Author: cross_and_bow | Bella looks up Tony Stark. (There's no reason not to.)
...Okay. He looks familiar. And his death those several months ago was really very suspicious, and she doesn't think anyone has been doing her morgue trick in New York City. And his more reclusive identical twin's body was never found at all. (If there was an identical twin, and not just Tony Stark theatrically pretending to be two people with mirrors or holograms or Photoshop and cooperative witnesses giving insistent interviews and then suddenly being dead and no longer able to pretend. There was, after all no sign of a twin before a sudden debut when he - they - was or were fifteen, and... "Sherlock Holmes", really? There's not even a hint of a twin in Tony's birth announcement, which she checks because that's the obvious thing to check.)
Come to think of it, Mr. Does Not Stick To Flypaper never introduced himself.
She supposes that his cute laser trick didn't work that well, if he got got. (But she saw it burn him. It's a clever weapon, should take almost no skill to wield a continuous beam - what kind of onslaught could have gotten around that?)
Nothing about her routine changes in response to this information.
Until several days later when she's crossing another neighborhood (seventeen to go) and - he just keeps popping up, doesn't he? |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Fancy meeting you here," says Sherlock(?). |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Fancy that. I'm astounded. But I suppose there's a first time for everything," Bella says. She nudges a cross under a tree root with her foot. She pulls out her phone and her water balloon and perfunctorily dials-but-does-not-send; the stake can stay where it is. "You never introduced yourself." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Sherlock Holmes," he says, "at your service." He sketches a bow. "And did you look up my late brother?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yes. Do you want to tell me how an identical twin who didn't appear on the birth announcement materializes at age fifteen?" He could still easily be Tony instead. Sure, dozens of people are willing to say that they saw Tony and Sherlock together, but Tony was a technical genius, a vampire could have escaped his grave after his burial with little fanfare, and witnesses aren't all that compelling - dozens of people were willing to claim to have seen Joseph Smith perform miracles.
(Although come to think of it, the crosses she's stashing everywhere may suggest it's time for her to evaluate religious claims less skeptically.) |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Clone," he says succinctly. |
Author: cross_and_bow | ...Tony was a technical genius.
"Fits," she muses. "Why in the world would he clone himself?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Because he was incredibly lonely," says Sherlock. "To give you an idea, he popped me out of the tube when he was twelve and neither of his parents knew I existed until they were assassinated a year and a half later. A year and a half which I spent growing at a rate of seven to one and poking my nose into everything I could get my hands on." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "And then you stopped growing at a rate of seven to one," says Bella. "You looked exactly like him for three consecutive years. Was that designed in?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Quite," he says. "I caught up when he was fourteen and proceeded at an ordinary pace from there." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "As far as I was able to determine he was easily clever enough to pull this off if it's technically feasible at all," acknowledges Bella. "How'd he die and you turn? Those ultraviolet things are clever and even a regular human ought to be able to hold off a bunch of vampires with one. It'd have to be a gigantic onslaught or an extremely clever ambush." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "There were eleven of them, and they were hiding in our basement," he explains. "Even I am not paranoid enough to carry a laser pointer in my own fucking home. To my ultimate regret." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "The authors I've been reading," Bella says, "have obvious reasons to be biased - but their claims aren't consistent with regret being involved in that story. Let's hear your side of it." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "A gang of vampires killed everyone I have ever loved—it's a short list—and forcibly turned me. When I woke up, I slaughtered the rest of them and then waited for the man who let them in to come back so I could express my displeasure by torturing him to death. Apparently they were expecting me not to care afterward, but I cannot for the unlife of me imagine why." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "It seems to be a general expectation, that turned vampires won't care about that sort of thing. Or any sort of thing that isn't... sociopathic hedonism," Bella says slowly. "Is this just mistaken, or are you being an unconventional sort of fly again?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Not enough data to comment." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Noted." She chews her lip. "I'm sorry about your - Tony." She isn't really clear on what manner of relationship a clone and his creator might have, for all that they would have had to present as twins regardless of its content. |
Author: eversomuchfun | —He smiles, abruptly, softly.
