Chapter 2: The Search
Raven's room was almost completely dark. Beast Boy had snuck in looking for the book of the dead that Gregory insisted she had hidden in her room. He glanced around as his heart raced. If she found out he was in her room things would really hit the fan.
"Damn, there must be a thousand books in here," he softly whispered to himself. The less time he spent in Raven's room the better. He held his breath as he heard Raven sigh in her sleep then gently roll over in her bed.
Beast Boy began to sweat; how the hell was he going to find this book. He morphed into a blood hound and began sampling the air. He couldn't see anything anyway; maybe there was some peculiar scent to the book he was looking for.
Bingo, he thought. Beast Boy caught the hint of a horrible stench from one of the corners of the room. He tracked it to one of Raven's book shelves tucked away in the corner. Beast Boy morphed back and tried to silently remove the books from the shelf seeking the book Gregory had described. After several minutes he extracted a book with an unusual texture. He put the book down then morphed back into a blood hound to take a quick whiff. Oh yea, that was it. He returned to his human form and stood up trying to make out the features of the book in the dim light of Raven's room.
As he turned the book over to inspect the other side it was pulled violently from his hand. Beast Boy squinted in the dark and noticed a figure sitting on the end of the bed. The lights suddenly flickered to life.
Raven sat on the end of her bed with the book clutched in one of her hands. She was dressed in a black sweater and gray sweat pants. She looked harshly at Beast Boy.
"Um, hey Raven," Beast Boy waved and let out a nervous laugh.
"What are you doing in my room Beast Boy," she said in a stern voice.
"Ah, sleep walking?" he lamely offered.
"Huh," she replied. "Doing some light reading too?"
Beast Boy smiled and reached behind his head and scratched the back of his neck nervously. Raven turned her attention to the book, flipped it open and casually leafed through the pages.
"Since when do you have an interest in the dead?" she questioned. Beast Boy returned a blank stare.
Raven closed the book and laid it on her bed. She crossed her legs and folded her arms across her chest fixing an icy stare on her colleague.
"Have a seat." A chair flew over and landed next to Beast Boy.
"I'd rather stand," Beast Boy mildly protested.
"Oh, I insist." Raven's cape flew over and quickly wrapped tightly around Beast Boy then roughly deposited him onto the chair.
"There, isn't that better? OK, let's try this again. What are you doing in my room," she sternly asked. Beast Boy gulped hard but refused to answer her question.
"Taking the fifth, huh?" she coldly replied. Beast Boy shot a confused look at her.
"All right we'll do this the hard way." Raven's cape constricted causing Beast Boy to grunt heavily.
"Ahh, OK I'll talk," Beast Boy struggled as Raven's cape constricted even tighter.
"I'm glad you've changed your mind," Raven replied as she loosened the grip of her cape around her entangled friend.
"I meet this kid tonight. He sent me a letter asking me to meet him," Beast Boy quickly explained. "I went to the address. He knew all about me, and about what happened to my parents."
Raven looked puzzled. Beast Boy had never mentioned his parents to any of the other Titans.
Beast Boy paused for a second then looked down uncomfortably. "He knew they were dead." Raven was dumbfounded.
"He did something with an old photo. I saw them Raven, I saw my parents," Beast Boy continued. "He used some kind of spell, said he was a necromancer, a speaker with the dead."
Raven's mind raced through all she knew of that long abolished art. There hadn't been any necromancers in ages.
"He said you had a book that could help him contact the dead. I couldn't help myself, I had to help him," Beast Boy looked up with pleading eyes.
"Beast Boy, there are no necromancers left. They've been extinct for centuries; banished from this realm," she explained. "It was just a trick, you can't contact the dead."
"No," Beast Boy screamed. "I felt them, they were there!"
Raven glared at her bound companion. Beast Boy returned her stare as his chest heaved outward from under her cape. Raven's eyes narrowed. "Take me to him," she demanded.
Beast Boy looked down in defiance. Raven's cape tightened once again. Beast Boy yelped in pain.
"OK, OK, I'll take you," Beast Boy struggled to get his words out. "But you can't hurt him."
"Beat Boy he tricked you. He's a liar," Raven countered.
"Promise me," Beast Boy locked eyes with her again. Raven's cape constricted further. Beast Boy groaned in agony but refused to yield. Raven loosened her grip when she saw Beast Boy's face start to turn blue. Beast Boy leaned forward and drew several strained breaths. "Promise me you won't attack him," Beast Boy insisted as he struggle to regain his breath.
"I promise," Raven reluctantly replied. Raven's cape loosened around Beast Boy's torso as her hood flapped over his face obscuring his view.
"Hey what gives?" Beast Boy called out in confusion.
"I need to change," Raven replied as she pulled her night cloths off and tossed them on her bed. Beast Boy heard light footsteps cross the room followed by silence. The toilet flushed and foot steps reentered the room. There was a slide of the closet door then the soft scraping sound of cloth against skin. Raven's cape unwrapped from Beast Boy then flew over to Raven's hand. She shot Beast Boy a sleek smile as she pulled it over her shoulders.
"Hey, it's a bitch getting this thing off to go the bathroom," she replied to Beast Boy's smirk. "Let's go."