Author's note: Trigger warning here, just in case. Violence, death threats, threats of sexual violence, possible sexual assault.

"Sit."

I pulled out one of the Windsor chairs arranged around Anna's table and sat. Once in a seated position, it took all my strength not to slump over onto the table and fall asleep. Whatever I'd conjured to stop the wendigo in the storage lot had bled the last of my energy reserves dry. Sleep or food would help, but I clearly couldn't afford either at the moment. So I sat, keeping myself awake out of sheer, unadulterated contrariness. This day could not get shittier. I refused to believe even my luck was that bad.

"Do not push me after the day I've had, Torelli," I said in a quiet, even whisper. It should have been his first clue that I was not in the mood to play games with him. Usually, I could summon scorn or sarcasm to inject into my tone, just for him. The fact I didn't have it to give should have scared him. I'd faced scarier than him today. I'd smash him flat if I had to.

In response Torelli tugged Anna even closer, shoving the barrel of his gun so close to her temple that it actually left an imprint. Anna went ashy pale beneath the naturally bronzed cast of her skin. Her frightened whimper sparked a small, furious fire in me. If he hurt her, I'd make sure he didn't leave this apartment alive. I'd just made deep-fried monster ten minutes ago. I could wipe the floor with one mid-level thug with more greed than sense.

"I make the demands here, Carpenter, not you. And I wouldn't take that tone with me while I got your friend like this."

"I've," I ground out.

"Pardon?"

"It's while I've got your friend like this, you fucking philistine. If you'd cracked a grammar book sometime in grade school maybe you'd have ended up as something besides middle-management for a morally bankrupt asshole."

I clamped my jaw shut, snapping off the end of my planned tirade when Torelli's face purpled.

Yeah, really brilliant, Molly. Antagonize the man with the gun. Who do you think you are, Harry? Harry wouldn't have been stupid enough to land himself in this mess.

I didn't even have tools to assist in this sort of situation. My experimental shields had been shaky at best, even with Lash's instruction and I didn't think I could count on her help again tonight without conceding ground. I'd managed to really piss her off in the storage unit. If Anna and I survived this, I was going to start buying or constructing gear.

"Talk to me like that again, Carpenter, see what happens," Torelli barked, shaking Anna Ash violently. She yelped in fright as the gun knocked against the side of her head.

"Just let her go," I pleaded, the fury fading away, replaced with a pathetic desire to cry. I was exhausted, scared, and it was easier to count the parts of me that didn't hurt.

"I don't think so."

"You've got a problem with me, not with her, Torelli. Let's just go someplace. We can talk about this."

"Catherine, what's going on?" Anna whispered. "Who is this man? What's he talking about?"

A smirk crept onto Torelli's face. "Lying to your friends too? Maybe it's time they learned the truth."

"Don't," I pleaded again. Everything I'd built was draining away over the course of hours. My new home, my friends, the fragile peace that I'd managed to eke out in this insanity. Anna and the ladies of the Ordo were never going to forgive me for this.

Torelli ignored me and smoothed one hand over Anna Ash's hair, leaning in to stage-whisper into her ear. "Let me introduce you two all proper like. Miss Ash, your roommate's real name is Margaret Carpenter. Goes by Molly. She's a fifteen-year-old runaway who's got more magic than sense and she works for me, runnin' drugs across state lines."

"After you blackmailed me, you bastard," I snapped, hands forming claws around the underside of my chair. I gripped it for all I was worth so I wouldn't launch myself at the slimy thug. I was sure that would be a death sentence for Anna. "You know I can't go home."

Torelli ignored me.

"See, Molly here had a great gig. I gave her a percentage, a new identity, and a vehicle. And how does she repay me?" His eyes cut back to me and went flat with dislike. "She tries to bail. Not only that, she goes and squeals to the cops."

"I didn't-"

Torelli got a fistful of Anna's hair and yanked it so hard she let out a breathless shriek. I fell silent.

"Don't you lie to me, Carpenter!" Torelli roared. "Huber was there. He saw you talkin' to a Detective Dobbs. He called me to inform on you."

The wood beneath my hands creaked as I clutched it, expelling all the rage that wasn't safe to lob at Torelli and the absent Mr. Huber. Huber. Of course it had been Huber. I should have known he'd have a backup in case I escaped. There was no way he could let me report back to the most capable wizard in Chicago. I had to die one way or the other. A bullet was just as effective as claws and teeth. Given the choice between them, I'd choose the former every time.

But I wasn't done. I wasn't going to lay down and let thuggish Torelli be the end of me or Anna Ash. There was a way out of this. There had to be.

