Exitus - 10. Part I, chapter 10

- X -

“Stratum Five...” Desmond said very thoughtfully some time later. “Holy hell...” He shook his head and glanced at Raven who looked eerily calm. “Who is it?” he looked at Nex again. “What’s the name? What can they do?”

“The name is Doriel,” Nex nodded. “As for abilities...”

She frowned for a few seconds, as if considering something.

“Never heard that name before,” Gabriel said thoughtfully. “Is it a ‘he’ or a ‘she’?”

“It’s a ‘he,’ ” Nex nodded again. “The reason you never heard his name is that he’s been around a long time ago. He was a huge pain in everyone’s behinds, until finally, one of Reagan’s Hunters was able to apprehend him. They locked him up in Stratum Five, and believe me when I say it, they took every single precaution...”

“Apparently not every single one...” Desmond muttered. “What can he do?”

“He is the master of black streams,” Nex said, and all four men looked up at the same time when she said that. “Yes,” she nodded again. “It was rather difficult to get him.”

“I see...” Desmond said slowly after several minutes of heavy silence. “What else?”

“That’s it,” she replied calmly, and Desmond’s mouth twitched with irritation.

“No,” he said evenly. “That’s not it. What else can he do?”

“Being able to control black streams like nobody ever could doesn’t sound dangerous enough to you?” Nex slightly raised her eyebrows. “That’s all he is able to...”

“No,” Desmond interrupted her in the same even manner. “First of all, black streams alone wouldn’t make him into someone worthy of Stratum Five, no matter how good he could control them. Second of all...” He narrowed his eyes. “I know that you are lying right now. What else can he do?”

She watched him without blinking for several long seconds, her red pupils suddenly bright and slightly expanded. Desmond never looked away from her eyes, noting that Julian’s fingertips glowed cold-blue for a fraction of a second, and that Rayhe’s posture tensed up as well. Nex slowly straightened up and leaned on the back of the chair, her expression emotion-free.

“He can walk between the worlds without any portals, spells, or help from any streams,” she said finally, and Desmond frowned at that. “He just slips from one layer of reality into another.”

“And...?” he said after she fell silent again. “There is something else, isn’t there? What else?”

“He...” the redhead closed her eyes for a second, and this time, there was a shadow of annoyance running over her face. “He can grant certain wishes,” she said finally and opened her eyes. “Not multiple wishes, but just one. For a fee, naturally,” she shrugged, her expression calm once again. “His fee is rather interesting...” She let out a small smile. “He would do it for a small portion of someone’s life span... The amount varies; can be a week, can be a few months... Or can be a year or two,” she shrugged. “Depends on the wish.”

“I see...” Desmond muttered. “With a fee like that he is pretty much immortal... Wait...” He narrowed his eyes. “Why can’t he be killed?”

“He is not human,” Nex answered evenly and stood up. “He is a half-breed; his demonic half protects him from harm, but his human half always leaves a chance of his own life span being limited. Nobody is sure about that, however.”

“Where are you going?” Julian asked sharply when she half-closed her eyes.

She looked at him through her eyelashes.

“There is something I need to take care of,” she answered calmly. “He is nowhere around at the moment; I do not sense anything. If he is anywhere in the city, I will sense it. According to what I know, however, he might show up here rather sooner than later, which means I need to have all my resources entirely full. I need more Air and could also use more Fire... Don’t worry,” she muttered and half-closed her eyes once again. “I will be back; I have to get him before his absence becomes common knowledge.”

She didn’t say anything else. There was a sudden, bright flash of white light, and then she was gone.

“Goddammit...” Desmond said through his clenched teeth. “He can do something else.”

“How do you know?” Julian asked him sharply, and the ex-assassin let out a deep sigh and stood up.

“Because she didn’t say the whole truth,” he said darkly.

“Why didn’t you...” Rayhe started asking with a frown when Desmond interrupted him.

“Because if I pushed any further, she would try sending me to hell,” he said calmly. “And believe me when I say it,” he nodded. “Even with two of you...” he briefly glanced at Julian. “It would be very ugly. You don’t know her as well as I do,” he nodded again. “There is a very good reason she is the best Hunter around at the moment.”

“Why in the world would someone like him try killing you?” Gabriel asked several minutes later, looking at Raven, whose expression was almost serene.

“I don’t know,” Raven replied and stood up as well. “At least now, the brutality of that stream makes sense.”

“Yes,” Julian said heavily.

