Curse of the Snake Demons

Chapter 14: Unexpected Company

Author: Welp now things are going to start getting intense since Claudia and Jake are in the City now, let's just pray that they can save her little brother in time!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Rango but I do own any Oc's and the plot to this fan fiction.

Driving through the city in her mother's car was one thing, but trying to find the building was another problem all together. The city was pretty big; it was going to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack! But she needed to be quick, it had been at least a week since she last saw her brother and in that week she was so afraid that he had to go through so many terrible things. Jake looked up to see her troubled face, something he did not like to see at all considering it made him troubled to see her troubled.

"What're you thinkin'?" Jake asked, wanting to know what was on her mind

"I have no idea where the building is… and I don't know the name of it either, which is something that I wish we did have" she told him. She didn't really like being unprepared, it made her more nervous than normal getting her tied up about losing her way. As she drove she felt Jake rub his head against hers, trying to comfort her in some way, it made her smile, happy to know that he was trying to make her feel better. She then felt him peck her on the cheek before he spoke

"Don't worry about it, sunshine, yer gonna find it; just keep lookin'" he told her.

"Sunshine? Where did that come from?" she asked, causing him to chuckle

"What you don't like it?" he asked

"N-no that's not it… just wondering is all since you started calling me it all of a sudden" she said to him. He smiled at her and rubbed against her face again

"Why not? Yer my little sunshine in this cold dark life of mine, you should be referred as so" he told her. "And yer MY sunshine, nothin' can take yer shine away from my life, and if somethin' tries, I'll personally take care of it" he said, making a motion with his rattler going across his neck; indicating he will kill those who would take her away from him. Somehow she found that humorous since she chuckled before looking back on the road, but as the minutes turned into hours Claudia started to get less nervous and more frustrated. Eventually she stopped at a Hotel parking lot and sighed, sitting there looking the most frustrated Jake had ever seen her (besides being kept in her room for most of her stay in Mud).

"This is such bullshit! You'd think a BIG RED building would be the easiest thing to look for!" she cried, her anger getting the best of her. Jake, feeling agitated himself for the love of his life feeling the same, rubbed against her cheek to make them both feel better.

"Yer lettin' all of this get to you, you need to loosen' up" he told her as his body went around her shoulders before they started to move with enough force to move her shoulder muscles…. He was giving her a message… this realization caused her to blush

"J-Jake, stop!" she told him, getting a bit embarrassed that not only was he moving around her shoulders… but it was kind of making her shirt fall on one side, exposing her bare skin. But he smiled, liking the reaction he was getting

"What? I ain't doin' anythin' to you, sunshine, just givin' a nice rub" he told her before he extended his neck so that his head would be near her ear. "Unless you WANT me to do MORE than just rubbin' yer shoulders~~" he whispered in a deep and seducing tone that made her tingle all over. This was added by the fact his coils loosely went to her lower sleeve and pulled it down more while licking her ear.

"S-stop Jake, th-this is not funny!" she whined, her face red and hot since her body had some sort of turned on reaction she wanted him to do more, but at the same time she didn't. In her dreams she could never (most time anyway) control her sexual urges, this caused her to worry that she might not be able to control them in the real world too.

"Why? It's pretty obvious how much you want it~" he said, licking her ear again while his rattler slowly went under her chin and stroking it, causing shivers to run up her spine. He wanted to hear it, he wanted to hear that seductive moan come out of her mouth again that moan that made his body excited with the very thought, the one that caused him to want to mate with her even more. It caused him to try and pull her shirt down more and started to nip at her ear; he wanted her, he wanted her so MUCH his body ACHED to tangle his body with hers and mate right then and there.

"Ja-ake" she whimpered, trying to pull him off her but his coils wrapped around her arms tightly. He could tell she was on the verge of moaning and God dammit was he going to get her to do it too. He didn't care about her brother hell he didn't care about the WORLD; he wanted to have sex with the love of his life and there was nothing that was going to fucking stop it! Or so he thought for when he started to slide and wiggle his rattler in her chest area a loud bang was heard in the back of the car. Immediately Jake stopped and looked towards the back with a serious and protective look on his face as if he wasn't trying to mate with Claudia just a few moments ago.