I searched the kitchen desperately, looking for a weapon I could use, some escape route that I wasn't seeing, keeping myself from looking anywhere but at frightened Miss Ash and the bellowing Torelli. Now was not an ideal time for a soulgaze. Or...was it? The last man I'd soulgazed had seemed disconcerted. Maybe if I could throw Torelli off of his game for just a second or two, it would be long enough for Anna to worm her way free. And with her out of the way, I could roast Torelli like backyard barbecue.

In my muddled state, it was the only thing I could really think of. So, bracing myself for the unpleasantness that was sure to follow, I lifted my eyes to meet Torelli's.

For a second, nothing happened, and I was convinced my only plan was about to fall through the slats like my last lucky penny. Then I was drawn inexorably into those furious eyes.

Torelli's soul looked like a hoarder's paradise. It seemed to have almost the same dimensions of Rosie and Kent's studio apartment, with not even a fraction of its cleanliness. Filth was everywhere. Grime clung to the walls and every square inch of space was packed with things. Memories, obsessions, possessions. Torelli was a veritable pack rat, clinging onto everything with a singular greed that was almost choking to experience.

It wasn't that Torelli wouldn't let me go. I didn't think he was actually capable of letting anything go. Wading through piles and piles of junk, I actually found a jar with my name on it, stuffed full of small colorful pearls that reflected hopes and memories. I was on a shelf in Torelli's mind, along with an assortment of other things that one might actually consider useful. Tony was here too. Jeanie, and a handful of others as well. A jar labeled Marcone was at the very top of the shelf, but I didn't try to climb to get a good look at it.

I could feel myself trying to tip backward out of the soulgaze, but I clung stubbornly on. It was all right here. Everything Torelli knew, hoped or suspected about me. And all I had to do was erase it.

Drawing upon the dregs of my magic, I screwed the top off the jar and tipped the pearls out into my hand. With all the will I had left to muster, I focused on the colorful beads. They trembled on my palm for several seconds before exploding into tiny, unrecognizable pieces, disappearing as though they'd never been. Pleasure unfurled in my belly as the only traces of me in Torelli's mind disintegrated like confetti after a heavy rain. Lash had been right. It had been so easy and it felt good. I wanted to smash more of Torelli's memories, just to feel that same rush.

I didn't get the chance. Torelli's mind bucked me out so hard that it actually hurt to slam back into my own body. I thought I might have passed out, because a stinging pain in my cheek was what finally wrenched my eyes back open. I stared blearily up at Anna Ash. Her eyes were wild, bloodshot, and filled with tears.

"What did you do?" she demanded.

"Huh?"

"What did you do?" she repeated, jabbing a finger behind her.

I followed the line of it to a figure slumped on the ground. Torelli lay sprawled on Anna's kitchen floor like the felled Kong, head lolled to one side, eyes rolled back into his head, body seizing like he was being hit repeatedly by a defibrillator.

"I...I just tried to stop him," I whispered. The high of mucking with Torelli's mind vanished when I saw his twitching body, the reality of what I'd done hitting home.

A sob wrenched it's way from Anna Ash's throat. "Don't you realize what you've done, Cath-Molly? You just broke the law."

It seemed like a lifetime ago that Anna had sat across from me at this very table, slurping lo mein while she explained the rigid rules of the White Council. I'd just broken rule three in a big way.

"What do I do?" I whispered.

Anna wiped at her streaming eyes and nose with a shirt sleeve. "Pack a bag. We're leaving."

"We?" I echoed. I'd fully expected her to toss me out on my worthless behind the second she learned the truth.

Anna pointed a shaking finger toward her guest room. "Pack now. We'll talk later."

"But you'll be in trouble too!" I cried. "I can't let you-"

Anna's eyes flashed pure fire in my direction. "You have lied to me, and to the entire Ordo, from day one. I don't care what your reasons were. You are not going to dictate to me after your actions almost got us both killed. Get into your damn room, pack a damn bag, and wait for me in my damn car, Miss Carpenter. You owe me an explanation before we decide what's to be done with you."

I had to suspect that Anna Ash had potential as a medium, because she'd just perfectly channeled the spirit of Charity Carpenter. She even had the body language to a T. Feet slightly apart and planted firmly, one hand jammed on a hip while the other jabbed a finger at my room. Her nostrils flared wide, eyes sparking with righteous indignation, and her teeth slightly bared.

