The characters belong to Top cow and TNT as do all their toys, accessories and appliances, including the Witchblade.
******************** denotes change of scenery
Tenebrous
chapter 26
****************************************************************
Gabriel was vaguely aware of being in the back seat of a vehicle. The small jolts reminded him of being driven down a dirt road on a childhood vacation, distorted in his dreams to a wide field of mown barley.
"Mom, slow down," Gabriel murmured, caught in the half world of dreams and reality.
"I am not your Mother," Ian retorted, embarrassed by the boy addressing him as such and insulted at the same time.
"The right, watch ou..." Gabriel sighed into the seat.
Nottingham instinctively glanced to the right, swerving the vehicle just in the nick of time to avoid a startled doe.
Ian did not bother contemplating the incongruity of Gabriel's warning being coincidental nor how someone delirious enough to call the formidable assassin 'mom', could sense the animal's approach with his face wedged in the crease of the back seat. The young man's semi coherent statements were often baffling.
Instead, he pondered the admissible implications regarding the trajectory of the sprinting deer. The doe had been running towards the noise of the vehicle, rather than away, meaning that it had been running from something else. The Sufult must be on the move.
Though he could neither see nor hear their vehicle over the din of his own automobile, he had concluded that the insidious saboteurs were coming down the road to his right. When his commandeered SUV left the rural terrain of the field and met a gravel path, Nottingham turned left, thankful that by luck his only safe exit also provided him with the advantage of gaining purchase to the highway before his pursuers.
****
Sara's jabs at the redial button had gone from frantic to hostile by the time Jake hobbled around the corner to where she'd fled. Nottingham's callous brush off, amidst her anxiety, was making her more furious with every tremulous moment of panic and fear. She had no way of knowing if Ian was shot or was not answering the phone on purpose, just to piss her off.
"Thanks for your concern," Sara snarled sarcastically at the phone, echoing Nottingham's ridiculous reply as she tested the button's tolerance for abuse.
"And yours," Jake quipped.
Sara looked up to find Jake standing in front of her. Judging by his expression and the tone of his comment, he was more than a little annoyed. Danny's sudden appearance somehow didn't help alleviate her discomfort. Standing beside Jake and eyeing her with a worried gaze, her ethereal friend pointed at Sara's impotent and defenseless cell phone.
"You might want to give that button a rest and tend to your partner," Danny advised, before leaving her to deal with the angry Rookie.
Sara cast her gaze to the floor in chagrin. Danny was on the mark as usual; Jake had every right to be ticked off. "How's your knee?" Sara queried guiltily, giving the redial button a reprieve as she pocketed her phone.
"A little banged up, but nothing serious," Jake replied cagily. Having gotten one full sentence out, he decided to try for another. "Doc says I shouldn't need the cane after a few days," he added optimistically. It wasn't really what he wanted to talk about, but at least she had let him finish his sentences.
'That's, ... good to hear," Sara replied cautiously, still not looking him in the eye. She knew he was dying to either interrogate or berate her. Not in the mood for either, she tried to keep the topic focused on his injury, hoping a little coddling would pacify him. "Let me get you home so you can get some rest. I'll take care of the paperwork on the explosion," Sara suggested, grabbing his shoulder and trying to hustle her partner to the nearest exit.
Resisting her impatient tugs, Jake turned to face his erratic partner. "I don't think that's a good idea, Pez," he admonished. "I think you're the one who should go home and get some rest. My knee won't effect getting paperwork done and at least I have a clear head," he asserted. The tone he used left no doubt as to what he thought about the state of her head.
Smarting from the verbal slap, Sara had to admit her conduct would appear far from sage. Acknowledging Jake with a look of horror and darting away to torment a phone with no one on the other end would seem a bit rude, if not outright loony.
"Um, you're right. I've been... I probably need some sleep," Sara admitted. She had the urge to make up an excuse for her actions, but had a feeling it would only make matters worse, opting instead for an apologetic smile that ended up looking more like a scary grimace.
Relieved that his partner had seemingly come to her senses, Jake allowed Sara to escort him out. He had taken care of the medical paperwork while she had apparently been siccing hospital security on an alleged pervert and staring off into space while holding some plastic, cartoon Valkyrie necklace. "You okay to drive?" Jake asked as they headed for the police car. He wasn't sure about letting her behind the wheel after her antics, but because of his knee, he knew he couldn't operate it at all.
