A/N~ As I have said on numerous occasions in the past choreographing fight scenes are not my strong suit, bear with me. This is a little choppy in my opinion. So apologies if you notice some off things. ~A

IHGW-9

The succubus didn't even wait for the hooded female to cross the threshold to lunge for the pair. Vex quickly pushed Lauren against the wall beside them. Standing between the two women the Mesmer kicked Bo in the stomach to force her back more than to do her any harm.

"Here now, what you think you're doing?" he said quickly. Trying to attract the other fae's attention, hoping to keep her focus on him and away from Lauren. When she didn't answer but began to try and move around him Vex continued, "Who's your new friend then?" He said nodding in the direction that the hooded woman had disappeared.

Unfortunately the succubus proved to smart for the feint. When the Mesmer grabbed for the knife she slid it under his grasping hand, slicing down the underside of his arm to skate the blade across his ribs. When she tried to move past him though he grabbed her by the ponytail and yanked back hard to throw her against the wall by the door.

Ignoring the pain in his arm Vex pulled the blade out of his boot, "Now, now, finish your dance with me before you head to a new partner Ysabeau. Proper etiquette and all that." He said holding the blade in his left hand, as he felt the blood trickle down his side in a distracting tickle.

Once again instead of responding the succubus merely growled at him and resumed her fighting stance. She feinted with the knife several times to test his defenses. He was ready for her blocking when he had to and using a few tricks he had learned over the years to keep her away from Lauren.

"Nuff of this," he muttered under his breath and gently probed at her mind to try and take control, only to find something already there. Something he recognized having taken several out of the blond doctors mind so recently. A geas.

He almost missed it when the succubus lunged for his gut again but he kicked out and hit Bo in the side of her right knee. With a scream she went down and dropped the knife to grab her knee and looked up at the dark haired fae enraged as he moved back to Lauren.

The doctor had slid down the wall and was staring at Bo with a sad expression on her face. She asked in a slightly loopy voice, "Does Bo not love us anymore?"

"Course she does love, she's just not herself right now." Vex reassured.

Then taking her arm he pulled it over his shoulder and turned to leave with the doctor.

"No," the doctor cried her voice more precise if still loopy as she said, "We don't leave her behind." As she spoke she actually braced her feet against the Mesmer and because Vex didn't want to hurt her, he stopped.

"I need to get you safe, love. Then I'll come back for her," he said to her looking back at where Bo was doing something to her leg.

Lauren shook her head vigorously and said, "No we're a family. We stick together," she said still in a child-like voice. Then she looked at the Mesmer and said, "Please."

Vex looked at the doctor and if he hadn't loved both women he would have heaved a put upon sigh and rolled his eyes at the irony of he a dark fae saving anyone, other than himself. He leaned Lauren against the wall again, and turned back to Bo. Only to find her coming for him fast.

He started to raise his knife then realized he was about to deliver a killing blow and froze mid-gesture. Suddenly Bo let out a yelp as she was yanked off her feet to land on her butt. The knife she was wielding went flying off into the shadows of the dungeon hallway.

Vex leapt forward and with a quick move slammed the hilt of his knife into the side of her head. He looked up into the glowing amber eyes of the Spirit Tiger, The creature chuffed at him and then leaned down to grab the collar of Bo's leather jacket and start to drag her down the hall in the opposite direction the hooded woman had gone. It stopped by Lauren and dropped the succubus to the floor to nuzzle the doctors face slightly.

Then looking over her shoulder, the tiger gave a whining growl and began to once again drag Bo down the hall. Ignoring the pain in his side and arm Vex walked over and picked Lauren up. As he followed the spirit animal down the hall he asked, "Happy now, love?"

"Um, hmm." the blond murmured as she lowered her head to his shoulder and soon drifted off to sleep. As the Mesmer began to hum "Eye of the Tiger" under his breath, he worked to unravel the geas wrapped through their succubus brain.

XXXXXXXXX

Bruce was studying the parasite under his microscope. He would have preferred some of the more advanced devices back at Stark Tower but they really didn't have the time to send it back there and there was the whole potentially lethal nature of this thing. Also he was not going to take Annie's warning lightly, honestly he was not going to take anything that woman said lightly.

Still not sure what to call the parasite he continued to study it with Stark hovering in the background. Annie had been in Bruce's thoughts ever since they had first met in the pub. Now she consumed his thoughts even more than the parasite that looked for all the world like a tiny worm under the microscope.

He tried feeding the thing sugar water without any reaction. Steve came through the dividing door and said quietly, "Thor's fever has broken, and I finally got Clint to take a nap. How are things going in here?"

"It's not a spider, beyond that, who knows?" Stark offered with a shrug.

"Anybody got some leftover food…meat preferably?" Bruce asked, finally looking up with a slightly befuddled look on his face. He is actually replied when Stark picks a wrapper from the top of their trash bag and hands it to him. He pulls a scrap of meat from the paper with tweezers. He pulls the dish from under the microscope and places the scrap of meat in the dish before sliding it back under the microscope.

"Spiders feed by poisoning their prey, thus paralyzing or immobilizing it. Then they inject it with an enzyme that basically liquefies its organs and so forth then drains it." Bruce explains while not taking his eyes off the microscope, "Which is exactly what this thing is doing except for the immobilizing part."

The doctor watched as the tiny worm shoots out a golden-green liquid, which quickly coats the meat. He is horrified to observe the small scrap of meat liquefy into a pinkish brown gel in a matter of a couple of minutes. The worm quickly wiggles forward and begins to consume the gel.

