Title:
Power
Play
Rating:
R
Fandom:
Criminal
Minds
Universe:
Creatures
of the Night (Part 1)
Pairing:
Morgan/Prentiss;
JJ/Hotch
Genre:
Supernatural/Drama
Summary:
Tensions
are running high when a vampire joins the BAU, but all differences
must be put aside as the team investigate a series of suspicious
werewolf murders. AU.
Author's
Notes: Betaed
by Windy City Dreamer.
Chapter Eight
The moment Emily steps out of the SUV, she feels the warmth of the sun beating down upon her skin. For a couple of minutes, it feels nice. Makes her feel alive. Then the bile starts to rise in her throat. She's nowhere near strong enough to walk in around without effect. After this stint, she'll probably have to excuse herself to the nearest bathroom to empty her stomach contents. Then, she'll probably need to replenish her strength. All of that can wait, though. She has a job to do.
She ignores the sickening feeling in her stomach. Ignores the way her hands are shivering. She slips them into her pockets, avoiding the sideways glance from Rossi. She figures she probably has an hour, max. More if she sticks to the shaded areas.
That's not the only thing that's making her uncomfortable. She's hoping like hell that her hesitations are interpreted as unwillingness to be wandering around the Sanctuary. 'Wolves hate her kind on the best of days, and today is definitely not the best of days.
She ignores the glare given to her by the man Morgan introduces as the pack alpha. His heart is beating pretty fast, and she's pretty sure that her presence is at least partially responsible. To his credit, though, he doesn't say anything. On top of being a strong leader, alphas are usually fairly tactful. While there are official liaisons between the pack and the outside world, often the situation calls for the alpha's intervention.
There's a patch of compacted grass where the body lay, less than two hours ago. It's already been picked up by the coroner, awaiting post-mortem examination. If there's anything suspicious that impacts upon the investigation, they'll find out soon enough.
'Do you feel that?' Rossi asks, his gaze reaching each member of the team. They all give a swift shake of the head. 'There's magic in the air,' he reveals. 'Not in abundance, but it's there.'
There's a slight pause as they all stop what they're doing, and try and sense what Rossi is talking about. Magic is one of those things that everyone has in varying amounts. It's the training that turns someone with potential into a powerful sorcerer. Even those with very little magic in their blood can become a proficient sorcerer in their own right. More often than not, it's how they use the magic that counts.
Emily's met a few sorcerers in her life; witches and wizards of all disciplines. Some of them can sense the type of magic that had been performed, weeks after the fact. Rossi has his eyes closed now, as if trying to will himself into the past – to determine what happened the previous night.
'Anything?' asks Hotch, and Rossi shakes his head.
'Someone's covered their tracks well. There'll probably be a sorcerer involved in some capacity, but what actually happened, I don't know.' He gives a slight shrug. There's a procedure to situations like this. If the sorcerer at hand can't detect the source of the magic, then a specialist is brought in after the fact. A supernatural crime scene technician. Someone whose sole function is to analyze the scene and determine what spells had been used, and in some cases, who had used them.
That, though, could take days, by which time their killer might have already chosen their next victim.
'Did you and Prentiss want to take a look around?' asks Hotch, and for a moment, the alpha looks like he wants to argue with that order, but he decides against it. Instead, Emily finds herself being whisked away. It's probably a good move. With her out of the way, the alpha will probably a lot more forthcoming.
'You don't have to do this,' Rossi says, the moment they're out of earshot. Considering 'wolf hearing, they're a fair way away from the team.
'I don't know what you're talking about,' says Emily evenly, which isn't exactly the truth. She can guess. She'd almost forgotten about the nausea once they'd started talking about the case, but now Rossi's brought it up, she's starting to notice that feeling in the pit of her stomach.
'Cut the crap,' he says, and he isn't treading on eggshells, which increases the respect she has for him by a considerable margin. 'You're clearly uncomfortable in the sun, and you aren't helping matters by trying to overcompensate. We've all got out weaknesses. No-one will think any less of you if you stay indoors during the daylight hours. God know none of us really sleep anyway.'
Her response is to drop to her knees and empty her stomach contents at the base of the nearest tree. An event which only serves to prove his point. It hadn't been an intentional decision – just very bad timing.
'This is nothing,' she manages to cough out, vomit purged from her system. 'I'm lucky I'm not burning up.'
'Something tells me that death by stubbornness would be much slower, and much more painful.'
Sighing, she relents. 'I'll speak with Agent Hotchner later. I'm sure we can come to an agreement. That is, of course, if he's not afraid that I'm going to tear his throat out.' The last part sounded a little too spiteful, even for her standards.
Rossi doesn't say anything, simply raising an eyebrow. 'I can work in the shade well enough,' Emily shrugs, indicating the more heavily wooded area that is just ahead of them. It is where they were headed anyway, and she feels slightly ashamed at not being able to hold it in just a few seconds longer.
'Tell me about Morgan,' she says abruptly, the moment the sun disappears behind the canopy. It's an incredibly dorky thing to say, especially when they're supposed to be searching for evidence, but if Rossi thinks that the question is inappropriate, it doesn't show.
'He's a good person,' Rossi says, simultaneously casting his senses, searching for anything out of the ordinary. 'But he's been through a lot. He sees trust as something that needs to be earned. Once you've earned it, though…He'll go through hell to protect you.'
Emily gives a twisted smile. Considering their rocky start, she wouldn't be surprised if earning Derek Morgan's trust took her another hundred years.