Blood Magic - Part 2

Blood Magic - Part 2 - Just Another Case

Rated: R...if it changes, I'll say so

Summary: Well...guess you'll have to read it to find out. Essentially it's in a contemporary setting with demons and magic (obviously I've watched too much Buffy). There will be homosexual relationships as well as heterosexual ones in this, though mainly homosexual. Possibly gore in the near future (or far future) we'll see...

Feedback: feel free to tell me what you think (eg. whether it's crap or not) and umm...no one to read it so yes, mistakes are all mine...I'M SORRY!!! But tell me and I'll fix it

Liz stalked down the corridor and jabbed the elevator button. She didn’t know if she was scared, angry or annoyed, but it felt more like all of them at the same time. The elevator doors opened and Liz walked in, stabbing at the button for ground level before folding her arms and settling a scowl on her face. Sal rushed in as fast as she could and got in just before the doors could close. The elevator doors jerked back to allow her entry then closed silently, locking them in.

“Are you alright?” asked Sal, her voice wavered slightly to show her hesitancy to broach the subject.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Liz questioned. Her tone was far from ‘fine’ and Sal flinched from the harshness of it.

“You didn’t know,” said Sal. It was more a statement than a question, but it was what Liz needed to hear and her composure slipped.

Liz felt the first few trails on her face just before the torrent came through. Sal just held her as she cried her heart out. Sal pressed the emergency stop button and waited for her partner of four years to stop crying.

“Why didn’t they tell me?” asked Liz, her voice childish and sounding so lost and alone that it took all of Sal’s control to not break down into tears herself.

“I don’t know sweetie, I really don’t,” she said, her voice as soothing as possible. Liz gradually calmed down and pulled back, feeling embarrassed and sheepish.

Sal just shook her head. This was neither the time nor the place to have a pity party. She pressed the emergency stop button again and the lift started back up, heading down to ground level. By the time the elevator doors opened, it was as though Liz had never been crying in the first place. They waltzed straight through and went to the car park; both of them by unspoken agreement went to Sal’s car and drove out.

The case had just begun.

Spinning around the corner Liz hung on while Sal drove at breakneck pace. They were going to Liz’s old home and they were going to do their jobs. Though to be honest it would most likely be Sal going in, collecting statements and the like whilst Liz hid in the hotel or in the next town.

Liz walked into the hotel just as Sal drove off to greet her relatives in the next town and find out what they needed. She didn’t have much. Essentially they only carried what they needed and that was the case notes, a laptop and clothing. Altogether it was a fairly light and travel easy way of life.

The desk clerk seemed to know exactly who she was before she even spoke and he wordlessly gave her a key, she nodded to him in acceptance before leaving. A tip landed on his desk as she walked away.

The lift was new and clean. There was a silver sheen to the metal that could only be achieved with meticulous cleaning and she didn’t see a need to damage it by touching it. Standing with a backpack on one shoulder and a small suitcase in her hand she stood in the middle of the lift and waited for the lift to stop.

It opened out to a corridor. There was no sound to acknowledge its new location and she was tempted to laugh, they were a fair way from cities now and she was lucky that this place knew what a lift was. Hefting the bag into a better position on her shoulder, she lugged the suitcase to the new room, opening the door with the appointed key.

The room was spacious and would serve as their new base of operations until further notice. It seemed that whatever happened until the case was solved would most probably revolve around this room.

Liz set the suitcase down and threw her backpack onto one of the two beds in the room. They were both queen-sized and she felt comfortable knowing exactly which bed was hers. They had settled long ago who would take which bed, and it never troubled her.

Opening her backpack, she took out a change of clothes and her pyjamas. Under that were her toiletries and a small book her mother had given to her when she was a child. It was a spell book and it held the simple spells that were unique to her type of magic. Sal had her own book but their magic ran in different circles and could never mix.

They had tried once, when they were both still rookies, and they had never tried again. It was worse than a hangover and didn’t have the benefit of being drunk before it. Though rumours did say that certain types of magic mixed, it was obvious theirs never would. That was made more obvious when Liz had realised that she was gay and Sal had comforted her. Of course Sal had then gone to set her up with all the lesbian friends she had ever met.

As comforting as it was that Sal still accepted her, it was slightly daunting to have a blind date almost every night of the week. It was after an extremely disturbing date that Sal had finally stopped trying to set Liz up, but it was obvious that she still cared about her.

