Author: Hedge
Spoilers: All the NW books, especially Huntress.
Rating: PG or PG-13, for slight violence, implied sex, and language.
Disclaimer: The universe this takes place in and any characters you recognize from the books belong to the lovely L.J. Smith. Azrael, Zeke, and the plot belong to me. Will and the Elite belong to my friend Wicked, and are on loan.
Synopsis: The thing about being a spy is that almost no one knows whose side you're really on. This creates problems.
Azrael smiled to herself as she left the park, and an amused chuckle escaped her lips. Meddling old men. She wouldn't be surprised to find out that Will and Thierry had sat down and plotted this all out earlier. Someone had to have helped Will figure out what to say. He never made such pretty speeches on his own. It was much like she knew they had to have planned together on letting her story 'leak' to Daybreak.
Meddling, tricky old men.
The thought made her chuckle again as she headed towards the sanctuary. The streets were now bustling with activity, and with her decision pretty much made for her, she felt almost light-headed with relief. She wouldn't have to choose between the Elite and Hugh. She wouldn't have to live a half life. She wouldn't be forced to decide whether duty or love was more important to her.
Will and Thierry might be meddling, tricky old men, but she had the feeling she'd thank them for it more then once in the future.
Oh, intellectually she knew that they weren't out of the woods yet, not by a long shot. She still needed to talk to Hugh, there was the move to face and all the challenges that came with a newly-formed alliance, and the last Wild Power still hadn't been located... And after that, there was the Millennium Battle. But for once, she could look at it with something other then cynicism. And Will calls them idealists, she thought merrily, No doubt, he'd start gagging if he could see my thoughts at the moment.
The rest of the way back to the sanctuary, she made an effort to calm herself, and to an extent, it worked. It was simple bad luck that Soraia happened to be the person on guard duty, just inside the front door. Azrael had to resist the urge to grin like a moron and share the news with the vampire. What was it about that woman? She would make an excellent spy. People would tell her anything.
Instead, she just returned Soraia's smile with one of her own, coming to a stop next to her chair. "Has Hugh come back?"
Soraia scrutinized her thoughtfully, still smiling, and Azrael could feel herself blush a little. "Yeah, about half an hour ago," she said finally.
"Can you tell me where to find his room?"
Her blush deepened as the other woman's interest sharpened. "Yeah, I can," was all she said.
Azrael gave her an exasperated look. "Soraia."
She laughed, and shook her head, "Nope. That sort of information deserves something in return. You have to tell me what you and Will talked about, and what you decided."
Azrael glared, which had little to no effect. She was about to tell Soraia that she would just go upstairs and start knocking on doors until she got the right one, no doubt annoying quite a few late sleepers, when the vampire's gaze fixed on something over Azrael's shoulder. "Drat," she said, good-naturedly, "There goes my bargaining chip. I guess you'll just have to tell me later." She cupped her hands around her mouth, and raised her voice to a volume that was nothing short of awe-inspiring, "Hugh! C'mere!"
The witch turned, and tried not to flinch as half of Daybreak stopped what they were doing for a couple seconds to look at the two women, before movement and chatter resumed. Hugh had been exiting the kitchen, a bowl of cereal in one hand and a coffee cup in the other. He looked a little baffled at being hailed in such away, but he approached anyway, looking from Soraia to Azrael and back again. "Yes?"
Soraia smiled again, obviously immensely pleased with herself, and Azrael had to resist the urge to grit her teeth. Old men weren't the only meddlers hanging about. "Azrael would like to speak with you," the vampire informed him pleasantly.
His eyes flicked towards Azrael again, and she glared at Soraia for a moment longer before sighing, and nodding to Hugh. "We were supposed to speak today," she reminded him.
"Alright," he replied, echoing her nod and heading towards the staircase. "You're incorrigible," she muttered for Soraia's ears alone, before following him, ignoring the quiet laughter that comment garnered.
She and Hugh walked up the stairs and down the hall in silence, until they came to his door. The room was much like her own, except with more in the way of personal items, less in the way of military-like neatness, and an amazing amount of papers and books scattered about. There were a few half-packed boxes on the floor; like everyone else, he was preparing for the move to Las Vegas.
He surveyed his room, and his lips quirked into a quick smile. "It's a bit of a mess," he admitted, placing his bowl and mug on the bedside table after clearing a little room, "Feel free to sit anywhere that's clear."
She remained standing, since there didn't seem to be much of anywhere to sit, except the bed, which would evoke levels of awkwardness that she had previously thought herself incapable of. Modesty and youthful coyness were not exactly sentiments that were encouraged when you were sleeping with the enemy, but those were some of the emotions that she was feeling. Hard as they were to single out from all of her other emotions. She crossed her arms and tried to think of a way to broach the subject she really wanted to talk about, buying time by commenting blandly, "Your cereal is going to get soggy."
"And my coffee is going to get cold," he agreed calmly, "It can wait."
There was nothing she could say to that. At last, she settled on, "Will wanted to speak to me today. He gave me my new assignment."
Something very like distress stole across his features and then disappeared. Not because he had hidden it behind a mask like it would have been with most anyone else she knew, Azrael realized with a touch of surprise, but because that serenity that he seemed to radiate was strong enough to overwhelm the distress. "I see. Of course, with us moving, you won't be staying ambassador for the Elite. Can I ask what you'll be doing next?"
