Disclaimer: Still own no one, 'cept Nyx and I'd gladly pay someone to get rid of him.

Seems like I'm saying this a lot, but I'm truly sorry I haven't been able to get my ass on the comp to work on this as often as I like. Who thought senior year could be this hard? But good news! I got into UC Santa Cruz! Woohoo! And less than a month I'll have summer vacation. Yay for me and for all you guys who read my stuff. Kudos to you for sticking with a lazy procrastinating author. Sorry! I'll be better. Hopefully.

Nana56: Thank you so much! I strive to emulate the style of the original author, rather than force the story into my own. Which is rather weird because my normal style is very similar to RT's. And yea, Illinois is definitely more than a minute away from me... several thousand I think.

Laughing: Good to see you back again, I always enjoy seeing a familiar face (metaphorically speaking). I'm glad you've enjoyed the story thus far and I'll hopefully see you back again.

Kitten: We're those all the same thing? And yes, I know you did it intentionally. And yes, I do know your love of cliffhangers because you're just that cruel to your poor readers. Besides it gives me reason to bother you for more. *Grin* We all know you'd wither and die without my daily annoyance.

Thanks to all of you who have read, are reading, and will read this. And Rob Thurman if you're out there, YOU'RE AMAZING! Whee! This is dedicated to everyone who has either put up with me, made me laugh, or inspired me some how. That includes all the authors.

Elsewards to Onwhere!

"Son of a bitch," I said in a voice so stunned that I'm still not sure it was my own, "That God damned son of a bitch!"

Niko wisely said nothing, simply putting the necklace back on the table next to the obviously feminine hairbrush. There were strands of auburn caught between the tine, making my gorge rise and anger grow.

"That fucking bastard!" I yelled in frustration, lashing out and putting my fist through the wall on the other side of the narrow hallway. "We're too late Niko, he already got her. She's dead. He ate her."

I continued on like this for who knows how long until Niko emerged from the office-converted-sleeping space. He froze next to me, suddenly very, very alert.

"Cal," he said, his voice so soft I could barely hear it over my ravings, "Shut up."

I instantly did. He hardly ever told me that, in those terms. I could feel him tense next to me, like a bow just before the arrow is released. I carefully undid the safety on my gun and loaded the chamber. And then I heard it too; bare feet and the sound of nails clicking on the chipped linoleum flooring, just around the corner from us. The sounds of walking stopped and were replaced by two sets of growls, both feral and threatening.

Niko and I turned to find the incubus standing behind us, maybe twenty feet down the hall. The pictures of him did not do him justice at all. They had captured the cold feral look in his eyes and the pale colour of his skin, but not the ferocity and terrifying gleam to those red depths nor the marble-like look to his completely hairless skin, which seemed to be stretched across the steel of his muscles and bone. The fact that he was completely butt-naked did nothing to put of the sheer piss your pants terror, but some how made him scarier. The fact that his mouth was open, baring fangs sharper than any vampire's at us helped too.

At his side stood a dog that seemed more wolf than puppy. Since his hackles were raised and his long, ivory teeth were bared in our direction, he was definitely looking wolfy. His black-grey haunches met the sex fiend's mid thigh and his head came up to just under his navel. Big dog. Big, angry dog with a big, angry master.

I would have been more terrified if I hadn't remembered that I had my own personal hand-cannon with me. Which I then aimed at Nyx and pulled the trigger, catching him in the shoulder and taking a chunk of meat out too.

He snarled loudly, his eyes flashing dangerously. Before I could get another round into him, both him and Cujo were gone.

Gone.

Just evaporated into thin fucking air.

Enraged, I put six more shots into the wall behind where they had been and would have continued to do more had Niko not grabbed my wrist and forced the gun down. I stood there, shaking with anger, for what seemed like an hour. I only moved when Niko propelled me out of the warehouse.

"We have to go," he said, pushing me out onto the more crowded sidewalk, "We have to go home now."

The trip home passed like a blur, with Nik guiding me through the thinning crowds and back up the stairs to our building. I remember him pushing me through the door, then hearing the clicks of every locking system known to man. We stood in silence for a moment.

"We need to talk about what just happened," he said after what he had deemed suitable pause time, his voice even. His underlying words spoke loud and clear. 'We need to talk about what you just did and why you blew your cork.'

"No," I said, "We don't." I stared at him defiantly before dropping my gun on the kitchen table and walking towards the bathroom.

For once he didn't stop me.