"Who's there?!" Jake cried, being intimidating and demanding to whoever was in the car with them and the fact that they might harm Claudia. "Show yerselves!" he cried, unwrapping a great deal from around her and going towards the back of the car

"C'mon out, we know you're there!" she called, thinking that maybe they only understood human language in case it was a human. There was another shuffling, causing Jake to hiss with irritation before slithering over to where it was, to the trunk of the car. "Jake, please be careful!" she told him, though he didn't make any indication that he had heard her as he slunk into the trunk to face whatever intruder dared to hide themselves when he was around. There were some crashes and voices that she could barely make out along with hissing and rattling that caused her to be worried. So she crawled from her seat and to the back to see what was going on, when she peered down Jake had something flailing in his coils.

"What in all the hells are you DOIN' here, sheriff?!" Jake asked with a growl in her voice since he didn't expect the chameleon to be in the back.

"I-I don't know myself, Jake!" he cried, trying not to get the snake more pissed off than he already was "Me and some of the locals in Mud wanted to help ya out… you know fer all the stuff you've been goin' through but it was hard to try and catch up when you were ahead of us already. Then, all of a sudden this woman in all white appeared before us and said she could help us out. Of course I was suspicious at first and questioned her motives…" he started to day before going on about this woman and how he 'acted' with her and how the conversation went, even though it wasn't very interesting to listen to.

"Git to the point, sheriff!" Jake ordered him, squeezing him a bit, causing him to gag

"Jake be nice" Claudia said with a sigh, causing Rango to look up at her before back to Jake

"A-anyway we agreed to have some help gettin' to you and all of a sudden we were in a light and fell here!... I was so near with fright I accidently shot off my gun..hehe…" he said with a nervous laugh. Jake looked at him for a second, still a bit skeptical at what he was telling him

"That sounds like Selena-sama… but not that it matters at all. Jake he and them came to HELP there shouldn't be any reason to get mad at them" she told him. It caused the outlaw to grumble before letting the lizard go, mostly angry because the sheriff happened to cut into his 'mating time'… which was the real reason he was mad at him.

"Much obliged Jacob" he said, tipping his hat to him and causing the snake to growl a little before slithering up the seat and around Claudia again. It caused the green reptile to look up at her and smiled nervously, waving at her "W-well hi there Miss Claudia… gotten quite a growth spurt didn't ya?" he asked, causing her to chuckle.

"Kind of, this is my normal size if you can believe it" she told him, which she was sure he was aware of but it didn't hurt to tell him since… well since it was true. And with her 'booming voice' (it was a bit louder for other animals to hear) the inhabitants of Mud that wanted to come help came from the various belongings that were scattered through the trunk. She was glad Rango didn't come alone but she often wondered if it was safe since… well since she had a whole lot of animals in her trunk that would freak any normal human out.

"Oh I sure can Miss Claudia" Rango said with another nervous smile before he looked up at her; he looked a little nervous since Jake was right with her, meaning that if he even looked the wrong way at her he would be on him just like that. "But mind tellin' me why you stopped? I mean… aren't you supposed to be drivin' this here machine?" he asked, even though he knew what it was.

"I'm resting, trying to keep myself from going insane with not knowing where the hell to go" she said with a sigh. "I need to find the building my brother is in but I can't find it, it's like I'm never going to find it in this clusterfuck of a city".

"Don't'cha have them fancy shmancy thingamagigs that help ya find what yer lookin' fer?" asked Spoons, making her think about what he may have meant. Her eyes then lit up as she remembered something

"That's right! I think my mom had my laptop in here at some point cause she needed it for work on Monday" she said. She then lifted herself over the seat more and looked over the items in the back to try and look for something familiar. "Oh there it is" she said as she saw the black bag that cushioned her machine whenever it was going places. She reached for it and, while taking the handle, thought about how the animals were going to get out from the back. "Why don't you guys grab on? I'm sure it must not be too pleasant to be in the back since you can't really see anything" she told them. It only took a moment before they grabbed on the bag as much as they could before she lifted it and moved it beside her. When they were off she unzipped the bag and pulled out the Asus laptop that was lying inside.

The people from Mud were amazed at the machine and weren't quite sure what to make of it, but they did compliment on how futuristic it was and that it was kind of neat. Claudia just shrugged as she booted up the computer and waited for it to get to its usual screen with the Windows logo lighting up in the middle of the black screen. But instead a whole set of numbers and words came up, which meant that something was wrong… and since she didn't have ANY idea what to do, she looked for the manual that her mother brought with the bag since her mom always said to bring it wherever it went.

