Several days had passed since Loki had threatened Crowley, and the demon still hadn't come clean. It was hard for Crowley to tell the truth. It simply wasn't in his nature anymore. Then again, that failed cure could have had more of an effect than he had thought. Regardless, he had found out what she was hunting for. A shifter, but not just any shifter. On that had a contract with Hell. He didn't know who was responsible for hiring that cretin, but he wasn't going to tell Roxy until he had a more solid lead for her.
Loki kept his promise, of course. He had seen how happy the demon made her, and he wanted her happy more than he wanted him dead or worse. Of course, this meant lying to her. For a god famed for his ability to lie, he felt no small amount of trepidation in keeping this secret. Then again, as a master of deception, it was easy for him to keep secrets. Especially when the exposure of said secret could do more harm than good. He was a great many things, but he was not a monster. Well, when it was necessary, anyway. Sometimes the fun was too tempting to pass up.
In the past several days – in which Roxy was still reeling from the mutual confession of love she and "Gavin" had shared – she had spent a lot of time just driving. Not to anywhere in particular, and she was loathe to admit it, but she kept hoping she'd see the wisps again. She couldn't shake the feeling that the longer she went without seeing those lights, the further away she was getting from her goal.
In a way, she was right. But, as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for.
Roxy was driving toward Santa Fe when she got the call. Charlie had told her about some strange occurrences in Albuquerque. There was an epidemic of patients in need of organ transplants suddenly getting the organs the needed – at the cost of someone biting the big one, to put it delicately.
"Do you think it's a crossroads demon?" Roxy asked, trying to go through the possibilities in her head.
"Nah. Too many of the same wish coming true for it to be a demon," Charlie replied. "Interestingly, demon activity has been down, which is totally a trap if you ask me. I don't trust that for a second."
"I know what you mean." Roxy couldn't shake the feeling that this had something to do with her hunt for the shifter. "So if it's not a demon, what could it be?"
"Your guess is as good as mine." There was the sound of rustling papers as Charlie flipped through her book. "Honestly, I'm stumped. It could be a reaper, but then why save lives too? It doesn't follow the same patterns as a witch, either. In fact, besides the theme of people getting healthy and other people getting dead, I can't find a pattern at all. The patients have no relation to each other, and the victims are totally random."
"Perfect! Just what I want to hear." Roxy frowned and thought for a moment. "Alright, I'll head to Albuquerque to try to figure out the riddle of what's bad and good and has no pattern." They exchanged goodbyes and hung up, leaving her to reroute to Albuquerque.
"You know," Loki said, appearing in the back seat without warning. Roxy swerved in shock, though she should have probably been used to it by now. "Now that you're a witch, you could try learning teleportation. Then you wouldn't have to drive everywhere. It takes so LONG."
"Where would I keep my arsenal?" she asked, trying to refocus on the road.
"You could make it a literal 'arse'nal!"
"Gross." Not the single grossest thing he'd ever said, but close.
"Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer," he teased. This time, he appeared in the passenger seat. "Really, though. I could teach you materialization. Loki had an ulterior motive for wanting to teach her how to materialize objects. Normal witches couldn't do it. In fact, there was only one type of magic user he could think of that could. Roxy was far from normal. Maybe he'd learn something new and interesting about her.
"You sure you want to teach me all of your tricks?" She wasn't suspicious in the least. As a matter of fact, she thought he was joking. "Tell you what. The day I teleport is the day I let you teach me materialization."
"Ha! Deal!" Loki kicked his feet up onto the dashboard and leaned the seat back.
The rest of the way to Albuquerque was generally quiet, with Loki-karaoke sessions breaking the silence every time there was a decent song on the radio. Roxy allowed it, on the condition that he make an attempt not to appear out of nowhere without some kind of warning. He, of course, had no intention of keeping said promise.
They didn't spend long at the motel when they got there. Just long enough for Roxy to slip into some more professional clothes so she could check out the hospitals. Of course, in a big city like this, there were plenty of hospitals to check out. When we think of a city, we tend to reduce it to a simplified stereotype. New York is skyscrapers, pizza, and rudeness; Rome is Colosseum and 10 billion scooters; and San Francisco is a goddamned Michael Bay movie waiting to happen.
Albuquerque was no different.
