Summary: A vision, an argument, and an unexplained realization.
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Kearm woke first. This was fairly unusual. As a general rule, it was Ivane who got up at the crack of dawn, heading out before the sunrise to… do whatever it was Ivane did. If they were short on food, he would often come back with exactly what they needed from a source he refused to disclose. If not, he would return around noon, ravenous and looking drawn and exhausted. Kearm strongly suspected he was picking fights and killing demons one by one, drawing on that mysterious well of energy that seemed to supply him with an inexhaustible drive to combat evil. More accurately, as Kearm had discovered soon after first meeting him, Ivane simply threw himself at an adversary, battering at their walls until either he or his opponent dropped. It was that drive that had first drawn Kearm towards him; Ivane was the first person he had ever known who believed in a larger purpose, even if he had a strange way of showing it. Laconic and intense had never been traits that Kearm had imagined for his best friend.
Ivane had started stirring. Kearm checked his watch. Five o'clock. What the hell was any sane person doing up at this time? But sure enough, Ivane quietly dressed and left the room, unaware of Kearm watching him from under half-closed eyelids. He simply placed his blanket over Nikki, who had snuck into their room again to sleep next to the demon, and disappeared.
True to Kearm's prediction, he came back through the door three hours later, just as they were all about to leave. Kearm was taking Nikki to the library across the city, in the part of New York that was still predominantly human – she insisted she could go alone, seeing as her I.Q. was nearly twice her height in centimeters, but even during the daytime it wasn't safe to wander around on one's own. Lilah was heading out the door on her way to her "job"; she was acting as an unofficial go-between for several demon clans who were still working out territorial rights among themselves with very little regard for human life. Someone with her knowledge of: a) demon law and b) coming up smelling like roses from tricky situations was in an ideal position to manipulate their various treaties into a promise of peace. Carlotta and Jenna were both on their way to a bit of reconnaissance before their planned attack on a small nest of Ethros demons the following day.
Ivane came up from the stairwell, wordlessly placed a plastic bag on the table, and stood there looking awkward. He didn't seem to know what to do with himself next. Lilah glanced over and gave a wry grin.
"Food?" she asked. Ivane nodded.
"Sorry. Remember the vampire from the housing project on Thursday?"
Ivane nodded again.
"The landlord came by with enough food to feed an army. Apparently every single tenant decided to show their thanks with either a Jell-O mold or a crumb cake."
"Or a pot-pie!" Nikki piped up from the door.
"Or a pot-pie. So, help yourself. We're set for about a week." Ivane looked mildly surprised, but didn't say anything. He was reaching for the bag when Jenna gave a yelp and clapped her hands to her eyes.
Carlotta caught her immediately, easing her down into the small room's single chair. All preparations for leaving were instantly postponed as Jenna jerked back and forth spasmodically, fingers curled around her head. Sharp gasps and grunts escaped from between her teeth, clenched shut like a vise.
"Come on, Jenny," Carlotta whispered. "Hang on just a second, it'll be over soon."
Jenna's visions were always a great deal worse than any of the ones Lilah had seen back at Wolfram and Hart. Perhaps this was because Jenna was completely human, and while the visions, being hereditary, would not kill her, they did manage to knock her off her feet nine times out of ten.
The Seer came back with a long, shuddering breath, blinking tears furiously out of her eyes and moving her head slowly back and forth to clear it.
"What did you see?" Ivane asked, standing behind her. It occurred to Nikki that, as far as they knew, those were the first words he had said all day.
"A… a door."
There was silence for several moments, broken, unsurprisingly, by Lilah.
"A door? Did it… what, kill people?"
"No, it… it just opened and closed… on its own. There was no one there."
"Ah. So it's an evil draft."
"Can you be serious?" Carlotta snapped.
"Can you lighten up? It's sarcasm, Slayer," came Lilah's rejoinder.
"Th-there was something else…"
All eyes were immediately back on Jenna.
"Things lifting off tables… three people talking… they thought they heard someone coming but there was no one there… and doors swinging open and shut, with no one there to do it."
"A ghost, maybe?" Kearm suggested.
"Could be," Nikki agreed. "Some kind of spirit."
"One of those wandering ghouls, like the one we heard about upstate."
"That would make sense. Is there a spirit… I don't know, one that gravitates toward doors?"
"Or portals! Like, gateways! A spirit trying to get somewhere."
"Oh, that would make sense too. Nikki, you'll need to-"
"You're wrong." Ivane's low, even voice cut through their conjectures. They turned to look at him in surprise.
"If the being was listening in on people's conversations, it probably wasn't a spirit. They tend to only be able to concentrate on one thing at a time, and often don't have the capacity of reasoning. Logically, the being would appear to be living, whether demon or human, and using some sort of spell to remain invisible."
Carlotta's lips tightened.
