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He could hear his father’s voice in his head as he crowded the human against the wall. One hand cradled the back of their head while the other puhed its way up and under their t-shirt. The human was moaning obscenely into Kris’ mouth like a bad porn star, and Kris was really not turned on but he needed this.
‘You need to remember that humans are not built like us,’ his father’s voice said, continuing, ‘they’re so much more fragile. You need to be conscious of how much you take.’
Kris’ eyes were open as the human gound against him, eyes closed. Kris could feel the heat pooling in his abdomen, and if he looked into a mirror right now he’d see his eyes glowing. He griped the human tighter and took.
He pulled back just a bit, mouth wide open, and the human started to struggle as he realized something was wrong, but couldn’t do anything about it. Something vaguely smoky streamed from the humans mouth and into Kris’, and he had to resist the urge to moan as the human’s life essence started to fill him.
It felt hot and addicting and Kris closed his eyes before taking more and more, unable to stop.
“Kris.”
The voice didn’t penetrate the fog that surrounded his brain, and he simply moaned and griped the human tighter. It wouldn’t have mattered, however. The human had stopped struggling already, starting to fall limp in Kris’ hold.
“Kris.”
He was pulled away from his prey abruptly and Kris snarled, opening his eyes and crouching slightly, ready to attack. Then he caught sight of his father and abruptly stood, dread curling in his stomach. He glanced over to the human who was now slumped against the wall. He swallowed.
Neil only sighed and kneeled down next to the human, tilting their head up and moving so that he can place his mouth over theirs. A second later a vague smoky substance flowed from Neil’s mouth into the humans. Kris looked away, ashamed of his failure.
A minute later Neil joined him as the human started to stir against the wall, but they were walking away. They didn’t speak until they were both back in Neil’s car and driving away.
“I’m sorry.” Kris said in the stifling silence. Neil said nothing, only glanced at him before he turned his eyes back to the road. He’s quiet for a minute or two before speaking as he pulled onto the highway.
“There’s nothing to be ashamed of Kris. It’s hard to control at first, that’s why I came with you, to make sure you don’t kill anyone, and that if you take too much I can be there to reverse the process. I did the same thing when I was your age.”
That barely made Kris feel better, but he accepted his father’s words. Inwardly, he promised that next time he won’t lose control. He’ll do better. He had to.
ミ★
There was a persistent ringing in his ear.
He groaned and flung an arm over his eyes to block out the light streaming into the room from the window. He glanced at the clock on the bedside table and made a face when he saw what time it was. His arm flung out and he grabbed lazily at his cell phone. For a moment ignoring the call sounded like a great idea, before he decided it wouldn’t be worth the yelling session he’d receive in return later.
He sighed and accepted the call before bringing the phone to his ear.
“Do you realize what time it is?”
“You’re in bed with someone again, aren’t you?” is the response he got. He made another face and looked to his right. There were tufts of hair sneaking over the covers, and he didn’t recognize the humans scent.
“Yeah, so?”
“Dammit Kris! What have I told you about feeding on humans?” the voice is frustrated and Kris rolled his eyes.
“Do you have to be so loud? It’s barely 8 in the freaking morning.”
“Kris.” Quieter now, but no less frustrated. He sighed.
“Just tell me what you want.” He really didn’t know why he put up with this; he should just hang up and go back to bed.
“You need to come into the office. Now.” Ooh, it was the authoritative tone. Must be serious.
“What is so important you had to call me so early?”
“Just…” the voice sighed, suddenly tired, and Kris’ eyes narrowed. Really important then. “Just, come in, please?”
Kris groaned and accepted the fact that there was no way he was getting anymore sleep today. “Fine, I’ll be in within the hour.” He hung up unceremoniously and threw his phone back onto the bedside table. He glanced beside him to the man still lying in his bed. His eyes narrowed.
After he kicked the man out (under heavy protest from the man, whose name he couldn’t even remember) he took his time getting ready. Or, he would have, if the door hadn’t slammed open the moment he tried to sit down and actually eat his breakfast in peace.
“Kris!” Katy’s voice reverberated through the apartment and Kris winced. She sounded vaguely pissed but it so wasn’t his fault he ditched her last night. She walked into the kitchen a second later, a frown marring her face and Kris resisted the urge to flee.
“Before you say anything,” he said, trying to pre-emptively calm her before she could get started (because she could be scary, and Kris wasn’t entirely convinced she was completely human but he’d never tell her that to her face), “It wasn’t my fault.”
She stared at him, un-amused. “It wasn’t your fault you ditched me last night so you could bang that guy who was practically hanging off you all night?”
Kris made a face. Katy just rolled her eyes and sighed before she plopped down in the chair across the table from him, hand waving vaguely. “Oh never mind, I’m not mad anymore. Seriously, just tell me next time, okay? I totally get it; you need to feed and shit. You can, however, make it up to me tonight.”
She was grinning at him, but something must have shown on his face because her eyes narrowed and the grin disappeared. “Do not tell me you have a mission Kris. Seriously?!”
Kris shrugged, for once glad that he was being called in if just for the chance to escape Katy’s wrath for a little bit longer. “They called this morning before I kicked whats-his-face out. Sounded important, Ryan used his authority voice and everything. He didn’t even nag me about feeding on a human like he normally does. Well, not to the usual extent.”
Katy blinked and Kris took another bite of his cooling breakfast. Then she huffed and rolled her eyes and Kris grinned inwardly. “Fine, whatever, but you and me need to do something soon; it’s been forever since we’ve had an uninterrupted night out.”
She wasn’t whining, because Katy didn’t whine, but it was close enough. Kris just laughed as he finished up his breakfast. “I don’t know when I’ll be back tonight, but I’ll call if I won’t be coming home.”
Katy nodded, head cradled in her hand as she watched Kris put his dishes in the sink and then head to his room. A few minutes later Kris stepped back out, dressed and ready to go. He walked over and gave her a kiss on the cheek as he grabbed his keys.
“Later.” Katy just waved her hand and moved to get her own breakfast. Kris just smirked before stepping out of the apartment and slipping on his sunglasses.
Time to face The Council.
ミ★
“You’re late.”
Kris smirked at Ryan who was looking at him in exasperation. “Aw, I missed you too babe.” Ryan rolled his eyes.
“Just, get inside, okay? They’re waiting for you.” Kris sighed but moved forward as Ryan stepped away. He pushed the doors open and stepped into the room, eyes immediately going to the table in the center where the council sat.
Randy, Paula and Kara were looking at him, faces serious (not that they weren’t always, but, you know, more so). He grinned at them and for a second Paula, at least, seemed to grin back while the other two gave him looks. He hated those looks. He knew he liked Paula for a reason.
A second later a bright red blur slammed into him. His arms came up automatically and wrapped around the body now glued to his as their scent enveloped him.
“Kris! You’re here! Yay! Oh my god it’s been so long! But now you’re here!” Kris glanced down at the person, Allison, in amusement.
“Ally, it hasn’t been that long. Just a month or two.” Allison pulled back and pouted up at him.
“But that’s a month or two too long!” Kris just laughed again. A cough broke them apart and Kris turned to look at the rest of the people in the room. Danny and Matt were standing off to the side in front of the council, and Danny was glaring at him while Matt just grinned.
Kris smirked at Danny before looking back at the council who were watching the proceedings with either blank faces or amusement (three guesses who was doing what).
“If you’re quite done.” Kris just shrugged and Ally snuggled in more. He kept an arm firmly around her as he moved to stand beside Danny and Matt.
“So, what’s new?” Danny practically snarled at Kris in return rather than answering and Kris resisted the urge to snort. Barely. It was a herculean effort, really. Ally, however, had no such reservations and started laughing, while Matt just continued to grin.
“Allen-”
“Gokey.”
“Boys.”
Kris managed to look vaguely sheepish as Paula’s voice cut through the tension between the two. They had never gotten along, but they could (normally) at least work together civilly on missions. This wasn’t a mission, however, but a mission-briefing, so all bets were off.
“If we could get started.” This was said with a significant glare. Kris just smiled back at her while Danny muttered something under his breath. Paula pointedly ignored him.
“Now, Kris, since you only work part-time,” this was said with obvious pain and Kris had a minute flash of guilt before he remembered what this place was and it disappeared, “you haven’t been keeping up to date with everything. I’m sure you remember the Nocere case, however. And what we discovered.”
Kris’ eyes widened, which was all the confirmation they needed that he did, indeed, remember. It would be rather hard to forget, as that was the case that was his downfall (and by that, he meant getting roped into working with the freaking American Spirit World).
“Of course you do,” Paula practically smirked, and Kris resisted the urge to scowl at her.
“We’ve had a breakthrough.”
That caught Kris’ attention. They had been hoping on a breakthrough with this case for, well, years. Literally. But those damn bastards were tricky (which, considering their occupation, they kinda had to be) and they hadn’t managed to get a good, solid lead. Until now, apparently.
“Tell me.”
Kara pushed a folder across the table to him and Kris moved forward, letting go of Allison as he did so to grab it. He moved back once he had it in hand, Ally once again slotting herself against his side. He rubbed her back comfortingly before he flipped the folder open with one hand and read through the information.
His lips curled into a smirk as he read before he looked up. Paula nodded at him, and Randy slid something across the table this time. Kris recognized it and his eyes widened in surprise.
“You’re giving me-”
“Yes.”
It was authorization to use deadly force if necessary. Something that Spirit World tended to frown on since, while they’re Spirit world and everything, they didn’t exactly want more people joining them than necessary. Kris smirked. “Perfect. When do you want me to start?”
The council glanced at each other before looking back at him. It was Paula that answered him, but all of them looked as serious as the other.
“Immediately.”
Kris nodded, and Allison squeezed her arms around him. “I’m coming with you.”
Kris looked down at her and, seeing the stubborn set of her face, knew that disagreeing would get him nowhere. So he just sighed and nodded while Alison cheered.
“Danny, Matt, you two will follow up on the other leads we have. This is the closest we’ve been to closing this case in years, so don’t miss anything. Either of you guys.”
Both groups nodded. They filtered out of the meeting room slowly, Danny and Matt going one way while Kris and Allison went another.
ミ★
Adam always thought about the day they took him. Wondered, constantly, if he could have done something different that day. Something… more. Anything really to just avoid being taken. It’s almost an obsession, he thought about it so often.
He wondered what drew their attention to him in the first place. Why they decided that they wanted to take him out of everyone else that was there. There wasn’t really anything special about him.
Maybe if he had done, or said, or even simply looked different, he wouldn’t be where he is now. In this… position.
He used to dream of being saved, someone, anyone really, coming and saving him. Taking him away from his nightmare and back to his family, his life. He’s been gone at least five years though (he can’t know for sure, time kinda flows together and he’s not exactly good at keeping track of it, but he’s pretty sure it’s been at least five years) and he gave up on being rescued three years ago.
He could hear someone out in the hallway near his cell and he silently prayed that they weren’t coming for him. They called the humans “slaves” (and hadn’t that been a mind-fuck, finding out that the creatures of your nightmares were real), but they only sold them off on a temporary basis.
The client would buy a human, or humans, if they felt like it, for a certain period of time and a contract was negotiated for just what could be done with them. Some wanted free labor, some wanted entertainment, some wanted a bed partner, etc.
It had sounded more like the demons were pimping the humans out to the highest bidder, but Adam had kept that thought to himself.
It was odd, but with some of the clients that he’d been sold to, the fact that it was temporary usually was the only thing that got him through. He’d lost count of how many times he’d been sold, but it was a high number.
He was usually sold as a bed partner, because of his looks, but sometimes he’d been sold for labor or even for his singing voice. Those times were usually the better experiences, though considering he was a fucking slave, that didn’t help much.
The footsteps stopped outside his door and Adam’s eyes widened. He curled back into the corner he was sitting in before he wrapped his arms around his legs and buried his face in his knees.
‘Please not me, please not me, please not me, please not me, please not me, please not me….’
The door opened. Adam barely managed to resist the urge to whimper. Laughter sounded through the room and Adam bit his lip.
“None ‘o that now pretty boy. Up you come, you been bought again. Lucky you, ‘eh?”
Adam refused to move, instead sinking inside his head to a place where none of this was happening, he was free, and he was happy. It was the only way he was able to continue to get through his days.
A growl sounded through the room and a second later a hand was latching onto his arm and pulling him up roughly as the voice spoke, their hot breath hitting the side of Adam’s head, “Let’s go pretty boy, don’ wanna keep your client waitin’, now do ya?”
Adam followed along dazedly, eyes not really focusing on anything in front of him, already locking himself away until this next job was over.
ミ★
Allison and Kris glanced at each other before looking back down at the dead body splayed out in front of them. Kris’ eyes narrowed and he pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers, causing his voice to come out slightly muffled as he asked Allison, “Could you please just… I don’t know, double check the photo or something?”
Allison huffed and did so, holding it out so that they could look at the photo of their target and the dead body at the same time. Kris lowered his hand and looked from the photo to the dead man’s face. He did this a few times before groaning again.
“Fuck! How can this be my life?”
Allison threw her hands up before letting the photo fall to the ground. “Well, there goes that lead. Gokey will never let us live this down,” She pouted.
Kris just sighed and pulled out his cell phone. Now he needed to inform the council that the weasel, Viair, was dead, and that any hope of finding the cell (and the humans) now rested on the leads that Danny and Matt were tracing down.
Allison looked over the body as Kris told Spirit World the news. To say they weren’t happy would be an understatement. Viair had been an important lead, and the one they were counting on. To find out that he had been killed (likely because his employers knew they were closing in on him) was kinda a blow.
Kris hung up a few minutes later and looked to see Allison crouching over the body with a curious look on her face.
“Ally?” Allison just waved a hand at him impatiently. Kris got an amused look on his face but stepped back a bit and watched her work. She pulled something out of her hair, a seed, and channeled some spirit energy into it. Seconds later vines were wrapped around Viair’s body until he was totally encased in them.
Allison stepped back, a satisfied grin on her face. She didn’t bother look at Kris as she explained, pulling out her cell phone and punching something into it. “He smells weird. It’s kinda familiar but I can’t place it, so I’m calling in some friends of mine to take the body and look at it.”
Kris nodded. If it had been anyone else he would have questioned them, but it was Allison, and he had learned never to question her instincts.
Sometimes he forgot that she was actually a fox demon and had better senses than him, not to mention stronger ones. She just seemed so young, even though they were about the same age (which was probably quite a few decades older than their actual appearances).
“We waiting for them or do you wanna just go ahead and leave?” Ally looked from the body to Kris before shrugging.
“We can leave. They’ll call me when they pick up the body.”
Kris nodded and they left as fast as possible.
“So, Simons?”
“Simons.”
ミ★
Kris grinned at Simon. “Nice to see you too Cowell. You’re aging wonderfully, as always.”
Simon rolled his eyes and motioned behind him. “Well come on in then. I expect you’ll want to see the other idiots as well.”
“If it’s not too much of a bother.”
“Like it would stop you if it was.”
Kris laughed as they headed inside of Simons house. Simon lived on a large parcel of land that was perfect for training. Despite the size of the land surrounding it however, the house Simon actually lived in was rather small comparatively. Yet somehow Simon still managed to make it seem like it was impossibly bigger than it was.
As he stepped inside, Allison right behind him, he saw one of the people they was there to see and a smile broke out on his face.
“Tommy!”
Tommy glanced up from whatever it was he was doing, his ears twitching a little on the top of his head. As soon as he spotted Kris and Allison however a bright grin broke out on his face and he immediately moved over and swept them both into hugs.
“Kris! Allison! It’s been ages man!”
Kris just laughed and hugged Tommy back, glad to see his friend. It really had been too long.
“Did I hear you say Kris and Ally were here?”
A head poked out of a room down the hallway and Kris grinned as he saw Cale register their presence. A grin broke out across Cale’s face as he spotted them, still tangled up with Tommy.
“Well, well, look who the cat dragged in.” Tommy groaned and Kris snickered at the joke at Tommy’s expense.
Cale moved out of the room and Tommy shot him a glare as he sidled up next to them and drew Allison and Kris into a hug of his own. They pulled back a second later and Kris looked around.
“Where’s Monte? Is he out?”
“Yeah, he went on some sort of errand for Simon, I don’t know, I didn’t ask, sounded boring. But enough about that, what brings you here?”
They moved farther into the house as Kris started talking. “You guys remember the Nocere case, right? Well, we had a lead, but unfortunately, our lead turned out to be a dead end, literally.”
“So you came here to wallow in pity at your defeat?”
Kris glared and Cale smirked. “No.”
“Actually,” Allison spoke up, drawing the attention to herself, “we were kinda hoping that you could get us in touch with Alisan.”
Cale and Tommy stopped short and stared at them. “She hates you.” Tommy stated.
Allison and Kris glanced at each other before looking at Tommy. “We know,” They spoke at the same time. Kris continued.
“But since our lead died, which means he’s a spirit now,”
Allison picked up, “and Alisan is a soul reaper,”
“we were hoping you could… put in a good word or something?”
“We’re kinda desperate. Danny and Matt have the other leads and, you know, it’s Danny.”
“He would never let us live it down if their lead pans out and ours doesn’t.”
Tommy and Cale exchanged looks. They had a silent conversation before Tommy sighed, running a hand through his bangs.
“We’ll call her, but don’t expect anything. She hasn’t forgotten about the- well, you remember, I’m sure.” This was said with a small smirk and Kris winced while Allison blushed a bit. Yeah, that had been a bad night.
“Just… please call her. She likes you guys, so at least she’ll listen to you… hopefully. Just don’t tell her it’s us you’re calling for.” Tommy snorted.
“I’m not stupid.” Kris and Allison looked at each other, grins appearing on their faces as they valiantly kept down their giggles. Tommy glared at them and mumbled under his breath as he pulled out a cell phone.
He started to punch in a number when Kris’ cell went off. Everyone looked at him and he glanced at his pocket. He pulled it out and flipped it open, holding it to his ear cautiously. He certainly wasn’t expecting a call.
“Hello?”
“Kris, you and Allison come back to Spirit World. Danny and Matt’s leads panned out. We have a location. We’re planning the raid now.”
The person (not Ryan; he at least would have made an attempt at politeness), hung up not soon after. Kris pulled his phone away and stared at it silently, disbelief coursing through him.
“Kris? What is it?”
He cursed and resisted the urge to throw his phone at the wall.
Danny would never let them live this down.
“Kris?”
He sighed and glanced at Allison. His face must have said it all because hers dropped and she groaned.
“Please, tell me you’re joking.”
Kris shook his head. Allison cursed and kicked the wall. Tommy and Cale had figured it out by now and were laughing hysterically at their plight.
“Oh, you two are screwed. Good luck.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Kris grumbled under his breath. Why oh why did he ever get caught up with Spirit World?
He made a face. Oh, right.
ミ★
Kris glanced around cautiously. He was rather dubious about this so called ‘business proposal’ brought to him. It sounded rather… sketchy, at best. All he really understood was that apparently his special ‘skill set,’ as it were, would come in handy.
Considering he drained the life from people through sexual energy, he wasn’t exactly jumping for joy.
The guy apparently running the so called business just sounded bad. What kind of name was Nocere anyway?
“Right through here sir.” Kris nodded at his guide and stepped through the doorway and into… a badly furnished (and cliché) porn set. He stopped and stared. Silk and animal prints and large, plushy couches surrounded the large, ostentatious looking bed in the middle of the room. Scantily clad women were draped over the furniture, everyone seemed to be sipping out of champagne glasses and the color scheme was dark. There was even mood lighting.
“Oh you have got to be kidding me.”
“I take it you’re Kristopher?”
Kris turned towards the voice, already expecting the worst. The man speaking to him was a bit on the large side and dressed in something rather tasteful, considering his surroundings.
Nocere, as that was who Kris assumed him to be, held out a hand. Kris narrowed his eyes but shook his hand anyway, a bit warily. Nothing happened.
Nocere beamed at him and clapped his hands once he let go. “It’s wonderful to see you. Come in, come in. I’m sure you’re curious as to what I wanted to see you for. As I’m sure you were told I have a business proposal for you.”
Kris nodded, looking around in grim amazement. “Yeah, yeah something to that affect was mentioned. What, exactly, could I possibly do for you?”
Nocere smirked at him and gestured for him to sit down on a plush armchair. Kris sat down warily, sure he would contract some sort of STD just from touching it.
“What, exactly, were you told about my… business?”
Kris settled gingerly on the edge of the chair and glanced at Nocere in confusion. “Practically nothing. Just that my… skills, shall we say, might be useful. But I hardly think they would be. I don’t really see how they could.”
Nocere grinned, settling back in his own armchair. “You’d be surprised. I work with a… select clientele, looking for very specific products.”
Kris was starting to get an idea of what was going on here. He had heard about operations like this, but he hadn’t thought they had been credible.
“Souls. You sell off human souls and essences.”
Nocere beamed at him and laughed haughtily. “My, you catch on quick. Yes, that’s exactly what we do. I’m sure you can see now how your skill could be useful to us.”
Kris nodded absently, wondering vaguely how he could get out of here without dying. He opened his mouth to speak, planning on trying to turn the man down as gently as possible, when suddenly the room exploded.
Okay, well, maybe exploded is a bad word choice, but it was the closest thing Kris can think of. The door to the room had burst open and people started spilling in at an insane rate. The noise level in the room rose dramatically as people started screaming.
Kris jumped up from his seat and immediately moved to the wall. He started to slowly make his way through the room, thanking his slightly smaller stature and easily hidden status at times like these.
“Hey, you! Freeze!”
Kris shot a wide eyed look at the guy who stopped him. He was taller than Kris, with short brown hair, glasses, and also the only thing currently between Kris and the door. If he could get past him then he could get free.
Kris gave him a grin and stepped forward before reaching out and resting a hand on the man’s cheek. He rubbed gently, even as the man froze, and licked his lips. The man’s skin lit up lightly under his hand and Kris knew he had him as the man’s eyes took on a slightly dazed look.
“Now, you don’t want me to get caught, now do you?”
The man shook his head, looking panicked. “No, no, of course not! I love you.”
Kris grinned. “I know. You’ll let me go then?”
The man nodded and Kris laughed lightly. He leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss to the man’s lips. “Thanks love. Later.”
He turned around and sprinted away, easily slipping out of the building and out of Spirit World’s clutches (as that was the only answer to who they could be, not to mention he’s pretty sure the man he had just ‘compelled’ was the new spirit detective, Danny something).
That had been way too close for comfort.
One Week Later
“Kristopher Allen?”
Kris looked up from his coffee, eyes narrowed at the sight of the two men. He could sense that they weren’t human, demon he was guessing, and hiding it rather badly.
“Who wants to know?”
The two men glanced at each other before looking at him. One of them grinned at him while the other reached into his pocket for something.
“Sorry about this man.”
Kris didn’t have a chance to ask before he felt something prick his neck. His eyes widened and he reached a hand up, feeling the dart sticking out of him. He started to scowl but a second later his vision swam and he slumped down on the park bench he was sitting on.
He jerked awake an indeterminate amount of time later, feeling as if his brain was trying to pound itself out of his skull. He screwed his eyes shut, hands coming up to cradle his head.
“Motherfu-”
“Ah, ah, language. Wouldn’t want to corrupt the young ears here.”
“Screw you Tommy, we’re practically the same age!”
Kris made a face as the pounding increased. “Would you shut up?”
The two voices cut off a second later and Kris managed to pry his eyes open enough to see two people leaning over him. One had violently red hair and a bright grin on her face, while the other had bright blonde cat ears on the top of their head and long black bangs.
They both grinned at him, waving a little. “Hey man, sorry about the, you know, drugging you thing. But the bosses wanted to talk to you so…” The man, Tommy, shrugged and Kris recognized him now. He was one of the two guys who had, apparently, gone to kidnap him.
“Uh-huh, that’s nice. Where am I?”
“I can answer that for you.”
A woman and the boy that Kris recognized as the spirit detective stepped into the room. Allison grinned at the woman.
“’Sup Kara? You lost the coin toss?”
The woman, Kara, gave Allison a look and then turned to Kris. Allison and Tommy huddled together off to the side and giggled together while Danny glared at them and then Kris. Kris resisted the urge to smirk at him.
Someone was holding a grudge.
“Kristopher Allen. Incubus. Born in 1925 in Arkansas. Son to Kim and Neil Allen, human and incubus respectively. Older brother of Daniel Allen, incubus. No serious indiscretions on your record in the last thirty years or so. Only petty crimes here and there.
“For all appearances, you’re an upstanding member of society. You pay taxes, you vote, you work at homeless shelters and help stray animals. So why, Kristopher, were you in the company of Nocere exactly one week ago?”
Kris stared at the woman with an eyebrow raised. Kara stared back calmly. Allison and Tommy were silent on the other side of the room and Danny was still glaring at him from behind Kara.
“You know so much about me already, why don’t you tell me what I was doing there?”
Kara glared.
“We assume he was making you a business proposition. You’re hardly the first incubus or succubus he’s approached, but you are the first that’s gone to meet with him.”
