The storm clouds that had rolled in overnight made their presence known with bright flashes of light and cracks of thunder that were too close for comfort. The sky was an inky black Laddie knew all too well, bottling his fear into the pit of his stomach and making it ache in a dull pulse that fell in sync with the ever-slowing beat of his heart. It hadn't started to rain yet.

"Laddie."

His head snapped up instantly from the book he had tried to drown his fears in and cast a look around the room slowly. The Boys were there, strewn about and engrossed in their own things. Seemed no one else had heard it.

"Laddie."

Knuckles slowly began to turn white as his grip against the hardcover had begun to leave imprints of his small fingers. Brown eyes trained in on David who was currently jotting a few things down in a worn and tattered journal he had had since God only knows. -God, ha! He had no place in their lives. No say.-

Eyes darted to Paul and his current drumming against his thighs, eyes closed as his head bopped along to the song that was playing on the boom box that was being relayed to his ears by the headphones he had recently "borrowed" from a victim. -Waste not, want not.-

Dwayne was reclined against the fountain with his sketchbook propped up on his knee. Pencil strokes filled the air with light scratches of lead against paper as his face registered no emotion of if he was succeeding at what he was drawing or struggling to make something out of what he had already. No one ever knew what he was drawing nor did he ever share what he filled the pages of the book with. Maybe there were things he dreamed of, memories he so fondly cared for and didn't want to share with the others in thinking that he regretted the night he accepted David's invitation.

Marko was flipping idly through the fifteenth magazine he had claimed in the past four hours. His eyes roamed over the words but he was in it for the pictures as it was known that he was a sucker for bright colors.

Star was nowhere in sight.

"Laddie. Laddie. Laddie. Laddie. Laddie. Laddie..."

"WHAT!" He finally screamed out as he hurtled the book clear across the room with a strength he was never aware of. "Leave me alone!" Every Boy looked up immediately, including Paul who had heard the boy's scream over the deafening, wailing sound of guitars.

Marko was the first one up and at his side and was surprised when the boy shrugged off his hand that had come to rest on his shoulder reassuringly. What happened next was nothing but a burst of movement from the three other Boys.

"LADDIE!"

"Make it stop!" He clamped his hands over his ears as David moved right in front of him to shield him from what it was he couldn't see, although the last name calling he had heard he narrowed his eyes, unsure of where it had come from. Dwayne followed suit and stood behind the boy with his back to him and Marko and Paul took their places and completed the circle in silence. There was movement and the sound alone made the hairs along the back of Paul's neck stand on end.

"Don't move." When David spoke his voice didn't seem his own. Detached.

At that exact moment Marko's attention had been pulled upwards and what he saw was not something he wanted to have engraved in his mind. They were crawling along the stalactites and perching along their tips. After a moment his mind spit out the word "frog" but they were nothing like them aside from the way they crouched with their arms between their parted legs.

"Show yourself." Again came the voice that was David's but then nothing like it.

In response there were hisses that snaked past cracked and damaged lips and the flutter of wings as the things adorning the ceiling of their home began to drop down around them. Laddie looked up to see what had happened but found Dwayne's hand covering his eyes.

"Don't look."

The creatures hissed again and the Boys realized that they were laughing as they began to circle around them. The creatures, crouching and hunched over, were a good four feet in height (with at least another four added for the papery wings attached to their shoulders) and their skin was a shade of green that one would associate with sickness as puss ran from the boils that covered their skin. They were some ugly motherfuckers.

"We will trade you the girl for-" A spindly finger was extended to motion to Laddie. "-him." As the apparent leader spoke a few more of the creatures dropped from the ceiling with Star in their possession. The look on the girl's face was more than David could bear but he knew the consequences of giving Laddie up as what Manny had told them now held true.

"No." His voice remained steady although his jaw tightened as he watched as one of the creatures holding onto Star let his finger "slip" to let the tip of his nail nick at the skin of her chest that rose and fell in quick breaths of panic.

When their leader spoke again it was in a sing-song voice. "I would reconsider..."

"No."

A few more shallow cuts joined the first and the creature causing them passed his sickly yellow tongue across her skin to lap up the precious liquid he had freed. "We will be sure to enjoy her company."

A familiar hand wrapped around the speaker's throat and the nails that bit into the skin were ones David had already met. The creature stiffened, the nail he had been using to cut across Star's flawless skin was left to rest against her chest as he didn't dare move as the hand tightened in silent threat and he croaked out his leader's name. "Boru."

There was the signature crack of a breaking neck and the dull thump of a body hitting the floor that gained everyone's attention to the recently appeared demon standing before Star in a nonchalant stance that was further enhanced by the way she tucked her hands into the front pockets of her slacks. "Is there a problem?"

Boru was the last of his kind to turn and face the newcomer, a sneer slashing his lips in an unflattering look that didn't help his already hideous features. Wings expanded to their full length in a threatening manner as the demon approached, the creatures in her wake hissing as she passed with Star at her heels- for whom David reached for once she was close enough and pulled her into the circle.

"You have no say over this."

"I would say I was sorry to disappoint you but then I'd be lying." Manny arched a brow at him in silent question at his apparent scorn for her intrusion. One hand was released from her pocket and the action in itself was so much that they Boys watched as the creatures surrounding them flinched as she motioned around her, she on the other hand seemed not to notice. "Gather up your boys and go."

There was a hiss of laughter as Boru let his wings retract and rest against his diseased back before shaking the same spindly finger he had motioned with earlier at Manny. "Oh, oh, oh! I know that look! I know that look, demoness. Oh..." The creatures around her began to hiss with excitement as the leader's words had sparked a knowing thought lingering in their minds.

