Next Post »
+ Show First Post
Total: 388
Posts Per Page:
Permalink

"But you have no vampire friends for whose well-being you are concerned. So if you get the gem you'll be perfectly content to hand them to me and see everyone old enough not to point the light at their eyes carrying one."

Permalink

"Precisely."

Permalink

"How did you even find me?"

Permalink
"The name is not just a cute gimmick. I studied its previous home, concluded that someone must have conjured it away, and looked for anyone who had ordered the necessary ingredients for a long-distance conjuration at about the right time. You were the closest match. There aren't all that many uses for fresh dragon oil, even fewer in combination with frogs' toes. And then, of course, I looked for the best possible place in town to hide something which you don't want a vampire to find, but which they are almost certainly going to anyway - and here we are."

They have arrived at the right house.
Permalink

Bella shivers.

Permalink

"Well?"

Permalink

"I'm torn between wanting to get confirmation of my guess about what happens if I decline to help you, and not wanting to give you any ideas."

Permalink

"Take the deal and save yourself the trouble," he advises.

Permalink
She considers.

(She might be stalling, just a little; another twenty minutes or so and Charlie and Renée get a rude awakening...)
Permalink

Sherlock produces a lighter and starts playing with it.

Permalink

"I'm thinking," she snaps. "The house isn't going to get less flammable while I think."

Permalink

"Interesting way to put it," he says, but he puts the lighter away.

Permalink
She scowls. She thinks. (She stalls.)

"Do you have the plans on you?"
Permalink

"Yes. On a flash drive. No, I will not wait for you to go fetch a computer so you can have a look."

Permalink

"I wasn't going to ask. Since there are multiple pointers, plus the plans, can I get one of those objects before I go in the house, and then the rest when I come out with the gem to trade you?"

Permalink

He produces a small USB key and hands it over ceremoniously.

Permalink
She takes it.

She steps away from him, shaking. "I've never taken the wards off before. I think I can do it in under ten minutes but I am not sure." And she lets herself into the squat's basement by the back door.

She waits till she's in before she checks for her phone and finds that she has been relieved of it.

"Fucker," she hisses under her breath.

What do I have -

The Gem of Amara, under wards that she can probably bypass in five minutes if that. Her crucifix. A USB key which may or may not contain plans for laser pointers. A staircase leading to a bunch of sleeping squatters, probably alcoholic, probably not possessed of phones - is it worth checking? - he'll hear if she wakes them; if she does that or takes too long he'll torch the building, of course. He can't know exactly where in the house she put it. She goes up the staircase, carefully, pressing herself to the wall to minimize creaking, and finds no phones lying around charging or blinking lights, and goes back down.

She has the alarm, set, ready to bring Charlie running. If she waits - he has a lighter but he wasn't carrying a can of gasoline; how fast will a house like this catch and burn without extra help? Or maybe he stashed lighter fluid here; he did know where it was already. She doesn't know.

She has paper and pen. (Always.) She tears out a sheet of paper, and writes, This USB stick may or may not contain the plans for anti-vampire laser pointers as developed by Tony Stark, PLEASE CHECK. She murmurs an anti-fire spell over the paper and the flash drive and the miniature cereal box she brought with her to disguise the twilight powder, then wraps the note around the box and tucks the USB into it. The key will not leave the house, not till he's gone, on the off-chance it's actually valuable.

She should've done that spell after deciding what else to do. She's a little keyed up now, magic is yummy, she doesn't have great data on how much having recently done spells affects her judgment. But she can still think, right, what does she have -

She's pretty sure if she wants to get out of this alive she has to bring him the gem. His argument about the laser pointers makes sense, he does look like Tony Stark's eccentric twin, he really might just hand them over, and then even if the plans are worthless maybe they can be reverse-engineered.

Fuck.

She picks through her wards, methodically, shivering with magic and fear.

She undoes the combination lock that sat under all those wards, and she opens the box, and she takes out the ring with the Gem set into it.

She opens the door again, but doesn't leave the building, yet.
Permalink

Sherlock is waiting just outside, holding her phone.

Permalink

"You are a distressingly good pickpocket."

Permalink

"I'll take that as a compliment," he says cheerfully. "Trade you." His other hand produces laser pointers, one two three four, with successive flourishes.

Permalink

"You said you had six. Is there some way for this handoff to go that doesn't leave you with a nice big window for killing me?"

Permalink

"I'm keeping two. I did say they were useful for killing vampires," he reminds her. "And no, there is not. But you could always stay in the house and toss it out to me, and I will toss you back your phone and shiny new death rays and be on my merry way."

Permalink

"Or you'll walk off with them," she says.

Permalink

"Or I'll walk off with them. But I have no good reason to," he says. "Whereas if I give you the lasers and your phone first, you have many excellent reasons to call emergency services or try to set me on fire."

Permalink
Bella considers this.

"You could," she says, "take out all the applicable batteries."
Total: 388
Posts Per Page: