The Man Who Sold The World

“Wasser auf mir, ich befehle dir beruhre mich nicht.” Lenna’s soaked clothes dried instantly. She heard Rome telling Jack White not to move.

Idiot didn’t we told him he is just safe in the devils trap and the goofer dust? Amateurs!

She saw Rome flying over the stage, into a wall. And it looked pretty bad, and more the demon was here his body sizzling in the rain of holy water. She just had a second to realize what a bad idea it was to magically water improve herself. She was the only one not soaked in holy water and she wouldn’t be. And then within a blink it all went black, when she opened her eyes she was trapped in the library. The library she knew just existed in her head. But through the book she still could see the stage and saw Nick Carter falling to the ground.

What the hell?

“Very close Miss Fee.” Snarled a voice.

Lenna’s body started moving without her wanting it. This was bad, very bad. She just gave the demon a meatsuit that increased his powers. But she wasn’t stupid. She always had a theory what would be the best to do in this situation.

Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus omnis satanica potestas…

“This won’t help you. You try this again witch and I do this.”

Lenna’s own blade sliced over her left arm that a small cut appeared.

“I don’t need you alive to use you. So do us both a favor and shut up!”

You are so dead, they all know the exorcism, they…

“I’m in your head, witch. They don’t.”

Lenna had no idea what to do, her safety place in her mind turned into the worst place on earth.



Spell translations:
Water on me, I command you don't touch me.

((I hope that’s okay because I forgot what the plan was, let me know if not Mae or well you know the drill regarding my posts ))

When Rome regained consciousness, things had gone from a pleasantly exciting look-at-us-we're-almost-winning! to a shockingly dangerous holy-sh*t-Lenna's-possessed!

Rome blinked. Rubbed his head.

"Holy sh*t!" he cried. "Lenna's possessed!"

Rome liked to think he handled stressful situations well. In this job, by virtue of being alive meant you kept your cool at least 80% of the time. Lenna was a tough girl, anything he could handle she could--

And it was all his fault. If he hadn't been wearing this stupid anti-possession amulet, he'd be the one being mind-raped right now instead of Elenna, who, no matter what she liked to think to the contrary, it was his responsibility to protect. And he'd screwed it up!

This was awful. This was a nightmare, something far more hellish than an djini could scheme up. This was...

Worse than me being possessed.

"Elenna!" he shouted, dumbstruck, helpless, and just stood there, like an idiot, for what felt like an eternity, as his brain struggled to get over the shock before it could think of what to do next.

Except he wasn't over the shock yet.

Morrigan looked over at Rome and Lenna, now being attacked because the hellhound had left her alone.

"Guys?!" she called, then noticing that Lenna wasn't acting like herself. She was pulling a blade on her own flesh.

She knew she had to do something, but she didn't know what. The only thing that she knew she could do to help was try to hold off the hounds while Rome tried to get Lenna back. She ran toward them, rock salt blazing.

Danila saw the whole thing. Water raining down. The demon screeching in horror. Lenna suddenly drying off. The formerly-possessed body collapsing. And then. . .

"Holy shit! Lenna's possessed!" came crackling over his radio.

Well, wasn't this just dandy? He let off a few rounds at Lenna, watching as they instantly vaporized upon impact.

Well. Great. He looked down to see what their fearless leader had planned now, only to see him. . . frozen in terror? Ugh. This was why pups shouldn't do an old dog's job.

"Romulous," Danila growled, "Pull yourzelf together. These kids need a leader, ant I'm not feeling particularly generous."

Danila dropped his paintball rifle - it was pretty worthless now, apparently - and slung another rifle from his back. A much more real looking rifle. He aimed at Elenna, lining up a shot with her chest. "Elenna, iv you can hear me. . . I'm zorry. . ." he muttered, a single tear mixing with the holy water running down his face.

And then, CRACK! echoed the sound of a high-calibre rifle being fired. The projectile whizzed towards it's mark, embedding itself in her chest, near a cluster of major arteries.