"Thank you. Your sympathy is very much appreciated." |
Author: cross_and_bow | She looks up. "You're welcome. It's always sad when people die. If vampires in general didn't undergo drastic personality changes and didn't have such inconvenient allergies I'd probably start looking into a species change when I was thirty or so." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Turning into a vampire was the single thing in the world I was most afraid of, before," he says. "It's not so frightening from the other side, but all in all, I would rather have Tony back." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "In his original form?" Bella dares ask. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "As I knew him, yes. I would not mind him being a vampire as long as he was still essentially Tony, but I have some reason to doubt that would be the case." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Because vampires in general aren't?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Even I have some changes. If I met my previous self, I am not sure we'd get along, although I am not nearly what he feared becoming." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "What changes do you have?"
She's not going to make any assumptions here. Plenty of humans would be happy to torture to death someone who'd arranged to kill someone they loved. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Previously my most compelling motivations were ethics and love of Tony. Now my most compelling motivation is hatred of boredom. I am also rather less upset about being a clone," he adds as an afterthought.
"If I had the sort of fabled destructive tendencies I was originally afraid of, this planet would currently be a smear of molten rock across the cosmos." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Well, that would just ruin all my plans for next Tuesday," says Bella.
(She has no exceptional plans for next Tuesday.) |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Yes indeed." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Is there some glowing red button labeled 'turn planet into smear of molten rock' that I should be visiting and figuring out how to disassemble?" Bella asks. "Or was this an elaborate plan that no one more destructive than you is liable to recreate?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Estimate based on current experience," he says. "Perhaps slightly exaggerated. My point being that if I wanted to destroy the world as desperately as I want to find some remotely meaningful reason to continue inhabiting it, I expect I would have managed by now. My actual goal is much more difficult." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "That being 'find interesting things', or something more complicated? Because if you just want to find interesting things I would imagine you'd become the Phantom of the Library, or something." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Well, there is interesting and there is interesting," he says. "It's interesting that the male anglerfish physically dissolves into the female and remains attached to her for the rest of her life in lieu of more traditional copulation, but I wouldn't call it an inspiration to avoid dying for another few years." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "You must have found something, or you'd have let me shoot you." |
Author: eversomuchfun | He spreads his hands and looks at her, as though waiting for something. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "You came looking for Vampire Planned Parenthood and when you found it, I was just that fascinating?" she asks skeptically. "I can be full of myself sometimes, but I've never yet managed to believe that I was anyone's reason to exist." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "On a strictly temporary basis," he says. "Until one of: you become more interesting and I decide I will be staying indefinitely; you become less interesting and I leave; or you die. And I did not come here looking for Vampire Planned Parenthood; I came to have a peek at the Hellmouth. Please tell me you know what that is." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Well," says Bella. "It sounds like a portal to or possibly a very literally named orifice of a hell dimension of some kind. You do realize I'm working almost entirely out of books? I don't even have a curriculum to go by." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Do your books perchance come from the Sunnydale High school library?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yes. For some reason, it has a better selection on the relevant topic than the public library." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Yes," says Sherlock. "I am aware. I have been there, in fact. Because it contains the sodding Hellmouth. Do you really have no supernatural senses at all?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Why in the world would I wish to tell you that, either way? If I have I'd like to be underestimated and if I haven't I shouldn't care to advertise the weakness." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "It was a rhetorical fucking question," he says. "You lay down crosses to catch vampires flinching and you do your research on top of the mouth of fucking Hell without noticing it's there. Would you like a bodyguard? Something ferociously unpleasant is going to kill you one day, and I would be disappointed if it happened anytime soon." |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella rubs her forehead. "I can't trust you," she says, although she does not sound happy about it. "Nothing I have heard the least inkling of says that turning into a vampire deprives anyone of whatever acting skills they may have acquired." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "If I were to beat you in a fight," he says, "and then not kill you, and give you my laser pointer just for good measure, would that be sufficient proof both that I would make an acceptably trustworthy and competent bodyguard and that you probably need one?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella considers this.
"I haven't ever been within six feet of a walking-around vampire," she says. "I have no practical experience with close combat, and I can't even shoot you in particular, which I have been practicing at. I'm pretty sure you could beat the crap out of me if I let you close. My advantages mostly involve in incentivizing you to keep your distance. If I drop that, then I already have to trust you about the not killing me part."
Pause.
"If you give me the laser pointer, I'll put you on a one-week probationary bodyguard period, and we can see how that goes." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Ah, now I get to do the dance of deciding whether or not to trust you with it," he says, pulling the laser pointer out of his pocket and tossing it to her underhand. "Luckily for me, I don't much care." |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella catches it. "What kind of batteries does it take?" she asks.
