Day and Night
Nineteen
Demona was FAIRLY certain she was dreaming. She was laying in a sunlit garden, and she could hear birds chirp in the background. Her skin was warm, and she could almost feel content there in the grass. In her gargoyle form she shouldn't have been able to see the sun, she should be stone or (ugh) human, but there she was.
And there was a foot tall, pink Goliath.
"What are you doing, laying about?" the pink, fuzzy figure demanded. "There are people to defend!" he declared.
Some part of Demona's sleep befuddled brain realized it was one of those damn plushies she had licensed. It looked MOSTLY Goliath-like, except pink and kind of cuddly. Honestly, she was looking forward to seeing how he reacted to it...
"So, how is your attempt to change working, hmm?" Goliath asked her tauntingly. "You had Sevarius' cyborgs try to murder you, Macbeth doesn't trust you, YOU don't trust Xanatos AND you ended up shot."
Faintly, in the distance Demona remembered confronting the kidnappers and the laser weapons blasting at her. Yes, there had been a deep cut in her wing, and in her side. She could feel the pain, but the dream (coma?) seemed to be keeping it at bay.
"You're in a healing coma," Goliath confirmed. "If you weren't enchanted, you'd just go into the stone sleep, but things don't work that way for you now." he noted. "Another gift from that damned imp, Puck," he growled.
"Do not taunt the lass," the small Hudson plushie noted as he waddled up in a cute, rolly polly kind of way. He, at least, was a furry blue puffball, not pink like Goliath, and had a plastic replica of his sword at his side.
"I will speak to her however I please," Goliath huffed.
"You're just a wee puppet man," Hudson laughed.
With a growl Goliath leaped on Hudson, in a cartoony cloud of dust and flying fists.
'My subconscious just totally ripped off Angel,' Demona realized, feeling amused.
"Demona? Demona..."
Demona frowned as the voice in the distance tugged at her. She wanted to just stay here and watch Hudson kick Goliath's ass.
"Demona... please wake up..."
'Alicia,' Demona realized. It was her assistant, Alicia. And... she sounded like she was crying? Why would she be sad? The concern began to pull Demona back to consciousness... as much as she didn't want to.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
For the first time in her life, Alicia was glad she had gotten the First Aid certification from her employer Nightstone Enterprises. She was also VERY thankful that she had a well stocked medicine cabinet at hand.
When Demona had collapsed on top of her, Alicia had dragged her inside from the balcony. She had also been faintly astonished at how light the gargoyle had been, considering her size and muscles. Adapted to gliding, she supposed. She managed to drag her over to the nearby couch, then ran for the bandages and such.
The wound on the wing Alicia had carefully closed with butterfly bandages. She really had NO idea how to treat the leather-like flesh, so she just closed it up carefully. The cut in Demona's side had been more frightening, but she pulled the wound shut, taped it, added a aborbent bandage then wrapped it up as gently as she could.
Alicia was relieved Demona didn't appear to be bleeding much, but she wasn't sure if that meant anything. She, obviously, knew nothing about Gargoyle physiology. At least she seemed to be resting soundly...
The sun rise had made Demona shudder visibly, and Alicia quickly pulled the curtains shut. The light, thankfully, didn't seem to otherwise bother her. Deciding it was safe to leave her alone, Alicia went over to where her phone was charging. She needed to call in and say she wasn't going to be in.
"Nightstone Enterprises, Human Resources Department, Jessica speaking," the voice answered the phone briskly.
"Jessica, it's Alicia Sevarius," she answered, "I'm taking a personal day."
Jessica Nicholes sniffed loudly. "You know we like staff to give three days notice," she reminded her stiffly.
Alicia did her best not to sigh aloud. The woman was infamous in the company for being a tight ass. "Something unexpected has come up," she looked over at the slumbering Demona and added honestly, "A friend is sick and I'm looking after her."
Jessica actually sounded sympathetic as she said, "I see. Do you think you'll be in tomorrow?"
"I think so," Alicia considered a moment, "if not, I'll leave a message tonight."
"Understood." Jessica answered, her fingers flying over her keyboard. She dropped her voice as if to reveal a secret, "Have you heard from Ms. Destine today?"
Alicia raised her eyebrows, "No. Is something wrong?"
