"They Don't Just Come Out At Night"
Chapter Three: So We're After Pale Human-Sickles?.
"'Ice, ice, baby is only erotic after two or three ice, ice cold beers, baby..."
"Cold, you say?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
The frenzied sound of clacking keys vied for the listener's attention as some strange folksy music sounded. Angela's face was narrowed in scholarly concentration as she entered a few keywords into the Dalai Lama of all search engines...Google.
I spun myself around in the ergonomically-correct office chair a few times as she hmmed-and-clacked her way to the answers we were seeking. The room seemed very blurry by the fourth spin, and the force of gravity seemed to be trying to tip me off the chair so that I'd fall face-first onto the concrete floor. That would not be good for my nose or my self-esteem.
So I attempted to steady myself, sticking out my foot to try and stop the spinning, but like when you're on a swing-set, the first time you put your feet down to brake, it doesn't quite work. You have to do it several times more until the swing---or in this case, desk chair---stops moving. Stupid, nefarious chair...and gravity.
When I finally found myself at a standstill, I felt a little wobbly even though I was sitting down. I vowed not to get distracted by spinning office chairs again. Of course though, I probably forgot that within ten seconds of making the promise. The chairs are just so tempting....
"I've got something," Angela informed me, gesturing at the blindingly white screen. I squinted at it for a minute, trying to decipher the bunched black font face. It said something about Quil...Quileute legend. Where was...?
"They live on the rez in La Push. The tribe, I mean. Apparently this is their lore. It features what they call "cold ones" that haunt the areas around them every so often. It also says though that these cold ones never seem to venture onto the tribe's land, but it doesn't specify the reason for that."
"Does it say anything on how to kill them, or at least any weaknesses we can exploit?" I inquired.
"Well it says their skin is as hard as marble..." I tried not to let that phase me or my currently in-the-gutter-mind, "So maybe if we used something strong enough to cut marble?" Angela finished, frowning slightly. She opened up another window on the browser, and Googled "how to cut marble."
"Hmm, it says silicon carbide blades can cut marble. Maybe we could make you guys some swords or daggers or something," she suggested. "Or can't they cut diamonds with lasers? I have an idea!" she exclaimed suddenly. "Oh my goodness! Eric, Tyler!"
"What's the idea?" I wanted to know.
"Well I was still thinking swords, but what if we could make a gun that shoots out bullets made from the silicon carbide? And maybe attach some sort of laser point to it, in case that's effective. I've seen it done before, the laser I mean, but that's not for cutting it's for accuracy in aiming!" Angela explained. "But we could probably alter that to use it as a weapon."
"I'm sure we could," Tyler chimed in. "A laser scope shouldn't be too hard to set up."
"How quickly do you think we could get something like that together?"
"Well we could get a prototype in maybe...a week? Then if it works out, we'll make more."
"All right," I agreed. "Let's try that. We've got nothing to lose after all."
"Okay so I was thinking we could start by..." Angela said, going over to the blueprint desk, pencil in hand. Tyler and Eric gathered around the table, and I decided it was best just to let them do their thing. Everyone should just stick to what they know, and invention was not one of my many skills, unfortunately.
"So, what'd they say?"
"Something about hard as marble, so then Angela got an idea about using something that cuts marble as a weapon...and yeah basically I think they're on to something," I answered, closing his office door behind me. Emmett was perched in his chair, leaning half-back in it with his feet on the desk.
"Hard as marble?"
"I knew you'd catch that," I teased, going over to stand beside him. "And yes, apparently vampires are."
"That's interesting," he remarked, wiggling his eyebrow suggestively. "I wonder if everything's always hard, if you catch my drift."
"I don't know...I might have to get one in the sack to test out that theory."
He frowned.
"Well maybe not. However, if ever you feel the need to try someone a bit warmer out, baby I'm here for you," he offered, his eyes glinting. I shook my head but smiled. He could be so childish sometimes, but it was oddly refreshing around our lives, with how serious we had to be to do our jobs right. If you goof off on a mission, you could get killed, point-blank.
Pun intended completely.
"Hmm, I was thinking that maybe tomorrow we might have some fun," I replied, twisting one of his curls around my pinky finger. His grin broadened, and I could tell he was definitely imagining said thought of mine. Good. I'm glad, because maybe then he'll want to make it extra special. It is an important night after all.
"Why do we have to wait until then when we could break in my desk...baby?" he trailed off, winking towards the furniture piece in question. I was trying not to believe that he'd honestly not figured out why we'd have to wait, but I was having trouble doing so and keeping quiet about it.
"But tomorrow's such a special night, Teddy, I thought it'd be even better if we waited," I went on, my tone never faltering. I sure as hell hoped he was about to say something to redeem himself, or maybe tomorrow wouldn't be such a special night after all....
"What's so special about it?"
Oh my god. He forgot our anniversary. I want to say I expected that, but I didn't. I just figured since it was a one-year one instead of something hard to remember, like a six-month anniversary or the like, that he might have remembered the milestone. Apparently not. Grr.
Seeing my face, he immediately backtracked, flailing around silently for the words to soothe me, but alas, he didn't exactly strike gold with what he settled on saying.
"Alice baby I am so sorry. I forgot it was your birthday, I swear! I would have gotten you something very nice!"
"Emmett! It's not my birthday, ye big idiot, it's our anniversary!" I exclaimed exasperatedly, removing my hand from his hair and taking a step back. I was not too happy at this point, and he was just digging himself a bigger hole. Honestly, my birthday is on Halloween, and that should be easy enough to remember, seeing as how we already celebrated it this year! I dressed up, he dressed up, we both got dressed down...and played where's the Jack-O-Lantern. Oh dear. Guess I should've known that though, dressing up as a Naughty Nurse that he'd want to go for a game of human Operation. Let's just say he found the spot that makes the buzzer go "Wah!"