Kris cursed inwardly, thought outwardly he showed no reaction.
“Well I was intrigued, what can I say? Guy was crazy though, I was about to turn him down. As if I’d work with someone who decorates his work place like a bad porno set.”
Allison and Tommy started giggling again and Kris smirked a little. Danny scoffed and Kara sighed.
“We have no way of knowing if what you’re saying if true or not. All we know is that you were discovered at a crime scene, in apparent business negotiations with a known criminal. So therefore, we can’t just let you go. We’re willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but we want to keep you under surveillance for the time being.”
Kris stared blankly at her.
“I’m sorry, what?” he deadpanned. She smiled grimly and Danny started looking a bit smug.
Yeah, so not gonna happen.
He swung his legs off the bed and stood. Danny moved forward a bit and Kara’s eyes widened, but before they could do anything he was standing in front of them, a hand on both of their cheeks. He rubbed them lightly and grinned a bit as their skin lit up a bit.
“Now, now, do you really need to keep me under surveillance? I promise I won’t do anything.”
Kara and Danny stared at him a little dreamily and both of them nodded. Allison and Tommy were silent behind him but he didn’t care what they’re doing as long as they don’t interfere. From the sounds that they were both obviously trying to muffle, however, they were both too amused to really try to stop him. He started to re-evaluate his opinion on Tommy right about then.
He pulled his hands away from Kara and Danny’s faces and moved towards the door. He was interrupted, however, when the door unexpectedly opened and three people were standing there. Two men and a woman. One of the men was scowling, arms crossed, and the other was looking bored. The woman, however, looked amused.
“Kristopher Allen I take it?”
Kris cursed out loud this time.
An hour later they’re sitting in what Kris later learned to know as Simon’s dining room. Danny was seated as far from Kris as he could get while the members of the Spirit World Council sat across from him, along with Simon, whose house they are apparently commandeering for this interview.
“So let me get this straight,” Kris said.
“As repayment for my ‘actions’ against Kara and Danny, and for possibly considering being involved with Nocere, which I wasn’t, you want me to work it off by working for Spirit World as a part time detective for a minimum of fifteen years; five for compelling Kara and ten for compelling Danny twice.
“And I’m to be on ‘probation’ for the first five years, in which you want to confine me to the city, unless it’s for a case, and I’m to have a tracking bug on me at all times until my probation is over. And if I attempt to remove it or damage it before my probation is over, then you’ll send me to the spirit world prison for the remaining time I was supposed to work for you, doubled. Is that all?”
The three Spirit World council members nodded and Kris stared at them.
“Don’t you think that’s a bit excessive?” They stared at him blankly and Kris sighed.
Obviously not.
“No chance I could get you guys to cut some of that time down a bit?” They shook their heads. Kris sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“Fine. Where do I sign?”
Paula smiled at him and held out her hand to him across the table.
“We’ll draw the papers up and have you sign them later today. Welcome to the team Kris.”
Kris shook her hand weakly. Yeah, what a welcome. This was going to be so much fun he could already tell.
ミ★
Adam bit back a groan as he was thrown back into his cell. He landed on the cold stone ground roughly, inhaling sharply as fire raced up his shoulder. He whimpered a bit before he crawled over to his corner and curled up.
He had been brought back to the compound that all the slaves were kept in early. He knew that he still had another week under contract but it didn’t seem to matter. The demons had been acting oddly as well, rushing around and shouting orders to people as he was dragged back to his cell.
He didn’t know what had happened; only that it was important and/or bad enough to make them panic and bring all their humans back early. Adam couldn’t help but be viciously glad that something wasn’t going their way.
Adam curled up further in his corner, head rested on top of his drawn up knees. He kept an eye on the doorway, not wanting to risk being caught unaware by one of the demons. Since this had never happened before he didn’t know what to expect from them and that frightened him.
Nothing happened for about an hour and Adam had started to relax. He was so tired that he figured he could risk maybe an hour or two of sleep. Of course, that’s when things went to hell.
Something rumbled above in the ceiling like water rushing overhead and Adam looked up, eyes wide. A second later what looked like sprinklers slowly descended from the ceiling. Adam inhaled sharply, but before he could do anything they activated and the room started to fill with a thin blue gas.
Fear clawed at his insides as Adam tried to push back from the gas that was slowly filling the room. He kept scrambling backwards, even though there was nowhere to go.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, this can’t be happening, no, no.”
He pulled his shirt up and put it over his mouth and nose as the gas reached him. It didn’t do anything to help, just seeped through his clothing and into his skin. He inhaled it deeply and it smelled sickly sweet.
His throat closed up as he screamed in fear, inhaling more of the gas in the process. He could feel his body slowly reacting to it, a tingling sensation starting in his feet and slowly rising. He thrashed and his head slammed into the wall behind him when the door to his cell was pushed open.
A figure stood in the open doorway as the gas slowly started to leak into the hall and empty the room. Adam panicked more, whimpering and trying to move away. The figure moved closer and Adam was able to make out the fact that this person, whoever he was, wasn’t one of the demons.
The figure knelt in front of him, murmuring softly to Adam as they stroked a hand through Adam’s unkempt hair.
“Sssh, ssh, it’s okay. I’m with Spirit World; we’re here to save you.”
Adam looked up into the man’s warm brown eyes and felt himself calming down, a sense of peace settling over him. He had heard the demons discussing Spirit World once or twice, knew that they were the good guys. Was he really being saved?
The man smiled at him gently and Adam felt his eyes closing, the tingling having finally spread up to his head.
“It’s all going to be okay, I promise.” That was the last thing he heard before he felt himself succumb to the darkness. The last thing he saw were those warm brown eyes, promising freedom as his body finally went lax.
Kris gripped the man’s body as he went limp. He grunted a bit, not expecting the man to be as heavy as he was. He laid the man gently on the stone floor and tilted their head back. He could feel the man’s pulse fluttering wildly under his hands and knew he only had so long left to live. He didn’t know what poison the demons had dispersed through the building to try to get rid of the humans when they found out Spirit World was coming for them, but it was obviously fast acting.
He leaned down and opened the man’s mouth, slotting his own parted mouth above the man’s. He reached inside himself and slowly breathed out. He knew his eyes would be glowing as wispy strands of red life force left his body and entered the mans, saving him and bringing him back from death.
He pulled back when he knew it was safe and studied the man’s features. They were vaguely familiar, and the man’s eyes had been such an icy blue… it clicked in his head. He had seen this man before, when he was younger. Those eyes, he couldn’t forget them.
He couldn’t really remember where he had been, only that it had been right around the time he had accepted Nocere’s invitation to meet up and then had the pleasure of making Danny’s acquaintance the first time. He had escaped and made his way into a nearby human town.
There had been some sort of festival going on and he had had to navigate his way through the crowded streets. He had been making his way towards a hotel he had gotten directions for when he had slammed right into someone. Kris had managed to stay standing but the human hadn’t been so lucky.
He had helped the person up and as he had gone to apologize he had looked into the bluest pair of eyes he had ever seen. The boy, who couldn’t have been more than 18, had simply smiled at him and waved it off, handing him one of the flowers he had been holding instead before slipping away and joining the crowd again.
Looking down at the man in front of him now it was hard to believe that that same happy, carefree boy he had met briefly eight years ago was the same person.
“Kris? Is he alive?” Allison’s voice broke through his daze and he turned around to see her standing in the doorway. Kris nodded.
“Yeah, yeah he is. How many were we able to save?” Allison made a face and Kris knew it wasn’t as many as they’d hoped.
“We estimate that there are about fifty humans being kept here, though we haven’t managed to find or open all the cells yet. Including this one here, we’ve only saved about 10. We don’t think any of the others are still alive, we got here too late and the poison was too fast acting.”
Allison looked depressed at the small number and Kris shared her disappointment. They had come so close. They had finally managed to track down the slave ring, had the chance to save all the humans that had been taken, only to arrive too late to save most of them.
“Well, at least we managed to save some.” Allison nodded, a frown still marring her features.
“Apparently some of the leaders escaped too.” Kris shot her a look of disbelief, shaking his head.
“You’re kidding.” Allison shook her head, a scowl overtaking the frown.
“No. I was too busy trying to save the humans. I overheard Danny and Ryan talking as I came over here though and that was the impression I got from their conversation.” Kris cursed.
He ran a hand through his hair in frustration before glancing back down at the human and speaking. “Well, let’s get the humans we managed to save out of here at least. I don’t want to keep them here longer than necessary in case some of that gas is still lingering. We’re just lucky it only affects humans.”
Allison nodded and moved into the room. “Do you need any help with him?” Kris shook his head in response and grasped the human in his arms before gently lifting him up. He stood, the human cradled in his arms even though the human was bigger than him.
“Nah, I got it, let’s go. Hey, do you know if they happened to keep track of the names of the humans here? It would make it easier and faster to identify them.”
Allison shrugged as they made their way out of the dingy cell and down the hallway. “I don’t know, but I can check. Where should we take them in the meantime? We can’t just take them to a normal human hospital, not after what they’ve gone through.”
Kris glanced down at the human in his arms thoughtfully, feeling an inexplicable connection to him.
“Simon’s.” Allison looked at him in surprise. Kris shrugged helplessly back at her.
“Well, there isn’t really anyplace else to take them and Simon’s is relatively close. Not to mention he knows some healers. Hell, Monte is a healer and even Tommy can do some basic healing.”
Allison conceded the point. She suddenly smirked and glanced at him. “Simon is going to be so pissed at you.”
Kris sighed and shifted his grip on the human, holding him more comfortably. “Well, Simon can just deal with it. Besides, he gets pissed at everything.” Allison laughed at that but didn’t disagree.
ミ★
Neil stared at the person in front of him in mild disbelief. What?
“…What?” he asked.
The man (who had introduced himself as Mr. Seacrest) cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. “I said, Mr. Lambert, that we’ve found your brother and he is currently recuperating in one of our facilities in California. I know that this may come as a bit of a shock to you as he has been missing for almost nine years now I believe it was?”
Mr. Seacrest cut himself off and glanced down at the paperwork he had in his hand before continuing. Neil ignored him however, his mind whirring with information. His brother had been found, after eight years. He was fine. He could see him again. He wasn’t dead.
That was when something that the guy said caught his attention, “… Mr. Cowell is making sure that your brother is being looked after by the best hea- I mean, doctors we have available, of course. I-”
Neil cut him off, eyes wide as he spoke, “Did you say Mr. Cowell? As in Simon Cowell, the psychic?”
Mr. Seacrest looked thrown momentarily before he regained his composure. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you-”
But Neil cut him off again, something else occurring to him. “Wait, that means that Spirit World found my brother, which could only mean…”
Mr. Seacrest’s eyes widened at this and his mouth dropped open. Neil swallowed before continuing, eyes narrowing on the man in front of him.
“Demons had my brother this whole time?! Fucking demons?!” Neil’s voice bordered on shrill as he yelled, shooting up and out of the seat he had previously been in. This, oddly enough, seemed to be what snapped Mr. Seacrest out of his stupefied daze.
The man’s eyes narrowed before they flashed with power. Neil suddenly found himself forced back into his seat as Mr. Seacrest towered over him, a hard look in his eyes.
“Mr. Lambert, I have no idea how you know this information, but you will calm down.” Neil’s jaw clenched defiantly but he stayed quiet. Mr. Seacrest exhaled and straightened his suit, which was still as perfect as it was when he had arrived.
“Regardless of how you find yourself with the knowledge of Spirit World and demons, I can only tell you that your brother is being treated in Mr. Cowell’s home at this point in time. If you would like, I can arrange for you and your parents to pay a brief visit and nothing more.
“Adam will be staying in our care until we are sure he will not be a danger to himself or to society, and when we are satisfied that he can properly reacclimatize himself to the world. That is non-negotiable Mr. Lambert.” Mr. Seacrest added when he saw Neil about to protest.
Neil’s mouth snapped shut and he glared. Mr. Seacrest was unfazed however. He simply quirked a brow before he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a business card. He handed it to Neil before gathering his things.
“We’ll be in touch.” He left a moment later. Neil stared down at the business card, tilting it back and forth in the light. It was pitch black with white lettering that seemed to shimmer as the light touched it.
Ryan Seacrest
Spirit World Representative
North American Branch
Research Division
“Mom, you will never guess what just happened.”
ミ★
Kris held back the smirk that wanted to come out. For once, he wasn’t the recipient of the council’s wrath, and he didn’t want to push his luck. Allison was snickering softly from her position curled into his side, not as concerned as him.
Danny and Matt were trying hard not to cower as Paula ripped them each new ones. The council was far from happy that Danny and Matt had let some of the leaders slip through their grasp. It was their lead that had panned out and their raid on the warehouse. So it was their fault.
“Not only that, but someone leaked the information on the raid, which led to the deaths of 48 innocent humans. We only managed to save six of them. Six! Out of 54!”
Danny seemed to shrink in on himself. Matt was busy looking anywhere but at the council. Kris almost felt bad for them, but then remembered what a smug bastard Danny was. Instead he let his mind wander.
It had been about a week since the raid. The council had been busy doing damage control and figuring out who the humans they had rescued were. They had had to send out people to the homes of all the humans, dead and alive, and inform them that they had been found.
Most of the humans that had been found had only been there a short while. It was easy enough to heal them and send them on their way. They had all been led to believe that they had been kidnapped by a ring of human sex traders and that they had been drugged constantly to keep them compliant, hence their belief that the people that had kidnapped them had appeared as demons. All of them, but one.
Adam Lambert. He had been missing for eight years. It was unlikely that he would believe that he had simply been under the influence of some sort of designer drug the whole time. No, Spirit World had no idea what to do with him. It didn’t help that apparently his brother of all people knew about spirit world and demons.
Unfortunately, Adam also hadn’t regained consciousness yet despite the fact that it had been a week. Tommy said that it was his minds way of coping with everything; he didn’t want to wake up, so he wasn’t. Kris thought Tommy was full of bullshit usually, but in this case he couldn’t help but agree.
He just wished that Adam would wake up soon. He didn’t know why, but he was drawn to the human. There was just something about him…
The door to the room banged open behind them. Everyone stopped and turned to look at the intruder. Cale was standing there, looking a bit out of breath as he leaned against the doorframe. Paula glared at him.
“May we help you?”
Cale inhaled before locking eyes with Kris, grinning widely. “He’s waking up,” he said. Kris didn’t need any further clarification. Adam.
Kris immediately ran out of the room, ignoring Paula’s protests as he did so. Cale stayed behind, probably to clear up the confusion for the rest of them. Kris had taken Adam under his protection after they had brought him to Simon’s house, so he had told them to inform him when Adam was waking up.
He ran into the room holding Adam, just barely avoiding body-checking Tommy in the process. Tommy shot him an annoyed glare and Kris just shrugged in response. On the bed Adam was shifting around, his eyelids fluttering wildly. Kris moved closer and knelt beside the bed.
Adam’s hand twitched on top of the bedspread, clenching and unclenching slowly. Kris grabbed it out of instinct and Adam’s hand curled around his. Adam’s hand was cold, colder than a normal human should be. Kris furrowed his brow, concerned, but the thought was thrown from his mind a second later when Adam groaned, his eyes fluttering open weakly.
Bright blue eyes locked with his own and Kris felt like he had been sucker punched by an ogre. Adam blinked once, twice, then his eyes widened. Kris sprang into action.
“Don’t panic. My name is Kris. You’re safe, I promise. Remember? I work for Spirit World. We rescued you a week ago.”
Adam’s eyes widened again and his breathing got heavier. Kris rubbed his thumb along the back of Adam’s hand and watched it light up a bit. He let calm, soothing emotions flow through the link instead of lust, hoping to help Adam calm down. It seemed to work. Adam’s breathing evened out again and he stared at Kris half-liddedly.
“W-where am…?” Adam’s voice cracked as he spoke, unable to finish the question. Kris motioned silently behind him and a second later Tommy handed him a glass of water. Kris lifted it to Adam’s mouth and let him slowly sip. Adam’s eyes closed as he drank, an expression of bliss overtaking his features.
Kris pulled the glass back when it was half empty, ignoring Adam’s plaintive wine for more. He shook his head at Adam, smiling softly. “Don’t worry, there’s plenty more. You can have some later. Now, I’d like to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind? I promise to answer any you have in return.”
Adam eyed him warily, not that Kris blamed him. All of this was new and probably shocking. After what he had been through he wasn’t surprised that Adam didn’t exactly trust them right off the bat, saviors or not. Kris decided to start by answering Adam’s unfinished question.
“As for where you are, you are in Simon Cowell’s house. He’s a great psychic and he’s allowed Spirit World the use of his home to allow you to recuperate. You’ve been here for a week, unconscious the whole time. When we raided the warehouse where the demons were keeping you they had released a poison gas into the ventilation system. We managed to save you and a few of the others in time.”
Adam was staring at him, eyes wide. Kris wasn’t quite sure what he was thinking, which worried him. So he asked a question.
“Do you know who you are?” he asked. Adam nodded absently. Kris gave a mental sigh of relief. That made things easier.
“Do you know how long you were… do you know what year it is?” Kris changed the question he was originally going to ask. Adam’s expression said he appreciated the change even as he shook his head. Kris sighed.
“It’s 2012. What year was it when…?” Adam’s mouth had dropped open. Kris wasn’t sure what answer Adam had been expecting, but that obviously hadn’t been it.
“I…” Adam stopped, closing his eyes tightly before continuing, “2004.”
Eight years. Almost exactly. Kris mentally calculated and realized that Adam must have been taken within days of their run-in. Something in his chest clenched tightly at that.
“My family…?” Kris smiled lightly at Adam’s question.
“We’ve informed them that you’re alive. They’re going to be flying in tomorrow so you’ll be able to see them then. Your parents don’t know anything about Spirit World or… well, they just don’t know. Your brother on the other hand, managed to find out somehow. No one is really sure how. So he knows that… well he knows.”
Adam seemed to panic at that. He started trying to sit up, vaguely hysterical sounding noises spilling from his mouth. Kris’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Adam, Adam, no, wait…!” Adam struggled against Kris’s hold, body shaking terribly. Kris inhaled sharply before leaning forward and pressing his hand against Adam’s cheek. The skin underneath Kris’s touch lit up, and a second later Adam stopped struggling.
He stared at Kris dazedly, eyes glassing over. Kris made a soothing noise as he pushed Adam back so that he was lying down on the bed. “Ssssh, it’s okay Adam. Just sleep now, okay? Just sleep. Everything will be fine, I promise.”
Adam’s eyelids fluttered weakly as he leaned into Kris’s touch. “Promise?” he breathed out weakly. Kris smiled gently, nodding as he brushed some of Adam’s fringe back off of his forehead.
“I promise. Sleep, okay?” Adam nodded, a barely noticeably tilt of his head before his eyelids fluttered close and he fell asleep. Kris stroked a hand through Adam’s hair a few times, making sure he was really asleep before he stood up. He turned to see Tommy smirking at him.
“Shut up.” He snapped, scowling. Tommy sniggered and held his hands up, placating.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said. Kris rolled his eyes before walking past him and out of the room. Tommy stayed behind to monitor Adam, just in case. Kris made his way slowly back to the room that the council had commandeered as their own (much to Simons eternal displeasure).
He hadn’t been able to ask Adam much, but he figured it was probably for the best. Adam needed time to process what he had learned, as insignificant an amount of information it appeared to be.
Not to mention, Kris needed to get something checked out.
He re-entered the dining room a second later (the room that the council had commandeered) to see that only the council was left. He vaguely wondered where Allison had run off to but figured he could find her later.
“Kris? Did you need something?” Paula questioned. Kris nodded, moving to stand in front of them.
“I have a… request, if you will.” He said. The council glanced at each other, curious. Kris never asked them for favors, not if he could help it. Paula looked back at him and nodded, silently telling him to proceed.
Kris inhaled before saying, “I want you guys to check Adam for demon ancestry, and spiritual awareness.”
The council’s eye widened in surprise, not that Kris could blame them. Hell, he wasn’t quite sure he believed it, and he felt it. It was faint, very faint, but when he had been calming Adam down he had felt… something, something distinctly not human.
“Why?” Paula queried, suspicious. Kris shrugged, brow furrowing in response.
“Just… something I sensed.” He said vaguely. The council glanced at each other again before Paula sighed and turned back to him.
“We’ll look into it.” Which was council speak for, ‘we’re just saying this so you’ll leave us alone, go away now.’
Kris snorted and shook his head, “Thanks.” Paula glared at him. Kris just smirked at her before turning on his heel and leaving, making sure to slam the door behind him, petty as it may be. He frowned and let his senses flow out, trying to locate Allison.
The gardens, of course. Where else would she be? Kris smirked before making his way in that direction. Allison would get a kick out of this.
ミ★
Silence. He slowly opened his eyes, wincing as the light in the room blinded him momentarily. He blinked as the light dimmed, eyes slowly focusing on his surroundings. They landed on the people in the room, standing to the side of his bed and watching him anxiously. He inhaled sharply and immediately tried to sit up.
“M-mom!”
His mother had a hand over her mouth as she watched her son slowly wake up. As soon as he called out for her, struggling to sit up, she rushed forward. She pulled him into a tight hug, burying her face in his hair.
“Adam.”
Adam clung to his mother, tears welling up in his eyes and spilling over. Sobs wracked his frame as he buried his face in her shoulder. Her scent enveloped him, soothing and warm, and it hit him that he was really there. He was really safe.
The past eight years had been torture. He had hated every day he had been alive. He had prayed desperately for his hell to end. He wasn’t sure how he managed to make it so long without going completely insane, ‘happy place’ or not.
“Oh Adam, ssh, it’s all going to be fine now. I promise.” Leila pulls back a little and strokes some of Adam’s floppy fringe off of his face. Adam smiles shakily, sniffing a little. Neil steps up next to them, drawing Adam’s attention. Adam’s eyes widen a little as he takes in the man who was supposed to be his little brother.
“Neil?” he asks, voice slightly disbelieving. Neil smirks at that, shrugging a little as he moved closer and hugged Adam as best he could.
“Eight years is a long time, a lot’s changed.” Adam nodded dumbly, hugging Neil back weakly. He glanced behind his brother, brow furrowing in confusion as he noticed someone missing.
“Where… where’s dad?” Leila and Neil glanced at each other and had a silent conversation with their eyes. Leila sighed before looking back at Adam, a small frown on her face.
“Adam… your father couldn’t make it. He’s on a business trip and won’t be back for a little while. He’ll come see you as soon as he’s back though.”
Adam frowned, sensing there was more to the story. He stared at his mother silently, waiting for her to continue. She stared back, neither of them flinching for a good minute before Leila gave up and looked away.
“Adam, you have to understand… when you went missing, it was hard. I never gave up hope, but your father… it was difficult for him. Two years after you went missing he moved out and we… well, we got a divorce.” Adam gaped at his mother, not sure he believed what he had just heard.
Leila smiled sadly at him and rubbed his back. “It was coming anyway dear; I don’t imagine we would have lasted much longer even if you hadn’t disappeared. So I don’t know when he’ll get around to seeing you. He’s already moved on and put what he imagined was your death behind him. For that to be challenged after all these years well, it might take some getting used to the idea before he can come see you.”
Adam swallowed, feeling a lump in his throat. Leila pulled him into another hug and he clung to her tighter than before. Neil joined a second later and Adam barely managed to hold it together.
He knew it was naïve to believe that he’d come back after eight years and everything would be the same. But he had hoped, somehow, that it would be. That he could put the past eight years behind him and move on with his life. This… this just proved that that had been a stupid dream, and nothing really would, or could be, the same again.
ミ★
Kris smirked and hitched the man’s leg over his shoulder as he rolled his hips upwards. The man beneath him (Harry? Larry? Something like that) moaned louder, hands tightening their grip on the headboard. Kris tightened his grip on the man’s thighs, digging in with his nails and making the man groan.
“Harder, please!”
Kris obliged and snapped his hips up harder as he attached his lips to the human’s neck. He bit down roughly, moaning in appreciation as the man tightened around him. He could feel the human was close; the sexual energy building up as he slowly leeched it away.
“Oh, yes, yes! Right there!”
Kris rolled his hips once, twice, three more times and the guy was coming hard beneath him. Kris grunted as the guy tightened around him against, almost painfully this time. Kris managed a few more thrusts before coming himself, barely avoiding collapsing on the man beneath him as he did.
He collapsed to the side of the man before rolling over onto his back. He inhaled deeply, eyes fluttering closed as he leeched up the excess sexual energy that permeated the room. He licked his lips, the all-consuming hunger that had caused him to seek out a human to feed on in the first place slowly abating.
Beside him the human rolled over and stood up, slowly gathering his clothes. He glanced over his shoulder at Kris as he did, winking. “Thanks for the ride babe; you even need another one hit me up, yeah?”
Kris nodded absently and the man smirked before pulling on the last of his clothing and sauntering out of the room. Kris heard the door close a few seconds later and relaxed back into his bed.
