(no subject)

[dresdenforhire]

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting to be investigating a haunted house. Normally that was the sort of job for someone like Morty or desperate-to-make-rent-Harry from years ago. Not that haunted houses were beneath me but it wasn't the sort of thing that people usually hit me up for.

Of course, Lara Raith wasn't most people. In fact, she wasn't even people. And I don't mean that in the "she's a White Court Vampire so she's kind of a demon" type way. I know plenty of "people" that are like that. More like she was so physically flawless it was hard to lump her into the same group as someone like myself. And not to brag but I've had plenty of other-worldly beautiful women after me but Lara tops them all.

By "after me" I mean "trying to kill me" but still, that's beside the point. The point was that someone like Lara didn't enlist the help of someone like Morty when she could convince me to come help. I was in the sweet spot of being competent enough to help but not so important that I wouldn't turn her down. Or stupid enough that she knew how to push my buttons without much trouble.

So here we were, standing outside of a creepy old mansion that looked so much out of an episode of Scooby Doo that we'd find out it was the kindly old gardener Mr. Jenkins that was behind this the entire time. Of course, if Lara pulled anyone's head off it wasn't going to be because it was a mask. She was every bit as deadly as she was gorgeous. Maybe even more deadly than she was gorgeous. Hard to say what with her being so very gorgeous and so very deadly.

"So," I said, leveling my gaze at the house and gripping my staff a bit tighter. "What do you say we find the gardener and wrap this thing up quickly so we can get back to... whatever we need to get back to?"

Comments

[raith]

Reputation had made House Raith the sort of family that was not to be crossed. These days, it was rare to have a direct attack or threat come at them, and that had made one faction of Lara's life easier. It also meant threats were far more devious when they did come.

Such as one of her own going missing, and she had to enlist the aid of the wizard to help her get to the bottom of things. As much as she might be annoyed with the man, his results were hard to argue with. He had always managed to solve his cases and get to the bottom of things, even when people like her father had been in the way.

Lara missed the joke about the gardener, her pop culture references were not what his were, especially in children's programming.

"According to the records Justine acquired, this place has been abandoned for so long, I doubt there is still any sort of grounds keeping happening." And if there was, by the look of the place, they should be fired. But her opinions on the quality of the grounds were unimportant, she was here to find out what had become of her cousin.

Lara paused to wrap her black hair up and pin it back in a messy bun that somehow managed to look sexy in that unfair way Raiths had of being casually attractive. Under the exquisitely tailored black suit jacket, she had a pair of curved blades and two small pistols in holsters. She'd rarely needed more, and the weapons had served her well enough in the past.

"Nothing to be gained by waiting." Lara strode forward like some sort of fury toward the front door.

[dresdenforhire]

I managed to not make a noise as I watched Lara put her hair up in a bun that manages to make her look even more sexy. I wouldn’t have thought that was possible but there was something about a haphazard bun combined with a tailored suit on a woman that I apparently liked. Being with Lara Wraith was like a constant moment of “this had better not awaken anything in me”.

“Unless of course the place has some sort of defensive wards,” I called out after Lara, using my long strides to catch up to her. I almost held my arm out to stop her from striding forward but that happened to be one of my two favorite arms and I didn’t want to lose it so I managed a “let me check it out first” instead.

I took a half step forward and opened up my magical Sight. That half step forward was VERY important because I wasn’t entirely ready to see Lara through my Sight. What I saw was… not any wards or traps but the house seemed… predatory in a way that I couldn’t put my finger on. A moment later I turned off the Sight and looked at Lara.

“It’s hungry?” I said, which seemed like a really lame way to describe it. “I think if we weren’t here with a purpose we wouldn’t really see it. Something here doesn’t want people to notice this house unless it wants it to be noticed.”

[raith]

It didn't take the lanky wizard more than a few steps to catch up to her, Lara paused to allow him to preform his own magical security check. With the place not being a residence she hadn't given it thought of being warded, but it was a sensible precaution, and she heeded his word.

"I know how it feels." She murmured with a hint of irritation, she'd been focused on dealing with issues of the business and family enough that she'd not taken time to properly feed, it made her a bit more irritable than she would normally be. Though that edge wasn't a bad thing when going into a potentially dangerous situation, it kept her on her toes in ways that a full belly and sated hunger didn't.

"Whatever it wants is literally of no concern to me. I am here to get my family back and with your help put an end to this. My kind would not be the only ones a place like this would attract or entrap." How's that for interspecies cooperation? She's here to help her own people and others, granted she probably wouldn't be there if her own hadn't been taken first.

Lara took a look at the door, stepped up and with a snap of her shapely leg sent the door flying in with a scream of rusty hinges and a rain of splinters. "That should keep the way open for us to get out."

