Danger Zone
By Divamercury
Again, sorry about the delay, but I have had very little time to write lately and will have even less for the next week. Final exams are coming up and so I'll have to study, study, study! Wish me luck! So hopefully this will satisfy all your cravings for more DZ for a little while. If I have a chance to write and post, I will, but if not, my first certain free day is May 26th. Please read, review, and enjoy! ;)
~DM
Chapter 29
Being the domestically challenged person that I was, I left Mac to take care of the clean up effort and went to find Ian. I roamed through the warehouse and ran into Gabe on the main computer room.
"Hey, where'd Ian go? You were just with him, right?" I asked him.
"Yeah. I think he went upstairs. Can't tell you where but he's around here somewhere."
"Well, thanks, Gabe. You were a real cornucopia of information, there, you know? I appreciate all your valuable help," I replied sarcastically and took to the stairs, climbing them two at a time. I made it to ground level and then looked around the room, checking the corners and shadows. Ian wasn't there.
"Damn," I said. "Guess I'll have to check upstairs."
There were a lot of bedrooms on the top floor of the warehouse, about ten or eleven of them, but they were rarely used. I had no idea which one he was in, and the shower in my own room was calling me, making the choices rattle through my head. Ianshower. ShowerIan.
Why not both?' a little voice asked in my head and it took everything I had not to scream at myself. I shook my head to clear it of those thoughts. Stupid mind's trekking straight through the gutter again,' I admonished myself. What brought that on?'
Going against what I really wanted to do, I decided that the shower would be the best course of action to take first and headed for my bedroom. I stripped down in the bathroom and showered quickly, relishing the feel of the hot water on my skin. I calmed down while I was under the warm sprays and wrapped a towel around myself when I got out seven minutes later. I had decided not to wash my hair since it would slow me down in my search, but it turned out my search had to go no farther because Ian was already standing in my doorway.
We both gasped when we saw each other and Ian whirled around to face the other direction because of my current state of undress. Thank God I had been wearing the towel and hadn't flashed him. He wouldn't look me in the face for a month.
"Um, hi, Ian. I was about to come looking for you," I said, trying to break the tension in the room. "What's going on?" I scrambled around to find clothes while I waited for his response.
But before he spoke, Mac happened to walk by my room, probably directed there by Gabe, and peeked in. Her face could have been described as mischievous at best and downright wicked at worst. "Having fun, you two?" she asked.
Ian and I both blushed.
"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Mac asked innocently, glancing at me in my towel.
Great timing, Pezzini,' I thought to myself.
"Not exactly," I said too quickly.
"No," Ian said, speaking at the same time I had.
"When you say not exactly,' Pez, do you mean something other than no'?" Mac asked evilly.
I glared at her. "I am trying to get dressed here, Mac! Would you mind leaving?"
"Oh, so it's okay if Ian stays?"
"OUT!!!" I shouted, and Mac scurried away. "It's okay, Ian, since you're facing the other direction, anyway. So, was there something you wanted to tell me?" I asked as I resumed my hunt for clothes.
"Yes, there was. Raven contacted me a few minutes ago and said she was bringing a friend over to the warehouseperhaps a new recruit or something to that effect. Gabriel said that you were looking for me earlier, so I came to find you." He was clearly nervous.
In record time I put on my clothes (underwear, jeans, blue ribbed turtleneck, leather jacket) and sat down on the bed to put my boots on. "It's safe to look now, Ian. I promise."
Hesitantly Ian looked over his shoulder, then slowly turned to face me. The relief was clear on his face. I smiled, and he returned it slightly. I crossed the room and we walked down the stairs together.
"So, new guy. What did Raven say about him?" I asked as my hand grasped the banister.
"Not much. She just told me not to kill him as soon I saw him."
"Well, now that's a good omen. You don't typically kill people when you first see them, do you?"
"Not unless I know they're a threat to meor to you. Again, not a good sign."
"Does Mac know about this?"
"Most likely not. Raven isn't exactly one to clear her actions with everyone before doing something, as I'm sure you've noticed. She probably just thought I needed to know. No doubt it's someone I'll recognize."