Apparently, magical drying spells didn't work on tranquilizer darts full of holy water. Danila smiled in satisfaction as a scream that only he could fully enjoy sounded across the concert venue, a possessed Elenna Fee reeling in pain from the holy water being injected straight into her bloodstream.

It had taken the assemblage mass of idiocy a lot longer than it should have to realize this was not part of the show and they were now rushing like lemmings for the exits. She could barely make Jack out through the crowd, trying to keep everyone calm and orderly when they hadn't entered that way.

Aly took her rifle and stepped into the Devil's Trap with the lone terrified musician. She felt like cracking him in the jaw for his stupidity. A lot of people were getting hurt because of his selfishness. He put the idiot in idiot savant.

"Stay close to me and do not leave this circle!"

She heard the shot before it registered with her and turned around just in time to see Lenna, what was left of her, fall to her knees. She wanted to run and help the girl, but to do so would leave "moron of the year" unprotected.

The nature of security jobs just sucked.

Rome saw the shots hitting Elenna in slow-motion, but still he stood frozen, unable to stop them: his mouth only opened further in horror. The poor thing was possessed--and now everyone was shooting her! Danila moved the rifle into position like he was moving through molasses. And still Rome couldn't move. But they were going to kill her!

True to form, without thinking, Rome put his head down and sprinted toward her, heedless of the danger, the slippery floor, or all the guns pointed at her, knowing only that what had happened to him couldn't happen to her.

He skidded across the stage and tackled her, just after the tranq dart hit her in the center of the chest. They fell, more by luck than by design, into the center of the devil's trap.

Rome's eyes widened as Elenna--Elenna's body, demon-red-eyed--shrieked and thrashed around, as the holy water burned like it was acid. He remembered, remembered the not-pain, remembered the terror of wondering if the dying thing controlling you would take you down with it.

"Get out of the circle, now!" Rome told the rockstar and Aly.

"But you just said--"

"Now he's trapped! Get out! Quick!"

Rome was painfully aware, as they all scrambled out of the Devil's trap, that the only one who knew any exorcisms was trapped inside her own meatsuit. This was stupid.

He turned to Morrigan and Georgie, the only ones with any hope of knowing something that could help them now. "Do you know any exorcisms?" But without waiting for a reply, Rome ran hell-bent across the stage for Elenna's bag, where he knew she kept loads of books and things...surely one of them would have the exorcism in it?

((A little reminder, because I’m not sure that this is clear for everyone. Hellhounds are not affected by devil’s traps. They can enter and leave them. And wouldn’t the eyes be red because RJ is a crossroads demon?))


Okay the dart did hurt and the water is probably not sterile but this is funny, you are such a baby. It is just water.

“You wanna play games witch?”

But before the demon could do anything they were trapped in the middle devil’s trap.

You won’t get out of this one, I check it myself it is perfect.

“Yes I can’t get out of this, but what about doing this?”

In a so dark unlike-Lenna voice. “Heiliges Wasser in mir verlasse den den Ort an den du nicht gehörst!”

The demon hold up Lenna’s hand to collect the holy water that run out of the little hole that left the dart. With a flick of her hand it splashed just outside on the floor.

“You were saying kids? I have to say the abilities of Miss Fee are very helpful. Not that she actually knows the entire potential of them.”

What the hell. Stop using my powers you have your own.

“Yes but they don’t work while we are in here darling.”

Hey you are a crossroad demon what about a deal? You let them live and I …

“There is nothing in your mind I don’t have access. So you were saying? Maybe that if I burn the stage with your lovely abilities that I get out?”

Damn it. In moments like this I do wish Rome could read my mind.

“This holy water is really annoying, let’s turn it off. Wasser das fällt bliebe stehen!”

Elenna grinned evil in a way she would never grin. “And if you don’t mind I think I have to go. And you see Miss Fee's lovely abilities will help me to get out of this.”



Spell translations:
Holy water in me, leave the place you don't belong!
Water that falls, stay still!

