Aziraphale looked nervously between the demon entering his shop and the back room, wondering what Crowley would think when he saw the bronze wolf curled up in there.
"What are you trying to hide angel?" Crowley questioned, neglecting the usual greetings when he saw Aziraphale's nervous glancing. The demon looked at the door to the back room for a moment before pushing it open, only to roll his eyes (not that it was visible behind his sunglasses) a when he saw the creature in question.
"Are you adopting strays angel?" Crowley questioned. The demon paused to consider his statement as Aziraphale tried (and failed) to hide his laugh.
"Again" Crowley had to add before Aziraphale would answer. The angel's answer was a shrug of the shoulders.
"I have my reasons dear, it is one of the four" Aziraphale added. Crowley did a double take at Aziraphale's explanation, walking up to the armchair the wolf was sleeping on to get a closer look.
"In which case, this is one extra stray I won't complain about. Where did you find her? And if she is one of the four, where are the rest?"
"She was curled up on the doorstep this morning, alone, and obviously injured. I don't know where the others are, but I doubt she would have left them, or that they would leave her for that matter, of their own free will. Something must have gone wrong"
"What the hell was that thing?!" John exclaimed, sitting on the sofa in 221b. He snarled at Eve as she cleaned the long claw marks on his side.
"Sorry, it's not my fault you got hurt, you should have been focusing on what the creature was doing rather than trying to protect us" Eve told him.
"I was focusing on the creature, it was going after Sophia" John snapped.
"Of whom Lestrade can't find a trace" Sherlock added. John looked to the door where Lestrade was following the Hunter into the room.
"Bloody hell, what did you end up hunting?" he asked, noting the marks left by the creature's claws.
"According to Eve's research, it was a variation of werewolf that is indigenous to the woodland of Romania eccetera" Sherlock pointed to the laptop on the coffee table as he explained.
"It'll have to be foreign, I've never seen anything try to kill John or..." Lestrade tailed off when he realised what he was saying. The worried expression on John's face was noticed by the three Hunters, that was a situation that none of them wanted to face.
"She'll be out there somewhere John, we'll find her" somehow Sherlock's words didn't lighten the mood and silence descended on the room.
back to the bookshop
The bronze wolf looked up at the two men talking in the next room, trying to hear their conversation from where she was curled up. She didn't dare move, knowing full well how bad her injuries were, so she simply changed the angle of her head to allow her to hear better.
"Surely they'll be out looking for her Crowley, shouldn't we let Scotland Yard know where she is?" the blonde one was saying.
"Stop worrying Angel, we can tell the Hunters after I've talked to her. Both sides are invested in this four, if something is out to kill them, then we have to stop it. I can guarantee that we'll both get orders to do so" Crowley replied. The pair turned to look at her, walking towards her when they saw her awake.
"Ssso, you're finally awake" Crowley announced as he walked over.
'Well done, now we have a firm grasp of the obvious' Sophia replied mentally, as sarcastic as mental communication could be anyway.
"You are one of the four, mental communication isn't common among werewolves" Crowley stated, nodding slightly to the angel.
"Now Sophia, we know who you are, but you don't know us" Aziraphale started to explain, but Sophia interrupted.
'Oh really?' Sophia began. 'You both have wings, which is highly uncommon as I've only met one other angel. I would say that your kind is rare, but only one of you is an angel. You, Crowley, are a demon, specifically one that can turn into a snake. As for you, Aziraphale, you are the only other angel in London and known for generally being in the company of said demon due to your agreement' Crowley and Aziraphale just stared at the wolf, who was now laughing.
'And you said that I don't know you' she finished, rather smug. 'Now I'll answer your questions if it means that I can get back to Baker Street'
"Alright then, do you know what creature you were hunting?" Crowley questioned when he regained his composure. Sophia shook her head.
"Do you remember what it looked like?" Crowley and Aziraphale got a mental snapshot in answer.
"Oh my... I think I know what that is" Aziraphale stated. He looked between the demon and the wolf quickly before vanishing into the bookshop, returning a few moments later with a rather large, extremely old tome. He placed it on the table and began to turn the pages.
"Here, this is it" the angel announced as he stopped. Crowley turned the book around and read the page Aziraphale had pointed out.
"This is a tough hunt, even for the most experienced Hunters, did you guys know what you were heading into?" the angel asked as Crowley read.
'We were just following a trail, we didn't know what we were hunting, I still want to know in fact. We were in the process of working it out when it attacked' Sophia answered.
"Why don't you come and look at this then?" Crowley muttered.
'Because I can't move Crowley' Sophia snapped in mental reply. Aziraphale walked around the table and approached Sophia. The bronze wolf just rested her head on her paws as the angel rested his hand on her injured side.
"Are you sure you want to chance that Angel? Technically you shouldn't even come into contact with her kind, they are creatures of the dark" Crowley questioned as he looked away from the book.
"Both sides take interest in the four, so I'll be alright. Besides, I'm meant to heal" Aziraphale pointed out. Before Crowley could argue any further, a light seemed to glow from Sophia's wounds.
Crowley stepped forward as Sophia looked to him, pain clear in her eyes. He crossed the distance and pulled Aziraphale's hand away from Sophia's side, quickly replacing it with his own.
"I told you she was a creature of the dark, you almost killed her" Crowley told the stunned angel.
"I know why, I didn't realise it would have that effect"
'Thanks for trying Aziraphale, but I might have to heal on my own' Sophia said to the angel. Aziraphale nodded to the wolf before heading upstairs, the sound of a kettle soon afterwards signalling tea was going to follow.
Scotland Yard
"We followed your tracks from last night, but we found no sign of the creature or Sophia. There was a fain-" Lestrade broke off as a snowy owl flew through the office's open window and landed on his desk.
