Arc One – Baby Steps

Chapter One: Homework

A week had passed in an instant to the young incubus, without his friends and feeling apathy settle in the red haired young man slept almost constantly. When he wasn't sleeping he was laying sprawled on the eye glued on the static screen; he had given up trying to find something that didn't remind him of his friends of his Cam. The one reminder he couldn't bring himself to remove was the necklace, though its weight seemed to drag the incubus straight to the floor he couldn't seem to rid himself of it.

It was the few ties left to the boy whose last words were I love you and whose' last touch was a right hook. Even now the bruise from the punch had completely faded to his natural pale tones, compliments of his incubi blood. it was on the eight day off mopping that a stack of newspapers and his fathers journal landed on the coffee table.

"What's this?" Sasha's voice was thick and unfamiliar even to himself.

"This," Shi gestured to the pile, "Is what you wanted to do."

"What?"

"I will not allow you to simply fade away because you're depressed. You wanted to hunt, so hunt."

Sasha felt a groan begin to rise in his throat but when he saw the fierceness in his aunt's gaze it died as a whimper. Sitting up right Sasha pulled the papers towards him, for a moment he questioned where Shi had managed to get so many different newspapers; literally one from every corner of the state. Then it occurred that he probably didn't wanna know. Spreading the thin pages wide across the coffee table and quickly ripped through about five with nothing of mention.

The next two papers looked promising, both were from the same town not far from Seattle one was the regular paper and the other was the weekly special. However both papers bore nearly identical covers and headlines. The middle third of the pages was dominated by a grainy picture of a school, even through the poor quality picture Sasha could see that it was a large old building and had a certain menace to it. The headline above reads, "Still no reason for five comatose students", the young incubus had to admit it was the weakest headline he had ever read but it also caught his attention.

He began to pour through the articles: 'Last Friday several members of the football team of the Hillcrest Demons became violently ill during the game and have since slipped into a coma. Quarterback Nate Capra, Center Matt Hughes, Running back Reggie Jackson and linebackers Derek Scott and Trey Michaels', all become ill at different parts of the game. What was originally thought of as food poisoning was quickly ruled out as most of the team as well as the cheerleaders ate at Phil's Home-Style Dinner.

By the time each ambulance arrived at the county hospital all five members of the team had gone from conscious but continually vomiting to a coma. Despite the reputation of Dr. Marsh and his staff, there is still no progress or any idea as to what really cause this horrific incident. Which nothing to go on and no signs that the illness was caused by something at the high school, the district is forced to reopen this coming Monday.'

The article went on in greater detail but Sasha was no longer was paying attention, he had grabbed his father's journal was began to rifle through the pages. He noticed it read more like a diary then he had been expecting and ever couple of pages there was the phrase "everybody gets one". He could almost remember the way his dad's voice sounded as it said the motto, his family motto, voice caught somewhere between a husky roar and a boyish laugh. Finally it seemed that he had found what he was looking for or at least a few possibilities.

From what little the papers described and the several encounters described by the journal. The first option is that it really is some nasty illness that nothing can be help, if so it's back to the drawing board to look for a new hunt. Option two is that someone from the opposing team was working some kind of a curse against them. Something to take them out of the game but went too far. Option three is what Sasha's father had labeled option 3, ghosts. A note in the journal says, when all else fails look for a ghost, there tends to be one hanging around.

"Aunt Shi!" Sasha cried, "I found something, I think?"

A reply came from the woman's study, "Oh? What did you find Sasha?"

"A couple of sick football players."

"I thought you would like that."

The incubus could feel himself blush, "Why didn't you just give me those then?"

"I just grabbed the others because I knew if I through one at you, you would just shut down on me again."

"Oh."

"So what do you need from me?" She asked as she stepped out into the hallway, a pen tucked behind her ear. The rest of her appearance echoed that of a high powered boardroom director but with the face and body that filled it. Shi looked more like one of those gag stripper-grams that you send to you uptight friends and claim it's an 'important meeting'. Sasha was shaken from the mental imagine of Shi strip-teasing some wallstreet broker when his aunt snapped her fingers in front of his eyes.

"Wha?!"

"I asked what do you need from me?"

The redhead gulped and his tongue stuck to his mouth. "A place to stay."

"Just a place to stay?"

"Yeah, of course why?"

Shi shook her head, "Sasha, you can't just go waltzing into a school especially one you aren't suppose to be at. Here I'll give them a call register them for classes."

"Oh."

Sitting silently on the couch, Sasha listened to voices filter back and forth across the hallway. The first call was a man named Floyd, Sasha could hear the familiar tones that both voices used; when their conversation ended Shin didn't even bother stopping to explain to the plan. But from what Sasha had overheard, Shi had managed to convince the man to put her "younger brother" up for a few weeks while she figures out a more permanent situation; at a reduced rate of course. Now with his aunt on the phone, the redhead really began to marvel at how easily she came up with lies and explanations. She rattled of names and dates and maiden names, when Sasha looked in the door way he found his aunt with a note book full of papers and cards of all sorts.

