"No."
"Oh, come on! What could go wrong? It's a solid plan, and we'll all be right there in case Red screws it all up!" Kahrin tilted her head, stuffing some taco into her mouth and catching some of the filling in her other hand.
Anders set the spread out on the counter, proud of himself for helping. He forgot, sometimes, that people needed to eat. It'd been a long time since he'd needed food, not normally bothering since he couldn't taste it anyhow.
"Ooh! Tacos!" Carver snapped one up, and Saoirse immediately smacked it from his hand.
"You don't eat, ass."
"I'll eat you if you slap me again."
"Just try it and you'll be dust."
"I'd like to see you try. Besides, I still remember liking them."
"And I remember how bad they made your ass stink."
"Maybe you should have kept your head out from under my ass."
"Maybe you should have watched where you parked your big ass."
"Shit, are they always like this?" Kahrin looked at Anders, her face a mix of incredulous and amazed.
"It's been better since he's changed." Anders shrugged. "They used to not get along."
She snatched the taco out from under the both of them. Not her fault if they weren't paying attention. She was half starving. Three hots and a cot didn't go as far as the City-State liked to make the public think.
"Finn knows where this twitchy portal thing is," she said waggling her fingers and talking around a mouthful of shell and meat. "I figure if we dangle something tasty in front of it then your boy might jump at a chance to get even." She shrugged her shoulder.
Saoirse sat on top of her desk and crossed her legs, dumping hot sauce on a new taco and looking far too perky. She always looked too perky, in her bright colours and sundresses. The giant sunglasses on top of her head held strands of hair out of her face and added to the effect when she narrowed her eyes.
"No, I don't like it. It's too risky." Anders crossed his arms.
"Please. She'll open her gob and he'll rethink anything sinister." Stuffing the rest of the taco in her mouth she hopped down from the counter. "Nice spread, bud," she said, wiping her hands on the backside of her jeans.
"I bet you say that to all the vampires." Saoirse didn't even look up from the Cholula sauce as she said it, short and snippy. "Does your knack to save time by wearing two week's worth of eyeliner at once say it all for you? Or, does that just work on my … brother?" Saorise still spat the last word like it was dirty in her mouth.
Carver didn't even bother hiding his smirk.
"Yeah, well, OK then. Moving along to the part when I don't let you get captured by a revenge-obsessed dude from the past, and you pretend that you can stand me for a moment."
"I'm so comforted that my life could be in the hands of murderer."
"Attempted murderer," Kahrin corrected.
"Of course." Saoirse cocked her eyebrow. "Just so we're clear, any more 'attempting' and it may not go over well with me."
"We won't let anything happen to-"
"You'll excuse me if I've heard that one before." Saoirse set the bottle down heavily, giving pointed glances to Anders, Carver, then finally to Kahrin. "I guess I don't blur the lines as easily as all of you do."
Finn's desk was littered with an avalanche of books and maps of realms with names Kahrin couldn't pronounce and he was using a compass to draw circles over half of them. Every few minutes his brow would shoot up halfway over his head and he would frown, or he would nearly squeal with excitement and dig through the stack and pull out another reference.
Finally he shouted "Eureka!" and they all turned to look at him as he picked up the chart he'd been poring over. "I mean, I think I've pinpointed the location!"
Kahrin smirked with her characteristic eyebrow raised. Watchers and their books.
"Rightey-O then, Finn ol' chap! What's it gonna be? A right jaunt in the park? A promenade in the … shit, how do you talk and take yourself seriously? Where to?"
Every now and again that old child-like excitement in Finn would surface and he'd bounce up and down on his toes. "The Gallows!" he shouted proudly.
They stared at him, blinking.
"Well, yes, I mean, that isn't really happy news," he removed his glasses and began cleaning them, "but I am mostly certain this is where the portal will open."
"I love it when a plan comes together." Kahrin grinned. "Let's go, kids." She slid into her denim jacket, slapping the place where her stake was in the back of her pants.
Carver grabbed her arm. "You aren't going alone," his forehead slid into concern.
"Aww, look at you all concerned. I'm taking your sister and Anders, love."
He scowled. "At least take a real weapon."
"I thought I'd go with my strengths," she smirked. "Besides, I'll have your sister's sunny disposition in my arsenal. Who can fight with that?"
"I'm coming with you to watch your back," he slipped an arm around her waist and frowned.
"Look, liquid lunch, if we all make it back, I'll let you watch more than my back, OK? We don't need any distractions."
"That's not good enough."
"I've got to be the only Slayer in history who has a vampire tailing her because he's concerned for her health. Really, junior, I'm touched."
"You could be."
"We've been over this. You stay here."
He frowned at her deeply once and let her go. "Fine. It's not going to do any good to fight you on this. You're a bit stronger than me." He indignantly stole the last taco and trudged off.
The Gallows had one of those courtyards that sprawled out ostentatiously with the kind of concrete that sparkled even at night and had one of those flashy fountains with creepy statues in the middle of it. Typical of a law firm enough, but one built on an empire of pure evil had it's own special flavor of horrifying statuary.