“Reagan certainly wants you back from the dead,” Desmond said with a dark smirk. “You might wanna consider Pledging to her after this entire ordeal is resolved.”

“I will never Pledge to either side,” the blond replied calmly and got up in one smooth motion. “And she knows that,” he nodded. “I am useful to her even without the Pledge, however.”

“Lucky her,” Desmond muttered, and the blond ignored that.

“Let’s go,” he looked at Raven, who followed him silently.

“What now?” Gabriel asked several minutes later when he and Desmond were alone in the living room.

“Now we wait for master Doriel to try and kill the ever-loving shit out of Raven again,” Desmond sighed, absent-mindedly tracing the pattern on the wallpaper with his finger. “Dammit...” he muttered with frustration. “Why in the bloody hell wouldn’t she tell us about what else he can do? One would think letting us know all about that guy, would make this easier... Damn Hunters...” He gritted his teeth and ran his fingers through his hair. “Also, why the hell didn’t they simply Lock him?” he frowned.

“Maybe they did,” Gabriel shrugged, and Desmond looked at him with a stubborn frown.

“Then how did he manage to kill Salamander with one goddamn jolt? Locks prevent that, you know.”

“Maybe he managed to get out of them,” Gabriel shrugged again, and Desmond just sighed.

“All three of them? I doubt even someone like him could do that... Let’s go scout the kitchen, Rayhe... I am hungry!”

Gabriel agreed with him with a silent nod and followed him into the kitchen.

****

On Tuesday afternoon, Raven, Desmond, and Gabriel were sitting by the large table playing cards. When Rayhe offered a game, Raven started to laugh at first.

“Uh huh,” he said. “Playing cards with him?” he pointedly looked at Desmond who rolled his eyes with unhidden annoyance.

“I don’t cheat at cards,” he said with strained patience. “Reading someone’s mind while playing, ruins the game. I don’t need to be able to read minds to kick your ass anyway,” he shrugged, and Raven’s eyes immediately narrowed.

“Bring it on,” he said. “I suppose I’ll take your word for it, call me crazy.”

A couple of hours later, he realized to his own amusement that Desmond indeed did not cheat at cards. He grinned at Specter’s expression when Raven won two games out of seven, just like Gabriel. Desmond himself scored three.

“Yeah,” the smaller man nodded, shuffling the cards with an impressive skill. “I am not bad at this, I know...”

“You ain’t winning the final one,” Desmond muttered, and Raven shrugged, noting Gabriel’s smile.

“We’ll see,” he sighed and finished shuffling. “Unless you will cheat at that one,” he added with another nod, and Desmond rolled his eyes.

“I don’t cheat at cards,” he repeated in a semi-patient tone of voice.

Raven was about to start dealing, when suddenly, there was that nauseating shimmer in the air – the feeling he remembered so well.

“Oh, bloody hell...” he breathed and threw the deck on the table, jumping up on his feet while trying to shove his chair backwards. “Not again...!”

The cards were immediately forgotten.

“Either you are about to run for the bathroom,” Desmond said quickly, getting up as well and throwing wild glances around. “Or that shit is about to happen again!”

“The second one,” Raven nodded feverishly, his hands clenched into fists. “Ah, hell...!”

He screamed out when there were the same vicious icicles burying themselves deeply underneath his eyelids. Gabriel cursed through his clenched teeth, reaching for the streams, his hands shaking.

“Didn’t you have a shield on him already?” Desmond asked quickly, seeing Rayhe’s panicked expression.

“I did,” Gabriel muttered. “Believe me, I need more than that... Shit-shit-shit...” he muttered while yanking several streams at once towards himself. “Step away, Des...” he hissed when Desmond moved closer to Raven who finally opened his eyes. “Goddammit, Desmond!” he barked when the ex-assassin ignored that. “Step away...!”

Desmond reluctantly obliged, cursing silently in his head. “Bloody hell, Nex!” he thought in helpless fury. “So much for you not sensing anything! Where the hell are you right now?”

Gabriel muttered something under his breath and threw several more hastily made inventions on Raven’s rigid form, noting the smaller man’s painful grimace. Desmond grabbed Raven’s phone off the table, flipped it open, and pressed number one, figuring this would be the speed dial number for Julian. He was right.

“Come home!” he yelled into the phone the second he heard ‘Hello’ on the other end of the line. “Right bloody now!”

He didn’t wait for the answer, snapping the phone shut and throwing it on the table.

“Rayhe, what’s going on...?” he started saying when air all around them let out an ear-piercing silent shriek, ripping itself apart. “Oh, fuck me...!”

