked into the nook of the Valkyrie's shoulder and her arm draped across her torso Lauren lay asleep, blissfully unaware of the phone ringing in the kitchen below. Looking upon her peaceful companion Tamsin agreed in her own mind that she was not going to move, the caller could wait. Taking in a deep breath the Valkyrie's eyes began to close once more as she took in the smells of sex, sweat and alcohol all around her. She could not remember ever feeling as comfortable as she did in that moment.
The second time Tamsin heard the phone it jolted her out of her restful state. Whoever was calling was now in a world of trouble, the Valkyrie had decided the guilty party would needed to be punished. When her sleeping companion began to stir Tamsin growled, her sleep and now her comfortable position compromised by a persistent caller. Lauren turned her body over but kept her back wedged next to the Vlakyrie. Feeling the Doctor's warm skin pressed against her appeased the Valkyrie slightly and when moments later the phone stopped ringing, merciful comfort was restored and she shut her eyes again.
The third time the phone rang Lauren stirred once more and rolled away from the Valkyrie. Tamsin's eyes shot open and she resolved to ensure that the damn thing did not ring again. Pulling herself out of the bed she made it to the kitchen in time to see her phone with Dyson's name flashing across it.
She couldn't help barking into the phone, "are you dead, dying or lying in a ditch? Before you answer that, I need to tell you if your answer is no to all of those then soon you'll find yourself engaging in each of those activities when I get my hands on you"
The wolf couldn't help but laugh "Big night?"
"Yes. Get to the point"
"I've just got a tip. I think we found our Drakkon"
"Urghhhhh. Will he still be there in 24 hours?"
"I'm not risking it Tamsin"
"I thought you'd say that..." thinking about her options for moment, Tamsin knew what she had to do "Fine. I'll come to you, and you better be waiting with a coffee"
The Valkyrie had left Lauren sleeping. She hadn't wanted to wake the Doctor up only to leave. In her mind it made perfect sense. She'd be back within a couple of hours and they could address whatever it was they'd need to address about the previous evenings shenanigans. Perhaps there would even be time for more shenanigans. Regardless, there was no time for anything this morning. Tamsin knew that to get Bo's venom situation resolved they needed to find this Drakkon. Worse still, in the back of her mind, Tamsin knew that if she wanted to hold the Gram Sword and ensure Lauren was in no future danger she probably needed to kill the Drakkon. She had little doubt that this Fae elder would not allow those sleeping dogs to lie.
Pulling outside of Dyson's loft Tamsin put her hand on the horn of her truck and held it. She hoped the noise might provide the wolf with a smidgen of the annoyance his calls had caused her that morning. When the wolf emerged with his fingers in his ears the Valkyrie laughed with satisfaction. It was a laughter that dissipated quickly when she watched the Succubus emerge behind him shit.
Walking around to the drivers window Bo gave the Valkyrie a strange look. "Tamsin you'll need to come with us in the Camaro, we're not all going to fit into your truck". Tamsin nodded and jumped out. She walked straight past Bo without really giving her a second look. She was terrified the Succubus could read something in her aura or just know by looking her in the eyes, yes, I slept with you ex and I'd do it again.
Making her way to car she felt a small level of anxiety lift when she saw the wolf was holding out a coffee.
"You're lucky you remembered wolf breath, I'm already cranky this morning"
Dyson handed over the coffee and Tamsin saw the wolf's nostrils flair. Oh shit.
"No time to shower this morning TamTam?" Dyson was smirking and the Valkyrie suddenly found herself caught between a desire to run and hide and punch the bastard in the face. Before she could decide on either the Succubus was yelling out the window "Let's go!"
Tamsin sat herself in the back of the Camaro and did her best to suppress both smell and aura from the two Fae in the front of the car.
"How's Lauren?" Bo looked at the Valkyrie through the rearview mirror.
