Chapter 17

- Lisa -

A few minutes after tucking Taylor under her bed for the morning, Aisha came back out to the living room with a confused look on her face. Clearly distracted, she tripped over a dog toy and sprawled-

What was I doing? Right, looking into that company we hit for Coil.

I looked up at the sound of knocking and spotted Aisha standing in front of Rachel's door. "Hey, Rachel?"

A moment later, the door opened halfway, a sleepy looking Rachel glaring at Aisha. "What?"

"Do wolves shed?"

"Dunno." Rachel's glare faltered."Never had one."

"Oh."

Rachel seemed to think about it for a moment. "Probably."

"Okay. Thanks."

"Whatever."

Rachel shut her door as Aisha wandered slowly over towards the couch, peering over the back of it towards Brian. "Hmmm... I dunno. You already get hair everywhere when you shave."

Brian stirred slightly on the couch at that, still half asleep. "Wha-ungh." He half asked, half croaked staring at his sister who just stared back at him thoughtful look on her face before coming over and plopping down in the chair next to me.

"So…" she began, looking at me. "...Taylor says she can fix Brian."

"That's..." I had to reach over and stop Brian from trying to sit up before he hurt himself. "-good isn't it?"

"Maybe." Aisha frowned. Brian and I glanced at each other in concern. She had a point, our roommate in question was... completely bonkers. If whatever she proposed had managed to make even Aisha worry- "Haven't decided if I want a werewolf brother yet."

"...What?"

Aisha shrugs. "She said she needed a full moon."

"Did she tell you anything else?" I asked.

"Nah, just 'the next full moon' and then she passed out," Aisha said. "I think she's gonna turn Brian into a werewolf."

"She'd better not," Brian spoke up from the couch.

"Even her crazy has to have its limits," I pointed out. "Besides, how do you get from vampire to werewolf?"

"Ah, hello?" Aisha raised an eyebrow. "Full moon?"

"Doesn't prove anything. Though…" I looked at the nearby calendar. "It's next Wednesday. Not like he's healing fully before then on his own. What do you think, Brian?" I asked him. "Do we take her up on it?"

"...Let's at least see what she's up to."

"That's right!" Aisha cheered. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Brian gave her a very unimpressed glare.

"I don't know, but we'll find out. Now, you're supposed to be going to school, Aisha. Move it."

"Awww, but someone has to take care of you!" she pouted.

"Aisha, I am not in the mood for this. Go. Now!"

After she left, I smiled at Brian.

"You know," I drawled, "wolves are associated with family loyalty, and the hostility between werewolves and vampires is mostly a modern invention…" I ignored his glare, and went on, "in fact, medieval folklore had it that a werewolf whose corpse was not properly disposed of—"

"Lisa."

"—would rise as a vampire, and as the daughter of an English professor, she might know that bit."

"Lisa!"

"Brian, please, you need to rest. Stress is bad for your recovery!"

He glared at me some more, then slammed his head against the pillow.

Brian was beside himself in anger after finding out about Aisha's trigger, that much was clear even without wasting my power. He managed to pretend to keep it hidden until Aisha and Taylor went to their room to… start planning the greatest prank spree in the Bay's history, as far as I could tell.

"They will pay for this," he spoke once it was just the two of us in the room, Rachel and Alec having retired to their own rooms as well.

"What are you planning to do?" I asked him. "It's not like we can go out and shout how the Empire went after your sister. If nothing else, this will be as good as unmasking yourself, and her, to them if they do even a little digging."

"Then we don't declare it," he grunted. "We simply make the Empire bleed."

Angry at the Empire. Really!? You don't say, Power? Tell me something I didn't know the moment I spotted Aisha's bruises. Trigger related. Failing to protect Aisha reminds him of- I cut that line of reasoning off. I didn't need details to know how trigger events stick with you.

Oh, come on. I sighed quietly to myself as I wondered briefly what I'd do if I had a suicidal person dropped in my lap. Probably something very dumb. Not talking him out of this, am I?

"We can't drag the rest of the team into this," I pointed out. Even if he wouldn't change his mind about this, I had to at least defuse as many landmines on the way as I could.

"Alec doesn't care anyway. Rachel… well, do you really think she'd object to kicking Nazis around, maybe breaking up a dogfighting ring or two while we're at it?"

"...Fair enough. I'll have to discuss this with the boss, I guess? It is a big decision, after all."

Not that I wanted Coil involved at all, but I was keenly aware what would happen if he ever thought I'm enjoying my freedom too much.

I looked out the window while the dial tone beeped in my ear. He eventually picked up.

"Tattletale. I trust this is important."

Translation: I'm still a bastard, thanks for checking.

"Grue's sister was attacked by Empire thugs earlier today," I said. I wondered for a moment if I should reveal Aisha having powers to him. If she was anything but a Stranger, I'd pretty much have to if she was going to work with us, but if I played my cards right…

My moment's hesitation resulted in the phone being snatched out of my hands.

"The Black Knight sallies forth to smash the Pale Windmill!" Taylor shouted into the receiver, then handed the phone back to me.

"Uh, sorry about that," I lied. "As my eccentric friend said, he's planning to go on the warpath once the wound he got from Shadow Stalker is healed, if I don't manage to talk him out of it. Just thought you should know."

Coil was silent for a suspiciously long time. Not thinking about what I said. Thinking about Taylor.