An impossibly bright flash of black, sparkling light appeared out of nowhere, zooming towards Raven with unbelievable speed. Now Desmond could clearly see why Julian had no time to react when it hit him in that parking lot – the damn flash moved impossibly fast. Gabriel growled something unintelligible and did some weird-looking pass with his hand when the black flash hit Raven full speed. Desmond couldn’t believe his eyes when all of a sudden, the flash bounced off something invisible and shot towards Rayhe. It hit him in the chest, and then everything became nauseatingly quiet – the light was gone, the air stopped shrieking.

“What in the holy hell...” Desmond said in a shaking voice when both of them – Gabriel and Raven – stood frozen-still. “Rayhe, what...”

Gabriel didn’t say a single word; he swayed on his feet and collapsed on the floor without as much as making a single sound. Desmond lunged towards him, only half-noting the fact that Raven was just fine.

“Rayhe...!” he grabbed the unmoving man by the shoulders. “Rayhe, wake up! Goddammit, Gabriel, wake up...!”

“Is there something wrong...? Oh, dear God...”

The stunned butler, who came to investigate all the noise, froze in the middle of the floor, staring at the scene in front of him.

“Rayhe...!” Desmond completely ignored the butler, furiously shaking Gabriel by the shoulders. “Rayhe, wake up...!”

“Master Delamorte...” the butler started saying when Desmond finally looked up.

“Just get lost!” he yelled at the stunned man. “Gabriel, wake up...!” he returned his frantic, panicking attention to his mate who wasn’t moving or breathing. “Oh, goddammit, goddammit...! Rayhe...!”

Raven knew that Gabriel was not going to respond to screams or shakes – the scene looked eerily, painfully, and nauseatingly familiar. Except, right now, it wasn’t him screaming unintelligibly over Julian’s body – this time, it was Desmond.

“Leave,” Raven said quickly to the butler, who looked like he wasn’t sure whether he should call the militia. “Sebastian, leave...!”

“Yes, master,” the man said very stiffly, slowly retreating into the kitchen.

Desmond started screaming something else when the front door of the house burst open, and there was the very pale blond, his eyes wild. He almost moaned out a very shaky breath when he saw Raven. Then he looked at Gabriel and let out a growling, loud string of obscenities.

“Move!” he barked and shoved Desmond aside.

Desmond slammed his hand into the floor, preventing himself from falling facedown.

“Fix it!” he screamed, his hands shaking like he was having a seizure. “Fix it...! Fucking fix it, you son of a bitch...!”

“Shut up!” Julian growled and pushed him away again when Desmond tried getting closer. “Shut up and stay aside!”

“Give him some room...” Raven muttered feverishly, grabbing Specter’s shoulder.

The ex-assassin looked at him, and for a second, Raven believed that the man was going to hit him or maybe even kill him on the spot – Desmond’s green eyes looked almost black right now. He let go of Specter’s shoulder.

“Give him some room,” he said again, and Desmond looked at Gabriel without saying anything.

Julian tightly locked his jaw and closed his eyes, his fingers trembling while he was frantically digging through the streams. Desmond experienced an insane desire to scream at him, but he restrained himself, knowing that it would do nothing to help the situation. “If he dies...” he thought numbly, feeling strangely calm, almost detached. “...I will kill both of them. And then I will kill Nex...”

Salamander’s fingers slightly jerked, and all of a sudden, Gabriel’s body glowed bright-red. Desmond bit his lip hard without even noticing it. He watched the blond frown and do something else, making the glow to deepen its shade of red. Now Rayhe’s body was almost scarlet. When Julian started swearing in a harsh whisper a minute later, Desmond stood up very slowly, his mind calculating and indifferent, everything around him suddenly wrapping itself into a shroud of dead, cold silence. He measured the distance between himself and the swearing blond, thinking of the best strategy, when Gabriel’s body jerked violently on the floor, and then Rayhe let out something that resembled a moan.

The dead, calm shroud of silence that enveloped Desmond’s world, immediately shredded itself into pieces, and he took several quick steps towards the man on the floor, who let out another – more definite this time – moan and a very soft, ‘Fuck...!’

“Rayhe, you son of a bitch...” Desmond said quietly, and then Gabriel’s eyes peeled open. Julian sighed, and a few seconds later, the scarlet glow was gone.

The blond stood up and walked towards very pale by now Raven, ignoring a shaking Desmond and coughing Rayhe.

