The only characters I own are Alex, Sonny, Mel, Michael, William, various vamps that die, minor characters. Yes, I do have to lay claim to Marvin "the Martian" Marcellini. All others are not mine though I wish they were ;)
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Reviews are very welcome!
Thanks for the reviews: Ghost0Silvers, Onyx-Muffin and VampireSiren
One thing I learned from The Tick Series: dénouement. Its where the good guys beat the bad guy, or the bad guy defeats the good guy.
;-)
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When the world stopped twirling like a baton in a cheerleader's hand, I blinked at a pockmarked ceiling.
Pain struck here and there from my body, where the evil stairs had sucker punched me on the way down.
Spiky hair intruded on my appraisal of the holes and the throbs in my body.
I looked down and had to struggle with the need to laugh.
Sera's face was planted firmly between my breasts.
"You know, I think our visitors will love this scene if they are all male. So would you mind moving so we don't give them a free show?"
She groaned, pushed herself to the side and laid down, "I shouldn't have got out of the coffin this evening," she blinked, "That didn't sound very human."
"Sounds normal to me. I should be in my bed, too," I slowly rolled to my hands and knees, panting at the effort, "But here...we are...with unknown...guests...on their way."
She grabbed the wall, lifting herself to her feet, swaying, "We are all a mess. They'll run away from us. Or something worse."
I grabbed her hand, pulled myself up to her level, "Really? Two dusty women enough to frighten away the men? I doubt it but I may not be in the best frame of mind. They could find us laugh worthy, or an immediate call to the nearest hospital needed."
I drew in a deep breath and tasted musty yuck on my tongue, "Did I just swallow a cobweb?"
"A bug," she gave the eew face, before she wrapped her arm around me, steading us both, "The trucks are almost here. The helicopters are circling overhead."
She tilted her head up, and we dangerously leaned backward. I grabbed the wall to regain our stability.
"Eyes front and center, Seras. I don't want to be on the floor again."
I looked ahead to the brightest rectangle on the floor. The door out of this dank dungeon. That looked pretty cysting far for me to walk.
Seras got us into motion, slowly creeping forward, "I hope it's Sir Integra."
"That would be amazing, but unlikely knowing my luck. It's probably Brendan's mother superior or something. Or Jacob's vamp mom. She'll yell at me for being the end of him. Typical mother action."
"If the clues I left were accurately deciphered, it would be Sir Integra."
"Clues?" I looked at her, then smiled, "You outfoxed Jacob, didn't you?"
"I said Walter instead of William, to key William into the fact treachery was afoot from a trusted source. I then wrote my report for this location since Jacob," she spat the name in disgust, "showed me where he was meeting that priest."
I laughed, "And it was a place you already had a mission for so Jacob didn't know you had left Sir Integra a fucking map. Brilliant. Cysting, fucking genius, Seras."
She grinned, panting with each step, "Yes. He may have forced me to take you, but I wasn't going to let him have you for very long. I was hoping to find a loophole in his power to get you out of his range."
"Thanks. I don't think I want to be this new Eve of a new monster type anyway. Doesn't come with fringe benefits."
We stopped right beside the doorway leading to freedom, "What ones did you want?" she asked in a strained tone.
"If I'm going to have children, it will be with someone I like most of the time. Fringe benefit is sharing the care of such important bundles of future. Plus massages. If I'm going to suffer through a pregnancy I will, by the collective process of humanity, have massages."
She giggled, then froze.
Tires rolled to a stop out there, beyond the door. Then I heard booted feet on gravel, a very unfriendly reverberation.
"You want ranged or close combat if our guests are of the shoot first ask question later sort?" I whispered, trying not to slump to my knees.
"You are a better shot," she took the knife from me, "It was a pleasure working with you, Alex."
"Oh, you so aren't doing that. You just jinxed us."
She looked at me in surprise, "How so?"
I rolled my eyes, "Anytime a character in a movie says that, they either get shot, or get their partner shot. Since I'm here I'm the one most likely to get hurt. And I know I will never set a date for retirement. That a certain death sentence."
She looked at the door, "I say bollocks to that. There is no jinx."
We went silent as the clicks of what sounded like a hundred safeties switching to off reached us.
"Into the breach, my dear friend?" I asked.
She swallowed, "I rather die with you than go back alive while you are dead."
I felt the real reason in her emotions, "Let me guess, Alucard torturing you for a few decades is not preferable to dying here?"
"He terrifies me."
"Seras, he terrifies me as well. So shall we see who we face as either friend or foe of women?"
She gripped me about the waist and we stepped out.
Bright light blinded me, forcing tears out of my eyes.
I tried to see pass the whiteness to who we faced, even as my head pounded with pain.
Shadows crossed the spots where the light was brightest, soldiers readjusting their positions.
"Seras, who are we facing?" I whispered.
Then her support of me dropped away.
I turned to her, watched her hit the ground, blood coating her back. She didn't try to stand again.
"Seras?" I swayed, barely keeping my feet. Where the drat was my strength?
She didn't dust, but was this collapse possibly a precursor to her death?
My legs trembled as I wondered if I should kneel to check on her, or if in the middle of that act I'd fall on Seras and worsen her situation.
"...Alexandra Hannah Jones-Jordan," a voice commanded.
I looked toward the centermost light. Only one person used that tone with me.
Three silhouettes moved through the aura.
Was it...please let it be Sir Integra. Home. I wanted my own bed and days of quiet. Too many things had happened in too short a time.
I needed moments or better yet years to determine what this whole stupidity Jacob and Brendan had been trying to accomplish.
"Alex, report."
"Sir Integra," I swallowed my dry mouth, reducing the rasp, "Two targets silenced. Jacob, the puppeteer, and Brendan, traitor priest."
One of the figure's moved to my left, the light moving from hiding the face to showing Michael's grim set jaw.
"Alex," he said softly, "Give me the gun."
I blinked at him, watching his mouth, the cobwebs drifting in silken strands over my thoughts, the pain taking more of my attention.
What was he talking about?
The center figure nodded to Michael.
He moved to my side, eyes on mine, as he bent his knees.
His fingers were hot against mine, his callouses a bit shocking against my skin.
He took something from my grip, straightened.
He backed up, did something with the fuzzy object in his hands, stating, "Gun, safetied, Sir Integra."
"Was Seras part of this plot willingly?" Integra snapped.
"No. She fought Jacob's control. If she had been...if she had assisted them, I would not be standing here as a human, battered as is seems."
She stepped forward, her face becoming visible to my gaze.
Something about her outfit was trying to draw my attention, but I was locked on her cold militant stare.
"Were you bitten?"
The world swirled, sending Integra upside down.
I tried to say, "Only my teeth had broken my skin," but I thought that maybe I mumbled it.
Heat scorched my side, vibrations pulsing into me at Mel's voice, "They stripped her naked, sir. How in heaven did she get free?"
No heaven had aided me. Only a vamp who was my sister in arms. How many people could claim that in their lifetime?
I felt every muscle loosen and my legs collapsed.
I saw only darkness.
