Chapter 95

"What exactly do you two want?" George asked as his hand nervously rubbed at his right thigh.

"I'm looking for some people, and I'm hoping that you can help me find them," Kahlan offered casually as she put the chair back down on the floor and sat in it.

"And who would those people be?" he asked as he scratched at the top of the cast.

"Friends of yours by the names of Riley. . ." she started and George's eyes narrowed slightly. "Reese," she added as she leaned back in the chair, and a wince glimpsed across his face. "Lily," she continued, and he tensed. "And Danny," she finished as she crossed her legs, but his hand shot out and a knife went flying towards her that he'd had hidden in his cast.

She snatched it out of the air just inches from her face and slowly rose to a standing position. "I guess this means you do know who I'm talking about, huh?"

He tried to melt back into his chair, and Chuck cocked his pistol that was newly touching the back of the man's head and then leaned down next to the wounded man's ear. "You try anything like that again, and it will be the last thing you ever do."

George swallowed and nodded.

"And here I thought we could just have some friendly conversation, but clearly that option is off the table now, so I guess we'll resort to the ol' I ask, you answer bit," Kahlan told him as she inspected the knife in her hand. "Nice blade by the way. Is it turn of the century?"

George sighed. "Yeah, and it's supposedly blessed to bring its user luck. I guess that was false," he offered dryly.

She sat back down. "About those people I need to find," she led as she stuck the knife down into her right boot.

He frowned at her confiscating the knife, but he shook his head. "You'll never find them. Their ghosts."

Her eyes flashed to Chuck and he grimaced. "You mean like dead people spirits and shit?"

Kahlan snorted. "No, Chuck, he means they disappear when they aren't around." She slid her chair closer to the man. "But you have worked with them."

"Yeah, but Reese contacts me. I have no way of knowing where they are."

"Does Reese have a last name?"

"He's never given it to me."

"When was the last time they contacted you?"

"About three months ago."

"But I bet you still have the number he called you from," she offered as she studied him, and the surprised look on his face made her smile. "You seem like a very thorough man."

He huffed. "Yeah, but it's a burn phone. I tried tracing it after the first time I worked with them."

"How did you trace it?" she pushed.

"I had a buddy of mine on the squad trace it."

"Well, my buddies are probably a little better equipped to do a more detailed trace, so I will be needing that number."

He chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Those guys are a whole different breed of hunters. Why do you want to contact them?"

"They have some information I need," she said simply.

"They're dangerous. If they don't like you, they'll kill you," he warned.

She smiled as she stood up. "I don't think I'll have that problem."

He sighed. "Well, don't say I didn't warn you," he told them and then pointed to the table across the room. "I need to get my organizer."

"Let me," Kahlan offered and then went to the table and picked up the leather clad book as she smiled. "I guess you put everything in here, huh?"

"Anything of importance. That way I can find it all in one place."

She giggled. "But that also means that someone can take it all at one time." She turned to him as she opened the book and found everything nice and neat and labeled. She smiled at him. "I guess I'll be taking this because you won't be needing it anymore."

"What?! All my hunting shit's in there!" he yelled as he tried to move the chair not caring about the pistol still aimed at him.

She smiled again. "I see that, and I'm sure it will come in handy, so thank you."

"But I still need that! I'll go right back to hunting as soon as I get these God forsaken casts off."

She nodded as she sighed. "Yeah, I figured as much," she told him and then looked at her best friend. "And we can't have that. We can't allow any other family to lose one of their loved ones now can we, Chuck?"

Chuck took a deep breath. "No, ma'am," he told her and then pulled the trigger, and George slummed over in his chair.

The silencer on the pistol muffled the shot enough that no one except them heard it, and the bullet was a small caliber so it didn't even exit the man's skull making sure that there was no big mess to clean up. He stuck the pistol back in his thigh holster and looked at her. "What now?"

"I want a team in here to clean this up and I want anything and everything that isn't normal. You never know what may come in handy," she ordered and the turned towards the door. "I'm getting this to Cam."

"We'll find him," he told her as her hand slid the glass door open.

She huffed and then disappeared into the night, and he sighed and shook his head.

XXXXX

After a while of Gaylord getting as much information about the warlock as he could out of Hotch, he paused and looked down the corridor. Hotch looked, too, but he couldn't hear or see anything, so he frowned. "What is it?"

Gaylord took deep breath. "A demon is coming, and that either means more prisoners or it's time for some of us to venture into the pits."

Hotch's eyes grew. "A demon, as in demon. . . from hell?"

Gaylord winced. "Yes, a real demon. I told you the pits were terrifying. If they take you, make sure you. . ." he dropped off as several beings came into view, and he stood up and moved back away from the bars.

Hotch stood up, too, but being chained to the ceiling didn't allow for him to move very far. He studied the new beings. The first one was humanoid and covered in dark fur. His first thought was that it must have been some form of wolf creature, but the curved horns on the being's head made him switch to a goat type creature. He swallowed. Maybe all those goatman stories are true, too.

Behind the goatman was another one of the skeleton creatures, but it had two sets of arms and was pulling a crude wagon behind it that was overloaded with what Hotch could only assume were gnomes. They were little, bearded creatures and some of them were even wearing colorful pointed hats, and he mentally winced. What the hell good would they be in the arena to the warlock?

Behind the wagon was a humanoid bird creature. When Hotch studied it, he winced because he could tell by the pain etched in the being's eyes that its wings had been clipped. It was clear that the feathers it had left on its wings would never support it, and Hotch figured that was the warlock's way of making sure the thing couldn't escape. He shook his head.