Being in New Mexico, it was plagued with skinwalkers. Closely related to the shifter, skinwalkers are humanoid creatures with the ability to transform into any different kind of animal at will. Some can even steal the faces of different people, able to appear as anyone. Legend says, if you accidentally lock eyes with a skinwalker, they can absorb themselves into your body and take control of your actions. The Rake, commonly found in the northwest, is said to be akin to the skinwalker.
And if all of that wasn't enough to make New Mexico a terrifying place to visit for the average human or inexperienced hunter, it's hard to tell what is.
Roxy had some small amount of doubt about being in a city made famous by these creatures, in addition to Breaking Bad, but at least she had the experience to deal with almost anything this crazy city could throw at her.
The hospital she visited first seemed to be clean. No recent organ transplants, but after Roxy gave them a story about being from the CDC, they were happy to point her in the direction of a hospital a few miles away. When she reached her second destination she introduced herself as Jenna Marbles, gave them the same story about being from the CDC and asked if there had been any recent heart transplants in the last three weeks.
As luck would have it, there had been only one heart transplant patient in that time at this hospital. One of the nurses led her to him and left Roxy to ask her questions.
"Have you seen anything … odd recently?"
"Besides someone from the CDC asking stupid questions like that?" The patient was 27 year old Martin Whaley, and he didn't particularly want to talk to anyone, let alone someone in a suit. He rolled his eyes and sighed. "What do you mean by odd?"
Not exactly prepared to deal with attitude, Roxy lowered her notepad and looked at him. "Anything out of the ordinary, like … shady figures trying to make deals or something?"
"What the hell are you telling me? Some black market dealer provided my heart?"
Well, that was a good cover that she hadn't thought of. "We're looking into it," she said, trying to act as though she wasn't supposed to say one way or the other. "I just need to know if anyone you didn't know tried to come in here and talk to you."
Martin frowned and rubbed his hands over his face. "There was one lady," he said. "But she didn't want to make a deal. Just wanted to know what I needed. I told her I needed a heart, she said 'okay, tin man,' and left. Next thing I knew, I was matched with a heart."
"Well, that's lucky," she said with a smile, at the very least trying to make him feel better. "The good news is, we won't have to look for another heart. I just need to investigate a little further. Now, do you remember what this lady looked like?"
Martin shrugged. "Long red hair, kind of a vintage vibe … you know, with the Bettie Page bangs or whatever. She had a beauty mark under her right eye, and wore a lot of green. Said her name was Lucy or something like that."
Roxy made plenty of notes and thanked him for his time before asking around the nurse's station about a woman matching that description. They started talking about a woman that spread chaos in her wake. She was nice enough, but all around her there were strange things that would happen. At first, Roxy thought it might be a witch trying to do some good but failing to realize it was backfiring spectacularly.
"Look, I don't know what you're looking for, but steer clear from her," one of the nurses warned. "Something's weird about her. The patients are afraid of her."
"I appreciate the concern, but I deal with this kind of thing all the time."
"…. With the CDC?"
"… Yes." Roxy smiled and leaned against the counter. "Don't worry. Sooner or later I'll find this woman and I'll check her out. It'll be sooner rather than later, with any luck."
Then, as if on cue, a woman matching Martin's description sauntered down the hallway. She was either completely oblivious that chaos erupted around her, or she didn't care. It was really hard not to notice the people around her falling over themselves, falling off of ladders, and getting their toes stepped on. There were other such catastrophes, such as heart monitors malfunctioning or ventilators skipping beats, causing all the nurses to scramble and try to figure out what was going on. Some of the more superstitious staff members thought the lady was a walking curse. Roxy had never seen anything like it.
She stood in the woman's path and flashed her badge at her. "Hey, can I talk to you a second, Miss…?"
"Lucky," the woman said. Lucky regarded the hunter and smirked. "You're Roxanne Lauffer, aren't you?" She chuckled and stopped Roxy before she had a chance to deny it. "Oh, you're famous where I'm from. Luckily," she chuckled at her own pun, "I've been looking for you! I knew I'd get your attention!"
Roxy tried to quiet her down, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to them. When that sank in, she was more confused than ever. Witches could do a lot of things, but they couldn't control who was paying attention to them or not. She thought quickly, trying to figure out what Lucky was, when she made an odd connection in her head. "You aren't related to Loki, are you Lucky?"
Lucky laughed heartily and hooked her arm around Roxy's. "No, silly billy! I'm not a trickster! I'm …. Well, I'm more of a concept than a person." She led Roxy down the hall as she talked, including her in her apparent bubble of good karma. "I'll give you a hint. Marlon Brando sang a song about me."