"What the hell are you doing in here?!" Lestrade snapped at the owl. In reply, the owl hopped off the edge of the desk and onto the floor, where it morphed into a blonde man who, on simple inspection, looked like a professor or librarian. The dust coating his jacket and matching trousers was evidence of such, but Sherlock's thoughts stopped as the man spoke.
"Sorry about that, but I thought it would be better if I came than Crowley" the man apologised. Sherlock watched the man with interest, learning everything he could.
"Are you Aziraphale?" Eve questioned. Lestrade and John looked to her with a frown.
"I would ask how you would know that, but I believe you'll say something along the line of me being the only other angel in London who spends a lot of time with a demon named Crowley" Aziraphale answered and Eve nodded.
"How did you know that?" John finally spoke up to ask.
"Because it's exactly what Sophia said, and I presume you all have relatively the same information"
"Where is she? Where are you keeping her?" Lestrade asked, recovering from his initial shock. Aziraphale raised an eyebrow when he heard the DI's threatening tone.
"I'm an angel, do you really think I would keep her from you when I know how connected you all are?" he paused and Lestrade shook his head. "Precisely. She managed to make it to my bookshop after the creature attacked her, she's too injured to change into her human form or walk here as a wolf, so she is still there"
By the time Aziraphale had finished explaining, the occupants of Lestrade's office were on their feet and pulling on their coats.
"Lead the way" John said, holding the door open for Aziraphale as if to prove the point. And so Aziraphale did.
Half an hour later, the group arrived at Aziraphale's bookshop, where they were greeted by Crowley motioning for them to leave again. Aziraphale walked into the shop anyway, only for a tall man to tower over him.
"Have you seen a bronze wolf?" the man (though with his large size, that was a questionable title) asked Aziraphale.
"I can't say I have. Why are you looking for a wolf? Never mind one that is such an odd colour" Aziraphale looked to Crowley as he spoke, talking telepathically at the same time.
'I take it this is our creature?' the angel paid attention to the man's pacing for a moment, but didn't listen to the man's explanation as Crowley answered.
'Yes, he's certainly large enough and no-one else would come looking for Sophia'
'Go outside and get the rest of the four into the back room, I'll keep this thing distracted as long as I can' Aziraphale told Crowley. He watched the demon disappear into the back room before he turned his attention back to the man.
"Where are you hiding that wolf? I can smell her, she's in here somewhere" he growled, towering over Aziraphale once more.
"The only reason you would be able to smell the wolf would be if my snake had eaten it, though he usually isn't that hungry so I-Hey! Get out of there!" Aziraphale had to run around the counter as the huge man headed for the back room.
The man stopped when he saw the black snake coiled on the armchair, looking rather large. He growled and turned to Aziraphale, his teeth now those of his creature form rather than human.
"I had marked that wolf, it was my feast, now I only have one" he growled. Aziraphale could just see Sherlock and John emerging from the shadows to the left, the gun appearing over the top of the armchair held by Eve.
"You're not even going to get that one by the looks of it" the angel pointed out, nodding to the Hunters over the man's (though he was more creature now, so the more appropriate term would be 'creature's') shoulder.
The moment the man turned, revealing his claws and teeth, the sound of gunshots filled the air. The man/creature dropped quickly, Crowley sliding off the chair to double check that it had stopped breathing. Once he was satisfied, he went to return to the chair, only to find John standing next to it.
"He really did get you good, didn't he Soph?" John was muttering to the bronze wolf. He gently ran his hand along her back and she winced.
"If she was this bad I'm surprised it didn't just go for her last night" Sherlock muttered to himself.
'I was worse last night, because he did Sherlock, how do you think I ended up here?!' Sherlock grimaced as Sophia's voice bounced around his mind palace.
"I pulled her off the doorstep this morning, she couldn't move without help and I didn't want to leave her out there" Aziraphale added, stepping past the dead creature to stand by John.
"Could you help her at all?" John asked, but the answer was interrupted as Lestrade appeared in the doorway.
"What the hel-heck is that? Is that what you ended up against yesterday?"
"Yes, it is. We lost it when it went after Sophia, it obviously chased her here, other than that we don't know any more" Sherlock answered quickly, looking up from where he was examining the creature to the other Hunter.
"I'll make the arrangements to get rid of it, is Sophia going to be alright?"
"Not for a while Greg, she can't even change back" Eve answered just as quickly as Sherlock had. Lestrade 'hmm'ed and walked over to Sophia, only for Crowley to hiss at him.
"Both sides are keeping an eye on us, which is why Crowley is keeping you away, he doesn't trust you" John explained as Lestrade started to ask.
"Why is everyone predicting what I'm going to say today?" Lestrade grumbled as he walked back out of the bookshop. Aziraphale lowered his hand as he knelt down, which Crowley took as an invitation. Once the black snake was draped over his shoulders, Aziraphale approached the armchair again.
"I would try and help her, but I tried earlier and it didn't go well" the angel explained. Crowley hissed in agreement and Sherlock walked away from the corpse on the floor to join them around the armchair.
"You said you managed to carry her in?" he inquired. Aziraphale nodded, so Sherlock looked to John.
"Is it safe to move her again John?" the werewolves shook their heads, Sophia wincing at the movement. John placed a soothing hand on Sophia's side as he noticed it, looking between the bronze wolf, Sherlock and Aziraphale.
"Go back to Baker Street without me and finish off the case, if Aziraphale doesn't mind, I'll stay here and keep an eye on Sophia" Both the angel and the black snake nodded, so Sherlock and Eve made their way out.
A/N: Yes, the boys will become Recurring Characters. I need the connection to them to pull of some of the stuff that comes later.