(To my faithful readers, Im sorry I have taken so long to update but I have had house guests which has cut down on my internet time dramatically. But to make up for the wait this chapter is twice as long as a standard one. I do hope you enjoy and please let me know what you think. Precious)
Tim smiled as his coffee and large chocolate cupcake was brought to him. He really should remember this bookstore. He couldn't remember being here before and yet parts of it seemed familiar.
The sun shone in through large windows onto inviting looking soft worn leather armchairs. Large shelves of every book he had ever wanted to read, lined the walls while the smell of coffee, timber, type writer ribbon and paper filled the air.
There was an excellent café in the middle of the bookstore serving everything he ever liked to eat. Soft bean bags and pillows lay scattered across thick rugs on the richly polished timber floor. A woman laughed softly in the distance sounding like tinkling silver bells and Tim could swear he could smell his Grandmothers perfume. A friendly old Labrador came up for a pat and wagged his tail at Tim before wandering off to make a bed among the sun warmed bean bags with a snuffle of contentment.
An attractive woman smiled at him and offered him a manicure from the table where she sat buffing her nails, in front of an assortment of hand creams, cuticle pushers, nail clippers and files. Tim declined with a friendly nod before looking around the extremely large room.
Scrolled timber ladders leaned up against the large shelves to assist in getting to the higher placed items. In the distance a massive fireplace burned in a dark corner and several teenagers laughed and toasted marshmallows over the flames while telling ghost stories.
A large bright chalk board on the wall advised on free lectures that were to be held during the day on various topics like Leonardo DaVinci, String Theory, Scouts and how they have changed America, Advanced Computer Metaphysics and an open forum on the book Moonstone and its place as the first detective novel.
A dozen scattered crystal prisms hanging in the windows caught the sunlight and splashed bright colors across the walls. Inside each prism seemed to be small moving figures that again seemed familiar. Tim wanted to look closer to see what the figures were doing but a sense of dread prevented him from taking the step.
It seemed a rather strange bookstore now that Tim thought about it
Somewhere he could feel something tugging at him and he closed his eyes and started to concentrate on it. It was somewhere else. It was cold. Dark. Dante was there…..and there was someone..something else. Tim pushed deeper, his curiosity encouraging him further. Excruciating pain suddenly washed over him and he nearly buckled to his knees, breathless. He felt a strong hand clamp down on his shoulder and suddenly he was back in the bookstore and friendly eyes were looking down at him.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Tim gasped and shivered as he tried to stay calm from the flood of emotions that had just surged through him. Pain. Anger. Loss. Frustration. Terror. Fear.
"What was that?" Tim burst out as he felt himself shudder trying to rid himself of the sensation and return to the rather happy numbness he had been experiencing previously.
Chris Pacci smiled down at the young agent and shrugged sadly.
"That my young friend is you dying very slowly and in agonizing pain. I wouldn't recommend it."
Tim stared as his brain slowly started to recover itself.
"Agent Pacci? But…you're dead! I saw you down in autopsy…..I took the photos of the elevator where you were all sliced open."
Pacci interrupted with a grimace and held up his hands. "Ok ok I really don't need that image in my head. Look I know this is a bit of a shock but .."
Tim paled "I'm dead? This is it? But I'm in a bookstore? Aren't I?"
Pacci smiled and sat down at the table next to Tim, quickly turning and ordering a latte from one of the ever present helpful waiters.
He smiled "Sorry about that, I thought I might be here a while and I haven't had a decent coffee in years, minutes, whatever. Bit hard to tell the passing of time up here."
Tim nearly reached over and strangled the long dead NCIS Agent himself.
"And where is here exactly?"
"Well this is like a waiting room. You are waiting to be judged. Good, bad, immediate re birth, waiting for your soul mate that sort of thing. I must say the place you created is great. Nice detail, very relaxing."
Pacci's perfect latte arrived and he took an appreciative sip
"Ahh that hits the spot. Perfect. My waiting place was my favorite old bar back in DC. But what I found relaxing after a long week at work kind of got on my nerves when I was there all the time. It's dark and smoky and the juke box is broken and the bar food is simple and pretty terrible. Yours is great. Clean and bright, nice food, books, conversation, nice people."
