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 Twenty-Eight
There's a quick flurry of movement as the team shift to the offensive. Morgan pulls his gun, drawing a bead on the vampire's chest.
'Let them go,' says Emily forcefully. 'They aren't a part of this.'
'Either all of us go, or none of us go,' counters Hotch. Out of the corner of his eye, Morgan can see that the Unit Chief has drawn the stake gun, the weapon similarly leveled at the heart.
'My daughter doesn't belong in your world.' Elizabeth's voice is angry, yet she remains still to the point where Morgan can't tell if she's about to make a move or not. 'She's one of us, even if she doesn't want to believe it.'
'I think that's her choice to make.' Rossi has his staff out, the tip glowing dangerously orange.
'Guys…' warns Emily. She looks back briefly, staring at each of them in turn. Morgan shakes his head slightly when their eyes lock. He isn't going anywhere. 'Please don't do this, Mother.' It's not a plea. She isn't begging. It's their last hope, and, as Morgan had expected, it fails.
Elizabeth Prentiss isn't backing down.
He can smell other vampires, moving closer by the second. A door swings open, and suddenly the room's occupants have doubled. They're surrounded. It's either fight or die.
He sure as hell doesn't want to die.
He tries to tap into the earth's power. Tries to let his body shift into its wolf form. It should be a simple process this close to the full moon, but he isn't shifting. They're in a vampire house, he remembers. There are safeguards against werewolves. Non-magical safeguards, but safeguards nonetheless.
Part of him already knows that it's going to be one hell of a one-sided battle.
Emily's mother makes the first move, charging her daughter with such speed that even Morgan's perceptive senses perceive it as a blur.
The vampires that are bearing down on them from the right aren't as fast, and Morgan manages to get a couple of shots off before they tackle him to the ground. He can tell by looking at their eyes that they aren't jacked up on blood, which means he has something of a fighting chance.
Two strangled screams in quick succession let him know that Hotch has managed to make two kills with the stake gun. A brief glance to the left tells him that the Unit Chief had managed to hit the Elizabeth with at least one stake, but now the fight between the two vampires is too fast, too brutal for him to try again. He can tell that Emily's losing badly, which isn't a surprise, considering that her mother is one of the Fallen. Part of him wants to go help, but first he has to deal with the more immediate threat of the two vampires that are trying to kill him.
They're not particularly old; he gathers that they're here to serve the drinks, rather than for any political purpose.
With a bit of leverage, he manages to push himself upwards, taking both the bloodsuckers by surprise. He punches the first one, hearing the satisfying crack as the jaw breaks. There's no stake within reach, so he satisfies himself with kicking the vampire in the ribs, hard, hoping that it's enough to keep it down while he deals with the other one.
The second one's a little stronger, and Morgan takes a few hits himself before both he and the vamp are stunned by a flash of light. Sunlight, Morgan realizes, as the creature explodes into dust before his eyes.
Rossi.
The wizard had evidently come to the realization that most of the vampires in the room were not going to be as impervious to sunlight as Emily and her mother. A dozen or so piles of ashes are scattered about the room.
Morgan pulls himself up just in time to see Elizabeth slam her daughter into the wall. She laughs – a malicious laugh, with no hint of warmth – and he comes to the sudden realization that she's just toying with them. She could kill them all in an instant.
The clan leader steps away from the wall with such elegance that she might have been at a formal ball, rather than caught up in a brutal battle. Emily slides to the floor; she's still conscious, but she doesn't get up.
The battle is lost. Coming here had been a bad idea. The only option, yes, but still a bad one.
'You think you can win,' she croons, voice dripping with an unfettered arrogance. 'Don't you know that you've already lost this world? The werewolf who wishes he was anything but. The psychic that can't even control her powers. The has-been wizard. The human.' She pauses, her eyes falling on Reid.
Morgan's heart skips a beat. Elizabeth's smile widens.
'The clockwork boy whose friends can't find it in them to tell him the truth.'
There's a second of silence. It seems so long, so painful. Morgan watches as Reid's expression twists into a mixture of shock and confusion.
'Listen to yourself, Doctor Reid. Can you feel your heart beating?'
Not caring about the consequences, he finds himself charging the vampire. He screeches to a stop, strange words falling upon his ears. His body wants to fight it, but his mind knows that he can't.
'Sleep.'
The last thing he hears is that malicious laugh all over again.