Sal’s sexuality was somewhat more definitive. She had met a perfect man during one of their jobs, but he had turned out to be an absolute sleaze and Liz had kicked his ass to make him understand that she didn’t like him. What it did show was what Sal’s magical mix was and though they had yet to meet another man with the same type of magical mix, Sal was hopeful.

Liz felt a wry smile on her face and instantly dropped it back to an impassive look. She could feel sorry for herself later; this was neither the time nor the place for her to think about her love life, or lack thereof.

With her bag unpacked, she opened up the suitcase on the spacious ground between the two beds. Taking out her laptop first, she set it up in the near power point and let it load. She pulled out a small device after that and set it on one of the bedside tables. Flipping a small switch on the side, she let it scan the entire room to make sure it wasn’t bugged; magically or otherwise.

When it gave a small blip to indicate it was done, she checked the screen to make sure there was nothing before repeating the process for every room in the suite they were given. It didn’t take long to complete the task and the only camera she found was in the shower and it was obviously done by amateurs, which only made her role her eyes at men and their perverted ways.

Logging into her laptop she began to open the necessary files for this case and began to read. They needed info and they needed it fast, whatever was happening had been happening for a while and it was obvious the enemy was way ahead of them.

When the door opened to reveal a smug Sal holding a folder, some take away and her own backpack, Liz had just finished reading the info from the laptop and was about to start on the file that the agency had given them.

“How’d it go?” asked Liz, barely sparing a glance from her file.

“It went well, though considering you’re off the comp I believe you went well too,” said Sal, unpacking her bag as well. It was similarly equipped, a change of clothes, a set of pyjamas, toiletries and her spell book.

“What’d you find?” Liz asked, setting another sheet into the ‘read’ pile.

“Your family is more than helpful and it’s a pity you didn’t want to see them. They miss you,” said Sal. Liz ignored the comment and just continued to read. It was one thing that Liz had never told her. The reason why Liz had joined the agency and the reason she had left her family, her home, to do so.

“Here’s the info they gave,” said Sal after a minute of frigid silence. She handed the folder over to Liz and then set about organising the food.

“Thanks,” muttered Liz, and it referred to more than just the folder. Sal nodded wordlessly. Whatever had troubled Liz was still a sore point in Liz’s life and something Sal had never pushed.

“Food time,” said Sal cheerfully. Liz just quirked her eyebrow and looked at Sal with something akin to disbelief.

“You don’t honestly think I didn’t know that you haven’t eaten since this morning right?” asked Sal incredulously.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Liz. Sal just pointed out the window to the setting sun. Liz blinked at it and then looked somewhat sheepish. She always forgot to eat and it was lucky Sal was here or she’d never remember to eat.

Sal handed her a container and then grabbed her own. They sat surrounded by the file notes and Sal noticed that there were three piles on the bed. One was obviously for unread things because the folder she just gave Liz was in it and one was the read pile because it was on top of the laptop, but the third pile was stacked fairly neatly and was still very small.

“Not much info?” asked Sal, staring at the small pile as if it was insulting her.

“It’s been condensed, most of the stuff is old news and we already know it from other cases, but this is the stuff that’s different from other cases,” explained Liz. She shovelled another forkful into her mouth as her appetite emerged. Despite being slight, Liz still ate a whole lot more than Sal though Sal was somewhat fleshier than Liz.

“What’s in it?” asked Sal. Her container was empty and she was simply sipping at her juice now.

Liz handed her the stack and went back to eating heartily. Sal started reading and soon lost herself. There were references to other cases they had done and it didn’t take long for the picture of this new case to paint itself, and what she saw wasn’t something she liked.

Somewhere along the lines Liz had cleaned up the food and had gone through the pile of unread info, writing up some more notes through the process. Sal watched her friend put everything away.

“Something’s missing isn’t it?” asked Sal, somewhat perplexed at Liz’s packing. There were still some holes in everything and though all the evidence pointed to one thing, something was still missing from the equation.

“What?”

“This isn’t everything. Shouldn’t we be researching until we know everything?” Sal reiterated.

“I know everything,” replied Liz cryptically.

“Care to tell me?”

Liz looked at Sal and then nodded slowly. She picked up all the notes that they had deemed important and put it into a separate folder. Silence reigned whilst Liz seemed to wait for something. Sal didn’t want to push and realised exactly what was missing.

The last piece that was missing was a memory.

And here's another part...