Chapter Three Summary: The Saints and Romeo are freed from prison, thanks to Smecker, who sets them in a hotel. After Romeo goes to bed, some truths are reviled by Murphy. He tells Connor that Anna had tried to rape him all those years ago. Connor is enraged, though it didn't happen, and vows to kill Anna. They go bed and the next day, Murphy has a bad feeling. He finds to his horror that Connor has been taken... by Anna...

AN: So here's your angsty Connor and your Murphy of pissed-off-epicness.

Demons of Saints

Prizes and Memories

By Candra Hastings

A gentle sound of footsteps woke Connor. Still drowsy from his deep sleep, his eyes hadn't adjusted to the dark. He sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Now, he could make out the shape of a person standing in his doorway to his bedroom.

"Murph?" he mumbled, sleep still coating his voice.

"Try again," the most horrible voice that could've spoken said.

Instantly, Connor was wide awake. She was here. How could she be here? His first thought went to Murphy. Was his brother alright? Had she done anything to him? Had she taken him again, and if she had, what was going to happen to him?

He moved to get up when he heard the cocking of a gun. "If you move, I'll have my man in the other room kill your brother. And I would hate for that to happen. He's still so cute after all this time. Both of you are."

Connor wouldn't dream of endangering Murphy. He stopped moving instantly, frozen in fear for his brother's wellbeing. He glared at her while the woman came closer to him. "What do yah want?" he asked her as she came into view. "What did yah do to Murph?"

She looked rougher since he'd last seen her. The years hadn't been kind. Her ink black hair that had once been thick and healthy had thinned and lightened. Her ivory skin looked almost sickly and her bones seemed far too prominent. But her eyes, those green orbs, had remained every the same. They held the same hatred and anger that they always had for him.

"I haven't done a thing to him. Yet. What do I want? Revenge for the ten years I spent locked away because of you is one thing. You couldn't just kill me, could you? You had to let me rot. However, that's not the main reason for this," she explained calmly while knocking him over the head with her gun.

She rolled him onto the floor, Connor hitting with a thud, a soft groan escaping from his unconscious form. She pulled his hands behind his back, using a zip tie and duct tape. Finished with binding his hands, she pulled another piece a tape and covered his mouth so he couldn't wake and call for his brother. No, she wasn't ready for that yet.

"I have a bigger prize in mind," she hissed.

B~D~S

Murphy felt the knife puncture his chest all over again. The moment he had realized that Connor had been taken was the only thing comparably painful enough to that moment all those years ago.

He wanted to crawl into a ball and cry. He wanted to wait for Connor to come and make it all better. But Connor wasn't here. He'd been taken by the person who terrified Murphy more than anyone else in this world. Connor wasn't coming back. That is, unless Murphy went to get him.

The very thought of losing Connor or leaving him to suffer like Murphy had all those years ago spurred him into action. It was an unacceptable thought. He found his cell phone in Connor's room and searched the contacts for the number he hadn't called in years. It rang once... twice...

"Hello, you've reached the voice mail of Paul Smecker-"

Murphy growled as he shut off the answer machine. Smecker wasn't going to be able to help them this time. And after Greenly... Murphy couldn't force himself to get Dolly and Duffy involved with someone as dangerous as Anna.

That meant he was on his own.

Murphy felt eyes on him. He whipped around to find Romeo reading Anna's letter. "Who wrote this? Where is Connor? What the hell is going on?" Romeo ranted.

Oh, Murphy didn't want to tell him the stories. He didn't want to speak of his horrible past, or of his scars and fears. He didn't want to let the dreadful words that would change his and Romeo's friendship leave his lips. He didn't want Romeo to give him that look of pity that he would receive once his friend found out that he was a victim.

But he needed Romeo to know, because he needed Romeo's help to find and rescue Connor. And Murphy would give anything, even sacrifice his pride, sacrifice his life, to save his brother.

Murphy sighed and shifted his weight, his fear for Connor's life overcoming his awkwardness. "Rome, there's some things I need to talk to yah about."