“Kris?” Katy’s voice traveled through the room. Kris sighed and pulled the blanket up to cover his nudity before calling her in.
“I’m decent!” Katy stepped through the doorway a few seconds later, a small grin on her face.
“Where do you find these guys? He sounded like a bad porno.” Kris groaned and covered his eyes with his hand.
“I know! But I was hungry, so I wasn’t exactly being all that discriminating in my choice.” Katy sniggered before moving further into the room and sitting on the edge of the bed.
“So you’re free, right? You’ve been working all week on this case of yours and I barely got to see you.” Katy pouted at him and Kris lowered his hand enough to peek at her. He grinned a little.
“I do, in fact, have the night off. There’s nothing that I can do at the moment anyway, not until Adam is able to get out of bed by himself.”
Katy made a noncommittal noise showing she was listening. “Who’s Adam again? You haven’t really told me much about this case.”
Kris moved his hand so that it was resting on his stomach while he glanced at Katy. He shrugged lightly before answering her question.
“You remember the case I told you about? The one that got me put onto the Spirit Detective squad?” He waited for Katy to nod before continuing, “Well the guy, Nocere, was working for this human smuggling ring. He caught him, but not the ring. It’s taken us eight years to get a lead on these guys. We finally got the location of where they’re keeping their humans and a week ago, we led a raid on it.
“It… didn’t go as planned. There were about 54 humans, but we only managed to save six of them.” Kris had to stop for a second, a frown marring his features at the ridiculously low number. Katy gasped lightly before climbing up on the bed and cuddling into Kris (while staying on top of the covers because while Kris was hot and all, he was like her brother so she didn’t want to feel his nakedness all up against her, weird much).
Kris wrapped an arm around her gratefully, kissing the top of her head before continuing, “Well Spirit World has spent the last week tracking down their names and then their families and making sure that they were well enough to go home. One guy, however, had been there for eight years and just woke up yesterday. He won’t be able to go home for a while. He’s Adam.”
Katy hummed lightly in response. “So what’s gonna happen to him? Spirit World doesn’t seem like the type of organization that would just let him go with a promise not to tell anyone.”
Kris shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said, “but you’re right, Spirit World isn’t that kind of organization. He won’t be able to go about a normal life again. I don’t think he’s quite human though, so maybe we can train him, which would help with the whole trust issue.”
Katy nodded. “Maybe,” she said.
They laid there for a few more minutes in companionable silence until Katy sat up abruptly. Kris looked at her quizzically and she grinned back at him.
“Well, you know what this means.” Kris shook his head. Katy sighed and made a face of mock annoyance before slapping his chest. She ignored the faint ‘ow!’ the action brought, instead bounding over to look through Kris’ wardrobe.
“We, my young-ish incubus friend, are going out tonight!” She started ruffling through his wardrobe as Kris groaned in annoyance.
“Do we have to? I already ate; I’m good for a few days.” Katy ignored him, used to his whining by now.
“Yup, you have no choice, you owe me, remember?” Kris made a face at that. Damn her for remembering that. Katy cackled and continued looking through Kris’ outfits.
“Yeah, I remembered. You should realize by now that I remember your promises to me, especially if they involve taking me out. Now, go take a shower or something, you reek of sex.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust and shot him a narrowed eyed look.
Kris rolled his eyes. “Throw me some shorts or something? So you won’t have to be disgusted by my naked, sex-smelling self as I walk to the bathroom.”
Katy huffed but did as he asked. Kris chuckled as he caught them, slipping them on under the covers. He threw the sheets back before climbing out of his bed and making his way slowly to the bathroom, rubbing up against Katy when he was behind her and running as she screeched and turned around to hit him.
“Kristopher!”
“You know you love it!” he called back over his shoulder as he closed the bathroom door. Katy rolled her eyes before laughing and going back to picking out an outfit for Kris. Kris finally had some time off and she was going to make sure he enjoyed it.
ミ★
‘What if Kris is right?’ she thought.
Kris rarely asked them for anything. And his instincts were the best. She had learned to trust his gut over the years, even when logic and protocol told her something completely different. If he said something was wrong, something was wrong. If he said someone was lying, they usually were.
So then why had she dismissed his claim about Adam so abruptly?
Yes, it was utterly ridiculous. There had been no undocumented human and demon couplings that resulted in a baby in… generations! Those that had resulted in a hybrid bloodline had been, and were still, watched closely. The Lamberts were not on that list, and it was a short list.
It kept gnawing at her however, not leaving her alone. She closed her eyes. It was insanity to indulge this. Yet… She groaned. She knew she was going to regret this.
She opened her eyes and pushed the intercom button.
“Yes Ms. Abdul?”
Paula closed her eyes again before speaking, “Please send for Ryan. I have an assignment for him.”
“Of course Ms. Abdul. Will there be anything else?”
“No, that’s all. Thank you.”
She lifted her finger from the intercom button and opened her eyes. Randy and Kara were looking at her. Kara’s eyes were narrowed and Randy looked like he was stuck somewhere between resignation and frustration.
“Tell me you’re not suggesting humoring Allen’s request!” Kara’s nearly yelled. Paula just nodded and sighed again. Kara sputtered indignantly but Paula cut her off with a sharp look.
“It’s my decision Kara. It won’t hurt anything to have someone look into it. If Ryan doesn’t find anything in 48 hours then I’ll drop it.”
Kara huffed but turned back to her own paperwork. She looked at Randy and quirked a brow, silently asking if he was going to question her judgment on this matter as well. Randy didn’t look pleased but he kept silent.
Ryan stepped into the room a second later, a confused look on his face. Paula beckoned him over and he stopped in front of her desk and stood there silently, waiting for his instructions. Paula folded her hands on top of her desk and smiled at him.
“Ryan, I have a very… interesting assignment for you…”
ミ★
He had spent the last 43 hours working on this and had hit dead end after dead end. There was no way that the Lambert family could have demon ancestry in their blood. Unless…
He sat up straight and reached for the hybrid directory. He thumbed through it, making sure to only look within the last century. Any farther back and if the Lambert family did have demon ancestry, it wouldn’t show up in the current generation as the blood would be too diluted.
He grabbed a pad and started taking down the names of the families with demon ancestry that had kids. From there he looked at the ones where the family (kids included) had been killed and the bodies were either never found or no positive identifications could be made about the bodies found.
The list, at this point, was down to about two families, with two possibilities. Both families had a kid, and in both cases the families were killed, with the bodies of the kids missing or unidentifiable. From there Ryan looked back at the Lambert family history and tried to find record of any adoptions.
Exactly 48 hours after he was given the assignment, Ryan had Paula’s answer.
ミ★
Kris opened his eyes blearily. He looked at his surroundings with narrowed eyes, wondering just where the hell he was. The vibrating against his cheek continued and he groaned, closing his eyes and reaching upwards lazily with one hand. He moved his head and grabbed whatever was vibrating. It was long and cylindrical and was vibrating wildly in his hand now. He furrowed his brows.
It felt like… he opened his eyes and stared blankly at the vibrator in his hand.
“…huh, that’s a new one.” He said, voice rough with sleep.
“Whas tha’ noise?”
Kris turned to see Katy curled into a ball behind him on top of the covers. Her hair was covering her face as she looked over her shoulder at him with a sleepy, narrow eyed glare. She was only wearing her underwear and had bite marks on her thighs. Kris smirked before flinging the vibrator at her.
“One of your toys.” It hit her in the side and she groaned a bit before grabbing it and holding it up. She looked confused for a second before recognition set in.
“Oh.” She looked at him, her eyes landing on his cheek. An amused grin tugged at her lips and she started laughing.
“What were you doing sleeping on it with your face?” she managed to get out between bouts of laughter. Kris rubbed at his cheek and felt the imprint of the toy. He groaned and flopped back on the bed (which he now recognized as Katy’s).
“I don’t know, I can’t remember anything past that nasty green shit you made me drink. What was in that anyway?”
“You don’t wanna know.” Katy replied as she turned the vibrator off and flung it towards a corner of her room.
Kris groaned and sat up, looking around the room. He spotted his shirt and pants on the floor near the door. That was when he realized he was only in his boxers. He glanced down at himself thoughtfully for a second before shrugging.
“What time is it?” Katy groaned. She stretched out on the bed and glanced at Kris, waiting for an answer. He looked around before spotting her alarm clock.
“11:23,” he read. Huh, that was the latest he’d managed to sleep in in the past two weeks. Then again, having a few days off and going on a drinking binge the night before with his best friend and roommate would allow him to do that.
“Shit, I’m gonna be late for my meeting,” Katy sighed. Kris almost asked ‘what meeting’ before remembering that she had started working for the leader of the Fae in the area a little while back on a consultant basis. It was probably a meeting with a client about a problem that they would want him and Katy to solve. Assuming he had time to take on a Fae case when the Nocere case for Spirit World still wasn’t closed yet.
“A client?” he asked. Katy grunted yes as she slid out of bed and started searching through her dresser for an outfit.
“Remember I might not be able to help out so don’t take the case if it’s going to be too complicated.” Katy waved him off as she pulled out a top, held it up and then threw it behind her.
“Don’t worry about it, I can totally handle it.” Kris rolled his eyes but let it go. A second later his ringtone echoed through the room. He glanced around but didn’t see his phone.
“Where…?” he spotted it on the nightstand and grabbed at it. He looked at the screen and mentally groaned when he saw it was Ryan.
‘Just when I thought I’d be able to spend some more time relaxing.’
“What do you want Ryan?” he asked as he answered. He could almost hear Ryan rolling his eyes on the other end.
“The council would like to see you. Now. Not in an hour.” Kris made a face.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there.”
Ryan just sighed before hanging up. Kris chuckled and stood, making his way to his room to get dressed.
“Spirit World?” Katy asked as he picked up his discarded clothes from the night before.
“Who else?” Katy laughed at that, shaking her head.
“Have fun.” Kris snorted, but didn’t bother replying. He got dressed as quickly as possible and grabbed an apple on his way out of the apartment. He made it to Simon’s in record time, managing to finish his apple as he stepped into Simon’s dining room (the one the council always commandeered as their own).
He grinned as he saw the council and Ryan standing in front of them. He threw the apple core somewhere behind him and shoved his hands in his pockets.
“’Sup guys?”
Kara made a disgusted sound at his carelessness and Ryan closed his eyes. Paula just shot him a look and he smirked at her in return.
“Kris, please try to behave?” Paula asked. Kris raised his hands placatingly.
“Sorry Paula.”
“No you’re not.” Kris shrugged at that, neither confirming nor denying the statement. Paula shook her head before motioning to Ryan.
“Kris, I had Ryan look into your theory about Adam. Ryan has the results. Ryan, if you would?” Kris shot Ryan a surprised look. He didn’t think they would actually look into it.
Ryan cleared his throat before stepping forward and looking down at the file he had in his hands, which Kris was just now noticing.
“The Lambert family, at first glance, has no traces of demon genealogy, going back 10 generations. However, I dug a little deeper and discovered that five generations ago the Lambert family adopted a little girl, giving them three kids. At that time our records system was, well, glitchy at best. The girl was documented, but as a blood member of the Lambert family, not as an adoptee.
“Since the life and death books, as well as the family trees we keep archived are updated automatically from the archives on level B, I had to go back and manually check the paperwork. From there, I was able to link the girl, one Tara Lambert, to the Davidson family, which had been killed earlier that year. Now the Davidson family did have demon genealogy.”
Ryan took a break here and looked up. Everyone’s eyes were riveted on him, absorbing the information he was giving them. He licked his lips before looking down at the file in his hands and continuing.
“The Davidson family descended from ice demons. Since demon genes are more dominant than human genes, as long as it’s within 20 generations, chances are that some trace of demon genealogy will appear in the family’s descendants. Tara was a 15th generation hybrid and had two kids. Her siblings both had one child each.”
Kris was nearly shaking with anticipation. There was a chance that he was right and Adam had enough demon genealogy in him to allow him to use spirit energy. As long as he was descended from Tara that is.
“So?” he asked, impatient, “Which line does Adam descend from? Does he have demon genes in him?”
Ryan shot him a look for interrupting him that Kris ignored. Ryan looked down at the file and looked up again before answering, leaving the room silent with his answer.
ミ★
It was a few days from when Adam had first woken up free from the prison he had been trapped in for eight years. His mother had had to fly back home the day before because of her job but promised to visit again soon and to call every day. Adam was sad that she hadn’t been able to get more time off but was just pleased that he was able to see her.
Neil, however, didn’t have a job to get back to, at least not one that he couldn’t do from California. So he had stayed behind and he and Adam had spent the time catching up with Neil teaching Adam about the things that had changed over eight years.
Neil shrugged at Adam’s question, as if it was no big deal.
“Well when we first realized you were missing I knew you didn’t just run away. You’re not the type. And the cops were doing a shit job at trying to find you, so after I got tired of their incompetence I started my own investigation.”
Adam shook his head, not surprised. Neil continued, “I didn’t find out about Spirit World right away, but after about two years searching on my own I had developed some interesting contacts. One of them was spiritually aware. This guy was pretty bizarre but relatively harmless. I usually met him in some pretty weird places.
“One meeting in particular ended up leaving me in the wrong place at the right time. It was a place that a lot of the low level criminal demons used as a meet-up or drop place. That day however Spirit World raided the place and I saw some… pretty unexplainable things before my contact managed to get me out. After that he pretty much had no choice but to tell me and I’ve been aware of it and demons ever since.”
Neil shrugged, like it was no big deal. Adam snorted.
“Only you could make finding out about demons and the spiritual world like it’s no big deal.” Neil just shook his head, a wry grin on his face.
“That’s because it’s not, not compared to the other thing I found out that day.” Adam blinked, confused.
“Other thing?” Neil nodded and opened his mouth to speak when someone cut him off.
“That you have demon ancestry in your blood? And that there are enough demon genes to make you spiritually aware yourself?”
Neil and Adam both turned to look at the newcomer with wide eyes. Kris stepped into the room with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked at Neil and smirked.
“That was it, wasn’t it?” Neil nodded dumbly. Adam’s mouth dropped open and he looked between Neil and the newcomer.
“I, you, what?! You can’t be serious! Demon blood?!” Neil turned back to Adam and nodded, a small frown on his face at Kris stealing his thunder.
“Yeah. It’s weak, like, barely there, but it’s enough. If you train it properly you could probably make it stronger though.”
Adam looked like he was going to be sick. Kris couldn’t blame him. Adam had spent the last eight years being subjected to the whims of demons. He had been exposed to nothing but evil and hatred through demons. He probably hated the very thought of them. To suddenly find out that apparently you’re part demon yourself?
“I’m gonna be sick.” Adam managed to choke out before he leaned over the side of his bed and threw up. Neil jumped back in surprise and disgust while Kris took a step forward in concern.
“Adam?”
Adam threw a hand up in the classic gesture for ‘stop.’ Kris froze and watched him warily. Adam wiped a hand over his mouth before looking up at Kris with a weak glare.
“Just… leave. Please.” Adam’s voice was weak and shaky. It sounded like he was about to start crying. Kris wanted to protest but knew it wouldn’t do him any good. He probably shouldn’t have blurted it out like that, but he had been a bit excited about being right. He hadn’t really thought about how Adam might feel.
He sighed and nodded, stepping backwards. “I’ll send someone to help you guys clean up. I… I’m sorry Adam.”
Adam just gave him a pitiful stare before closing his eyes. “Just go.” Kris nodded and stepped out of the room. He closed the door behind him and just stood there for a second before slapping himself.
“Way to go Kris, make the guy you’re going to be working with for the next few months hate you.” he growled to himself. He hadn’t gotten a chance to tell them because he had gone and opened his big mouth.
The Council wanted to see if Adam’s latent spiritual awareness could be trained. So they had roped Kris into training him, along with Simon, since Kris had decided that he would take responsibility of Adam. They had had to assure Kris that they weren’t looking to make him an active member of the team or send him on missions before he agreed. They had enough people to do the active and dangerous stuff, but it never hurt to have more people who were spiritually aware on their side.
He glanced behind him at the closed door. If he listened he could hear the sounds of Adam’s near hysterical freak out as his brother tried to calm him down. He frowned, regretting, again, the way he had handled that.
‘I’ll come back tomorrow,’ he decided. Hopefully Adam would be calmer then.
‘And I’ll bring Ally,’ he added as he heard something crash into the wall and shatter. He winced and started walking away.
He could already tell that this was going to be a long few months.
ミ★
“Spirit World is getting on my last nerve!” a voice growled.
“Oh calm down Odio.”
“Calm down, Ignis? Calm down? Why should I calm down?! Spirit World has- !”
“Must you two always fight? Odio, we get it, you hate Spirit World. Ignis, don’t provoke him. If we’re going to get back on top of things, we need to do this rationally. Fighting will get us nowhere.”
Ignis and Odio glared at the third person, Daemonius, but they quieted. Daemonius smirked and turned to the last person in their group.
“Aswel, do you have any ideas?”
Aswel looked up from some papers that were laid out in front of him. He nodded, lips twisting in a wide grin.
“In fact, I do. I’ve had someone following the Council’s Spirit Detective team, trying to find a weakness we can exploit. One of the members, an incubus by the name of Kristopher Allen, is only a part-time detective on the Council’s roster.”
Aswel held up a photo of a young man with short brown hair and dark brown eyes looking over his should. His eyes were narrowed in suspicion and he was looking almost directly at the camera. Aswel continued,
“He has the least protection surrounding him as a result, and it will be easiest to get to the rest of the Spirit Detectives, and consequently the Council, through him. He doesn’t appear to be involved in any relationships at the moment, and while he lives with a human, they don’t appear to be romantically involved.”
“Well then what do you have on him?” Odio growled in frustration. Aswel shot him a dark look while Ignis slapped him on the back of the head. Odio snarled and stood up, ready to fight. Ignis followed suit, both of them glaring each other down.
“Enough!” Daemonius yelled. He let his spirit energy fly free, and a second later the air in the room became heavier. Ignis and Odio stumbled a bit as Daemonius concentrated on them. The two backed down immediately, eyes wide and bodies shaking a bit.
Daemonius glared at them and bared his teeth in a vicious snarl, the tiger demon in him showing through as he growled. “Sit down and shut up. I don’t want to hear either of you two talking again, am I understood?”
Ignis and Odio immediately sat back down, both of them nodding frantically. Daemonius glared at them one last time before turning back to Aswel. The air lightened immediately and Daemonius gestured for Aswel to continue.
Aswel nodded, looking far too amused by the whole thing. “As I was saying, while it is likely we could use the human woman, my spy found something much more interesting.”
He held up another picture this time, and in it Kris was walking with a tall, dark haired man. Kris was grinning in amusement while the other man was in the middle of laughing. They walked closely together, their arms brushing, and affection was clear in Kris’ eyes as he looked at the tall one.
Aswel smirked and said, “This man is Adam Lambert, a human. He was one of ours. It seems that Spirit World decided to keep him when they rescued him and have had Kris and Simon Cowell training him for the past five months. This is our way in.”
Daemonius grinned, plans already flying through his head. “Perfect.”
ミ★
“Aw, come on, you can do better than that Adam!” she called out to him, laughing at the end. Adam groaned as he picked himself up from where he had crumpled at the base of the wall. He shot a mock glare at Allison as he stood, wiping off imaginary dust from his clothes as he did so.
“Don’t know what you mean Ally, I let you get that hit in.” they grinned at each other before sprinting forward and colliding in the middle in a flurry of punches and kicks.
Kris sat back and grinned as the two sparred. It had been a long five months to get to this point.
When Adam had first found out that Kris would be training him (under Simon’s supervision), he had thrown an epic bitch fit. The Council hadn’t relented though, despite Adam’s protests, and a week after he had received the news he had been in Simon’s training room with Kris and Simon.
He had been unwilling to even look at Kris for the first few days. It wasn’t until Kris had taken him aside and forced Adam to talk to him that the other man started to acknowledge him. Of course, when Adam found out that Kris was an incubus all the progress Kris had made had almost gone to hell. It wasn’t until he had explained that Kris wasn’t a demon, but Fae instead (totally different) that Adam started to talk to him again.
The training itself had started out simple. They just wanted Adam to be able to tap into his spiritual power and see if there was enough there to be able to train him. That had taken the better part of two weeks to do. Once Adam had managed it though, they had started honing what he would be able to do. He didn’t have enough power to be able to use it as a weapon all on its own, unfortunately.
However, he was able to use it to enhance his own natural abilities. If he channeled it correctly, he could use it to make himself faster than a normal human, stronger, and more durable. Hence, being thrown into walls with back breaking force and being able to walk away unscathed, while a normal human would likely end up with a broken spine.
His sixth sense was also stronger now, though nowhere near Simon’s or even a regular psychic. It was enough to save his ass in a fight however. Usually.
Kris winced again as Allison slammed Adam into the floorboards. She bounded away a second later, a small grin on her face. Adam groaned and sat up, glaring in her direction. Kris muffled a laugh, but not enough as a second later Adam’s glare was focused on him.
Kris widened his eyes innocently which made Adam’s lips quirk in amusement. Adam stood up and shook off the hit before darting towards Allison again. Kris glanced at the watch in his hand before glancing up again. They had been sparring for about half an hour already.
‘I’ll give them another five minutes.’ He decided.
He watched as the two laughed, glad that they weren’t too serious when they sparred. Adam had taken an immediately liking to Allison when he had met the fiery red-head. It had made Kris a bit jealous at first, but it was Allison, and she was pretty much impossible to hate.
Of course, Adam had been more wary of her when he had found out that she was a fox demon, but Allison had already wormed her way past his barriers. Kris actually had to thank Allison for that, because without her, he wasn’t sure if Adam would have ever really taken the chance to get to know him.
Adam had been reluctant at first, but once they started hanging out outside of training, he had discovered they actually had a bit in common. Their friendship was still new, but the two of them were figuring it out.
Kris glanced at the watch again to see that it had been eight minutes since he checked it last. He looked up and saw that Adam and Allison were locked in some sort of double headlock. He smirked.
“Okay guys, time!” the duo separated immediately, grins on their faces as Kris grabbed their towels and water bottles.
“Great spar Adam! You’re getting much better. Maybe soon I’ll be able to fight you in demon form!” Allison said cheerfully. Adam chuckled and ducked his head a bit.
“Maybe.” He smiled gratefully at Kris as he handed him the towel and water bottle. Kris felt something flutter in his chest at the action, but he resolutely pushed it away. He grinned back and clapped Adam on the arm.
“You’re gettin’ there, don’t worry. Maybe once you’ve gotten Allison to go all out you can try to take me on.” Kris smirked. Adam mock scowled and swiped at him, grinning as Kris dodged out of the way, laughing.
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean Allen?” Allison pouted. Kris sniggered and ruffled her hair, ignoring her indignant cries as she swiped the offending hand away.
“What do you think Ally?” Allison narrowed her eye playfully and was about to pounce on him when a cough at the door interrupted them. The trio turned to see Ryan standing there, looking amused.
“Kris, Adam, you two have an assignment.”
The trio’s eyes widened.
“What?” Adam gaped. He was never let out on assignments. He was still in training and nowhere near qualified to do any missions.
“You can’t be serious!” Kris said. There was no way he was taking Adam on an assignment. He was still a rookie, he’d get hurt!
Ryan nodded though and handed Kris a manila envelope. “I am. The council wants you to take Adam out on a simple recon mission. Nothing too dangerous, just something easy to start him off with. But they want you to start taking him out on missions now so that he can get used to it, and then once he’s more… experienced, he’ll be made your partner and you guys can go on more serious missions.”
Kris and Adam gaped at Ryan. Partners? They turned to look at each other. Adam flushed a bit and turned to look at the envelope, reaching out to take it.
“W-well then, if it’s nothing dangerous, I don’t see the problem.” He tugged it out of Kris’s lax hold and opened it up. Kris continued to watch him carefully as Ryan backed out of the room. Allison was bouncing up and down and pressed up against Adam’s side, trying to read what the mission was.
“This is so exciting! You two are going on your first mission together and you’ll be partners!” Kris moved over to Adam’s right side and read the report over his shoulder. He was very much aware of the way their bodied seem to be instinctively drawn together, Adam’s body heat seeping into his skin through their thin layers of clothes.
Kris swallowed, his shoulder brushing against Adam’s shoulder blade as his hand settled on the small of Adam’s back. He scanned the report quickly, glad to see that Ryan wasn’t lying.
“Looks easy enough. How long will it take you to get ready?” he questioned Adam.
Adam was looking down at the document in a daze, however. His eyes seemed to be glazed over a bit and his hands were gripping the envelope hard.
“Adam?” Allison asked in concern. Her hand touched his shoulder and he jerked. He looked at both of them, a tight smile on his face.
“Ah, sorry, sorry. Um, give me fifteen minutes?” he questioned. Kris grinned playfully.
“Half an hour? Sure.” Adam laughed and nudged him with his shoulder.
“Just because it only takes you five minutes to get ready doesn’t mean the rest of us neglect our appearance so much, Allen.” He said playfully. Kris pushed him lightly.