Pacci looked around thoughtfully "My place has strippers though. Feel free to come over whenever you like. It would be nice to have a visitor. I didn't really have a lot of friends and family when I was alive, too much into the job you know? But it means I don't have many people to visit up here. As soon as I heard an NCIS Agent had turned up, I knew I had to come over. Must admit I figured it would be Gibbs or that DiNozzo the way they always seem to get into trouble though."
Pacci took another sip of his coffee and continued his pleased ramble while Tim tried to process being not dead but not apparently being alive either.
"By the way thanks for getting that red headed bitch that killed me. I bet you guys were as surprised as I was to find out she was a man. Wow. Thought I had seen some things but I did not see that one coming. Actually this will be great, you could come and have a few drinks with me. There is this six foot blonde that would love you. Seriously she is a sucker for nice guys like you. The best bit about being up here is you can drink as much as you like and you never get any hangovers."
Pacci laughed good naturedly and ordered a toasted foccacia and a fluffy blueberry muffin while Tim looked devastated.
"Kate?" he asked hesitantly
Pacci smiled "Sorry kid. She barely waited. Straight to Catholic Heaven for her. Although I think she was wrangling for a re birth. Wanted to be where the action was. Not much of a sitting around kind of girl. And I would imagine she got it too. When she wanted to she could really argue."
Tim struggled to wrap his mind around everything while the door bell chimed and people came in and books were brought and the sun shone in the windows and everything seemed so normal. But something was wrong. Seriously wrong and when he realized what it was he was shocked he hadn't felt it earlier.
Dante was gone. The connection that Tim had in one way or another felt in his mind since the night that they had joined was gone. Tim felt overwhelmed with loneliness and it frightened him more than the idea that he was essentially dead. He was alone.
"So this is it? I'm dead? But I didn't even have a chance to say good bye."
Pacci shook his head, wiping the muffin crumbs from his mouth.
"Oh you're not dead. Not yet. You're dying. You are currently in the middle of the process. The most painful bit unfortunately for you. No swift quiet death for you. For some reason you seem to be taking a lot longer to die than is normal. But that's ok just stay here and you won't feel most of it."
Tim's eyes sparked with hope.
"So there is still a chance? I'm not dead yet?"
Pacci shook his head "Oh no don't start getting any crazy ideas. You have been shot multiple times. You are as good as dead. You might as well get used to it. The only thing to go back for is pain. Lots of it. And then you will simply end up back here anyway. Take this place as a blessing."
Tim stood up and shook his head. "No no I want to fight, I want to say goodbye. Dante….he will be going insane. He might do something stupid. Abby and the others in the lab, something was going on. The men who shot me were still there. They weren't safe. I have to help them"
Pacci looked at him sadly "I'm sorry kid but your rescuing days are over. I know it's hard but you are going to have to leave it to the others now."
Tim refused adamantly "No. This can't be the way it all ends. I have seen too many things I thought impossible happen. This is NOT going to be my fate"
At his words an earthquake seem to hit the bookstore and there were shouts of alarm as a tremor made the books start to fall from the shelves, cups fell to the floor shattering loudly and the floor seemed to heave. The air was filled with a loud wave of creaking, tearing, rattling sounds as objects battled against themselves to stay upright. A small table fell over and slid unnaturally across the floor while a chandelier tossed and tinkled against the ceiling. Bright beams of light seemed to pierce the crystal prisms in the front windows and they exploded outwards shattering images and tiny sharp shards into the room.
Pacci stood up from the table, clamped his hands over his ears and tried to keep his balance.
"It's wait for your fate or experience the full pain of your death McGee. You're human. I'm sorry, there can be no other choice." Pacci shouted over the chaos while Tim shook his head defiantly.
"If it means I might have a chance to say goodbye then I choose the pain."
Tim closed his eyes and shut out Pacci and the smell of the books and bright sunlight and searched out the dark connection he had felt earlier and burrowed deeper inside it. Deeper inside himself. In a split second Dante's reassuring golden presence was back in his mind and Tim could feel Dante's own pain, terror and shame at not being able to protect his precious Companion.
"Beloved?"
Dante cried out joyfully as his beautiful boy returned to him and the link between them burned like molten silver and gold.
