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34 minutes ago, YourFNF said:

Well that was an interesting turn of events.

+1

 

I have started to get a little confused with the sheer amount of character names, but undoubtly this will be more clear later on when the characters are mentioned and involved more. Going to be interesting to see what happens in the next chapter!

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39 minutes ago, HyperShark said:

+1

 

I have started to get a little confused with the sheer amount of character names, but undoubtly this will be more clear later on when the characters are mentioned and involved more. Going to be interesting to see what happens in the next chapter!

So far, we have:

Rachel (Hunter)
Faye (Familiar)
Claire (Rachel's sister and former Familiar)
Sal (Rachel's friend?  And unknown "type")

Sarah Trippoli (White Witch - deceased)
Aurora (Miniboss Witch)
Mia (Aurora's Familiar)
Serena (Witch - deceased)
Donna (Witch - status unknown)
Lorenzo (Witch - status unknown)
Bianca (Witch - status unknown)

Benny (Imp - deceased)
Frankie (Troll - deceased)
Guard #1 (Troll - deceased)

3 minutes ago, Hopsalot said:

Oh my gosh why does this familiar remind me so much of dobby the house elf

:O

I think that strangely, Dobby is more "together" than Faye ;)

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Chapter Seven

The door to the sub-basement banged in the pattern chosen for the night - two long, two short, and three taps with a fingernail. Sal was up and at the entry in a moment, peering through the camera and then she gasped, fumbling with the locks. She'd barely yanked it open when Rachel staggered in, carrying an unconscious Little piggyback... how she'd made it all the way across town without being stopped was a mystery, but here her sister was, glassy-eyed and exhausted, but in one piece at least.

"What. The. Fuck? What happened?" Claire asked, dazed. She'd done as her sister had ordered - fresh sheets on a bed, warm water in a bath complete with bubbles to help ease the new Familiar into a feeling of safety and security - but now she realized that they’d have to start with a shower first and probably climb in with the girl to boot. The tiny thing wasn't entirely covered head-to-toe in splattered blood and smoke... but it was close.

"Winchester Tower is gone," Rachel said baldly, twisting so Sal and Claire could ease the downed Familiar off her back. Then Rachel cried out and stumbled to a nearby chair. "My leg's fucking broken."

"What happened?!" Claire demanded again, reaching for the shears to cut the atrocious dress off the blonde. Her fingers were still too clumsy to handle buttons and while there was a chance she might be able to just yank the thing over the girl's head, if there were something wrong with her neck she didn't want to risk hurting her further. The girl was breathing still, there was that, but covered in that much blood... would she breathing much longer?

As if reading the train of her thoughts, Rachel shook her head. 

"None of that blood is hers," she explained flatly. "It belongs to Winchester Witches. All of it." Then she paused, considering. "Possibly some of it is mine. I got tossed around a bit."

"I've got Rach," Sal said quietly, resting a hand on Claire's shoulder. "You take... you take her and get her cleaned up, okay? We gotta check her over, see where she's hurt. Maybe no bleedin’, sure, but if Rach's gotta broken leg-"

"I got that when the explosion hit," Rachel sighed and grimaced, prodding her thigh. "Chucked clear across the room. Didn't see a lot, just heard the screaming and when I came to the whole place was falling down around our ears. She was dragging me clear." And then Rachel - strong Rachel, sarcastic Rachel, badass Rachel - sobbed a little. "I promised her blue ice cream," she told Sal. "Cotton candy if we can manage it. She likes cotton candy ice cream."

"On it," Sal swore. "Lemme get you cleaned up and I'll run over to the Quik Shoppe… “

"Thanks," Rachel groaned as the taller woman slung an arm around her shoulders and helped her rise.

Claire lifted the Familiar in her own arms - she was stronger than she'd been before, now, thanks to daily workouts with her sister; Claire never wanted to be at the mercy of a Witch again and if all she could do was punch them in the face, then her punch might as well have enough force behind it to count - and went the opposite direction. She carried the girl into the bathroom and stripped her bare. The diaper was used - expected - and she had the normal set of bruises in all the usual places. Neck, wrists, ankles. Her ears had been pierced recently - the lobes were puffy and needed care - and Claire took out the small pearls and dropped them into a nixjar to contain them temporarily. They might just be expensive jewelry - Sarah Trippoli had been known for her expensive tastes and there was zero reason why she wouldn't spoil her pet just as she spoiled herself - but there was no point in taking risks. Anything that came from the tower had to be destroyed - clothing, jewelry, and even the diaper.