Aunt Shi noticed that the young incubus had entered the room as she was wrapping up the call. "Well dear I'm very happy my son will be able to have somewhere to go to school right when he gets there. Idle hands you know. "

There was a muffled laugh on the other line.

"Okay dear, well bye-bye now." With the phone in its place she spoke again,"Bet she was a chesty-blond."

"That's not nice."

"No you're right its not but still."

Sasha picked up one of the pages off Shi desk. "What is all this."

"Once Sol and Deklin knew that you where going to be born, they both wanted to do it right." Shi explained "You know they were going after the incubi version of the nuclear family or as close as they could make it. But they both wanted to make sure they got the baby thing right. So when you were born that made sure to go through all the proper channels."

"So what does that mean?"

"It means that you, Sasha Kelly, were born to Deklin and Sol Kelly on December seventeenth. In Grace County Hospital, Michigan and that everything human about you is here in this baby book. I found it in your bedroom when I when to collect your things."

"Oh." Sasha paused, unsure of what to say next. "I guess I should get going."

"Sasha, stop by Red Rose Storage before you go." Shi muttered as she pulled her nephew into a tight embrace. "It's one of you father's old storage places, but be careful I'm sure he's trapped it somehow. Crafty little Irishman."

That was their good bye, no long drawn out hug or tearful smiles just a simple word of advice. Be careful of your father's possibility crazy hunter traps. With that little exchange Sasha found himself walking down on of the long damp street, thanking whatever god controlled the weather that it wasn't actually storming. Opening himself up, Sasha let the emotions of the city crash around him; tension was the strongest one to assault him. Most people don't view being tense as an emotion of its own, normally sexual tension or frustration are considered part of other emotions like love and anger. But to him and his kin, emotion is more like going to baskin robins with the sixty-five different variation; some subtle, others gigantic. Every few minutes Sasha stopped and asked for directions towards the storage unit, it was nice to actually interact with people even if they looked at his hair like it was part of some kind of joke.

Roughly a half hour after leaving the comfort of his aunt's apartment he found himself standing outside of the red garage door of his fathers storage unit. Part Sasha was unprepared for the unfenced, unprotected area, he would have thought his dad would have been smarter then that. Turning the key in the lock the incubus felt his skin prickle with both fear and excitement as he lifted the gate, the shriek of metal on metal not nearly as bad as he expected. As he stepped into the storage room, he found himself trapped by an invisible barrier and Sasha even tried to bash his way through with his shoulder but to no end. Looking around on the ground and the walls but again found nothing. The just a glimpse out of the corner of his eye, Sasha noticed something had been painted on the back of the storage units door.

"What the hell are you?"

It was a simple black circle with a start painted inside it and a second star was painted inside the first. Overall unimpressive, what made even less sense were the random squiggles that filled the space between the larger stars points. A thought occurred and Sasha walked shoulder flush to the edge of his barrier with his eyes focused on the rim of the painted circle, after two passes Sasha was positive this was what has trapping him.

"Crafty little Irishman." Sasha whispered his aunt's words and reached to break the paint. When he found a similar barrier protecting the circle, a pout formed on the incubi's face. This was going so well, Sasha amused himself with his own thoughts; he is on his own for an hour and he end up caught in a trap. He was sure aunt Shi would be so proud of her nephew. Pausing for a moment, the red head tried to reach up again but this time his target was the door itself and when he touched it a triumphant smirk crossed his lips. "Craftier little Irishman."

So with step one out of the way Sasha began to shake the door, listening to the groan of the metal being manhandled. If it wasn't for the fact that he was in more or less broad daylight the redhead would have changed into a form more fitting of ripping the large metal door down. With a firm hold on the garage door he managed to jar the door hard enough to force one of the metal runners off of the back of the contraption, when it fell it took a section of the painted circle with it. Sure of his freedom, the incubus stepped freely into the storage unit his eyes now searching for more of those horrible little circles. According to his father's journal he needed salt and iron, the first was easy to gather and thrust into his canvas bag; the iron weapons on the other hand scared him and even standing a foot away from them his fingers never left the few vials of antidote Shi had managed to scrounge up.

'Use it wisely, only in real need or danger. Not for some paper cut' She explained.

Begrudgingly his internal voice told him he should at least bring something iron it was in the journal after all, so he did he grabbed what amounted to a round pointless fire poker. Now fully stocked the teenage boy exited the storage locker and sealed it shut reminding himself to see if there was anything in his fathers journal about what exactly that circle had been. But now wasn't the time, Sasha stripped his shirt, shoes and his fathers jacket; taking care to stow them in the bag before allowing himself to transform. His jeans tightened but didn't split and Sasha began the obnoxious task of getting his bag on his back, as well as past his wings. After a few minutes to make sure the bag was secure the incubus took flight, his sense of direction much better in the sky then on the ground. He headed west. He headed towards his new life.

A/N: Woot! Starting the first arch! Hope you enjoyed it! Read and Review

-WordDemon