“Just go get ready Adam.” Adam laughed and handed him the envelope before leaving the room, leaving just Allison and Kris. Kris saw Allison grinning at him from the corner of his eye. He shot her a look and she held her hands up innocently.
“I didn’t say anything about how you two were totally flirting just now.” Kris rolled his eyes and she laughed.
“Allison-”
“Nope! Not hearing it Kris! You two totally like each other, you flirt all the time. I don’t see why you don’t just ask him out already.” Kris sighed and ran a hand over his face.
“It’s not that simple Ally.” She gave him a pitying look.
“It really is. The only thing making it complicated is you two.” Kris didn’t look at her. She sighed and patted him on the shoulder.
“I still think you should give it a shot. I’ll see you later?” Kris nodded and she slipped past him to gather her stuff before exiting the room, leaving just Kris. He looked at the mission report again and ran a hand through his hair.
“Well, at least it’ll be an easy assignment.”
ミ★
“This is easy!” he called back. The sound of metal slicing through concrete had him jumping backwards just in time. A second later a large blade appeared out of the ground right where he had been crouching. The people who had been pursuing them stepped into the alley, malicious smirks on their faces.
Adam stepped out from his protection and stepped beside him, eyes wide.
“Kris, this is the very definition of not good,” he hissed. Kris could tell he was starting to freak out, which he really didn’t need. He grabbed Adam’s hand and squeezed. Adam looked at him, still wide eyed.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. I believe in you.” Kris grinned at him. Adam gulped, squeezing Kris’ hand back. The grin on Kris’s face stretched before he released Adam’s hand and looked forward. The demons were low level, easily defeatable. However their impressive firepower hid that fact.
“Remember what I taught you? About sensing power levels? Do it.” The demons were slowly advancing down the alley. One of them retracted the blade that had nearly skewered Kris. Kris could tell they were being cocky because he didn’t show any signs of spiritual energy and Adam’s levels were very low.
Kris scoffed mentally. He would definitely enjoy this. Beside him he could feel Adam concentrating, and knew the moment Adam realized they were much weaker than they seemed, and nothing like the demons who had kidnapped him before. These guys were just hired grunts, easily replaceable. He could take them. Adam’s spine straightened and he looked more relaxed. Kris could feel the newfound confidence rolling off him in waves. He grinned.
“Ready?” he shot a grin at Adam, who grinned back, nodding.
“Ready.” He said.
They sprang forward at the same time. They caught the demons off guard, as apparently they thought the duo would wait for them. Yeah, not happening.
There were about eight of them, which wasn’t too bad. He had faced worse odds than 2 against 8 before. He grabbed the one farthest to the left and slammed a fist into their face. The bone snapped under the pressure and the guy’s head reeled back. Kris pulled his fist back and slammed it into their stomach before grabbing their head and ramming it into his knee, knocking him out.
He pushed the guy away as two of the others reached him. He kicked out and nailed one of them in the chest before jerking his outstretched leg backwards and slamming the heel of the boots into the other guy’s neck.
He glanced across to see how Adam was doing. He quirked a brow, impressed. Adam already had one guy KO-ed. He was in the middle of two of the other guys, ramming his elbow back into someone’s sternum before reaching forward and punching the other in the face.
Kris snapped back to his own fight as one of the guys recovered and rushed him with the last one. He reached down and grabbed the knives he hid in his boots. He palmed them confidently, and when the two were close enough he swiped one hand out, the knife in his right hand catching one of them in the throat and splitting it open.
He turned around and threw the other one between the eyes of the guy who had been sneaking up behind him. Both dropped dead as Kris turned to face the last guy, who had a cocky smirk on his face. Kris narrowed his eyes.
On the other side of the alley Adam was just about done with his guys. Three of them had been knocked out. He was pretty damn impressed with himself. He had managed to take out three guys, demons, all on his own, and he hadn’t had to kill them. He knew killing came with the job, but if he could manage to do it without killing that’d be okay with him.
He grabbed the last guy by the front of the shirt and slammed his fist into their face. When the guy reeled back in surprise he snuck up behind them and grabbed them around the neck. He tightened his grip, cutting off the air and blood supply to their brain. The demon scratched at his arm but he didn’t let up, only held on tighter.
The demon started to go limp a few seconds later, but Adam held the position for a little while longer just to make sure. As soon as he released the grip the demon slumped to the ground, unconscious. He grinned. He did it!
“Kris, I did i-!” he turned, grinning widely, but the grin was wiped off of his face a second later at the scene that met his eyes. He felt the blood drain out of his face as a roaring in his ears deafened him.
Kris was pinned to the brick wall of the alley by a large blade impaling him through the stomach. Blood dripped from Kris’s lips as his hands scrabbled at the blade. The demon was smirking as he twisted the blade inside Kris, laughing at Kris’ pain.
“What was that incubus? I couldn’t hear you.” Kris opened his mouth but all that came out was a weak cry.
Adam saw red. He leapt forward with a war cry, slamming into the demon and tackling him to the ground. The demon cried out in shock but didn’t have time to react as Adam slammed his fist into their face over and over. It didn’t take long for the demon to go still underneath him, probably dead.
Adam sat back, breathing heavily. He stared at his bloodied hands and then looked at the face of the demon that he had attacked. It was just a bloody mess.
“Ad-am…” Adam jerked back and looked behind him. Kris was watching him, eyes drooping as blood steadily dripped to the ground from the wound in his abdomen. Adam’s eyes widened and he scrambled off the body and rushed to Kris. His hands hovered over the blade, his body shaking.
“Kris! Oh god, oh god, what do I, this is bad, bad, you can’t die. Kris…” his voice was pitched higher than normal and he didn’t know where to look. Kris chuckled and reached out weakly to grab one of Adam’s hands in his.
“Adam, stop…” Adam fell silent immediately, staring at Kris as he bit his lip. Kris gestured to the blade.
“You need to pull it out.” Adam shook his head frantically.
“The blood loss-!”
Kris laughed and stared at him with affectionate eyes.
“Adam, I’m an incubus, remember?” Adam stared at him blankly before recognition dawned and he blushed. Right. Kris was an Incubus. He remembered that conversation (and boy had it been an interesting one). Kris healed with sexual energy. So that means…
Kris shrugged awkwardly, grimacing slightly as he shifted the blade inside him. “I mean, if you can’t, I understand, we can get-!”
“No!” Adam squeaked out. He coughed awkwardly as his heart raced. He glanced at Kris and bit his lip, shaking his head.
“No, no, I can do it, I just… how far…?” Kris smiled slightly at that and squeezed the hand he was still holding.
“We don’t have to go all the way. As long as you’re aroused and we both get off, I can take it from there.” Adam nodded and swallowed hard. He squeezed Kris’s hand once before letting it go and gripping the handle of the blade with both hands. His hands slipped a bit from the blood dripping off of them, but he just got a firmer grip on the handle. He glanced at Kris, who nodded. He inhaled deeply, nodding to himself before gripping the handle hard and pulling it out.
Kris cried out in pain and dropped to the ground, as the blade was the only thing keeping him up. Adam immediately threw the offending item off to the side before kneeling down and cradling Kris’s lax body in his arms.
“W-what, what do I do now?” he swallowed. Kris grinned shakily and reached up to cup one of Adam’s cheeks.
“Kiss me,” he breathed. Adam’s eyes widened and he nodded before leaning down and locking his lips with Kris’ for the first time. He was tentative at first, not wanting to hurt Kris, but Kris was having none of that.
He stroked his hand across Adam’s cheek, and Adam felt a strange tingling sensation. That tingling gave way to fire as he felt lust burn through him. He groaned and immediately pressed his lips harder to Kris as his pants grew tighter.
Kris groaned and tangled his hand in Adam’s dark hair. He could remember when Adam had first dyed it black and cut it from the long, natural strawberry blonde locks he had had after years of imprisonment. He had imagined being able to run his hands through it, feeling the soft texture as he tugged lightly on the locks. How Adam would moan lightly and tilt his head back into the sensation when Kris scraped his nails across his scalp lightly.
Now Kris tightened his grip in those same locks and growled as his body flushed with lust. He pressed up against Adam, not caring about the blood that would stain their clothes irreparably. He wrapped his arms around Adam’s neck and tugged, trying to get the tall human to straddle him.
Adam seemed to get the gist of it, as a second later he was climbing over Kris and grinding their matching erections together. Both of them moaned and Kris canted his hips upwards, wanting more friction.
Adam growled as pleasure spiked through him. He continued to grind down against Kris rhythmically, his hands gripping Kris by his neck, smearing blood over his skin. He slid one hand down to settle over Kris’s heart, felt it beating weakly. He jerked his hand away and instead moved it to cradle the back of Kris’s head. His other hand settled on Kris’s hip, trying to control the rhythm of their movement.
Kris let him, instead sinking into the pleasure lust and hunger running through his veins. Adam tasted so good. He moaned as Adam seemed to seep into his skin, permanently branding himself into Kris’ very being.
“Harder,” Kris hissed, pushing up. His hands slipped from their position tangled in Adam’s hair and instead moved to grip Adam’s hips. He pulled Adam down as he ground up, a low moan echoing through the air at the delicious friction.
Adam grunted and slowly slid his lips from Kris’s, instead attaching them to his neck and biting. Kris cried out, hips jerking spastically. Adam grinned and bit down again as their erections slid together. Kris’s grip tightened on his hips and he was sure he’d have finger shaped bruises there later. The thought made him groan and bite down harder, wanting to leave behind something, some mark on Kris’s skin to show that he was his, even if just for a short while.
Kris whined, his eyes wide and pupils dilated. His mouth hung open as his hips moved on auto pilot. The lust was burning through him hotter and hotter and he knew it would be over soon.
“Adam!” He gasped out, eyes rolling in his head as Adam licked at the bite mark on his neck, one hand pressing down on his hip. Adam’s other hand had managed to undo Kris’s pants enough to slip his hand inside and grab Kris firmly. His hand slid over the flesh easily, blood smearing off onto Kris’ skin, Adam stroking him roughly as their hips slid against each other again.
Adam panted against the skin of Kris’s neck, eyes closed tight as he gently squeezed the hand around Kris. Kris cried out, his hands slipping underneath Adam’s shirt to press against the skin of his back. Adam’s eyes popped open as intense pleasure raced through his system. He cried out, hips coming to a standstill as his vision whited out and he came violently in his pants.
Kris sighed happily, mouth opening as the intense sexual energy coalesced and flew into him, making him come all over Adam’s hand and his partially exposed stomach in return. He licked his lips, eyes falling shut as he inhaled deeply.
Adam collapsed on top of him, weight almost crushing, but Kris didn’t mind. He grinned instead and pressed a kiss to the base of Adam’s neck.
“Thank you,” he breathed out. He stroked his hands over Adam’s back soothingly before hugging the limp body close to his own. Adam just chuckled weakly, face still buried in Kris’s neck.
“No… problem.” He managed to pant out. Kris laughed and let his eyes fall shut. They just stayed there like that for a few minutes, recovering. Kris wouldn’t have minded staying like that for the rest of the day, but they were in a dirty alley, where anyone could walk by and see them (though it was unlikely since this area was pretty much abandoned) and they had demon bodies surrounding them that really needed to be picked up by Spirit World.
He sighed and pushed weakly at Adam’s shoulder. “We need to get up and contact Spirit World. They need to clean this mess up.”
Adam groaned but moved. He sat back and looked down at Kris, who was looking up at him questioningly. Adam blushed when he realized he was still straddling the older male and that his hand was still… His eyes widened and he jerked his hands back.
Kris laughed at him and Adam looked away, embarrassed. “Adam, it’s okay.” Kris managed to get out. Adam just shook his head and stood up, holding his hand out in front of him as he swallowed.
“I…” he looked helplessly at Kris, who smiled softly at him. Kris tucked himself back in and zipped his pants up, not caring about the mess, before standing up slowly. Adam watched him, making sure he was alright. Kris showed no signs of pain though and Adam was relieved that it had worked apparently. Kris pulled his shirt up to reveal smooth, unblemished skin where a minute ago a gaping wound had been.
Kris looked around before shrugging and tearing off a sizeable piece of fabric from one of the demon’s shirts. He wiped the mess on his stomach off, figuring he could wait to clean the rest up later before holding the cloth out to Adam. Adam took it and quickly cleaned his hands and stomach as best as possible before throwing the offending piece of cloth away from him.
Kris just grinned at Adam in amusement while Adam refused to look at him. “Adam,” he said quietly, stepping forward. Adam turned to look at him, eyes not quite meeting his. Kris just smiled and stepped up to him before leaning up and pressing a light kiss to Adam’s cheek.
“Thank you,” he whispered as he pulled back. Adam blushed again before meeting Kris’s eyes.
“You said that already,” he said. Kris laughed, shrugging.
“It bore repeating.” Adam smiled back at him, his heart racing in his chest. Kris broke the gaze a second later though and pulled out his cell phone. He turned away a second later when whoever was on the other end picked up. Adam tuned Kris out as he reported the situation and asked for a clean-up crew to be dispatched to their location.
His eyes settled on the demon he had killed. He swallowed heavily, a lump forming in his throat.
“Adam?” Kris called. Adam snapped out of it a second later and turned his gaze to meet Kris’ questioning one. Kris grinned at him and gestured behind Adam, to the mouth of the alley.
“We can go ahead and go. The clean-up crew should be here soon to take care of them. The others are planning a party back at Simon’s.”
Adam grinned, letting the idea of a party temporarily take his mind off of the fact that he had killed someone for the first time.
“Well then what are we still doing here?” Kris laughed and started walking. They fell into step together as they left the alley. Kris’s hand brushed against his as they walked and Adam darted a quick glance to the smaller. Kris was smiling, and unconsciously Adam mirrored the smile.
Then he remembered that his clothes were still covered in blood and grime. He grimaced and looked down at himself and then Kris. There was blood drying on his wrists and under his nails, though most of it he had wiped off when Kris had handed him the cloth.
He groaned. Kris glanced at him in confusion and Adam gestured to his ripped and blood soaked clothes. Kris just started laughing at him. Adam frowned, not thinking it was all that funny. His lips twitched a bit thought as Kris continued to laugh and he shook his head.
‘It was worth it,’ he thought subconsciously. The smiles stayed on their faces all the way back to Simon’s.
ミ★
His eyes settled on Kris, and his heart started racing again. He flushed as he thought back to earlier, in the alley way. He had thought his heart had stopped beating when he had seen Kris impaled on that blade. The thought that Kris would die was… painful.
It was odd, suddenly feeling so strongly for the small Incubus; so strongly he would apparently kill for him. He hadn’t wanted anything to do with Kris to begin with. At first he had thought Kris was an asshole, even though he had saved Adam’s life. Then he had found out that Kris wasn’t even human. That’s not something you keep from a person.
However, he had looked past that (eventually), and started to see Kris. Sure, Kris was a bit rough around the edges. Despite that though there was just something about him that drew Adam in. He could feel something electric between them when they were in the same room. He just seemed to naturally gravitate towards the older.
But Kris was an incubus. He drew everyone in; it was in his nature. He was a predator, and everyone was his prey. He fed on emotions after all. He naturally just exuded an aura that made people want to be around him. An incubus fed often, and it wasn’t in their nature to be monogamous. They were beings of lust and sin.
He wanted the other man, but he knew he could never have him, not really. Kris would break his heart if he gave it to him, and he wouldn’t be able to help it, which made it worse. Because it was instinct, his very nature, and that wasn’t something Adam could beat.
“Why are you by yourself?”
Kris.
Adam grinned at the smaller man and shrugged nonchalantly. “Just observing. Nothing wrong with that is there?”
Kris shook his head, chuckling. “No, nothing at all.” Kris settled beside Adam and stared at the people dancing in the middle of the bar like idiots, a fond smile on his face.
“You did good today.” Kris said, looking up at Adam. Adam blinked in surprise and looked back at Kris.
“You almost got killed.” he said incredulously. Kris laughed, throwing his head back. Adam eyes the pale column of Kris’s throat as he did so and swallowed.
“And you saved me.” Kris said once he was done laughing. Kris’s eyes were dark as he spoke, a mischievous gleam in them. Adam immediately broke eye contact and looked back at their dancing friends. Kris touched his shoulder and Adam glanced back at him.
Kris frowned a bit and squeezed Adam’s shoulder gently. “Do you want to talk about it?” Adam was lost for a moment at the change in direction before realizing what Kris was talking about. He shook his head mutely and Kris smiled sadly.
“It’s okay to feel the way you do Adam. And if you want to talk, all of us are here for you, I promise.” Kris dropped his hand from Adam’s shoulder once he finished and didn’t speak again. Adam was grateful that Kris wasn’t making him talk about it. He didn’t like the fact that he had killed someone, even if it was a demon. He needed to come to terms with it on his own.
They stayed there in a companionable silence, watching everyone else. Adam could feel the tension between them. It was slightly awkward, as it had been there since the mission, but he didn’t know what to do about it.
“Kris-”
“Adam-”
They stopped and stared at each other. A second later they started laughing, leaning against each other to hold the other up. Adam’s hand was on Kris’s shoulder while one of Kris’s hands was clenching on Adam’s hip. Adam stopped laughing gradually, realizing just how close he and Kris were.
Kris gazed up at him silently, eyes dark and unreadable. Adam licked his lips subconsciously and saw Kris’s eyes follow the movement. Adam’s breath hitched a tiny bit and he leaned further into Kris.
“Kris…” he whispered. Kris flicked his eyes from Adam’s lips to his eyes and back again. Adam stepped closer to Kris, his hand tightening on Kris’s shoulder. Kris turned his body into Adam’s, his other hand coming up to rest on Adam’s waist.
Adam started to lean down, eyes slowly fluttering shut. Kris mirrored the action, tilting his head up. Their breath mingled and Adam could practically taste Kris’s lips.
“Kris!”
They jerked away from each other and turned to see Allison bouncing up to them, apparently unaware of what she had disturbed. Kris smiled at her, acting as if nothing had happened. Adam hid a grimace and resisted the urge to glare at the girl he saw as a sister.
“Kris, come here, you have to try this drink!”
Allison took his hand and started to drag him away. Kris laughed and let her but not before turning around and smiling warmly at Adam.
“I’ll be back.” Kris said. Adam nodded and then pointed towards the doors.
“I’m going to get some air first.” Kris nodded and Adam grinned until Kris had turned around. Then he frowned and tried to subtly adjust himself in his pants. He quickly made his way to the doors, sighing in relief as the cool night air swept over him when he stepped outside.
He walked off to the side a bit and leaned against the building. The street this bar was on was relatively quiet and there weren’t many cars. He leaned his head back against the aged brick and stared up at the black sky.
He let himself relax, his concentration of his surroundings slipping. So he didn’t sense the people slipping up from a side alley and heading towards him until they were already there. His eyes widened in surprise and his arm swung out on instinct.
One of the men caught it thought, and before Adam could utter a word or even scream the other was holding a soaked rag over his mouth and nose. Adam’s eyes widened as he realized he was being kidnapped. Again.
He screamed against the rag, but it came out muffled. He struggled against the two men, but he was too weak and they had already grabbed onto him securely. The drug was starting to take affect too. He could feel his muscles getting weaker as his legs collapsed underneath him.
He inhaled deeply again as he gasped and his eyes started to flutter closed. He went limp and someone caught him. His head lolled and he tried to move, to do anything, but his body wasn’t obeying him. He could feel unconsciousness starting to sneak up on him and he whimpered internally.
‘Kris!’ he screamed mentally. But Kris couldn’t hear him, and then darkness overtook him.
ミ★
‘There’s no way Adam is still outside,’ he thought. He turned around and scanned over the rest of the bar, trying to see if maybe Adam had slipped back inside and he had missed him. However Adam wasn’t there. He frowned in confusion, something nagging at him.
“What’s the matter man?” Kris looked beside him to see Tommy standing there with something that looked radioactive in his glass. Kris quirked a brow before shaking his head and meeting Tommy’s amused eyes.
“Have you seen Adam?” Tommy blinked in confusion before shaking his head.
“Nope, not since he went outside, what, twenty minutes ago or so? Why, is he not back inside yet?” Kris shook his head, worry starting to creep through his veins.
“No, he’s not.” His voice was flat, belaying just how worried he really was. Tommy inhaled and looked around, eyes scanning the room.
“I’ll get some others to look for him. Don’t worry Kris; I’m sure he’s fine. Maybe he just caught a cab and went back to Simon’s early.”
But both of them knew that Adam wouldn’t have done that, not without telling Kris where he was going, or at least Ally. And they had been together for the past half hour, with no sign of Adam. Kris nodded anyway though, trying to shake off the panic that was starting to bubble up.
“Yeah, yeah maybe. I’m gonna go check outside, okay?” Tommy nodded and Kris made his way to the doors, pushing them open and ignoring the cold chill that crept over him as he stepped outside. He shivered a bit, eyes flicking back and forth on the street.
Nothing.
He inhaled deeply, letting his senses spread out. Maybe Adam had just wandered down the stre- his thoughts came to a grinding halt as he caught the leftover residue of two unknown demons mixing with Adam’s. His eyes narrowed and his hands clenched by his sides.
“Kris, hey man, no one’s seen him insi- Kris?”
Kris was shaking slightly, teeth grinding together. Fury was welling up inside him. Tommy fell silent as Kris didn’t respond. Kris could feel him reaching out silently as well, and knew exactly when he felt what he had. Tommy inhaled sharply and mumbled a panicked ‘shit.’
He heard Tommy run back inside to tell the others, could hear their worry and panic as the realized Adam wasn’t just gone, he was missing.
Adam had been kidnapped. Again. And this time they could have stopped it. But no one had noticed anything was off. He had been missing for at least half an hour, who knew where they were now?
Kris closed his eyes and breathed deeply, resisting the urge to yell and punch things. Adam was gone and he hadn’t done anything to stop it. That didn’t mean he couldn’t do anything to fix it though.
‘I saved him once, I can do it again,’ he thought. He opened his eyes and stared at the ground in front of him as he made that silent promise. He had a feeling he knew exactly who had taken Adam, and this time? They wouldn’t get away.
ミ★
He swallowed and slowly opened his eyes, relieved that the light in the room was low enough that it didn’t bother his aching eyes. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. He swallowed again, fear settling in his gut.
He was in some sort of cell, one very similar to where he had been held captive for eight years. He was laying on a cot in the corner of the cell, a heavy iron chain attached to the wall wrapped around his ankle.
He slowly tried to push himself up, but only managed to push himself about an inch or two off the cot before the shaking in his arms made them collapse. He landed on the cot again with a thud, losing his breath momentarily from the impact.
He breathed deeply, trying to do his best to keep calm and not freak the fuck out.
‘Kris will find me,’ he thought to himself, a bit desperately. He knew there was no way the incubus would leave him.
“Oh good, you’re awake,” a voice drawled. Adam’s head snapped around to look at the door to the cell. It had opened silently and standing in the doorway was a man. He was somewhat on the short side, but Adam could see the outline of muscles from across the room.
The man had no distinguishing characteristics except for his bright purple eyes that marked him as a demon. Even without the eyes Adam would have known however. The man’s aura screamed ‘predator!’
The man smirked wickedly at him and stepped into the room, leaving the door open behind him.
“Adam, was it?” the man asked conversationally as he strode forward. Adam tried to back away, wanting to be as far away from the man as possible, but his body wasn’t listening to him.
“My name is Odio, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Odio said, tongue flicking out across his lips as he took in Adam’s lax form.
“Oh, and don’t try to move,” he added as an afterthought, sending a conspiratorial wink Adam’s way. “You’ve been dosed with, well, I doubt you’d know what it is, but trust me when I say the more you try to move, the worse the affects will be.”
Adam’s eyes widened at that, panic curling through him. What did they give him?!
Odio must have seen the panic in his eyes as he laughed loudly, almost condescendingly. “Oh don’t worry human, it won’t kill you… most likely. But why don’t you stay still, so as to not tempt fate, hmm?”
Adam stilled and glared at the demon standing before him, which only seemed to amuse him.
“Feisty, aren’t you? I like that,” Odio purred. Adam internally made a face. Ew.
Odio stalked forward, a dark glint in his eyes that made Adam very nervous.
“Odio! What did we tell you?” Odio stopped and jerked around to glare at the speaker. Adam did his best to look behind Odio and saw three other men, all demons, standing just inside the doorway.
“You were taking too long,” Odio snarled. One of the others snarled back at Odio, and the temperature in the room seemed to raise a few degrees.
“Ignis, calm down,” one of the other snapped before turning to Odio, eyes narrowed. “And you, learn to listen to orders, before I give you to Ensis.”
Adam didn’t know who Ensis was, but apparently he was someone to be feared. Odio immediately paled and backed away, mouth shut and eyes averted. The one who had spoken sighed before turning to the person on his left, as Ignis was on his right.
“Aswel, if you please,” the man gestured towards Adam. The man, Aswel, was like Odio in the sense that he had no distinguishing characteristics of being a demon. He was pale, with midnight black hair and piercing blue eyes.