Georgina felt chills running down her spine when she saw the way Elenna grinned. There was something ineffably evil about it that Georgie had a hard time recognizing her own friend. She quickly shot a glance at Rome who had emptied Elenna's bag and flicked through the books, looking for exorcism spells. He almost ripped out the pages. Georgie looked at Elenna who only seemed to transform more with every second. She knew that her friend was still in there, but she seemed to fight against that demon who wanted to take over her entire body. Georgie deeply regretted the fact that she didn't learn enough exorcism spells although her uncle told her she should. She wanted to say something to Elenna but she was so tense that she had troubles finding words at all. She looked at Rome again, hoping he would find an exorcism spell soon, otherwise time was running out. She didn't know how long Elenna would be able to fight against that demon inside of her...or if Elenna could fight it at all.

((Sorry, red eyes, you're right. Continuity error, fixed. Which is okay because I'm the cute one, not the smart one.))

The wind that picked up wasn't helping Rome flick through Elenna's journal, but eventually he found the magic words. Her handwriting was annoyingly neat and clearly legible, written on waterproof paper in pencil, and this page was marked "very useful," dog-eared and looked well-worn and, was that his own name scribbled in the margins?

Whatever.

Rome knew his pronunciation was atrocious, he didn't go to church often enough to be good, but he figured the hellspawned douchebag would know who he was talking to:

"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus
omnis satanica potestas--"

he began, watching Elenna's body twitch and thrash some more, and deriving a sick pleasure from it, even as he grimaced to watch her contort so. If he remembered right, this part shouldn't hurt her...much. He continued,

"omnis incursio
infernalis adversarii, omnis legio,
omnis congregatio et secta diabolica.
Ergo draco maledicte
et omnis legio diabolica
adjuramus te."

A bloodcurdling screech from Elenna made him stop. She looked and sounded terrified, which, because it looked like Elenna but wasn't Elenna, distracted him. He lost his nerve--again. A great time to cave, Remington. You rock.

Rock...

Rome shook himself, as a faint, almost manic-looking smile crossed his lips. He strode across the stage, boldly to the edge of the circle.

He grabbed a microphone.

He felt like he was auditioning for a school play, or reading a speech or something in front of a student body, where the audience was just as nervous as he was. He read again aloud,

"Cessa decipere humanas creaturas,
eisque aeternae Perditionis venenum propinare.
Vade, Satana, inventor et magister
omnis fallaciae, hostis humanae salutis.
Humiliare sub potenti manu dei,
contremisce et effuge, invocato a
nobis sancto et terribili nomine,
quem inferi tremunt."

"Don't do this! Stop!" It took Rome a long moment to realize that the screams were words, that the demon was talking to him. Correction, that the demon was lying. They never said anything that wasn't a lie.

But Rome waited, feeling like the villain pausing to bargain. "You get out of the girl, and we'll talk."

Elenna's face twisted into an evil smile. "We both know I would have been more comfortable inside you, but whose fault is that?"

"Ab insidiis diaboli, libera nos, Domine.
Ut Ecclesiam tuam secura tibi facias libertate servire
te rogamus, audi nos.
Ut inimicos sanctae Ecclesiae humiliare digneris,
te rogamus, audi nos."

"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" The demon continued to screech. S/he was now thrashing around on the ground, skin burning from the holy water, ears burning from the exorcism. The demon started babbling like a torture victim, but somehow, Rome didn't think the Geneva Convention had an precedence here: "Don't do this--you'll bring him here!"

Rome was willing to pause at that. "Bring who here?"

"I'll help you!" it screamed. "Don't do this!"

"Like hell you will!" Rome barked. "Demons lie!" Without waiting another second, Rome concluded the exorcism:

"Terribilis Deus de sanctuario suo.
Deus Israhel ipse truderit virtutem
et fortitudinem plebi Suae.
Benedictus deus. Gloria patri!"

