Chapter Five – Stalker Etiquette
Three Days Until the Zamora Ball
Lauren's three inch heels click-clacked as she strode confidently across the marble floor of the JM Commerce Tower lobby. She smoothed the fine red hairs of her wig, straightened her glasses, adjusted her Bluetooth, and pulled her best 'disapproving librarian face' as she reached the front desk. The overnight guard looked at her and froze, his cheeseburger dripping ketchup as it hovered halfway between the counter and his mouth.
"Diane Bloom, Canada Revenue Agency Criminal Investigations Division." Lauren held up a badge with her picture before pulling it back down. "Under section 36B heading Z24X9 of the Tax Code and under the authority of CRA Deputy Commissioner Elise Kohn I require access to security footage of the DeWitt, McCall and Barrowman offices for the past 72 hours as part of an ongoing investigation into suspicion of tax evasion and misappropriation of funds. Will you comply?"
"Uhhh…" The guard stared at her, and a glob of mustard joined the ketchup on the counter.
Lauren glared condescendingly at his badge. "Mister James Tucker. Failure to comply with this request may be construed as collusion in violation of federal tax laws and may result in fines and jail time up to ten years. I ask again, will you comply?" Lauren took off her glasses and stared daggers through his skull.
"I'll need to contact my supervisor…"
"Is your supervisor Bryce Rupp of 3696 Huntington Way Toronto Ontario Canada?"
"…Yes?"
Lauren handed him her cell phone. "I have him on speed dial."
The guard checked to make sure that the phone number was correct, and hit 'Call'. Outside and across the street, Dyson looked at his phone. "Damn Lauren, you're good." He paused to get into character, and answered the phone. "This is Rupp," he grunted. "Tucker? What the hell are you doing calling me at this hour, I was screwing my wife!"
Dyson's voice was so loud that Lauren could hear it through the handset. She tried not to laugh at the verbal assault James Tucker was getting from his 'boss'. Out of the corner of her eye, she located the security cameras, eight in all. Behind the front desk was a locked door leading to the main security center for the entire building.
"Yes sir. No sir, I didn't get the message. Ye-yes sir. I'm sorry sir." The guard, now plainly terrified, hung up the phone. "So sorry for the trouble ma'am."
Lauren gestured to the locked door. "Security footage. Now." She circled around the desk and tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for Tucker to punch in his code. The guard's hands shook as he opened the door and stepped aside to let her in.
"Gee, I'd love to know why I'm sitting in a junker car in downtown Toronto at two a.m. staring aimlessly at the front of a building I've never been to before." Kenzi put her feet up on the dash and pouted. "Oh wait, I do know! It's because my bestie is a stalker, and I have no life."
"You invited yourself, as I recall." Bo peered through a set of binoculars at JM Tower doors. "And this isn't stalking. We're scouting the competition."
"We're 'scouting' Lauren. You're a stalker."
"I'm not! I'm just interested, that's all."
"That's the same thing my cousin Elena said right before she started sending naked pictures to Lucy Lawless. It's a slippery slope."
Bo turned slowly to stare at Kenzi. "I'm so glad I've never met your family."
"Here it is," Tucker sat at the console and pulled up a set of video files on the secure JM Tower database. Lauren leaned over his shoulder for a closer look; her glasses slipped down her nose and she pushed them back up in the nerdiest possible way.
"Great." She set her briefcase on the table behind him, and opened it. She pulled a hypodermic needle from a case, tapped it with her finger and squirted a bit to get rid of the air bubbles. "I appreciate your cooperation in this manner." Lauren plunged the needle into the guard's neck. She grabbed him under the arms as he slowly slid off of his chair and onto the floor.
"Don't worry, this is only an anesthetic mixture of Lorazepam and the residual dust from a particularly allergenic Sandman. You won't remember a thing tomorrow, but you'll have the best dreams of your life. Sleep tight." She smiled kindly as Tucker sluggishly closed his eyes and almost immediately began to snore.
Lauren grabbed her laptop and a pair of wire cutters, and used a stray network cable to hack into the security mainframe. She'd already gone fishing for passcodes earlier in the day, so now it was just a matter of navigating through the clutter. It took only three minutes for her to find what she wanted. "Bingo." She licked her lips excitedly, and turned on her earpiece.
"Okay Dyson, I'm in the system and I'm looping the security camera feeds…now." She hit a button, and the recordings on the cameras looped seamlessly back thirty seconds. They would continue showing the same footage of empty hallways for as long as the team needed to get in and out. She pulled up a set of schematics where five glowing dots were all huddled in the same place. "There are five guards, all of them are on the top floor of the building, and it doesn't look like they're going anywhere anytime soon. You're cleared for takeoff."
Lauren leaned back in the chair to admire her work, as Dyson, Ciara and Hale entered the building and made their way up to the 31st floor. She took off her wig and glasses. Playing dress up, she decided, was a freakin' blast.