Odio’s eyes narrowed and he stepped forward a bit, drawing attention to himself again.
“Daemonius, you said I could do it!”
Daemonius, the man who was apparently in charge, only growled at Odio, teeth bared.
“Odio, what did I tell you?” Odio backed away, though Adam could hear him grumbling under his breath.
Aswel started to walk towards Adam, a dead calm surrounding him. Adam’s heart started to beat faster in fear, and Adam was almost 80 percent sure that he had broken out into a cold sweat. Aswel smirked at him, apparently amused by his fear.
“Don’t worry little human, I’m not going to kill you,” he stated, moving to kneel by Adam’s side. Adam watched him warily, mentally asking what he was going to do with him if he wasn’t going to kill him. As if hearing his thoughts, Aswel answered, lips stretching wide in amusement as he spoke.
“What I’m going to do will be much worse,” he whispered. Adam started to panic, instinctively trying to get away from the threat. He tried to get his body to respond to him, despite the fact that he was basically paralyzed.
Aswel reached out, unconcerned with the panicked noises that Adam was making. He grabbed either side of Adam’s face, cupping it between his large hands. He guided Adam’s head until they were facing each other, Aswel looking directly into Adam’s eyes.
“Relax little human, this will hurt only momentarily… if you’re lucky.”
Adam’s eyes widened but before he could try to do anything Aswel was forcing himself into Adam’s mind. Adam screamed, or tried to, but nothing came out. He was helpless, white hot daggers of pain piercing into his brain repeatedly. The pain was blinding, and Adam wished desperately for relief.
None was forthcoming, and Adam slowly found himself drifting in and out of consciousness. The pain lasted endlessly, no end in sight.
“Is it done?” he heard someone ask distantly.
His eyes fluttered and he tried to focus.
“Almost, I just have a few more things to re-arrange, but it’s probably best to wait to do that and give his brain a chance to process the new information first. If we do too much all at once his brain will overload and then he’ll be no use at all.”
“Fine, finish up here then and we’ll come back in two days. Will that be enough time?”
“Perfect.”
Adam drifted out again, the pain spiking in a way that had him whimpering helplessly.
“Sssh, sleep now little human.”
He felt a pressure against his head, something different from the blinding pain. A cool ran through him, the pain receding with it and leaving behind only a deep ache, as if something was missing.
“Sleep,” the voice whispered again. Adam could do nothing but obey, sliding into the world of dreams the next instant, thankful for the sweet relief from the pain.
ミ★
So then why was he panicking?
“Kris, babe, you need to calm down,” Allison said, watching worriedly as the incubus paced back and forth. Her neck hurt a bit from watching him for the past hour. She had found it hilarious at first, how the ever calm Kristopher Allen was worrying so obsessively over someone else. Now though she was just concerned.
Kris stopped pacing and turned to look at Allison with narrowed eyes. “I am calm,” he hissed. Allison stared at him and then the floor in a pointed fashion. Kris snarled and walked over before slumping down beside her. Allison put a comforting arm around him, letting Kris lean into her.
“Adam’s a tough kid for a human, he’ll be fine, and we’ll find him, you’ll see,” she said comfortingly. Kris just sighed and nodded, wanting so bad to believe her.
“But what if we don’t?” he said, staring down at the floor. Allison said nothing, only squeezing his shoulder harder, which was really all the answer he needed.
It had been about a month since Adam had been taken. As soon as they had realized that he was missing they had started to search, but the people who had taken him had covered their tracks. They had lost their scents about two miles from the bar and the trail had gone cold.
They had, of course, immediately contacted Spirit World and explained the situation. Spirit World had taken over and started searching immediately, but no trace of him could be found. They tried to think of people who would want to take Adam, but not many came to mind.
Adam had been more or less out of the demonic and spiritually aware communities eyes since they had found him. The mission he had had with Kris the day he had been taken was his first real foray into the world of demons and spirit energy.
With the exception of when he had been a slave.
Spirit World had considered that angle, but what would the top dogs of an international slave ring want with one human? One that they probably barely even knew existed except for as a piece of meat to sell.
It was utterly maddening to Kris. He had been on edge the entire month, with the last two weeks being the worst. He snapped at almost anyone who tried to talk to him, Allison and Katy being the exceptions. It was to the point that the Council wouldn’t put him on any missions, even the smallest one. And since he was more or less incapacitated, Allison was staying with him and off of missions as well, leaving only Danny and Matt to pick up the slack.
Kris barely got any sleep and he hardly ate. Allison could practically feel the way Kris’ spirit energy thrummed underneath his skin, just lying in wait, even though Kris rarely used it as it was, preferring to rely on his incubus talents.
Speaking of eating…
“Kris, have you fed at all the past week?” Allison asked, concerned. If he was barely eating human food, she imagined that he probably hadn’t fed his other appetite at all.
Kris looked at her guiltily and Allison gaped at him. “Kris! You know how dangerous that is! Don’t you remember what happened the last time you went without feeding for more than a few days?!”
Kris had very good control over his incubus side, but the longer he went without feeding the harder it was for him to control the hunger he constantly felt. Last time he had done that, he had almost drained a whole room of people before they were able to get to him in time.
“You need to feed, right now,” Allison stated in a no-nonsense tone. She pushed Kris away and stood up before hauling him up as well.
“Let’s go,” she said, walking out of the room they had been in and down the hallway.
“Allison, really, is this necess-”
“Yes, now shut up.”
Kris shut up.
Allison walked until she sensed someone that Kris could feed on. While she could probably do it, it would just be too weird for her since she viewed him as a brother. Not to mention Kris preferred those of the male variety, and she was very much not a male. Thank god. All of them were idiots apparently.
“Tommy!” she shouted as she spotted him down the hallway. Tommy jerked to a stop and turned to face them, blinking in confusion as he watched Allison drag a reluctant looking Kris behind her.
“What… can I do for you?” he asked cautiously.
Allison grinned and dragged Kris forward, shaking him a bit. “You need to let Kris feed on you,” she stated matter of factly. She then proceeded to glare at the sheepish looking incubus.
“He apparently hasn’t fed in the past week because he’s an idiot.”
Tommy’s eyes widened and he looked at Kris in concern. “Is that true?” Kris didn’t look at him as he nodded, and Tommy groaned.
“Kris! Really? We don’t need a repeat of last time! You should have come to one of us before now,” Tommy said in disappointment.
“I know, I know, I’m sorry,” Kris groaned, biting his lip. “I was just…” Kris trailed off, sighing. Tommy gave him a sympathetic look.
“I get it dude, really, but you can’t be neglecting things like this. Seriously, you’re how old? We shouldn’t have to remind you of this shit Kris.”
Kris made a face. God they sounded like his parents, which was a mental image he really didn’t need at the moment.
“I know, I’m an idiot, can we just skip past the rest of the berating and go to the eating now, please?”
Allison rolled her eyes at him and Tommy smirked. “I didn’t realize you wanted me so bad Allen,” he purred, amusement lurking in his eyes. Kris snorted at the notion.
“I am too hungry to deal with your shit Tommy,” he said. Tommy pouted at him dramatically, acting offended.
“Ruin all my fun why don’t you?”
Kris stared at him, unimpressed. “Oh, just get over here, will you?” Kris said. He reached forward and grabbed Tommy’s collar before hauling the young demon to him and crashing their lips together. Tommy immediately gave into Kris, letting the smaller male take control.
Kris groaned, eyes fluttering shut. He gripped Tommy’s hips and pushed him into a wall, grinding against him as he did. Tommy moaned into the kiss, nails digging into Kris’ shoulder as he held on.
Kris opened his eyes and flicked his tongue forward, forcing it into Tommy’s mouth before pulling back, his mouth hovering over Tommy’s.
From the sidelines Allison watched as Kris’ eyes started to glow a light blue, wispy smoke flowing from Tommy’s mouth and into Kris’. Tommy’s hands dug in harder to Kris’ shoulders, his body arching and pressing fully against Kris, euphoria spreading through him.
A few seconds later Kris pulled back, licking his lips as his eyes returned to normal. Tommy was still clinging to him, body slumping down weakly once Kris was done.
“You okay?” Kris asked, concerned for his friend. Allison moved forward to support Tommy’s right while Kris moved over some to support his left. Tommy nodded weakly, eyes fluttering before they locked on Kris. He grinned.
“Never better man,” he said, sounding slightly delirious. Kris and Allison glanced at each other before laughing.
“Sorry about that, I took a bit more than I normally would, so you’ll probably be weak for a while. Come on, why don’t we get you into bed?” Kris asked gently, slinging Tommy’s arm over his shoulder as he did so. Allison mirrored the action on the other side, both of them slowly moving forward.
Tommy was able to walk, more or less, but it was slow going. It took them a few minutes to reach Tommy’s room in Simon’s house, and once they did it took a bit longer to get him into bed. Tommy was off in his own world, a foolish grin stuck on his face the entire time.
Kris made sure to snap a quick picture of that for later use, Allison silently cackling beside him the whole time. Of course, that was when the messenger found them, laughing like idiots outside of Tommy’s room as they looked at the picture again.
“Um, Allison and Kris?” the guy asked, looking nervous. Kris and Allison looked at each other before turning to the guy and nodding.
“’Sup dude?” Allison said casually. Kris repressed the urge to roll his eyes.
The guy cleared his throat and gestured behind him, towards the room the Spirit Council was still using as their base in human world.
“The C-Council would like to see you,” he said in explanation. Allison blinked in confusion.
“But we don’t have any missions, we’re on temporary leave,” she stated.
“W-well yes, but they’d like to see you,” the guy repeated.
“But why?” Allison persisted.
“B-because they… want to?” the guy questioned. Kris almost felt bad for him, but he was too busy being amused by the back and forth.
“Yes, but we can’t possibly have any missions, it’s our leave time. So why do they want to see us?”
“I-I-I don’t know!”
“Well why didn’t you ask?” Allison said exasperatedly, as if the answer was obvious.
The guy was cherry red by this point and looked almost on the verge of a fit. Kris decided it was time to step in, before they had to pay for any medical bills.
“Why don’t we go found out ourselves Ally? Then we can yell at them if we don’t like the answer,” Kris said persuasively. Allison lit up.
“Ooh, I like that idea! Come on!” she stated excitedly before grabbing onto Kris’ arm, starting to drag him down the hall. Kris shrugged at the poor messenger as he passed, who was gaping at him rather comically.
“What do you think they want with us Kris?” Allison asked, moving her hand so that she and Kris’ fingers were intertwined. She was swinging their hands between them as they walked, a curious look on her face.
“Don’t know kit, but I’m sure they’ll tell us.” Kris answered, wondering the same thing himself. He was anxious to hear what they had to say. He had been waiting for the Council to summon them all week with news of Adam. He had in fact been doing that earlier when Allison had realized he hadn’t eaten in a week as well.
‘Maybe it’s news on Adam,’ Kris thought, trying not to get his hopes up. Of course, a minute later they were standing in front of the council and the serious looks on their faces made Kris’ stomach drop.
“What happened?” he said, before anyone else could speak. Paula, Randy and Kara looked at each other before looking back at Allison and Kris. Their hands were still clasped and Kris squeezed Allison’s hand. She squeezed back, expression subdued by the serious air in the room.
“We’ve found Adam,” Paula spoke slowly, as if trying to weigh her words carefully. Kris fought down the happiness he felt at those words. The pause after her words and their serious faces made his heart clench.
“What’s wrong with him?” he asked, almost desperately, knowing something had to be. They glanced at each other before looking back at him. The pity in Paula’s eyes made him terrified.
“Kris, Adam is… he... he’s not, the same as he was.”
Kris and Allison glanced at each other in bewilderment before looking back at the Council.
“What do you mean… not the same?”
ミ★
“Adam…” Kris whispered, taking a step forward. Adam’s head whipped around and he glared at Kris venomously.
“Stay away from me,” Adam hissed hatefully. Kris winced a bit and turned to look at Paula, who was standing beside Simon near the entryway.
“What happened to him?” Kris asked desperately. Adam hated him.
As soon as Kris had stepped into the room and Adam had seen him the human had flipped out. He had started struggling to get loose, screaming profanities and hate at Kris the whole time. He had called him evil, a monster. He had even glared hatefully at Allison, spitting the word demon at her like a curse.
Paula motioned outside the room and Kris eagerly stepped outside with Allison beside him. Simon closed the door behind him as he and Paula stood in front of the duo.
“The best we can figure is that they hijacked his brain,” Paula stated, a look of frustration on her face. Kris blinked in confusion.
“What?”
Paula and Simon exchanged looks before Simon took over with an eye roll. “Basically, someone has gone in and screwed with his head, and his memories. It’s like they flipped a switch in his brain and rewired it. They’ve basically made him think that you are the bad guys, and that includes Spirit World.”
Kris swallowed and Allison gasped.
“Can you fix it?” he asked.
Simon shook his head and Kris felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head. Allison immediately turned into him, hugging him tightly. Kris clung to her, eyes flitting between Simon and Paula.
“Why not? It’s Adam. We can’t leave him like this!” he said harshly, eyes narrowed. Simon glared back at him.
“It’s not that easy boy. This is complicated mind manipulation. If we go in without knowing exactly what they did, or how, we could end up killing him or leaving him a vegetable for the rest of his life. Do you want that?”
Kris’ eyes widened and he shook his head weakly.
“Didn’t think so,” Simon snorted. Paula sighed and turned a sad smile on Kris and Allison, who had yet to take her head out of Kris’ chest.
“We’ll do the best we can, but don’t expect a miracle.” With that the two walked away, leaving Allison and Kris standing outside Adams room. Inside Adam seemed to have calmed down, or at least wasn’t yelling anymore.
“What are we going to do if we don’t get Adam back?” Allison asked, voice muffled by Kris’ chest. Kris stroked a hand through her hair, feeling helpless. It felt like his heart was breaking in his chest and he wondered if Allison could hear it.
“I don’t know Ally, I just… I don’t know.”
ミ★
It was two days after they had found Adam and discovered that his brain had been hi-jacked, to put it bluntly. Kris had spent a good portion of yesterday in the room with Adam trying to talk to him, to get him to remember that he didn’t hate them all.
It hadn’t gone too well.
Kris was hoping that today would go slightly better, though he knew the chances of that were, well, slim to nonexistent.
“I’ll keep coming back until you remember the truth Adam,” Kris stated blandly, moving his chair a bit closer to the bed from its position near the wall. Adam glared at him distrustfully and Kris ignored the way the action stabbed at his heart.
“The truth? You mean that you’re insane?” Adam snarked at him. Kris ignored the jab, smiling in amusement at the human on the bed.
“No, that what you think you know is a lie. We’re not your enemies Adam; we’re not the bad guys in this situation. We saved you. You’re our friend. We just want to help you.”
Adam rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Yeah, right, and then next you’ll be telling me that you’re in love with me, which we both know would be impossible because you’re an incubus. A monster. You’re not capable of love or a steady, healthy relationship,” Adam said hatefully.
Kris froze, paling at that while his eyes widened, hurt rushing through him. It was like time ground to a screeching halt. His heart clenched and his brain stopped comprehending things. He swallowed, his mouth suddenly feeling very dry.
He knew that the opinion was one born from the false memories and emotions implanted in his brain, but what if Adam had really thought that before all this?
Adam stared at him in confusion, wondering why he had fallen silent before he smirked gleefully. “Aaaw, did I hit a soft spot? What, you can’t take the truth, incubus?” Adam spat at him.
Kris inhaled and ignored the pulse of emotional pain that reverberated through him. He pushed it aside and stared at Adam with a blank face.
“No, that’s not what I was going to say. We were friends, that’s all,” he stated. Adam just scoffed again and looked away from Kris, staring hatefully at the wall. Kris sighed, realizing that he wasn’t going to get anywhere today either. It was too soon and Adam was too hateful to even attempt to listen.
He stood up, drawing Adam’s curious gaze. Kris dutifully ignored him though and pushed the chair back against the wall.
“What, you’re just gonna give up, just like that?” Adam stated curiously. Kris nodded, not glancing at him.
“Yup. You’re not gonna listen to me, so why waste my time. I have better things I could be doing. I’ll be back again though, don’t worry,” Kris shot a smirk over his shoulder to Adam who sneered in response.
“Just get out already,” Adam said. Kris saluted mockingly before stepping out of the room and shutting the door behind him. As soon as it was closed the mask of arrogance and indifference dropped and he slumped against the wood. He ran a hand over his face in exhaustion, feeling so tired suddenly.
“I need to feed,” he mumbled, the urge to drown the overwhelming emotions he was experiencing right now in sex and sweat taking over. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, thumbing through his contacts quickly before finding the one he wanted.
He needed to go out tonight and get laid, and there was one person he could always count on to help.
“You do realize that I’m in the middle of something right now Kristopher?” Katy’s annoyed voice said through the phone. Kris laughed, amused by her tone.
“Please, you’re sitting on the couch eating ice cream and watching soap operas, aren’t you?”
Silence on the other end, before, “So what if I am? That still counts!” Katy said indignantly.
“No, it really, really doesn’t.”
“Yes, it really, really does.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes!”
“I refuse to argue like a five year old,” Kris deadpanned.
Katy laughed on the other end. “Whatever, you secretly love it. Now what’s up my soul sucking bestie?”
Kris rolled his eyes at the nickname. “You do realize I don’t suck out people’s souls, right?”
“You do realize I don’t care, right?” Kris had to grin at that.
“I want to go out tonight,” Kris said instead.
“You’re willingly coming to me to go out?” Katy stated, gasping mockingly.
“Yes you loser, I am.”
“Don’t mock me, or you won’t be gettin’ any tonight. When will you be back?”
Kris thought about it, realizing he didn’t really need to stick around. “I could probably be back within the hour; I don’t really have anything to do here. I’ll probably stop by and see Ally before I leave though.”
“Okay, I’ll go pick out an outfit and start making calls.”
“I can choose my own outfit,” Kris said, annoyed.
“Sweetie, no you can’t.”
Kris pouted. “Yes, I can. I did it before I met you, I can do it now too.”
“No, you really can’t. Plaid is not an acceptable fashion choice for a party Kristopher!”
Kris groaned. “Once! I wore plaid to a party once and you never let me forget it!”
“Once is one time too many Kris! I’m picking your outfit, end of discussion!”
Kris grumbled but didn’t bother arguing anymore. It wouldn’t do any good over a phone. “Fine. I’ll be back soon, okay?”
“See you then!” Katy replied cheerily before hanging up. Kris grinned and shook his head before pocketing his phone as well. He pushed away from the door and did his best to ignore the urge to turn around and run into the room and beg Adam to remember him.
He steeled himself mentally before walking down the hall and away from Adam. He would go back to trying to find a way to get Adam to remember them, or at least open up, tomorrow. For now he wanted to drown his depression in someone else’s body and forget about everything from the past few weeks for the rest of the night.
ミ★
Like he would ever be friends with an incubus or a demon; they were all the same. Spirit World was barely any better than the demons that had held him captive for eight years. The past five months had proved that. They were cruel and sadistic and only cared about protecting themselves.
They had beat him nearly every day since he had recovered here, and before he managed to escape the incubus had nearly killed him. Somehow he had gotten away though. Until they had found him again. And now he was right back to where he had started. Held captive, unable to leave.
He tried the restraints again, noticing a little give to them. He frowned, pulling again and getting nothing this time. He bit his lip, thinking. If he worked on it enough, he might be able to get enough five on the restraints to get free of them.
They normally brought him breakfast at about eight in the morning. It was about four in the evening now, so if he waited until after dinner at seven, then he might be able to work it during the night.
Adam grinned. He had a plan, a rather half-assed one that depended on a lot of luck, yes, but still a plan. And if all went well, tomorrow morning he could be on his way to freedom.
ミ★
“Morning Adam,” Tommy grinned, despite the fact that so far the only response he’s ever gotten from Adam was a scowl and a narrow eyed glare. Today was no different and Tommy just continued to smile as he set the tray down on the bedside table.
“How are you today?” he asked lightly, turning around to grab the chair from the wall so he could sit by Adam’s bed as the human ate. He’d let Adam eat it on his own, but the Council was against the idea, wanting to make sure he didn’t try anything. Tommy personally thought that they were crazy, but whatever made them feel better.
“I hope you were comfortable last night, the heating and cooling system has been on the fritz lately so I know it might have gotten a bit co-” pain exploded through his skull and Tommy cried out in surprise.
He was hit again, forcing him to his knees, before the third one made him sprawl on the floor. Something clanged to the floor and Tommy saw the lunch tray landing beside his head. He could make out Adam quickly making his way to the door and slipping through it.
Tommy groaned, head throbbing erratically as he forced himself up to his knees. He inhaled through clenched teeth before forcing himself to his feet. He stumbled to the door, hanging onto the doorframe before looking down the hall to see Adam’s back turning around a corner.
He groaned before slowly making his way after him, gaining momentum as he continued to walk and the throbbing started to fade a bit.
‘This is not good,’ he thought, forcing himself to move faster.
‘The Council will kill me, no screw the council, Kris is gonna kill me!’ he shuddered mentally as he thought about Kris’ reaction to the news that he let Adam escape.
“Shit!”
The slightly muffled curse echoed back to Tommy and he furrowed his brow in confusion.
“Well, well, look at what we have here,” a voice drawled. Tommy paled as he recognized it.
“Oh, this is just not my day,” he whimpered. He turned the corner and saw exactly what he had feared. Cale was standing in the middle of the hall, holding a protesting Adam by the arm and staring down at him in amusement.
Cale’s eyes drifted up as Tommy rounded the corner and his grin widened as he caught sight of him. Tommy scowled as Cale put two and two together and realized what had happened.
‘Oh, I’m never gonna live this down,’ Tommy thought despondently.
“Come on, the Council wants to see you. I think they have a new toy for Adam here,” Cale grinned, far too amused by the situation at hand.
“Is there any use in asking you not to tell them about this?” Tommy asked with a sigh. Cale shook his head.
“Oh, not a chance,” he replied. Tommy nodded, expecting that. He glanced at Adam, who was glaring at them, looking annoyed at the fact that they were more or less ignoring that he was there.
“Come on then, let’s get this over with.”
ミ★
“Brilliant deduction, but still wrong,” he hissed out. Kris quirked a brow at him, confused. He didn’t see any sort of restraints in sight when he scanned Adam. He turned to the Council, not quite sure what he was doing here.
“Why am I here? And why isn’t he tied to his bed? Aren’t you worried he’ll escape?” Kris asked, concerned.
“No, we aren’t. That’s actually what we called you here for.” Paula said with a small smile on her face. Kris blinked, confused.
“Huh?”
Paula gestured to Adam, who grumbled but complied with whatever wordless order she had given. Kris turned to look as Adam rolled up his pants leg, revealing a thick black band encircling his ankle. Kris stared at it in confusion before turning to the Council.
“An ankle monitor? What is that supposed to do?”
“Oh, it’s much more than an ankle monitor Kris.” Paula replied, smiling.
“We got the idea from the ankle monitors police use for people under house arrest. However we tweaked it a bit to suit our purposes. The ankle monitor will keep us informed of his location at all times, as well as keep him within a certain area. In this case, that would be Simon’s estate. If he tries to leave it without permission, then the ankle monitor will let out a controlled burst of energy that will paralyze him until someone uses the control bracelet to release him.”
Paula held up a bracelet similar to the one around Adam’s ankle, though slimmer and made to go around a wrist, instead of an ankle.
“The ankle monitor also keeps him from harming anyone in the household, as the moment it detects violent intentions it’ll let out a controlled shock, just enough to discourage him. If he continues, it will render him unconscious.”
Kris gaped at her incredulously. “You can’t be serious,” he said, horrified.
Paula shot him a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry Kris, but this is for the best. We can’t keep him locked in his room forever, seeing as he’s already found a way around that.” Kris made a face, confused, while Adam chuckled off to the side. Clearly, he missed something.
“So this is our best option. It’ll keep him from harming anyone and also keep him from leaving the premises.”
Kris frowned, not liking it, but accepting it for the time being. Hopefully they would be able to find a way to fix Adam and get him back to normal quickly enough that the ankle monitor didn’t become a huge issue.
“Fine. Who gets the control bracelet then?” he was still confused. There was no reason for them to be calling him down here just to explain this to him, not unless-
“You do.”
Kris’ eyes widened again. “What?”
“We figured it would be for the best, considering your past… relationship.” Paula stated delicately. Kris rolled his eyes.
“And if I refuse?” he asked.
“You won’t,” Paula stated confidently. Kris scowled at her.
“But if I do,” he insisted. It was Paula’s turn to roll her eyes.
“Then we’ll find someone else, though they might not be as nice as you would be about it.” Paula said, smirking. Kris sighed in defeat.
“Fine, what do I have to do?”
Paula motioned him forward and Kris complied, moving to stand directly in front of the table. Paula held the bracelet out and Kris held his arm up, wrist facing upwards. Paula slipped it on and the moment it settled on his wrist it shrunk so that it was sitting snugly against his skin.