The black smoke that came roaring out of her mouth and nose looked a lot more painful from this vantage point. It swirled above her head in a mini-hurricane before being sucked down through the stage floor to it's resting place in the ninth level.

Rome didn't wait for the smoke to clear before he was in the circle on his knees to catch Elenna before she fell. He scooped her into his arms, checking her for injuries briefly before he just wrapped both arms around her as tightly as he possibly could and held her. After only a few seconds, she woke, gasping, and burst into hysteric tears.

"Whoa, Lennie, easy, easy, it's me, it's okay, it's Romey, the demon's gone." He held her tighter with one arm while the other hand stroked her hair, drying her tears like this would hold back the flood.

"R-rome," she sobbed, "it was awful, h-he--"

Rome buried her face into his chest as he massaged the back of her neck, and rubbed his hand up and down her spine in comforting strokes. "Don't think about it," he ordered. "Try to forget it, baby, don't think about it. Just breathe for me. It's all over now, okay? He's gone, we got him. Don't think about it..." Treating it like a bad dream helped: the memory usually faded if you didn't dwell on it too much.

You know, faded like a bad sunburn, which left behind its own hell-kissed tan. Jesus Christ, how the hell had he let this happen to her?

Lenna tried not to think of everything that happened, but it wouldn’t have been Lenna if she forgot that easily. But she did try to follow Rome’s orders to breathe. She smiled weakly while the tears were stilling running down her cheeks.

“See the charm worked, you didn’t get possessed.”

Lenna didn’t realize that she was holding on to Rome’s shirt and she wouldn’t let go of him. She saw her journal next to them.

“You found my journal; I knew you would safe me. I... he didn’t use me to do anything awful things, did he?”

Don't think about it. Just breathe.

She tried to calm down.

"What happened?"

It was a weird feeling for her not to know what was going on.

Rome was struggling with the thing around his neck.

"You bet it did, chica," he whispered. "And if you think I'm letting you take a bullet for me like that ever again, you got another thing coming," he declared, and threw the offending piece of jewelry across the room.

Elenna tried to sit up, and "HEY!" she began, but he held her to him and cut her off.

"Easy, chica. You didn't hurt anybody, so it's okay. We're just gonna forget about all this and pretend it never happened, you got me?"

"Rome." Aly's voice behind him.

"Gimme a minute," he snapped.

"No, Rome, you don't understand. We have to go now..."

She been distracted with the exorcism--a real exorcism--so she didn't see Jack until he was on the stage pulling her and the musician away. Lenna seemed dazed, but no worse for wear.

Aly shrugged him off, not wanting to leave until she got to the bottom of this.

"Does this mean it's over? We won, tight-pants here gets to continue to be a selfish bastard and make millions off his stolen talent?"

Ramie finally turned her head to the door, a familiar sandy blond head made her heart freeze in mid beat.

She started to pester Rome about leaving and eventually had to do the same thing to him that Jack had done to her.

"Party's over, time to go NOW. Raime moved to help Rome with Lenna but Rome would have no part in it, scooping her up into his arms and carrying her himself. Jack returned to her then, wrapping his arm around her bare waist and moving back to cover their rear. She fell back with him, grabbing her pistol loaded with real ammo on the way, just in case.

Raime didn't stop the force-march until they were well away from the area and there was no sign of the FBI. He ducked them down some sleazy ally and into the back door of a rather questionable dive. She recognized it as an informant nest right away.

"Nice place."

"It serves its purpose." He glared at a hulking tattooed man who she'd felt eying her and Georgie. "I can send someone out to get you both something less, attention grabbing?"

She nodded and rested her head on his shoulder.

Lenna was tight holding on to Rome, she didn’t liked it that he had to take care of her, but for the moment accepted his help. She wasn’t sure how fine she was, but knowing that she didn’t hurt anyone and just her ego was hurt she felt stronger. But she was glad that not everyone made a big fuss about her being possessed. She was a bit embarrassed.