“What the hell happened?” he asked after he wrapped his arms around the brunet so tightly that the air became a slight issue for the smaller man. “What in the bloody hell happened?”

“I don’t know,” Raven muttered. “Everything felt just like it did that one time... And then, all of a sudden, it hits him...” He glanced at Gabriel who was trying to sit up by now.

“What the hell did you do, Rayhe?” Desmond asked in the same quiet manner after kneeling next to his mate and doing absolutely nothing to help him to sit up. “What did you do?”

Gabriel grabbed onto his shoulder and pulled himself upwards, wincing slightly.

“Damn, it hurts...” he muttered and coughed again.

“What did you do?” Desmond repeated louder, and Gabriel looked at him.

“Your mouth is bleeding,” he said, and Desmond finally blinked.

He slowly brought one hand towards his face and ran the fingertips across his lips.

“Huh,” he said thoughtfully after examining them and seeing blood. “I guess I bit my lip,” he shrugged and lowered his hand, ignoring small trickles of blood running down his chin.

“You look like a...” Gabriel coughed again. “Bad movie vampire...”

“Rayhe...” Desmond said in a somewhat restrained voice. “What the fuck did you do? That last...” He jerked his hand in the air, imitating Gabriel’s last gesture before the flash collided with the invisible barrier.

“You threw a Reflector on him?” Julian asked with quiet astonishment, recognizing the gesture immediately, and Gabriel coughed again, avoiding Desmond’s rapidly narrowing eyes.

“Err...” He said. “Yeah...”

“A Reflector...?” Desmond repeated slowly. “A Reflector...?”

“Err...” Gabriel said again.

“I am beyond amateur when it comes to magic,” Desmond said in a very dangerous voice. “But isn’t a Reflector something that... Oh, I don’t know... Reflects, perhaps?”

“Err...”

“Rayhe...”

“Err... Yes, it is... I panicked, okay...?” Gabriel took a careful, somewhat deep breath. “Dammit...” he muttered when that hurt more than he expected. “I didn’t think; I just did it...”

“So, since you were the one who created the damn thing, that’s why it bounced onto you, correct?” Desmond’s voice became even more dangerous – a thing Gabriel did not think was possible.

“Yes,” he said carefully, wondering whether Desmond would do him some bodily harm right now.

It seemed that the thought had crossed the ex-assassin’s mind, because he closed his eyes and took a very deep breath.

“Rayhe,” he said in an even, almost monotonous voice. “Next time you do something like that, I will kill you myself, do you understand? Fuck...!” He suddenly exploded, slamming his fist into the floor.

“Des...”

“Shut up, Rayhe!” Desmond hissed through his clenched teeth. “Just shut the hell up!”

He dropped his head onto Gabriel’s shoulder, digging his fingers into the other man’s hair, knowing that squeezing him tightly would hurt him right now, and even though the idea of hurting him did sound somewhat appealing, Desmond would never do that.

“Sorry...” Gabriel muttered, wrapping his arms around his shaking mate. He glanced at Julian. “I didn’t know you could control that particular stream,” he said, and Desmond gritted his teeth so hard that Gabriel thought some of them would crack.

“You didn’t know he could do that, and yet you...”

Desmond never finished his sentence, letting go of Rayhe’s hair and standing up.

“I will be back,” he said as evenly as he could manage, and quickly walked towards the sliding glass door that led into the back yard.

Gabriel sighed more carefully than he did before, when he heard muffled screams from the back yard. Then there was a sound of something falling and breaking.

“Master Salamander...” someone said, and Gabriel looked up without getting off the floor.

“Everything is fine, Sebastian,” Julian said tightly, his face still pale. “Everything is fine.”

“Yes, master,” the butler gave the blond a stiff nod and glanced at Gabriel. His eyes widened somewhat, but he never said anything, wisely deciding to retreat into the kitchen once again.

“You sure made it back here fast,” Raven muttered with a shadow of a smile, and the blond let out a sigh.

“I could never work portals,” he said with dark regret. “Otherwise, I would’ve been here much sooner.”

“This was good though,” Raven kissed the hollow of Salamander’s throat and straightened up when the blond loosened the tight circle of his arms around his smaller frame. “What now?”

“Beats the hell out of me,” Gabriel said, slowly getting up and wincing yet again at more screaming and breaking sounds that came from the back yard. “What is he breaking?” he muttered with a small frown.

“There were a couple of vases and some garden sculptures out there,” Julian said melancholically.