Kris held his wrist up to his face, inspecting the bracelet curiously.
“You should feel it warm against your skin if Adam’s ankle bracelet triggers paralysis or shocks him. If Adam tries to leave the set perimeter then it should get colder. It shouldn’t matter how far away you are from the estate either. It’ll work even if you’re on the other side of the country from Adam. Understand?”
Kris nodded, still looking at the bracelet. “Yeah, hot for attack, cold for perimeter. What about when I need to release Adam from paralysis or if the ankle monitor shocks him unconscious?”
“In that case you need to make sure the bracelet and ankle monitor are touching and then send a wave of spirit energy through it. That should tell the ankle monitor that it’s safe and it’ll release Adam.”
Kris nodded, fascinated. He didn’t really like the ankle monitor or the bracelet, but he had to admit, they were pretty cool.
Adam had been suspiciously silent throughout the exchange and Kris turned to look at him. Adam was ignoring them, or doing his best to appear as if he were. Kris sighed and turned back to Paula, leaning in a bit.
“Anything yet?” he whispered. Paula understood what he was talking about and shook her head.
“No, I’m sorry Kris. It’s not a priority right now. Adam is safe and healthy, brain jacking aside. We’re focusing our attentions now on finding the remaining leaders of the slave ring. The sooner we can close this case for good, the better.” Paula stated sympathetically.
Kris pressed his lips together, unhappy, but understanding. Adam wasn’t in any immediate danger. There was nothing wrong with him except for the fact that his memories and emotions had been messed with. Getting the rest of the slave ring was more important right now, now that they finally had Adam back.
“Fine. Was that all?” he asked tightly. Paula nodded and Kris mock saluted her before turning around.
“Come on Adam, might as well use your new found faux-freedom while you can,” Kris said lightly, not looking at the human as he spoke. Adam growled at him, hesitating momentarily as Kris stepped outside the room before hurrying after him.
“We’re going to go see Allison,” Kris said once Adam had caught up to him. Adam said nothing, which Kris took to mean he was okay with this.
“Where would she be this early…” Kris mumbled to himself, trying to think about what the young kitsune would most likely be doing.
“The garden, of course.” Kris scoffed, mentally slapping himself. He changed directions abruptly, making Adam trip a bit as he tried to keep up. Adam grumbled to himself but didn’t do or say anything. Kris vaguely wondered why he was being so cooperative but decided he didn’t want to jinx his luck, so he stopped thinking about it.
They reached the door to the garden entrance quickly enough, pushing it open and stepping out into the morning air. Kris glanced around, shielding his eyes from the sun a bit until they adjusted to the light level outside.
He spotted Allison off to the left, working with some of the plants that she had had imported from Demon World. She was kneeling beside what looked like a thorn bush, hands lying over the roots in the ground. A second later the thorn bush started to grow upwards, curling around the trellis that Allison had put next to it.
When it was done it was about seven feet tall, dark blue and violet roses blooming sporadically, some in clusters and others individually. Allison stood up with a wide grin, bouncing a bit in place before turning around and looking directly at them.
“Hey, how long are you guys gonna stand there? Get over here!” She called to them, voice happy. Kris laughed and jogged over, gathering the young girl into a hug once he reached her.
“Hey Ally, workin’ hard I see.” Allison laughed and hugged him back, nodding against his chest.
“Yeah, I just got these seeds in, courtesy of Simon, so I wanted to grow them as soon as possible.” Kris nodded, humming a bit as he took in the plant from up close.
“It looks good. What use is it though?” Allison pulled back and beamed at him, almost vibrating with excitement.
“The thorns secrete a natural poison that’s rather deadly. One small cut and, depending on your size, you’ll either be paralyzed or killed. I’m going to wait until they mature a bit on their own before extracting it. It’s pretty useful, valuable too.”
Kris nodded, seeing the potential. Behind them someone snorted and that was when Kris remembered that Adam was with him.
Allison frowned and looked at Adam, not understanding, but Kris cut her off before she could say anything that would give Adam a chance to start a fight.
“Do you have any other plants to work with today Ally?” Allison shook her head, still frowning before looking at Kris and smiling a bit.
“Nope, just wanted to get these down. I have nothing else to do.” Kris nodded before leaning forward and smelling one of the roses. They smelled…
“Sweet,” he said, surprised. Allison laughed, rocking back on her heels.
“Yeah, they’re one of the most fragrant flowers in Demon World. Of course, that’s also how they lure in their prey. They feed on blood, see? They draw demons to them by smell, and then when the demons get close enough they strike, and then once the demon has been paralyzed or killed they…” Allison trailed off, seeing the look on Kris and Adam’s faces. She shrugged.
“You know what, it’s not important.” She laughed it off and Kris rolled his eyes, glancing at the roses warily now.
“These ones won’t attack, right?”
“Oh don’t worry about that, they won’t. I’ve got it under control. Of course, if I’m not here I can’t guarantee anything, so don’t be here alone, okay?”
Kris nodded, something nagging him. He didn’t think he’d forgotten anything, but if felt like there was something important…
“Oh!” he said, remembering what it was as he thought about their conversation. Allison and Adam looked at him and Kris looked back at Allison questioningly.
“Hey, you remember back when we were searching for the warehouse that the demons held their slaves in? Before we found Adam.” He clarified for her. Allison nodded, not sure where he was going with this.
“Remember how we found Viair dead? And you sent for some of your friends to pick him up because he smelt weird? Did you ever get anything from that?”
Allison made a face, confused.
“I… haven’t really thought about it, to be honest, it was over six months ago. Why?”
“What if it was important?” he said.
Allison looked skeptical. “It was over six months ago Kris. I doubt anything that they could have found would be useful now.”
Kris shrugged and quirked his lips helplessly. “Just try? You never know. If anything, maybe it’ll help us at least get a better idea.”
Allison frowned, silent. She stared at Kris for a few moments, studying him. Kris stared back, matching her gaze.
“You really think something could be there?” Allison asked finally. Kris nodded. Allison pursed her lips before sighing and pulling her phone out of her back pocket.
“The things I do for you. I hope you’re right about this Kris,” Allison said to him, holding the phone up to her ear. Kris nodded again but Allison wasn’t paying attention, focusing instead on whoever was on the other end of the phone call.
“Hey! I know, I know, it’s been a while. Anyway, I wanted to ask, you remember that body I had you guys pick up about half a year back? Yeah, yeah, the one out by the docks, the dead weasel. I was just curious; did you guys ever get anything off of him?”
She listened as whoever was on the other side replied, face carefully blank as she nodded.
“Okay. Can you come over? Yeah, I want you guys to meet someone. Bring the results too, obviously.”
Allison laughed at something they said on the other end, nodding again.
“Yeah, yeah, see you soon. Later Lil.”
Allison hung up and Kris stared at her, impatient. “So? What’d she say?” Allison sighed, running a hand through her hair.
“Kris, I don’t want you to get your hopes up,” she started. Kris grinned and pointed a finger at her triumphantly.
“So there was something!” Allison made a face at him.
“Yes, but like I said, don’t get your hopes up! It’s been half a year Kris, it might mean nothing.”
Kris frowned at her but nodded. “I know Allison, but still, there’s a chance. I have to take it.” Allison could understand that. She really could. And she wanted Adam back as much as Kris did, but she didn’t want to put too much faith in something that was so unreliable. It was too easy to be disappointed.
“Well then, why don’t we head over to see the council? They’ll be here soon enough so we might as well tell them what’s happening so they’re not surprised.” Allison said. Kris nodded and turned back to Adam, who had, again, been suspiciously silent throughout the whole exchange.
“Let’s go,” Kris said, jerking his head back towards the house. Adam scowled but complied, which made Kris frown. There was something… off about that. He had only said one thing earlier, and even then it hadn’t actually been directed at either of them.
It made him suspicious, but he had more important things to focus on right now. The three of them made their way quickly to the Council’s room. When they stepped in the Council looked up in surprise.
“Kris? And Allison. Is there a problem?” Paula questioned, voice polite at the unexpected interruption. The duo looked at each other as Adam slid over to the corner he had occupied earlier.
“We might… have a lead on the missing leaders of the slave ring,” Kris spoke up hesitantly, wanting to word it properly. Paula set down the papers she had been holding at the news, giving them her full attention. Randy and Kara did the same, though they looked more suspicious than Paula.
“Explain,” Paula said shortly. Kris looked to Allison, who rolled her eyes before taking over.
“Half a year ago, before we managed to find their warehouse, we found Viair dead. I had some friends take his body for examination, as there was just… something off that I couldn’t place. Of course, shortly after we did find the warehouse so I forgot about it, as it seemed a moot point then.”
Allison paused and glanced at Kris before looking back at Paula, speaking slower now. “We remembered today that we never got those results, and while it’s been half a year, maybe we can still get a lead off of them. So I called my friends, who told me that they had found something, something significant. But since I never called back they figured that it had been taken care of regardless. So I asked them to come in, with the results. They should be here soon.”
Allison fell silent and the Council regarded them silently. Paula looked back and forth between them, face blank.
“You two believe that this might be a viable clue, despite how old it is?” she asked finally.
“Yes,” Kris and Allison both replied in unison. Paula nodded and sat back in her chair.
“Fine, we’ll wait and let them present their findings. If this turns out to be just another dead end however, I want the both of you to stay out of the rest of this investigation and leave it to us, understood?”
They both nodded and Paula pursed her lips together before turning to Kara and whispering something to her. As soon as the attention was off them Kris and Allison turned to each other, wide eyed looks on their faces.
“See what you’ve done?” Allison hissed quietly to him as they moved off to the side. Kris shrugged, unapologetic.
“Sorry. How about this, if this ends up being a dead end I’ll do one thing for you, anything you want, within reason!” Kris added as Allison opened her mouth, a scary glint in her eyes. Allison pouted at that but nodded.
“Deal. And if it turns out to be something, I’ll apologize for ever doubting you.” Allison said cheerily. Kris laughed but nodded.
“Deal.” They shook on it, grinning at each other. Kris turned his attention to Adam then, watching him silently as the human stood in the corner and glared at them all.
“Hey Ally?” he started, still staring at Adam. Allison hummed, looking up at him questioningly.
“’Sup?”
Kris nodded his head in Adam’s direction surreptitiously. “Does there seem to be anything… off about Adam to you?”
Allison turned to look at Adam, studying him. She tilted her head to the side and pursed her lips together, eyes narrowed in concentration. Kris waited patiently, knowing how Allison worked. Allison’s eyes widened a second later, apparently seeing something and she turned to Kris, an incredulous look on her face. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could the doors to the room opened, admitting two women.
Kris and Allison turned to look, Allison breaking into a huge grin at the sight of them.
“Lil! Megan! You’re here!” she squealed, rushing forward and jumping on them. The two women laughed and embraced her back happily.
“Hey Allison, it’s been too long!” the blonde one said, grinning widely.
“I’m sorry Megan, I’ve been busy.” Allison pouted, but the blonde, Megan, just laughed.
“We understand Ally, just don’t let it go so long next time, yeah?” Allison nodded, hugging them both again before turning to the Council.
“Paula, these are my friends. Lil,” she gestured towards the black woman who grinned at the Council, “and Megan.” Allison finished, gesturing towards the blonde.
Paula nodded back at both of them, folding her hands in front of her on the table. “I’m to understand that you two found something on the body of Viair?”
Megan nodded and Lil took out a manila envelope from the bag she had slung over her shoulder. “Everything we found is in here,” she said, walking forward and handing the envelope to Paula. Paula took it warily, nodding her thanks to Lil.
Lil stepped back as Paula opened the envelope, pulling out the papers nestled inside. Paula slowly flipped through them, scanning them silently while everyone else watched. Kris felt nervous, his insides tightening as the silence dragged on.
A few minutes passed, the silence tense and uncomfortable for everyone present. Finally however, Paula scanned the last page and set it down on top of the others lying beside the envelope they came in. She folded her hands on top of them and turned her gaze towards Lil and Megan, eyes sharp.
“Everything in this report is accurate?” she asked. Lil and Megan nodded. Paula sighed and turned to Allison and Kris.
“You two…” Paula trailed off and Allison and Kris glanced at each other nervously. Paula smiled however, nodding at them.
“Good job,” she finished, and Kris grinned.
“So it’s good?” he asked, excitement bubbling up inside him. Paula looked down at the papers before nodding.
“I believe so, yes. Of course, we’ll need to double check the findings,” she nodded apologetically towards Megan and Lil who nodded understandingly before she continued, “but I see no reason not to pursue it. If this is correct, then we will be able to narrow down a search area. Once we do that we’ll send out surveillance teams, and if we find them, I’ll make sure the both of you are on the team that goes to take them down.”
Kris and Allison grinned brightly at her before turning to each other. Allison ran and jumped on him, laughing happily as Kris spun her around. Megan and Lil were laughing with them while Paula just watched them, amused.
“Guys?” she said, waiting for them to calm down. Kris set Allison down on her feet and grinned at Paula.
“Yes Paula?” Paula chuckled a bit, nodding towards the door.
“I’m glad you guys are excited, but if that’s all, we need to get back to work. We’ll call you when we learn anything, okay? But it might take a while.” She warned. Kris nodded and grinned down at Allison.
“Come on, let’s go out for a while. And you two should come too, unless you guys have something else you need to do?” Kris directed towards Lil and Megan. The two glanced at each other before looking back apologetically.
“Sorry guys, we can’t. We actually have to go back and pack, we have a flight to catch later. We were called out to help some friends in Mexico and we leave in a few hours, or we totally would.”
Allison frowned at that. “Aaw, that sucks. We didn’t get to spend any time together!”
Megan and Lil nodded, looking as disappointed as Allison. “Next time though, okay?” Lil said. Kris nodded, smiling at them.
“Definitely. Get in touch when you’re back stateside and we’ll make a day of it.” The two nodded in agreement before shooting one last smile at the Council and leaving. Kris turned to Adam and jerked his head towards the door.
“Come on, if we’re gonna be leaving you might as well go back to your room for today. I’ll come back tomorrow and then maybe we could do something?” he asked hopefully, despite the fact that he knew Adam would never go for it.
And he was right. Adam sneered at him, scoffing. “Why would I want to do anything with my jailer?”
Kris frowned at that, realizing he was referring to the bracelet. He didn’t want to pick a fight though so he just ignored it. “Come on then,” he said instead, slinging an arm around Allison and steering her out of the room. Adam followed them silently as they made their way back to Adam’s room.
ミ★
“Oh my god, I can’t believe I forgot!” Kris looked at her quizzically and saw that she was staring at his wrist with wide eyes. Kris followed her line of sight to see that it was resting on the black bracelet wrapped around his wrist. He quirked a brow and looked up at her.
“Why are you staring at it like that?” he questioned. Allison’s gaze snapped up to his, expression shocked.
“Kris, don’t you know what that is?” she whispered, leaning closer over the table. Kris shook his head slowly, leaning over the table as well.
“Not really. The Council put this ankle monitor thing on Adam and said that this was the control bracelet to release him if he set off the failsafe’s in the monitor. Why?” he asked slowly, suspicious.
Allison rolled her eyes and grabbed at Kris’ wrist, examining the bracelet as she spoke. “Of course they didn’t tell you the rest. It does do that, but Kris, what Adam basically has is a slave anklet. They’ve been around for the past few decades. They’re pretty popular in demon world; it’s rare to find them in human world. It does what the name says, more or less.”
Allison tapped the bracelet lightly before continuing, turning Kris’ wrist over in her hand to get a better look at the bottom.
“The control bracelet, which you have on, controls those who wear the anklets that it’s tuned to. There are a few different levels, but at the highest level you can control everything the person wearing the anklet does. Everything.” Allison made sure to stress. Kris was beginning to feel a bit sick, but Allison wasn’t done yet.
“This one seems to be set pretty low, standard perimeter and non-violence settings, but at this level it would also make it so that the wearer of the anklet couldn’t disobey you. Which would explain why Adam was so quiet! If you didn’t tell him that he could speak freely then he wouldn’t be able to say anything unless you asked him a direct question!”
Kris vaguely felt like throwing up. “Why didn’t they tell me this?” he asked, anger growing at being kept in the dark. Allison looked up at him finally, eyes sympathetic.
“They probably thought it would be easier, and that it would cause fewer problems. Not that I agree with them, they shouldn’t have kept you in the dark. By not knowing the control you have over Adam right now you could have accidently hurt him, or worse.”
Kris cursed the Council viciously in his head. This was just another reason to not like them.
“No wonder Adam called me his jailer,” Kris muttered, making the connection to what Adam had said to him earlier.
“Is there any way that Adam doesn’t know exactly what the anklet does?” Kris asked, wondering how much Adam knew. Allison shook her head, frowning as she thought.
“No, he’d have to know. They’d have no choice but to tell him. Resisting the anklet and your controller is pretty mad. If someone did that, consistently, then their body would slowly start to turn against them and they’d end up dying slowly and painfully. So no, they’d have to tell him what would happen to him or else he’d end up killing himself.”
Kris paled a bit at that piece of information. “If this thing is so dangerous, why did they put it on Adam then? There has to be better ways to make sure that he doesn’t try to escape or hurt anyone!”
Allison just shook her head, looking sad. “I don’t know Kris. I just don’t.”
ミ★
Off to the side, Adam leaned against the wall and watched as they sparred. It had been a few days since Kris and Allison had found the lead and the Council had put the slave anklet on him. Adam could remember hearing the way Kris had shouted and cursed the council the next day, even from his room down another hallway.
The incubus had been pissed at the fact that they had used something like the slave anklet on Adam, especially without telling him what it was exactly. Adam could remember the cold anger that had been on Kris’ face later when he had come to see Adam, which had confused him. He had pushed the confusion away though, figuring that it was just part of some elaborate ploy to win his trust and then try to break him.
Which would explain why Kris was being so nice to him as well, from letting him speak when he wanted and move around as he wanted – within reason. For the past few days Kris and Allison had been keeping him occupied during the day while they were there, doing anything from watching movies to playing a game outside. Today, however, Kris and Allison were sparring, leaving Adam with nothing to do but watch.
Adam vaguely recognized the room they were in. It was one of the place they would come to beat him, which made him wonder just why they would bring him there if they were trying to get on his good side. Bringing him to a place that holds nothing but bad memories for him would not help their case.
He watched the two carefully, the duo’s movements swift and precise. It was like an intricate dance, timed down to the second. If one of them was just a second too slow or fast then it would throw the whole thing off. They moved constantly, never stopping, and as he watched something began to nag at him.
Adam studied their moves, eyes narrowed. Why were they so… familiar?
”No, no, Adam, you do it like this!” a hand flashed in front of his vision before he felt a pressure on his upper arm, something slamming against the back of his knees and dragging him to the floor.
“You are having way too much fun throwing me around,” he stated drily, making whoever was with him laugh as they helped him up.
Adam shuddered, blinking and watching as Allison grabbed Kris by the arm and managed to trip him backwards, pinning him to the floor.
“I win!” Allison cried out happily as she pumped her fists into the air. Kris groaned from his spot on the floor of the training room.
“You got lucky,” he insisted, smirking up at her. Allison just scoffed and held a hand out to him. Kris grasped it gratefully, allowing Allison to pull him up.
“Whatever makes you feel better,” Allison cooed at him once he was up. Kris laughed and swiped lazily at her head. She dodged backwards and grinned before turning to Adam and beaming at him.
“You want a go Adam?”
Kris and Adam looked at Allison with wide eyes.
“What?” they asked together. Allison grinned wider, nodding.
“Yeah, why not? Kris, we were training him before all this happened, even if Adam can’t remember. We should continue that if we want to keep him in shape. And, as much as I hate it, the anklet will keep him from being able to do any real harm, so he won’t be able to leave. So why not?”
Kris stared at Allison hard for a second before looking at Adam, who was staring at them incredulously. Adam met his gaze and narrowed his eyes.
“You’re insane,” he hissed, backing into the wall. Kris sighed and looked at Allison, who looked back stubbornly.
“If you can get him to agree, then fine,” Kris said, looking away. Allison had managed to worm her way into Adam’s good graces over the past few days, but not much. He certainly liked her more than anyone else on the estate.
Not that Kris was jealous of this. Of course not, why would he be? Kris made a face as Allison walked over to Adam, pouting expression already on her face. Adam stared at her blankly as she talked, but Kris could see that Adam would cave soon enough. His blank expression was already crumbling a bit.
Kris sighed and moved to the other side of the room to give them some semblance of privacy. It still hurt that Adam regarded him so hatefully. He understood that Adam had been brain jacked into believing that Kris was the bad guy, but he wouldn’t even give him a chance. It was like they had switched the entirety of Adam’s personality as well, not just his memories and emotions.
Even the first time around Adam had still give him a chance, even when he thought Kris was a total asshole. Now though he would barely even consider the idea of doing so.
“He said okay!” Allison cheered, popping up behind him. Kris jumped a bit, not noticing that she was coming up behind him while he was zoning out. Allison bit her lip to hold in a laugh at Kris’ reaction, gesturing behind her.
“We’re just going to go over the basics for now, try to see how much he can remember, despite the fact that he can’t actually remember anything of his training. Hopefully his body does though, even if his mind doesn’t,” Allison said optimistically.
Kris nodded and followed her back over to Adam, who was looking at him warily. Kris stopped in the middle of the room and gestured for Adam to come stand in front of him. Adam did so slowly, making sure to keep his eyes on Kris the whole time.
“So since you can’t remember your training, I’m assuming that means you don’t know that you have spirit energy, or how to use it, correct?” Kris asked to start. Adam’s wide eyed look was all the answer he needed. Kris nodded and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Okay then, first things first; you need to be able to tap into your spirit energy. So I want you to close your eyes, and concentrate.”
Adam glared at him suspiciously. “How do I know you won’t do anything when my eyes are closed?” Kris quirked a brow and gave him an unimpressed look. Adam scowled but complied, closing his eyes. Kris grinned a bit before continuing.
“You need to relax your body and focus, block out everything else and don’t let yourself be distracted. When you block everything else out, focus inwards, and you should be able to sense it, feel it inside of you. It might take you a few minutes, so don’t worry. You described it once as a light warmth that coiled through your body, almost like another entity waiting to be used and molded to your desires. So focus on that.”
Kris fell silent, stepping back a bit. He and Allison watched as Adam stood there, eyes closed, body relaxed and open. Various expressions flitted across Adam’s face as he searched inwardly for his spirit energy and Kris watched them with fascination.
He hadn’t been there the first time Adam had found his spirit energy, so this was new to him. Adam had, however, described the experience to him later when they became friends. Even though barely two minutes had passed though, Kris could feel Adam’s frustration from ten feet away. And if he wasn’t relaxing, then he wouldn’t find it.
‘Well, I could help him along,’ Kris thought. He thought of the method that his own teacher had used to help him find his own spirit energy. It was a rather unorthodox technique, and it had nearly killed him, but since Adam had already found it once, not that he could remember, it should be fine.
He gathered his spirit energy slowly, focusing it on Adam. He felt Allison glance at him, surprise and wariness emanating from her. Kris looked at her and shot her a reassuring smile, asking silently for her to trust him. Allison eyed him, body tense, but she nodded. Kris nodded back and he went back to what he was doing.
He licked his lips and gently sent his spirit energy forward in a light pulse, attacking Adam’s. Adam jerked lightly, face scrunching and Kris did it again, wanting to get a reaction. He did that time, and Adam’s spirit energy flared out, enveloping him and pushing back at Kris.
Kris pulled back as Adam opened his eyes, expression shocked. Adam looked at his hands, which were glowing faintly before looking up at the smirking Kris and Allison.
“I-I… how is this possible?” he asked desperately. Kris and Allison looked at each other and both decided that it was best not to tell him the truth about his ancestry just yet.
“Adam, all humans have spirit energy, some just have more than others, and you happen to be one of the few who have enough to be able to use it.” Kris explained.
Adam nodded and looked down at his hands in wonderment. Kris smiled softly as he watched.
“You ready to move on?” he asked. Adam looked up eagerly and nodded, forgetting momentarily just who it was he was speaking to.
“Okay, now that you have access to your spirit energy, we’re going to teach you how to sense others. It’s a bit difficult, but since you’ve done it before it should just be like getting back up on a bike.” Kris explained, before going on to explain just how he gathered his senses and spread them out.
“When you do this, you should be able to tell if someone is human, demon, how strong or powerful they are, etc. It’s pretty useful.”
“Sounds like it,” Adam muttered as he concentrated on spreading his senses out. A knock on the door interrupted though, and the three of them turned towards the door.
“Come in!” Allison called out. A second later the door opened to reveal Ryan standing there.
“Hey guys, the Council want to see you now,” Ryan stated.
“We’ll be there in a minute,” Kris said before looking back at Adam and continuing, “We can finish this up later, okay?” Adam nodded. Kris grinned and started towards the door, Allison falling beside him while Adam trailed silently behind.
“Do you think they finally found something?” Kris asked lightly. Allison shrugged her shoulders, cracking her neck as they walked.