Suddenly Tim threw back his head and screamed in pain as the darkness washed over him once again. It was too much. Again and again he screamed as he writhed in Dante's arms. His entire body felt like it was being ripped apart piece by piece and every last molecule in his body was being re written into some foreign code. Searing white light flooded his mind until he lost all sense of who he was and who he had been. He was being forged into something new and with that came a new name.
He was Angelus.
*******************************************************************
"I will keep him mortal if I can"
Dante gathered his powers and flashed them out of the smoking lab to the only other being he had ever met in his long history that was more powerful than himself.
He had stumbled on Scyrus the first time when he was still young and full of blood lust. With his predatory senses screaming at him to attack this other dangerous creature he had paused knowing that whatever he did would mean his death. Scyrus had bowed and complimented him on his control and asked him his name. When Dante had hesitatingly given it Scyrus had vanished.
They stumbled into each other in their travels around the world over the long centuries several times. Although they rarely spoke to each other there was a sort of mutual respect. Scyrus had complimented him last time on surviving to live for long enough to develop and control his powers.
Dante had eventually learned that Scyrus was a demi god and that no one knew how old or powerful he was. He could appear in many shapes and forms but he seemed to prefer to appear as an old man with flowing beard and bright intelligent eyes. He had appeared throughout human history where a deal was struck and the almost impossible happened. A battle was won where it should have been lost, a flood was re directed around a town, a famine was turned into a bountiful harvest, an impossible child was born.
Scyrus made deals in the most precious of commodities. Your soul.
Dante was determined. He would bargain whatever he had to keep his Timothy alive. He would live in happiness until Timothy's final mortal day and then Scyrus could take what was left of his soul and his immortal powers and do what he would wanted them.
With Timothy dead, Dante wouldn't care anyway. Without his companion's regular touch of mind, body and soul he would only return to his natural ancient state of cold vampiric unfeelingness as he again became increasingly distant from mortals and their modern world. Eventually there would come the day when he simply grew tired of existing and went through the process of unbecoming.
Scyrus had to help him. How could he not when offered such a rare and powerful gift? Vampires rarely cared enough about anything to offer up their powers to anyone. If Scyrus would not or could not save Timothy from death then Dante had only the choice he had said he would never make. To make his beloved mortal companion a vampire.
Could he face the look of revulsion on his beautiful boy's face as he realized what he had done and what he had taken away from him? Could he stand and watch his sweet Timothy, mad with blood lust feeding on innocents? Tearing the flesh from the bones of a young terrified girl? Defenseless children? Destroying the very qualities that Dante adored in his gentle wide eyed companion? Would he be able to face his adored companion snarling and raging against him? Could he wait and hope that eventually over time Timothy, like he had done would be able to return to a semblance of human nature? Or would Timothy become like his once gentle Jane before him and have his sweet and tender nature become twisted through his new abilities, creating a revenge driven power hungry force for destruction?
Could he choose that agonizing fate for both of them over death?
No. Scyrus first. His own soul he could trade freely. Timothy's he could not.
"SCYRUS! I, Dante demand an immediate audience"
Dante screamed out his request into the dark cold stone cavern as terror made him heartless and his Timothy lay still and bloody in his arms. Dante couldn't feel the connection that had always been between them and it horrified him. He knew that Timothy lived and his heart still beat against all odds but it was faint and growing fainter with every second.
There was a flash and massive tarnished metal doorway appeared in the solid rock, worked through with runes and protective incantations in still bright flashing gold.
"FILTH!" Cried a small blue and green gatekeeper demon and he spat and danced angrily in front of Dante, blocking his path.
"I demand you take me to Scyrus immediately. There is a soul debt to be bargained and I.."
"VILE REFUSE" screeched the demon, warding the large iron door further with muttered incantations and baring his rows of needle sharp teeth at Dante in disgust.
Dante nearly exploded the demon in frustration.
"What are you taking about? I am Dante. Scyrus knows who I am. I demand entrance NOW"
"ABOMINATION!" Sneered the demon and he jabbed at Tim's arm with his long spear.
"What are you talking about?" Dante effortlessly hurled the demons spear away into the darkness with the barest flick of his mind.
"ANGEL FILTH!" The demon screamed and saliva sprayed over his scabbed and rough skin.
Dante picked the skinny, knobbly demon up by the neck and shook him hard.
"Answer me!"
The small demon gurgled in rage and his eyes bulged as he rasped.
