Burn Amongst Humanity [D. Hale ]

|CVIII|

"Said the Spider to the Fly"
________________________________

Derek had been forced to leave again after a street camera, had caught him in town and now that he was gone, Casey was effectively a single parent... again. Talia was attempting to teach Laura and Julian how to play patty-cake, but the children at almost 7 months old were just not getting it yet. The nine year old girl was becoming a big help for Casey, who watched proudly as her three kids were playing together. Well, at least sort of anyway.

Casey's phone beeped and she pulled it out of her pocket and she smiled at the sight of yet another message from Tye, who was on shift at the Sheriff's station and he was training under Jordan Parrish, as Casey chuckled quietly.

- Tye "Moonie" Hale -

Case_BH: "You had better not be pissing off Jordan again, T. I can only do so much, to prevent them from firing you before your training is done."

Moonie: "Can you just please change my name? I hate being called Moonie!"

Case_BH: "Well, it's either Moonie or Padfoot."

Moonie: "I never should have introduced you to Harry Potter."

Case_BH: "Live and learn, Tyler, live and learn."

Moonie: "My name is Tye!!"

Case_BH: "Not legally, it ain't."

--------------------------------

Casey exited out of the chat with a smile and she was shaking her head at the picture for her cellphone's lock-screen saver, as it was a picture that Beatrice had taken. It was her and Derek holding the twins, with Talia standing in the middle with a bright grin. It had taken them about five tries to realize that the photograph wasn't working, because of Talia's and Derek's eyes that were triggering at the flash. Finally, they had taken the photo without the flash and that was the one that they chose to use.

Casey looked at the kids and smiled a bit, until she heard creaking footsteps behind her.

Casey grabbed for her gun, spun around and nearly shot Theo immediately, who now had his hands in the air at once.

"Don't shoot!" Theo said at once as Casey stared at him with a glare, before she lowered the gun and she turned the safety on. "Sorry." He said and Casey put her gun in the holster on the side of her leg.

"Don't do that. What are you even doing here?" Casey questioned.

"Beatrice is helping me fix my truck, sort of." Theo said as Beatrice yawned and she casually hopped over the railing to land on the floor. "You ready?"

"Yeah, let's get to work." Beatrice suggested and Casey looked between the two and she was shaking her head as they left the building.

Casey knocked on the wall, three times and then twice more, three times with three minute intervals.

At the familiar pattern of sounds agreed upon long ago, Beatrice came back into the loft as Casey looked over her shoulder at Talia, who understood as she took both of the twins upstairs.

Carrying Laura on her front in a baby-carrier and Julian on her back in another, as she went upstairs and Casey looked back to Beatrice. "What is the look on your face? What do you know, that you haven't told me?" She asked and Casey nodded slightly.

"If you really think, that you know what you are getting into... Then you should go." Casey had punched the words into her phone and Beatrice scoffed at the words. "You think that I'm kidding?"

"Would you have left town back then with Derek and Laura, if you had not been in the hospital?" Beatrice countered.

"My mother had gotten herself admitted to Eichen, my father was imprisoned for multiple counts of arson and murder, my grandma was the one who signed my requested emancipation. You already know my answer to that, you knew before you even asked the question."

"Right. Your family life was hell and your grandmother was taking care of Talia. Would you take it back? Would you go back and change it, so you could have been the one to raise her instead?" Beatrice asked as Casey was looking over her shoulder, seeing that Talia was sitting down real quietly on their spiral staircase, listening.

"I would burn the whole damn world down, if I could go back and change the past to raise my own daughter." Casey said and she looked back at Talia, who was coming down the stairs as Casey's phone beeped.

~~~~~~~

That had been weeks ago, while, today Casey hadn't realized how late it was getting and she left Talia and Beatrice to put the twins to bed, as Casey drove off toward the high school.

Casey stopped the car, shut it off and she ran into the high school in front of her with a bunch of assorted weapons on her person, as usual.

"Casey!" She heard Liam shouting at her, as she swung around the corner to where she heard the roaring from and Casey skidded to a stop at the sight of the other hellhound, who was very clearly not Parrish. "Casey, help!"

Casey raced into the fight and she grabbed for a knife, as she lunged for the Hellhound. Casey jumped at him using the lockers for leverage and he roared, catching the knife in his hand and she was flung across the hallway.

He left Liam alone and he lunged for her but something made him stop and she looked up at him, feeling much more pain from the fact that she had just been tossed around casually from a hellhound, rather than the actual pain from hitting the locker. "Who are you?" The hellhound asked and Casey was looking at Liam.

"Her name is Casey Branson." Liam explained and Casey narrowed her eyes at the hellhound, as she was signing. "She asked if your name was..."

"Do you know who I am?" Casey nodded and she willed herself to be prepared for the pain this time.

"Halwyn. You're Halwyn." Using her voice felt like there was bits of glass in her throat, as she coughed. "You built Eichen." She rasped and she was shuddering as the pain once again was clear.

"Your voice. The two fires that I heard about..." Halwyn connected the dots and Casey nodded weakly at the words.

Halwyn rested his hand on her arm and Casey's eyes widened and Liam roared. "Casey!" Casey looked over at Tye, whose eyes were glowing red.

"Tye, don't!" Casey was swiftly hit with shock by the lack of pain in her throat when she shouted, but Tye was already lunging at Halwyn. "STOP!" It was a true scream and Tye stopped at the word as Halwyn was suspiciously looking at Tye. "He is hunting something, it is none of us! He is a hellhound, he is one of the guardians of the supernatural!" She explained as Tye's claws went away and, so did his fangs and eyes.

"Sorry." Tye said and Halwyn was nodding. "Did you give her, her voice back?" He asked.

"I did what I could. I absorbed the burning pain, she should be able to speak." Halwyn explained and Casey had gotten up onto her feet.

"Thank you, Halwyn." Casey murmured softly, still unused to having her voice back and he was nodding. "Off to hunt?" She asked.

"Off to hunt." Halwyn declared and he took off as Tye looked at Casey and she nodded.

"Go." Casey murmured and Tye took off running after Halwyn to help him and Casey walked over to Liam. "You need a hand?"