Dangerous Things

“No, he didn’t,” Envy shot Trevor a well-deserved dirty look then turned her attention back to Zackary. “Guardian? What exactly does that mean? And are you and Trevor brothers?” She couldn’t help but ask.

“It means we protect both sides from each other,” Trevor answered then added, “And no. As far as family goes, I don’t have any.”

“Oh, now you're just full of information,” Envy mumbled.

“I tried to tell you,” Trevor reminded her while he pulled on the spare pair of pants Zachary had just tossed him. “It’s not my fault you didn’t listen.”

Envy's lips parted to tell him off but paused… guiltily remembering the last night she’d really seen Trevor. He’d told her he had something to do with the C.I.A. but she hadn’t believed him. She’d even tasered him for thinking she was dumb enough to fall for such a lame lie. But then again, how did he expect her to believe him when he was out dancing provocatively with other women?

The flip side of that was… he’d told her it was the cover for his job. Envy frowned at the headache that was forming and decided that Trevor was a bigger ass than she originally thought for making her think about this.

Chad looked over at the jaguar before heading inside. He came out a couple seconds later with a pair of jeans and tossed them to Devon.

“We don’t need your help,” Devon stated as he zipped the jeans then walked over to Envy and slid a jealous arm around her waist.

“Oh yeah? I saved your sister while you were busy stealing my girlfriend,” Trevor retaliated before directing his heated gaze back to Envy.

Envy raised her eyes and locked them with Trevor’s bluish-silver ones. She could still see the hurt in them and it made her heart clinch uncomfortably. She really didn’t hate him at all. As a matter of fact, she still loved Trevor… just not like she loved Devon. Her lips parted to try to explain, but Devon cut her off.

“Why did you come here? Did you follow us?” Devon asked, not liking the fact that Trevor kept putting Envy on the spot. She’d made her choice and Trevor needed to come to terms with that little fact before it got him hurt.

“Actually, he came here to see me,” Chad said as calmly as he could. Turning to his sister, he took her hand in his and pulled gently while looking over her shoulder at Devon. “If you don’t mind, I’d like a minute in private.”

The second Devon let her go, Chad pulled her inside the door and shut it. He actually had to stop himself from locking the bolt. Besides, after what he’d just seen in the yard, it wasn’t like a bolt lock would do any good.

“Are you sure you won't stay here just one more night? For my sanity?” he pleaded, even though he knew he’d lost control of his life a few exits back.

Envy wrapped her arms around her brother and gave him a much-needed hug, then took a step backwards to look up at him, “I can’t. You saw what happened at the church tonight. Everyone has scattered, so Warren is trying to get a meeting set for first thing in the morning.”

She glanced back at the door as another thought struck her. “Besides, staying with them is probably the safest place to be right now. As a matter of fact, I’ll call and tell you what time to come to the meeting and if it’s at Moon Dance or Night Light. I want you to do me a favor. Bring Trevor and flame boy to the meeting, because if what I heard is true… we are going to need all the help we can get.”

“Vampires?” Chad asked going into cop mode again even as he rubbed the back of his neck where the small fine hairs had decided to permanently stand on end.

Envy nodded, frowned, then shook her head, “The vampires yes, but there’s a demon on the loose and…”

Chad reached out and grabbed her by the arms, “A demon? No one said anything about demons!”

Envy inhaled then nodded, hoping what she was about to say would make him feel better, “Yes, a demon. The good news is we have two angels on our side.” She gave him a weak smile hoping he didn’t faint.

“Angels?” Chad let her go and leaned heavily against the wall, “Good God.”

“Exactly,” Envy nodded watching him run his fingers through his hair as if fighting the urge to pull it out. “Now you deal with Trevor. Can you do that for me? Bring him and Zackary to the meeting tomorrow.” She bit her bottom lip not wanting to make another scene. “And in return, I won't take my stuff tonight… if it will make you feel better.”

Chad nodded and gave her a small smile, “Deal.”

He opened the door to let them out but both of them paused seeing Zackary standing between the two men with a flaming palm pointed at both of them.

“Oh dear, we’re leaving,” Envy said and rushed out the door grabbing Devon's hand as she made a beeline toward his car.