"You cannot bargain for an angel's soul, stupid blood sucker. Take him away, he is polluting our caves. Even you stink of his filth. You have been drinking his blood haven't you? He has made you crazed."
"What are you taking about? Timothy is human, you demented hell spawn and he is dying."
"Good. One less of the.. " spat the demon and Dante roared and his black leathery wings spread in anger as he choked the demon in one hand while cradling Tim's limp form against his body with the other.
Suddenly the demon laughed nastily and Dante flung him with disgust to the rock floor.
"You honestly don't understand what he is, do you? Surely you could taste it when you took him? He doesn't taste like other humans does he? That because he's angel touched."
"Angel touched?" Dante thought furiously, wondering if this was some strange stalling tactic on behalf of the gatekeeper demon. Gatekeeper demons were useless except for one thing, defending the doorways they were bound to. In this one task they were exceptional and had been known to create traps, mazes, riddles and complex tasks to prevent someone they didn't want to proceed to pass through their gates.
The demon sighed dramatically and looked up at Dante with a look of great suffering.
"Angels. Throughout history there is always one or two that screw up so badly they get banished out of Heaven and sent to live as mortals in the world. They are essentially human and they get born and they die and feel pain and blah, blah, everything else but their blood is angelic. It flows through their bloodlines into their descendants. It's rare but it is there, scattered throughout the human gene pool over thousands of years and endless generations. Once in a generation two separate angel bloodlines converge into one and the pure blood line is stronger within that person. Essentially though the actual person doesn't know anything about it. It is dormant. It takes magic to awaken the bloodlines."
Dante's eyes widened as he remembered the first time he had drunk from Timothy and the euphoria he had felt at the taste of him. He had felt the fizz and the thrill of his blood, the surge of emotions that had almost over whelmed him, the shock of impact between them unlike anything he had ever felt before as his magic had entered Timothy's body and his blood.
Was this why? All this time his precious companion who dreamed of angels at night and worked to bring justice to the helpless during the day was actual a descendant of fallen angels?
More and more things seemed to become clear. Timothy's rapid healing when he was hurt, his unexpected strength, his speed, even the white dove talking to him. All those things that Dante hadn't been able to explain and had not been present in the Companions lore.
Dante was shocked but suddenly euphorically hopeful. Perhaps his Timothy might still live?
The demon again tried to jab at Tim with another spear muttering curses under his breath.
"Take him away! I don't want some angel hatchling at my gate. I will never live it down. My gates seals with be soiled forever with his scent and I will have to leave these caverns. Take him away!"
Suddenly Tim opened his eyes and Dante felt Tim's awareness once again surge through his own. He delighted in the sensation and cried out in joy.
"Beloved!"
Tim who had been limp and unresponsive arched his back and screamed out in pain. With their connection reestablished Dante could feel the pain his Little One was suffering and he anguished.
"What is wrong? What is happening? If he's an angel then why is he in so much pain?" Dante gently lay Tim down on the ground and watched in helpless distress as Tim mindlessly started to tear and claw at the bloody remaining scraps of his shirt and once he had removed that, started to claw his nails into his own skin.
The gatekeeper demon sneered.
"Do you know nothing for living thousands of years, blood sucker? He is a human whose angel bloodline has been awoken through your magic and now that he is dying the final transition is happening. He will suffer like few others before him. He will be part human, part angel and since he is bonded to you a small part vampire as well. His flesh was not made to hold such opposing forces together. He is being torn apart from the inside"
Dante knelt beside Tim on the ground and gathered him into his arms as he watched in horror as Tim's flesh seemed to bubble and move as if pulled from beneath his own flesh. The many bullet holes across Tim's chest rapidly healed up and expelled their bullets to fall to the ground with a metallic clatter. Large welts formed on his shoulders and then burst into strange rapidly growing buds. Dante threw back his head and keened his fear and pain into the echoing rock caverns while the gatekeeper demon sulked and moaned.
Dante closed his eyes and flooded Tim with strength and love and hope through their bond. He could feel Tim changing and writhing in his arms but he could also feel him changing in his mind. Mortal fears and pain burned away to be replaced with silver white light. He could feel part of Timothy dying and slipping away from him and he mourned.
Timothy? My Beloved Companion? Please stay strong. I cannot live without you.