"Yeah, I can handle it," Sara assured him. Reprehensibly, she wished they had given Jake some painkillers or some other mind-numbing substance to delay the impending inquisition that she could not honestly answer. Admitting to her partner that an ancient amulet of great power had given her a vision of the deaths of two men who were entwined in her life for reasons she was unclear on, would have him suggesting she drive from one hospital to another. The other hospital being host to men offering jackets with straps and buckles.
After helping Jake into the passenger seat, Sara stalked to the driver's side. She could tell by her partner's studied silence that he was gearing up for the mother of all shake downs. The mental institute was beginning to look appealing.
******************
Once they were trapped inside the moving vehicle, Jake decided to begin the interrogation. "So, what's up with you kissing that guy?" he inquired, trying to sound casual.
"What?" Sara yelped in shock, involuntarily stomping on the gas and nearly rear-ending the car ahead of them. She expected him to grill her but not make things up. Oh god, had that pervert at the hospital been making out with her while she was unconscious? This thought made her so queasy and disgusted that she accidentally let her foot slip off the gas, nearly getting 'them' rear-ended.
Jake's heart had leapt from his stomach to his throat at the second near-accident and he was beginning to question his decision to let Sara drive. Despite the fact that his partner was using harsh scare tactics to avoid answering his questions, he was determined to push the subject. He knew the guy was a friend of hers but he wondered what was actually going on between the two and if he was somehow connected to the explosion. "The guy in your apartment, your friend. I saw you kiss him," he persisted and braced himself for a crash. Surprisingly, this statement seemed to calm her.
"Oh, Gabriel," Sara sighed, wondering where he was going with this line of questioning. "He's just a friend," she added, lest Jake get the wrong impression. Nottingham had certainly let his imagination run when it came to the guy. She didn't need Jake getting uppity as well.
Relieved at Sara's lack of retaliation, Jake pursued the subject. "You seemed pretty affectionate for just a friend. His last name's Bowman right?" he asserted. The guy's unusual first name would make the task easy. He was also curious about Mr. Bowman's seeming bodyguard, but decided to take the inquiry one step at a time.
Any feelings of shame she had for her previous behavior towards her partner flew out the window at Jake's obvious scheme. "You wanna run my friend just because I gave him a peck on the cheek?" Sara snapped. The idea of her partner trying to pick up dirt on Gabriel, who was in danger of being tortured and killed, made her furious. That she was stuck driving around quibbling with her ninnyhead partner instead of focusing on rescuing her friend only fueled her ire.
"No, I was just-" Jake started to evade, but his attention was suddenly gripped by the surrounding traffic as his partner escalated her driving threats.
"Just what, Jake?" Sara barked, daring him to admit his intentions.
"I'm just worried about you, Pez. I don't want you getting involved with the wrong crowd," Jake protested. Even as he said it, he knew it was the wrong thing to say. Luckily, they had arrived at the precinct and the hair-raising trip was over. Or so he thought.
Slamming on the brakes at her partner's presumptive statement, Sara nearly sent Jake through the windshield after he prematurely removed his seatbelt. "Wrong crowd?!" she huffed. "When in the hell did an artifact dealer become the wrong crowd?" Sara demanded.
"He's an artifact dealer?" Jake mused, rubbing his smarting forehead. (Rushing to get out of the car had not been a good call). He actually knew next to nothing about Gabriel, other than that he was a friend of Saras. "I'm just saying... If he's gotten you into some kind of trouble, I'd like to know about it," he clarified.
"If anything, it's the other way around," Sara stated. Her tone of finality brooked no dispute.
"What do you mean?" Jake queried. "We're the one's who nearly got blown to smithereens," he argued.
"Meaning someone is probably out to get me," Sara pointed out. "I doubt Gabriel has ever had any real enemies and since I'm a cop, I do," she stated errantly. Being the Wielder was the real problem, but being a cop fit the bill for the moment. "They could be going after him and I have no idea where he is," Sara complained.
"So why would anyone go after him?" Jake prodded. He still didn't have a clue as to why Sara seemed so protective of the guy. He also wondered why his partner seemed convinced that someone was out to get her.
"Gee Rookie, maybe because he's my best friend and unlike me, completely unarmed," Sara snarled. If she lost the last person she completely trusted, she didn't know what she's do. Sara was grateful that Nottingham had been assigned to protect Gabriel, but this was also the guy who had cut his throat... twice.
"Do you have any idea who's after you?" Jake inquired, a bit miffed that his partner didn't consider him her best friend but glad he was finally getting somewhere with his inquiry.
