Darker London

It was while cleaning the benchtop, her shower-fresh hair hanging wet and heavy on her shoulders, that Nova thought I have got to get my own place.

Sure, the hospital was fine. But it wasn't a home, wasn't any way to have an actual life. And Nova spent all her time in that place, either working or on her downtime. Originally it had made sense: Valentin had reached out and (understandably) terrified her: but it had been years since then, years since there'd been even a glimpse of him.

Honestly, Nova didn't think she was on his radar anymore. Maybe she was wrong but maybe if she was just going to continue hiding away forever, she might as well be in a prison of his choosing anyway.

( Your hands are hard, still warm from when they took me too far. )

Finding instructions to build a pipe bomb was ludicrously easy, so much so that Nova did it while sitting on the toilet at the safe house, scrolling through an instruction page and writing down what she would need. It was still early in the afternoon and there was plenty of time.

So Nova borrowed the van and left the safe house, saying she needed a break. No one would have been surprised - she had spent the last week stalking around like a caged panther with too much energy to burn.

The hardware store stocked everything she needed to make the bomb (criminally easy) and buying it all together didn't even flag her on some sort of register.

( Read more... )

There had been another potential buyer the previous day, and while they had been standing, Razvan had passed out and landed hard on the floor of the cage, his head slamming against the bars. That had earned him punishment by cattle prod, though after they had all been given the smallest amount of food.

Now the captors returned, and signalled for them all to stand again, and Razvan was seriously considering whether or not it was worth it to pretend to faint again. Sure he would be shocked painfully, but if they got more food afterwards- And then the captors said the words which flooded him with relief.

"Stand up again, you pieces of shit. Another buyer coming through." And then, when he was making his way back to the door he said over his shoulder, "this one's a priest. So fucking weird."

Razvan sagged against the bars in relief and he signalled to the others. "It's my friend," he whispered. "He's here, fucking finally. Gonna have to act like I hate him. Safer. But it's my friend. I'll get us out of this."

When Peter heard someone enter his office, he did not expect it to be Serenity Dawson standing there in his doorway. Not that it was an unpleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. "Serenity?" he said, standing to indicate she could sit in his chair if she wanted. "How can I help you?"

Serenity glanced around, and then instead of heading for his chair, she headed for his sofa and collapsed onto it. "Is Razvan here?" she asked, instead of saying hello.

"Razvan? I don't think so. I haven't seen him, at least. Let me check," he said, taking his seat again. After a few quick calls to Katia, Abby, Stuart and Joe, he was fairly sure Razvan was not at the hospital. "No one here has seen him. I can call Nova, but I didn't want to alarm her if someone else had seen him. Is he not home, Serenity?"

Serenity shook his head and chewed on her lip, "not for days. And he's always been a bit hit or miss and I get that, but he texts me. I mean. He texts the stupidest things because he's fucking terrible at it, but he stays in touch, you know? I think we should call Nova," she said thinly.

Peter sighed and keyed her number in.

It had taken months of pretending to be Olivia and Norman Babcock, before any of it paid off. And honestly if 'paid off' meant 'someone disappeared' it didn't really feel like a win. A man from their parish had now been missing for two weeks and the rumour mill suggested that he he had left town with his mistress.

Norman Babcock didn't believe it.

The second the arrived home from church, Razvan closed the door behind them and he dropped the cheery Norman exterior. "We should tell the boss," he said, not even bothering to take his coat off. The plan on reporting in had always been for them to head off to a hotel somewhere and call from there. A married couple heading off on a minibreak was completely normal, and making the call over hotel wifi made it harder to pinpoint to a specific person.

Using the credit cards that had been supplied in her new name (and that she didn't have to worry about paying for), Nova had descended into an online shopping spree for board games and puzzles. She couldn't possibly care less about any of these things, so she tried to pick a large range of things. She probably bought too many, especially considering they weren't going to be playing them. Oh well. Maybe she and Razvan would get drunk some night and really bust them out.

Her first night sleeping in the house had been weird and slightly restless, to the point where she'd grumpily given up on sleep in the early hours of the morning and gone downstairs to watched horror movies on Netflix until Razvan got up in the morning.

( The horror movies were probably a bad idea. )

Razvan felt like an idiot.

He was wearing jeans like some commoner!

They were so scratchy and awful and oh god how did anyone wear things like this?! He had asked Serenity for help and she had found him a t-shirt with some kind of movie reference on it from her closet. There were clothes already in the house Peter had provided for them but he had to get there and apparently he was getting there dressed like this.

And his head was so cold.

He dropped by the hospital, ready to pick up Nova and head out to the town which would be their home for the next however long it took really. There was a car there to pick up as well, registered in their fake names and full of possessions which weren't really theirs. It felt strange to be doing something like this, but he trusted Peter and, perhaps more importantly to Razvan, Peter trusted him.

He wouldn't wear jeans for just anyone.

Squirming to think of Nova's reaction to his new look, Razvan entered the hospital and headed towards her office.

There was a lot of downtime when you worked as a therapist at a small secret supernatural hospital, so one had to find ways to fill the day. Nova, personally, took great delight in her mission to absolutely destroy youth slang for the teens in the hospital by using it as often as possible in their presence.

While they were all gathered around in the bouncy castle she slapped the top of it and stated "this bad boy can fit so many demons inside it", before walking away.

She sidled up next to them as Connie was disemboweling a bird and said, with a solemn and impressed tone, "what an absolute unit."

In the dining hall she walked past while Bentley was complaining about something and said, seriously, "we live in a society."

She would have done a Fortnite dance by now, but even Nova had a level of shame she couldn't sink to, even to embarrass children.

She did tell the boys that Connie had more Big Dick Energy than them though.

It was a wonderful pastime and she had them stored up and waiting for the exact right moment. She'd had to let a few go, the meme too old to have the same effect. No, Nova needed them oven fresh to really wreck the kids.

God, she was such an amazing role model.

Nova had gotten herself all gothed up for the night, wearing a skintight trousers and shirt combo that fell somewhere between supervillain chic and mad max-lite. Her hair was drawn back severely and her make up was no less severe. It was all both to help her blend in with these weirdos, and to act as somewhat of a disguise. It certainly wasn't what she looked like most days, nor was it what she looked like when usually coming to these things. Usually at these vampire balls Nova was just playing herself and her only motive was blood. These places were a buffet as well as being - and she would never admit this to anyone else - intensely erotic. Nova couldn't help it: there was blood everywhere! Being offered up to her by beautiful young things, playing along at whatever game they were there for. Nova didn't ask questions, nor did she judge them.

Not much anyway.

Nova strode up the drive to Razvan's house, stilettos taller than she was used to but not too bad to navigate with. She may just have to keep a little more focused.

She rang the bell and awaited her prince charming.

Peter gathered the necessary items on his desk and he squared them perfectly in the centre, all lined up beside his pencils. If Peter was anything, he was extraordinarily neat for no reason at all. He wanted the papers all ready so it would be harder for Nova and Razvan to refuse his proposal, though that was just a little underhanded. The mission he needed to send them on was just too important-

Clearing his throat, he pressed the red intercom button and tried to speak with authority, "could Razvan Dumitra and Nova Montaigne please come see the hospital director in his office asap?"

Down in her office, Razvan pulled away from kissing Nova as if she'd bitten him on the nose. "Are there fucking cameras in here?!"

She had said she was dating him and Razvan wasn't entirely sure what to say to that. It was a strange concept, dating. He was dating someone? As far as he knew, they were just fucking.

He stuck his head around the door of her office, knocking lightly as he did so. "Can I come in?"