[dresdenforhire]

“Well you’re in luck because if my track record is anything to go by after we find your family and get them out this place will be nothing but a pile of ashes,” I said, only half-joking. It was only half a joke because sometimes things started burning before I was entirely out of them. But out of all the people that may or may not survive in this place I wasn’t worried about Lara. She was a predator through and through. If the pretty exterior wasn’t camouflage enough then seeing her kick that door in like a total bad ass masked an incredibly cunning mind. People rarely expected beauty, brawn, and brains in one package.

“Alright, so we’re not going with the element of surprise then,” I said as I looked at the splintered remnants of the door. She was right though, no door was going to close behind us if it was shattered off the hinges. Besides, I had a feeling the house was aware that we were here. “You feel that though? It feels like the Nevernever, doesn’t it? Not fully but… I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Dorothy…”

I knew that wasn’t the line but I wasn’t about to equate Lara to the little dog Toto.

[raith]

"I trust you to deal with this place as kindly as you have others in the past." Meaning bun it to the ground and let others sift the ash for bodies. She didn't care what happened to it, so long as they were out when he did it.

"Cute." She huffed a short laugh and strode forward, her feelings were not as in tuned as his, but she had to nod that it felt off. She moved to the side wall and placed her hand on it, almost immediately drawing it back with a soft sound of surprise. "My god."

She reached out again, pale, delicate fingers splayed over the decrepit and peeling wall paper. It was....warm, it didn't feel at all like paper, more like dry flesh. When she left her hand there, she could feel minute vibrations and movement as though... "It's breathing!

"This is not just a building, it's alive."

[dresdenforhire]

“Well… that’d disturbing,” I said, glancing around at the building with a new sort of understanding. How long had this thing existed for it to be able to hide itself so well? Not just the “don’t look at me” sense but also to disguise that it was a living thing. Buildings had been around for a very, very long time so it was entirely possible that this was ancient.

“Not the predator I was worried ending up inside of tonight,” I muttered to myself, hoping that it was quiet enough that Lara might not have heard. A lot of times my mouth says things before my brain has time to filter then. A lot of time when my brain does filter them they come out worse in some ways.

“You know, I think if I wasn’t fully shields up mentally and you weren’t… an apex mental predator we might already be in deep trouble,” I mused. That’s probably what had happened to Lara’s cousin, lured in without quite the same mental defenses or offenses and was caught unaware.

[raith]

"The night's still young." He'd clearly forgotten just how good her hearing was, and how much she enjoyed putting him on edge. Not that she hadn't thought about taking him in the past, had Thomas not specifically asked her not to, had he not been so useful, had there not been truces struck time, and again she might have had him.

It takes the weak, the distracted, easy prey. I feel it calling, do you? For me, it's," She closed her eyes and inhaled slowly as though trying to pick up a scent. "It's stirring the air with pheromones, offering a sense of lust but just a tease." She could understand why her cousin would be taken in and off guard, seeking satisfaction over security. Lara was more aware and always more cautious, though her tongue did wet her lips as she reacted to the call all the same.

She moved forward, deeper into the building a door to the left opened to stairs going up, a door to the right lead down. "Any preference?"

[dresdenforhire]

Welp, from now on I was going to keep my inside thoughts on the inside and not muttered to myself under my breath, that was for sure. I was thankful that she didn't pursue that line of thought much longer though considering how much we needed to focus on the task at hand.

When she talked about how the house felt to her I closed my eyes for a moment- after she had opened hers- to really pay attention to what I was feeling. My mental defenses were up full strength, mostly because I was going to be working with her, but that didn't mean I didn't need to pay attention to what the house might be trying to do.

"It feels like... there's a sense of urgency. That I need to hurry or something bad is going to happen to someone," I said as I opened my eyes. I had to admit that as far as ways to entice me went, that was a pretty good one. Even now that I knew I ran the risk of hesitating if I felt that sensation, wondering if it was genuine. Glancing at the two options before us I considered which one would be best.

"I think we should spli-" I started to say before catching myself. "Damn. Almost got me there. We definitely should NOT split up. Let's check up first? It's a lot easier for me to blow a hole in the side of a building if we need to when it's not underground."

[raith]

"Saving someone is urgent." But that wasn't what he meant, she felt the pull differently, but it would use whatever it felt the best bait to draw each victim in.

If a raised brow could make a sarcastic noise, hers would be screaming. As it was, she waited for him to come to his senses before nodding in agreement and stepping to the door leading upward. She unsheathed her swords with a whisper of metal. She angled her steps to climb and keep herself braced should attack come from above.

About halfway up the stairs was when the sounds started, soft cries like a child, an infant. A well-designed distraction that would pay on the emotions of those entering the house. Even if those entering claimed to lack the emotions, it was a powerful pull on instinct. "There is no child." She muttered to herself, though the higher she went, the louder and clearer the call became.

