Chapter 7

He hadn't even realized he'd closed his eyes, but he must have, because the next thing he knew Kyle was waking him up with concern in his eyes.

They were nearing the closest stop to Lauren's, when he went to get up his calves nearly gave out, then he began to hobbled off the bus resolutely, but when he got to the ridiculously tall stairs at the exit and realized he had to step down, he thought FML with a sigh.

He got off the bus like an old man and followed Kyle at a much slower pace. When they got to Lauren's he noticed the spider had rebuilt his home from the attack of the delivery man and for some reason it made him smile. If Mr. Spider could recover, so could he.

When Lauren let them in Trav noticed not everyone was there yet. It would appear Kyle and Travis were early. Everyone else had probably gone home for dinner first, and at the thought of food his stomach growled noisily.

Lauren must have heard it, because she offered to make them all some Chef Boyardee Ravioli. It was one of his favorite can foods which made him smile and think: okay so it was the best and the worst day you've ever had, but if shitty canned ravioli is the icing on the cake of your shitty day; then was it really all that bad?

"Hey, Lauren do you mind if I have two; I really worked up an appetite today?"

In reply she simply cupped his face with her tiny palm, and looked him deep in the eyes with as much love as she could convey and said," Nope I'm making you three. You look like you could use it."

Hell yeah he thought his day was certainly looking up. He'd scarfed down all of it and crashed so hard on one side of the couch next to Liv, Marley, and Ray that it bounced up comically with the three of them on it. He'd meant to sit down more delicately. He knew he had a tendency to launch people into the air if he didn't, but he had no strength left in his thighs to do it slowly.

Everyone had laughed for quite some time over it and it was the best therapy he could have asked for. His friend's laughter healed all his wounds.

When everyone stopped giggling like school girls Xander said much to their delight, "I've got a handle on the Gorgon."

And with that being said, he passed around his phone. It was opened to a Tinder profile of a beautiful blonde woman. From his spot he could see that she looked like she might be old enough to be in college, but as he pointed out before that meant nothing in his world.

When the phone finally came to him he let out a low whistle. She really was quite the looker, and he was rethinking his objections, when Kelly grabbed the phone out of his hand and looked at the blonde with contempt.

Lifting one eyebrow she gave Xander a hard stare, "Since when do you have a tinder profile loverboy?"

Several kids winced, a couple sucked in a breath, and most of them started looking anywhere but in her and Xan's direction. All he could think was: Awkward!

Xander snatched his phone back from her and said, "Since I heard the rumor that the gorgon we've been looking for is on Tinder."

"Oh . . . "she muttered before sitting back down on the floor next to Donnie who wasn't in his Russian Blue cat form today.

"I hope you don't mind: I took the liberty of swiping right already and she's messaged me. I've set up a coffee date for nine tonight. And Connor no worries I'll take the bullet here. Okay I know she's obviously glamoured, but what can I say I've got a thing for blondes." He pointedly looked at Kelly then.

Everyone looked at each other after he said it with an ooooh . . . snap . . . you've been burn look on their faces.

"I've also got the skinny on Liam's crew."

Everyone sat forward in their seats in anticipation.

"Okay let's start with his second in command so to speak. We refer to him as whitey, but his real name is Jay Frost. They call him Frost though. He's an Icelandic Ice Elemental, originally from Nome, Alaska. He has no magical parents or human ones either. He's a foster like a lot of us. Apparently he was considered an extremely troubles kid so when he came here he was put directly into the night program."

"Here's what we know about his powers: he can manipulate water into ice and snow. He can form ice wall shields to protect him and the other members of the crew, he can form ice into weapons and scariest of all he can freeze the blood in your veins with the touch of his hands, but only if it is flesh on flesh. Obviously his weaknesses include fire and possibly electricity. He's not a magic wielder."

"The girl we refer to as Red is a Xaphan Demon: they're known for stoking the fires of hell. So yeah she'd very much like a fire elemental, but much more indestructible. Her demon father's a low rent criminal here in San Fran, she was born here so she knows the territory well. He originally named her Esh-baal, but her human name is Haydn Fury, the other members of Liam's crew just call her Fury."

"Her power as we know is the ability to wield fire. She can create fire seemingly out of thin air but really she uses the friction that can be created through kinetic energy. She's the opposite of frost she can burn you to cinders with her touch and I think we all remember the little trick she pulled at the Yule Ball. She can obviously travel through the flames of a fire and bring others with her. Her weaknesses are water and cold. She does not wield magic."

"They can all take human form, but Red can't disguise her demon eyes. So in human form she has to wear dark glasses."

"The next member of the gang is the one we refer to as blue, the Aswang. Her name is Lily Torres. She's originally from the Philippines, but she travelled to the US with her human grandmother when she was young, but she died several years ago leaving her without a guardian. No other family members wanted her, possibly, because they know what she is."

Her powers are plentiful and scary AF. An aswang is one part shifter -- she can shift into all kinds of animals: birds, cats, dogs, bats and boars. There may be others we're not aware of so be on the lookout for animals acting strangely. She's also one part witch, as well, she can cast spells and disappear using her ability to become paper thin."