She licked her lips, and allowed some of her happiness at Will's orders to peak through. He smiled automatically, as if in response to her pleasure. "Actually, you're wrong. I've been given marching orders. I'm going to Vegas, as a permanent go-between for the two organizations, and to start up a division of the Elite there."
He tilted his head, expression turning thoughtful, "This is what you wanted?"
She chuckled, "I won't claim that I planned this, or that I even considered it as a possibility. But I'm not unhappy with the decision, if that's what you mean, and it's a lot better then anything I was coming up with." She snorted, "Will and Thierry are scary geniuses. I won't go into their reasoning behind this. I guess I should saw 'Will's reasoning behind this', but I know Thierry was involved. We should have known better than to let those two get to know eachother."
"Maybe the good will outweigh the bad?," Hugh suggested, smiling again.
Azrael snorted, "I doubt anything can outweigh the fact that they're now punning off of eachother. I didn't even think Thierry had a sense of humor."
"He hides it well," he replied, "He has that whole reputation for wisdom and uprightness to protect."
She gave him a strange look, "For that matter, I didn't know you had a sense of humor."
He made a face at her, "Thanks."
Silence settled over the room again, not awkward exactly but a little bit strained. This time, he was the one who broke it. "And with us?"
She looked down, considering her shoes with great interest. She wasn't good at this. Will was right, she was good at hiding her emotions, but she had never been good at sharing them – or at dealing with them. She knew what she wanted, but it was getting gradually harder to push the words out past the lump of emotions. Affection, fear of rejection, tentative joy, embarrassment, things she couldn't even identify, all meshed together.
"Azrael?," Hugh prompted gently. He had moved closer without her noticing, and she looked up finally, meeting his eyes for what might have been the first time during the conversation.
"I'd think we should try it," she answered quietly.
The warm smile that started at his
lips and lit his eyes was all the reward she could have wished for.
It was a week and a half before Azrael saw Will again, and they were almost finished cramming the last of the boxes into the moving vans. Jez, Morgead, and Thierry had been shepherded to the airport hours ago, but the rest of them had remained to pack up the sanctuary. She had been standing off to one side, having a drink of water and listening to Soraia tease her about 'wedding bells', when she caught a movement at the edge of her vision. And there he was, as though he had appeared out of thin air, hands tucked into his pockets and a know-it-all grin on his lips.
She excused herself, and made her way over to him, stopping a couple feet away. They just looked eachother over for a couple minutes, and Azrael found an answering grin make its way to her lips. "Hey, Will. Come to see me off?"
He nodded. "You look happy." There was definitely a hint of smugness to his tone, and she laughed.
"I am." Her gaze was draw to the bulging manila folder tucked under one of his arms. "What's that?"
"Personnel files, weapons inventory, and things you'll need to know," Will said easily, handing her the folder, "I'll have everything shipped to you within a week, but I suspect you'll need time to settle into you position with Daybreak. I've rented a nice little three-story building to act as Elite headquarters in Las Vegas; the information for that is in the folder too." He smirked, "So it looks like reading material for the trip is taken care of."
She feigned a put-upon sigh, and accepted the folder. The settled into silence, but it was a comfortable one.
"Zeke is dead, you know," Will said suddenly.
Azrael blinked at him, and nodded. Yes, she knew. Had known since the night he died.
"Well?," Will said, smiling at her, "Ding dong, your family's murderer is dead. Your revenge is complete."
She blinked again, and turned that over in her head, testing it. And then she smiled. "Yeah. I guess it is." The anger, the pain that had driven her for so long, simmering just under the surface, had dissolved somewhere along the way, without her noticing. Oh, she would still remain an Elite member, because they were her friends and like them, she believed that the Council needed to be taken down. But the need for vengeance was no longer her main motivation.
Will laughed, and patted her shoulder fondly. "Uh-huh. Take care, Az. Try not to get killed or anything." And with that, he disappeared as quickly and as suddenly as he had arrived, leaving a smiling Azrael behind.
"Pompous old goat," she mused to herself, simply so that Will wouldn't get the last word.
Then she went to find Hugh. The future was looking brighter then it had in a long time. She had the Elite, and Daybreak, and between them a circle of friends whom she adored. And she had love. Love that she could accept with her whole heart.
There was a lot to look forward to.
Notes: Author's Note below.
This story was started on December 7th, 2002. Thirty-four pages and fourteen chapters later, on March 2nd, 2003, it was finished. The longest story I'd written, before Pretty Lies, was thirteen pages and two parts.
In other words: Go me.
This story would never have gotten so far if it weren't for Soraia and Wicked. Soraia and I actually met through this story, and she's been absolutely wonderful, helping me brainstorm and even becoming a plot device. If it weren't for her, Hugh and Az would never have gotten together, and I never would have finished this. And if it weren't for Wicked, this never would have even gotten started. Will and the Elite were one of the main inspirations, and if she hadn't been kind enough to lend them to me, this idea would have died before it really got off the ground. A million thanks to both of you.
Many, many thanks to everyone who kept with the story and reviewed, even when I was slow or infrequent updating.
Alright. Enough mushiness from me.
As you can probably tell, I'm extremely happy that I finished this. I have several other story ideas on the back-burner that I want to work on, so expect a new project soon.
Once again, thank you all, and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.