Demon

"Sorry.. I would have got in touch if I knew how with out giving you away," Drake explained, hugging her back tightly. He noticed the fog lifting and vision restoring around them.
"We should move, we will be seen..." He said quickly, releasing her from his embrace. As much as he wanted to just talk and catch up and tell her how much he missed her. He couldn't be seen with out causing a problem.

Devon swore and let Drake go, casting a quick glance around them. "Thanos is going to be after us soon," she said. "Fuck. I need to find Colt and Vincent before we go. Colt went looking for you, but Vincent went off to do something else at the beginning." She lifted her nose to the air, trying to catch their scents, but the blood and death made it nearly impossible to smell anything at a distance. "What were you doing here? Spirus said you were bringing something."

"I got the book Spirus told me to grab from Vincent's stuff. He said it was going to help us fix things.." Drake motioned the large square on his back.

Vincent had found his way to the alley that Colt and Devon were in earlier. He was around a corner from Thanos so figured he couldn't be seen by him. He was sure the others would find a place much like this and maybe they would all find the same one.

Colt ran back toward the alley, seeing that the fog was clearing. She howled as she ran, hoping that only Devon would hear it or care about it. Maybe Thanos would think they were just trying to find each other. She hadn't found Drake or Vincent, so she sure hoped Devon had.

"Good." Devon turned back toward the sound of Colt's howling. "Damn. I need to go now. I told her I'd meet her if I found you, but I don't know that you can come back. Thanos is always watching us." She grit her teeth as she started to back away. "Be careful. I still can't figure out what he's doing yet. Don't do anything stupid or I'll kill you when I find you again."

With that, she turned and sprinted back toward the alley, just as Thanos descended from the balcony with help from the winged demon. The man paid little mind to the destruction around him, merely looking pleased with the outcome.

Drake had just enough time to say that he would get in touch with Spirus and to be careful before Devon ran off toward Colt. He couldn't help but smile just lightly to himself about Devon telling him to be careful or die. She has such a charm.
Before the fog finished clearing he took off in the opposite direction, light on his feet, not even making a sound as he ran and vanished behind a building.

Vincent had chosen the right alley and was happy to see colt run up to him. But frowned when he noticed she was limping lightly and panting heavily. She stopped next to Vincent and changed back into her human form. She just sat on the ground to catch her breath, her wrist was bleeding but it was hard to tell how bad it was with her hand clamped over it.
Thankfully Vincent had found a meal and so could stand the sight and smell of his friends blood, "are you alright Colt? Where is Devon?" He questioned, kneeling down next to her to try and see how bad the wound was.

Colt just nodded, still working on catching her breath before she wanted to speak.

Devon arrived just after Colt, bloodied and panting but no worse for wear. She narrowed her eyes at the wound on Colt's wrist, but before she could ask about it, Thanos and Saizel were standing in the mouth of the alley behind her.

"Well, I think we've managed enough," Thanos said cheerfully, hands sliding into the pockets of his tailored suit. In spite of the destruction around him, he had managed to remain spotless, without a hair out of place. "I think a few news crews managed to get a good look at my face, and probably saw the rest of you lot all pretty and vicious."

Devon couldn't help a disgusted curl to her lip, which she quickly smoothed out.

"Anyway, let's all head home~ I'm sure we'll be busy again soon enough."

Vincent was a bit annoyed by the humans tone of voice. Talking to his friends as if they were his pets. He glanced back down at Colt who was glaring at Thanos and had finally managed to catch her breath. He pulled a cloth from his pocket and gently grabbed her wrist. She moved her hand from her wound and the blood gushed out a bit faster then when she had pressure on it, but she wasn't going to die.
She made sure not to make eye contact with the vampire as he wrapped the cloth around her wrist tightly to try and slow the flow.

Once he was done, which was fairly quickly he stood back up and offered Colt a hand, glancing at Devon. He was shocked to see her covered in human blood. Colt had very little human blood on her. But he had to assume it was a cover and not assume his friend was killing humans.

Spirus was gone for now, and didn't come when Thanos tried to call.

Thanos, abruptly ignorant of the others once he was done speaking to them, turned away to speak to Saizel. After they all gathered together again, Saizel transported them back to the manor of the countryside, and the group was left alone in the sitting room of their wing.

Devon, once she was certain they were alone, sat down and groaned into her hands.