Dante clutched Tim to his chest and wept red tears of blood which fell and stained the snow white feathers sprouting from the now bony growths coming from Tim's shoulders.
Tim's screams slowly died away into silence and Dante waited anxiously, clinging tightly to their bond as if it were an actual rope which might pull Tim out of the darkness. Even if he survived this transition would this new Timothy be his Companion still?
Oh my Dark Angel…how could you fear such a thing?
Dante felt a flush of warmth and love wash over him and he opened his eyes to see his beloved but pale Companion smiling up at him, his eyes now bright grass green. Instead of laying on a rough cold stone floor Tim was surrounded by a mass of soft white feathers. In the dim light of the stone caverns he seemed to glow with a soft white light.
Tim reached up a trembling hand and cupped Dante's cheek with his hand. The transition and pain had left him as weak as a new born kitten and Dante pulled him in even closer into his embrace and flooded him with strength as he kissed his Timothy's soft lips once again.
The two mythical beings lay together wrapped in an embrace, black clawed leather wings arched protectively over soft feathered wings while the gatekeeper demon moaned and complained bitterly about the disgusting angel smell.
Tim pulled back, his head spinning at the love and desire in Dante's kiss. He felt strange. Good. But strange. Not really like himself but somehow right. The strength that Dante fed him was starting to take affect and he was feeling less shaky and stronger, more alert. His stomach was starting to settle down after being clenched tight from the pain of dying….Wait? He had died? Part of him had. He had felt it. Pacci? He had seen Agent Pacci somewhere in all that to. Was he in a cavern? Or a bookstore? What the hell was going on?
He blinked and moved and felt a pull at his shoulders. Hesitatingly he reached down beside him and stroked the soft feathers while Dante smiled adoringly down at him.
"Wings? I have …wings?"
Dante suddenly laughed joyfully at the confusion on his companions face. Once again his companion had surprised him. An angel. He had been drinking angel's blood all these months. No wonder Timothy had seemed like a drug to his senses.
Dante placed his hands on either side of Tim's face and kissed him again hard, the sense of loss still sharp in his heart.
"And what is wrong with wings? All the best creatures have wings Timothy"
Tim sat up and blushing, preened and stroked his new wings, smoothing the feathers instinctively into place, pleased with how they seemed to obey his touch before he suddenly stopped and turned to Dante with a worried, anxious look on his face.
"I'm part angel? What does that mean? Do I have powers like you do? Can I still die or am I immortal like you? It's just …..I mean…… I'm not sure what to think about first. Or in fact if I want to think about any of it. I think I died and yet here I am talking to you? How is that even possible?"
Dante squeezed him reassuringly and kissed Tim's sweet smelling hair.
"I want to take you home and just lay down with you in your bed and try to answer all your questions. But I fear we do not have the luxury of time. If you think you are feeling well enough then I think we should go to your friends. Something was happening. I destroyed the people who shot you but it was too easy. Someone planned to trap me in my coffin so I could not help you. There must be a reason for it and I fear your friends might be in danger"
Tim's head suddenly shot up and all the clamoring thoughts in his head cleared as one image stood clear. Abby screaming and Tony trying to reach him and Gibbs and Ziva being restrained by the gun men.
Tim scrambled to his head urgently "yes , yes we must go.."
Dante caught Tim as he stumbled, tripping over the great weight of the snowy white wings he now sported from his shoulders.
"Ok well that is going to take a bit of getting used to"
Tim frowned embarrassed over his own new awkwardness. He had only just got used to his old body and now it seemed he had a new one to get used to.
"Are you ready?" Dante quickly pulled Tim into his arms and collecting up his sword in one hand gathered his power to flash them back to the lab.
"Considering they are about to have a vampire and an angel suddenly appear in the lab I hope THEY are ready"
Tim bit his lip anxiously as questions whirled through his brain. Would his friends be fine or had they already been hurt? How much time had passed since they had left the lab? Would they still accept him as Timothy McGee, their friend or consider him a freak? How much of him was angel and how much was still human? Would he still be able to work with NCIS or was he doomed to idle away his daylight hours waiting for Dante to wake? Who tried to kill him in the first place and why? Was it Dante they were really trying to hurt?
Tim felt the lurch in his stomach that told him he was moving and knew that what ever happened all his questions where going to be answered soon.