Those That Dare

Lucifer looiked down at Raven. The scent was strong but something did not feel right. She did not seem surprised to see him. It was as if she had been expecting him. Then the way she spoke. There came a deep growl in his throat and a snarl on his face. He launched himself back up into the air, his powerful wings driving him upward at a fast pace toward dark clouds that were again forming for a storm.

Nathan didn't like waiing and made his way to the roof and stood on the stairs hearing Raven pacing about. He didn't want to disturb her or what she was doing. But if things did go as she planned perhaps he could use his tranq gun to take her target down. Would be less bloody and dangerous. He was getting to like her so he didn't want her getting hurt. He heard the flaping of wings and the thud of someone landing.

He had the tranq gun out, ready to move at the first sign of trouble. But there was no trouble, but the beating of wings again. He saw a figure rise into the air, a male and he was climbing fast into the night sky, towards storm clouds. He was out of range in seconds.

Raven remained where she was as she allowed Lucifer to smell her out. It didn't take him long to realize he was being led and he was soon taking to the air again, but by then, Raven had all she needed and more. The entire time he had been there, he had been close enough that she could breathe in his scent without any trouble. It was musky and strong. A true male smell that any female would die to be covered in. And Raven took every advantage to take it in.

Once he had gone again, Raven took one last deep breath and smiled. "I can see why she's so smitten." She said openly, "I wouldn't mind climbing that a time or two myself." She made her way to the door, shaking off any remnant of the powder until she could smell herself again. It was now that she smelled her own true scent and almost shuddered. "Oh dear." Raven had the sudden realization that she had just done something incredibly dangerous and even more incredibly stupid.

After a moment or two to calm down and mask as much of the smell as possible, she opened the door to find Nathan stood there. Her face paled and she lifted her brow, "Please tell me you weren't about to do something monumentally idiotic?".......

He grinned and shugged his shoulders. "It was an idea, but I guess I will never know if it would of worked." He turned around as soon as he began to smell the scent. It would not do him any good to get that scent. It was much like the one she had put on. He had no real idea of what it would do but she had warned him earlier.

"So what now?" he asked. "He flew away and will be hard to track. Also now he knows that you were setting a trap for him, he will probably grab your daughter and begone from the city."

Argo approached as they got back down to the bar. He looked at Raven a questioning look on his face. "Did you have success? What happened?" he asked.

Lucifer flew high and then when satisfied he was not being followed made his way back to his lair but by ways that he hoped would confuse any that might be trying to follow. Once he got there he looked at Melisa and then said, "We have to leave immediately. It was a trap and I don't want anything happening to you." he reached a hand to her face and caressed it. "Pack what we need and we will move on to the next location."

Raven moved down the stairs and cocked an eyebrow at Nathan. She looked at his tranq gun again and sucked her fangs. "Clearly, you didn't understand me the first time." She said. "As good as that might be at bringing down a vampyre or a lycan, it's no good with my kind. I told you already, to me, it's a slight sting that would piss me off. The males of my species are twice the size and tripple strength. You shoot him with that and he's just gonna laugh at you then rip your arms off." She moved into the bar and regarded her son carefully.

He looked at her and asked her if it had worked. She half nodded, "Yes and no." She told him. "He didn't fall for the powder, but I can still track him. I got a good headful of his scent so it won't be hard to pick up on him. If he's smart, he'll be packing up his brood and moving on, but we have some time. He'll want answers that only I can give him." She then moved around the bar and took up a bottle of bourbon. She poured a heavy shot and drank it back. She then looked in the mirror behind the bar and growled lightly in her throat. Her skin was already beginning to pale. "It might be a while before we can go after them." She turned her head one way, then the other. She couldn't go chasing after him if she was on every male radar within a hundred miles. Her mind then went back to the last time it happened.

She had been on a hunt for a good few months and the vampyre she was hunting had been particularly evasive. She had tried to ignore the change and mask the scent, but the change had come stronger than ever. Everywhere she went, men began to follow her, human and abnormal alike. Even the vampyre she was hunting had been moving in. The whole thing had resulted in 30 people dying because she wouldn't give up. Not this time.