Usually, Romeo would've been short with his side of the conversation, but he could hear a defeated tone to Murphy's voice that stopped his rude nature. "What's going on, Murphy?"

"You asked where Connor was. He's been taken," Murphy explained, voice breaking.

Romeo's face became dark. "Well, then we gotta find him."

Murphy let himself smile a little. It was good to know they had such a loyal friend and that he wasn't alone to deal with this. "You also asked about who wrote the letter. She's the one who took Connor. Her name is Anna."

"And who the hell is she? And how do you guys know her?" Romeo asked.

"She's-"

At that moment, Murphy's phone chimed. He pulled it out and opened the text message from Connor's phone that he'd received. His skin crawled as he eyed the screen. He hadn't even known that Connor had kept that picture...

Romeo noticed that his friend had frozen, a look of fear coming into his eyes. "Murphy, what is it?"

Murphy almost didn't show him, but he knew Romeo deserved to know. Besides, it would partly answer his question. He handed Romeo the phone and the Mexican looked at it, eyes going wide with what he saw.

"Is this... you?" he asked, eyes not believing what they saw.

A photo of a younger Murphy came up. He was in a chair, hands bound behind his back and ankles tied to the legs of the chair. He was gagged and blood poured from a nasty wound in his hairline. Someone's hand was latched into his hair, slightly longer back then than it was now, wrenching his head back. Still, Murphy glared defiantly back at the camera, an infuriated look in his eyes.

Romeo hated the picture. He'd known something horrible must've happened to Murphy in his past based on all the nights Murphy had cried out in his sleep from terrors, though he hadn't known what. Though he hadn't even met Murphy when the picture had been taken, the helplessness of his friend's predicament bothered him.

Murphy nodded. "That was taken eight years ago," he told his friend. "Anna, the woman I was talking about, was working for a gang who wanted to make Connor and me quit bein' Saints. They threatened Connor and we laid low, but they knocked me over the head while I was out. Took me to torture my brother from a distance."

"By torturing you," Romeo concluded.

Murphy sighed and sank down on Connor's bed. "Yeah. Kept me for three days. They'd call Connor and let 'em listen on the phone while they... did things. They were tryin' to drive 'em mad."

Did things? Did things? Romeo had no idea what kind of things they'd done, and he wasn't going to ask, though he was curious. He just couldn't force Murphy to delve that deep into his horrible past. He was surprised his friend was being as honest about it all as he was.

"But you got away," Romeo pointed out. He must've, because Murphy was sitting right there.

"I did. Cut myself free and called Connor. I got caught, though. Connor came to get me and Anna decided that she was gonna end things. She stabbed me, tried to kill me. Hell, my heart stopped three times by the time we'd gotten to the hospital. At least, that's what Connor told me after," Murphy said honestly.

Romeo couldn't help but stare at his friend. All this time, ever since he'd heard of the Saints, he'd believed them to be like some kind of super heroes. And then he'd actually got to meet them, become their friend. He learned how strong they were and how loyal they were to each other, and even to him. He'd never have thought that he'd almost missed out on not getting to know one of them. To him, for Murphy to have survived three days of hell, he was even stronger than he'd given him credit for.

Murphy noticed his friend's unwavering gaze. He gave a steely one back, refusing to look weak. "Don't, Rome."

"Don't what?"

"Look at me like yah think I'm gonna break. With pity. I don't want it."

Romeo frowned. "I don't pity you, man. I respect you. Dude, you're so tough. I mean, I always knew you and Connor were badasses, but I never really knew how strong you were. Not until now."

Murphy cleared the the lump from his throat. That hadn't been what he was expecting. Still, he felt better knowing that Romeo wasn't going to act weird around him. "Thanks, Rome."

The Mexican nodded. "So that's how you got all your scars?" he asked, not sure if it was his place.

Murphy shrugged. "Most of them. The ones round my wrists and the burns on my neck... The cuts in general and they big one on me chest, yeah. The burn on my arm was from a while ago, though," he admitted, accent getting thicker with emotion.

"What happened there?" Romeo asked about his arm.