(She's going to put in brand new ones as soon as she gets home, assuming it's any standard sort.) |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Triple A. It's lasted on the ones it's got for a few years, but I'd stock up if I were you." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yes, that's the plan," she says absently. She aims it at her pinky fingertip, turns it on, and confirms that it does no immediate damage to human flesh. "Good. This is very good." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "You are going to be a terror," Sherlock says happily. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Why do you say that? Just because I'm now armed with something that makes a continuous beam of fiery vampire death and won't harm a human even if I miss?" she asks, grinning. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "You have named the reason precisely, yes." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I approve," says Bella. "All right. I'm going to finish crossing this neighborhood and then go home, sit very still on my porch with a book and a booklight and play 'I am bait', and I suppose you're now provisionally my escort for same." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I sense a slight difficulty with the latter stages of this plan," he says. "But all right, as you like." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "You don't necessarily have to be on the porch, you could be a bit farther away," says Bella. "Unless that cramps your style." She pulls out a screwdriver and scratches a cross into a fire hydrant. "Do you have a bodyguarding style or are you making it up as you go? |
Author: eversomuchfun | "My style is as follows: I am extremely observant and ludicrously good at killing things," he says. "I shouldn't have any trouble lurking in a nice comfortable shadow nearby." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "There you go, then. How did you get to be ludicrously good at killing things? By your accounting you're six - seven? - years old. Even if you started working on it as soon as you could walk..." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I am a genius," he says matter-of-factly. "An analytical genius, specifically. And I took all the martial arts lessons I could find once I picked my name." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "And you picked this one and not, like, Nick Stark or something obvious like that, because you are an analytical genius. I see," says Bella. "I've been watching aikido on the internet a little but I'm sure I'd give myself away as something supernatural if I tried to take lessons now - and before, I couldn't walk across a flat surface without tripping so I would have been taking my life into my hands. If I decide that you can be allowed within arm's reach of me I might require lessons." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I would be happy to oblige." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Very nice. By the way, if Charlie, my dad, should happen to notice you, I consider him entitled to any information he thinks to ask for, and he may also simply recognize you. He trusts me, but it's not impossible he will shoot at you before I can explain your presence. If harm comes to him - regardless of whether he starts it - that will permanently destroy your chances of... well, anything, teaching me martial arts certainly included." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I will not harm your father," says Sherlock. "Regardless of whether he shoots at me. If he manages to hit me, I may have to shake his hand." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "He's a good shot and bullets go faster than bolts. Really?" asks Bella, intrigued. She paints a cross in a crosswalk and tucks one under the courthouse's drainpipe. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I did not dodge your crossbow bolts by watching you shoot them. I dodged by watching you be about to," he says. "When someone is about to shoot at me, I arrange not to be where they are aiming. I evaded a probable assassination attempt that way as a human, in fact." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Interesting," says Bella. Paint. Scratch. Tuck. Scratch. "I figured I had to be telegraphing somehow." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "You were. Nearly everyone does," he says. "To me. And I say 'nearly' only because I have not seen enough examples to make me fully confident of 'everyone'." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Can you teach me not to, or are you sufficiently exceptional that if I'm letting you teach me anything I'm already covered?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Teach you not to telegraph to me? I doubt it most sincerely," he says. "Teach you not to telegraph to other people? Likelier." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Am I that bad?" she sighs. "I do usually hit. Not always the heart on the first try, but I do usually hit." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "You're not bad," he says. "You're still a Slayer. But a Slayer without formal training, which is certainly not optimal, and merciful heavens I have just convinced myself to be your Watcher. What a night." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Is that what Watchers are supposed to do?" Bella asks, strolling down the sidewalk. "Teach Slayers not to telegraph their shots? Because it sounds to me like their job is... watching. But perhaps that's an artifact from another time." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "The history of Slayers in brief, from what I have gathered since the subject became of interest to me: Back in the mists of time, some group of beleaguered humans decides to invest supernatural abilities into a champion who will defend them against the forces of darkness. For inscrutable reasons, they pick a teenage girl and design her portfolio of handy talents so that it will pass to some other teenage girl when she is inevitably killed in the line of duty. Then they train her up and send her out. The succession of teenage girls thusly empowered becomes a global phenomenon: Slayers. The Watcher's Council springs up at some indefinite point and makes it their business to track down a new Slayer wherever she might appear and assign a crusty old fellow to stick by her side, train her in the various arts of combat, and point her at evil things that ought to die. Why they call themselves Watchers, I haven't a fragment of a clue." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I am sincerely uncertain if I wish I had one of those or not," muses Bella. "I don't suppose they'd give me a selection of crusty old fellows to ensure no personality conflicts." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I am sure we can arrange to circulate rumours of your presence," he says. "They will pounce on you like starving dogs. I don't recommend it." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "The pouncing does sound unpleasant," she agrees. "Are they very disconcerted by my failure to appear on whatever manner of radar they have set up?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Headless chickens," he says. "I stumbled on one in my quest to find a Slayer, which I have since abandoned, largely because they could not find her either. Lucky me." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Very lucky. It's pure Hell-Orifice coincidence that you encountered me here, is it?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "The Hell-Orifice," he snorts, "is in addition to attracting me on its own merits, famed for drawing in supernatural persons and phenomena of every kind. I am less surprised to run into you here than I would have been in, oh, New York." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "In spite of the relative populations?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Yes. If I ran into you in New York I would have to wonder why New York as opposed to any other largish city. In Sunnydale, I have a good guess." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "And yet the Watchers haven't swarmed here and interrogated the high school," laughs Bella. "Why haven't they thought of it, if it's such an obvious place?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Because they are idiots?" he suggests. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "It begins to seem increasingly likely, but still, I wonder if I should move?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Take your father with you," he suggests, "if you do. The police death statistics in this town must be appalling." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "They're pretty bad, but I don't think I can get him to leave," Bella says unhappily. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Then stay. And if the Watchers stick their crusty noses into your business, I am sure it will be fascinating to, hah, watch." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Do they have any... resources? That I should watch out for? I imagine if they expect to control superpowered teenagers they have something other than crust on their side, don't they?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I believe they prefer to rely on crust," he says. "But it seems likely that they have a few other things on their side. Regrettably, I don't know what. I could find out, but it might take a trip to England to ransack their crusty headquarters." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Speaking of controlling superpowered teenagers, do you have an idea of what they'd be likely to want me to do?" (Scratch. Bury. Stuff. Paint, paint.) "Besides train in various forms of combat and kill evil entities. ...How do they find evil entities? If they're just ordinary humans..." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Magic, research, guesswork, luck," he says. "In increasing order of frequency." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Do you know any magic? I haven't made much headway with what the library has to offer, and it's slightly harder to tell the difference between fiction and the real stuff than it is with the demonological texts and the histories. Apparently witches care more about making their spells interesting pleasure reading than demonologists and historians; once I read halfway through a thing before I noticed it was published by Puffin." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I haven't made much of a study of it," he says. "Mainly out of arrogance. That could change, I suppose. Not the arrogance, the other part. No force on this Earth is going to change my arrogance." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I would really rather have magic than what I got. It seems more... versatile," says Bella. "Not that I don't appreciate the fact that I haven't fallen down the stairs all month. Having both would be cool too." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Shall we see what we make of it, then? If you ever let me within arm's reach," he jokes. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "If, sure."
(It's seeming so likely. But turning into a vampire does not diminish anyone's acting skills, and he's already this smart and competent when he is literally six or seven years old. Bella's not revising the probationary period.) |
Author: eversomuchfun | He grins. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella finishes crossing the neighborhood and circles back to her car. "You know where I'm headed," she says, hopping in the pickup's cab. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I do, at that."
He beats her there by about thirty seconds. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Showoff," she says without heat as she parks and goes in for a book. She comes out with one of the texts on magic, sits on the porch chair, and holds very, very still, apart from page turning - which, as the lights go off after about a minute, isn't enough to trip the motion sensor. |
Author: eversomuchfun | He laughs, takes a bow, and disappears somewhere before she trips the sensor the first time.
And remains disappeared thereafter. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella plays bait, and reads by booklight.
Someone takes the bait.
Someone creeps up the driveway.
Bella pretends not to notice. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock pretends not to exist. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Someone gets a porchlight to the face as soon as he's four feet away from it, and while he's bawling, he also gets a bolt to the heart. He dusts.