Colt plopped heavily onto a chair and closed her eyes, "I really hated that.. I don't know if I can do it again." She spoke softly and her voice quivered a bit like she might cry.

Vincent quietly got into a drawer where there was a first aid kit and pulled a smaller chair up next to Colt. He pulled cloth off her wrist, that was now nearly soaked with blood and started to clean her wound lightly.

"Agreed," Devon mumbled, before grimacing and lifting her head. The stench of blood was overwhelming. She needed a long shower. But first--

"I did find Drake, though," she said, looking over at Cold. "Just near the end. He was alright, as far as I could tell. I don't know if he'll be able to keep in contact, but he said he would try. Might be difficult, though, so I guess we'll have to see."

She swallowed. "Hopefully before the next time we have to do that."

Colt opened her eyes and smiled a little bit, "really!? That's great, I'm sure he will figure out a way." She finally looked at Vincent who was almost done wrapping her wrist.
"Was this William?" He asked lowly, almost wanting to ignore the conversation about finding Drake. She just nodded a little in response.
Once he was done with her wound he looked up and Devon, "are you hurt?"
As much as he was happy to have Drake's skilled help again, he felt like he lost his chance at something he never really had a chance with.

Devon smiled wearily at Vincent. "No, I'm not, thankfully," she replied. "I'll be alright. I just need a long shower and something to eat." And a bullet in Thanos' head, but it was harder to say that aloud without being certain that it wouldn't get back to Thanos himself. She took off her glasses and tossed them on the table, then ran a hand through her hair, ruffling her bangs in agitation.

"What did Drake say?" Colt asked, pulling her legs up to be more comfortable.

Vincent resigned himself to putting away the aid kit and then sitting down on the couch. No matter where the vampire sat he maintained his good posture, which seemed like it should sometimes be impossible.

"Did he have the book?"

"Not much. There wasn't much time; I only found him right before Thanos called us back. He was talking to Spirus about something, but I wasn't sure what." Devon's mind flashed back to the dead infant that seemed to be the cause of their argument, a mystery she wasn't sure she wanted solved. "He couldn't talk with us before because he was worried about getting us or himself in trouble. But he did have the book, yeah."

"That's good to hear..." Colt said," now we can work on actually stopping this." She thought about the fact that Drake had to go to their current home to get the book from Vincent's things. She wondered how Zeke and Ronnie were doing. She missed them both, and miss her own bed.

"I wonder how he plans on speaking with us," Vincent trailed off, starring at the wall.

"I don't know. I said as much, since we're always under surveillance, but I have no idea what the asshole's doing at this point." Devon stood, shaking her hair out from its ponytail. Her voice was hard, suddenly bitter. "I don't know. I do know that I need a shower, though. I feel disgusting like this."

Without another word, she headed out of the living room, heading to the overly large bathroom down the hall.

Colt and Vincent both glanced at each other, wondering about Devons sudden change of tone. They assumed it was from the days events. Colt needed to shower too but needed to heal a bit before she tried to go stand in hot water.

A day passed and everything was pretty quiet. Spirus returned in a few hours, seemingly fine. He didn't hardly speak to anyone though.

By now the 3 of them had gotten used to sleeping in their own rooms in the wing. And it was late, the middle of the day and everyone was tucked into their own rooms. Spirus was on guard for them, he stood in the hallway between the rooms, pretending like he was listening for anything suspicious. Colt would wake up several times during the day and wander the halls in her wolf form. She never felt completely comfortable, specially since Villie was around sometimes. She would wander, check things out, and then go back to bed for a couple more hours. She usually slept in longer then the others because of this.

It was quiet in the large house, everything seemed to be normal, but Spirus stopped Colt on her walk about the halls and knocked lightly on Devon's door.

Devon woke immediately to the sound of someone knocking on her door. Having gotten used to living in situations where she needed to be alert, it was generally easy for her to wake. She was out of bed quickly, snatching her glasses out of the bedside table as she went.

Seeing Spirus outside woke her completely and immediately. "What's going on?" she asked, completely unselfconscious in the thin-strap tank top and baggy pants that served as pajamas. "Please tell me Thanos isn't calling on us already."

