Doppelgänger 17

They'd bounced ideas off of each other over what to do for the next hour and a half as Rick drove. So far everything they had come up with always seemed to have them splitting up and Rick had rejected each scenario.

"I can't cover you if I don't know where you are or can't see you." He was the hunter and he was the one heavily armed. Then he had an idea. "Tell me more about how you're able to look like Kate. Can you look like someone else? Maybe one of the men that's waiting for us?"

"What you see is basically an illusion. Underneath I'm still a succubus. When you touch me you will feel and sense Kate and not me, though. Basically the illusion covers all aspects of the senses: sight, hearing, smell, and touch. From your point of view I am Kate."

Just so he understood her, Rick said, "So when we make love it's Kate that I'm feeling and kissing; I can't feel your skin or wings."

Snohbal started to blush but it wouldn't transfer to Kate unless Snohbal wanted it to. "Yes." When Castle touched her he actually touched Kate. "Is that a problem?" she asked hesitantly. "Please say no, please say no," she chanted wanted to keep making love to him forever and ever.

"I guess I never realized. I mean, I knew you could hide by looking like someone else, I just never knew how far it went. And no, it doesn't matter to me." He was already in deep and he knew it. It was partly because he knew this Rick loved Kate Beckett so intensely and partly because he was falling in love with Kate Beckett, too. But he was also falling for Snohbal. The realization that he was in love with a succubus got a soft chuckle from him.

"What's so funny?" Kate couldn't help but feel hurt by his chuckling. Did he find them being together so amusing?

"I never after all these years thought I would fall in love with a succubus. I hunt demons for a living, either killing or capturing them. It just kind of suddenly hit me," Rick admitted.

Kate felt her heart soar and tears begin to well up. She turned to look at him and could swear the pounding of her heart was something that could be heard for miles around. "You… You love me?" Did he mean it or was it something else?

He pulled over to the side of the road and she immediately began to worry. Then he leaned closer, drew her head to his, and kissed her. "I'm going to need another shot soon so I can keep doing that," he murmured. "The answer to your question is yes… Rick Castle is deeply and wildly in love with Kate Beckett. I've learned to love Kate Beckett. And yes, I also love Snohbal."

What he told her brought a flood of tears. He heard a faint, "Oh..." then she began wiping her face. "I love you, too, Rick. So very much. We need to keep better track of your shots. I don't ever want to hurt you." Kate cupped the back of his head and pulled him in for a soul-searching kiss.

"Do you think the other two are happy with us?" They were living someone else's lives, after all.

Rick chuckled again. "I think that if they're watching us, they're beyond happy. If not still a little scared." Scared for their future and still dealing with their own reasons for not having gotten together just before they were both killed.

"They did at least have one day… and night." Rick smiled and wiggled his eyebrows a couple of times which made Kate chuckle. That made it very clear to her that they both obviously had memories of them getting together. Kate Beckett had finally risked her heart.

Kate's attention flipped to their present problem. "We need to get as much as possible from the men who've come to kill us. We're not going to ever be safe if we don't make Kate Beckett and Richard Castle safe." Her face became hard and determined. "We have to play to our strengths and their weaknesses. One thing they aren't expecting is us – Kate the succubus and Rick the hunter.

I get that you don't want to separate so we won't. I can take the two out front easily enough. After that we need to move fast. Since they're using communication devices they may have a check in time for the man in charge to keep up with what's going on.

We take them out two at a time. I'm betting the leader will be with Gina and will use her as a shield when he realizes that we're back and eliminating his men. Have you seen any more beyond what we've seen already?"

Rick shook his head. "We can't let any of them escape. We need the person who sent them to remain in the dark as long as possible. We presently have an advantage and we need to keep it." He wanted her to think about keeping whoever sent these men in the dark.

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The rest of the trip had passed in silence as each thought about various outcomes of what was to happen. They could both still see the two men out front waiting for them; Rick had yet to have eyes on any of the others.

He pulled off the road far from his home. In fact he was in the driveway for a neighbor three houses down. "We'll walk from here, they're expecting a car, probably this car," he explained and they began walking.

