Can Anybody Find Me?

Gavin stepped out of the bathroom and knew she had run from him. Lone had run away from whatever it was that they had between them, hoping that physical distance would offer her safety. He sighed and ran a hand through his damp hair, knowing that he shouldn't have pushed her like he had. A Guardian Angel like him was supposed to be the master of a situation, not the other way around. And yet every time he got close to her... she seemed to bring out the primal worst in him. The part that just wanted to take and touch, make her his so no one else could harm her. And he knew, KNEW that if he ever tried something like that, she would run from him and never return.

He pulled on clothes in an angry rush, not really thinking about what he was going to do now. He stormed around the hotel room, trying to resist the urge to go after her when he spotted that his cell phone was flashing at him. He frowned and opened it, realizing there was a text waiting for him.

Got news on your goon. Come to Church? -Roy

The Gargoyle, of course. Gavin had texted the creature asking about what Descended were in the area usually. Neutrals like Roy would often keep track of players from both sides, just to see how serious a situation was. In a city like this, there would be near a hundred Descended easily, and likely more during special occasions. It was the Ascended whom almost never stayed around. Their law required that they interfere as little as possible with the free will of the people. They could offer guidance and abstract assistance, but rarely if ever directly intervened. True, Guardians were allowed to act as he had, because there were times that they had to act despite the consequences. But generally if one of the Ascended felt they needed to be a part of the human world, they would petition the Seraphim and the lucky few would be granted 'physical time'. Gavin's situation was one of the few exceptions allowed, where his physical time here was not restricted by a time limit, and he could stay as long as required for him to do his mission.

The Neutrals were either humans who had been affected or infected by Ascended or Descended, and given a greater part to play in the war between the two. Some of these creatures were lesser denizens from their incorporeal planes that had escaped into the physical world to exist. Roy was a lesser being from the Descended plane, thus his restricted form during sunlight hours. He was one of the few that was willing to talk about the experience and even then he refused to discuss certain aspects of it. He had been a stock soldier they had bred to throw at the gates of the Ascended to wear down the defences. Expendable and unimportant Roy had decided that he would rather live than die needlessly. So he had paid a price of flesh and blood and ended up in this city, bound to one of the Gothic Churches. He could roam the city at will during the twilight hours, but when hte  sun touched his flesh, he would be jolted back to the eaves of his church and stand as a statue. In fact he used that curse to his advantage sometimes, knowing that no matter where he was, all it took was dawn for him to return home.

But Gavin needed a distraction now, and with the sun high in hte sky, Roy would be indisposed of for hours yet. But he now had that creature Lone had stumbled across this morning on his mind. With a frown, Gavin grabbed his coat and headed out, determined to try and unravel what it was that had hunted them down. How had it gotten so close to them without him feeling it? How had Lone known what it was? And how had she disguised them from it? He'd asked these questions of Gabriel, but they needed a more complete description of the creature, and only Lone had seen it.

Gavin slammed the truck into park, jumping out and moving through traffic without pause. Cars blared their horns at him and people cursed his way, but he ignored them and stepped into the alleyways near Lone's apartment. He searched over the maze of interconnecting allys until he found one that was vaguely recognizable. Looking at the area with human eyes gave him nothing, so lowering just a little of his disguise, he looked again, this time with something a little more powerful glowing in his gaze.

There, faded, angry footsteps scarred the ground. Something had walked this way, soemthing that the very ground repudated. It was wholly tainted and evil, dripping decomposition and decay in its wake. The Guardian Angel saw where the steps ended, at the mouth of the alley, leading out into the street behind him. Too many bright lights of human passage washed the trail leading away, so the Guardian turned back to the faintly luminescent marks and traced them backwards to where Elonore had encountered them. It had stood, waiting there for her to come to it, its foul essence had sunk into the very rocks, leaving behind a taint of rot that only a being that could call upon more than physical senses could detect.

The Angel walked forward and knelt down, pressing a frail human hand to the ground. The spirit within the flesh also reached forward, tasting the faintest mark of something else there. A small shard of glimmer, indicating that Something had been here, briefly. Not Ascended, not Descended. Something Other. The Guardian slipped more of his physical shell off, revealing himself so he could get a greater feel on that Anomoly. And as he knelt there, exposed, the Descended he hunted stepped out of the shadows, the trap was sprung.