"An invisible man then," she said crisply. "Jenna, do we know if this guy's dangerous?" Jenna nodded as she answered.
"He's dangerous, yeah, but I'm not sure to who."
"Whom," Nikki interrupted. Jenna stared at her for a second, then shook herself and continued.
"Whom. Whatever. I could feel power on him, but I don't know who he's directing it at."
"To whom he's directing it." It was Nikki again.
"Whatever. All I know is he's been following someone, and this is the city he's been doing it in."
"The city in which he's been-"
"Nikki!"
"Sorry!"
"Do you have anything that could help us find him? And do we know for sure he's male?" Lilah asked.
"I don't know if it's a him, but I think he has been frequenting demon bars and hangouts."
"Gotcha. Okay, here's what we do. Kearm, you go check out known hellholes around Battery Park and make your way up to Chinatown and Soho," Carlotta ordered. "Don't rush it though; make sure you look into every corner. Lilah, take Nikki over to Sirk's place, I think he's got a lot of books on this sort of thing. Then I want you to check out your contacts, see what they know. Jenna and me-"
"Jenna and I."
"Nikki, please. We'll check out the Bowery and the Lower East Side."
"That's a lot of ground left uncovered," said Lilah doubtfully. "None of us will be any farther north than Union Square."
"I can take the Central Park area," Ivane offered. Jenna raised her eyebrows.
"The whole thing?"
"If Kearm can cover all of Chinatown and Soho. Including Battery Park, it's about the same size."
"But he'll be looking into demon bars and things, not knocking on every door. That's impossible."
"Besides which," Carlotta added, her voice growing cold as it always did when speaking to her Watcher. "Central Park is dangerous. You'll get killed, and that won't do us any good."
"I can handle it." Ivane's voice had gone quiet, his face set and unmoving.
"No you can't."
"Yes I can."
Nikki looked up at the two of them, studying their eyes. This was new. The Watcher never argued with the Slayer. Usually he would just go along with her plans. As far as the little girl knew, nothing had gone on between them to change their opinions of each other. What was he playing at?
"Whatever." Carlotta shrugged him off. "It'll be one less mouth to feed."
Lilah and Nikki exchanged glances as they left, wincing as they stepped into the bright sunlight that had followed the previous night's rain.
"Well, thank God we're out of there," Nikki muttered. "I hate it when they do that."
"When Carlotta does that, you mean," Lilah corrected her. "Ivane usually just sits there."
"So you noticed it too, huh?"
"Hey, I'm a lawyer. Recognizing power struggles is a specialty of mine."
Lilah led Nikki across a makeshift bridge that had been erected over the water-filled chasm that was once the subway lines, the city around them exuding an almost tangible air of decadence and decay. Nikki imagined this is what Rome must have looked like as the barbarian hordes pulled away; stripped of culture, light, safety… all that remained was life and its tenuous hold on the street corners where it had withered.
Sirk's home was dug into the side of a subway tunnel, inaccessible at high tide. How exactly the enigmatic Briton had carved this area out, he refused to say. Sixty-three and as dry and prickly as an old cactus, the only one of the group he could stand was Nikki – he had once let slip that she reminded him of his daughter. Lilah waited while Nikki climbed gingerly down the craggy slope to the cleverly-hidden hole. Only when Nikki passed the magical barrier and slipped inside were the protective markings surrounding the area visible for an instant.
The symbols were nothing Lilah recognized for sure, but they did remind her of something, and every time she saw them they tugged at her memory more insistently. One caught her eye in particular this time; it looked like a cross between an Egyptian ankh and the Soviet hammer and sickle.
"Damn," she whispered to herself. Damn, suddenly I have the feeling this is very important. Think, Lilah, damn you! Damn, damn, damn, where have I seen this before?
"Nikki!" she called, leaning over and cupping her hands around her mouth.
"Yeah?" Nikki poked her head out of the cave, making the symbols dance and glitter.
"Do you know what those symbols are?"
The little girl looked around bemusedly. One of the markings seemed to be bouncing repeatedly off her hand.
"Sure, they're um… they're a protection thing. Ancient uh… Enochian, I think. Real snazzy set-up. No one can see you, with magic or technology. Pretty well done too." She examined the rock more closely. "Very well done, actually. This is… wow. How come?"
"Nothing." Lilah waved the question aside. "No reason. Get in touch with someone before you come back. We don't want you disappearing on the streets of New York."
"You got it!" Nikki disappeared again, and Lilah turned back.
Let's see, she mused. I think Harry's place is closest to here… or maybe I should go to Maya's first, she's the most likely to know-
"Damn!" She yelled it out loud again, cutting her own train of thought in half. Enochian! Dammit!
There will be more, never fear! A flashback and an invisible man for the next chapter, if anyone's interested. PLEASE REVIEW!