They actually walked through their front yard and out into open area toward the next neighbor. They still had one more neighbor's front yard to walk through after this one but Rick stopped at a set of trees. "They're still there; this is where we'll wait for a bit." Rick tried to use the tree to hide his body getting Kate to do the same.

"Why?" She didn't understand the need to wait and hide.

Rick spelled out his reasoning. "I want to see one or both move a hand to their ear. Once that happens I'll kill them and we'll start running."

"From here? I thought we wanted them alive so they could talk." They still had a long way to go to reach the house.

"The range isn't the problem nor is the noise since there will be none. These two are considered expendable, that's why they're out there. If we're stupid and drive right up, they kill us and job done. And they have no reason to suspect that we know they're there.

But say they fail to kill us quickly and a fight starts. Those two die and they still have the advantage. These two die quietly after they check in and we still have the advantage.

Once we're inside we know the layout of the house. If they've gotten lazy they won't." Rick hoped they were lazy. If they were pros they will have searched the house and learned where each and every closet was and what was in them.

Kate was starting to get antsy and wanted to get moving. Standing still behind a tree and still a long way away was getting to her.

"Get ready," Rick suddenly announced. A tiny sparkle at his right hand could be seen and suddenly he was holding a weapon. "Get ready," he told her again.

Kate tried to stay loose and not tense her muscles; she eyed his weapon closely. From the memories she had and those from Kate Beckett, his weapon was like nothing she knew of.

The barrel was a little longer than her service weapon, something that she didn't have on her and wished that she did. It had a large rectangular scope on top. On this end she could see a color display and it was easy to see the body of one of the men out front.

Kate barely heard anything at all and watched Rick target the other man, line him up, then suddenly his weapon was gone. "Let's go." He started running with Kate right behind him.

Rick knew what had happened even if Kate didn't, not exactly anyway. He knew the rounds he'd chosen had entered the head of each man. They had penetrated their skulls then never exited. And that was the point of the round.

The round had essentially destroyed itself once inside the brain. The result was hundreds of tiny pieces being scattered inside the skull. The normal brain was made up of two connected halves. After just one round the entire brain was now more like cottage cheese, small pieces that were no longer connected to anything.

Their brains would have registered the sudden intense pain and they might have actually felt it and reacted. But a fraction of a second later, they were dead and lying on the ground.

Rick and Kate ran as fast as they could through the front yard of the next neighbor and kept going into the empty space that was between that house and theirs. He ran right up to the side of the house next to one of the windows. His spies above hadn't seen anyone so he thought they were still unseen.

Kate stopped next to him and leaned up against the house. She would rather have flown the distance. Running had left her winded and she actually bent over a little, resting her hands on her knees.

"Tired?" Rick questioned.

"I'm better at flying… not running," Kate told him with a large breath in-between.

He gave her a minute to rest; he was busy with other things anyway. She saw him pull another device out of his left wristband. He held it up to the house and started moving it around a little.

"I've got what I think is Gina in the living room, most likely tied to a chair taken from the dining room. There are two men with her." He pointed to each.

Looking around he found one out at the pool. Another was just outside of the pool near the garage. "Now where are the other two?" Rick said to himself and began looking around. "Got 'em." They weren't where he was expecting to find them.

"Bedrooms?" Kate was shocked. "Why are they in the bedrooms?"

"Six are on duty while two rest. They rotate till we come back." It made sense to him. They obviously didn't know where they were or had been, so didn't know when they would return.

"Where do we start?" If Kate had her way she would take the two outside first before going inside.

"Right here, actually," Rick answered. She watched the scanner go back into his wristband and out came another device. "Take out your dagger and get ready. This is where we enter." He started scanning the outer wall.

"Here?!" It was a shingled wall with one window on one side of them and another window on the other side.

"This is the blacked-out window in the movie room. The other is in my office where I've been writing. We're going into the movie room." That door was always closed unlike the door to his office.

Kate still didn't understand how when suddenly the wall vanished and she could see inside. Her mouth fell open. "How… HOW?!" What he had just done was impossible.