My shoulders hunched and I trooped meekly into my bedroom, dropping to my stomach before the bed so I could retrieve the bug-out bag I'd been preparing since telling Torelli I'd be leaving. It had been more of a just-in-case measure than anything else, not something I'd considered I'd seriously need. I now felt bad for not preparing Anna a bag of her own. On consideration, I also grabbed an overlarge and empty gym bag I had and brought it along.

Anna was nowhere to be seen when I left the apartment and didn't come down for another five minutes afterward. I was beginning to think she wouldn't show when she finally emerged from the building, wearing new clothes and doing her best to look dignified. She'd brushed her hair and tried to disguise the fact she'd been crying by splashing water on her face. I could see droplets of it glistening on her hair when she finally settled into the driver's side of the car.

I'd used the time she was gone to retrieve the product I still had left in the trunk of my car and place it in the second bag I'd brought. I'd go through with my original plan to sell it and send half of it back to Anna and the Ordo to pay them for the trouble of hosting me.

The silence crackled with animosity for the first leg of our journey. Anna didn't speak until she'd merged onto the I-65 South, following my whispered directive to head to Lafayette. My Indiana route wasn't for another two days at least, and I was hoping that it would shake Torelli's goons.

"You're a runaway?" she prompted finally.

I swallowed thickly. "Yes."

"Why? Were you kicked out because of your magic?"

"No." Though I didn't doubt it could have been a possibility. My mother disliked magic on principle. Dad would have been caught in an untenable position.

Anna expelled an exasperated sigh. "Goddess, grant me patience. You have to give me something, Cath-Molly."

"I don't know where to start. It's kind of a long story."

"We have at least two hours before we reach Lafayette. Start talking."

I dithered a few seconds longer. She was absolutely right. After everything she'd just gone through, she deserved a damn good explanation.

"Have you ever heard of the Knights of the Coin?" I asked. "Or the Knights of the Cross?"

Anna's brow creased and she shook her head slowly. "No. I'm afraid not."

"My father, Michael Carpenter, is a Knight of the Cross. They're called by God to fight evil but especially to fight the Order of the Blackened Denarius, or as they like to call themselves, the Knights of the Coin. Indwelt in the thirty pieces of silver given to Judas Iscariot are thirty fallen angels. Any human possessing a coin has access to the spirit of that fallen angel, including their power, knowledge, and battle form. Any human can be tainted by a coin upon contact. The Knights of the Cross are meant to counter them with three holy swords forged from the nails that pierced Christ's body. Amoracchius the Sword of Love, Fidelacchius the Sword of Faith, and Esperacchius the Sword of Hope."

Anna's frown only deepened. "While this is all fascinating, I fail to see the relevance."

"Earlier this year an enemy of my father's threw one of the coins into our yard. I touched it before my two-year-old brother could."

Anna's face paled as understanding lit her eyes. "And you ran, because you feared your father would be forced to kill you."

"Precisely."

Anna sucked air through her teeth and then silence reigned supreme in the car for another long stretch.

"But you don't want to fight on the side of these angels?"

"Hell no. I'm only dealing with the shadow of the Fallen at the moment. It's a...psychic imprint of sorts. Persistent, opinionated, and devious, but it can't technically force me to do anything against my own free will. I won't get the real Lasciel unless I take up her coin. I already turned that down once today when we were facing the wendigo."

"The wen-" Anna began. Then she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Stars and Stones, Molly. You faced down a wendigo? Without help? Without even a weapon? No wonder you're hurt. I was wondering what happened to your hand. You're lucky to be alive."

"I know."

I sank down into the seat. I was so, so tired. I needed a Triple Whopper with cheese and a nap. Thankfully, Anna didn't push further, seeming to accept it when my eyes drifted closed.

It felt like only seconds later when I was jolted awake by the sensation of impact and the sound of screeching metal, but it had to have been at least an hour, because the weak, wavering sun had finally begun its descent to the west. My eyes flew open wide and I immediately found the source of the noise to our rear, in the form of a large pickup truck that had ground into the bumper of Anna's car.

It gunned its engine and punted both of us off the side of the road. Anna was letting out a string of curses, trying in vain to steer the car to a stop. We were careening down a ravine toward a grove of trees. By the time I'd managed to piece together what was going on, it was far too late to do anything. We hit the trunk of an oak head-on and the airbags exploded outward, feeling more like a punch to the face than a cushion when I impacted mine. The back of the car buckled with a sound like a crumpling tin can as the truck rear-ended us, adding insult to injury.