"I see," he finally said. "Do what you think is necessary, but be careful - the help I can offer in this is limited."

Translation: I don't give a shit about you or your team, but try not to get killed before I can toss you into a basement.

"Fine," I said and hung up. Then I turned to look at a completely unapologetic Taylor smiling at me.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Taylor, you can't keep stealing my phone in the middle of a conversation! Or at all, but especially then!"

Taylor tilted her head. "I do not see how selfcestuous zombies fornicating has bearing on The Twined Snake's game, but a hard fought victory should see his mood improved, no? Ah! Forgive my slowed wits, I do indeed see!" She nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, fornication does often occur in the celebrations of such events alongside prayers offered to ceilings."

I just facepalmed, then turned back to Brian. If we were going to do this anyway, I'd have to bring it up eventually…

"Looks like we're in for it, then," I said casually. "Now, while we're planning, it would be nice to have a Stranger do the scouting…"

Against all odds, the next week passed without any disasters, which was especially lucky if you accounted for Aisha stubbornly spending her afternoons scouting Empire territory, to Brian's great displeasure when he found out. With the exception of her and Alec taking the werewolf joke and running with it far past the point where it was still funny. At least Aisha was genuinely concerned, as much as she tried to hide it. With Taylor's… eccentricity on top of that combined with refusal to reveal her plan for fear of 'spooking the fates,' beyond that it would be better to not bring Rachel with us - which didn't help with the werewolf jokes at all - hearing her stir in her room tonight was best described as ominous.

"You still sure about this?" I asked Brian. He just shook his head.

"No," he simply said. "But I'm doing it anyway."

Taylor opened her door and walked in, a constant reminder that vampire movies pointedly ignored the fact that sleeping through the entire day resulted in a horrible case of bedhead. Even if she slept under the bed in question.

"Evening's greetings, Honored Thieves," she smiled. "I see you are ready to quest for the cure?"

"Now would be as good a time as any to actually tell us what you're up to," I pointed out. "Since, you know, you haven't actually told us what we're supposed to get ready for."

"We're off to see The Good Doctor, of course!" she answered if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Her expression suddenly turned thoughtful. "Oh, but first we must dress to impress! Perhaps The Fox might lend her expertise in crafting us false faces by way of subtle trickery and drama? We do not wish to invite recognition upon ourselves or our home."

"So… disguises, not masks. Sure, can do, but—" I looked at her pointedly, "it would be a lot easier to do well if it wasn't on such short notice."

The comment didn't seem to faze her in the slightest, and I went to retrieve my disguise kit. I came back to Aisha teasing Brian about how he'll have to wear makeup for disguise too.

"No, he won't," I interrupted. "If only because I don't have anything that suits dark skin."

"Really?" Aisha rolled her eyes, pulling open a trash bag on the floor next to her. "Cause I'm thinking CVS's makeup aisle has to have had something that'll work."

"You…" I blinked, staring at the literal trash bag full of makeup. "You stole a store's entire makeup display?"

"Yup!" Aisha cheered, taking a bow. "Cassandra here wasn't really clear on what we'd need, but she seemed to think it was important."

"O… kay..." I said, then pulled the bag over and started looking through it. "Is there any particular look you were expecting to need all this for?" I asked as Taylor sat down in front of me.

"Make me look pretty?" she asked, sounding doubtful. Staring at her as I was, I caught the slight hunch of her shoulders and the mumbled, "For surely then none could claim to recognize me for me."

That did not sound like she meant her powers-granted look. I examined her features. Her new skin tone would be popular in the goth circles, sure, but she was plain at worst. Issues from before her— I can think about that later. Rummaging through Aisha's bag of looted supplies, as I didn't have anything for skin that pale myself, I disguised her as best as I could - not that I was sure of the point - before taking care of myself. Never really considered how glad I am I can actually use mirrors for this…

"Alright!" I tapped my chin in thought as I glanced from Brian to the bag. "Now for the hard part."

A few minutes later, I gave up and waved Aisha over from where she was finishing her own makeup. Fortunately, judging by the lack of holes in her pants, she had grasped the idea of going for a completely different look than usual. "I think I might need your help with this."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Even with all this, I'm not as familiar with the stuff that'll work well on dark skin. Not sure how we're going to disguise his muscles either, they're not 'identifying' but they do make him stand out."

"Oooooh..." Aisha snickered. "So that's what you meant by 'hard part', I gotcha. Sorry, Tits, pretty sure I can't help you with that."

Not even bothering to respond to that, I just glared at Alec who gave me a jaunty wave before returning to putting in a pair of colored contacts.

Working together, Aisha and I managed to do a passable job of making Brian look slightly less like Brian before his patience wore thin. All done, or as done as we'd ever get anyway, we got in the van. Taylor tried to jump into the driver's seat, but I stopped her.

"No. No way. I'm driving, you give directions," I said, pointing at the passenger seat.

Taylor's attempt at puppy eyes was severely undermined by the faintest glimmer of orange within.

"You're fifteen. Have you even driven a car before? Ever?"

"But I shall be fifteen for many more years! Surely there are exceptions?"

"Sorry, you'll have to be fifteen until you're sixteen." I gave her an unamused look. "Get in."

After a few seconds, she relented and got in the seat.

"Oh, and let's not play riddles, okay? Just point."

We rode off into the city, following the crazy vampire's directions.