Bo watched the three Fae as they ran into the building. "There they go," she muttered to herself.
"Who do you think would win in a fight between a morragh and a dullahan?" Kenzi wondered, absentmindedly flinging birds at blocks on her phone.
"A morragh." Bo answered. "They have more teeth."
"Do you think gemini would literally bite each other's heads off if they were PMS-ing at the same time?"
"I don't know, Kenzi."
"If you made shoes out of a selkie pelt could you walk on water?"
"Kenz…"
"If a mesmer, an albaster, and a redcap walked into a bar…"
Bo gave an exasperated sigh. Kenzi put her phone away and grinned. "Kidding, kidding." She looked past Bo, toward the building. "If two goblins appeared in the middle of the street…"
"KENZI."
"No, I'm serious." She pointed out the window. "Two goblins. In the street."
"Oh shit," Bo whispered, as she watched the two Under Fae open the front doors of the JM Tower. "What the hell are they doing here?"
Kenzi shrugged. "Maybe they're after the same thing the Doc Squad is after. Maybe they'll wipe 'em out and the Orsedd Stone will be all ours, mwaahahaha."
"Move," Bo pushed Kenzi back in the seat so she could crawl over and escape out of the passenger side door. She tripped on the seat belt and almost fell face first on the pavement. "Damn busted car," she muttered.
"Where are you going?"
"I can't not do anything; they don't know those freaks are coming!"
"Who cares, it's not our problem!"
"It's…stalker etiquette!" Bo frowned. "Just stay here. I mean it! Stay in the car, I'm going to…"
"Protect your loooovah, I get it, whatevs. Tell the Doc I said hiiiiii," Kenzi trilled, as Bo ran to check things out.
Lauren heard a crash from the lobby. She sat up straight. "Dyson, where are you?"
"We're in the office. Hale's trying to open the safe. Why?"
"No reason." Lauren checked her computer – all the guards were still on the top floor. She slowly stood, and opened her briefcase. She pulled out two more syringes of sleepy time injections, one for each hand, and squatted low to avoid being seen as she left the security center and ducked behind the lobby desk.
She could hear two sets of feet walking around, and judging from the gait and shuffle they almost certainly weren't human. She inched her body higher, to try to get a glimpse of what she was up against.
She found herself face to face with a putrid, sneering goblin.
"Shit!" Lauren shouted as, reflexively, she swung her arm around and punched the creature in his jutting jaw. It stunned him long enough for her to plunge the needle deep into his arm. He slid to the ground, unconscious.
Lauren looked up to see the other Under Fae. He was still twenty feet away. She grasped the other needle in her right hand and held it high. She waved him forward. "Bring it." He sprinted toward her like a linebacker, but five feet away his body shimmered and disappeared. "What the…OOOF" Her breath was forced from her lungs as the goblin reappeared on her right side and body slammed her into the ground. He climbed on top of her and wrapped a hand around her throat. Lauren clawed desperately at his scaly skin, but he was locked tight, cutting of her airway. Just before Lauren lost consciousness, she noticed a familiar pair of boots heading her way.
"Hey, hogface! No one tops the Doctor but me." Bo sliced the goblin with her knife and he slid to the floor next to Lauren, twitching once before falling still.
Lauren stood, chest heaving, desperately trying to get her breath back. She looked down at the dead goblin, and back up at Bo. "You just saved my life." Bo calmly put her knife back in her belt and cracked her neck. Lauren watched the Succubus and felt an intoxicating mix of craving and rage. "Why the hell did you do that?"
"Wow, that's not the reaction I was expecting." Bo indignantly put a hand on her hip. "Maybe a, 'hey you're the greatest Bo' or 'thanks for risking your neck to help me Bo' or 'th..'"
Bo's words muted on her lips as Lauren assaulted her with a passionate, ferocious, almost primal kiss. Lauren's hands slid up the nape of Bo's neck and tangled in brunette hair as she pulled her forward, to force the kiss even deeper, almost like she was trying to consume the succubus with everything she had. Bo responded, grinding her hips into the Doctor, until she was forcibly pushed away.
Lauren took a few steps backward and leaned against the security desk to calm her racing heartbeat. She ran a hand through her hair and stared at Bo. "Thank you," she finally said, in a tone that sounded more like "fuck off".
"You're…welcome?" Bo stood, stunned. She was taken aback that she'd just been out-passioned, then dissed and dismissed, by the Doctor.
Lauren's glare never wavered, even though Bo could feel pulses of heat radiating from her with every beat of her heart. "How did you know we would be…why are you here?" She asked.
"I…uh…." Bo stammered. She couldn't exactly admit that she'd been Doc-stalking. "I was out for a jog."
