Welcome to Chapter Five! Woohoo!

Shit gets real here!

So let's just hop in.

After this.

AllAmericanSlurp: We'll just have to read.

Mia-Teresa-Davenport: "…I wonder what happened to Anna, anyways…."

MCA: I do enjoy drama…

DarkestKing: Pretty much every demon is agreeing with you.

Except Hellcat, who demands that you don't tell him what to do.

ShyMusic: We'll just have to read.

So, let's go! Kevin?

"Zara doesn't own Lab Rats or anything you recognize. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers."

"Honesty whispers, 'Don't get pricked by the thorns of lie.'"

Angelica Hopes

"Love is a wonderful thing, my dear, but it leaves you wide open for blackmail."

Jasper Fforde, Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next, #2)

Chase

Guess who was pissed that their demons were killed?

Summoners.

Guess who showed up at the house randomly throughout the day to tell Douglas to control his djinni?

More Summoners.

Guess who wouldn't believe anything about demon hunters?

Fucking Summoners.

It was okay, though, because word travelled fast. Even if the Council didn't believe that some organized resistance was out there, the demons did. Horror stories trickled in from the imps that the Summoners dragged over with them about a djinni who had to dig a silver bullet out of his shoulder, an afrit that took two hunters with her before she was finally killed, allowing a couple of the smaller demons to escape, or the imp that was babbling insanely due to the fear the attackers had somehow inflicted on us. They all seemed so shocked that any human force could take on an afrit, let alone an entire pack of demons as well-prepared as they were.

It sounded surreal to me, and I had been there!

Unfortunately for me, where Douglas just started slamming the door in the faces of every Summoner that showed up after a while, I couldn't stem the flow of demons finding their way into the house with their own reports of what they saw at the junkyard and other times before then. Apparently, one of the survivors had spread the word that I was the one organizing the defense. As nice as it was to actually be recognized for something, it was depressing and hard to listen to after a while. No one had answers. No new information, no clues, nothing. It was just one depressing story about a dead or injured demon after another until, finally, I closed every window in the house. The demons seemed to get the hint after that. No one else came by. The only high point of the day?

Kevin was coming over for dinner, which meant that we would finally get to meet him.

And Douglas was nervous.

It was awesome. He panicked more than usual about his appearance and spent about an hour giving us kids and demons a talk amounting to "behave, or my vengeance will be harsh and swift." That was nothing compared to the three hours he spent on dinner with Tasha and Mr. Davenport, all of them locking horns about recipes from time to time until they finally managed to make fajitas that smelled so good that it almost distracted me from Eddy.

Ah, yes: Eddy had to be shut down. Apparently, Kevin had some kind of strange anxiety problem with robots or something stupid. I really wasn't paying attention when Douglas was describing it. All I heard was that this Kevin guy probably had a tinfoil hat that he wore to protect himself from aliens or some shit. Whatever. If Eddy was gone for a few hours, let Kevin complain about the New World Order, for all I cared.

When the time came that we were just waiting for Kevin to show up, Douglas looked ready to explode. He kept shooting angry looks at Adam and Mr. Davenport between excited glances out the window. Once, he tried to smooth the fur down on my ear - since Kevin could see planes, there was no point in me hiding - but I put a stop to the mother hen act with some snarling. Honestly, his fussing was getting annoying. He kept fixing his shirt and messing with his hair. He didn't need to include me in his crap.

It was during another lecture about behaving that I thankfully caught the sound of a car outside.

"I expect you kids to act mature and -"

"Douglas? He's here."

You know, it's very hard to follow a direct order to act mature when the one who gave it bolted out the door - squealing excitedly like a teenager, no less - not seconds later.

I didn't crowd the window with Bree, Tasha and Adam while we waited for the pair to come inside. I could wait a moment, unlike them. Impatient bunch of people.

I kind of wish I *had* looked, in hindsight. Then, I would've had time to think. Instead, when Douglas came back in with Kevin's arm around his shoulders, I was completely blindsided.

"Everybody, this is Kevin," Douglas declared happily, grinning and gesturing towards Kevin. "Come say hi!"

I didn't have to, Douglas.

Kevin and I had already met.

He spared my life at the junkyard last night.

I could tell that Leo recognized him, too, because he kept Adam between himself and Kevin on the other side of the room. Seeming to sense a problem, Adam stayed and acted as a barrier between the two, no questions asked.

Meanwhile, when it was my turn to shake Kevin's hand, I hesitated. I knew it was a minor detail, but he was extending the hand that had touched his no-doubt silver knife. My voice was telling me to tear his hand off completely just for that right there. But, after a second, I shook his hand.

Kevin grinned at me. "I'm guessing you're the infamous Hellcat, right?"

I grinned tightly, knowing that my fangs were revealed a bit too much. "Infamous?"

"Yeah," Kevin responded, patting Douglas' shoulders. "This guy spends half of our dates telling me about you kids."