“Did you see what he could do with my powers? That was amazing. I had no idea that this is possible.” She sounded surprised and interested at the same time. Lenna felt calmer now. She looked at Rome, who was still holding her, hoping he wouldn't let go of her.

Danila came into the hiding spot a few minutes later than everyone else, letting his rifle - now loaded with an extended-size magazine of silver hollowpoints - drop to his side. "We veren't followed," he said, with just enough volume to be heard, "Lucky zing your FBI is so horrible at tracking. . ."

He stopped for a moment, taking quick account of their situation, then turned to Rome. "And how is our rezently possessed weetch veeling?"

Lenna didn’t exactly feel better, but… “You shot at me. You bastard, you shot a tranq dart with holy water. That was painful.”

Lenna escaped the surprised Rome and poked Danila evil glaring in the chest. “Why would you be so evil and shoot me?”

She might be small but you shouldn’t get her by the wrong side.

“And I am not a witch. Do you hear me?”

“Elenna!?” Georgie grabbed her from behind. “He didn’t mean any harm.”

Lenna struggled against Georgie but didn’t win against. “But he shot me.”

Lenna pouted.

Rome grabbed Elenna's arm. "She's right, chica, Pops didn't mean any harm, take it easy." He lowered his voice, for her ears only: "You were possessed, remember? And last time I checked, it sucks 100% less to be dead than it does to be possessed, right? Anyway, he was trying to help you, so take a chill pill and sit down, okay?" he added this last bit sternly, before his voice and manner softened instantly to butter. "Can I get you a drink?" Rome looked up at his table and grinned:

"In fact, first, second, and third rounds on me, guys. We just ganked the bad guy, that's another notch on the fuselage, and we gotta toast to that!" He grinned and looked around. This wasn't necessarily his kind of sleazy dive and looked a little too rough to not be paying extra for it, but hey there was a pool table in the corner that purported to have all the balls, ooh, and air hockey!

An old guy fussing with some wires and a large analog TV on a stage in the corner caught his attention.

Rome's eyes sparkled. There was no better way to combine the celebration of a hard day's work and distraction from the cares of said workday than a little good old-fashioned--

"Karaoke!" Rome exclaimed.

Danila walked closer to Lenna, putting a hand to her shoulder. "Elenna," he said, sounding more like a soothing father than his disposition should have allowed, "I zhot at the demon, not at you. Iv I had wanted to harm you, I vould not have used darts, yez?"

He didn't have time to finish his conversation with Elenna before Rome yelled something about. . . singing? Oh, lovely. He was not getting dragged into any of that kind of nonsense. . .

“Fine, whatever.” She turned around to look at Rome.

“You are not serious? I’m not saying no to a drink or you know a couple more drinks like I dunno 10, but singing? What do you want me to sing Disturbia from Rihanna? ”

She was glaring a last time evil at Danila before she walked back to Rome, there were too many guns in the room in her eyes, and looked at her friends one by one.

“Hey guys do you realize that you all are soaked?”

She looked innocent and didn’t mean it in a bad way, she just noticed it.



((I know Disturbia wasn't recorded in 2005 but I wanted to have a song about being possessed and I couldn't come up with anything better. But I'm open for suggestions))

"At least it won't take those two long to dry off," Rome winked at Aly and Georgie, but was luckily out of swinging range as he continued: "And I'm not soaked," Rome grinned, taking off his jacket that was both torn and wet. "I'm just a little wet," he joked, putting his hand to his mouth dramatically: "Oops, did I say that out loud?" He laughed at himself before anyone else had a chance not to.

As he dumped the jacket, tie, and waistcoat in a garbage can, Rome grinned at his teammates. "Okay, ladies and germs, here's the rules: I don't care how many drinks it takes, but as long as you keep singing, I'm buying, so every last one of you is getting up there and singing at least one song. You don't wanna play, you keep your own tab, roger?"

A few of them were rolling their eyes. Oh-ho, they thought he was kidding?