"I don't have any names, if that's what you're looking for. I only know that they seem to have enough info on me to send a fake call to you," Sara stated. She wished she could tell him more, but the little else that she knew would involve the Blade.
"Maybe you should stick with me. Just in case they try to pull something else," Jake offered. He still felt she was hiding something from him. Her certainty that she was the target and her immediate assumption that the Bowman guy was in danger didn't add up.
"No, Jake. I need to get some sleep, like you said. I can take care of myself," Sara stated, reaching into the back seat and handing Jake his cane. What she really needed was to contact Gabriel and Ian. Much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't imagine life without either one. Especially-
Realizing Sara was trying to get rid of him, Jake decided to bring up the object that seemed to trigger her frantic phone emergency. "What's the deal with that necklace you were holding?" Jake pried, hoping to get some kind of clue before his partner chucked him out of the car.
His query was met with an unexpected glare.
"It just doesn't seem your style, is all," Jake added, hoping his calculated, breezy tone would ease the tension.
"It was a gift," Sara stated evenly.
Noting his partner's partially bared teeth, he decided breezy fashion statements weren't going to do the trick. "Okay, fine," Jake muttered, carefully removing himself and his cane from the currently benign vehicle. As he hobbled into the precinct, he decided to see if he could find anything on Bowman before filing a report on the explosion.
"Somebody's cranky," Danny stated from the passenger seat Jake had just vacated.
Sara sighed and rested her forehead on the steering wheel. "Can you honestly blame me, Danny?" Sara rejoined tiredly. Danny's silence made her wonder if he had disappeared again. Turning her head slightly, she regarded his sympathetic expression with a mixture of relief and worry. "Are they- Why won't he answer?" she pleaded.
"Maybe he was busy," her spectral friend suggested. "It's hard to carry on a decent conversation if you're trying to avoid being shot at," Danny rationed.
"So they're safe?" Sara blurted anxiously. Sadly, Danny's noncommittal expression only seemed to revive her distress. "Dammit, Danny, can't you tell me anything?" she demanded.
"I'm a dead man, Sara, not a Ouji board," Danny answered solemnly. "But I can tell you they are not in my realm," he assured before negating Sara's sudden optimism by adding; "... yet, anyway." With that, the ghost blinked out of view, leaving a very distressed detective to her own devices.
.
****tbc
******************** denotes change of scenery
Tenebrous
chapter 26
****************************************************************
Gabriel was vaguely aware of being in the back seat of a vehicle. The small jolts reminded him of being driven down a dirt road on a childhood vacation, distorted in his dreams to a wide field of mown barley.
"Mom, slow down," Gabriel murmured, caught in the half world of dreams and reality.
"I am not your Mother," Ian retorted, embarrassed by the boy addressing him as such and insulted at the same time.
"The right, watch ou..." Gabriel sighed into the seat.
Nottingham instinctively glanced to the right, swerving the vehicle just in the nick of time to avoid a startled doe.
Ian did not bother contemplating the incongruity of Gabriel's warning being coincidental nor how someone delirious enough to call the formidable assassin 'mom', could sense the animal's approach with his face wedged in the crease of the back seat. The young man's semi coherent statements were often baffling.
Instead, he pondered the admissible implications regarding the trajectory of the sprinting deer. The doe had been running towards the noise of the vehicle, rather than away, meaning that it had been running from something else. The Sufult must be on the move.
Though he could neither see nor hear their vehicle over the din of his own automobile, he had concluded that the insidious saboteurs were coming down the road to his right. When his commandeered SUV left the rural terrain of the field and met a gravel path, Nottingham turned left, thankful that by luck his only safe exit also provided him with the advantage of gaining purchase to the highway before his pursuers.
****
Sara's jabs at the redial button had gone from frantic to hostile by the time Jake hobbled around the corner to where she'd fled. Nottingham's callous brush off, amidst her anxiety, was making her more furious with every tremulous moment of panic and fear. She had no way of knowing if Ian was shot or was not answering the phone on purpose, just to piss her off.
"Thanks for your concern," Sara snarled sarcastically at the phone, echoing Nottingham's ridiculous reply as she tested the button's tolerance for abuse.
"And yours," Jake quipped.
Sara looked up to find Jake standing in front of her. Judging by his expression and the tone of his comment, he was more than a little annoyed. Danny's sudden appearance somehow didn't help alleviate her discomfort. Standing beside Jake and eyeing her with a worried gaze, her ethereal friend pointed at Sara's impotent and defenseless cell phone.
