Reid stared at his hotel room door. He was holding a small battered duffel bag; Methos' go-bag. Reid hadn't bothered to look inside it; he was sure the contents would be high quality but nondescript clothing and toiletries. Nothing the immortal could not live without, just the bare essentials. He opened the door in one go, didn't give himself time to ponder what state Methos might be in, or whether he might have taken off for parts unknown.
The shower was running. He set the bag on the bed and glanced at the TV. The blankets and sheets on the bed were smeared with blood. Even the pillow was stained. Reid thought about just leaving but decided to leave a note. As he was bent over writing it the shower stopped. He kept writing, hoping to finish it and be out before the immortal saw him. He wasn't sure why he wanted to avoid Methos, but he did, instinctively almost. Methos emerged from the bathroom. He was wearing a towel. Reid immediately noticed the immortal's mangled arm, lumps and fissures of scar tissue stood out like bad stage makeup.
"Your arm-" Reid started to say.
Methos smiled gently, "Yeah, gonna be a hell of a souvenir."
"I thought you healed everything?" Reid asked academic curiosity overcoming his nerves.
"Me too, well, except for decapitation of course."
"Right, I uh brought your bag. Hey, why didn't you scar the first time a sleepwalker attacked you?"
"I don't know, I mean, I didn't get cut up nearly as badly as this but …I don't know why." Methos admitted. He walked toward Reid and reached for his bag. Reid backed up slightly.
"You okay?" Methos asked gently.
"Yeah, I, uh, I should get back." Reid said with nervous half stutter and smile.
"Any word on the other one?"
"No, not yet."
Methos watched Reid leave, listened the SUV start up and pull away.
He wanted to run to the farthest ends of the earth and sleep for weeks but, if he left … the 'walker was hurt and frightened but by sunset it would be angry, and grief stricken. The room's phone rang interrupting Methos' thoughts.
"Hello?"
"It's Hotchner. Morgan is okay, the doctors found unidentified venom in his blood work, they administered a general antivenin and it seems to have worked."
Methos was quiet. He didn't think he'd be grabbing a beer with Morgan at any point, but he was glad the agent would survive and fight another day.
"Thank you." Hotchner said into the silence.
"What about the son? We only have a few hours before he comes after us." By 'us' Methos meant him, he was bait.
"Hotchner… if all else fails he'll come after me."
"I know."
Methos didn't know what to say to that. Hotchner's matter-of-fact attitude was both refreshing and insulting.
"How is your arm?"
"Functional."
"Rest for a few hours, we'll wake you when we have something."
"Right. Hotchner?"
Silence.
"Keep an eye on Morgan, I…I've never scarred like this, I'm not sure what it means."
"We will. Get some rest."
"Sure, there's only an ancient Egyptian monster out for my hide." Methos laughed and hung up. It was a bitter noise.
He downed more water and then stripped the bed he found a section of blanket largely free from blood and curled up with it on the naked mattress. A frantic banging and crash woke him. He sat up and nearly fell of the slick mattress. He'd left the TV on. An old episode of the X Files was playing; a man was standing in a shooting range with Mulder. Methos let out a chuckle and got up. He glanced out the window at the parking lot. It was about a half hour after dawn. He turned the television off and got dressed. He drank more water and examined his arm. The scars were still present, the arm felt strong. He tried doing some pushups and pull ups from the rod in the closet. Satisfied he was well enough to get back to the job at hand he dialed Prentiss' number.
"Pretiss"
"Come get me."
"I don't think –"
"Come get me Prentiss, I'm fine. How's Morgan?"
"He hasn't woken up yet. The doctors keep saying he'll be fine."
"He will be, I'll be out front." Methos said and hung up. Truthfully, he had no idea if Morgan would recover. Prentiss arrived ten minutes later. She looked exhausted. She'd changed and washed up at some point, but she hadn't slept.
"You look like shit." Methos said cheerfully.
"Join the club. Nice shirt." Prentiss said. Methos was wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt, it was dark blue, but his scars were still visible on his wrist and the back of his hand. He grunted at her and got into the SUV. The skin on his arm felt tight, constricted, but he had almost full range of motion, barring some movement when he twisted his wrist, and the arm was strong and whole.
"We literally have nothing. Wherever the male went he's gone to ground for now."
"How are the locals taking it?"
"Hotchner told them Morgan cornered a suspect in the back yard, she assaulted him and then set herself on fire. The rest of us supposedly ran into a second suspect in the house."
"They buy it?"
"Until the forensics team flips out over whatever they find in the back yard? Yeah."
"Good. They'll ignore it."
"You sound pretty confident." Prentiss said glancing sidelong at him.