While interesting his stomach revolts slightly as he imagines this creature still inside Thor consuming the demigod from the inside out. All while they worked from the premise that he had been poisoned by the spider, not that he was infected by some parasite that was basically eating him.

He continues thoughtfully, "But as Tony says this doesn't look remotely like a spider. It's quite possible that this is somehow related to the mutation process from the meteor."

As he continues to watch through the microscope, the worm only eats a portion of the material then it moves over to a corner of the dish before it begins to thrash in the dish dramatically,

When it finally finishes, there is another worm in the dish about half the size of the first which heads back for the remainder of the food gel and begins to eat the pink goo. The doctor pushes away from the table he is using as a lab table and begins to curse profusely and with great imagination.

"Doc, what's going on?" asked Steve while Tony just looked on in fascination.

"What's going on, is this just became a lot more dangerous," Bruce declared angrily.

XXXXXXXXX

The trio had finally managed to get Val settled on a cot beside her brother downstairs. Trick was laid out in one of the booths. The exhausted couple finally left the Dahl behind and were on their way to the den. Dyson had ridden their on his motorcycle and was now riding along with Kenzi ensconced in front of him on the seat.

When the pair arrived at the warehouse, the wolf practically carried the Elder into the Den. He carried her to the section of the cavernous space that had been screened off for her bedroom. Helping her out of the majority of her clothes wasn't exactly a hardship for the police detective, and under different circumstances he would have enjoyed it immensely.

As it was right now though, it bothered him. His concern for her outweighed the enjoyment of her bare, soft skin. Stripping out of his own clothes, Dyson pulled her close and scented her neck. Kenzi sighed deeply and moaned happily.

"You overdid it tonight," Dyson admonished gently. "while you were helping Hale. I was worried."

"I was helping Hale, he's a friend, I would do the same for any of our friends and you know it." Kenzi explained gently.

"If anything happened to you…" he didn't complete that thought but added, "I'd probably end up reverting back to my lone wolf status."

Before Kenzi could respond to the wolf's pronouncement, a warning howl went up from the Alpha female, followed by the sharp rapping of someone pounding on the door of the warehouse.

"Stay here," Dyson commanded, before climbing over Kenzi to head to the door. As he shuffled to the door the Alpha female and two of the other wolves fell into step with him.

Dyson opens the door and Dougal forces his way through the door. The female Alpha growled furiously and the other two wolves lunged forward snapping at the werewolf.

Dougal had at least enough self-preservation to step back. "My apologies little mother," he said. Dyson could barely restrain himself from rolling his eyes as there wasn't a hint of apology in the older wolves tone of voice.

"Where is she?" Dougal demands despite the continued menacing of the Spirit Wolves. Dyson's hackles raise but before he can respond, Kenzi answered from the shadows.

"I am here Dougal Thornwood." the young woman said charmingly as she walked towards them her kimono robe wrapped and tied securely around her trim waist. "And mind your tone. I think you'll lose a lot of your grandfatherly charm if she eats your face off."

The old wolf now did look apologetic and panicked and apologized more sincerely to the Alpha female wolf. The female sneezed daintily in response before heading back to the nest she had made for herself.

Brushing herself against the heir to the Shifter throne as she walked past. One of the other Spirit wolves walked back to the den with the female while the other stayed beside Kenzi as she walked to the slouchy couch. It lay on the fluffy area rug on the floor by the couch, and stared unblinkingly at the older wolf.

Dougal sat in a wing back chair facing the two, the chair and its mate were gifts from Vex, Bo, and Lauren. The sixties style fabric matched the color of the slipcover the doc had made for the slouchy couch, who knew those three would do so well at homemaking.

Dyson sat beside her against the arm of the old couch and pulled her practically into his lap, wrapping his arms protectively around her. Although extremely comfortable and comforting, Kenzi wigged around until she could take one of his hands in her own and laced their fingers together.

Dougal plunged right in, "Speaking of grandfatherly, I was wondering when you might make me one?"

Kenzi turned her head to the side and muttered quietly, "Subtle." She felt Dyson's chuckle rumble at her back.

"We were thinking we might wait till after the claiming is complete, perhaps move in together. Eventually marry and so forth before we try and have a cub or a few."

"You haven't completed the claiming yet?" the older wolf said in shock, as his gaze shifted between the two. "Why not?"

"We're taking our time, father." said Dyson carefully and added, "Kenzi is the one I intend to stay with for the rest of my life. I want her to be sure that's what she wants as well."

"And you Kenzi?" he said and was struck by the hard glare she gave him.

"I don't recall you being a relationship counselor Dougal?" said the younger fae woman.

"I am the pack Alpha," Dougal said a little pompously. "You should take my advice. The pack needs heirs and…"

"You are not my Alpha, Dougal, I am the Alpha of Alpha's." she said in cold fury, "Did you think to manipulate me?"

"Had someone try that before, they didn't use the velvet glove like you." said Kenzi her tone going even colder "That makes him more honest. Trust me when I say it's not a compliment." for a moment the silver eyes were hard before she calmed slightly and said, "There will be a bonding Dougal, when we are ready. There will be children, when we are ready, not on your schedule."

"Now if you'll excuse us, I've been taking care of my pack this evening and need some rest. Have a good evening." with that Kenzi rose from the couch and Dyson's arms gracefully. Before Dougal could even leave the chair, the female Alpha wolf howled a warning again but this time Spirit wolves were already at the door, along with the Spirit Bear. Only then did Kenzi notice the missing Spirit Tiger. With a strangled whisper of "Vex," she rushed to the door.

A/N~ Ok so I went back over the past couple of chapters and realized something. Not to get all existential or anything but there are a lot of doors in this fic. I'll try to tone it down a bit. ~A