"You might want to give that button a rest and tend to your partner," Danny advised, before leaving her to deal with the angry Rookie.
Sara cast her gaze to the floor in chagrin. Danny was on the mark as usual; Jake had every right to be ticked off. "How's your knee?" Sara queried guiltily, giving the redial button a reprieve as she pocketed her phone.
"A little banged up, but nothing serious," Jake replied cagily. Having gotten one full sentence out, he decided to try for another. "Doc says I shouldn't need the cane after a few days," he added optimistically. It wasn't really what he wanted to talk about, but at least she had let him finish his sentences.
'That's, ... good to hear," Sara replied cautiously, still not looking him in the eye. She knew he was dying to either interrogate or berate her. Not in the mood for either, she tried to keep the topic focused on his injury, hoping a little coddling would pacify him. "Let me get you home so you can get some rest. I'll take care of the paperwork on the explosion," Sara suggested, grabbing his shoulder and trying to hustle her partner to the nearest exit.
Resisting her impatient tugs, Jake turned to face his erratic partner. "I don't think that's a good idea, Pez," he admonished. "I think you're the one who should go home and get some rest. My knee won't effect getting paperwork done and at least I have a clear head," he asserted. The tone he used left no doubt as to what he thought about the state of her head.
Smarting from the verbal slap, Sara had to admit her conduct would appear far from sage. Acknowledging Jake with a look of horror and darting away to torment a phone with no one on the other end would seem a bit rude, if not outright loony.
"Um, you're right. I've been... I probably need some sleep," Sara admitted. She had the urge to make up an excuse for her actions, but had a feeling it would only make matters worse, opting instead for an apologetic smile that ended up looking more like a scary grimace.
Relieved that his partner had seemingly come to her senses, Jake allowed Sara to escort him out. He had taken care of the medical paperwork while she had apparently been siccing hospital security on an alleged pervert and staring off into space while holding some plastic, cartoon Valkyrie necklace. "You okay to drive?" Jake asked as they headed for the police car. He wasn't sure about letting her behind the wheel after her antics, but because of his knee, he knew he couldn't operate it at all.
"Yeah, I can handle it," Sara assured him. Reprehensibly, she wished they had given Jake some painkillers or some other mind-numbing substance to delay the impending inquisition that she could not honestly answer. Admitting to her partner that an ancient amulet of great power had given her a vision of the deaths of two men who were entwined in her life for reasons she was unclear on, would have him suggesting she drive from one hospital to another. The other hospital being host to men offering jackets with straps and buckles.
After helping Jake into the passenger seat, Sara stalked to the driver's side. She could tell by her partner's studied silence that he was gearing up for the mother of all shake downs. The mental institute was beginning to look appealing.
******************
Once they were trapped inside the moving vehicle, Jake decided to begin the interrogation. "So, what's up with you kissing that guy?" he inquired, trying to sound casual.
"What?" Sara yelped in shock, involuntarily stomping on the gas and nearly rear-ending the car ahead of them. She expected him to grill her but not make things up. Oh god, had that pervert at the hospital been making out with her while she was unconscious? This thought made her so queasy and disgusted that she accidentally let her foot slip off the gas, nearly getting 'them' rear-ended.
Jake's heart had leapt from his stomach to his throat at the second near-accident and he was beginning to question his decision to let Sara drive. Despite the fact that his partner was using harsh scare tactics to avoid answering his questions, he was determined to push the subject. He knew the guy was a friend of hers but he wondered what was actually going on between the two and if he was somehow connected to the explosion. "The guy in your apartment, your friend. I saw you kiss him," he persisted and braced himself for a crash. Surprisingly, this statement seemed to calm her.
"Oh, Gabriel," Sara sighed, wondering where he was going with this line of questioning. "He's just a friend," she added, lest Jake get the wrong impression. Nottingham had certainly let his imagination run when it came to the guy. She didn't need Jake getting uppity as well.
Relieved at Sara's lack of retaliation, Jake pursued the subject. "You seemed pretty affectionate for just a friend. His last name's Bowman right?" he asserted. The guy's unusual first name would make the task easy. He was also curious about Mr. Bowman's seeming bodyguard, but decided to take the inquiry one step at a time.
Any feelings of shame she had for her previous behavior towards her partner flew out the window at Jake's obvious scheme. "You wanna run my friend just because I gave him a peck on the cheek?" Sara snapped. The idea of her partner trying to pick up dirt on Gabriel, who was in danger of being tortured and killed, made her furious. That she was stuck driving around quibbling with her ninnyhead partner instead of focusing on rescuing her friend only fueled her ire.