"Is… is it supposed to be doin' that sort of stuff?" Waffles asked, causing her to shake her head in reply

"No, it's supposed to start up with this logo but it looks like something is wrong… my mom may have accidently crashed it, or it crashed on its own. Either way…" she said, going through the book for the machine "I need to see what's wrong and then enter the code according to what the manual says" she finished. She looked through the book as the animals gathered around her, causing Jake to hiss and rattle his tail; making most of them stand back. Considering how possessive he was of her he didn't like them gathering around HIS mate like that "Don't be rude Jake" she said plainly as she went through the book.

He hissed with irritation but he didn't say anything other than that since he knew he couldn't help what she felt and that the other animals were too afraid of him anyway to get too close to her. "Finally here it is" she said as she found the page where it had some diagrams of what looked like the screen currently on the monitor and human lettering that none of the animals could read nor understand. "Kay then I just have to write this whole thing in and the computer will be back to its former self~" she said before putting the manual next to her. There was a paragraph with a long list of words that didn't make much sense to them but it seemed like she just had to copy them. She cracked her knuckles and then stretched them before putting her fingers on the keys before her fingers went to dance on the keyboard.

"My word!" Ambrose said as the other animals were gapping at the fact how she was able to type so fast, to command her fingers to go on certain keys and letters in a specific order. The words were going down the screen that copied exactly what was in the manual; it looked so complicated that some of the animals were getting headaches. She could feel Jake's head up against her neck, but he seemed to just be lying against it then trying to do anything funny, so she ignored it; she was sure he didn't want to see this sort of thing anyway since he didn't care for modern technology.

In fact he was just lying against her neck, he was a bit tired out and the words that didn't make any sense to him started to give him a headache. He closed his eyes and propped his head against her neck and body around her shoulders, waiting for this to be all done and over with. Also with everything he was tired out and wanted to rest… and being around her caused him to get warm and sleepy and as long as she was safe he could rest easy. She looked down to him and smiled, thinking it was cute he was resting like that but didn't say anything as she finished up writing all the codes down for the computer.

"There we go, now I can get busy" she said as she got the computer up, running and searching for what she was looking for. She heard Jake hiss and rub up against her a little, causing her to rub back a little with a smile before going on the web to search for that red building. It didn't take her too long to get Wi-Fi from some place and then put down a description of the building even though that was harder than she thought it would be. It looked like the cultists did well to hide their information and if there were anything about them you had to have some code or password to get into the sites… which was annoying.

"Thought it would be a bit easier than this" she commented as she went through Google to try and use other key words to get things to come up, but it wasn't working very easily. Since she knew that it was going to be impossible searching on the web she decided to go with the alternative and actually use the map system so the satellites could pick it up. She had just about given up an hour and a half of searching as she sighed and looked at the screen with not much luck in finding what she wanted to do. The animals, while she was looking, went to explore the confines of the car and made sure not to mess with anything that looked like they might get in trouble for, leaving Jake and her alone for the most part.

"Urmph… havin' trouble sunshine?" Jake asked with a tired voice since he had been napping for the last hour and a half.

"Yea… I'm so terrible at finding things it seems" she told him with a sigh; it made him lift his head up sleepily before pecking at her lips a little. "Have a good nap?" she asked

"It was a bit nice, would have been the best if you were in my coils though" he commented before rubbing his rattler against her cheek. "Just relax sunshine, rest yer eyes… want me to help~?" he asked. Even though he was sleepy with that smile on his face she knew that he would really try that again

"Jake, you're not going to do THAT with the others here, besides I just can't give up, I need to find the building!" she told him.

"You mean that thar buildin' right there?" Pricilla's voice asked, causing the girl to look down to see the young mouse on the laptop and pointing at the screen. Claudia leaned forward to look where the young mouse was pointing and saw that there was a red rectangle to a place that was a few blocks from where she was. She used the mouse pad to zoom in and, sure enough, the picture showed the building that was red and was mostly one story save for the back, which was like small dome. And right there, on the side was the snake emblem that was with those damn cultists; FINALLY.

"Pricilla, darling, you're a genius!" she said with a smile, excited that it was finally time for her to get going and find her baby brother. "Alright so it's on…" she said, tracing the street and the number before closing the laptop, much to the surprise of most of the people in the car. "It's time to go now, I know where my brother is" she said as she then started to get up and then climb to where she was sitting before, trying hard not to accidently step on anyone on her way. When she got into the grey leather seat she put her seatbelt on and put the car into gear before driving to where it was. It only took about ten minutes and when she drove up to it the feeling of abandonment was in the air, something she didn't like.