The shower was warm after a few minutes of clanking and thunking in the walls; their sub-basement location didn't show up on any maps but that meant creating it had required a few cautious liberties with things like diverting electricity and water. Claire eased the girl into the stall and stripped down herself, letting the water wash over them as she began systematically cleaning the Familiar. The patter of water made her gut ache and Claire gritted her teeth and held it as long as possible before propping the girl against the wall and slipping out of the stall to relieve herself in the toilet. She made it in time but resented the fact that she couldn't just let go as she had when she was normal, just pee in the shower and think nothing of it and wash the evidence away with a squirt of body wash and careful adjustment of the shower head.

The water had cooled considerably after Claire had finally worked all the gummy crap out of the girl's hair - there were stringy bits she was fairly sure were nerve bundles, oh my fucking god, and more than a few purple strips she was positive were veins and chunks of small intestine. Still, Claire was used to tedious work and when it was all said and done, the water sluicing down might be on the chilly side but the girl in her arms was clean. She wasn't a particularly pretty woman - cute enough, Claire supposed, and she was perfect for a Witch, all they'd see were curves and big eyes and bouncing blonde curls - but missed the mark on true beauty. Still, that didn't matter now. She wasn't going up on an auction block, she didn't need exquisite features to keep her alive. They'd figure out who she'd been and see if they could rehabilitate her and get her home.

Slowly, Claire lifted the slippery Familiar over her shoulder in a fireman's carry and then eased her into the still warm water of the bathtub next to the shower. The bubbles were mostly gone now but there was a faint scrim of milky haze on the top of the water and it smelled enticingly of bubble gum. Claire draped herself in a dry towel and sat on the small library stool they kept beneath the counter, idly resting her crossed arms on the edge of the tub and her own chin - too pointy, too pale, faintly freckled - on her crossed wrists. Her red hair was tied back, just barely long enough, and a brighter red than her sister’s.  All she could do now was rest awhile and wait, see if the girl woke up with the warmth and the good smells. She hoped so.

Claire had questions.

*    *    *

Aurora hunched uncomfortably in the back of the human medical vehicle - the "ambulance".  These things weren't built for her kind, they didn't need human medical attention.  But Mia did.  The Winchester Lieutenant still had no idea how the tower had exploded, but she had been fine one moment, coordinating the magics of the building and unravelling the security breach, when she felt a flare coming from the foyer.  It was like the first three floors had simply disintegrated and the building collapsed inward.  Shrapnel and fire had been everywhere and her Familiar had been blown out of her arms, out of the window, and smashed against a neighboring building.

Aurora had followed without a second thought, snatching her pet midair as they plummeted for the ground, her plea to the winds slowing their fall... but Mia was burned and battered, broken and bleeding... and Aurora couldn't reach her pet's mana well.

It was like it was gone.

The human police and medical services were on the scene in moments, and she had forced her way aboard this one, laying her pet on the gurney and demanding that the human healer help.

"Fix her," she growled as the young human man scrambled, jamming a needle into her precious pet and attaching her to some hanging bag.

"I.. I've never worked on a Familiar, Your Grace," the human stammered.  It was the wrong title, but it was always better for humans to aim higher than lower.  "What happened?"

"There was an explosion - she hit a wall.  Just... fix her.  Please."  Aurora's agitation gave way to her worry.

"Mommy?" her little pet moaned, regaining consciousness.  "Mommy, where are you?"

"I'm right here, precious pet," Aurora assured her, stroking the girl's soft brown hair with her long fingers.  "Mommy is right here."

"I can't see you, Mommy," Mia weakly turned her head this way and that, searching.  "Why can't I see you, did I do bad?"

The healer looked deeply uncomfortable as he shined a small flashlight in her eyes, waving it around.  Aurora didn't understand why he was doing that, and it irritated her that the boy was getting in the way of her conversation.

"You are a very good girl," Aurora said softly, trying again to channel a healing spell into her Familiar's broken body.  The magic wouldn't take, it wouldn't hold.  Mia began coughing uncontrollably, blood-stained spittle on her lips.