Swimming in and out of consciousness, it took me several more seconds to realize that Anna wasn't with me when I finally came to. Nor was I in the car anymore. Someone was dragging me through the prickly grass toward the treeline by my hair. Hair which was now stiff with the dried chemicals I'd never gotten a chance to wash away. Someone was screaming, and I couldn't ascertain if it was me for a long second.

No. No, the scream was coming from Anna Ash, who was already at the treeline, surrounded by three men. I was being hauled toward her by the fourth. When I craned my neck to see him, fighting back a shriek of agony as it wrenched my hair, I saw a man of medium-height and above-average muscle capacity. He was white, with a fringe of blonde hair obscuring his eyes. All I could make out of his features was a feral, anticipatory smile.

The man deposited me just before Anna Ash, releasing his grip on my hair only long enough to press the thin blade of a knife to my throat.

"Gotta admit, I didn't think you'd manage to escape Torelli," he said in an unpleasantly reedy voice. "But I'm glad you did. So much more fun that way. You didn't think he'd go in without a backup plan, did ya, sweetheart?"

"Let Anna go," I groaned. "Please. Just kill me and let her go."

The man chuckled and got a grip on my hair again, forcing my head up so I had to look at Anna. "Oh no. You see, we're gonna have some fun with her. Watch like a good girl and we won't have to cut either of you up. If you don't..."

He traced the blade lovingly along the column of my throat, exerting just enough pressure to send a fine ribbon of blood trickling down my neck to pool in my collarbone.

One of the men around Anna reached for the front of her blouse and ripped it open, sending buttons flying in every direction.

"No!" I screeched, realizing at last what they meant to do.

No, no, no, no! They were going to rape Anna and then me, from the sounds of it. I didn't believe for a second that they'd keep their promise to not cut us. Torelli had sent a band of men to rape, torture, and then kill me, just to send a message. Anna Ash had tried to help me, had even agreed to help me escape. Now she was about to bear the consequences of my sins. I choked on my own bile. I couldn't let this happen.

How could I stop it? I was still exhausted, hurting, and scared witless.

"Kaen," I whispered, hoping against hope that a fireball would descend and selectively burn my enemies to cinders. Nothing. Not so much as a whiff of brimstone.

"Kaen," I croaked again, tears stinging my eyes. "Kaen, Kaen, Kaen!"

Nothing.

"Lash," I begged next, falling back on the only recourse I had left, choking on my own vomit when the men cut away Anna's jeans. "Lash, please. Please, please, please, help me."

Silence. There was going to be no help from Lash either. Unless...

I had to do it. I had to. Or Anna...

The clink of a belt being discarded clinched it for me. Squeezing my eyes shut I gathered up all of my will, shaping it into the most powerful invocation I'd done yet and screamed;

"Invoco Lasciel virtus. Veni ad me!"

Several things seemed to happen at once. The roar of my heartbeat stilled and the sound of coarse voices dimmed to a background drone. Something small and cool to the touch dropped into my outstretched palm and I curled my fingers around it on reflex.

"Excellent choice," Lash said in a dulcet tone. The voice sounded richer and more real and I finally pinpointed the difference that was bothering me.

This was Lasciel, not Lash and, until now, I hadn't really understood the difference.

The air seemed to supercharge, crackling painfully along the metal pressed against my skin. The knife fell away as it became too painful for my captor to wield. The shadow that had been Lash loomed slowly and inexorably, blotting out sight, sound, and feeling like a mental eclipse.

A wave of cold crashed over me and I choked as I was shoved effortlessly beneath a tide of pure thoughtless oblivion, with only a rapidly receding window of sight to distinguish reality from this endless night. In the pinprick of light still left to me, I saw my own arms forming thick violet fog that somehow still sported claws. They descended in a deadly arc, slashing through pale skin and sinew, spraying blood into my eyes.

And that crimson rain was the last image I had before I was buried in the blackness.

Another note: This is not where the story ends, but I will be taking a brief hiatus after this because it's the end of the arc. I had several planned for this fic and this is a logical place for me to stop so I can re-read the series and make sure that I'm adhering to canon whenever possible. I'm finishing a few novella-length books for my cozy mystery series that I started not long after this fanfic. That series, plus moving house and having a baby put this fic on hold for almost two years, for which I'm sorry guys. I definitely won't be waiting so long to finish this fic up. Once the series is re-read I plan to try to post at least one chapter a week until this is done before moving onto a companion fic from Daniel Carpenter's POV that takes place just a little after Dead Beat and details what was going on at the Carpenter house during Molly's adventure. I hope you all enjoy and I'll hope to come back to this really soon! :)