Very silly of him not to have noticed the weapon under the wicker chair. |
Author: eversomuchfun | The neighbour's hedge snickers. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I'm not likely to get two in one night," Bella tells the neighbor's hedge. "I'm going to turn in. See you around." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Goodnight," the hedge says amicably. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella spends the following afternoon reading. She hasn't worked her way through the collection - even the definitely nonfictional collection - yet. (But she does take the books out instead of sitting on the Hell Orifice with them.)
Charlie is expected home late on this day, and she doesn't want to be out after sundown without the ability to summon the cavalry, so sunset sees her still indoors. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Naturally, it sees Sherlock indoors also. But not for long. He heads for Bella's house as soon as stepping outside will not cause him to catch fire. |
Author: cross_and_bow | The Bronze is on the way.
There is a bit of a kerfluffle there.
It involves no fewer than four species of demon, although not particularly numerous contingents of any, and they are all of the sort that humans may rationalize into believing conspecifics.
And it involves some cops. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Oh, fuck me," Sherlock sighs.
He assesses the situation. Yes, that's Bella's father. Yes, that's one of Bella's father's subordinates about to be disemboweled.
Bella would probably not be pleased.
Sherlock enters the fight.
No one involved is expecting him, which means that he can dance across the field of engagement and kill six demons before anyone notices he is there. He makes another pass before anyone starts shooting at him; he makes a third without getting hit. One cluster of demons decides that discretion is the better part of not having your neck broken by the whirlwind of death; they flee. Sherlock stands still for a moment, his coat dripping four colours of blood, baring human teeth at the remainder. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Stand down!" orders one of Charlie's subordinates. Another is checking for pulses. Charlie himself is radioing for backup, but he's got his sidearm trained on Sherlock. |
Author: eversomuchfun | There are six demons left standing. Out of twenty.
Sherlock makes a gentle shooing motion at them.
They break and run.
He laughs. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Stand down!" repeats the cop.
Charlie doesn't ask. He shoots. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Still giggling, he is just a little too late with the dodge. The bullet catches him high on his left shoulder.
He turns to Charlie and sweeps an extravagant bow with no sign of pain.
Then he bolts down the nearest alley. |
Author: cross_and_bow | There are more shots, but none connect, and they can't catch him.
Bella, oblivious, is reading in her room. |
Author: eversomuchfun | A small pebble strikes her window with pinpoint accuracy, nowhere near hard enough to break it. |
Author: cross_and_bow | She looks out the window. (She doesn't open it.) |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock is standing on the lawn, laughing. His shoulder is bleeding; his hands and coat are streaked with miscellaneous ichor. His teeth and face, however, are spotless.
"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?" he calls up to her through his giggles. "It is the east, and Juliet is the sun! Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon who is already sick and pale with grief that thou her maid art far more fair than she."
At that point, he is laughing too hard to stand; he sits down in the grass, leaning back on his hands. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella opens the window. "Are you drunk as well as injured?" she asks him. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "No," he says cheerfully. "But you are clearly an oracle. You'll never guess what just happened." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "...Did Charlie shoot you?" she asks, exasperated. "Why was he in a position to shoot you?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | He spreads his hands.