"I'm sorry, Your Grace," the human said quietly, barely audible over the sirens as the ambulance sped down the road.  "I don't know if she's going to make it - this is bad."

"That is not an option," Aurora growled, baring her pointed teeth at the boy.  "You will save her."

"Mommy?" Mia mewled, reaching out with her tiny hands.  Aurora took those hands in hers, feeling those small fingers wrap around her own.  "Mommy... I love you.  Thank you.  Thank you for being good to me, not like your sisters."

"Mia honey," the Witch's voice cracked, pleading.  "Don't die.  Don't you die on me.  We're going to live another hundred years together, sweetie.  Be a good girl.  Be a good girl for Mommy and don't die."

"I'm sorry, Mommy," Mia whispered, a tear escaping her eye.  "I'm sorry I wasn't good at the end.  I’m sorry I couldn’t obey."

"Fix her!" Aurora screamed at the human, who was crying as well.  "Fix her!  Use your human science and fix her!"

"I can't," he whispered.  Mia's breath was labored and ragged, another coughing fit taking her... and suddenly she stopped.  Just stopped, mid-cough.

"No!"  She leaned over her precious pet, her darling Mia, and sobbed.  "No... Mia.  Mia, my precious girl.  Don't go."

"I didn't know Witches could cry... " the human said, stunned, staring at the red rivulets of blood that leaked from Aurora's eyes.  "I'm sorry, Your Grace.  I’m sorry for your loss."

The air grew cold inside the back of the ambulance as Aurora tried one more time.  The human fell to his knees as his life-force drained from him, as the Witch pulled every bit of life out of everything around her to try to give to her beloved Mia.  It wasn't a Winchester spell, it wasn't any kind of wind magic or balefire, it was a dark spell.

"Please... stop," the human begged, clawing at his throat as the greenish life energy spilled from his lips, gathering in Aurora's hand.

"I can't," Aurora sneered.  "I'd trade a hundred of you for her, you pathetic thing.  Mia was the best thing your disgusting, terrible species ever produced."

But Mia wouldn't accept the lifeforce, wouldn't take the energy.  The skin on Aurora's right hand blackened, the obvious marking that she had violated one of the core rules of Witchcraft - life mana was sacred.  She squeezed the green ball in her hand in fury, screaming her rage as Mia's body lay there, the light gone out of her blind eyes.

In her mindless fury, she conjured balefire into the globe itself, blasphemy upon blasphemy... it exploded, destroying the ambulance in a conflagration of balefire, destroying the human healer, the driver, and several nearby cars.  Aurora stood alone in the wreckage, blood pouring from her eyes, her right hand blackened with the evidence of her crime.

Only one coven would talk to her now.

She had to call on the Black Witch of Thanatos.

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1 hour ago, bbykimmy said:

Chapter Seven

She had to call on the Black Witch of Thanatos.

Interesting I'm guessing the familiar they rescued is going to be "The Chosen One"? But that seems to straight forward for Kimmy. Then again she may deliberately be going for some trope heavy pulpy fun. I'm definitely interested to find out.

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1 hour ago, bbykimmy said:

"I promised her blue ice cream," she told Sal. "Cotton candy if we can manage it. She likes cotton candy ice cream."

How she remembered that with everything that happened, I don't know.  They were lucky to have escaped.  Rachel would not have made it without the help.

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So Rachel carried an unconscious Familiar across town to their hideout undetected with a broken leg!!?? Soooooooo Badass!

And Aurora... Once again you took a character I didn’t even care about and made me feel so, so sad for them. ?

Also this line confused me:

1 hour ago, bbykimmy said:

She made it in time but resented the fact that she couldn't just let go as she had when she was normal, just pee in the shower and think nothing of it and wash the evidence away with a squirt of body wash and careful adjustment of the shower head.

Why couldn't she? Does it have something to do with her conditioning?

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5 minutes ago, Wannatripbaby said:

 

 

Why couldn't she? Does it have something to do with her conditioning?

seconded

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39 minutes ago, YourFNF said:

Interesting I'm guessing the familiar they rescued is going to be "The Chosen One"? But that seems to straight forward for Kimmy. Then again she may deliberately be going for some trope heavy pulpy fun. I'm definitely interested to find out.

:D

I won't say, of course

36 minutes ago, ELLIE52 said:

How she remembered that with everything that happened, I don't know.  They were lucky to have escaped.  Rachel would not have made it without the help.