"Not too lively is it? I'd say it's almost a ghost town" Rango said as he got up to look out the windshield, to see the building silent as the wind blew, causing it to sound like it was moaning.

"I don't doubt that they don't come out in the open since this building is supposed to be abandoned… I mean even the symbol is faded…" she said before she opened the door and got out of the car. The animals soon followed and there they were; one human girl and a slew of small animals -save for Jake- were in front of a small building. It seemed like it was a case of Snow White since she got along with animals but… they were going against cultists that had strange magics, they had to be careful though… "I have to say… we don't look very menacing" she said with a sigh.

"Well what do ya expect? Most creatures here don't know nothin' about bein' intimidatin', they should've just stayed home" Jake said with a snort.

"What and leave the two of you to go against these vermin by yerselves? Sorry but no can do there" Rango said to them. She smiled to him though she frowned

"Still if you guys really want to help there needs to be a way for you guys to be up to par with humans… something that you guys would be able to get a fair fighting chance" she said, thinking on what to do. She didn't want them to get hurt and some animals going against full grown half human half demon people was not a good idea.

"Crystal" was the single word Wounded Bird said, causing her to look at the Native American-like bird blinking in confusion because she wasn't sure what he meant by crystal since it was just a necklace. "It have magic; growing magic" he added, causing to give her more of an insight of why he mentioned it, causing her to look at it. She had been rubbing it with her hands out of habit and didn't notice that it started to glow that white-goldish color like it did when she turned back to her normal size.

"Okay… I think I got it" she said to herself, knowing what she could with it but wasn't sure how to go about it in a way that would not take too much time. She walked over to an empty space on the cracked pavement and got on her knees before taking her necklace off and holding it by the crystal. The light grew and expanded, making it kind of like a mini brush made of light. She then moved her body forward and drew a large circle that glowed in the outside lines, like a child who was drawing with a piece of chalk. When she was done she sat there and pointed to the circle while looking at the animals "Every one, gather into the circle" she commanded.

At first they weren't sure but with Rango going towards and inside that circle the others soon followed, muttering something about magic and it was 'Witchcraft', which she didn't care for. She wasn't sure how this was going to work but she figured she try considering that growing magic could be in her pendant and, thus, she could, maybe, get them to grow and have a fighting chance for whoever could be waiting for them inside. "Jake, you too" she told him, looking down to the outlaw, causing him to snap his neck to her

"Why should I do down there with them?" he asked

"Because I want you to grow too Jake, that way you can protect me better" she told him. He would have objected but she was right, if he wanted to protect her he was going to have to get to the same level of humans. So she let him down as he curled in the middle since people parted when he entered, flicking his tongue and savoring the taste and smell of fear coming from them, which caused him to smile. "Now bear with me guys, this is a first time thing" she told them as she put her crystal out in front of her and towards the circle. She closed her eyes and squeezed the stone slightly before the light grew brighter on it at the same time the circle did until, eventually, the light on the circle shot up and then wrapped around the animals like a blanket and expanding. When she opened her eyes again she stepped back as the animals were now around human size… save for Jake who was a lot bigger.

"Amazin'…" Beans said as she looked at herself. Pretty much it was like when she was in the animal world size wise… except they were in her world this time.

"Um… well welcome to the Human world guys" she said with a bit of nervousness though she was sure they were happy to visit it. "Anyway now that you guys are up to par, for the most part, we can go and look around" she said as she started to go into the building, but not without Jake by her side.

"Don't get too excited, go too far on yer own and yer goin' to get yerself in trouble that I rather not have to deal with" he told her with a bit of a stern look. Since there were other people he didn't want them to figure out that she and he were together, finally, and were mates. He would tell them eventually but for now he didn't want them to know; besides it wasn't important for them to know right now, worrying about finding her brother and all. But Rango had already figured them out, or at least Jake's feelings, he never really saw HER get all protective and lovey with him… then again he hadn't seen her too much either. But right now her brother was all they had as a top priority

"Alright everyone, keep yer eyes open and yer weapons close, we're goin' into enemy territory after all" the sheriff said, causing the rest of the animals following him. The inside was kind of dead; it was deserted with dust on covering everything along with broken windows and glass around the floor. This confused the lot of them since this was the HQ of the cultists, why would they be in a dump?