By the time she reached the landing, it was certainly coming from a specific door, Lara didn't wait for Dresden before she pushed her way inside and rushed to the crib. The small swaddled bundle in the crib moved and cried but there was something not quite right about the shape or the sound now. One more well versed in the creatures of the Nevernever would recognize a goblin when they got close, waiting for it's prey.

[dresdenforhire]

The crying of the baby was tugging on my heart in a way that I thought was blasted unfair. Enough to the point that it made me angry, angry that something would use even just the sound of a helpless child to lure us in. Of course, there was the chance that this place actually had a baby that it had taken but I was willing to bet that wasn’t the case. It this place had though? I was going to rain down hell.

When we got into the room with the crying baby I checked to make sure that nothing was going to attack is from behind while we were focused on the baby. When I turned back around I saw that Lara was rushing to the baby.

“That’s not a baby!” I shouted. Maybe she knew that, maybe she was rushing forward to kill it before the goblin could attack us. And maybe she was feeling every bit as protective as I was about that sort of stuff and just didn’t have the experience with the same nasties that I did. Was I going to mention later that she was rushing into danger because of a crying baby? Oh you bet I was.

[raith]

Lara had been reaching down to pull back the blanket from the baby's head when his warning reached her, she hesitated. The small form under the blanket curled and lunged upward, the true form of a horrible small green-mottled creature with a bulbous nose and rows of sharp jagged teeth jumped to little feet and snapped at her fingers.

Her reflexes were all that saved her from losing any lovely digits. The little thing snapped its jaws down on her suit sleeve and rent it clear to her elbow with a vicious shake of his bald head.

[dresdenforhire]

“Forzare!”

The blast of force struck the goblin straight on, sending it flying against the wall of the room with a loud “thud”. I was also glad to see that all my training had paid off and I hadn’t also hit Lara’s arm with the blast. A few years ago I never would have been able to pull a shot like that off. I was pretty proud of myself but I didn’t think bragging to Lara that I hadn’t shattered her arm would really inspire a lot of confidence. Plus she was probably already pretty pissed at getting her jacket torn.

“Okay, definitely not a baby,” I said, leveling my blasting rod at it just in case it tried to spring forward and attack us. “But it might know where your cousin is, if it’s even a real goblin.”

[raith]

Lara yanked her arm back and spun away from the cradle. With thanks to the wizard, she had escaped with only damage to her couture and not herself. Her turn had pressed her into his shoulder as she regained both her sense and her composure.

"Where? We need to get her out of here. If this place is capable of doing this or housing more like it, we need to move quickly." The rush of things had shifted Lara's skin a shade paler and her eyes a hint lighter. Something about her exuded the sort pf hunger that conjured thoughts, but not of food.

[dresdenforhire]

I was about to say that if we didn’t know where her cousin was then there was no way we were going to get them out very quickly. I didn’t though because I was very, very aware of how close she was pressed against me and something in my instincts made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It was one of those lizard brain responses that told me a predator was predatoring and to proceed carefully. So instead of speaking to her I turned turned back to the goblin to start asking questions.

Only the thing just dissolved into a pile of ectoplasm, like it had never really existed in the first place. Which, there was a good chance that it hadn’t existed other than something created by the house.

“Hell’s Bells,” I swore. This was going to take more time if we couldn’t question anything here. “Alright, we move quickly room by room going top to bottom? Sticking close but not distract-your-partner-with-your-body close?”

[raith]

Lara stepped back abruptly at his complaint, her face turned away from him while she pulled herself together and under that mask of cold control he knew so well.

"Don't flatter yourself, Wizard. You would be a last resort."

But he was right and she nodded, this time she was more cautious with her advance. If there were things here with the power to seduce in much the same way as she could, then she knew how to deal with that. Simply bolster her own tendency. Lara paced a few steps away from him and a shimmer seemed to crawl over her, had he been or should he get closer than a few feet he'd not that she smelled like the very perfume that made him want to get close for a big inhale, her skin would look dewy enough to want to taste, she'd seem more impossibly lush than she already did.

The woman knew how to turn on the charm, in a very literal sense.

"Top to bottom. I'll take this side, you take that one. No one goes in without letting the other know." It was a solid plan and she moved to the next door on her side of the hall, it opened on a room devoid of much but cobwebs and dust ladden furniture.

[dresdenforhire]

It was nice to know that I was the last thing the sex vampire would want to seduce. I think. But I trusted Lara to keep herself in control, she would only try and feed on me if she wanted to, not because she was forced too.

The Winter Mantle was screaming at me to turn around and take her, to push her against the wall and crush my lips against hers while I tore my clothes off. Resisting Lara could be tricky at the best of times and this was definitely not the best of times. The Mantle, her nature, and to be honest a genuine part of me wanted to give in to it all. But that wasn’t going to help find her cousin.