"What do you mean?" The Valkyrie snapped almost too quickly
"What do you mean what do I mean? I mean how's Lauren, how's she holding up"
"Oh, she's ok...no she's good. She had her casts taken off last night", with that comment the wolf turned in his seat to face Tamsin, "that's great, cause for celebration I bet", the wolf was smirking at how uncomfortable the Valkyrie was. Tamsin knew that the wolf knew, and he knew that she knew he knew. Both of them knew he wouldn't say anything to Bo but he was still going to make his partner squirm.
"It was, we went out and had a few drinks. It was good to see her blow off some steam"
"You and Lauren went out drinking together?" The Succubus huffed as she said it. The Valkyrie felt an urge to tell her that the night may have started with drinking but ended somewhere else entirely but she resisted and was proud of herself for doing so. Looking at Dyson she could see he was too.
Changing the subject Dyson jumped into the details of tip-off he'd received. They were heading to the shipyards where a large delivery of mice was coming in. The mice were to used by research facilities across the city but the tip had said the Drakkon with Under Fae assistance was planning a raid.
Tamsin had thought twice about brining the Gram Sword with her but whenever she was within ten meters of it she felt a hundred times stronger. It was also a slayer of dragons and serpents, if they were to face the Drakkon they would need whatever additional arsenal it could bring to the table.
Bo parked the car out of sight of the docking area of the shipyards. They could already hear a commotion taking place so their presence had not yet been noticed. Dyson led from the front, moving behind him from shipping container to shipping container was Bo. Tamsin held further back monitoring their flank for movements.
The closer the three went to the docking area the more power Tamsin felt. When she looked down at her hands gripping the Gram Sword she saw a ball of white light holding them in place. Without knowing how or why the Valkyrie swung around and there standing in front of her was a Drakkon, not the one from the woods, but a serpent Fae nonetheless. As if possessed the Valkyrie had the creature on the ground her sword to its throat. It was so easy.
"Where's your leader? The Drakkon Protector, where is he?", almost without hesitation the serpent simply lifted his terrified arm and pointed behind the Valkyrie. When Tamsin turned around she saw the old man from the woods fleeing to a waiting speed boat leaving behind a gang of Under Fae that Dyson and Bo were both struggling to fend off. Jumping to her feet the Valkyrie did not hesitate in entering the fray.
Bo was handling three underfae at a time. Months ago the Succubus wouldn't have had the power to handle more than one, but now Tamsin had to admit that her power and control was impressive to watch. Transforming herself into her pure form the Valkyrie too, with the extra power of the Gram Sword, was able to demolish three at a time. Despite the enormous strength the three held against these Under Fae monsters, they were drastically out numbered. More and more Under Fae came running at them from opened shipping containers, all three realised quickly that this had been a trap. When Bo saw Dyson knocked out cold in front of her she yelled out to the Valkyrie "we need to get out of here". Tamsin simply nodded "try and pick him up and get him to the car, I'll buy you some time, throw me your sword". The Succubus threw her sword to the Valkyrie and under Tamsin's protection was able to pull the wolf to his feet.
Bo was making good speed to the car. Tamsin was able to fend off the Under Fae that attempted to attack the wolf and Succubus but only just. Even with the strength provided her by the Gram Sword she could feel her arms grow heavy. The Valkyrie felt the first blade from Under Fae slice across her left shoulder and the second open a wound across her chest. The pain and warmth of the blood running down her arm sent a surge of adrenaline through her body. When her blood touched the hilt of the Gram Sword an enormous blinding light exploded out from it's tip throwing the attacking Under Fae into the air. The Valkyrie felt a power surge through her. Rather than back away from the attacking monsters she ran towards them throwing her swords at bodies without care or caution.
It could only have been moments, minutes perhaps, but when Tamsin heard the sound of the car horn she stopped and when she looked about her all she saw was masses of flesh and bone. She had not seen that kind of destruction in a long time. She had not inflicted that kind of destruction in even longer. The power running through was enormous, she could taste in her mouth and feel it in her bones. This Sword and her blood, Valkyrie blood, were forged of the same essence. She felt invincible.