"What are they going to do? Claim that some nonhuman thing was committing these killings? They'll claim contamination in the lab screwed things up and just pray no one looks too hard at the case files. Which no one will because the suspects are dead with no family and the murders will stop. Case closed."
"My aren't you cynical."
"I'm the original pragmatist." Methos smiled.
As the morning stretched on with no word Methos pushed a couple chairs together and stretched out for a nap in the conference room. Reid was still pondering the case. Notes filled the board as well as comments on Egyptian mythology and folklore. Methos had taken one look at the mess and left well enough alone. Who knew, maybe Reid could crack it. Methos just knew he wasn't up to it. As afternoon approached Hotchner entered and ordered Reid to eat and step away from the board for a few minutes.
Hotchner's voice, gentle but firm and unintelligible through layers of sleep, then a hand on his shoulder, "…wake up."
Methos sat up and coughed, blinking he looked around for Hotchner. "What?" He asked peevishly. He got bitchy when he was overtired.
"Reid's taking a break. I'd appreciate it you would take a look at his work and see if you can get anything from it."
Methos stared at Hotchner. He debated telling Hotchner to fuck off – but that was the exhaustion speaking, it was a good idea. Reid's handwriting was slightly scrawled but still legible. Methos ran over the various notes, unable to find any particular thread of logic at first. After a while it was like finding the theme to an opera, the logic was there and Methos followed the flow like a musician reading music and following the theme. He couldn't anticipate or leap ahead of Reid's thought processes, but he could follow it and admire it.
"Reid is brilliant." Methos muttered. Hotchner didn't reply simply watched Methos. Hotchner knew Reid was brilliant, what Hotchner noted was the surprise and appreciation in Methos' voice.
"He's onto something, I'm not sure what but there's a thread here…" Methos murmured.
Reid returned, uncharacteristically he glared at Methos for a moment before shaking it off. He felt protective of his work and resented Methos' intrusion, he thought, but he'd felt strange around Methos. Awkward in a way he'd thought he'd long left behind when he left high school.
"You're on to something Doctor." Methos said stepping away from the boards.
Reid didn't answer. The three men stood in silence for an awkward moment and then the door opened.
"Hey, we've got a report of an attempted rape at the high school." JJ said. Methos' eyes snapped to the blond.
"Is there a dance or a game?"
"Dance."
"It's him, he's hunting." Methos said turning to face Hotch.
"Let's go." Hotchner growled.
This time they were all armed with shotguns as well as sidearms and vests. A secure perimeter was established by local emergency responders and roadblocks limited additional civilian risk.
"Agent Hotchner, I'd prefer it if our team moved in pairs, we'll need to separate him from the students." Methos suggested.
"You think he'll still be there?" Prentiss asked.
"He has to be, this place isn't large enough to have many more gatherings like that."
"Oh god." Reid breathed he'd had a eureka moment. They all looked at him. Methos was putting his vest on.
"What is it?" Hotchner asked.
"You said he needs virgins? Do they have to be physically mature?"
"I don't know, I only saw them with young women-"
"Hotch, if they don't have to be past puberty then any number of children can be targets."
"How certain are you that he'll be here?" Hotchner asked Methos firmly.
Methos thought about it. How had he missed something so obvious? "I can go alone, if I find him, I'll lead him away and call you, the rest of you can –"
"It's past dinner time, after dark most children will be at home, our best bet is the dance." Prentiss said firmly.
Methos wasn't so certain anymore but it wasn't his call.
"Okay, solo it is, everyone else pairs up, Prentiss you're with Reid, JJ with me." Hotchner said evidently accepting Prentiss' logic.
The report had been called in by a friend of the near victim, both girls had been sequestered by school security in another area of the school. The locals had quietly herded the students into a smaller adjunct gym adjoining the larger gym where the dance had been set up and sealed the exits down to one.
"The kids have been moved to a smaller and more secure area. They've been told there's an armed robbery suspect in the area." JJ said after speaking with the officer in charge. The team were gathered in the courtyard of the school, classrooms surrounding them the adjunct gym and its sole exit behind them.
"Suggestions?" Hotchner asked the group though he looked at Methos as he spoke.
"I'll sweep the crowd, I'd like Prentiss and JJ to follow me in and watch the crowd reactions once I've passed, if he's in there he'll react to me. We need to separate him."
"If he dims?" JJ asked.
"You've got goggles." Methos replied tightly.
"You don't." Prentiss shot back.
"I'll be fine Emily, I was before." He said calmly he said and ignored her outraged snort.
"Alright." Hotchner agreed. Methos left his FBI vest on and walked into the gym, Prentiss and JJ following in his wake. He hadn't wanted to say it, but the women had the least practical shoes for pursuit, with Hotchner and Reid standing by Methos hoped the duo would be able to chase the 'walker if it made it past him and the women.