"Oh, yeah. I totally knew that...just testing you Ali! Or should I say Mulberry?"
"I'd rather you not, but if you want to sleep on the couch for a month, then by all means go there," I shrugged. It wasn't my problem. He could dig his own grave as deep as he desired.
"Sorry, really," he pouted, giving me that puppy-dog expression that no one could resist. No one, I'm telling you, so I did the safe thing and averted my eyes away from the cuteness. Let me tell you, that was not easy to do. I kind of want to eat him all up when he does that. Not that he'd mind, obviously. In fact, he'd probably reciprocate. Gotta love that in a man...on a man. Wow, I think dating him has actually made me more dirty-minded than I was before. Trust him to pull off a feat like that.
"I may forgive you if you're good," I said. Might just forgive...I looked at his face. Dammit.
Sensing that he was now forgiven, Emmett smiled like usual, and planted a big kiss on me, pulling me back to him. "How 'bout I make it up to you right now, Ali?" he whispered in my ear. I wanted to, but I needed to maintain my control, and screwing him when I was supposed to be pissed-off with his forgetful ass didn't exactly scream authority. Of course, I could always scream "Authority!" but that would be a little awkward....
"Hey so what did they say?" Edward asked as he walked in. I was so happy at the distraction I simply couldn't rein it in.
"I love you Edward!"
"Ohhhhkay, that's nice. When did that happen?" he asked, slightly puzzled as he ran a hand through his bronze hair, just mussing it up more than it already was. At least he knew not to take my outbursts seriously. I mean, I did love him, just not 'in love' with him. He's my best friend.
"You had me just by walking in the door."
"I thought it as 'You had me at hello' or something along those lines?" he commented. I giggled, and Emmett raised an eyebrow, clearly not as enamored of our friend for interrupting his seduction routine. Poor baby, I thought sarcastically. Twenty-four hours is just so long for him to wait.
"Yeah, but who's traditional these days?"
"True. Anyways, what did Angela and the guys say? Are we going to be able to pull this off at all? Catch a vampire or at least kill them?" Edward wondered aloud, taking a seat on the other side of the desk. I knew he liked tradition, however. He was just so ingrained in the past with his habits that sometimes I swore he was born in a different century. Somehow I could picture him in a ruffled shirt and breeches, professing his love in poetry to some blushing young lady. She was sure to eat it all up, or at least I'd read about such things....
"They're thinking of making bullets out of something starting with 'silicon' that I can't pronounce. No Emmett," I clamped a hand over his mouth, "not as in the stuff they make breast implants out of. We're not going to be shooting fake boobies out at the undead." His mouth vibrated against my hand, and I sighed, continuing, "Yes I know how much fun you would find that, but I'd rather not die, even if it be laughing. And I'm sure Edward wouldn't like that either."
"No, not really. Anyways, bullets. Anything else? What'd you guys find out about the vampires themselves, if anything at all?" Edward deflected, raising his own eyebrow in Emmett's direction. Noticing that, I removed my hand from my boyfriend's mouth. I wasn't sure if he was used to breathing through his nose or not, so best just not to suffocate him by any means.
"They were thinking about adding some sort of laser point to these guns, because apparently the laser can cut stuff like diamonds, so maybe it'd work on the vampires. Angela found some old tribal myths about them. We learned that like that scar, they're very cold, and hard as marble, thus why we need laser and special bullets to get the job done. They seem to come out in daylight too, like Carlisle thought, and well...that's all we really know."
"So when will they have the guns up and running?"
"Angela said about a week, but they seemed pretty amped up about making them, so I'd say that it might be less than that," I guessed. Usually they were done with our gadgets before the prospective timeline. Yes, they were just that good. We were so lucky to have our techs, honestly. I've no idea how we'd function without them in our lives, err careers.
"Cool. So what do we do now?"
"Sorry to break up the little conference buuuuuuut...I have a suggestion, Edward," Emmett spoke up. "How about you go home, get some sleep, maybe get laid, and then come back to work? I know you've not been getting much lately, or ever," he added the latter bit under his breath, "So maybe it'd make you more uh, ready for the assignment. Just in case you don't uh...succeed in it and all that jazz," he concluded.
"So let me get this straight, Emmett. You are saying that before I die, which may not even happen, though I do thank you for your enthusiasm," he stage-coughed at that, "that my last hooplah and priority should be getting laid? Seriously?"
"Yeah, that about sums it up."
"You do realize your girlfriend is going too?"
"Hell I'd tell her the same thing if I thought she wasn't coming back. But she's a feisty little minx, she'll survive. Plus, if she does get captured, it won't be to make a meal of her. I'm positive they'll want to keep her. I know I would if I were them," Emmett stated, and I was still trying to decide whether I should be offended by that or not. Choices, choices....
"Oh never mind." Edward sighed, and I didn't blame him. It was almost pointless arguing with Emmett. He did and said whatever he wanted to.
"So basically we're just waiting on Tech to make those weapons," I told him, "That means you can go ahead and go home for now."
"Okay. Well then, I'll see you two tomorrow...or whenever," Edward said before making his retreat out the office door. I watched him go and then eyed my boyfriend, who still looked pretty well and pleased with himself. I gave him a significant look.
"Ready to go home, baby?" he guessed correctly. I nodded.
"All righty, let's go then."
And with that we left, rode off into the non-existent sunset, and back to our lovely appartment. Oh what a life we lead....
Author's Note: Heya. I'm hosting a contest, you can check the details on my profile; it's sure to be a LOT of fun. I'd love it if y'all had a crack at it. Anywho, tell me what you liked/didn't like about this chapter. And well...hope you enjoyed it! I had some laughs writing it for certain.