I woke early in the morning to the sound of my sorry ass being tossed all over the room. At the ungodly hour of 6:30 AM, Niko had dragged me out of bed and proceeded to beat the anger and snot out of me. He succeeded greatly, since I was now tired and my nose felt too big for my face. It was now 9:30 and I still hadn't gotten any breakfast. It was hard to squeeze in a bowl of cereal between being taken down and put in a hold and then being thrown across the room like a rag doll.

I flopped pathetically on the couch, rubbing my sore nose. I'm no pushover and I'd gotten some hits on him, but damn, Niko was fast and I wasn't fully awake. I wouldn't be awake until noon. For the moment, my brother let me lie there, panting and covered in more sweat than a Texas Marathon runner.

"Drink," he said, handing me a glass of his god-awful wheatgrass juice. "Before you sweat out what's left of your brain."

I gave him a sour look and managed to get down two mouthfuls without gagging. Robin had once stated that it tasted like warm liquid cud, and frankly I had to agree. Niko's solitary claim was that the moldy-green liquid was 'healthy'. Yea, well meat was healthy for me too, though he told me frequently what I considered 'meat' required the word 'mystery' in front of it.

He looked very calm today, as he went back into the fridge and fixed me my breakfast. He was freaking Cinderella with a knife fetish. I gulped audibly, worried that he was planning on making me clean to 'build character'. His freakishly calm smile usually meant that he had something unpleasant in store for me.

"What are you plotting?" I asked warily, resigned to my fate, as I dug into my Frosted Flakes. His blonde eyebrow raised a fraction, his best 'what are you implying?' face. "I know it's something. Spill."

"Well since you asked so nicely," Niko said, after a suitable suspense filled pause and a bite of wheat toast, "You are going to clean all you weapons, then clean the bathroom and we are going out. If you're lucky, I'll let you off your leash." He said the last part with a playful gleam in his eyes, a gleam that the only response I could think of was to stick my tongue and middle finger out at him. Again, the eyebrow went up.

"I'll add the kitchen to that list if you're not careful," he said thoughtfully and I hastily stowed my body parts while shoveling food down my throat. The rest of breakfast continued on it's merry way, the two of us sitting in comfortable silence. Niko was thinking, I could tell by the look in his eyes. Me, I was trying not to go back to sleep in my cereal bowl.

As it turned out, Niko did make me clean and reassemble my weapons by myself— under supervision, of course. I did have to clean the bathroom and kitchen, though Niko helped. And then he made me shower in our sparkling clean bathroom after him which meant I had to mop up all the water that had dared puddle on the superninja's tiling.

So by the time 1:00 reared it's hideously sunny and hot head, Niko and I were out of the house, armed to the teeth and walking with a purpose. I didn't ask where we were headed. I didn't need to. The way Niko carried himself meant we were going to one place and one place alone.

The incubus's warehouse.

By the time we got to the rundown building it was brighter, hotter, and I was sweating more than I thought possible from walking a place. The place had lost its only bit of creepy charm in the daylight. Broken, gaping windows framed a double door that was only half hung on its hinges. The once white walls were grafittied beyond recognition and covered with red-brown stains from God-knows what. It didn't look much like a psychotic monster's secret hide away; more like the next building on the demo-crew's list.

Judging by the wrecking ball parked not too far away, I think it was.

"Maybe they'll knock it down while he's in it," I commented with sadistic hope. I know it was a low blow, but a man could hope.

I was answered with a very droll look from Niko. "Having a building collapse on him would do very little, if anything at all. It'd probably make him more angry." The tone of his voice was dry, though I could sense a bit of amusement and a little hope as well. My brother drew his sword, the surest sign that we were in hunting mode.

I took out a rag soaked in knife oil that I had "borrowed" from Niko's stash and tied it around my nose and mouth, just like I had with the 'Tumulus incident'. Then I pulled out my Desert Eagle and loaded the chamber after checking everything out. Lets see if explosive rounds did more to dent him than regular bullets.

After we gave each other the once over, Niko pushed open the door, letting the afternoon light stream into the building. If only the guy was friable like a vampire, this would be so much easier. As it was, he was simply nocturnal and we could not turn him into incubus bacon if we shoved him into the sunlight. Superninja went first, pushing through the creaking doors and into the so-called abyss. We wove between the chairs and tables, down the hall, until we came to the office.

Niko leveled his sword at the door as I took aim, waiting for our assault to begin. I watched in slow motion as Niko creaked the door open to reveal… nothing. Absolutely nothing. The damn room was as devoid of life as it was yesterday. The blankets and nesting stuff was still there, as were what I'm positive were Belle's things, but no Nyx.

"Damn it!" I growled, but I reined my temper and didn't fire. Yet.

"Perhaps he moved," Niko said, "Or is out for the day."