"Well, we'll find out in a minute," I replied as we descended the second flight of stairs and entered the living room. "Mac should really install an elevator in here; all these stairs are getting annoying."
* * *
I had been mortified when I loitered in Sara's doorway long enough to see her walk out of her bathroom clad only in a towel. What frightened me most wasn't the fact that I had walked in on her, but that part of me wanted to see her without the towel. I had whirled around not only to give her privacy but also to keep that side of myself from taking me over and destroying the fragile relationship (if you could call it that) that I had with Sara. My mind was full of contradictions: I wanted to be close to her and yet I shied away at the very thought; I wanted to be bold and make a move but at the same time wanted everything to stay "normal"how was that possible? I mulled over my thoughts until Sara's voice broke through the fog in my mind and we talked for a few minutes before leaving her room.
Reaching the main room downstairs, we could hear Raven and Mac arguing. Sara rolled her eyes and sighed as we entered the room. I was shocked at what I saw: Raven was standing beside Jackson Miller, the leader of the Speakers, and was apparently defending him from Mac's accusations, whatever they happened to be. Sara cleared her throat to announce her presence and the trio turned to face us. Miller's face paled when he recognized me and I moved slightly in front of Sara.
"Birdie, explain yourself! What is this villain doing here?" I asked angrily. "What are you thinking?"
"Exactly what I want to know," Mac replied, fixing a glare on Raven.
"Whoa, wait a minute, time out," Sara said, placing a hand on my arm to calm me down. "I must be really out of the loop here, because—you know, it's funny—I seem to be the only person in the room that doesn't know who the hell you are, sir."
"That, Sara," I said, "is Jackson Miller, and he's probably the last person that we should willingly allow inside this compound other than Kenneth Irons."
"Wha?" Sara was puzzled. Raven opened her mouth to speak, probably ready with some odd explanation, but Mac beat her to the punch.
"He's the guy in charge of the Speakers!" Mac blurted. Sara's eyes widened in shock, then narrowed in anger all in the span of seconds. The Witchblade activated on her mental command. Raven glanced at me, sending a message as she did so.
Stop her, Dragon! She's going to kill him!'
And I fail to see how that would be a bad thing,' I retorted. This man is a cold-blooded killer, Birdie! How can you not see that?'
Sara stopped of her own accord about six inches from a terrified Miller. Raven and I reverted to oral speech.
"I see that and I understand where you're coming from, Ian, but there's something you're overlooking. The Speakers could have killed Sara at any time they wanted when she was in their sights and they didn't on Jackson's orders. He had a gut feeling that trusting Irons in this case was probably the wrong choice."
"So? Just because he didn't trust Irons doesn't make him a rocket scientist. And I'm sure "gut feelings" haven't stopped him from killing before," I said.
"I admit I've made some mistakes in the past, and there's nothing I can do about them now, but I saw what happened earlier at the Bulls' warehouse downtown and I want to help."
"Oh, so now the big bad hit man turns over a new leaf?" Sara asked. She reached out and grabbed Miller by the collar of his jacket, their faces two inches apart. "I've got news for you, buddy: you really picked the wrong woman to screw around with. Hope you've got life insurance." Sara extended the blade from the gauntlet and was about to dismember the bastard when Raven intervened, separating Sara and Miller mentally and twisting Sara's Witchblade arm behind her back using the same method.
"What the hell are you trying to pull, Raven? Let go of me right now or so help me Miller won't be the only one in pieces at the end of this!" Sara shouted, and Mac and I ran to her rescue. I hated to do it, but I slapped Raven smartly across the face, sending her reeling backwards and freeing Sara by breaking Raven's concentration. Mac restrained Raven and I looked her in the eye.
"Snap out of it, Raven!" I said. "You're putting all of us in jeopardy!"
"Sara," Raven gasped, "use the Witchblade and see if I'm wrong when I say that Jackson's one of us, one of the people that surround the blade no matter what time period it's in."
Sara faced me. "Ian? Should I?"
"Go ahead," I said as I grabbed hold of Miller and secured him for the experiment.
Sara retracted the Blade back to bracelet form and, after briefly steeling herself for the onslaught, placed her bare hands on either side of Miller's face.