I lined up with my door and gave it a kick open. I didn’t need to be so violent with it but I felt like it was a good place to direct a lot of what I was feeling. Grrr, Harry horny, Harry smash door! Harry loom through door and…

Hold up.

“Lara… are you still behind me or are you in front of me splayed out on a bed in lingerie crooking your finger at me?” I asked.

Because that was exactly what I was looking at through the doorway. Only it wasn’t Lara. Not just because I knew she was behind me but because I knew Lara and while the thing in the room looked like her… it wasn’t. It did mean that the house was picking up in what was enticing me in some way.

[raith]

Mostly it was bluster. He was not horribly unattractive. He had appeal in the rough, unwashed sort of way some men did, but the power within him was a draw she could not ignore entirely. But there was Mab to think of and Thomas of course. The Fae Queen would be enraged if she damaged her Knight... or perhaps she would think if he was weak enough to be damaged that he deserved it. It was always difficult to tell which was her wind was blowing. But Thomas would hate her regardless. She erred on the side of not ruining relationships, at least unless it was necessary or unavoidable.

She felt the waves of Winter radiating off him, how could she not? Cold power that beckoned to her. Something that wanted her as badly as she could want others? Something that urged to take and take and take in ways that she was usually the only one capable of. Ara bit back her responses, but they were there, the firming of her nipples, the shortening of her breaths. She was reacting to him, they were reacting to each other if they wanted to or not.

"I'm here, why do you..." She stepped up, after having just decided that keeping distance would be the wise move. She peered around him, and this close she could almost salivate at the thought of tasting his skin. Her hand pressed to his side to move him enough to let her see better, but the gesture came off more as a caress.

"That is not me, but it is a close facsimile." She slid past him immune to the attractions of her own form, ultimate narcissism perhaps? Her blade flashed out and down as she took the last dozen feet in a leap that ended with her straddling the mock-up in what might have been a centerfold worthy image had the situation been different.

"You have a Raith here...where is she?"

[dresdenforhire]

Bob Anderson. Jim Brewer. Dick Burwell. Don Cardwell…

I was grateful that the 1960s Cubs had a pretty eclectic roster that I had to work to rattle off when I needed a distraction from things. Like a distraction from Lara brushing her hand against me before she leapt and straddled herself on the bed.

Art… Art…

Okay so the Cubbies weren’t helping. But Lara reminding me and the house why we were here definitely helped. And like Lara said, the facsimile was a good one but not perfect. The original was definitely better.

But I wasn’t thinking about that, nope. Not about how I wanted to be the one on top. Or the one under. Or… nope.

“If you tell us we’ll get her and leave. If you don’t… we’re going to tear you apart to find her. And then when we do find her, and we will, I will huff and I will puff and I will burn you down to ashes AFTER I have pulled you completely back into the Nevernever. No turning to goo and reforming, no starting again somewhere else. You will cease to exist.”

To be honest I was probably going to do that anyway because there was no way I could let something like this roam here or the Nevernever.

[raith]

The thing under her writhed and screeched, it wasn't Lara's threat that caused the extreme reaction as much as Dresden's. While she could and would take it apart with her bare hands if she needed to he had the ability to take the whole place apart and most beings who walked on both side of reality knew him well enough to fear him.

It clawed at her, she struck back, severing one arm at the elbow. It screamed and heaved with a body that mimicked her own minus one arm. "Below!" It hissed between cries. "The vampire is below, but you will not find her."

Lara turned to look at Harry, fear in her eyes for the first time.

[dresdenforhire]

The look of fear in Lara's eyes twisted at my heart in ways that I didn't think was possible for her to manage. Somehow seeing not just the genuine fear for her cousin's life but the vulnerability that made her display to me at that moment hit me like a brick. That stupid, chivalrous part of my brain that I was trying very hard to get better about not listening to perked up at the fact that there was a woman who was scared and we could help. Stupid brain. I liked it better when Lara only made me ignore what was happening in my pants.

"We're going to find her and we're going to get her out of here. I'm not letting you hurt anyone else," I told the House-Lara. I don't know how many people this thing had trapped over the years but Lara's cousin was the last one. "This ends here and it ends tonight."

[raith]

Lara was bolstered by his confidence, though the thing under her continued to heave and the stump of one arm sprayed ichor over her jacket. The mess only fueled the anger that she traded her fear for, and she brought the blade down to put an end to the thing beneath her.

With a clean slash she removed the head from the body, and the thrashing stopped. Lara rolled away and shook some of the wet slime from herself. Muttering darkly she unbuttoned her jacket and dropped it to the floor with a disgustingly sodden splat. Another piece ruined.

"It said beneath, so we go to the basement."

She was ready for this to be over and now she was furious, and rapidly running out of clothing, fortunately the white satin cami she'd worn under her suit jacket was still intact.