Behind it was what looked like an ordinary human man, but it had a massive, iron collar around his neck, so Hotch wasn't sure what it was. Behind him was another creature that made Hotch's brows rise. It had the torso of a human male, it's bottom half was mostly goatish, and its head was mostly human except for its pointed ears and the small horns coming out of its shorter, curly brown hair.

Behind him was what Hotch could only think of as a giant upright dog. It was the rear guard and actually looked a lot like Sampson, Wyatt's Doberman pinscher. As soon as Hotch thought how Sampson was more Kahlan's than Wyatt's, though, he had to tamp down the sudden freight train of sadness that slammed into him.

The skeleton guard dropped the handle to the wagon and moved in front of the goatman to unlock the barred door. Once he pulled it back, he shoved the goatman in and the grabbed the wagon. Once he had it maneuvered through the door, he lifted the far side of it and dumped it. The gnomes went tumbling across the floor making them spew a lot of foul language. As they righted themselves, the wagon was tilted even more and a slim, long cage crashed to the floor. When the wagon was out of the way, the dog thing shoved the rest of the prisoners into the cell.

When it stepped back and grabbed the door to shut it, it eyes locked on Hotch. It frowned and its nostrils flared as it stared at Hotch.

"Don't challenge it," Gaylord whispered into Hotch's ear as he slid up next to him.

Hotch glanced at him. "What? I wouldn't. . ."

The dog thing growled making most of the beings in the cage flinch and whimper, and it stepped forward. "There's too many in here. Let's take some of them to the pits now."

The skeleton guard looked over the crowd with sockets that were vacant of eyeballs and then nodded.

Hotch mentally winced and looked at Gaylord again. "If I. . ."

He didn't get to finish his statement as the skeleton guard grabbed Gaylord's arm with one hand and yanked him towards the door as he grabbed the gylou with another making her scream. "Please no!" she begged.

That made a low, throaty laugh escape the dog as he grabbed her from the skeleton. While most were distracted by that commotion, Gaylord pulled away from the skeleton and seemingly fell into Hotch.

Hotch had to force himself not to react as he felt the old man's hand in the front pocket of his jeans, and he frowned as he looked at the wizard. "Keep that safe," Gaylord's voice echoed in his head, and then the skeleton guard grabbed him again. On the way out the door, the guard also snatched up one of the gnomes by the leg making all the others yell out and scramble after their lost comrade.

The door was slammed shut before they could reach it, though, and they cried as they held the bars and watched their friend get carried away upside down. Before they all rounded the corner, the tentacled woman looked back at Hotch, and the fear in her eyes made him cringe. He was expecting Gaylord to look back at him, too, but he didn't. He didn't know if he would ever see the old man again and that bothered him for he had grown to like the old man in the short time they'd been together. He sighed.

It took a little while, but eventually the beings in the cell quieted, and Hotch finally made himself sit back down. His mind race to try and make sense of it all, but that only gave him a headache.

He had no idea what the wizard had shoved into his pocket. It was small and felt like metal, but being chained up the way he was wouldn't allow for him to even reach the pocket let alone take out what was in there and inspect it. He could only hope that he'd be able to get to it before anyone or anything else found it.

XXXXX

Kahlan wanted to go home to the kids, so Cam and Chuck went to Garcia's lair to trace down the number George had for Reese. They quickly found out that it was indeed a nontraceable burn phone, but Garcia still ran every program her super computer had on it. While they waited, they ate dinner of takeout and discussed everything except Hotch and the supernatural. It felt good to think about life being normal again, even if it was just for a little while.

Once Chuck finished his Orange Chicken, he got up to throw away the box. "Anyone else need a beer?" he asked as he grabbed another out of the cooler they had brought with them which was disguised to look like a perfectly benign computer box. To make sure they didn't get caught, Garcia had her lair on lockdown and the only one who could override that was missing, so they knew they couldn't get in trouble for drinking on federal property.

"I'll take another," Cam told him and then threw his empty can at him.

"Hey!" Chuck yelled as he fumbled to catch it, and they laughed at him.

Garcia shook her head at him and took a drink of her pink lemonade flavored adult beverage but then almost spit it out when her computer signaled it had found something. She quickly handed off the drink to her husband and scooted her chair into its proper place in front of the monitors. She read the screen and then turned a massive smile to the two men with her. "Seems Mr. Scumbag wasn't too smart."

Chuck frowned and moved closer to the screen. "Why do you say that?"

"Because he might have used all bogus info to register the phone, but he hooked a real email to the fake email he used for the phone as a back-up."

Cam smiled and pat her on the back. "I love you."

"Of course you do, Puddin."

"That means you can track him down, right?" Chuck asked. He figured that's what they were so happy about, but he had to be sure. When it came to the technical duo and their lingo, he was always a little lost.

"Yes, Chuckles," she told him as her hands flew across the keys. "And a real email will lead to other real info, and if the goddess is smiling down on us tonight, that will lead to an address or something."

"Should I call Kay?" he asked them.

Cam thought about it for a second and then shook his head. "Nah, you better wait until we have something tangible."

Chuck took a deep breath and stood up tall. "Well then, I'm going to head home."

Garcia froze and turned to look at him. "What? But we're close, I know it."

He smiled at her and nodded. "I know, but I also know that Kay will want to head out as soon as you all get her a target. I better go see Vinnie and Cassie while I have the chance."

She laughed. "You're right. Give my doodle bug a kiss for me and tell Vinnie I will be by to get him as soon as we get done."

"I will," he assured her and then went out the door leaving them to work their magic.

*new pics added to the site: the tales of hoffer dot weebly dot com

And, schools out, so that means more time to write – hopefully. For those of you still with me, thank you! I know it's been a while, and I'm sorry. I hope you enjoy the chapters as much as I enjoy writing them!