Rachel's big on promises.  And she has a soft spot for Familiars, especially Transformed Familiars.

6 minutes ago, Wannatripbaby said:

So Rachel carried an unconscious Familiar across town to their hideout undetected with a broken leg!!?? Soooooooo Badass!

And Aurora... Once again you took a character I didn’t even care about and made me feel so, so sad for them. ?

Also this line confused me:

Why couldn't she? Does it have something to do with her conditioning?

 

4 minutes ago, YourFNF said:

seconded

It has more to do with her intense fear of "backsliding".  She talks about how her therapist has told her that she doesn't need to be so paranoid, so meticulous... and yet she is.  Being a Familiar was the worst, most horrible thing in the world for her and the idea of giving the conditioning even the smallest toehold in her - something as simple as peeing outside of a toilet - is anathema.  She's being irrational about it, but her irrationality is understandable given the depth of her trauma.

And @KWOceans is PISSED at me for killing Mia.  For making the audience begrudgingly love Aurora and then taking everything away from her.  How she was the Witch with a touch of sweetness and the one thing that made her "human" was ripped away in violence and death.

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6 minutes ago, bbykimmy said:

 

It has more to do with her intense fear of "backsliding".  She talks about how her therapist has told her that she doesn't need to be so paranoid, so meticulous... and yet she is.  Being a Familiar was the worst, most horrible thing in the world for her and the idea of giving the conditioning even the smallest toehold in her - something as simple as peeing outside of a toilet - is anathema.  She's being irrational about it, but her irrationality is understandable given the depth of her trauma.

@KWOceans

makes sense

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6 minutes ago, bbykimmy said:

It has more to do with her intense fear of "backsliding".  She talks about how her therapist has told her that she doesn't need to be so paranoid, so meticulous... and yet she is.  Being a Familiar was the worst, most horrible thing in the world for her and the idea of giving the conditioning even the smallest toehold in her - something as simple as peeing outside of a toilet - is anathema.  She's being irrational about it, but her irrationality is understandable given the depth of her trauma.

That's what I thought. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

7 minutes ago, bbykimmy said:

And @KWOceans is PISSED at me for killing Mia.  For making the audience begrudgingly love Aurora and then taking everything away from her.  How she was the Witch with a touch of sweetness and the one thing that made her "human" was ripped away in violence and death.

I don't blame her! I can see how Maya might identify with Aurora in hindsight. I look forward to seeing what you do with her character. Maybe that death of her beloved Mia will cause her to show mercy towards the heroes near the end?

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I'm only hitting the site sporadically as still Stardewing. Could the Whisper inside Faye have something to do with her mana and how powerful it is?  Was the Whisper related to Sarah somehow?

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1 hour ago, ELLIE52 said:

I'm only hitting the site sporadically as still Stardewing. Could the Whisper inside Faye have something to do with her mana and how powerful it is?  Was the Whisper related to Sarah somehow?

All very good questions (I was giving time for other people to speculate before replying, but there were no takers).

What is the Whisper?  Do all Familiars manipulate magic?  We didn't see Mia do anything but sit there.  Am I so silly as to do "The Chosen One" trope?

I won't answer any of the questions yet, of course - I'll let the story do the talking :)

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7 minutes ago, bbykimmy said:

All very good questions (I was giving time for other people to speculate before replying, but there were no takers).

What is the Whisper?  Do all Familiars manipulate magic?  We didn't see Mia do anything but sit there.  Am I so silly as to do "The Chosen One" trope?

I won't answer any of the questions yet, of course - I'll let the story do the talking :)

I couldn’t remember if "Whispers" were explained in the first chapter or not. And I'm faaaaar too busy (lazy) to look. ?

I wouldn't put it past you to do a subversion of the "Chosen One" trope. Like, maybe people think Faye is some kind of Chosen One, but it actually turns out she's supposed to bring about the apocalypse so she goes from friendly to Antagonist in the last few chapters?

Just a random idea. :)

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Couple things here to consider that no one has mentioned here yet.

1. Troll blood. Rachel's got it in her.  Probably how she managed to limp home with a Familiar on her back with a broken leg. Also...I don't recall her getting to mention that to whomever patches her up just yet.  She might want to look into that...or buy more easy to read books and bigger clothing.