As the creatures began to crowd around Manny David began to take a step back, the rest of the pack followed his lead although they didn't turn their backs to what it was going on before them. Star quickly kneeled next to Laddie, who still had his hands over his ears and his eyes squinted shut even though Dwayne had pulled his hand away long before.

"Laddie, are you ok? Look at me."

Star's voice had broken through the mental block he had put up to keep out the hissing of the things he didn't want to look at or see every time he closed his eyes there after. He had heeded Dwayne's words and kept his eyes shut. "I don't want to look. Don't make me look."

"Oh, the demoness has grown attached!" Boru clapped his clammy hands together in elation before pointing at her again as the hissing escalated into a frenzy the Boys couldn't help but wince at. The sound was almost as bad as nails against a chalkboard. "Oh, oh, o-"

With a tired look Manny reached out to take the creature by it's neck, the viscous fluid from the boils pouring over her hand as she pulled him close to her to ensure that he understood her well and when she spoke her voice was dark and every word was lined with razors and promises of dismemberment, "Tell Verrine that patience is a virtue." Fingers tightened as she jerked him closer still. "And if I ever- EVER -find you here or hear of your presence within miles of this boy I will do things much worse than your master has promised."

Boru struggled against her grip and the rest of the creatures stood stock still and at the ready to jump at her at their leader's command but there was no flicker of an eyelash or a croaked command. Upon being released the creature skittered away from her as quickly as possible as the others followed suit and disappeared from sight.

"Everybody good?" She turned to find the group was staring right back at her in silence and she nodded with a smile. "I'll take that as a yes."

The next hour had been spent with Manny explaining the way of things. Explaining that more creatures would be coming and ones uglier than the ones they had had the pleasure of meeting, that with the abnormal was going to come the "normal" and they were going to have to get used to distinguishing the characteristics of those with hidden agendas. It was only after having another hour long conversation, that consisted more along yelling on Star's behalf than her own, that Manny had to rein the thoughts of dismembering the girl slowly in front of her pack before David pulled the girl from the demon's sight.

Star had begun to pace back and forth, her arms wrapped around herself as the strong gusts of wind coming up from the sea whipped her hair into her face everytime she made her way back to David. "I don't trust her, David. I don't trust a single thing she says."

He took a deep, unneeded breath and closed his eyes as he let said breath out roughly to show this was not improving his already bad mood. "We don't have much of a choice."

"Like hell we don't!" Every added step in her pacing led her further and further away from David. "Send her away. We've never needed anyone before, why do we need someone now? And her of all people? This doesn't feel right."

A gloved hand came up to rub at his pale forehead, the leather standing out in stark comparison against his skin as his fingers kneaded at the spot between his brows. "If anyone can send her away it's Laddie. He's the one that called her." As his hand fell away he looked up catch her eyes, reading everything she was feeling in that instant.

Star had stopped her pacing a few feet away and motioned to the opening of their home with an outstretched hand. "How can all of you just automatically trust her? She's a demon, David, how do you know she's not playing us?"

"That's the thing, Star, I don't. I don't know half of what it is going on yet. I just know that some ugly ass things had their hands all over you and I didn't know how to take them." He let his guard down for that moment. "Humans I can handle. I was human at one point in time, it's easy. But demons? Ugly frog looking things? No. If anything we stick with her and learn what we have to."

She let her hand drop back to her side with defeated huff of breath as she turned her head away from the approaching blonde. "And if she betrays us in the meantime?"

Gloved fingers ran over smooth skin he wished he could allow himself to touch and bask in as he stepped in close and drew her into the artificial warmth of his coat. Cool lips pressed a kiss against her forehead before he answered in a soft voice. "If what that creature, Boru, said is true she won't. If she's grown attached- in whatever way that means- she won't."

Star let herself be held and nodded in silence as she rested her head against David's shoulder, keeping the rest of her fears to herself.

--
"Are you here to look after me?"

Manny's attention was on no one else but Laddie as the rest of the pack and Star were nothing but fleeting memories at the moment, hanging back and watching the interaction. To her it was as if they weren't even there- it was just her and Laddie.

She was kneeled down before him as he sat on the couch with his head bowed to hide the fact that fear was still coursing through them after the encounter. And to think that it was only the beginning.

"You tell me, little man." Her tone was light and joking, making the boy look up with a small smile as his hair hid his eyes. Carefully she pushed his hair from his eyes and heard as Star gasped at her nails coming so close to the young boy's skin. "Look at me and listen closely."

Laddie looked up as he kept his hands in his lap, silent and waiting. Eager.

"You are not a child. You know this, you feel it. Even if you really were a kid it wouldn't stop what is happening now. People and demons alike are coming for you and I need for you to stop hiding behind the Boys." She felt David take a step forward and she held up a hand to stop whatever it was he was going to do or say. "The only way you're going to get through it is to face it. You can't hide from this."

David had been stopped but not Star, who was about to brush past him until she felt an unfamiliar grip wrap around her upper arm. Dwayne.

"What are you doing!" The whisper was harsh on her lips as she spat it out.

He pulled her close although his whisper would have reached her ears regardless of their distance. "Stop." The single word made the woman cease her struggling in his unrelenting grip. "She's doing what she should have done from the beginning." His eyes flitted away from Star and to the back of Manny's head as Star's gaze did the same. "She's letting him grow up."

Outside, it had begun to pour.

Author's Notes: This chapter is meant to go by fast. So if it comes off rushed, it's because I wanted it that way. And trust me, there was nothing rushed about writing this part- It took me forever to get down.