Reinforcements arrive

[melodymagic]

The car trip to the alley Cian had told them about was a little longer than usual, a roadblock having been set up and the closed-off street full of vehicles with flashing lights and police. Melody strained to see what the commotion was and it looked like there were screens raised in the middle of the pavement outside a bar or club or something. As she settled back into her seat she saw Jazz sniffing at the open window of the car, the witch's face crinkled in concentration.

Her eyes narrowed and her foot pressed a little harder on the accelerator once they were clear of the traffic around the scene. "That must be the market he was talking about," Mel said, pointing at the E-Zmart's lights, "and there's the alley." She was almost out of the vehicle by the time Jazz parked, the older witch puzzled by the young woman's keenness to get to the alley.

Mel had the backpack on her shoulder as she stepped off the kerb and looked down into the dark alley, eyes taking a moment to adjust after the lights of the market.

"Daniel? Are you here?" she called out, one hand on the corner of the wall, head tilted to one side as she took a step past the phone box.

Comments

Re: Reinforcements arrive

[daniel_stacy]

He bit the corner of his mouth. “Ahhh….” The singular cringing note indicated that he knew something and had only just picked up on it. He exhaled long and slow. It was the posture of a kid who was about to confess a curfew violation. Daniel reached back to fiddle with the tag in his collar and said, “Last year I met a vampire. Katherine or Kathleen, I think. A psychic had sent her to Searchlight; she said it was the site of the coming apocalypse because of some kind of magnetism. A couple months later, I met this guy named Whistler, a half-demon. He backed up her claim. He was trying to steer people out of town.”

It struck Daniel as odd that these super-powered pieces of information kept landing in his lap, juicy tidbits other people would claw and scratch for, and he just shrugged and cracked open another beer. Went about his business.

Re: Reinforcements arrive

[justjazz]

Mel glanced down the alley, knowing her mentor's hearing was extremely good, deceptively so for someone of her age. And as if on cue Jazz appeared beside them, eyes on Daniel. "Whistler, hmm?" was all she said, before looking at the vampire and holding out two more of the carved stones.

"I need those to go up there," she said, indicating the tops of the walls on either side of the alley. "Over the portal."

Mel was about to take them when Jazz indicated Daniel. "Would you mind?" she asked, eyes meeting the vampire's as she held the two stones in her hands.

Re: Reinforcements arrive

[daniel_stacy]

He raised his eyebrows in surprise, hand going still at the base of his neck. “Nah, I don’t mind.” Daniel took the round rocks from her and looked up. The EZ-Mart wasn’t a particularly tall building, just a one-story. The vampire’s pockets weren’t big enough for the spheres, so he stuck them inside the hem of his t-shirt and tucked it into his waistband. Daniel wiped his hands and jumped. He had enough demon physicality to grab the ledge of the roof, flex his arms and pull himself up.

Once on the roof, he walked along the edge until he was above the mystical doorway. “Right about here?”

He knelt and placed the spheres a meter apart. They were heavy. He didn’t think they’d roll away.