"No," Spirus spoke quietly, "just have someone who needs to talk with you." He motioned for her to follow him and started down the hall. Colt was on his heels, still in her wolf form. He knocked on Vincent's door and told him to follow as well before heading to the living room of their wing. Vincent was down to his buttoned shirt and pants, not needing to sleep he didn't need any less.

He gave Devon a confused look as he walked with the small group, hoping she would know what was going on.
He lead them into the room that was darkened by curtains and standing in the middle of the room was drake, shaved up and better looking then he was last time. The book he had carried with him was on the coffee table in front of the couch. It was a large red book with old pages and binding falling apart.

The vampire cross smiled at hiss friends as they walked into the room. Once they were in Spirus left the room to stand guard outside the door.

Devon could only shrug at Vincent as they followed Spirus through the house; she never knew what the old demon was doing.

When they finally all congregated in the living room, only to find Drake there, Devon all but melted with relief. The relief was quickly replaced by confusion and anger, but she grinned nonetheless. "Jesus Christ, Drake, I didn't think you'd be back that quickly. How the hell did you pull this off?"

"I didn't pull anything off, Spirus got me in," Drake shrugged lightly.
Colt quickly changed into her normal, less fuzzy form and ran over to hug Drake tightly. He laughed and hugged her back shortly.
"I'm glad you are okay and back," She sighed in relief as she pulled back from the hug, smiling.
"Sorry I had to leave so suddenly, but I guess it meant not getting me into this guys sight, so I guess it's for the better," he told all 3 of them.

"Undoubtedly. He'd either set a team of demons on you or try to recruit you. Most likely that one," Devon said dryly. She circled around to the table to look at the heavy, worn book. "Either way, it wouldn't end well for anyone. And you probably shouldn't stay too long, as much as I hate to say it."

She glanced up, looking at Drake and taking in all the details, everything she hadn't seen properly in months. It made something ache in her chest while simultaneously filling her with uncertainty.

"I will be fine for a bit, Spirus said he would keep watch. I want to know what is in this book," Drake waved his hand dismissively. He was barely worried because he trusted his father.

Vincent moved from the back of the room where he had been standing quietly to his book. He trailed his hand across it before very gently opening it as he sat down on the couch. The pages were all hand written in blue in and in Latin. He flipped through the pages slowly, careful not to pull apart the decaying book.

While he was doing this Colt asked if Drake had seen Zeke when he went to the house. He had not, he went when the vampire was sleep. But Ronnie had seen him and helped him find the book in all of Vincents old stuff.

Vincent stopped on a page where diagrams were drawn. A lose folded paper had been stuck into the book and he took it out and handed to to Devon. It was a very old picture of the earth with crosses on parts all over the world, all linked by lines making a pentagram. In the very middle was the Bermuda triangle.
"I think this is a mad of the transmitters Spirus spoke about," he mused as he read down a page, his violet eyes flicking back and forth quickly.

Devon sat on the couch beside Vincent, watching as he flipped through the book. She couldn't read a word of it--which raised the question of why Vincent could read Latin, but that was for another time. The diagram he passed on to her, however, was of much more interest.

"Are you kidding me," she breathed. "This would be--it's impossible. They're all over and there's so many."

Drake leaned over Devon's shoulder to look at the map and he frowned a little.
"Looks like we will need help, or someone who can travel really quickly. Spirus can but that might look suspicious...."

"It says that each transmitter runs on a different rare gem..." Vincent said aloud as he ran his finger down the page of the book. "Each one is a puzzle that has to be solved and it will put it self back together... And then you put the gem inside." He paused for a moment where the ink was smudged. "I think.... I think it says it needs the sacrifice of a different type of demon at each gem.. Or humans, but it says something different happening with humans but I can't read it..."

"It can't be easy I guess," Colt sighed.

"Well, it's not like we can just sacrifice people, either," Devon added, staring down at the page where she assumed those directions were written. "That's not--that's incredibly fucked up. There has to be something else in that." Unfortunately, she suspected that wasn't the case. The more they looked into this mission, the more impossible it was beginning to seem. Even with help, how would they organize this?

"No I feel like the it's saying human sacrifice is an option if you want the transmitters to do something other then suck all the demons back into their world. . ." Vincent thought for a long moment, his hand on his chin. "Maybe it's to reverse it. . ."

"Well we don't want that. So we find the transmitters, find demons to kill, find the jems, figure out the puzzle and we are good?" Drake asked, putting his hands on his hips.