Lauren's eyes slid down to Bo's boots, then up to her leather pants and halter top. She raised an amused eyebrow. "Really?"
Bo slid her tongue across her teeth and curled her lip. Who did this woman think she was? Bo's shock morphed into irritation, and she took an aggressive step forward. "You know what? It's none of your damn business why I'm here. It's a free country. I can be wherever I want to be."
Lauren stood up straight, and scoffed. "Cut the crap, Bo. You're here so you can suck my team dry and snatch the necklace the second we walk out the door."
Bo felt like she'd been slapped in the face. She took another step forward. "You don't have to worry about that Doc because I just lost my appetite."
"Yeah, I bet you did." Lauren rolled her eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You told me yourself that you can't turn off your hunger."
"Well, I find some people…distasteful. Like liver and onions, or black licorice."
"So I'm liver and onions, to you?" Lauren stepped closer.
Bo stuck her chin out. "Yeah. You are!"
Lauren lowered her head, caught her bottom lip between her teeth and glared lustily at Bo through thick eyelashes.
"What's happening here?" Bo asked, nervously.
Lauren didn't answer. She stared at the woman in front of her, memorizing every curve and contour of her body. Then she closed her eyes, and finally allowed herself to fully imagine the things she wanted to do with Bo – she allowed herself to feel Bo's hands all over her body, to feel Bo's tongue caressing her inner thigh, plotting a course up and up until…
"Not cool!" Bo growled, huskily, almost blown away by the sudden, colossal arousal pulsating from Lauren. Lauren allowed her desire for the succubus to roll over her, embracing it, not holding anything back. She took another step forward. "Stop!" Bo warned.
Lauren slowly opened her eyes, grinned wickedly, and shook her head 'no'.
"You don't know what you're doing." Bo balled her hands into fists and squeezed, to try and maintain control. She was losing it, rapidly.
"On the contrary, I know exactly what I'm doing." Lauren had all the power; she held all the cards. A succubus wasn't the only one who could use sex as a weapon. Lauren slid her hand across her stomach, slowly, languorously inching down until her ring and index finger slipped, just barely, under her panties.
Bo pounced. She crossed the distance between them in a heartbeat, wrapped her arms around Lauren's thighs and lifted her onto the security desk, planting urgent kisses on her lips, neck, arms, any bit of bare skin she could find. Lauren came alive underneath her, wrapping her legs around Bo's hips and pulling her in tighter. Bo grabbed each side of Lauren's collar and pulled, scattering buttons all over the floor and opening up brand new areas of skin to explore. Lauren threw her head back and moaned a Bo massaged her breasts through the fabric of her black lace bra.
"Lauren? Lauren, are you there?" Ciara's voice rang through Lauren's earpiece.
Lauren forced herself to rip her arms away from Bo and click the talk button. "Yeah, I'm he-ere," she tried to disguise the whimper and urgency in her voice.
"We have the necklace and we're on our way back down to you."
"Oh fuuuuuuuuuuuuck," Lauren moaned as Bo slid her hand under her bra.
"…...um, Lauren?" Ciara asked.
"Yeah. Yes. Sorry. Yeah, I'm here. I'll see you in a minute." She grabbed Bo's face and kissed her, long, hard, and wet, before pulling back. "You have to go."
"What?" Bo growled.
"Dyson, Ciara and Hale are coming back down. They can't see you here, you have to go." Lauren pulled her jacket shut so they wouldn't notice her ripped shirt.
"You're kidding?" Bo stepped back, fuming. Lauren shook her head. "Well if this isn't the bullshit of all bullshits."
"To be continued." Lauren gave her a peck on the cheek, then ran back into the security center to collect her equipment.
Bo was left to take the walk of shame, alone, back to her car. "Unbelievable. Un-frickin'-believable," she muttered to herself at least fifteen times along the way.
"Dang girl, look at this mess!" Hale rolled the dead goblin onto his back.
"What did you want me to do, let them swallow me whole?" Lauren asked.
"If it's cleaner!"
Ciara stepped between them. "Is there someone we can call to take care of this?"
"Yeah, I have a dude on a Fae cleanup crew that owes me a favor. We use them for police gigs. But we'll need to pay big time to keep them quiet, and that's gonna eat into our profits." Hale shook his head. "Damn girl, you couldn't just strangle the guy. You had to spill blood everywhere."
Lauren flipped him off.
"Oh, looks like you have a little bit of blood on your sleeve just there," Ciara pointed out.
Lauren frowned. It was her favorite jacket. "Look, you three can handle the this right? I need to go home and take a shower."
"Sure," Dyson patted her shoulder. "Take the rest of the night. You're lucky to be alive, you know. One human, two Fae."
"Yeah, I know." Lauren left her three teammates in the lobby and walked out into the chilly night air. She definitely needed a shower. A cold, cold, cold shower.