Roxy just gave her a look. "Marlon Brando wasn't a singer."
"Boy, you're right. And yet…" Lucky grinned and waggled her eyebrows.
Roxy didn't know what she was trying to imply, at first. Then a brain wave surged through her mind and she realized. "Luck Be a Lady?"
"Ding ding ding! We have a winner!" Luck was one of those high energy, overly happy types, and Roxy never knew how to deal with them. "Ohhhh! The boss is gonna be so happy to meet you!"
"Wait, are you telling me this was an elaborate trap to get me here?" Roxy tried to push Luck off of her, but to no avail. Roxy was strong but Luck was stronger.
"Gracious, no…! …. Well, yes. Yes it was, but nothing terribly sinister!"
"The personification of luck-"
"Not a person."
"-killed how many people-"
"Probably 20."
"-to get me here. Why?" Roxy was completely oblivious to the fact that they were now leaving the hospital, and it seemed that's what Luck was hoping for.
Lucky grinned an impish grin and booped Roxy's nose. "Because you followed the wisps!"
"What do the wisps have to do with luck?"
"They don't, but I'll give you three guesses what they DO have to do with!"
Roxy stared at Luck, trying to put the pieces together. Before she could answer, however, they appeared to have reached their destination. A dive bar called "Temptation." Luck spurted a short giggle and led Roxy into the bar.
It was remarkably fancy on the inside, for someplace kind of skeevy on the outside. Blue mood lighting, blue velvet booths, dark wood accents. It was remarkably classy. There was a woman singing the blues on the stage, amidst a series of instruments that were playing themselves.
In one of the booths near the back, there was a shadowy figure smoking a cigarette. Luck walked over to it and whispered to it. The figure looked at Roxy and flashed a grin, one golden tooth glinting in the low light.
"Roxanne Lauffer!" His voice was gravelly, but somehow still welcoming. "Come and take a seat. I don't bite."
"Yeah, unless you ask." Luck smirked and sat next to the man, leaning on him.
Roxy frowned and walked over, sitting across from the man in the booth. "Okay, so you know who I am. Why have Luck here kill people to get me here?"
The man looked at Fate. "You didn't."
"Oh, come on, daddy! She's a hunter! It's the best way to get her attention!"
He chuckled and tussled Luck's hair. "You have to forgive her. She's still learning. She doesn't quite get what we do here."
"And what DO you do here?" Roxy was less interested in what they did than she was in who he was. "I don't like people knowing my name without telling me theirs."
"I don't have a name. I think Luck here explained we're more of a concept. I've got brothers and sisters, each with their own protégé. I'm Fate." Fate reached a hand across the table to shake Roxy's hand, smile never fading even when she didn't take his hand. "I thought you'd be more curious after you saw the wisps."
"I have to admit, I'm curious, but I wasn't going to ask why they appeared," she answered. "… Just … maybe ask why they led to … where they led."
Fate just smiled that gold-toothed smile and leaned back again, draping an arm over Luck's shoulders. "I can't tell you that, Rox," he chuckled. "What I can tell you is you'll see them again. Before you know it. I want you to trust that they won't lead you astray."
"Why should I trust you?" she asked, less as a comment on him as a person (or whatever he happened to be) and more as a general statement that she distrusted 99% of everyone.
"You shouldn't," he said, which surprised her. "All I'm saying is to trust the wisps. They know what they're doing."
Roxy got up and headed for the door, but stopped long enough to look back at Fate. "Can you at least tell me if my mom is still alive?"
Luck looked at Fate, and they exchanged silent glances before she got up to follow Roxy.
Fate just smiled. "You'll find out soon. Take care of her, Lucky."
Roxy wasn't even going to argue with the new friend she was bringing with her. She was too tired. As soon as she got back to the motel, she saw the wisps again, leading down the nearby road. As desperately as she wanted to ignore them, she found it impossible to forget what Fate said. "Trust the wisps," she said to herself.
Fine. If that was how the game was going to be played, she was going to play. She packed her stuff and tossed it all into the back of her car.
"Where do they lead?" she asked Luck, hoping some of her residual good karma might mean she was going somewhere nice.
"Would you like a hint?" Luck replied coyly.
Roxy shook her head. "I think I know where they're going."
With that, she drove into the night.
She was going home.
