Can Anybody Find Me?

Chapter 11

Gavin stepped out of the bathroom and knew she had run from him. Lone had run away from whatever it was that they had between them, hoping that physical distance would offer her safety. He sighed and ran a hand through his damp hair, knowing that he shouldn't have pushed her like he had. A Guardian Angel like him was supposed to be the master of a situation, not the other way around. And yet every time he got close to her... she seemed to bring out the primal worst in him. The part that just wanted to take and touch, make her his so no one else could harm her. And he knew, KNEW that if he ever tried something like that, she would run from him and never return.

He pulled on clothes in an angry rush, not really thinking about what he was going to do now. He stormed around the hotel room, trying to resist the urge to go after her when he spotted that his cell phone was flashing at him. He frowned and opened it, realizing there was a text waiting for him.

Got news on your goon. Come to Church? -Roy

The Gargoyle, of course. Gavin had texted the creature asking about what Descended were in the area usually. Neutrals like Roy would often keep track of players from both sides, just to see how serious a situation was. In a city like this, there would be near a hundred Descended easily, and likely more during special occasions. It was the Ascended whom almost never stayed around. Their law required that they interfere as little as possible with the free will of the people. They could offer guidance and abstract assistance, but rarely if ever directly intervened. True, Guardians were allowed to act as he had, because there were times that they had to act despite the consequences. But generally if one of the Ascended felt they needed to be a part of the human world, they would petition the Seraphim and the lucky few would be granted 'physical time'. Gavin's situation was one of the few exceptions allowed, where his physical time here was not restricted by a time limit, and he could stay as long as required for him to do his mission.

The Neutrals were either humans who had been affected or infected by Ascended or Descended, and given a greater part to play in the war between the two. Some of these creatures were lesser denizens from their incorporeal planes that had escaped into the physical world to exist. Roy was a lesser being from the Descended plane, thus his restricted form during sunlight hours. He was one of the few that was willing to talk about the experience and even then he refused to discuss certain aspects of it. He had been a stock soldier they had bred to throw at the gates of the Ascended to wear down the defences. Expendable and unimportant Roy had decided that he would rather live than die needlessly. So he had paid a price of flesh and blood and ended up in this city, bound to one of the Gothic Churches. He could roam the city at will during the twilight hours, but when hte  sun touched his flesh, he would be jolted back to the eaves of his church and stand as a statue. In fact he used that curse to his advantage sometimes, knowing that no matter where he was, all it took was dawn for him to return home.

But Gavin needed a distraction now, and with the sun high in hte sky, Roy would be indisposed of for hours yet. But he now had that creature Lone had stumbled across this morning on his mind. With a frown, Gavin grabbed his coat and headed out, determined to try and unravel what it was that had hunted them down. How had it gotten so close to them without him feeling it? How had Lone known what it was? And how had she disguised them from it? He'd asked these questions of Gabriel, but they needed a more complete description of the creature, and only Lone had seen it.

Gavin slammed the truck into park, jumping out and moving through traffic without pause. Cars blared their horns at him and people cursed his way, but he ignored them and stepped into the alleyways near Lone's apartment. He searched over the maze of interconnecting allys until he found one that was vaguely recognizable. Looking at the area with human eyes gave him nothing, so lowering just a little of his disguise, he looked again, this time with something a little more powerful glowing in his gaze.