Elenna was still agitated--and with good reason, admittedly--but she needed to be distracted. So even before Aly asked him to put his money where his need to make a fool of himself in public was, he had already turned on his heel toward the small platform.

After a quiet word with the guy setting it up, Rome took his place on the stage--okay, it was basically a soap box painted black--and took the microphone in hand to make his own introduction. There was a brief flash of deja vu to half an hour ago, when it mattered a whole heck of a lot more if he screwed it up, but Rome buried this memory in the closet with the others and grinned at the hostile-to-unfriendly audience.

"Hi, uh, everyone--is this thing on? Hi, my name is, ah, Steve, and I'm going to be singing--what? Why am I all wet? Well, actually, me and my friends over there--" he pointed directly "--we just came from baptism."

That got a laugh from the assembled crowd--more so from his friends, who did not fail to miss the irony--moving the assemblage to unfriendly-to-indifferent range.

"And I would like to sing to you folks a song in honor--even in tribute--to the beautiful ladies I happen to have had the privilege to spend the evening with." A few scattered chuckles, but Rome waxed soulful, partially playfully, but mostly in all seriousness. "You don't know how much you're appreciated. So this song's dedicated to you--hm? Who are the guys at the table? Window dressing."

Again, a good laugh. Indifferent-to-friendly. Heck, he should go professional.

"Just kidding. They're pretty good guys. But this song's not dedicated to them." He shrugged. "Unless they want it to be. So! Without any further ado, I'd like to sing 'Girls, Girls, Girls,' by Mötley Crüe."

Lenna smiled weak at Rome on the stage. He was sometimes really hideous and embarrassing, but hey it made her forget, well he and the three 7 & 7 she downed within the time Rome was singing. He wanted her sing on a stage and have a good time and she would have it. She even laughed about Rome’s bad jokes or whatever they were. She felt rather tipsy at the end of Rome’s song and she was one of the loudest cheering for him. “You are awesome Rome and enjoy way too much the spotlight.”

She giggled and looked younger then she was with her blushed cheeks from the drinks she had.

Don't think about it, him, whatever.

Rome looked at the glasses sitting in front of Elenna and pointedly pinched her rosy cheeks. "Hey, no fair, you got ahead of me!"

The sad thing was, he actually hadn't had anything to drink before he'd done that.

"Okay, chica, my turn to catch up. Your turn to get up there and embarrass me." He winked and pushed her in the direction of the stage and turned to the bar.

The bartender was apparently unimpressed with his performance, and eyed him suspiciously. He reminded Rome of Tex, only a fat, white, male version:

"I think you've had enough already, son."

"What?" Rome laughed, "I haven't had a drop tonight, officer, swear to God."

"Yeah. I think that's the problem."

"Alright, Slick," Rome said, slapping down a $100, "I got some celebrating to do, so gimme a hardball, and make it a triple. And use your top shelf whiskey."

"What the hell is that?"

"A hardball? What? You've never made a hardball? God, what kind of dive has Jackie-boy taken us to? Whiskey and ginger ale, man, it's not hard. I'd even take soda water at this point. Can we make it snappy, though? I gotta see the next performance. Oh, and start this as a tab for my table. Um, better make it two. And this one's for you," he said, adding a third Benjamin Franklin to the counter.

"These fake?"

"No, I get them selling crack," Rome said, taking his drink and returning to the table just as Lenna stumbled giggling up onto the stage.

Lenna half fell half walked on the stage.

Why does Rome get me always in situations like this.

“Hi all. I’m not as funny as Steve was, I’m pretty unfunny but I’m cute. And I just had an outer body experience, anyone who wants to help me to feel I’m back in my body I’m sitting at that table with all my lovely freak friends. I love you guys.” Lenna waved how just a drunk person could wave to her friends, her grin looked as if she finally lost her mind.