"Yea, but why would he leave his shit here if he moved," I said irritably, kicking a pillow out of my way. "And I thought you said he was nocturnal."

"Obviously, he's not completely bound to the night."

"No shit," I snapped, stomping out. This pissed me off. The longer he was alive, the longer he was terrorizing people. Not that I gave a damn about the rest of the world, but there was a high probability that he would be hurting innocent people, and also coming after me and Niko. I had no doubt in my mind that sooner or later our midnight spat would turn into a full-blown war.

I pulled the cloth away from my face and shoved it angrily in my pocket, muttering things about pain and death under my breath. It seemed to make Niko more relieved that I wasn't shooting inanimate objects in my frustration. He seemed to give me a few points for that, because he didn't stop me or scold me.

Niko followed me silently, waiting until I worked out most of my frustration storming my way onto the street before he stopped me and headed us towards a Dunkin Donuts of all places. I was confused and irritable for several mores minutes why we were there of all places, instead of hunting incubus. Then it hit me when Niko ordered a whole bag of cinnamon sugar doughnut holes.

"We're going to see the Korrigan?" I asked, feeling uneasy. Korrigans were Celtic fairies or their equivalent of. They liked to haunt fountains, wells and waterside caves, trying to make men fall in love with them so they could kill them. For fun they liked to screw with humans heads. Fun little buggers, Korrigans.

"Yes," Niko said, "We're going to see Aisling, and you had best check your temper this time."

He ignored my groan as we walked to Central Park and the lakey-pond therein. Well he walked and I dragged my feet, trying to prolong the inevitable. Aisling was our Korrigan informer and she hated me. That was mostly because I had tried to blow her brains out, but she deserved it.

The first time we met, she had tried to trick me into her den where I knew she was going to kill me. I had played along for a moment before I realized how to stop myself. I wound up putting two bullets into the walls of her cave and a knife in her stomach. Niko was the only one she'd talk to now. Go figure.

My brother gave me a very bland look as he knocked on the top of the hollowed out rock where the Korrigan made her home. After several swears in what I assumed was Gaelic, a short, skinny woman wearing a simple green dress emerged. She brushed her knee length yellow-orange hair out of her dark pink eyes. Eyes that she fixed on me and glared.

"You want to die, elf-spawn?" she spat, her voice odd since it combined a New York accent with an ancient Irish lilt.

"You want to get eaten, midget?" I snapped back, though I kept most of my temper when Niko silenced us both with a look.

"We brought doughnuts, Aisling," he said, ever calm as he held up the white bag for her to see. Immediately her eyes widened and she reached for it.

"GIMME!"

"We came for information," my brother continued as if the childish squeal hadn't interrupted him. "A trade."

Bribing with food seemed to be an even better way to get answers than our usual scare shitless tactic. Besides, Aisling, much to my dismay, was a lot smart than Boggle had ever been. If we scared her, she'd kill us.

"Fine," the ancient, two and a half foot tall sprite huffed, "What do you want and I get one per answer. Cinnamon?"

"Of course," Niko said, pulling one out to show her. "Have you heard tell of an incubus around here? A true one, not a lilu."

"A form-changer?" Aisling asked. At my brother's nod she continued. "Yea. He comes through here every night and picks off a few muggers. He hasn't come by me yet." She held out her hand for the doughnut then stuffed it greedily into her mouth.

"Do you know where he is?" I asked, ignoring her 'no-speak-to-Auphe rule'. I glared at her as she gave me a foul look and waited for Niko to repeat the question.

"Last I heard he was in a run down shipping plant somewhere," she answered around a mouthful of pastry. "Why?"

"He's our target," Niko said simply. "Would you be able to find out where he is now?"

"For a price…" the Korrigan said slowly, grinning slyly. It widened at Niko's aggravated sigh.

"Doughnut holes every day for a month."

"Two."

"One. And a bottle of whiskey a week."

Aisling smiled and stepped towards the trees again. "You have yourself a deal, Mr. Leandros. You gotta picture of him?" Once Niko handed over one of the copies he'd made, she loped off into the trees and out of sight.

Not five minutes had passed before she came back, looking very shaken. She looked back towards the trees and shivered.

"Well?" Niko and I asked together, growing impatient.

The Korrigan let out a sigh. "Very well. Follow me."

She turned and headed down the trail, walking so we could keep up. For someone half my height, she was amazingly quick as she weaved between the trees and seemed to be following some sort of scent or trail. I stiffened as I smelled it too, the farther we got from her little den. The scent of sap mixed with the unmistakable scent of incubus.

We rounded a little cluster of trees and there, leaning against one large tree, was Nyx.

You know the drill... don't make me say it...