"It seems that way," the vampire nodded as he turned to the net page. "Wait. It says they must all be turned on with in 24 hours or we will have to start over..."

"Fantastic." Devon slumped against the back of the couch. "So this is impossible. Unless we have an enormous network set up--which we don't--we won't be able to hit them all in time. That, or we all learn how to teleport, which so far isn't something I've found to be easy."

Her hands came up to rub her eyes under her glasses. "Days like this I regret being a hunter . . ."

The group was silent for a moment, trying to figure out a way to pull this off, but it seemed so impossible.

"Well..." Colt finally spoke up, "Enormous network... You do have one! The Hunter's Society. They are all over the world far and wide! If we send them the information we have found we could do this! I'm sure they all want the demons and Thanos gone as much as we do!" She was excited to figure it out but still kept her voice a little hushed so no one could easily hear the excitement.

"Possibly," Devon allowed, not opening her eyes. "But then there's the matter of getting it to them globally. I know I've never gone out of the country, but most communities of hunters are sort of either close-knit or entirely nonexistent. Are we going to be able to communicate far enough? Even I don't know enough names to get much further than parts of Europe."

"Zach does..." Colt said, but her excitement was gone again.

"Yeah but how long has it been since you seen Zach?" Drake questioned, almost snapping at Colt. She looked at the ground. His history with Zach wasn't good and he preferred not to use him.

"Drake perhaps you should set your petty fight aside and go find Zach..." Vincent said sharply, shocking both Drake and Colt a little. "If he can help us stop all of this you need to find him."
Drake narrowed his blue eyes at the vampire, unsure of how to take his sudden harshness.
"You are the only one who can leave. Get Ronnie to help you if you must, he is good a tracking people down."

Devon sat up again, leaning her elbows on her knees. "Vincent's right," she said. "Right now, nothing matters more than putting a stop to Thanos. This has already gone too far, and he's pulling in more troops every day--and god knows what Villie's doing, working with him. If Zach can help us, then we need to find him." Not that the thought was all that exciting to her either, knowing Drake's history with Colt's foster father, but it meant nothing compared to what was quickly amounting to saving the world.

For once, Vincent didn't feel bad about speaking harshly to someone. He felt as if he deserved it. Drake sighed and let it go for now. But he was getting a bad feeling from the classy vampire in the very pitt of his gut.

"I would look at their old hide out first," Colt spoke up.

"I will go look, and come back when I can and let you know if I found him," the silver haired hybrid agreed. "If I'm not back in 2 weeks that means he killed me.." He turned to leave, sensing they were running short on time.

Colt looked at the ground again, "I wish I could go. I miss him a lot."

"In the meantime, we'll see what else we can do here. So far, we're locked down, but the information we're getting is at least something." Not only did being at Thanos' side help in itself, some of the demons around them could be remarkably talkative. Whether they were careless or arrogant wasn't always discernible. Devon watched Drake start to leave, unsure of what else she could say.

"If something goes wrong and you need to get a hold of me, just talk to Spirus," Drake paused to say before heading toward the window. It wasn't like he could just walk out the front door. He pulled a beanie and goggles from his tench coat pocket and pulled them both on, then pulled up his duster over his mouth and the collar of his coat over his neck.
"I'll be back soon," he nodded to the group. As much as he didn't want to leave again, at least it was for a much shorter time this time. He pulled the curtain back away from the window, letting the light shine into the room behind him. Vincent shrank away from the light beam and closed his eyes tightly. Drake tried to be quick as he opened the window, looking out it, and jumped down, taking off at a sprint. The curtain fell back into place,blocking the sunlight again and Vincent relaxed.

Devon watched as Drake leaped out the window, and followed his progress across the property until he was well out of sight. Then she slouched back into her seat onn the couch, closing her eyes in the onslaught of sudden exhaustion.

There was just too much to do. They were in way over their heads.

"Well that was short..." Colt sighed, slumping back as well. She had hoped Drake would be sticking around, but she knew he couldn't. So now she just hoped she could get Zach to help them and could do it with out fighting with him. Zach hated him as much as he hated Zach so she doubted there wouldn't be a small fight. Both were well equipped and trained to easily kill each other... And yet, a bit of excitement to possible see her 'father' was over powering her worry.
"I miss Zeke... I hope he's okay..." She mumbled, starring blankly at the wall.