Rick stepped inside and pulled her along with him. Once inside he closed the wall up and held a finger to his lips. He wanted them to be silent from here on out.

Kate moved to one side of the door leading into the house while Rick stood in front. He pulled out his scanner again and showed her that not much had changed.

"Here's what we're going to do. I'll take these two. I want you to run past everyone and out into the garage. Your man is just outside the door leading outside from the garage. He's yours. Next for you is the one at the pool. Once I take these two I'll go upstairs." Kate nodded then crouched, getting ready to run.

"I open this door and kill these two and you run," he repeated. Rick retracted his scanner and pulled out yet a different weapon. It was one Kate couldn't remember seeing before. She took a deep breath; she was ready and had her dagger out.

Rick opened the door and stepped into what was the dining room that had a massive table that could seat twelve easily. Beyond was the open-concept living room and a kitchen that had a large island with a breakfast bar. The door to the garage was at the end of the kitchen. At the far end of the open space were two doors. One was a bathroom and another was a library.

He raised his weapon and put three rounds in the first man followed by another three rounds in the second. All the rounds fired entered their chest cavities and much like the round that had destroyed the brains of the men out front, these rounds did the same for their hearts and lungs.

Rick cursed when he saw the hand of one of them spasm and pull the trigger on his weapon.

His muscles contracted; they actually held the finger in place and emptied the clip. A large number of rounds went into the kitchen. His weapon had a silencer so very little sound was made, however, the sound of plates and glasses and casework being destroyed was not so silent.

Rick saw Kate run right through all of it and watched as that man fell. He couldn't react fast enough to prevent the man's weapon from firing in her direction. The rounds that were headed for her hit the hostage who was tied to a chair. Gina's body jerked when the bullets struck her.

Kate had the door to the garage open just as Rick started running for the back patio doors. He ignored the now dead men and his equally dead ex-wife. He would be sorry for Gina later.

Kate had made it to the garage. She knew the man was just on the other side of the door, but she wasn't sure how far away or which way he was facing. Also the door was solid and had no glass. She put her dagger away and quickly opened the door. She found him standing with his back up against the house looking out into the side yard. The door opening suddenly got his attention.

She was quick; she placed her hands on either side of his head and kissed him soundly. "You liked that kiss didn't you? Kiss me again," Kate whispered. She kissed him and could feel him kissing her back. "Kiss me again," she breathed.

Kate released him and let his withered and wrinkled body fall to the ground. She actually felt pretty good now. She felt stronger and better than she had in a long time.

She went to the end of the house which happened to be where the pool house was that stored the pool equipment. Kate knew the area well by now. She saw the large white columns that held up the white pergola with the pool under it. The pool was surrounded on the other two sides with plants that helped hide it from people on the beach.

Unfortunately her next target was over by the gate on the other side of the pool and he had a large weapon in one hand. If she ran he would hear her and shoot her.

She ducked behind the pool house and began stripping off her clothes. It only took a moment; she poked her head around to look again. She found him right where he was last time. She'd made up her mind and just needed the nerve to do it. Gripping her knife, Snohbal ran the few steps to the edge of the pool, shifting her form as she did, and flew across the pool.

He was intent on looking at the yard and beach and never turned her way. She literally slammed into him, which caused them to crash through the flimsy little gate that allowed access to the pool. The second they both hit the ground, Snohbal brought her hand up and plunged her dagger up to the hilt directly into his left eye. She paid no attention to the popping of his eyeball or the blood that spurted everywhere. She yanked her dagger back out with her strength and plunged it into his right eye.

Snohbal knew the two in the house were gone, as were the two out front of the house. Now these two were gone. That left the two upstairs. She looked up and down the path along side of the house to the back doors that led out onto the grounds and out to the beach.

Rick had just reached the doors to check on the man outside and help Kate if she needed it. Then the sound of heavy feet on the stairs got his attention. Rick didn't wait for the man's torso to come in sight. He raised his weapon and put three rounds in one of his lower legs. The thug cried out from the pain and tumbled down the stairs to land in a heap where Rick put another three rounds in his chest.