“Anyway, I’m singing well for me.” Lenna smiled and sticks her tongue out cheeky. “A pretty new song, and my friends always make fun of me. But I had the choice between Barbie girl and this song and Barbie girl should sing our Barbie girl.” Lenna stumbled over, well her own feet. “Oopsy daisy I nearly fell down.” Said the drunk hunter giggling. “Oh and the song is called I Always Get What I Want from Avril Lavigne.” The music started and with Lenna’s drunk voice. Normally she wouldn’t sound too bad.

When Elenna started singing Georgie couldn't stop giggling. She wasn't as drunk as her friend who stumbled across the stage while barking into the microphone, but she wasn't that sober either. The people in the bar watched Elenna with a grin and cheered as if she was some sort of famous rock star. Georgie hoped her friend wouldn't run over to her and force her to sing as well when she got done with her performence. She didn't mind dancing, but singing...that was a different story. She didn't want to think of the countless embarrassing moments when she found herself in that situation. Lenna looked at her and waved. Georgie knew what her friend wanted to tell her. She was going to be next. Georgie shook her head but started laughing again while she watched Elenna jumping around the stage.

Lenna came back to the table, just for three reasons. First finish her drink in one gulp.

“You surprise me sometimes Romeo. I can’t remember when we had last so much fun.” Said Lenna while she gave Rome a hug and a wet kiss on his cheek.

“Come on Georgie, it’s your turn. You have a couple of songs to choose from.”

“You are not serious?” Georgie looked still giggling at her.

“Deadly. Come on it will be fun. If you want I can sing with you. Actually no wait you should sing alone. I wanna have another drink.” Lenna got closer to Georgie and whispered in a not very quiet whisper. “You know Rome is buying and that means we don’t have to pay Richie Rich is paying for us.”

“Maybe you should have some water in between?” Georgie look a little concerned at Lenna who was grinning like a manic.

“I was possessed; a very old dead guy was in me I deserve a drink. But when you sing I gonna have a coke just for you baby.”

“I hate you.”

“I know you do just like me. And you are forgetting the shopping trip I promised you.” Lenna pushed her up the stage and announced her in her lovely drunk way. “And now my dear friends, the one and only Aurora and she is singing well it is a surprise for you and for her. Enjoy the show.” Lenna was about to leave the stage when a couple a guys just moved their table closer to it. “Hey, jerks touch her and you are dead!” She glared daggers at them until they moved their table back to where it was before. The music started and in the background of the stage the original music video was playing. Lenna got just as she promised a coke, but didn’t mention the rum in it and sat down at the table, satisfied smiling.

“I always know what’s good for G. Anyone else wants me to pick a song?”

Agent Holyfield was pissed.

His own men didn't want to come near him. And if he saw that good for nothing rent-a-deadbeat-detective Raime or any of his boys, he'd make sure they never saw the light of day. Ever.

Agent Holyfield was a changed man since he'd last followed the Remington case. Now he understood what was out there. He had been given a new job. A new name, even, which he used when he wasn't impersonating an FBI agent, in which case his old one served.

He knew what these people did, or were trying to do. Oh, it all sounded very heroic, a sort of vigilante service protecting innocents from evil. But, like all amateurs, they were careless. Collateral damage was only a matter of how much, not if; and they never made any effort to silence leaks, which was a populous control problem. God, they were like anarchists.

And intelligence reports told him Remington and his crew weren't even entirely normal themselves....

"Sir," one of his men jogged over, and held something up in a plastic bag. "We think it's one of theirs, sir. The pentagram is right-side up. It's a protection amulet."

"Demon activity," Holyfield nodded. "That fits. Okay, send that to the lab, I want it analyzed."

"Sir, the mediums are still unreliable--"

"Well then make them reliable," Holyfield hissed.

"And there's an intact DT here, sir, and traces of sulfur."

"So they took care of one of our problems." He laughed grimly. "At least these freaks have some use. Make sure Mr. White doesn't leave town, I'll want to debrief him."

"Sir."

"And have our people watch the roads out of town. Put up a roadblock if you have to. Don't let them leave Jackson! And I want them alive!"