“I don’t know. It’s a bit earlier than I expected if they did find something, so maybe?”
Kris hummed and a minute later they stopped in front of the doors to the Council’s room. Kris pushed them open and the three of them stepped inside. Danny and Matt were already in there, which was surprising to Kris as he hadn’t seen the duo in just over a month. Since the two of them had picked up the slack of Kris and Allison not being able to take jobs they were constantly gone.
Kris and Allison glanced at each other, both silently thinking that the Council must have found something to bring in all four of them.
Kris and Allison moved to stand beside the duo, Adam standing off to the side awkwardly.
“Now that you’re all here, we have a new mission for all four of you,” Paula said, her hands clasped together on the table in front of her. Kris and Allison glanced at each other before looking back at Paula.
“The four of us?” Danny asked, eyes narrowed. Paula shot him a look.
“Yes, Danny, the four of you. Though let me re-phrase that – it’s not a new mission so much as a continuation of an old one. And hopefully we can finally close that case with this mission.”
Kris grinned, excitement welling up inside as Paula continued.
“Allison and Kris brought us a new lead in the Nocere case and we believe that we’ve located the remaining members of the slave ring.”
Paula waved her wrist lightly and the wall to the left lit up. The four of them turned their attention to it, the humming of a projector filling the room as the lights dimmed. A picture appeared on the lit up wall of an elaborate compound.
“We believe that they are staying here, a compound in northern Washington, near the border.”
A click and then the picture changed again. On the screen was a picture of a large man, a tiger demon most likely by the looks of the striped fur, tail and ears. He was looking up at the sky, staring at something that couldn’t be seen from the photo. He was standing outside of a dark building, the sun setting somewhere off to the distance.
“From the evidence that we were able to gather over the past two days, we can determine two of the people inside. This is Daemonius, a notorious criminal in demon world. We had word that he had crossed over a few years ago but nothing concrete.”
Another click and a second picture appeared. It was of a stunningly tall, lithe man that looked like he would snap in half in a strong wind. He had waist length jet black hair and icy blue eyes that showed no emotion. He was staring straight into the camera with no expression on his face, a cold giant.
“This man is Aswel, a mind manipulator of the highest caliber. He has no loyalty to anyone and will work for whoever pays him the highest amount for his services. We had him in custody ten years ago but he managed to escape and he’s been in the wind since.”
Kris zeroed in on the term ‘mind manipulator’ instantly. “Mind manipulator? Like what was done to Adam? Could he have done it?” Kris fired the questions off rapidly, turning his gaze from Aswel’s picture to Paula instead.
Paula gazed at him calmly and nodded her head. “Yes, like what happened to Adam. He has strong psychic abilities that make him a formidable opponent. It is possible that he was the one who manipulated Adam’s memories. If he is, then the only way to fix it would be to get him to reverse the process, or kill him. But there’s no guarantee that killing him will work, as it could just make the change permanent.”
Kris nodded absently, gaze already turned back to the picture of Aswel. “He’s mine,” he said, eyes narrowed.
“Kris,” Paula started, voice exasperated, but Kris cut her off with a glare.
“No! If he’s in there and he’s responsible for what happened to Adam he’s mine.”
They stared at each other in a tense silence before Paula sighed and nodded slowly. “Fine, but remember that you’ll need him alive if you want to reverse what’s happened to Adam, okay?”
Kris scowled but nodded. Beside him, Danny spluttered indignantly at the exchange, looking at them incredulously.
“Wait, what? You can’t just… just call someone! What the hell?”
Kris rolled his eyes. “Oh just shut up Danny,” he said.
“Shut u- no! Seriously, who do you think you are? Remember who’s the spirit detective here!”
“Danny!” Paula cut in, glaring at the human. Danny turned to her, eyes wide.
“But Pau-!”
“No! This discussion is over Danny! Kris will focus on capturing Aswel and you, Matt and Allison can focus on Daemonius and whoever else is in there. At least two other energy signatures were felt, but we can’t be positive. We’ll assign you guys back-up if you need it, but they will wait outside of the compound unless you guys give the signal.”
The four of them nodded and Paula waved her hand again. The projector shut off and the lights came on, leaving them blinking rapidly as their eyes adjusted to the light level again.
“Do you guys have any questions?” Paula asked. Danny, Matt and Kris shook their heads.
“When do we leave?” Allison asked, tilting her head to the side curiously. Paula smiled at her.
“As soon as you can. So if you guys need to get or do anything, do it now and then meet back here. We’ll set a portal up for you guys that will drop you about three miles out from the compound where you’ll meet up with your back-up. From there you guys will make your way to the compound and then proceed inside. From there do your best to capture the remaining members alive, but if you can’t, terminate them, understood?”
The four of them nodded before Kris and Allison turned to leave. Kris waved Adam over and the three of them left, leaving Danny and Matt waiting back in the room for them.
“I need to call Katy and tell her I might not be back tonight,” Kris said, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.
“I need to collect a few things from the garden. I figure now would be the perfect time to test out the new poison I recently acquired,” Allison said, bouncing excitedly as they walked. Kris grinned in amusement before looking over his shoulder at Adam.
“We’ll all likely be gone until tomorrow, so you should probably stay in your room until we return, or you can hang out in the entertainment room until then. Either way I’ll probably have Monte watch over you until we return, okay?”
Adam scowled but nodded, knowing he didn’t really have a choice. Kris sighed and turned back to his phone, pressing speed dial number 1. He held the phone up to his ear and listened to it ring. Allison jerked her head silently to the left as they reached the entrance to the garden and Kris nodded.
Allison broke off from them and Kris continued on down the hall, Adam following him silently as Katy picked up on the other side.
“What’s up Krissy?”
Kris scowled. “Don’t call me that.”
Katy laughed on the other end and Kris heard something rustling in the background. “Working on a case?” he asked lightly. Katy hummed absently on the other end.
“Yeah, simple retrieval case. A siren had some heirloom jacked by a rival family. I figure I’ll probably bring our hunky werewolf friend in the police department in on this one though, since you’ve been busy and I get the feeling you’re about to tell me you won’t be back anytime soon.”
Kris laughed lightly and stopped outside of a room. He motioned for Adam to go on in front of him while he finished up the call outside. Adam complied silently, shooting him a dark look as he passed that Kris ignored.
“You would be right. We’ve got a lead on the last members of that slave ring from the Nocere case. We’re heading up there today and hopefully this time tomorrow the case will be wrapped up for good.”
“Well that’s good then. Maybe then I can get my crime-fighting bestie back and we can go back to kicking fae ass.”
Kris laughed again and leaned back against the wall. “Maybe, fingers crossed. I need to go now, I need to get someone else to look after Adam until tomorrow and then I need to go back and meet up with Allison.”
Katy sighed dramatically on the other end. “Fine, go and kick some demon ass and get your man back, yeah?”
Kris grinned. “Yeah. Later Katy,” he said, ending the call. He pushed his phone into his pocket before turning around and opening the door that lead to a make-shift infirmary. Monte looked up from his desk, pushed off to the side of the room away from everything else.
“Hey Kris, haven’t seen you in a while,” Monte said, standing up with a grin. Kris grinned back and moved to clasp the older male in a hug.
“Yeah, sorry about that, been busy. How ya been?” he asked, pulling back and looking around before spotting Adam sitting on one of the beds against the opposite wall.
“Not too bad, it’s been a bit boring actually, with the lack of injuries. Not that I’m complaining, mind,” Monte said, winking at him. Kris laughed and nodded.
“I bet. Hey, can you do me a favor?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck. Monte shrugged and sat back down in his chair, leaning back and crossing his arms across his chest.
“Depends on the favor,” Monte said casually. Kris nodded, expecting that.
“Can you look after Adam while I’m gone? You don’t have to watch him constantly, but just like, check up on him occasionally? Hopefully we’ll be back tomorrow, but that depends on how well this mission goes.”
Monte tilted his head to the side and looked over at Adam, studying him. Adam glared back and crossed his arms over his chest nervously under the scrutiny. Monte smirked before looking back at Kris.
“This is the human that was, what was the term Allison used? Brain jacked?” Kris nodded and Monte hummed.
“Yeah, I could do that. You owe me though,” Monte grinned up at Kris, who grinned back.
“Of course. Thanks man, didn’t want him to not have some sort of supervision while I was away, even with the anklet,” Kris gestured to Adam’s leg vaguely. Monte’s eyebrows raised a bit at that but he nodded.
“Understandable. I take it you guys are leaving soon then?”
“Yeah, as soon as Ally finishes collecting her poisons.” Monte nodded.
“Cool. So I’ll see you later then?” Kris nodded and rubbed the back of his neck again.
“Yeah, I’m gonna go meet up with her now. Thanks again man, ‘ppreciate it.”
Monte just waved his hand. “No problem. I’ll look after you’re human for you. Now get out of here, I got work to do.” Kris chuckled and ignored the indignant yelp Adam let out at being referred to as Kris’ human.
“Great, later man. I’ll leave you here Adam; I’ll be back later, okay?” Adam nodded and Kris smiled at him before leaving the room, closing the door softly behind him.
He walked down the hallway, turning right at the intersection and almost running into Allison as he did so.
“Whoa!” Allison threw her hands up as Kris barely avoided running into her.
“Hey,” Allison grinned, putting her hands down and backing up a bit. Kris grinned at her, shooting her an apologetic look as he did so.
“Hey, got everything you need?” she nodded and Kris rubbed his hands together.
“Great. Let’s go kick some ass, yeah?” Allison beamed and threw an arm around him, Kris wrapping one around her in return.
“Hell yeah! Time to kick some demon ass!”
ミ★
“This one has the least security that we’ve seen so far, so this is our safest bet,” he continued, pointing out a location on the opposite side of the compound from them.
Kris, Allison, Danny and Matt had left Simon’s estate four hours ago, taking a portal to Washington where they met with their back-up. They had then proceeded to trek the three miles of wilderness between them and the compound. It had taken them longer than it normally would because of the number of people and all the equipment they seemed to be carrying.
That had still only taken about an hour though, and the past three had been spent just sitting around and talking while they waited until a more opportune time to go in. Which was going to be in about half an hour or so when the sun would be going down.
“You four will have to circle around to get to it, but that shouldn’t take too long. Once you get inside though, we can’t help you, we have no eyes or ears in there so you’ll be on your own until you guys call for back-up,” David added.
“You mean if we call for back-up,” Danny sneered. David smiled politely at the spirit detective.
“Right, of course.”
Kris and Allison rolled their eyes.
“Could you be more obnoxious Danny?” Kris asked sarcastically. Danny shot him a glare and Kris gave him an unimpressed look in return.
Danny opened his mouth to argue but Kris held a hand out, shaking his head.
“We don’t have time for this right now. We should go ahead and move into position now, and then when the sun sets we can head inside, okay?”
“Sounds good to me!” Matt said cheerfully. Danny smacked him in the back of the head and Matt yelped, grabbing at the abused area and turning a betrayed frown on Danny.
“What was that for man?” he asked. Danny shook his head and shot him a look that implied he thought Matt was an idiot.
“Idiot,” he said a second later. Kris rolled his eyes and shot an apologetic look at David, who had been watching the exchange in fascination.
“I’m sorry my colleagues are such dumbasses. Thank you for everything,” Kris said sincerely. David nodded, shooting him a grateful smile.
“It’s no problem, call us if you need us,” he replied. Kris nodded and turned to Allison, jerking his head at the still bickering duo beside him.
“Come on, let’s go. You take tweedledee and I’ll get tweedledum.” Allison giggled at the nicknames but nodded. Kris reached out and grabbed Danny’s hand, sending a bit of compulsion through their linked hands. Danny immediately fell silent and turned to Kris with a dopey smile on his face.
“Come on,” Kris said, standing up from his crouching position and yanking the other up with him.
“Of course, anything for you,” Danny said breathlessly. Kris grinned and shot a wink at an amused David.
“Later guys,” he said, pulling Danny along behind him as they made their way to the other side of the compound. Allison was dragging a willing Matt with her, cheerfully chatting his ear off about something while Matt nodded back, listening attentively.
With Danny subdued and Matt distracted by Allison, they foursome made it to the other side of the compound in about five minutes. They crouched down behind the trees, watching the entrance that they would be using as soon as the sun set.
Kris released the compulsion on Danny as soon as they were settled, making the human blink dazedly before looking around. As soon as his eyes landed on Kris they widened before narrowing.
“You! You- did you just c-!” Danny started to shout, which would have revealed their location. Kris glared and held a hand up threateningly.
Danny fell silent, scowling at Kris and jerking away. “Don’t touch me. Keep your freaky incubus shit to yourself man,” Danny sputtered.
“Will you shut up then?” Kris hissed back, holding a finger up to his lips in the universal gesture for ‘shut the fuck up.’
Danny huffed but fell silent, though not before making it a point to move so that Allison and Matt were both between him and Kris. Kris rolled his eyes in exasperation. Allison was giggling softly beside him while Matt was grinning and poking fun at Danny as quietly as possible.
They sat there in silence for just under an hour, the air slowly cooling as the sun started to set. The sky started to darken, the light fading faster and faster until there was barely a sliver of light on the horizon. In front of them a guard came out of the entrance they were watching, another one following shortly after before they split up and started to patrol in different direction.
The four of them tensed, waiting for the two to be done. A light lit up outside the door, another one visible from underneath the door. Other lights on the edge of the perimeter lit up, bathing the courtyard in light and leaving no shadows to hide in. The two guards reappeared shortly after, talking to each other quietly before entering the door again.
They waited ten minutes, just to be safe. On a silent signal the four of them leapt up from their hiding spot, sprinting across the courtyard in a flash. Allison had pulled a seed from her hair as they sprinted, shooting it nimbly into the lock on the door. A second later vines erupted from the lock, disrupting it and making the door cave inwardly.
Matt yanked it off of its hinges, throwing it to the side as the four of them stepped inside. By a pre-determined agreement Kris and Allison split off to the right while Danny and Matt went left. The corridor split off again in front of them and Kris and Allison skidded to a stop in front of it before looking at each other.
“Rock, paper, scissors?” Kris asked lightly, holding his fist out.
“Duh,” Allison replied, holding her own out as well.
“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!” they yelled in unison, both of them throwing their hand out when they were done.
Kris held out paper while Allison held out scissors.
“Damn,” Kris muttered while Allison cheered.
“Which way then Ally?” Kris asked, relaxing his hand again. Allison immediately pointed to the right and they sprinted off in that direction. They were about half way down the corridor when a high pitched alarm started screeching above them. They both skidded to a complete stop, staring upwards in surprise before looking at each other with grins.
“Danny,” they both said.
“Damn, he lasted longer than I thought he would,” Kris laughed. Danny had a propensity for trouble and was terrible at stealth. Matt was even worse. But they worked well together, despite that minor drawback, so they were always partnered together when the four of them worked together. This of course meant that if they were doing any sort of stealth work, it certainly didn’t stay stealthy for very long.
“What’s the record again? Like, a minute?” Allison asked as they started to run again.
“Eh, something like that. I think it was actually forty five seconds but that’s close enough,” Kris replied, a wry grin on his face. A second after he said that a group of about fifteen guards rounded the corner, blocking the way. Allison immediately grinned, excited.
“I bet I can take out more than you,” she said, cracking her knuckles as they slowed to a stop about ten feet away. Kris scoffed at that, shooting her a challenging look.
“I bet you can’t,” he teased, narrowing his eyes playfully. Allison laughed.
“You’re on!”
They leapt forward a second later, Kris taking the guards on the left while Allison took the ones on the right. They put up a good fight, but they were low level grunts who relied more on numbers than actual strength. It took maybe five minutes for Kris and Allison to beat them.
“I got eight, hah!” Allison cried out happily as the last one dropped to the floor at her feet. Kris scowled from the other end of the pile of bodies, wiping a bit of stray blood off on one of their uniforms.
“And I got seven,” he said, shrugging before shooting Allison a wink. “But I’ll win next time Ally.”
“Whatever makes you feel better pretty boy,” Allison replied, stepping over the bodies between them until they were standing side by side. “Come on though, there’ll be more of them soon enough.”
They set off down the way the guards had come, figuring it would be there best chance to actually find someone or something. And they were right. They ran into two more groups of guards, both of them easily defeating them within minutes.
“Where are all these guys coming from?” Kris asked, panting a bit as he and Allison ran down another hallway.
“And how is this place so fucking big?! It does not look this big on the outside!” Allison yelled indignantly as they came across another intersection. Kris huffed and turned left, Allison following him silently. They had given up a few intersections back on trying to figure out which path would get them farther inside. Instead they just resorted to choosing one at random.
“Next time we run across some guards, I say we keep one alive and conscious so they can guide us around. This place is just fucking ridiculous,” Allison continued. Kris nodded, making a face.
“Agreed.”
They ran around another corner, expecting to find another long corridor, but instead found a large, open room, with a person standing in the middle and looking at them. Allison and Kris skidded to a stop, both of them immediately tensing up, bodies crouching a bit in preparation. They could feel the person’s spirit energy from where they were standing, and this guy was levels above the low paid henchmen they had run across so far.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the spirit detectives. How may I help you?” the person spoke condescendingly. Their purple eyes were narrowed hatefully at them as they spoke, body language shouting aggression and a desire to fight.
“You can start with your name,” Kris said evenly, watching them warily. The man smirked and bowed theatrically, one hand over their heart and the other tipping from their head, as if holding a hat.
“Odio, at your service,” he said, voice implying he would like anything but to be at their service. Kris nodded, staring at him consideringly.
“And I suppose you won’t just let us pass without a fight, right?” Odio grinned and shook his head. Kris sighed. Of course not.
“I got him Kris. You save yourself for that other guy,” Allison said, stepping forward. Odio laughed at this, eyeing Allison arrogantly.
“You? Take me on? You’re out of your league little girl,” he spat out. Allison just grinned and bounced a bit like she always did.
“Oh, I don’t know, I think I could take ya,” she said, sliding forward silently and moving to the right. Odio moved to the left, keeping his eyes on her as he scoffed in disbelief.
“You’re a century too young to be able to take me on, little fox.”
Allison just grinned and put her hand in her hair, pulling something out and holding it between her fingers. Odio started to laugh, looking far too amused.
“A rose and a seed? What are you going to do with a them?” he asked condescendingly. Allison just grinned, flipping the seed up in the air lightly with her left hand while she held the rose in her right.
“I’m just going to show you a trick a friend of mine showed me a little while ago. I’ve been dying to try it out,” she said, grinning. Kris grinned as well, remembering when Allison had been visited by a red-haired kitsune from Japan. Kris was sure that by the end of the visit Allison was going to chain the poor guy up and keep him in her room, but thankfully she hadn’t.
Kris hadn’t been there the whole time, too busy with a case for the local Fae government, but he remembered the few training sessions he had managed to sit on between the two. This had been one of the things that he remembered the guy, Kurama, showing her. Odio didn’t stand a chance.
Allison channeled her energy into the rose, and a second later she held a long, green, thorn covered whip in her hand. Odio scoffed, eyeing the whip distastefully.
“A whip? What good will that do you?” Allison said nothing, choosing to instead flick her wrist forward, causing the whip to shoot out and slash past Odio’s cheek. Allison drew the whip back and a second later a line of red bloomed across Odio’s cheek. Odio hissed and grabbed at it, glaring hatefully at Allison.
“Bitch!” he spat, leaping forward. Allison deftly avoided his wild swing, flicking her wrist forward and wrapping the whip around Odio’s neck. She pulled hard, making him fly backward and land on his ass. Odio gasped for breath as Allison drew the whip back, running a hand through her hair as she did so.
Odio got to his feet quickly enough, but before Allison could hit him again he disappeared. Allison looked around for him wildly before she was hit from behind. She cried out in pain and went flying forward, slamming face first into the ground.
Kris gritted his teeth, wanting to step in but knowing Allison wouldn’t forgive him. Odio appeared behind Allison, gripping her by the hair and yanking her upwards by the long, bright red locks. Allison groaned and Odio grinned before using her hair to swing her around and throw her in the air. As she fell Odio spun around and kicked her, making her fly into the opposite wall before crumpling to the ground.
Odio stalked forward as Allison struggled to get up, blood flowing from a gash on her forehead and obscuring her vision.
“Had enough, little fox?” Odio asked, smirking. Allison glared up at him weakly and spat blood at him. It landed on his cheek, whipping the smirk from his face. Kris had to stifle a grin at that.
Odio growled and reached forward, gripping Allison by the neck and yanking her up before slamming her against the wall, holding her there. Allison’s hands came up and scratched at his chest before landing on his wrists. Her nails dug into his skin, bloody gouges appearing on Odio’s wrist. Odio just laughed, leaning forward and staring into her eyes.
“What’s the matter girl? Cat got your tongue?” Odio laughed maliciously. Allison only glared hatefully at him before smirking, a choked laugh escaping her. Odio narrowed his eyes suspiciously, shaking her a bit.
“What’s so funny?” he demanded. Allison just laughed again, coughing a bit before staring him in the eyes, amused.
“You don’t even notice, do you?” she asked, voice whisper quiet from the grip Odio had on her throat. Odio scowled.
“Noticed what?” Allison laughed again and shook her head as best as she was able to.
“You’re already dead,” she whispered, before channeling her spirit energy into Odio’s body. Odio tensed, eyes wide, before his body started to convulse. His grip on Allison weakened and Allison slid free, collapsing to her knees at Odio’s feet. She looked up at him as his body tensed up again before falling to the floor, eyes wide and blank.
Flowers started to sprout from his body, the rich colors stained with blood. Allison inhaled deeply, her hands coming up to massage her throat as Kris ran over to her before he dropped to his knees beside her.
“Are you okay?” he asked, concern. Allison grinned up at him and gave him a thumbs up. Kris nodded and helped her to her feet.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said, holding an arm around her to steady her. Allison nodded and they limped away from Odio’s body. Allison recovered as they walked, moving a bit faster and no longer requiring Kris’ help. She kept an arm wrapped around her stomach protectively though, and Kris hoped she didn’t break her ribs.
“How many more do you suppose are left?” Kris asked as they walked, glancing into the occasional room they passed and finding nothing. Allison shrugged, running her free hand through her hair.
“Who knows. It’s probably safe to assume that Danny’s gotten at least one, and we got one, and then there are however many guards we’ve all taken out. Who knows how many of them are left though. It’s probably safe to assume that Daemonius is left, he’ll probably be at the center of this maze somewhere.”
Kris hummed as they turned another corner, another long hallway stretched out in front of them. “As long as Aswel is left, I don’t care.” Allison nodded in agreement, knowing how much Kris wanted to bring that particular demon in, for Adam’s sake.
They had just passed the half way mark when they both heard the sound of gears turning. They stopped and looked at each other in confusion.
“What the hell is tha- Kris!” Allison yelled in alarm as the floor beneath Kris suddenly opened up, the incubus dropping straight down.
Kris’ eyes widened in alarm as he felt the floor give beneath him. His hands flew out, but he fell too fast and they just hit the smooth concrete of the drop tunnel. Kris gasped, his feet kicking out to try to slow his descent, hands scrambling uselessly at the walls of the shoot.
It was over quickly though, and he landed with a loud thud on the floor of an underground room. Kris gasped in pain, body immediately curling over on his side as he hugged his body.
“Well, well, look who decided to drop in. The incubus that human boy was so obsessed with.” A silky voice drawled. Kris’ eyes widened and he sat up quickly, eyes scanning the room until they landed on the only other person in the room.
Kris’ eyes narrowed. “Aswel,” he bit out. Aswel grinned mockingly at him.
“Kristopher,” he replied, lips curving.
Kris stood up slowly, eyes never leaving Aswels figure. Aswel stayed where he was, grinning at Kris. Kris swallowed and moved closer, circling to the left. Aswel moved with him, circling to his left as well.
“I’m going to take you in Aswel, and make you reverse what you did to Adam.” Kris said, voice defiant. Aswel laughed at that, not unkindly.
“Are you now? I’d love to see you try incubus.”
Kris growled and leapt directly at Aswel, slamming into the man’s middle section. They went down in a tangle of limbs, Kris grabbing and pulling at Aswel’s body, trying to pin him down. Aswel was like an eel though, and he slipped from Kris’ grasp, pinning him instead.
Kris struggled, grunting violently as Aswel held his arms behind his back, his chest pinned to the floor.
“How is the little human, hmm? Tell me, how much does he despise you now?” Aswel taunted, whispering in Kris’ ear. Kris growled and jerked again, helpless in Aswel’s grasp. The demon laughed, enjoying watching Kris struggle.
“You know, I could help. Take away all those pesky emotions, make it so that Adam is just another stranger to you. You wouldn’t have to hurt anymore. It could all go away,” Aswel whispered hypnotically. Kris snarled, turning his head as far back as he was able to glare at Aswel.
“Blow me,” he spat. Aswel tsk-ed disappointedly.
“My, my, such language from one so young. Whatever would your parents think?” his face twisted into a mask of concern.