Hearing the car horn once more the Valkyrie looked a final look over the scene in front of her. Rushing to the car Tamsin could see a look of genuine fear in Bo's eyes, her still blue iridescent eyes. Bo had seen the destruction the Valkyrie had just brought upon their enemies and it scared her.
"Tamsin?"
"I'm fine Bo, drive, we need to get Dyson to Lauren".
Tamsin had sent Lauren a message on the fast drive to the apartment. She knew to expect them but couldn't possibly have been prepared for what she saw. When they entered the apartment all three were covered in blood. Some their own, some the Under Fae that each had slain and none more so than Tamsin.
The sight of blood and panic brought Lauren back to the darkness she had escaped. Looking at her, Tamsin could see the Doctor was distressed by the sight in front of her. Picking up one of the towels Lauren had brought out in preparation for their arrival she quickly wiped as much blood from her face and arms as she could and went to the human.
"What happened?" Lauren's words were filled with fear.
"We're ok, I'll explain everything, but Dyson took a really nasty hit to the head, I need to you to take care of him"
Lauren's shocked eyes looked down to her own hands which were shaking "I don't know...I don't know if I can". The Valkyrie looked down to the Doctor's hands and saw them moving in shock. Picking them up and holding them in her own Tamsin looked back into Doctor's face "this is what you do Doc, you take these hands and you make people better. You can do it". The words were enough in that moment to raise Lauren from her distress.
The Doctor made her way over to Bo who was bent over Dyson on the table. His head was cut wide open and Bo held a towel over the wound trying desperately to restrict the bleeding. "Let me see him Bo", Lauren placed her hand on Succubus's arm gently moving her away from the wolf. As soon as she was with him Lauren's focus returned complete. Tamsin was right, this was what she was good at. The Valkyrie and Succubus stood by and took orders from the Doctor for gauze, iodine, stitches, bandages and water. They both watched her work, in awe of her, in awe of her hands. Dyson too was slowly coming around. He was going to be ok.
The four sat silently for a long time. Each with different thoughts running through their heads. "Can I take him home?" Bo looked to Lauren. The Doctor gave a weak nod and then detailed instructions on wound care and concussion. Bo simply smiled as she listened. She loved hearing the human geek out. As Tamsin looked at the two interact she could see that Bo still had feelings for the Doctor, perhaps it was love. The thought turned her stomach into knots. She didn't want to care. I don't care.
The Valkyrie offered to drive Bo and Dyson home. The three drove to the Crack Shack in silence. The debrief would need to come later. By the time Tamsin returned to Lauren's apartment the Doctor had cleaned away most of the evidence of the makeshift triage station.
"Let me look at you" Lauren motioned to the Valkyrie who went to her where she was seated at the kitchen bench.
"Were you hurt?" The Valkyrie began point out the cuts and slashes she'd received, almost wearing them like badges of honour. "Oh Tamsin, we need to clean these up, what happened?"
Tamsin didn't know whether she should leave parts of the story out. Should she tell the Doctor about the Drakkon? The tip being a trap? The Gram Sword? The danger she was concerned they were all in. Looking at the woman in front of her she realized she couldn't lie and that she didn't need to protect her, she was strong enough, so in the end the Valkyrie decided to let the Doctor in, to share with her everything that had occurred. Lauren listened quietly as she cleaned and tended to the Valkyrie's wounds. When Tamsin was done the Doctor looked up from the woman's now bandaged arm and smiled, "that's a pretty good excuse for leaving me to wake up to an empty bed this morning, I thought you'd run off for good", the Valkyrie felt a wave of relief and then a small panic. Were they about to have a 'talk'?
"Nothing I like more than backing up sex with some violence" oh you idiot...
"Is that right? And what comes after that?", Lauren opened her legs slightly, giving the Valkyrie an opportunity to slip between. When Tamsin moved her face towards the Doctor she found no resistance at all and as she leaned in and placed a kiss on the Doctors lips the Valkyrie smirked "a shower?" They were both in agreement. The day was to end just as the previous one had.