Vincent just starred at his book for a while after. While he could read Latin he still had troubles with some of the words and he wanted to make sure he got everything right.

"I'm sure he is. Him and Ronnie both. It's not like there was a lot going on when we left." Devon half-opened her eyes to stare up at the ceiling, her mind a muddled mess of thought. She wondered what the humans were up to. Undoubtedly they would see the news, but there was little either of them could do. Maybe Drake could bring back news, if he returned to the manor...

Not that it, or anything else, seemed to matter at the moment.

"Well, I'm going to go back to bed," Colt mumbled after a long silence between the three of them. Her heart ached lightly in her chest. Could she be missing Zeke that much? Enough to cause physical pain? That just seemed weird.
She stood up from the couch and yawned into her hand before heading back out of the common room to her designated bed.

"Sleep well," Vincent said as she left, not taking his violet eyes off his red bound book.

Devon listened to the sounds of Colt disappearing into the other room, until silence filled the common area again. She waited a long moment, then sat up and looked over at Vincent. Nothing in the book made sense to her; all of it was messy blue ink and nonsense words, mostly spelling out the world's damnation.

"Don't suppose it mentions anything about a shortcut," she asked halfheartedly.

Vincent shook his head shortly, not looking up from the words he was reading for a moment. But then it was almost as if it finally hit him that Devon was speaking to him.
"Unfortunately, no." He said, finally looking up. His tired eyes settled onto hers, a hint of pain etched into his facial expression. Not enough worth asking about, but enough to notice.
"I am sorry, I wish I could be of more help."

Devon gave a strained smile. "So do I," she admitted. "This is way bigger than any of us. I don't know how or if we're going to pull this off." She leaned forward, elbows on her knees, suddenly weary. "It's not just you, or me, or any of us. Though I guess you've done more than any of us so far with that book alone."

The vampire glanced back at his large book and then to his friend. "I can only help because I am a book hoarder..." He chuckled lightly, "I can not wait to tell Ronnie a book was helpful.." His mood lightened a little and he smiled, showing the tips of his sharp fangs. He was such a polite gentleman with such charm that if he hadn't had slitted eyes, pointed ears and fangs, no one would know he was a blood thirsty demon.

Devon smiled a tiny bit in spite of herself. "Like he would believe you," she said with another glance at the tome. "I dunno. He'd find some way to argue about it."

She fell silent for a moment, then asked, without looking at Vincent, "Do you think this is possible? At all? I just don't see how."

It took Vincent a moment to respond to Devons question. "Yes," he finally said. "If it were anyone else maybe not. But I know in my gut you and Drake and Colt will make this right again." He paused again and looked her in the eyes, speaking with conviction.
"I do. I really do. I have faith. I believe in you."


((believe in the vincent that believes in you!))

Devon heaved a sigh. "I guess that's one of us, at least," she said, taking off her glasses to rub her eyes. "I just--I don't know. This went from one psychopath to having to save the entire world. This is way beyond my scope. I'm a damn good hunter, but I don't know if I'm that good. If we find Zach, then maybe we'll get more people, but . . ."

Vincent reached over and put a hand on Devons shoulder. "Try not to stress so much please, it is not good for you..." He asked sweetly. He was worried for her health with the weight of the world on her shoulders.
"You are one person, but you have many friends with many connections."

"I know, I know, it's just . . . when there's five people who know that the world's gonna end and you're one of the few with any pull to stop it . . ." Devon let the thought trail off. Subconsciously, she was leaning into Vincent's touch and the warmth of her presence, the one steady thing in the midst of their messy situation.

"It is a lot to handle, but you mussint' worry so much, dear..." Vincent said soothingly. He had noticed her leaning in on him and he couldn't help but allow her to. As she leaned in he reached his arm around her to try and comfort her more.
He wondered if he was the only one she left see this side of her.
"What is done, is done and what is going to be will be..." He tried to smile down at her, hoping it would make her feel better.

Devon didn't have a response that wasn't more arguing or worry, so she remained quiet, letting herself be tugged closer. She looked up at him, considering; when had they gotten so close? It was nice. Suddenly, it felt necessary, like her proximity to him was the only thing keeping her grounded in the midst of an apocalypse.

She let her gaze drop from his eyes to his mouth, and before she knew what she was doing, she leaned in and kissed him firmly.