Black Cat, White Moon
Chapter Four
Betrayal In the Dark
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Watching at the window
The ledge which we provide
There's someone up above me
There's someone scratching softly
Little monsters in the chimney
All black and stained with soot
Come creeping to my bedroom
And lead me here to sleep
Dancing in your darkness
Dancing in your fear
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Reid and Gideon stared at each other in the darkness. Reid could barely make out the gleam of his boss's eyes in the pitch dark. JJ, frightened as any human being would've been in this frigid and grasping blackness, was clutching at his hand, her nails pricking his skin. Emily huddled up against their main boss, Agent Hotchner. Morgan had his arm around their computer geek, Garcia.
Somehow, the pitch blackness, the tenebrous night, pressing in on them all, nearly suffocating them, brought a deep and unshakable fear into their hearts, an aching, grinding, bone chilling fear, a terror that gnawed at their souls like rats. Something was coming, something with teeth, something with a thousand eyes, something prowling the halls with murderous intent, something hungry. It was coming, coming soon.
"Gideon," Hotch whispered. "Do you know something about this?"
Gideon stared at his ex-boss, as Hotch stared back at his old second-in-command. Gideon thought hard, scenting the air as his brain whirred frantically, trying to figure out what was happening, and if it could be who he thought it was. Could it be Razielle? The little one, the little child he had bounced on his knee, the girl who had twisted and warped into the lethal jungle cat who thirsted for human blood like some rabid thing? Was she the one prowling the halls, hunting for them like they were prey, and she the predator?
"I don't know," Gideon whispered, and looked at the humans – pure humans, all of them, save himself, Hotch, and one other, though the one other knew it not – and wondered if they were all going to die. Because the one person he could not fight, the one person he could not kill, was the Lady Razielle, daughter of the Marquis and the Lady Shekinah.
No matter how much he hated her. No matter how necessary it would prove to be if he wanted to save Reid's life.
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If your love is marred by anger
Perhaps it wears a mask
And underneath those hollow eyes
A prisoner is cast
Once we have a promise
Twice we have a curse
Three times is impossible
And four times even worse
Once we have an accident
Twice we have a fault
Three times is delinquent
And four times is the fall
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Razielle slipped through blackness, a carnivorous mermaid through midnight waters. Jackal was a reassuring weight in her palm. The leather of her black gloves, freshly donned, was cool against her skin. Her black leather pants hugged her legs tight, and her black suede boots stepped soundlessly along the tile floor. Her leather corset clung to her torso, keeping her streamlined, keeping her the slimmest of shadows in the dark. She felt the darkness brushing against her skin, a lover's caress. She tasted blackness on her tongue, savored the scent of it. And always was that smell, that intoxicating smell that flared along her body like fire, burning her.
Spencer Reid.
BANG!
A blinding flash of pain in her chest. She looked down, staring stupidly at her torso. The pale woman could see dark blood gushing down her front from a tiny hole in her chest, right between her breasts. Razielle brought her hand up behind her and felt around the edges of the raw, gaping hole in her back. Her shirt was ruined. And man, did it hurt.
"Wha… what?"
"Say goodnight, nightingale," a soft, tender voice whispered. Her head jerked up, and she saw the Night himself sighting down the barrel of a gun aimed straight at her. She whispered, "Sebastian… what are you – "
BANG!
Her entire body convulsed, and she gasped, falling straight back and hitting the tile floor with a thud. Blood bubbled up from the hole in her throat, welled up from between her lips. She blinked, writhed, realizing she had dropped Jackal and flailing around to find it, grabbing the handle just as Sebastian's foot came down on her wrist hard.
"Dragon said you took too long. Besides, he knew you could never kill your own romejul. And you've been getting on his nerves for a very long time." The Night looked down into Razielle's fear filled eyes, knowing that at least one word had penetrated her pain filled mind: romejul. In relation to one person: Spencer Reid. Yes, let her understand that, before he killed her now ex-mark. Let her understand just what Dragon had wanted her to do.
"Sebastian," she whispered, the blood gurgling in her throat. "Please, don't hurt him…."
"Not him, right? Anyone but him, right? Anyone but Spencer, your precious Spencer, your romejul? Anyone but him, right, Razielle?"
"Please…." She whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks. "No… no…."
"Yes," he hissed, grinning wickedly, and shot her twice in the chest.
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I will stay here
If you believe
I will remain
If you believe
When I sleep I dream in billions of colors...
Billions of colors, am I not real?
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Reid stared up at Gideon with terrified eyes from the floor, where he lay prone on the floor, clutching his chest. Agonizing pain, as if someone had drilled a hole through his heart, throbbed through him, and he felt as if someone had clawed their way around his spine.
"G-Gideon…."
"Reid! Reid, what's wrong?!"
Reid tried to answer, but couldn't get the words out past the slashing hurt in his throat. He clutched at his throat, trying desperately to speak. He knew, he just knew, that something horrible had happened. He had an image in his mind of a panther lying in a pool of blood, her emerald eyes glazed with pain, reaching out to him with one outstretched paw.
"Reid!"
"P-panther…."
BANG!
Emily screamed, clutching her shoulder as blood seeped through her fingers. The lock on the office door hung from the rest of the door by a few splinters of wood. Slowly, the door creaked open, and Reid knew that whatever had hurt the panther of his dreams, it would do more than hurt him.
Without thinking about it, Reid's mind cried, Razielle!
Spencer!
"Well, well. Found you at last," a midnight voice oozed from the doorway, and suddenly the team could all see what stood in the doorway, the gun in its hand aimed right at the prone Reid's forehead. "Say goodnight, lover boy."
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Dear angel
Where are your warming wings tonight?
It's so cold outside
Won't you hold me for a while
And angel
I feel alone and un-alive
The night is frozen
And these tears have stung my eyes
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The songs quoted here are Monsters (quote 1), Tears (quotes 2 and 3), and the Dying Song (quote 4), all of which are done by the Cruxshadows. They're my favorite band.