"If I had to guess they might be not using the TOP of the building but down in the darkness of the basement" Claudia said. She heard some murmurs but she didn't pay that much attention, if they didn't want to go then they didn't have to; she wasn't going to force them. She knew that even if none of them wanted to go Jake would still stay by her side because of how much he loved her.

"Why would they want to do that?" she heard Waffles ask, causing her to grimice a little; Jake, Rango, Beans and Bird all knew why. Poor ignorant Waffles had no idea

"Because of the rituals they love to perform" she simply said a bit angrily. She felt a slight nudge from next to her and knew it was Jake, he didn't like those bastards either; they were his number one enemy forever.

"Well we can't be too careful, perhaps we should split up and cover more ground"

"If we did that then if any of you all went against the cultists you'll get fucked over" Claudia told him. "We should get to the basement and see what's down there, strength is in numbers after all" she added. Event thought it seemed to be rude they all knew she was only person who knows them well enough… also these cultists were half human half demon… only person who could fight against them would be another of their kind. And it actually didn't take long to find the entrance to the basement, it had that same snake symbol on it and it was located to where the basement would be. She went over and jiggled the silver knob, but it wouldn't budge so she did it harder but still nothing, eventually she started to use her body, banging it against the door, but that didn't work either. "Who knew doors were so fucking stubborn!" she said with irritation, stomping it with her foot.

"That ain't nothin' too hard, stand aside woman" Jake said, causing the girl to look at him before moving away from the door. It only took a moment for him to raise his rattler before hitting it against the door. It didn't cave in at first since it was metal, but eventually it got so damaged it flew off its hinges and into the darkness below.

"Way to go, I'm sure they heard that and know that we're here" Claudia told him, though he just rolled his eyes before they continued to move forward into the basement of the building. After a few minutes the stairs ended and they came to a long and wide hallway that had doors to different rooms.

"Alright, looks like we've got somethin' to go on. I say we split into groups and check the doors for any clues" Rango said. He gathered everyone around, aside from her and Jake, as he told who was going to be with who and where they could start. She didn't really care as she went towards the door down at the end of the hallway considering it was the most prominent, but Jake wasn't that far behind as he came up from behind her and curled around her a little.

"Where are you goin'? Ain't too smart to go off by yerself" he told her, nudging his head against her "I know yer worried about yer brother, but you can't go by yerself, what if somethin' happened to you?" he asked.

"I don't want to insult them, but they can't stand up against half demons, I am the only one able and you know that!" she said. He wrapped more around her

"I don't care, yer not goin' without me sunshine… I ain't goin' to lose you, yer my sunshine and I rather die than let somethin' take you away" he said to her. He kissed her, trying to get his feelings across "Don't make me have to break yer legs to keep you from doin' something stupid" he said, half teasing and half not.

"Jake I know you want to protect me, but there are some things that you can't protect me from"… that was something he didn't want to hear.

"Bullshit! Anythin' that even THINKS to harm a hair on yer head answers to me! And then I'll drag their soul down to hell before they could even think about lookin' at you!" he cried to her. He squeezed her protectively, but she got out of his grip since he wasn't tightly wound around her for… reasons that he didn't want people to see her in his coils.

"You can't protect me from EVERYTHING Jake" she told him as she got to the door and opened it "Don't delude yourself from thinking that or else you'll get killed!" she said, mad that he would do something so rash. She swung the door open and walked inside, causing Jake to slither after her until he was right behind her body… though something was wrong; she was just standing there.

"Now listen here sunshine… sunshine?" Jake started to say when he realized she wasn't saying anything, he prodded her with his tail but all he heard was muttering. Eventually he looked over to see what made her stop and froze himself.

Before them was a young boy chained on his wrists up on the wall, his body with dirt and blood all over his skin with messy brown hair. There was blood mostly coming from his back and a pentagram on the floor before his hanging figure that did not have regular colored skin, but coal black.

"…Jacob…"

Author: Well I finally got this up and I'm happy x3. Is it just me or is my Jake also been trying to get it on with Claudia ever since they admitted they loved each other? I mean I know animals do that when they fall in love but dammit she is used to being a human! Also YES I have a cliffhanger... kind of xD But anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and give me reviews!