His left leg was shredded muscle and his heart and lungs were equal to the mess of the two men already at Rick's feet.

Rick charged up the stairs. If this noise had alerted this man, then surely the other was awake by now. He pulled out his scanner and saw the last man upstairs out on the bedroom's balcony. "SHIT!" Rick moved in front of the door and kicked it open just in time to see him jump over the side.

Rick raced to the balcony and stopped short. He couldn't afford for the man to be waiting for him to poke his head over the rail and let him shoot it off. Which turned out to be a good idea because no sooner than he'd stopped when the balcony's rail and the house behind him were hit with several rounds.

"I'm betting you are the pro of this bunch," Rick muttered.

Meanwhile Snohbal saw a man jump from the balcony, steady himself and immediately fire several rounds back where he had just come from. She rumbled a low menacing growl. She yanked her dagger out of the dead man's head and started running with the intent of flying at him.

Rick poked his head over the edge of the balcony which thankfully was solid and not glass or spindles and saw his man running hard for the beach.

Rick was all set to raise up and shoot his legs out from under him since this man he wanted alive when suddenly the area around him erupted with a massive number of rounds striking the area. He had no choice but to fall to the decking and hug it.

Snohbal suddenly heard a loud sound that kept repeating itself over and over again. She looked around searching for the sound's origin. She saw a boat just off of the beach. It was nowhere near the size of boat they had been on earlier. However, there was a man standing on the front holding a large gun and he was firing at the house.

Snohbal instantly made a choice. She started flapping her wings with the intent of catching up to the man who was running away, but she also pointed her dagger at the boat. "I command you to kill everyone on that boat and destroy it." If anyone had been looking at her right at that moment they would have seen a gigantic Red Dragon spring forth from the dagger. It flew up into the air flapping its wings hard to gain altitude.

Snohbal was impressed but she'd seen this dragon before. She kept her attention on the running man. She didn't fail to notice that the man on the boat never stopped firing. She just paid no attention to what he was firing at.

The marksman on the boat was good, but even he was ready to pee his pants at the sight of the massive Red Dragon. It came out of nowhere and was headed right for him. He shifted his fire to the dragon and held his finger on the trigger till he ran out of ammunition.

He could see the rounds striking the dragon; it never changed its course. He saw it open its mouth and out came an inferno of flame. It enveloped his body and the boat; he and the boat turned into ash while a small explosion happened when the gas tanks erupted.

The man running came to a stop and stood there gaping at what he'd just seen. It wasn't possible, it just wasn't. To his horror he saw the dragon soar out over the ocean, turn around, and fly straight toward him. He lifted his weapon and was ready to fire at it when suddenly he was hit hard from behind. All the air was forced out of his lungs when he struck the ground.

Looking up he was taken by surprise yet again. Above him with its hands holding his to the ground, was something he had only ever seen in picture books about myths or movies. It – she – was beautiful. Dark tan skin, lovely long hair, nice breasts with large nipples, but her massive wings got most of his attention.

The next thing he knew she was kissing him. The kiss was amazing. It was like no other he'd ever had in his entire life. "You like my kisses. Kiss me again," Snohbal told him and leaned down to kiss him again. She could feel him returning her kiss.

Rick had noticed that the rounds were still firing but none of them were hitting anywhere near him. He got up on his knees to peer out over the balcony. What he saw was amazing.

An enormous Red Dragon flew toward the boat where a man fired at it using a type of gun Rick had never seen before. He watched as a fiery blast left the dragon and enveloped the man and his craft. He heard and saw the boat explode but when the flames were gone, so was the boat and the dragon's foe. Then he saw Kate in her succubus form flying at the man who had escaped him and they crashed to the ground.

Rick saw her kiss him as the dragon turned around and came back to shore. He was still watching as Kate kissed him again. He watched helplessly as the dragon dove for both of them, but at the last moment the beast seemed to get sucked into the blade that was in her hand.

"KATE – STOP! WE NEED HIM ALIVE!"