The crowd was nervous, but it was an excited nervousness, there were whispers, titters, murmured comments and the occasional outburst as he drifted around them. He prowled like a hungry cat eyeing each student as he passed them. He found most of the girl's dresses revealing for their ages, at least, in terms of recent fashions, a few of the students looked at him with unimpressed jaded eyes. He wasn't surprised age, fashion, and acceptable behavior seemed to undergo radical shifts every few hundred years. The children didn't faze him, he had bigger prey in mind.
He circled the crowd once and then walked among them, they shifted like the red sea, leaving a path for him the 'walker waited until Methos was level to run. Methos spun in place and snatched at the 'walker's clothing. But the creature made it past him. He looked like a handsome young black man, between seventeen and nineteen at the outside. He snarled, an animal noise, as Methos' fingers brushed him. Methos let him go, as long as he ran away from the children. Someone screamed and the 'walker was free of the children. The students scattered to the far end of the gym, leaving the 'walker alone with Methos and the women.
JJ and Prentiss stalked toward the creature carefully placing themselves between it and the students. Methos stood in front of the door.
"What's your name boy?" Methos asked with a curled lip.
"Ethan."
"It's over."
"You killed her; I feel her marks on you." Ethan snarled, his voice didn't sound human, as he glared at Methos' he lost his composure, his face twisted into a combination of its human guise and the beast underneath.
"I am sorry that happened Ethan. You know I had no choice; you can't go on alone."
"Why not? You do!" He yowled.
Methos stared at the creature, how did it know what he was? Or had that been a guess because he was standing alone before him now?
"I'm not alone now Ethan, these women are federal agents, there are several more waiting for you as well as local officers. Come with us, we can help you."
"Help me? HELP me? You killed my mother!" The creature snarled its voice wholly inhuman.
Methos braced and sure enough the big creature launched at him. They met and grappled. The children panicked and charged the door. As they rushed around the two combatants the fleeing students jostled and shook them, the students nearest tried to avoid the fighters, the rest were intent only on the door. It was chaos.
Methos focused on keeping Ethan busy, keeping him trying for a hostage. He was gripping the big creature's wrists, Ethan's head was free, he head butted Methos. The immortal staggered but hung on. Ethan tried to trip him but for all his legginess Methos was fast, he dodged the attempt but landed awkwardly and nearly fell. Ethan twisted, using the momentum of the stumble against Methos and brought the immortal down on his back. Methos grunted as he hit the floor. All of his focus was on keeping Ethan away from the door and the students. Ethan hauled back on Methos' grip, managed to bring his arms near his face, instead of trying to break Methos' grip the 'walker lunged forward and sank his teeth into Methos' shoulder.
As pain shot through his body Methos focused on keeping his grip, Ethan snarled lustily and released his grip he reared up and stared down at Methos. Their arms were pinned between their bodies. Methos was pinned by Ethan's weight but Ethan couldn't break free of Methos. As the last shrieking student ran out of the room Ethan bore down on Methos and whispered in his ear.
"When you bleed out, I'm going to gut the blond and fuck the tall one. What do you think of that?" Methos hissed and tried to knock Ethan onto his side. The 'walker laughed and pinned Methos down again.
"Get off him Ethan, we will shoot." JJ snapped, she and Prentiss moved closer to Ethan and Methos.
"Emily." Methos said and grit his teeth as Ethan tried to wriggle free.
Prentiss fired. She emptied the shotgun into Ethan, after the first shot JJ joined in. Ethan screamed in pain and rose in an instinctive attempt to avoid the shots. Methos sighed as the pressure of Ethan's weight fell away. He rolled onto his chest and got to his feet as the last blasts rang out. Ethan was down, arms flung out, lying on his back, eyes closed.
"Is he dead?" Prentiss asked. She'd tossed her shotgun aside and drawn her sidearm. Reid and Hotchner burst into the gym.
"No." Methos grunted. He got to his feet and retrieved his shotgun. His right shoulder was a mess.
"Why do they always go for that side." He grumbled irritably.
"Adam?" Hotchner asked. Reid carefully approached Ethan and cuffed him.
"I'm fine, he's not down for good."
"He's in custody –" JJ said softly.
"I don't care JJ, you saw what he did to Morgan, no prison will be able to hold him. He has to be put down -" He broke off. The team were looking at him as though he was a monster, all except Hotchner. Methos couldn't read his face. "- Sometimes they have to be put down." Methos finished. Hotchner's face twitched, Methos recalled the agent's murdered wife and traumatized child.
The immortal could feel his shoulder knitting, the upper right edge of his vest had taken a beating, but he kept it on. He reached down to grip Ethan by his hair. As his fingers brushed the creature's hair it shimmered revealing it's cat like skinned looking body.