"Well, I'd just killed about two dozen demons in front of him, so I imagine he wasn't too sure what to do with me. Under the circumstances, 'shoot it' was a reasonable option. Ruined my favourite coat, though, remind me to pretend to be angry about that." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "...Pretend to be angry? What two dozen demons?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "My favourite coat has a great big fucking hole in it," he says, gesturing indicatively. "And my shoulder is none too happy either, but unlike the coat, the shoulder will repair itself. I invite you to apply to your father for explanations of what he was doing facing down twenty-six assorted hellspawn with four cops and a corpse. Police business, I imagine. I ran across them on my way here." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I... see," says Bella. "Charlie's all right?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "In perfect health, last I saw him," says Sherlock. "As I was fleeing down an alley." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Ooookay. Why would you need to pretend anger about your coat? And to whom?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I wouldn't, really," he says. "But I am not, in fact, angry, and it seems vaguely like the sort of thing one gets angry about, and furthermore it seems not impossible that I will eventually meet your father and have the opportunity to berate him for it, if I can keep a straight face long enough, which at the present moment would be a task far beyond my capacity to achieve." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Why pray tell are you acting drunk?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Because I just killed twenty fucking demons," he laughs. "And then got shot." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Should I be concerned about my mental faculties if the same thing ever happens to me, or is this a Sherlock thing?" she inquires. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Adrenaline, endorphins," he shrugs. "I don't know if I have them anymore, but apparently I have a reasonable facsimile." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Noted. Thank you for killing the demons," says Bella. "Do you happen to know what they were doing, besides, apparently, killing at least one - cop? Bystander?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Bystander," he says. "I could venture a few guesses, but my information is not complete." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "What're your information and your guesses?" Bella asks. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Four species of demon," he says, settling down a little. "Numbers roughly equal. One dead human, cold. The way those demons fought, they were uneasy allies at best, united briefly against a common enemy. My best theory is that the human stumbled across some kind of meeting or negotiation, perhaps heated, and was sufficiently alarmed and sufficiently new in town to call 911. The demons swarmed her before the police could arrive." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Reasonable train of thought. Should I worry about the results of the meeting - or its disruption?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I should, perhaps," he laughs. "I'm the one the survivors will be hunting." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "There could be collateral damage, or they could be plotting to blow up the elementary school or something sinister like that - non-vampire demons won't be repelled by the crosses around the place." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Shall I find out?" he offers. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I would like to have the information," she says, which isn't quite an answer to his question. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I am good at information," he says. "You might consider it my signature talent." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Hence the name," she replies. "All right."
Charlie's cruiser pulls around the corner. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock glances at it, and starts giggling again. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Sherlock," says Bella exasperatedly.
The cruiser stops short when Charlie recognizes Sherlock, and he leaps out, weapon drawn and pointed.
"Dad!" shouts Bella. "Don't shoot! Just - go on the porch, or inside, but don't shoot him again, okay?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock flops back onto the ground and wheezes with mirth. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Charlie doesn't let his gun point anywhere other than at Sherlock, but he slowly moves from the cruiser to the porch and stays there under the sun bulbs.
Bella chooses a different window to stick her head out of so she can see them both. "Dad, this is Sherlock. I'm not letting him within arms' length but for the time being he seems worth letting live, okay?"
"...Bells, he killed -"
"They killed a person, didn't they?"
Charlie nods slowly.
"They weren't humans. Look at the colors of the blood on him - I know it's dark, but you can see it's not red, right?"
Charlie nods again, still slow. |
Author: eversomuchfun | He's sitting out of porchlight range. More or less. Sherlock raises his hand in a little wave, and otherwise lets them get on with their conversation. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Sherlock," Bella continues, "is a vampire. He can't come into the house unless one of us invites him, and the porch lights or sunshine will burn him, so we're safe on the porch, in the house, and during the day outdoors or near windows. Most vampires are very dangerous. This one seems to have interests besides being dangerous, and besides he's very good at dodging, so he is still alive. I will tell you first of anything if my judgment on that changes, okay, Dad?"
Charlie nods again. He lowers the gun, regards Sherlock, and holsters it. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Thank you," he says. And wryly, lazily, cheerfully, without the least hint of anger: "I am very annoyed about what you did to my coat." |
Author: cross_and_bow | Charlie snorts and goes into the house. He shuts and locks the door behind him. |
Author: eversomuchfun | He grins up at Bella. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "You look like you're having fun. Have you even got the bullet out of your shoulder yet?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "No," he says cheerfully. "Should I, d'you think?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Will it otherwise remain open forever or will it just heal around the slug?" Bella inquires. "I suppose removing it is wise either way, but I'm curious." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "No idea," he says. "Never been shot before. I suspect the latter, however." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Then you should take it out unless you want to have a chunk of metal in your shoulder forever or reopen the wound at some point, shouldn't you?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I suppose so, yes," he says. "But it is likely to be an unpleasant job, and I would much rather just lie here and giggle to myself." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Well, I can't get it for you. It hasn't been a week yet," she says reasonably. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "If I wait a week for you to get it, you will have to dig it out with a knife, which will be even less pleasant," he says. And sits up. "Ah, fuck it. Will you be staying in tonight?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yes." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Then I will go home," he says. "And come back tomorrow, minus one bullet."
He climbs to his feet, favouring the wounded shoulder a little. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Luck," she calls. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Good or bad?" he calls back. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "At least one of the two, depending," she laughs. "G'night." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Goodnight," he says, and waves, and turns away.