"No, I was just-" Jake started to evade, but his attention was suddenly gripped by the surrounding traffic as his partner escalated her driving threats.
"Just what, Jake?" Sara barked, daring him to admit his intentions.
"I'm just worried about you, Pez. I don't want you getting involved with the wrong crowd," Jake protested. Even as he said it, he knew it was the wrong thing to say. Luckily, they had arrived at the precinct and the hair-raising trip was over. Or so he thought.
Slamming on the brakes at her partner's presumptive statement, Sara nearly sent Jake through the windshield after he prematurely removed his seatbelt. "Wrong crowd?!" she huffed. "When in the hell did an artifact dealer become the wrong crowd?" Sara demanded.
"He's an artifact dealer?" Jake mused, rubbing his smarting forehead. (Rushing to get out of the car had not been a good call). He actually knew next to nothing about Gabriel, other than that he was a friend of Saras. "I'm just saying... If he's gotten you into some kind of trouble, I'd like to know about it," he clarified.
"If anything, it's the other way around," Sara stated. Her tone of finality brooked no dispute.
"What do you mean?" Jake queried. "We're the one's who nearly got blown to smithereens," he argued.
"Meaning someone is probably out to get me," Sara pointed out. "I doubt Gabriel has ever had any real enemies and since I'm a cop, I do," she stated errantly. Being the Wielder was the real problem, but being a cop fit the bill for the moment. "They could be going after him and I have no idea where he is," Sara complained.
"So why would anyone go after him?" Jake prodded. He still didn't have a clue as to why Sara seemed so protective of the guy. He also wondered why his partner seemed convinced that someone was out to get her.
"Gee Rookie, maybe because he's my best friend and unlike me, completely unarmed," Sara snarled. If she lost the last person she completely trusted, she didn't know what she's do. Sara was grateful that Nottingham had been assigned to protect Gabriel, but this was also the guy who had cut his throat... twice.
"Do you have any idea who's after you?" Jake inquired, a bit miffed that his partner didn't consider him her best friend but glad he was finally getting somewhere with his inquiry.
"I don't have any names, if that's what you're looking for. I only know that they seem to have enough info on me to send a fake call to you," Sara stated. She wished she could tell him more, but the little else that she knew would involve the Blade.
"Maybe you should stick with me. Just in case they try to pull something else," Jake offered. He still felt she was hiding something from him. Her certainty that she was the target and her immediate assumption that the Bowman guy was in danger didn't add up.
"No, Jake. I need to get some sleep, like you said. I can take care of myself," Sara stated, reaching into the back seat and handing Jake his cane. What she really needed was to contact Gabriel and Ian. Much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't imagine life without either one. Especially-
Realizing Sara was trying to get rid of him, Jake decided to bring up the object that seemed to trigger her frantic phone emergency. "What's the deal with that necklace you were holding?" Jake pried, hoping to get some kind of clue before his partner chucked him out of the car.
His query was met with an unexpected glare.
"It just doesn't seem your style, is all," Jake added, hoping his calculated, breezy tone would ease the tension.
"It was a gift," Sara stated evenly.
Noting his partner's partially bared teeth, he decided breezy fashion statements weren't going to do the trick. "Okay, fine," Jake muttered, carefully removing himself and his cane from the currently benign vehicle. As he hobbled into the precinct, he decided to see if he could find anything on Bowman before filing a report on the explosion.
"Somebody's cranky," Danny stated from the passenger seat Jake had just vacated.
Sara sighed and rested her forehead on the steering wheel. "Can you honestly blame me, Danny?" Sara rejoined tiredly. Danny's silence made her wonder if he had disappeared again. Turning her head slightly, she regarded his sympathetic expression with a mixture of relief and worry. "Are they- Why won't he answer?" she pleaded.
"Maybe he was busy," her spectral friend suggested. "It's hard to carry on a decent conversation if you're trying to avoid being shot at," Danny rationed.
"So they're safe?" Sara blurted anxiously. Sadly, Danny's noncommittal expression only seemed to revive her distress. "Dammit, Danny, can't you tell me anything?" she demanded.
"I'm a dead man, Sara, not a Ouji board," Danny answered solemnly. "But I can tell you they are not in my realm," he assured before negating Sara's sudden optimism by adding; "... yet, anyway." With that, the ghost blinked out of view, leaving a very distressed detective to her own devices.
.
****tbc