####

A flash of amethyst purple in the dark recess of the alleyway. The eyes were beautiful, a rich, glowing purple that was saturated in Arrogance, Seduction and Royalty. The eyes lured, blinding the victim to anything else, bringing with them a face that was appealing only if the viewer liked the pale frozen flesh of death. She had grayish skin, ethnically dark but lifeless yet somehow still supple. Her lips and eyelids were faintishly blue and her teeth were longer than they should have been. Not the fangs of a serpent, but instead the jagged teeth of the ghoul. Her face was sullen and sunken, body thin and gnarly as only a severly anoerxic woman can be and her long red hair was dark at the roots, the hair brittle and dry. She stood watching in the Shadows, seeing what prize her trap would snare.

She had felt it long before that pathetic specimen of an Ascended had even searched. That spark of Other, the Anomoly, had drawn her attention. Pulled her away from languid entertainments and studies of her own, Chalice watched the failed Angel kneel and study the Anomoly mark. She enjoyed the fact that her pet was already moving closer to the soon dead fool. Finally he noticed her puppy as he stalked out of the concealing darkness. He was her grand stud, a blood line she'd worked on and taken centuries to develop to this point. And he was flawlessly brutal and gloriously violent. He hadn't failed her for longer than Mankind had iron, and until this morning, she had had no reason to doubt him. He had failed to Fetch like a good dog but now he was bringing her something interesting to occupy her thoughts.

Gavin felt the owner of the tainted footsteps come closer. He'd been aware of the other's presence for a while but it had felt far weaker than this. Somehow the creature was able to conceal it's own power signature to appear as a much weaker entity. Gavin hesitated to pull all his power back, realizing that this being in front of him was unknown and likely dangerous. He would need all the advantages his more than human state could give him and if he hid his otherness, it would conceal his location from other Descended, but leave him weaker. So he faced the gray skinned monster of a man in front of him and felt the taint seeping into the air around them.

The 'puppy' looked at Gavin with nothing resembling sanity in his eyes. Althoguh the creature was tall and grossly muscled, he moved with a sinuous grace that warned of fast movements and quick reflexes. Gavin stood, body relaxed and ready to snap into action when it moved closer to him. He had no desire to run, and knew it would be futile anyways. He felt cautious but confident, seeing only one of the creature, no allies around to back it up. He could take it, one on one, he was sure of it.

The creature smiled at him, a teeth baring, drool dripping snarl of aggression. He seemed happy at the prospect of a fight, eager to rend flesh and bone. Silently the two stared at each other, waiting for the first move. The closer Gavin got to the creature, the less confident he grew. It's aura was a horrible sucking maelstrom, drawing from the Angel all his strength and will to fight. Without ever laying a hand on him, it damaged his aura, ripping pieces out of it, swallowing them and making itself stronger. Gavin lashed out, striking flesh against unyeilding flesh. Where his skin made contact, the flesh grew pale and numb, as if the creature had the ability to drain hte very life from his neigh immortal body. The 'puppy' snapped his teeth at Gavin and raked jagged nails down at him. Flesh split open and hot blood dripped down.

Gavin crunched a booted foot into the knee of the beast, making it snarl at the unaccustomed pain. The Angel had to draw heavily on his incorporeal nature to deal damage to this hulk of a creature. Normal blows just glanced off of it, and he felt himself draining as he continued to fight, to be mauled by the corrupting nature of this brute's aura. Gavin felt a resevoir of energy suddenly open to him and he grabbed it eagerly, drawing it in and using it to push himself faster than even he could normally move. The brute he fought was fast and dangerous, his flesh ripped but no real damage done. With his Angelic nature exposed as it was, his skin healed almost instantly and his eyes flashed with a glowing light. Gavin spun around the attack of the beast and stepped close behind it, jerking it's head around with a crunch. The creature dropped to the floor and Gavin stood panting. All that energy he'd felt before was gone, and a horrible emptiness gnawed at him, making his vision darken. He panted, forced to retreat back into his human guise, too tired to maintain that level of power.

Wearily Gavin stumbled out of the alleyway, dark clothes stained with blood. But none of the pedestrians around him spotted it. He climbed into his truck, hands shaking and he fumbled the keys into the ignition. He drove slowly back towards the hotel, energy having entirely bled out of him. Gavin was only still conscious through sheer force of will. He was grateful that he'd been able to maintain that level of power for so long though it amazed him that he'd been able to do it at all. That resevoir of energy was... like nothing he'd ever felt before. It was pure and calm and felt nothing like the shared energy reserves he'd used with the Ascended, nor was it tainted with the corruption of the Descended. He'd tapped into it and burned through it at an incredible rate, but it had been just enough for him to get out of that trap alive. Now he knew something was hunting him, and that there had to be a major player involved. That thing he'd encountered was not a normal Descended, it was something monstrous, even for them.