Gabriel hemmed at the word ‘were.’ He made his way to one of the chairs and sat down.

“Tell someone to make coffee, would you?” he glanced at the blond, and Julian nodded without saying anything, let go of Raven, and went towards the kitchen.

“Thank you,” Raven said quietly, and Gabriel looked at him.

“Don’t mention it,” he nodded.

“What did it feel like?” Raven sat next to him and leaned on the table with one elbow. “A bit of morbid fascination, I guess,” he let out a crooked smile.

“It felt...” Gabriel paused for a second. “Like a hell of a blow...” he continued slowly with a small frown. “And then it felt like someone was trying to rip my chest apart from inside and outside at the same time... Then there was nothing,” he finished with a small nod, and Raven sighed.

“Thank you,” he said again, and Gabriel gave him another nod. “Wonder where that Hunter is,” he muttered darkly.

“Who the hell knows,” Gabriel answered tiredly, leaning onto the back of his chair. “So much for her not sensing anything...”

“Wonder why she never told us about everything he can do,” Raven said very thoughtfully. “Is it possible she is working with him?”

“No.”

Gabriel turned his head at the sound of the glass door sliding open. Desmond looked somewhat calmer now.

“No,” the ex-assassin said again. “I would’ve sensed it. Plus,” he shrugged. “Hunters don’t do that.”

He glanced to the right.

“You will probably need to redecorate your back yard,” he said when he saw Julian walk out of the kitchen, and the blond nodded.

“Figured that much,” he said coolly. “Coffee will be ready in a few minutes,” he shifted his gaze towards Gabriel, who nodded silently.

“I need to find Nex,” Desmond said and stood behind Rayhe’s chair, lowering his hands onto the other man’s shoulders.

“How do you find a Hunter?” Raven frowned slightly.

“Not sure,” Desmond admitted, squeezing his hands a bit tighter when Gabriel’s fingers entwined with his. “I have an idea though,” he nodded.

He slightly bent down, kissed the top of Rayhe’s head without calling him any names – a thing that surprised Gabriel somewhat – and let go of his hands after giving them one last long squeeze. He went into the living room, and a few minutes later, there were voices that definitely came from the television. Gabriel blinked at that (“He is going to watch TV?”), stood up, and went there.

Desmond was sitting on the couch, his expression determined and dark, and he was flipping through TV channels rather impatiently.

“Bloody hell,” he muttered and threw a quick glance at Gabriel. “How many channels does he have? I need the news, but this is... Ugh...!”

He grimaced impatiently, pushing the button on the remote control with frustrated speed.

“Channel thirty-seven,” the blond said somewhat dryly, appearing in the living room. “Coffee’s ready.”

Gabriel sighed and went back to the table. He came back a minute later and handed Desmond a mug, which the ex-assassin took with an unintelligible, half-appreciative growl.

“Finally...” he muttered when he got to the News channel. He sipped some coffee and turned up the volume.

“Why do you need...” Gabriel started asking him, but Desmond cut him off with impatient:

“Shhh...!”

He listened to the news with a deep frown, his fingers beating a quick, absent-minded rhythm on Gabriel’s knee, who sat down next to him. Right when he was about to start cursing again, there was a slight stutter from the news anchor. Desmond gulped down more coffee and turned up the volume even more.

“Breaking news...” the anchor started saying a minute later. “Firefighters are tackling a huge blaze at a warehouse on the corner of 41^st and Main. The fire broke out almost two hours ago, and while it is not clear what caused it, there are some speculations that a wire malfunction was to blame. There are no updates on whether there are any victims yet, but...”

“41^st and Main,” Desmond muttered and got up, switching off the TV. “Got it.”

“Why do you think...” Raven started saying, and Desmond gulped down the rest of his coffee.

“Because she was running low on Fire,” he said quickly and looked at Julian. “I need a car.”

“Do you need me to go with you?” Gabriel started getting up, but Desmond quickly shook his head.

“No, Rayhe,” he said. “Stay here; you are useless right now.”

“Thanks,” Gabriel muttered, and Desmond didn’t even bother with an eye roll.

“Follow,” Julian said shortly, and Desmond set his empty coffee mug onto the small table and did just that.

They walked into the garage, and Julian took a set of car keys off the hook on the wall, and handed it to Desmond.

“The one on farther right,” was all he said before going back into the house.

“We are going to have a nice, little chat, Nex,” Desmond muttered darkly while getting into the grey car and pushing the garage opening button. “A nice, little chat...”