"It looks dead." Reid said. He couldn't take his eyes off it. Methos guessed that the team hadn't had a look at him before when he was trying to kill Morgan.
"I told you they weren't human." Methos said wincing as his shoulder started to throb again. The quickening was working wonders, but it was going to take a few minutes.
"Seeing is believing." Hotchner said quietly. The team were staring at Ethan with a mixture of revulsion and horror. Methos used the carry strap from Prentiss' abandoned shotgun as a noose for Ethan. He pulled it tight and looped it over his own left shoulder half lifting Ethan off the ground.
"Cats." He said and coughed.
"We-we can't do this-" Reid protested.
"Fine." Methos said and let Ethan's body hit the ground. He glared at them, eyes bright against the blood and pallor of his skin. He shook his head. "I don't know what I was thinking, honestly, you're only boring modern humans. Arrogant profilers, you can see through anyone right? You've all got some theory to explain anything, even me? Right? EXCEPT FOR HIM. If you do not kill him now, he will kill again. He has to." Methos snarled.
He let out a soft noise and gripped his shoulder, it still hurt, too much, it should have dulled to a throb by now. He pulled the vest off and tore his shirt away at the collar exposing his still heaving chest. The scars on his right arm snaked up past his elbow. The bite wound wasn't healing. He could see the quickening sparking and dancing around it to no effect. As he stared at it the flesh slowly knit back together but it was wrong, battered, thick, and scarred. Methos made a startled, pained noise and tried to touch the still open portions of the wound, a sticky viscous fluid clung to his fingertips the 'walker's saliva. How had his arm scarred if he hadn't been bitten? Were the claws poisoned as well?
Methos picked up the rags of his shirt and used it to scrape the goo out of his wound, he let out a low yell as he did so, immediately it began to heal correctly. He threw the sodden cloth to the gym floor; it made a sick plopping noise. Methos raised his head, heaving from the effort and pain he glared at the agents.
"Let him live and it's on you. I'm done." He said softly and started toward the door.
"You killed his mother." Reid said. Methos stopped walking and looked at Reid.
"That's my problem."
"She was literally all he had. His mother, his lover in one being, she gave him life and ultimate pleasure. What wouldn't you do for her?" Reid demanded.
Methos kept staring at Reid. "I don't remember if I even had a mother Reid, or any other family. I barely remember my first death if that was the first. That things is not you. You're a good man, you put killers behind bars and protect innocent people. You have nothing in common him." Methos snapped pointing at Ethan. As Methos lowered his arm Ethan sat up. He moved like a mindless zombie, eyes unfocused and dull, limbs jerking and clumsy.
"What are you going to do Agent Hotchner? Take him out in cuffs? Load him in a squad car and read him his rights? He isn't even human, let alone a citizen." Methos sneered.
"He's alone now, completely, alone." Reid said, his voice was thick with tears. Methos barked out the bitterest of laughs in the face of the young agent's tears.
"Don't you dare -"
"Back off, he's ours to handle now." Hotchner snapped.
Methos shook his head and clutched his shoulder. "I'll never understand you." He whispered staring at Hotchner.
Hotchner had beaten the Reaper to death with his bare hands, he'd decided, a just decision the end game of which was the death of the Reaper and Holly. Now, he was making another choice that could have equally terrible consequence. Methos moved toward the door still clutching his shoulder. The agents watched him walk. Ethan rose to his knees and snarled at Methos, the life apparently returning to him. Methos stared at the hideous thing, part cat, part burn victim and sneered.
"You've been granted a stay of execution by them, those pitiful mortals you hunt so happily, whose children you slaughter so willingly. I would have killed you, the way I put your mother down. Not them. Not them. If you've any sense of self-preservation you'll remember that, because they know about you now. I don't have much mercy left, I'm burnt out, pretty much all I've got left is hate and fear, so think about this, they've still got love, they've still got compassion and mercy, so how much hate have they got to go with it?" Methos asked with a hurt and bitter laugh.
Ethan snarled at him and strained against his cuffs.
"If you come for me, I will certainly kill you, I will probably even enjoy it, but they'll come for you as well and remember their capacity for hate Ethan." Methos snarled. The sickening creature hissed at him. Its body was pockmarked and bloodied from a dozen or so shotgun blasts. It whined at Methos then, rattled its cuffs and chuffed out a breath.
Methos looked back at the team. Reid looked confused, he held his weapon loosely in both hands, JJ looked frightened but ready to fire if Ethan moved. Prentiss looked grim, she held her sidearm ready, she kept glancing at Hotchner. Finally, Methos' eyes settled on Hotchner.
"Your call." He said very quietly.