"She hasn't been in, and she hasn't called," Jessica answered primly.
"She IS the boss," Alicia noted wryly, "she doesn't have to tell us if she is going in or not."
"She usually does," Jessica said.
"Except for that Paris jaunt. And the London trip," Alicia reminded her, "and the couple of days she just vanished a few months ago..."
Jessica laughed softly. "All right, all right," she conceded, "point taken."
"Anyway, thank you. I'll call again if anything else comes up," Alicia added.
"Thank you, I hope your friend gets better soon," Jessica said before hanging up.
Alicia put down the phone with a sigh. She felt a bit bad joking about how flighty Dominique could be... from what she could tell, the other woman really didn't like travelling much. It was just necessary at times. Thankfully she had a Xanatos Private jet that could self-pilot to programmed destinations...
"Ugh..." Demona groaned, twisting a bit on the couch.
Alicia hurried over, frowning as she saw her face scrunch up in... distaste, maybe? As she made another distressed sound she blurted, "Demona? Demona..."
Demona made another distressed sound, then snorted oddly.
"Demona... please wake up..." Alicia repeated, seeing what looked like slight movement under her eyelids. Was she waking?
Demona's eyes snapped open, for a moment glowing red.
"Eeep," Alicia literally hopped back.
Demona blinked a few times, her eyes going back to normal. She looked around in confusion then focused, "Alicia?"
"Demona," Alicia smiled back. "Are you feeling better?" she asked cautiously.
"Achey, but.. not bad," Demona conceded as she sat up. She looked at the bandage on her side then smiled at Alicia, "Thank you."
Alicia felt herself blushing, though she wasn't sure why. "You scared the hell out of me, falling on me like that," she noted.
Demona actually blushed faintly. "Sorry," she admitted. Her stomach suddenly growled. VERY loudly in the cozy living room.
Alicia blinked at the profoundly embarassed Demona, then burst into giggles. "Let me get you something to eat," she chuckled as she headed into the kitchen.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Tony Dracon didn't have THAT much trouble finding out who ordered the hit on him. The lady Gargoyle had left a survivor, and he and his men gave him a good going over.
(They also disposed of the bodies of the other assassins. It didn't help Tony to be caught up in something like that, and he knew his fellow crime lords were nearly untouchable. At least by any conventional authorities.)
"Mace Malone?" Tony blinked. "He's DEAD. Has been for years."
"New guy, taking the name," Luna offered, the attractive, white haired young woman having recently come working for him. Triplet sisters, weirdly enough.
"Or the original," Phoebe added. "There are some ODD rumors about him, in our neck of the woods." the blonde noted.
The three girls CLAIMED to know magic. Tony had his doubts on that. But they did appear to know things that came in handy, and had gotten his people out of tight spots.
"If it IS Mace, why go after me?" Tony wondered, frustrated.
"I suspect it's not personal," Selene offered coldly. "He wants to gain, or regain if it is the original, prestige and power. Eliminating you would do both." The dark haired woman shrugged slightly, clearly not caring much.
"Well, his goods failed," Tony paused, "So... what would he do next?"
They swiftly found out, as reports of two much more successful hits on middle operators in other parts of town came in. There clearly was a new antagonist in town, and Tony really didn't like what he was hearing.
"It's possible the multiple hits in one night are a coincidence," Selene offered mildly.
"And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you," Phoebe snarked.
As he listened to his advisors argue Tony sighed. He deffinately was bringing more bodyguards with him, from now on...
To be continued!
Notes: I was originally thinking of having Demona revert to Dominique at sunrise, but I decided that'd be a cheap way to reveal her secret. So instead she stayed in Gargoyle form to heal up.
A self flying plane is not that far off, technology wise. This is also a world where you can buy powered armor. So there's that. I wanted Demona to be able to travel, and a pilot would ask "Why are you shape changing every sunrise/sunset?"
YES that's the three weird sisters. Either they're there because of Oberon's orders (possible) or he exiled them for some reason (also possible). I needed Tony to have smart minions he could talk to, AND I wanted named characters.
Mace Malone is Illuminati connected, and I had Hacker, also Illuminati, in an earlier chapter. Coincidence, or am I just winging it? You decide!