Wounded or no, he is very good at disappearing. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella carries on with her usual routine. Attend school and pay about thirty percent attention, read, cross neighborhoods, patrol, follow and eventually shoot anyone who flinches, read more, try any small spells she finds with results that appeal to her and fail at them. Only now she does all of this - after sundown, anyway - with a shadow. He is pretty good about keeping his distance. |
Author: eversomuchfun | And then one night he shows up at her house after sundown, per usual, with a large, full backpack, not per usual. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella peers out of her upstairs window. "What's in the backpack?" she asks him. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Blood," he says, grinning. "My regrettable little hotel room's regrettable little refrigerator coughed its last this morning, and I need somewhere to keep the rest for now. Any space available in yours?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "All pigs' or something?" Bella inquires. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Pig, some cow," he says. "I am trusting the labeling system of the butcher I stole from. None human, in any case; I'd notice that." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "There's fridge space for that much volume, although I'll have to rearrange the vegetable crisper. Unless you want to drink it cold, there'll need to be a drop point and a time of night picked out, at least for the next few days." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "You can bring some out to me when I arrive to go about my bodyguarding, can you not?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yes, but handing it to you is not happening, yet, and ideally it would be warmed - how long in the microwave? how much per day? - when you arrived, so we didn't waste time that could be spent patrolling. I'm not sure where you're staying or how long it takes you to get here or whether other things sometimes come up in your - undeath - actually, that's nonsensical, you are clearly a walking-around intelligent thing and pulse-based definitions of life are comparatively uninteresting and I don't think the scientific community has had a chance to rule on vampires anyway yet - whether other things come up in your life between sunset and your appearance here." |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock grins.
"Other than the hopefully rare occasions when I have to save your father's life on the way, I have nothing to occupy my at all between home and here. I save other pursuits for while you are sleeping." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "It would be a waste of time for me to leave a bag of blood outside for you at sunset and for you to run it back to your 'regrettable little hotel' to microwave it, regardless," says Bella. "I may as well take care of that." (She can always hold her nose. She owns clothespins.) "Acknowledging that microwaves may vary, how much do you need and how long do I nuke it?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "A jar a night and two minutes seems to be about the right answer. I haven't been eating this way for very long." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Sure. Do you need any now - or, no, you wouldn't, you said it was your fridge, not your microwave. Leave the backpack on the driveway and I'll come take it in." |
Author: eversomuchfun | He sets it down and backs off.
"Voila, fair Juliet." |
Author: cross_and_bow | She comes downstairs, fetches a grocery bag, goes outside, and opens the bag. (She doesn't trust him perfectly yet - but she thinks it would offend anyone's sense of anticlimax at this point to kill her with a trapped bag.) She unzips it, peers inside, verifies that it contains labeled jars of blood, and transfers the jars to the bag so he can keep his backpack. She runs them into the kitchen, reorganizes the vegetable crisper, and puts the bag in next to the leftover turkey. She puts a sticky note on it that says "ASSORTED ANIMAL BLOOD - SHERLOCK'S FRIDGE BROKE - YES DAD I AM BEING SAFE THANKS" and then grabs her messenger bag and heads out to start the evening. |
Author: eversomuchfun | As soon as she's outside again, Sherlock tips her a cheerful salute and engages lurk mode.
He's probably still there. (It varies how perceptible he is when he follows her, but he has never yet failed to appear on command.) |
Author: cross_and_bow | It kind of weirds her out, but as long as he also never fails to appear from the requisite distance, she can appreciate the sense of it.
She hasn't been handling neighborhoods in any systematic pattern. She wants to inconvenience vampires, not herd them into a specific more-comfortable patch of town. The next one on her list is within easy walking distance. Scratch stuff paint paint scratch. She's tempted to whistle. She doesn't. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Neither, thankfully, does Sherlock. |
Author: cross_and_bow | A pair of demons - Sherlock may recognize them from the other night, but they're passing for human, and walk right over Bella's crosses - do whistle. And head in Bella's direction. She looks around, but when they go by a scratched fire hydrant, she doesn't pull out her crossbow. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Well.
Just yet, appearing would probably do her more harm than good. So he doesn't. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "You probably wanna go home this time of night," Bella tells them.
(Yep. Completely devoid of supernatural senses.)