"I wouldn't mind that one," Brenna said with a snort. Which made several of the girls laugh and intone, "tell me about it."

But Zach gave them a look and they sat back to listen.

She can also create doppelgangers out of her victims using trees or plants. They act like humans but waste away over time. She's also one part vampire as well. We all saw what she can do. She is able to suck the life force from her victims from a distance. There are only two ways to kill an Aswang otherwise they are virtually indestructible. With a whip made of a sting rays tail . . .

Xander threw up his hand at Kyle who looked like he was going to say something . . .

And said, "you can hold your Steve Irwin joke, because your about ten years too late for it.

Kyle groaned and sat back.

Xander continued, "The sound of a whip will actually scare an Aswang as well. So Liv you'll be one of the best weapons we have against her. The other way to kill it is to cut its head off"

"Let's see," Xander racked his brain for more, "They're repelled by religious items, crosses rosaries, and holy water that sort of thing and apparently they can't step on consecrated ground. Like churches and graveyards and such."

"There's also an amulet called an agimat that will protect you from them." Xander looked at Brenna as their resident protective charms maker.

"I'm on it, "she assured everyone with a look.

"Yeah I think that's everything which just leaves the Dogir."

"The official shifter on Liam's crew is a yellow eyed Nubian Dogir. That's a jackal shifter. His name is Bashar Sirhan. They just call him Bash. He's originally from the Sudan but moved her with his mother in 2011 when a bloody uprising erupted in his county. They originally moved to Texas before coming here. His Islamic family was not well received in the Lone Star State. They moved to San Fran before he was enlightened. He has a human mother and five human siblings. There's no magical parent in his life."

'He shifts into a Jackal, the fastest, strongest and biggest Canine shifter on the planet."

Quinn began to growl then apparently taking offense to what Xan said, but he calmed down when Lauren started rubbing her hand in circles on his back. He actually looked like he was about to throw himself down on his back on the floor for a belly rub, which was something that didn't escape Zach's notice.

Because he cleared his throat and said," Xander what about their leader? What do you know about him?"

"Well I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley that's for sure." Xan snorted.

"Some of us already have," Quinn quipped.

Travis saw the look on Lauren's face when they brought up Liam. He could tell this was a discussion she didn't want to have. Who could blame her really, if his brother went rogue – killing people at the drop of a hat-- he wouldn't want to talk about him either.

"Well as we all know Liam is a Halfblood Fae -- part Dryad and part Tuatha de Danann -- who spent most of his childhood in a dark dimension thanks to the council. Which he's none too happy about. He has some serious magical abilities in his arsenal. He can teleport anywhere. The rumor is that he can do it at will, travel to any dimension and any time, and with any number of people. He wields magic like no one his age, and with his dryad abilities he's also able to command the trees and plants around him. There's not a spell he can't cast. In summation he's a scary MOFO, that not even the council can find or take down."

"Wow! Thanks that's more than I expected. Good work." Zach congratulated Xander on a job well done.

Xander just chuckled and said, "Don't thank me, thank the colossal rumor mill at school. I couldn't have done it without it."

Everyone chuckled. They knew how bad the gossip mongers were at school. A girl could wear a baggy shirt one day and by the next day she would have been impregnated, given birth to twins, who promptly went off to join the circus.

Zach turned his attention on Cameron and Travis, "I hear Cam took some samples to try and figure out what the liquid at the club was: where are you at with that?"

"I'm waiting on some results, but so far I've got bupkis, nada, and a whole lotta zilch. Sorry guys. If I don't have anything by tomorrow, I'm handing the samples over to Knight."

Cam turned on his spot on the floor to address Travis, "and I might need more if that's okay?"

Travis didn't like the idea of being poked with a needle again, but he liked the idea of having some foreign liquid in his body that could be a ticking time bomb if not address even less. So he nodded his head yes.

He couldn't hide a huge yawn though to punctuate his statement. He was so tired, he was literally run off his feet, he thought as he chuckled inwardly.

Everyone seeing him do it followed suit until it reached their impromptu leader who called an end to the meeting with a promise to meet again on Wednesday to finish up the charms for the weapons.

He and Kyle had their volunteer evenings on Tuesday and Thursday so it would have to wait until then.

Travis and Kyle caught the bus home but not before they stopped in at the local 7-11 for chips and chocolate for the journey home. Travis hadn't eaten any of it though he'd been too tired. He fell asleep almost as soon as the bus started moving and never woke up until they got back to Presidio Heights.

Once home he showered taking an extra long time trying to work out the kinks of his stiff muscles, but as soon as he was done he crashed while Kyle read his comics on his side of his room under the low light of his bedside lamp.

Usually they'd stay up talking for hours. Telling each other to be quiet, although inevitably one or the other would speak again, not tonight though, tonight he was exhausted. He fell asleep instantly, but not before he sent a silent pray out to the universe that le Fay forgets he even exists.

If he never saw her again it would be way too soon.

****************** THANKS FOR READING********************

I hope you all liked this chapter.

Do you think le Fay's going to forget all about him?

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