2. Faye isn't "chosen one", in my opinion.  She's River Tam. 

Also, her powers seem to have something to do with the magic and others.  Aurora's familiar not only lost her well of magic, but couldn't receive more magic to heal herself.  Seems like it was burned out of her or something.  Maybe it was drained out of her?  Or worse yet, a kind of magical feedback.  What if Faye is some kind of living magic EMP bomb?   There's something there, I feel.

3.  Looks like Aurora's gotta go see the bastards among the bastards now that she's broken a major taboo within her society.

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6 minutes ago, Personalias said:

Troll blood. Rachel's got it in her.  Probably how she managed to limp home with a Familiar on her back with a broken leg. Also...I don't recall her getting to mention that to whomever patches her up just yet.  She might want to look into that...or buy more easy to read books and bigger clothing.

I hadn’t thought of that. It'll probably be dealt with off-camera, though. If hunters are packing potions that's probably a routine question asked by the medics.

8 minutes ago, Personalias said:

Faye isn't "chosen one", in my opinion.  She's River Tam. 

Also, her powers seem to have something to do with the magic and others.  Aurora's familiar not only lost her well of magic, but couldn't receive more magic to heal herself.  Seems like it was burned out of her or something.  Maybe it was drained out of her?  Or worse yet, a kind of magical feedback.  What if Faye is some kind of living magic EMP bomb?   There's something there, I feel.

What's a River Tam?

Also I agree that sounds right. Oooo! Or maybe she's like the Ray Sphere from Infamous and she sucks the magic out of everything nearby, passes out, and wakes up even stronger?

10 minutes ago, Personalias said:

Looks like Aurora's gotta go see the bastards among the bastards now that she's broken a major taboo within her society.

Yup. Now we get to see the Darkness within Darkness when it comes to Witches.

We also learned that there are hard rules regarding magic in this world and immediate consequences for breaking them.

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53 minutes ago, Wannatripbaby said:

 

What's a River Tam?

 

Trip you've never seen Firefly?

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6 minutes ago, Wannatripbaby said:

Nope. I don't watch a lot of tv.

Ah, okay

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River Tam: She's a complete cute little hostage and liability for every scenario.  Until something inside her clicks...

Then she's the human equivalent of an AK-47: When you absolutely positively need to kill every mother fucker in the room. Accept no substitutes.

No power in the (uni)verse can stop her. Then she clicks off and becomes quirky little hostage again.

9 minutes ago, Wannatripbaby said:

... You're not gonna explain it?

WHAT THE HELL IS A RIVER TAM?????

 

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Lots of knee hugging little breakdowns and murmering of cryptic nursery rhyme type stuff.  Mental case that you kinda gotta baby to get stuff out of....

Then she's a living weapon...or another odd quirk or unexpected skillset...but usually a living weapon...then she goes back to being a cute little girl mental case.

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Awwwwww yissssss, Personalias himself came and commented in the thread and reignited the discussion.

The River Tam observation is joyous to me, I hadn't thought about Faye that way myself but it's quite apt given what you've seen of her so far.  Also, I love that character, I'm a huge Firefly fangirl (Kaylee is my favorite, she's such a Little - I would totally cosplay her if I were cuter :P).

All 3 observations are insightful and delightful.

I can't wait to share Chapter Eight tomorrow <3

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22 minutes ago, bbykimmy said:

Awwwwww yissssss, Personalias himself came and commented in the thread and reignited the discussion.

The River Tam observation is joyous to me, I hadn't thought about Faye that way myself but it's quite apt given what you've seen of her so far.  Also, I love that character, I'm a huge Firefly fangirl (Kaylee is my favorite, she's such a Little - I would totally cosplay her if I were cuter :P).

All 3 observations are insightful and delightful.

I can't wait to share Chapter Eight tomorrow <3

Kaylee FTW XD

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Chapter Eight

Across town, where the Winchester tower had once stood, firemen struggled to put out the blaze both in the tower and in the neighboring highrises. Despite the sultry heat of the August night, it'd rained a few times that week and outside the buildings caught in the backlash of the blast, there wasn't a real risk to the rest of the city. Still, the flames stubbornly refused to stop burning. The tower was naught but rubble and rubbish and beyond the firetrucks a sleek SUV waited, windows tinted.