"I don't count, my dad's chief of police and I get left alone, but -"
The demon on the left can't pass for human anymore after he grins and bares sharp teeth.
Out comes the crossbow. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Well.
His services are not technically required just yet. But he prepares to act the very instant that they are. |
Author: cross_and_bow | They're fast. Bella's faster, but there are two of them, and if they have hearts they aren't conventionally located. They don't go down after her first hit, or her second - and now they know something's up with their intended prey, and they advance faster, increasingly pincushioned but barely slowed down.
"Sherlock?" she squeaks as she runs out of bolts in this quarrel and trots away, backwards, reaching into her bag for the next. |
Author: eversomuchfun | The moment that she speaks coincides almost exactly with the moment that Sherlock abandons concealment and charges.
Four seconds later both demons are dead. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella's breathing hard more out of emotion than exhaustion. "N-nicely done," she says. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "You're welcome," he says lightly. "I remember these fellows from the incident the other day; I didn't want to connect us in their minds until I was sure I needed to kill them both." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I don't think most kinds of demons eat people the way vampires do. What did they want with me?" Bella wonders, putting a new quarrel into her crossbow before she stashes it in her messenger bag again. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Not sure," he says. "Sport is a likely hypothesis." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "The person they killed before was also a woman, wasn't she?" Bella asks, frowning. "Did she have any other notable features? How old was she?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Now that you mention it, she was almost exactly your height," he says. "Otherwise unalike—older, browner, not a student, not connected to the police in any obvious way. The height may or may not be a coincidence." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Okay. I'll ask Charlie to keep an eye out and see if anyone turns up dead of barbecue-fork-unrelated causes, especially if they're similar to her in cause of death. If they're not just playing around there might be some connection and we can figure out what they're doing." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Sounds reasonable."
Cause of death in that woman's case was mainly teeth, as he recalls from his brief glimpse. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "The barbecue fork thing was really ridiculous before I showed up. I can't even figure out why this town is inhabited," mutters Bella, looking at the demon bodies. "Hm. I don't have a procedure for dealing with these. The vampires take care of themselves." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Never underestimate the human capacity for denial. Do you object to just leaving them here?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I suppose I can explain them to Dad and he can either make something up or nudge it towards being the thousandth annual unsolved murder of something not found in any biology textbook," she says. "Didn't they have friends, though? Are they more likely to do unpleasant things to one or the other of us if they find the bodies?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "In a town like this, I expect even the demons know that an unexplained disappearance is an unexplained death. They may be able to track you by your arrows, I suppose, if they get their hands on the right magic somehow or other." |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella solves that problem by collecting the bolts. She wipes them off on the nearest patch of grass to the point where she's willing to have them in her messenger bag, and stows them. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "That should be all right," he says critically, casting a final glance over the bodies. (The night he dug a bullet out of his shoulder, he also got a new coat. This one has come this far without getting bloodstained.) |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Okay." Bella skips crossing the rest of this block; she doesn't want to be observed nonchalantly wandering around in easy view of a pair of corpses. She turns the corner and starts working her way down Santa Clara Avenue. "...Thanks," she adds. "Thanks a lot." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "All in a night's work. I'll just go back to being unobtrusive again, shall I?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yeah. Thanks," she says again. |
Author: eversomuchfun | He smiles briefly and finds a shadow to disappear into. |
Author: cross_and_bow | She completes the crossing of the neighborhood.
She checks on the demons again, on her way home.
The bodies are gone. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Well, that's interesting," says Sherlock. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "It is. There was a window of -" She looks at her watch. "About an hour. Do you happen to know what kind or kinds they were? Do those just disappear or dissolve or get assumed into another dimension on death?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "This is one of the species I did not recognize," he admits. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "There are so preposterously many..." she mutters. She doesn't go down that block; she keeps going and takes the next left instead. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Agreed."
And he's gone again. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella gets the rest of the way home without incident. Before approaching near enough to turn the lights on, she says - "Thanks again, Sherlock. I am - really not convinced I would've been able to beat them alone." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Nor am I," he says from the shadows. "You're welcome." |
Author: cross_and_bow | And in she goes.
If he is running some kind of con she is at a complete loss for what it could be, unless he's particularly fascinated by getting victims to deliver themselves into his hands with full knowledge of his species and he likes difficult targets.
Just a few more days and then she can let herself act like she believes what she's already pretty thoroughly convinced of. |