The exhausted Angel pulled up at the hotel and managed to get into the room before he collapsed on the bed. It was at that same moment that elsewhere Lone hit the floor of her apartment, unconscious.

####

Lone struck out without coming fully awake. She was just aware that something was near her and in her world, that meant something bad was happening. Her fist connected solidly into something warm and fleshy, and it emmitted a grunt of pain.

"Jesus woman you are a handful to deal with." an unknown voice grunted. Lone came fully awake in an instant, head screaming in pain. She groaned and cluched at her skull, nausea taking over her body in a wave until she curled into a ball and retched, unable to contain it. "Shit." she heard cursed and hte vehicle they were in swerved amongst car horns to the side of the road. "It's gonig to look really bad on me if you die right now." he growled at her, then climbed out and came around hte vehicle to open her door.

She tried to make a break for it, but her body collapsed out of the car as soon as she moved and she heard the unknown man chuckle at her. "Take your time sweetheart, I'm just gonig to wait here while you escape. If you need me, I'll be waiting." he offered in a friendly tone.

Lone tried to look at him, but her eyes watered in pain and she stayed huddled on the ground, cluching her skull. He loomed over her, letting his shadow fall across her until she could blink her eyes clear. He wasn't a physically imposing man, looking thin and a little bit feminine despite the scruffy beard. His chin was pointed, lips sensuous and eyes a light brown. He had honey dark skin and vaguely looked like Gavin's younger, gay brother. He knelt down in front of her and roughly grabbed her face with his palm.

Something burned into the skin and bone of ehr face, sinking down past the protective layers. She tried to scream and jerk away but he moved with her, pushing until she ended up laying on her back while he held her down by her face. Something pulsed into her from his hand and she suddenly felt like she'd been turned inside out. Her back ripped into agony, raw and torn, crushed and painful, her spine arched, heels digging into the dirt as she tried to scrabble away. Then quick as the agony had come, it vanished and she was panting on the dirt, still hidden from the road by the flashy sports car this man drove. He was crouched down next to her, watching like she was a butterfly he had pinned to a board.

Lone glared up at him, part of her brain gibbering in panic, convinced that she was gonig to let him hurt her like her father had. Then a surge of pure venomous hatred welled out of her gut and she launched herself at him, catching htem both off guard with her speed and they sprawled into the dirt.She was straddling his stomach and slammed a fist down into his face, body geard to rain hell down on whoever this was. And he lay there, letting his face be pummeled and bloodied until someone came up behind her and dragged her off of him. As soon as the hands landed on her, she knew who it was that held her in place.

"What..." pant "in the name...." pant "of god...." pant "is gonig on?" she demanded, held in an unbreakable grip while the man at her feet carefully wiped his face off. As she glared at him, still thirsting for blood and carnage, his face slowly stitched back together, absorbing the damage as if it were sunscreen. Lone writhed, trying to get out of the steel grip holding her in place. The blood lust was still thrumming through her veins, trying to propel her into violent action. The man behind her was whispering something in his native language, and the words reached out, calming the fury inside her down. As the anger and maddness left, she felt him lower her down until she was on the ground again. "Sensei?" she asked, hating that her voice was scared sounding.

"It's alright. Trust me." his mellow voice instructed, soothing and calming. "I will not allow anything bad to occur to you this day. Rest." Coyote patted her shoulder as she drifted back into the gray eating at her vision.

Dumb Coyote watched his protege tumble back into healing unconsciousness. The ground near by was soaking up the blood from her back, and her clothes were now filthy. When her chest rose and fell in even, deep breaths, his eyes shot up to regard the man in front of him. "Any particular reason you felt like doing that to her?" he demanded, anger frosting his voice.

"It was necessary." he spat blood out of his mouth. It had been such a long time since he had to deal with physical pain that the sensation was intriguing more than annoying. The Arc Angel Gabriel sucked the blood from his busted lip until it closed, marvelling at the coppery taste. "She ecountered something this morning and I needed to get an image of it from her. I didn't realize that things had already progressed this far with her." Now that his face had knitted back together, Gabriel stood up and hauled the limp human off the ground, his slight frame far stronger than was proportionate. Though he was gruff, he carefully settled her into the back seat, taking hte time to carefully clean the filth off his passenger seat.