Trevor started to follow but Zackary stopped him, “hold on there, lover boy. We need to deal with the brother first.”

“Let’s go inside and I’ll brew us some coffee,” Chad offered, followed with a thankful sigh when Trevor turned angrily around and marched into his house like a man on a mission. He nodded as Zackary followed Trevor in, then closed the door wondering what the hell he’d gotten himself into.

Once the coffee maker was going, Chad turned toward his two guests. At the moment, he had more questions than answers and that wasn’t helping anything. “Now what’s this about Envy saying there’s a demon on the loose? She also said that Warren is calling everyone together tomorrow for some kind of meeting about what happened tonight and she wants the three of us to crash it.”

Trevor couldn’t help the small smile that played at his lips. So Envy wanted him involved… wanted to keep him close. He couldn’t blame her. At the rate Devon was protecting her, she couldn’t feel all that safe. Knowing she needed him made most of his lingering anger fade into the background.

“We’d have crashed that little party anyway.” He glanced toward Zackary who confirmed the statement. He smiled again realizing he would see Envy in a couple hours. “I guess it’s time to tell you what’s going on.”

He inwardly cringed at how he was using his position to get closer to Envy again. He was also well aware of how it would look to everyone else. Devon would assume that he was using Envy again but that was the furthest thing from the truth. Then again, he wasn’t above using her brother to get closer to her and do his job at the same time. Devon would just have to learn that all was fair in love and war… and may the best shapeshifter win.

“I’m all ears,” Chad grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest to get Trevor’s attention back from wherever he was. He’d never thought of himself as psychic but he was doing a pretty good job of reading Trevor at the moment.

“We don’t know much about the demon, only that it had been trapped there for a number of centuries. Its existence predates anything we have on file at P.I.T. but we’re still searching for clues,” Zackary started and hoped Trevor would jump in.

“So you knew a demon was imprisoned under the cemetery for who knows how long and you didn’t do anything about it?” Chad demanded.

Trevor cocked an eyebrow at him, “What would you expect us to do about it? Help it get loose? It was trapped there and we don’t even know how the hell a fallen and a vampire were able to break the spell holding it.”

“Fallen?” Chad asked. “You mean one of the angels Envy told me about?”

Zachary nodded, “Yeah, we’ve known about them for a really long time. We know there are others, but we can’t locate them anywhere, and apparently the two fallen living within the city didn’t even know of the other’s existence trapped in the cavern until one went down there.”

“We also have someone that knows how to deal with demons,” Trevor offered. “With any luck, she’ll be able to figure it out once we call her in.”

“It’s not too late to back out,” Zachary said to Chad. “Just give the word and we’ll wipe your memory of everything that happened.”

Chad frowned and started to pour coffee for the three of them. He’d been a cop all his life because he wanted to make a difference. More than once though, he felt like he wasn’t doing enough. There was always one more drug dealer, one more murderer, one more traffic violation… it just didn’t seem worth it sometimes. But what Trevor and Zachary were doing did make a difference… the kind of difference Chad had always wanted to make.

Taking a long drink of his coffee, he set his cup down and nodded once. “I’m in.”

*****

Angelica decided that phones were worse than demons when hers started ringing at three in the morning. Looking at the caller ID, she narrowed her eyes and grabbed the receiver. Turning it on, she pushed her dark hair out of her way and placed it against her ear.

“Unless the world’s falling apart, the seas have turned red, the seven plagues of Egypt have returned, or you’re dying, there’d better be a damn good explanation for you waking me up,” she growled.

“Aw, come on Boo… is that any way to talk to your Zachy-bear?”

Angelica hung up and dropped her head back onto the pillow. She’d just gotten back to sleep when the phone rang again. Without looking at the phone, she turned it on and spoke again.

“I’m going to get you, Zachary,” she muttered. “You and your little dog too.”

“Oh my, Wizard of Oz flashbacks,” Zachary gasped and Angelica secretly smiled at his antics, glad he couldn’t see her.

“What do you want?” she sat up, pushing her hair out of her face.

“We got a really nasty one for you named Misery,” Zachary offered.