It was conspicuously near the Boardwalk, which had a suspiciously high crime rate, and was often called the Wounded Coast by locals, but still boasted a lot of vendor food stands. Anders and Saoirse walked along quietly, Saoirse trying in vain to tuck all of the toppings of her Coney dog back into the bun. She could just tell how jumpy Anders was just in the area. If she was honest, Kahrin was too. She was pretty sure her name was on a hit list with their lot. They didn't hire for hits lightly, and when those hit men jumped sides, they tended to frown on that a bit.
With hit men of their own, usually of the fanged variety.
She had no choice but to watch from her vantage point, coiled up behind the lettering of the arcade, curled into the lower curve of the 'C', her crossbow resting on the criss-crossing wires. If she jumped too soon she'd give them away, and if she waited too long they could become the next meal to anything
that was likely to come leaping out of the portal, if this was even where it was going to pop up.
Anders stopped to catch some chili that had fallen out of the foil, and their pace slowed to a still as he wiped it from Saoirse's chin. Kahrin rolled her eyes, because if anyone asked them, they were just co-workers, but the gentle way that Anders moved around her and was cautious of the way he touched her, it was obvious that he was nuts about her. Perhaps not in the "lose my soul because I'm groiny with you" kind, but as the kind of person that would balance him.
The air carried a charge that Kahrin's preternatural senses picked up cleanly, and made the hairs on the back of her neck rise. Like energy jumping across the ground as invisible bolts, it drew her attention firmly as the air seemed to warble.
With a loud crack the air near them parted and swirled, and a hole opened. Out from the hole jumped a man with auburn hair who crouched low, a bow in his hand, jaw clenched and a glare on his overly-pretty face. It couldn't have been any more clear from his lack of modern trends or overly-swoopy hair style that he wasn't from this time. She was pretty sure this was their guy, straight in from the powdered wig days. Or some olden days.
She'd kind of been out that … decade of school.
Kahrin curled her finger around the firing mechanism of her bow and held her breath. She had a perfect shot …
His bright blue eyes zeroed in on Anders almost immediately. Seconds later an arrow flew from his bow and Anders knocked Saoirse out of the way and took the shaft through his hand. A second arrow grazed Saoirse's shoulder as both of them ran in, Anders handing her a short, thin sword from under his coat.
"If anyone comes near you-"
"Like you have to tell me to save my own ass," giving the sword a practice swing, she stayed back as Anders advanced, breaking the arrow off and out of his hand.
At nearly the same moment Kahrin let loose her first bolt, then leapt down to sprint across the concrete in the direction of who she assumed was this Vael clown. She dove at his feel and he turned at the last moment, clubbing her upside the head with his bow.
She stood up and landed her elbow in his chest, followed by a hook to his jaw. It was almost as if he'd been expecting her, because when she spun into a kick, he darted back, nimbly, and nocked another arrow quickly.
Before the arrow ever left his bow, Kahrin was flung forward, prostrate, and she looked up to see Carver standing above her, the arrow meant for her clean through his chest, just above his heart.
Shit.
"I told you to stay away!" She rolled off the ground and gave the man in the long coat chase, who now had quite a bit of distance on her, and she could feel Carver close on her heels. The man was gone before they'd even reached the fountain.
Their surprise was ruined. He'd seen all of them now, and if she knew anything about trackers, a quick glimpse was all he'd need to seek them out again.
"Get her out of here!" She flung an arm in Saoirse's direction. There was no reason to have anyone hurt, any more of them hurt. "God damned stupid vampires playing hero with wooden projectiles flying willy-nilly about. When a splinter could ruin your existence you should be more careful." She rounded on Carver now, who was looking a bit like a party snack on a stick.
"Yeah, well you weren't supposed to be getting your ass handed to you by some really old guy." He reached out to touch the already angry bruise on her temple and she pushed him away.
"It's fine. I heal, and he's getting away!"
Before she could take off again, or worry about the wounds left in anyone, the hole through which Vael had just leapt started to crackle again.
"Get back!" Anders bellowed, seeing a flock of templar-flunkies – the muscles hired by the law firm – pour out just in time to intercept a giant steel crate that was projected from the tear. They kept their weapons aimed trained on the four of them as they tried to back away, linking chains through heavy handles and dragging the crate with them back towards the towering building.
"We need to know what was in that crate." Anders was oddly calm as they walked back, his eyes constantly darting behind them, all around them.
"Who cares about the stupid crate? We lost him. Now we have revenge guy out there running around. I'm sure I'll sleep better." Saoirse rubbed at her shoulder and glared. "Thanks everyone."
Kahrin rolled her eyes. "That was some fancy footwork you did there, chasing him down, Red. You really saved the day."
"Yes, I see how well you stopped him with your head. No wonder all your plans work out so brilliantly. Are you always getting hit in the head like that?"
"Sister." Carver growled it as he pulled the arrow through himself.
"You and your pants stay out of this, Carver."
"Shut your gobs, both of you. Shit. We need to know what else came through." Kahrin was a heart beat from punching both of them, and she'd probably feel bad about one.
"She's right." Anders grumbled. "As much as I'm not thrilled to see Vael, something we know about is less trouble that something we don't. I don't like surprises."
"Yeah, usually 'surprise' ends with a knife in my gut or one of those fun comas. I'll pass. Let's see what my favorite watcher can drum out of those big dusty books."