“Leave my family out of this!” Kris roared, finally able to get the leverage to push up and pull from Aswel’s grasp. He turned around quickly and swung out, catching Aswel in the cheek. Aswel stumbled back in surprise, giving Kris enough time to kick a leg out, catching Aswel in the stomach.
Aswel went flying backwards, landing on the ground a few feet away with a grunt. Kris stood up fully and stalked forward, reaching down and sliding the knife he always carried with him free from its sheath in his boots.
He twirled it in the air before letting it fly, the knife burying itself in Aswel’s shoulder. Aswel cried out in pain, gripping the handle before pulling it out, his blood staining the steel. He snarled and threw the knife down, standing fully and towering over Kris’ tiny frame.
“You will pay for that,” he whispered, eyes flashing dangerously. Kris just grinned, shaking his head.
“No, I really won’t. You see, I’ve accepted the fact that I’ll likely never be as strong as most of the demons we come up against, so therefore, I don’t play by the rules,” he said, lips curving into a smirk. Aswel blinked, eyes narrowing in confusion. He must have felt the effects of the substance coating his blade starting, as he growled a second later, glaring at Kris.
“Poison?” he spat.
Kris shook his head, grinning as he continued “My knife is coated with an extra-strength paralytic that my fox friend cooked up for me. It should be circulating though your system. As soon as it takes effect, I’ll call Spirit World and have them hook up a portal and bring you in so that you can reverse whatever you did to Adam. So I need you alive, I wouldn’t bother killing you. Yet at least.”
“I see,” Aswel whispered, looking far too intrigued. Kris narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
“You know,” Aswel spoke, sounding conversational as he continued, “I’ve been getting bored with life recently. Living for a few centuries does that to a person. I’ve been thinking that after this little venture was over, I’d start on the next, big adventure.” Here he smirked, and Kris’ eyes widened at the implications.
“Don’t you da-!”
But he was too late.
Aswel reached down, picked the fallen knife up off of the floor and plunged it into his heart.
“No!” Kris yelled, rushing forward. Aswel’s body tensed before relaxing, his eyes slipping shut as he fell to the floor. Kris caught his body, cradling it as he fell to his knees.
“No, no, no, dammit you bastard!” he muttered as he yanked the knife out of Aswel’s body. Blood spilled over his hand, running down and staining the concrete floor. Kris desperately tried to stem the flow, feeling for a heartbeat, but there was none.
Aswel was dead.
Kris closed his eyes, rage welling up.
“Dammit!”
He let Aswel’s body drop in disgust before standing up. He looked around for a way out, wanting to be as far away from the body as possible. He didn’t want to be reminded of his failure.
“Kris?! Kris are you okay?” Allison’s voice echoed through the room.
Kris turned around and looked up at the ceiling, the voice echoing downwards through the hole he had fallen through. Kris moved so he was standing beneath it, looking up.
“Yeah, I’m here! I’m fine; now get me out of here!” He called up. He heard her talking to someone and he sighed, looking back at Aswel’s dead body and grimacing.
“Hold on, we’ll get you out!” Allison called back. Kris sighed and sat down before leaning back on his hands.
Now all he could do was wait.
ミ★
They had called in David and his team at the end to help them sweep the compound and get rid of the remaining guards. It had taken them an extra hour to get Kris out of the basement room, because apparently they were all incompetent idiots who couldn’t figure out how to use a rope, since the other entrance to the room was apparently hidden and no one could find it.
Spirit World had come in and taken Ignis, as well as the guards who were still alive into custody. The next few hours were then spent sweeping the compound again, but this time for information and anything else useful, not people. And of course they also needed to debrief everyone who was involved on the mission, which took another couple of hours.
By the time everything was over and done with and the Nocere case was officially closed, it was well into the next day. Kris was tired and exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to collapse onto his bed and sleep for the next twenty four hours.
However as soon as he stepped through the portal and into Simon’s estate, he remembered.
Adam.
His heart stopped and he cursed himself for forgetting.
“Kris? What’s wrong?” Allison asked as she stepped up next to him.
Kris turned to stare at her, eyes wide. “Adam,” he whispered, knowing he didn’t need to elaborate. Allison’s eyes widened as well and then a second later they were both sprinting through the estate towards Adam’s room.
“Adam!” Kris yelled, slamming into his room.
Monte looked up from his place at Adam’s bedside, eyes wide in surprise. Kris, meanwhile, stared at the scene in front of him in confusion.
Adam was lying still on his bed, Monte sitting beside him. Adam didn’t stir at Kris’ loud, dramatic entrance, continuing to lay there.
“What’s wrong with him?” Allison asked, breaking the tense silence between them. Monte shifted back so that Kris and Allison had a better view of Adam.
“Yesterday Adam just collapsed out of nowhere and hasn’t woken up since. His vital functions are normal and for all intents and purposes he’s simply sleeping. I can’t find anything wrong with him. All we can do is wait until he wakes up,” Monte explained.
Kris swallowed and clenched his fists before turning on his heel and leaving the room. Allison looked between Adam’s still form and the door before shooting an apologetic look at Monte and following Kris.
“Kris, wait!” She yelled, running to catch up to him. Kris slowed down a bit, letting Allison fall into step with him before he resumed his previous pace.
“Kris,” Allison whispered sympathetically. She reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it comfortingly.
“He’ll be okay Kris, you’ll see.” Kris said nothing, jaw clenched tightly, and Allison sighed.
“Kris, this isn’t your fault,” she continued. Kris jerked to a stop and turned to look at her, eyes flashing.
“Isn’t it though? I couldn’t bring that bastard in, and then he goes and kills himself just to screw me over!” Kris yelled. Allison frowned and gripped Kris’ hand harder.
“It isn’t your fault,” she repeated sternly. “You had no way of knowing what would happen. You did what you could,” she continued.
Kris looked away from her, unconvinced. “What if he wakes up and nothing’s changed? Or he can’t remember anything at all? Huh? What then?” Kris asked.
“If that happens,” Allison said, speaking slowly, “then we’ll deal with it then. We’ll help him.”
Kris sighed and looked back at her, eyes dim. “I hope you’re right Allison, I really do.” Allison bit her lip before drawing him into a hug, rubbing soothing circles on his back.
“Me too,” she whispered. “Me too.”
ミ★
‘What happened…?’
He closed his eyes, trying to remember, but his head was fuzzy. There were vague flashes of memory running through his head, trying to fight for dominance. He groaned, squeezing his eyes shut while trying not to move too much. Movement hurt.
He breathed in and out deeply, trying to calm his suddenly racing heart.
‘It’s okay Adam, you’re okay, it can’t be too bad,’ he thought, desperately trying to put his memories into some semblance of order.
‘Okay, people always say start with what you remember last. Last thing I remember is the bar, waiting for Kris, and then…’
The demons!
He had been kidnapped…. again. Once he remembered that, the memories seemed to flood in, overwhelming him.
They had done something to his mind. Twisted it, manipulated him and his memories. He felt his stomach churn, nauseous.
‘Kris, oh god. And Ally.’
The memory of how he had treated them slammed into him. He had been cruel, more so to Kris than Ally, which made him feel worse. Especially with the way he felt about the short incubus.
“Adam…?”
Adam tilted his head to the side slowly to see Tommy standing framed in the doorway. Adam blinked in response, vocal cords unwilling to cooperate. Tommy inhaled sharply before turning around and bolting down the hallway.
Adam blinked again, this time in confusion. His silent question was answered a minute later though when Tommy, Monte and Kris ran through the doorway a second later. Monte hurried forward and stopped by Adam’s bedside, helping the weak human sit up before reaching forward and placing a hand on Adam’s neck over his pulse point.
“How do you feel Adam?” Monte asked, taking a pen light from his pocket and holding it up to Adam’s eyes.
Adam’s eyes crossed as he looked at the light, making Monte chuckle. “F-fine,” Adam managed to croak out. Tommy leapt forward and handed Adam a bottle of water. Adam vaguely wondered where he had gotten it from (he hadn’t seen Tommy holding it at all) but decided it wasn’t an important question.
He hadn’t realized before that moment how thirsty he was. Monte held the bottle up to his mouth as Adam drank gratefully, the cool liquid soothing his burning throat.
“Don’t drink it too fast now,” Monte warned. Adam rolled his eyes at that, gulping down an extra amount just to be spiteful. Monte snorted and pulled the water bottle back before handing it to Tommy.
“Better?” he questioned. Adam nodded, weakly raising a hand to his throat in response.
“Much,” he replied, licking his lips. Monte nodded before holding his hands out to Adam.
“May I?” he asked. Adam nodded, knowing what he wanted to do. Monte’s hand settled on either side of his head and it took everything he had to keep from flinching and lashing out at the older demon when he felt Monte’s spirit energy seep into him.
He settled instead for clenching his eyes shut and hoping that it wouldn’t take long. He didn’t know what exactly Monte was looking for, but he apparently found it soon enough. The examination lasted for maybe three minutes, but it was still longer than Adam would have liked.
Monte pulled back slowly, sensing Adam’s fear and not wanting to startle the human.
“Well, I can’t find anything wrong. You’re completely healthy,” Monte stated cheerfully. Adam nodded his head, not sure if he believed that. Something just felt off, but he couldn’t place what. But if Monte said he was healthy, then he was.
“We’ll go inform the others. The council will want to speak to you too,” Monte said as he stepped back from Adam’s bedside. Adam nodded, not really surprised by that. He looked down at his lap, hearing two sets of footsteps quickly leave the room, the door shutting behind them.
A tense silence filled the room after they left, almost palpable.
“You can come closer, you know,” Adam said. He looked up and saw Kris staring at him. Kris said nothing in response, though he did creep a bit closer, slowly, as if waiting for Adam to change his mind. He didn’t stop until he was standing right by Adam’s bed, only a few inches away.
“Adam…” Kris whispered. Adam’s lips quirked and he shrugged up at Kris, whose expression was weary.
“How’d you break it?” Adam asked to break the silence. Kris made a face, confused, so Adam clarified.
“Whatever mind-mojo that demon did to me. How’d you break it?” Kris’ mouth dropped open in surprise.
“Y-you remember?” Kris asked, incredulous. Adam nodded, grinning a little in amusement.
“Everything.”
Kris inhaled sharply at that. He stared at Adam, a light coming to his eyes that Adam hadn’t seen in a while. Adam’s smile softened around the edges and he reached out tentatively. He opened his mouth to speak, hand brushing lightly against Kris’ hip as he did, but he was interrupted as the door banged open.
“Adam!” Allison cried. Kris quickly moved to the side and Allison practically pounced. Her arms wound around Adam’s neck, dragging him into a bone-breaking hug.
“We were so worried! Don’t ever do that again!” Allison said, pulling back and trying to give Adam a stern glare. Adam laughed lightly and wrapped his arms around the red-haired ball of energy.
“I’m sorry Ally, I promise not to collapse next time the mind-voodoo placed on me is broken.”
“You better not,” Allison retorted before realizing what Adam had said. Her eyes widened and she beamed at him, bouncing in place.
“You remember?!” Adam nodded in response and Allison cheered, hugging him again.
Allison started to talk to him about all the things he missed, even the things he had been around for. Adam smiled and nodded along at the appropriate moments. Over her shoulder his eyes met Kris’. Kris shrugged and gave a wry grin in response. His eyes held a promise to continue their conversation later though, when they couldn’t be interrupted.
Adam nodded in response, silently relieved. Then he turned back to his conversation with Allison, putting the matter out of his mind for the moment.
ミ★
“Easy for you to say,” Adam muttered under his breath, trying to concentrate on the task at hand.
“What was that?” Kris asked, quirking a brow. Adam pressed his lips together and shook his head, eyes rising up to meet Kris’ momentarily.
“Nothing,” he said. Kris nodded and Adam closed his eyes, concentrating.
It had been a few days since he had woken up. The Council had questioned him extensively once they had gotten the news he was awake. It had taken a while to debrief him of everything that had happened and finish up all the paperwork for the Nocere case. It was now officially closed, everything taken care of, and Adam couldn’t be more relieved. He just wanted to put everything that had happened behind him.
The Council had offered to get him a psychiatrist to talk to, but Adam had refused. At the moment, he just wanted to forget about it all and move on. Maybe sometime in the future he’d want to talk to someone (assuming Allison and Kris didn’t make him talk to someone before that happened, of course). But not right now.
He was still a bit weak, physically, but Kris, Allison and Monte had come up with a training regimen that would help him with that. Today though they were working on his spirit energy. He hadn’t used it since that one attempt at training while he was still mind-jacked and Kris wanted to get him back to speed.
For some reason though, it was a lot harder to access his spirit energy than it had been before all this drama.
He gritted his teeth in frustration, embarrassment and anger welling up inside. “Dammit!” he yelled, feeling the tenuous grasp he had had on his spiritual energy fading away for the tenth time in the past hour.
“Adam, remember, you can’t force it,” Kris reminded him gently. Adam glared at him, teeth gnashing together.
“I just don’t understand why it’s suddenly so hard! I could do this just fine a few weeks ago!”
Kris shrugged, sighing and running a hand through his hair. “I don’t know Adam. Spiritual energy can be tricky, especially for beginners. Subconsciously you must not want to access it, or your emotions are getting in the way. Why don’t we try meditating for a while, see if that will help?”
Adam nodded, feeling defeated. He lowered himself to the floor, Kris mirroring the action opposite him. He crossed his legs before closing his eyes and settling his hands on his knees. He slowed his breathing and relaxed his muscles.
He could slowly feel the tension leaving his body as he relaxed, not really thinking about anything in particular. He could feel his heart thudding in his chest, slow and peaceful. He didn’t know how long he had been sitting there before he became aware of his spiritual energy, pulling just at the edge of his concentration. He ignored it though, not wanting it to disappear like it had before.
It slowly crept forward until he could pull at it cautiously. It didn’t try to slip away and Adam let out a soft exhalation of breath. He slowly manipulated it to his will, like Kris had taught him. He gathered it in his hands, pushing forward a bit so that it would rest on the tips of his fingers, visible to the naked eye.
He opened his eyes slowly and stared down at his hands, which were gently glowing. He beamed, proud, before slowly trying to push a bit more out so that he could form something physical. However as he did his spiritual energy suddenly overwhelmed him, rushing forward and pushing outwards violently.
Adam cried out in surprise, standing up and trying to cut it off and rein it in, but it wasn’t listening. It was going wild, lashing out violently at anything nearby, including him. He yelped as the violent energy struck at him, leaving burns across his body.
“Adam!” Kris cried out, staring at him wide eyed from behind a shield of spiritual energy. Adam gazed at him with wild eyes, terrified.
“Kris, help me!” he yelled, crying out again as a tendril of spiritual energy lashed across his cheek. Adam gritted his teeth and tried to calm down and pull the energy back in, but nothing he was doing was working.
Suddenly though Kris was in front of him, eyes glowing before he pressed his lips against Adam’s. Adam’s eye widened in surprise, his hands coming up and gripping at Kris’ hips on instinct. Kris’ eyes were open and staring into his, silently telling him to trust him.
Adam gulped, finally realizing what Kris was trying to do. He nodded before pushing forward and kissing Kris back, wrapping his arms around the smallers waist as he did. Kris hummed, wincing slightly as the tendrils of Adam’s spiritual energy lashed against him, as he had to drop his shield to do what he was about to do.
Kris’ tongue swiped across his bottom lip, begging entrance, which Adam granted without a second thought. Kris licked into his mouth, taking his time to map out Adam’s mouth while he could. Adam muffled a cry at a particularly bad lash across the back of his thighs.
This seemed to spur Kris into action, as a second later he was pulling back, mouth hovering over Adam’s. Adam froze in place as Kris slowly drained him. He could feel himself getting weaker, visible by the weakening of the tendrils of spiritual energy until they were gone.
Kris released him slowly and Adam slumped against him, weak. Kris cradled Adam’s body against his own before slowly lowering them both to the floor.
Adam inhaled, cheek pressed against Kris’ shoulder. “The hell was that?” he breathed out. Kris shook his head, confused.
“I don’t know. We’ll figure it out though,” Kris promised. He didn’t get a chance to say anything more as a second later Monte was bursting into the room, panting.
“What’s going on?” he asked, quickly making his way to Kris and Adam. Kris transferred Adam over to Monte’s capable hands, explaining what happened as quickly as possible. Monte stood up, Adam in his arms and made his way out of the room, Kris following along.
ミ★
“What was the problem, anyway? Why’d your spirit energy go all Jekyll and Hyde on you?” Adam made a face at that before sighing.
“Monte’s not really sure. He said it probably has something to do with my spirit energy being too closely tied to my emotions and then when that guy mind-jacked me it made it did something. And then breaking it so suddenly didn’t help either.”
“Will you be able to control it again?” Allison asked.
Adam shrugged, tilting his head back against the headboard. “He’s not sure. He thinks that, given time, I should be able to control it again. But he’s just not sure, as he hasn’t seen anything like this quite before. So he says that the only thing we can do is just give it time and see what happens.”
“That sucks bro,” Allison said sympathetically. Adam nodded in agreement.
“At least I won’t have to stop training, but I’ll be back to square one.” Allison smirked a bit at that, giving Adam a sly look.
“And you’ll be able to spend more time with Kris now too.”
Adam’s eyes widened and he started sputtering in shock which just made Allison laugh. He tried glaring at her but it only succeeded in making her laugh that much harder.
“Allison, that’s not that funny,” he deadpanned. She shook her head.
“No, but it really is. Seriously, you two are unbelievable. You’re into each other, it’s so obvious, so just do something ‘bout it already.” Adam groaned and threw his head back against his headboard, hissing at the sharp sting radiating through his head at the impact.
“It’s not that… simple,” he muttered. Allison snorted and tilted back in her chair while crossing her arms over her chest.
“Why not?”
Adam made a noise of frustration. “Because he’s an incubus and I’m just a human! An incubus isn’t meant to be monogamous Ally, you know that. They’re such sexual beings it would be damn near impossible for him to stay monogamous with a human. And I don’t like sharing. Just being in love with him isn’t going to do shit.”
Allison’s face dropped at that and she smiled sadly at him. “Oh Adam,” she whispered before crawling onto the bed and curling into his side. Adam wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer. He buried his face in her hair, her earthy scent enveloping him.
“You deserve to have a happy ending. I’m sure things will work out, you’ll see,” Allison whispered fervently. Adam laughed lightly at that and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“I hope so,” he muttered.
ミ★
Adam was in love with him?
Kris felt his heart constrict at the pain that had been in Adam’s voice as he had talked about Kris. What he said hadn’t really been a lie. Incubi and succubi weren’t monogamous by nature. They lived off of sexual energy and emotions and it was near impossible for them to be satisfied by one person alone.
Even his parents weren’t completely monogamous, which was normal. It was accepted and expected. It was why Kris hadn’t had a serious relationship yet. Humans wouldn’t be able to understand, and while demons might, the majority of the ones he encountered were criminals and scumbags. Another Fae would be the optimal choice, but unfortunately, he couldn’t stand any of the ones in the area enough to want to be in a steady relationship with them.
The thought of being with Adam was definitely appealing too. He cared deeply for the human, his actions over the past few weeks surely enough proof of that. But did he love him?
He wasn’t really sure.
Love wasn’t really an emotion he dealt with, at least, not in the romantic sense. Lust, definitely. Love? Not so much. It wasn’t something he ever thought that he would need. He’d certainly never wanted to be tied down by the emotion before. He figured he’d just go about life as a perpetual bachelor with the occasional fling thrown in here and there.
Adam’s revelation had thrown him. Would he be willing to give that up, to try to be in a relationship with someone, to live with that person and see them day after day?
He paused for a moment and imagined what it might be like, being in a relationship with Adam. Not having to think about who he might wake up to the next day, not worrying about his next meal all the time; waking up to see Adam’s stunning blue eyes gazing at him every morning. Being loved.
His heart clenched again and he made a decision. He pulled his phone out and hit speed dial 1. The person on the other end picked up almost immediately.
“Kris? Shouldn’t you be with Adam right about now?” Katy asked on the other end. Kris rolled his eyes.
“Yes, but I need your help with something.”
“You’re actually calling me for help with something? Willingly? I need to find a pen, I need to mark this day down on the calendar!”
“Really Katy?” Kris deadpanned. Katy laughed on the other end and Kris heard the sound of rustling papers before it fell silent.
“Sorry, sorry, what do you need?”
Kris grinned and mentally hoped he wouldn’t regret what he was about to say.
“How would you like to finally meet Allison?”
ミ★
Kris just shrugged and gestured to Katy, who was dancing in the middle of the room with Allison.
“I have connections,” he said, which Adam correctly interpreted as Katy had connections and used them. He nodded and settled back into the plush black sofa they were sitting on. They were in a private booth, and Kris had made sure that Katy and Allison would keep everyone away from them for the time being.
“I figured we should celebrate the ending of the Nocere case, you know? Not to mention, we never got a chance to finish the celebration for your first successful case either, so I decided why not?” Kris shrugged. Adam grinned a bit.
“That’s sweet of you Kris.” Kris just shrugged, waving the compliment off.
“Not completely, I had ulterior motives to do this too,” he said. Adam sent him a puzzled look.
“Like what?”
Kris gazed at him silently for a second before replying. “I overheard your conversation with Allison the other day.”
Adam paled at that, heart dropping into his stomach. “O-oh?” Kris nodded and Adam looked at the wall across the room, too embarrassed to look at Kris.
“So what, this is supposed to be a literal pity party? You reject me then hey, quick and easy access to a bar to go get shit-faced at.”
Kris snorted at that and shook his head. “No, nothing like that. Well, no, kind-of, but not the rejection part.”
Adam narrowed his eyes and looked over at Kris, noticing that he looked a bit uncomfortable as he shifted in place. “Then… what?”
Kris sighed and ran a hand through his hair before locking his eyes with Adam’s. “Look, I’m going to be blunt, okay? I care about you Adam, a lot. A hell of a lot more than I care about most people. It’s confusing and new and it drives me crazy sometimes. I won’t say that I love you, because honestly, I’m not sure I do, and I don’t want to lie to you about something like that, okay?”
Adam swallowed and nodded, throat suddenly dry. He wanted to interrupt, to ask just what the hell Kris was going to do if he didn’t love him, but Kris barreled on before he could speak.
“But I would be lying if I said I didn’t think I ever could. I thought about it, a lot. And the thought of being with you, in a relationship… I like it. It wouldn’t be easy though,” Kris warned, narrowing his eyes at Adam.
Adam’s eyes widened at that, heart thudding in his chest painfully. “Wait, are you saying that you want to-?”
“Be with you? Yeah, yeah I am,” Kris said, a light flush forming over his cheeks. Adam licked his lips, eyes flicking across Kris’ face.
“B-but you don’t do relationships, you told me that when I found out you were an incubus.” Kris remembered that conversation. Adam, after freaking out and talking with Allison, had demanded that Kris answer some questions. The question of relationships had been one of them, and Kris had indeed said that he didn’t do them.
“Yes, that’s true,” Kris admitted, nodding his head. He continued, “but that’s only because I’d never found someone who made me want to try. Incubi are perfectly capable of carrying out successful and loving relationships, but many just don’t try because no one ever seems worth it.”
Adam caught the implications in that statement and he could have sworn his heart skipped a beat. “But you think I’m worth it?” Kris just nodded, keeping his eyes locked on Adam’s.
“Yes, I do. If you’re willing to try, so am I. But like I said, it won’t be easy. I might break your heart.”
“Nothing worth it is ever easy Kris,” Adam replied. Kris smiled at him and Adam smiled back.
“So, we’re doing this?” Kris asked, just to make sure. Adam laughed and nodded.
“Yeah, yeah we are,” Adam breathed out.
“Good,” Kris grinned before leaning over and gently kissing him. Adam brought a hand up automatically, cradling the back of Kris’ head as he pressed back.
“Whoo, get it Adam!” someone yelled. Kris laughed a little into the kiss and Adam pulled back, laughing too. They looked over to see Katy and Allison cheering at them, everyone else grinning along. Adam laughed again before standing up and looking down at Kris.
“You coming?” he asked. Kris nodded before gesturing to the dance floor.
“Yeah, just give me a minute?” Adam nodded before leaning down and pressing a quick kiss to Kris’ lips.
“Hurry up, don’t leave me alone with them for too long,” Adam warned with a grin. Kris laughed and nodded before watching as Adam made his way to the two women. They both pounced on him as soon as he was close enough and Kris could practically feel their excitement from across the room.
He could only hope that he wouldn’t fuck this up in the end.
He grinned as he watched Adam be pulled into dancing with Katy and Allison, though he wasn’t complaining much. He felt affection course through him as Adam caught him gaze and narrowed his eyes at him before gesturing for him to come join them.
Kris watched them silently for a minute more, despite Adam’s invitation, glad that things had worked out. Relationships weren’t really something he was good at and his viewpoint on them was being flipped on its head. And it was all because of a single human. Things wouldn’t be quite the same for him ever again. It would be one hell of a ride though, he was sure.
He couldn’t wait.