When the nondescript sedan pulled up behind the cluster of patrol cars, no one seemed to care. Two people slipped out - an older man, taller than most, obviously Witch-blooded, and a human woman with white-blonde hair behind a pair of Beatles-era styled specs, and a bee-stung mouth. They approached the SUV without caution, the older man examining his wrist, the younger woman glancing around the scene as if bored. When the window rolled down the both moved to block the sightline with their shoulders and peered into the vehicle.

"Sarah Trippoli is dead," Mayor Vidal said coolly by way of greeting. "We're assuming assassinated. As is more than half her organization. Ding-dong a Witch is dead. The Red Witch is both pissed and pleased. The Blue Witch and Green Witch are calling for answers yesterday, darlings. Even the Black Witch is showing interest. That is a problem, as I'm sure you're quite aware. You know what to do."

"Of course, Mayor," Sasha said, casually pushing her glasses up her nose as she eyed the inferno. A highrise in pieces and the second-most powerful coven in town down for the count. Interesting. "We'll look into it."

"Do more than look into it, Detectives," Vidal ordered grimly. "Get me a head to roll across a floor or else the heads that'll roll will be ours." Then she leaned forward and tapped the divider between her and the driver. Her window rolled up and the enchanted, enhanced SUV rolled slowly away, leaving Sasha and Tristan alone with their individual thoughts.

After a moment Tristan sighed. "This town," he said quietly, "used to be a great place to raise kids."

"Witches have always run this place," Sasha snorted.

"Yeah, but they used to be underground," he countered and waved an idle hand at the flaming building. "The old rivalries weren't quite so... loud. A shot in the dark. Hire a Hunter if you really wanted to send a message. Nowadays everything's flashy, Sash. Everyone has to know you're offing your enemy; maybe see the pics up on the net. No grace or class. No style. Just..." he sighed again. "Explosions."

"Tell me more about the good ol' days, Gramps," she teased him and reached into her pocket for her blue gloves. The building would be too hot to examine for hours if not days, so they'd have to see if they could find clues around outside before the idiot babies in the patrol cars started tromping through the outside edges of her crime scene. "Did you meet your missus at a hop? Get a sasparilla at the juke-joint before necking at the drive-in?"

"Jerry and I met in the library," Tristan reminded her softly. "It was illegal then, seeing him. We fought it for a long time."

Sasha softened. The Witches made sure that they were allowed pets of any creed, breed, sex, or gender but the regular humans - even the Witch-blooded like Tristan - hadn't always been so lucky. Jerry had died of disease before the turn of the century, a good decade before Tristan could talk openly about the love of his life. They'd been together forty years, all told, from what she knew. Tristan had retired for a bit but the loneliness got to him and he'd returned to the force the same year she'd been a baby-cop herself, floundering around and determined to be the youngest detective in the history of the Precinct. With his help and guidance, she'd met that goal. She owed Tristan a lot.

He was also the only Witch-blooded soul she'd ever met who actively didn't like Witches. A huge number merely tolerated them, some tried to stick close to whichever clan they descended from, but other than Tristan she'd never met anyone who would admit to hating them. Granted, the admission had been a single incident, a bare whisper when they were deep in their cups after a predator had literally gotten away with murder on a technicality and they'd decided to hit up Sally Ride's Hot Rod to drown their sorrows amid the sawdust and twangy country crap. No one else from their team would ever find them in the honky-tonk - they preferred their dives closer to work and classier… in that the jukebox played rock and the clientele lost their teeth from bar-fights and meth than chew and domestic abuse.

It was a living.

She'd pretended that she hadn't heard his fervent, vicious whisper. Had ignored his fury that a Witch had stepped in and suddenly a baby-killer and sex-addict had gotten off with time served. The Captain had apologized for the bust and been forced into early retirement over that one. It'd gone tits-up so splendidly that the slow collapse of the case had been fascinating to watch in a twenty-car-pileup kind of way.

She didn't know much about Tristan's family - just knew that he and Jerry had been in love and once upon a time they'd had a kid with a Witch from one of the lesser clans. She'd carried their kid and then vanished from the picture. Sasha didn't know where the kid was now, or how old they were, or even their name. Just knew that Tristan quietly mourned his child as deeply as he mourned his spouse.

"Come on," she said, patting his shoulder. "Let's get this shitshow on the road and maybe we'll make it home before sunrise."