Adam frowned. "What about the other half of your dates?"

"We don't talk much," Kevin answered, smirking. "Not supposed to talk with your mouth full."

Despite myself, I started snickering at the joke while Douglas started smirking, too. In fact, most of us were snickering. Adam looked confused for a moment before blushing. Tasha was obviously just as embarrassed, but I couldn't tell if it was because she wasn't fond of dirty jokes or that it was told to us kids. Mr. Davenport just rolled his eyes.

After a moment, Douglas nudged Kevin with his elbow. "Hang tight. I have to finish dinner." He glanced at me, his expression noting that he clearly saw my defensive stance. "Weren't you telling me about your tulip genetics project the other day? Anyways, Hellcat loves science. He'd probably like to hear it." Then, he kissed Kevin's cheek and joined Tasha and Mr. Davenport in the kitchen.

Bree immediately took control of the situation. "I have a question: Why are you gay?"

Kevin shrugged. "Why are you straight?"

Her answer surprised me a bit. "Because I'm supposed to be."

Before we go any further, let me just point out that Bree wasn't bigoted. Honestly, she likely chose the wrong words to respond with. See, we never had much experience with gay people before. Being locked up in a Lab isn't all that stimulating. So, naturally, someone asked questions out of curiosity.

Good job, Bree. Kevin might have been a traitor, but I wanted to ask those questions, too.

"Well, I'm supposed to be gay," Kevin responded with a smile.

Bree nodded thoughtfully and wandered to the kitchen to see if she could hurry dinner along, her curiosity obviously satisfied.

I lowered my ears and looked at Adam and Leo, hoping that they would keep the conversation going to keep him off of my tail. The last person I wanted to talk to was a Hunter. But Adam was discussing what Kevin had said with Leo, who actually outpaced our knowledge in this one subject.

Crap! It was just me and Kev', then.

It was then that Kevin turned to me. "So, do you really want to hear the tulip thing, or is Dougie just trying to break the ice?"

Damn it. Another likable quality: He didn't deal in bullshit.

I was supposed to hate this guy! He was a murderer of demons!

Fine. He wanted to be direct, so I would be direct, too.

I pinned my ears, keeping my voice low. "Last night, you could've killed us, but you didn't."

Kevin dropped his own voice immediately. "Technically, James and Cody would've killed you. I wasn't holding a gun."

I resisted the urge to slap him. "You know what I mean, jackass."

Kevin nodded. "I could've gotten you shot, but I didn't. Thank me and move on."

"What's to stop you from shooting me later?" I hissed.

"I have no problem with demons," Kevin answered. "I don't want to kill them."

Liar! "You were ready to draw a knife on us last night."

"In case you decided to defend yourself." Kevin shrugged. "I don't want to kill you, but I like it when nothing tears out my throat."

He's practically asking you to rip his throat out, huffed my voice. It's only polite to oblige.

I narrowed my eyes. "If you don't want to kill demons, then why were you with those guys last night?"

Kevin finally started to show signs of annoyance. "Because I can see planes, and they're using my weaknesses against me so that they can take advantage of it. Look, if anyone else had been able to see planes and knew that I had let you go, then you, your friends, and me would have been shot right there. Lucky for you, Douglas has shown me so many pictures of you kids that I knew who you were, or I wouldn't have risked my life for yours. I don't have a problem with demons or Summoners, but I'm not going to risk dying over saving a few of them when I don't know them. Got it?"

I had to acknowledge the validity of his statement simply from a self-preservation point of view. Honestly, if an imp I was unfamiliar with pissed off an afrit, I wasn't going to save it from being eaten. I valued my hide too much. However, I also wasn't in a group of people dedicated to eradicating demons while dating a Summoner with a half-demonic son!

I mean, come on.

"What could they use against you that's so important that you help the people who want your boyfriend - and his family - dead?"

Kevin's face darkened significantly. "It's nothing you could possibly understand. And, even if you could understand it, it's none of your damn business, is it? Just know that you and your family face no threat from me."

I narrowed my eyes, but said nothing. He was lying.

I knew he was lying.

After a moment of awkward silence, Kevin sighed and walked away from me, crossing the room to look over Douglas' shoulder - literally, Kevin rested his hands on Douglas' hips and his chin on Douglas' shoulder - at what he was doing. Both ended up wearing affectionate smiles that made me frown. I hadn't fully acknowledged the fact that Douglas really cared about Kevin. If he knew that Kevin was a traitor, then it would devastate him.

This just got a lot more complicated.

Would you look at that. ShyMusic was right.

What the fuck, Douglas? You let a Hunter in!

And what could possibly be Kevin's problem?!

And why should anyone even care? Why shouldn't Hellcat just maul him?

Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

So, until next time, feel free to review. Or don't. Eh.

And enjoy.

*Bows and exits*