"How do you mean?" Dumb Coyote asked, stroking a hair off of the sleeping woman's face. His natural dark skin was a startling contrast against her pale flesh but he still felt a kinship with the girl, regarding her as precious as his own child would be.

"She has been marked. Both by us and by them. We knew this and were taking steps to handle the situation. But something....strange has interfered. She's not just a tool to be used anymore. Unfortunately she's becoming a weapon." Gabriel fretted. His status as an Arc demanded that he do somthing to elimintate the threat she now presented to them. With her connection to Gavin established, the more she was around him, the stronger it would become. Lord forbid that they actually sleep together because then it would never be undone. The hand print was clearly visible and an unmistakable indicator to any incorporeal beings. The unseen mark low on her abdomen was only visible to those whom were incoporeal, a spiritual brand as it were that was a serpentine dragon in a figure 8, eating its own tail. Gabriel recognized it as the sigil of one of the Descended's ambassadors, a powerful demon equivalent to the Arc. Both Angel and Devil had a hook into this girl's soul and that left her in a particularily difficult position. What normally worked in one direction, Angel or Devil drawing off of a human, had somehow become a two way channel, flooding the human with random power from the others.

"So when you pulled over, she had already woken up?" Coyote asked, walking back to his battered Jeep.

"She had woken up and immediately went on hte offensive." Gabriel's voice was unimpressed.

"That's my girl." Coyote said smugly, pleased with her instincts.

"She woke up and was sick. Her energy levels were too low for the human body to survive so I pulled over. She still refused to be calm and continued struggling until she collapsed. I donated energy into her so she wouldn't die and well... you saw how that went over." Gabriel ran a hand through his hair, momentarily distracted by the sensation of the strands running through physical figners. Everything he touched was a sensory treat.

"Her body was forced to react and protect the marks." Coyote rubbed a hand down his face, suddenly sounding tired. "Why her and why now?" He asked, voice strained.

"I do not know. There is something about this woman that hte Descended want to use. Our options are to eliminate her, or recruit her. I tried to go into her mind to erase the memories to protect her, but even those are too well guarded. Whoever this girl is, she's not gonig to be one of the nameless masses anymore." Gabriel spoke to the Native man like an old friend.

"So what are you planning?" Coyote asked, not able to remain ignorant.

"You really have earned your name Dumb Coyote." Gabriel insulted in a friendly fashion.

"I will not let you kill her." Coyote stated, knowing how stupid it was to go against a creature like Gabriel. "I made her a promise that she would be safe." he reminded the Angel.

"I know." Gabriel's voice was scornful. Keeping the old man's promise would be a mistake but he couldn't go against the man's honour bound word.

"Let it play out." Coyote suggested, raising a hand to forestall Gabriel's objections. "For now, let me keep an eye on hte situation. Your young Guardian is as biased in this situation as she is, and as the Hellspawn that hunts her is. My chief concern is not your politics, but this woman's life. Human life. And I can guarantee you that I am the one person she has entrusted secrets to." he coaxed.

Gabriel stared at the old man, human perseption changing little about how he viewed the soul the body wore. Physically and spiritually the human in front of him was imposing without being threatening, soul perfectly in balance with the flesh. He wasn't of the Ascended, nor the Descended and wasn't even a Neutral. Instead the human in front of him was a champion of hte balance between all of them. He was evil and sainthood, friend and enemy all at once. Any of those who would move against him would not abe able to use their alterior natures against him and Gabriel was forced to take into account the human limitation of the physical body he wore. "She's yours." he finally agreed. "But I'm staying around for a while, do not be surprised when you see me." he instructed. Walking back ot the rear seat of his car, he hauled hte unconscious woman out and handed her to Dumb Coyote.

Coyote managed to hold her to him as if she were a small child, weighing nothing. He carefully put her in the Jeep and waved goodbye to the Arc watching them. He moved the Jeep back into the flow of traffic and continued driving towards their original destination.

The city fell away as he drove them out into the countryside, the scents of concrete and car fumes being gradually replaced with the dust raised from the dirt road and the occasional scent of roadkill. He stopped the Jeep when it was nearly dark and carried Lone inside. He sat at a table and wrote a message down, displaying it for her to read upon waking. Then he walked out and began the long drive back into the city. He had to speak to the men belonging to the marks on her body.