"A friend, Con and I got in a shootout. Had to take care of it ourselves. Used an iron."

Romeo didn't say anything for a minuet. Finally, he said, "Don't ever do that to me. Just take me to a hospital like a normal person, okay?"

Murphy smiled a little. "Fine, and I'll visit you in jail, which is where you'd end up after yah healed."

Romeo sat down next to Murphy on the bed. "So how are we gonna find Connor?"

Murphy knew the answer, but he didn't want to say it. "She'll do it like last time. She'll call."

"You think that she'll-"

"Yes, Rome. I know she will. She's going to hurt him. We can't stop that right now. But we're going to find her," Murphy said solemnly. "And then I'm going to kill her."

"You sure that's what you want to do?" Romeo asked him. He knew the Saint rule about women and children. but the cold look in Murphy's eyes was nothing he'd ever seen before.

"It has to end," Murphy said with a finality that couldn't be argued with. "As long as she's alive, Connor and I will never be safe. She'll hunt us until we're dead. This time, it's her or me."

"Connor wouldn't want you talking like that," Romeo admonished.

Murphy snorted. "Yeah, well Connor isn't here, is he?"

"It's not going to do him any good if you get yourself killed by her," Romeo argued. "Connor won't be able to take that. I can't even imagine how he felt when it was you."

"I can," Murphy whispered. Right now, though he had Romeo, he felt very alone, like half of his heart was missing. He was terrified for Connor's safety and Murphy knew that his brother was going to get hurt. He didn't like the fact and he would take the pain for himself if he could, but by accepting the fact, he could prepare for it.

"This is what your nightmares have been about, isn't it?"

"Yeah. At night, when I close my eyes sometimes, I'm there again and those three days start all over," Murphy sighed. "But you know what the worst part is? The end, because it always ends different than it did in real life."

"How does it end?" Romeo asked with surprising gentleness.

Murphy took a breath before continuing. He felt wrong discussing this with Romeo because as much as Murphy loved his friend, he wasn't Connor. Connor, his secret keeper, his brother, best friend, the person who he was supposed to share these things with. But Connor wasn't here and he needed someone...

"Connor comes in to get me, just like what happened, only instead of Anna stabbing me, she stabs him. I have to watch him bleed out on the floor in front of me, and I try to get to him, but I just can't get to 'em an' it's killin' me to keep fightin' but I do anyways. And then his eyes go dark and he's gone, but she's still there. And she laughs, Romeo. She just keeps laughing..."

"We're gonna get him back, Murphy. I know we will."

"Hell yes we will," Murphy snapped. "No one takes my brother."

Before Romeo could reply, the phone clutched in Murphy's hand rang, causing them both to jump. Murphy looked at the screen, and he already knew, but seeing Connor's name flash on his phone, knowing it wouldn't be his brother on the other end was awful.

Romeo watch his friend take a deep breath, obviously terrified. He couldn't image how Murphy must be feeling. Sure, he'd had psycho ex girlfriends in the past, but nothing like what Murphy had dealt with. And what was worse, as much as he loved his twins, they weren't his family. He couldn't possibly fathom the dedication, the loyalty that those two held for each other.

And now, it was being used against them in the most painful way possible, for the second time.

Murphy breathed. He had to be strong. He had to keep it together for Connor. He knew what he would do. He would answer that phone. He would speak to his demon and ask her what the hell she wanted from him. He would find his brother, or die trying.

And then, a memory came to mind. When he'd woken in the hospital after Connor had saved him, his brother had told him what had happened while he was passed out.

"I couldn't... I couldn't kill her. I killed every man in that building, but I couldn't kill Anna. She's a woman. We promised to not do that, so..."

Murphy had respected his brother for that. For not being able to kill the bitch, even after everything. He knew Connor had wanted to, but he'd put his vow before his selfish wants. His brother was a good person, a whole person with no cracks.

Murphy wasn't going to be able to be as good as Connor when he found her. Cracked people could do that.

He answered the phone, murder in his heart and Connor on his mind.