Tristan prowled the grounds of the crime scene, grumbling at the "normal" cops - most of them were orcs, in the pocket of the Mayor - just like he appeared to be.  Filthy Witch-friends who would sell out each other in a hot minute and a human in less time than it took to blink.  He had to find what he was looking for before they did.  Whatever went down here tonight was big and the power vacuum left by the whole of the Winchester coven disintegrating in one night was troubling.

But he had another concern.

Rifling through the debris, he found what he was looking for - a Witch torso, the head still intact.  Checking to make sure no one else was looking, he slid the deadreader needle into the dead Witch's spine, gripping the handle tightly and closing his eyes.

He watched the final memories:  a male Witch pulling a blonde familiar from a hole in the wall, then exactly what he was afraid of - Rachel Waters, the Witchhunter, creeping across the floor and stabbing the Witch.  Tristan watched as the one he was reading grabbed Rachel.  It looked bad, like it would be the end and then... the Familiar exploded in a brilliant light.

What the fuck did you get yourself into, Witchhunter?

This was supposed to be an easy job.  Sarah Trippoli had gotten lax with her routine, Tristan had gotten a tip that her movements were getting predictable... and he had passed it on to Rachel.  This was supposed to be a kill from 800 meters - a shot and run... what the fuck had gone wrong?  And who was that Familiar?

The deadreader would only work on a corpse once - the head of the other woman was gone, annihilated, and he managed to get to the male before the cops as well.

Deadreader evidence wasn't admissible in court because it couldn't be reproduced, but it was a great investigative tool.  Tristan was beyond glad that he was on this case or Rachel would be boned.

"Anything?" Sasha asked as he caught up with her, interviewing bystanders.

"Nothing," he lied.  "The deadreader showed them all doing mundane bullshit."

"What kind of spell can do this much damage?" his partner mused.

"My guess is the Winchesters were working on something they weren't supposed to be and it blew up in their faces - literally.  It's hard to tell where ground zero was for the blast, but it was certainly magical in nature."

"The Mayor is not going to like the fact that we're coming up empty," she sighed.

"This literally just happened," Tristan pointed out.  "It's going to take some time to piece it together.  Priority one should be finding any surviving Winchesters and questioning them."

"Oh that's going to go over well," Sasha said sarcastically.

"I need to go get some coffee," Tristan sighed.

"Please tell me you're not going to that disgusting greasy spoon again," the blonde groaned.

"They have my favorite coffee," the Witch-blooded detective shrugged.  It was a dance they had done many times.  The pair loaded up in their sedan - Sasha at the wheel since it was built for someone more her size - and were off.  Shortly after, they pulled up in front of a tiny diner, a run-down place on the ground level of a highrise, between an upscale Witch cuisine joint and some hip pastry shop.  The diner stayed afloat only from the continued patronage of its pureblood human clientele - it was a known spot.

"I don't even know why you like this place," his partner complained.  "They barely tolerate you there.  I don't even want to go in this time."

"Suit yourself," Tristan shrugged.  "See if you can pull up data on any surviving Winchesters.  Witches are touchy about being interviewed, but we need to move quickly on this.  Who knows what coven is going to move to take Winchester's operations - my money's on Talon."

"What?" she asked, "Talon?  Really?  Vidal said that Thanatos is poking its nose around, they never play politics."

"Talon's got more to gain, the Red Witch is ambitious and her coven is small.  I bet she tries to recruit any survivors tonight.  So find us one first, partner."

Tristan strode into Mom's Diner and sat down in the third stool from the left at the counter before laying the napkin holder on its side and setting the salt shaker next to it.  He sat, staring at the wall until the waitress came to find him.

"You want something in specific?" she asked.

"Cup of your special blend," he answered the question with the callback.  She poured a to-go cup, which he paid for promptly, leaving a very precise tip.

"I'll tell the management," she said grimly.

"Perfect," he answered, taking his coffee and walking out.

The management meant that Rachel was unavailable but alive.  He was a little surprised, but glad.  The Witchhunter had been at ground zero of the explosion - he was glad she lived, but they still needed to talk.  She was supposed to sew some discord, not obliterate an entire coven.  He needed to know how and why the job had gone sideways.

And according to the waitress, she'd meet him in tomorrow in Sightline Park.

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