After pouring herself another drink, Raven turned around in the mirror and spread her wings out. She was looking for the scent patch. It would be a luminous purple spot right between her shoulder blades. That was the first physical sign of it. She could see the beginnings of it and scowled......

Nathan stood back and looked and saw the small patch. "Yep you are not going anywhere anytime soon." he had to stand back more and cover his nose and mouth with a handkerchief. "You are going to need alot of help to track this one." he looked over at Argo. "I have contacts about the city that will let me know if anything strange is noticed. I think a couple of your kind flying about might be noticed by someone." he went into another room, an office and began making phone calls.
Lucifer helped with the packing and in a short time the two were flying off into the storm. He wanted to get as far away as possible. The wind would blow his scent away. He had seen her taking it in. She was an old one probably as old as he was. She would come looking but he didn't think it would be for mating. If he was right, she was not wanting him but Melisa. That he would not allow.

Raven saw Nathan covering his face with the handkerchief and almost sighed. Not that it would help much, but he was doing the right thing. She shook her head at him gently, "By the time they start looking up, he'll be long gone." She said. "Any savvy male can pack up his nest and females in a matter of minutes and disappear. And there's a big storm coming. He'll head right into it no-one will be able to track him." She looked at the spot again and growled. "There's some turpentine in the back and some rags. Could you get it for me please?"......

Argo went back to see what he could find, since Nathan was busy. It still was like a dream to him. Finding out his mother was alive, finding a decendent of William helping her and reuniting them. Destiny he told himself, it had to be. He had almost given up hope of finding his sister before something happened to her because of Lucifer. But now he had new faith, new resolve. With his mother he would search the entire world to find her and bring her home. He found what Raven wanted and brought it back in. "It is nice to have a decendent of William to help us." He sighed. "I miss him. He was such a good man and taught Melisa and I so much."

Raven took the can from Argo and looked at him, then Nathan. "You're a decendant?" She asked him. She then balled up a rag and turned the can up on it. Then she reached around and started rubbing at the spot on her back. The scent almost immediately became tolerable again. "This won't last for long." She said, "But it'll give you some time to clear your head a little." She looked at Argo again and smiled lovingly, "I'm so happy that you're alive." She said and reached out to hug him again, "And I'm glad someone was there to protect you and your sister." She shook her head again sadly, "I never once dreamed that you'd survived the fire. I heard you screaming for me and I couldn't......." Fresj tears welled up in her eyes.....

"Sort of a decendent. William was the brother of the Harrigan that is in my direct blood line." Nathan told her.
Argo nodded when she said she heard them screaming for her. "We were until William found the way out and took us to the old cave in the hills. He went back but couldn't do anything to help the others that you were with."

Raven nodded, "I know." She said. "I watched them burn for three days and it took all I had not to go back and burn with them." She sniffed up lightly, "I thought you were dead. I buried you all in the orchard. I couldn't stay after that. I left France. I couldn't bare to watch it happen all over again somewhere else.".....

He held his mother tightly. "But now we have found each other and are together. Soon we will have Melisa back and then maybe we can go somewhere that the christian church will not find us. There are so many places that have land that are uninhabited and far from civilization."

Raven nodded, "I know." She said. "There's a small island off the west coast of Hawaii. People don't go there. They think it's haunted and it's a dead zone so there's no technology. It's as safe as can be. I wasn't going to use it until Moira was ready to leave, but she'll just have to make her choice."......

Nathan listened and shook his head. He didn't think the Church and it's hunters would give up to easy on taking her, or any of her kind. Especially an island that close to a place tourests loved to go to, surfers, divers, para gliders and the like. Some would see something, report it and then the place would be crawling with hunters. One of his contacts called back. "Something strange going on over at the Old Church on 82nd Street. An old woman said she saw two angles fly up out of it." He hung up the phone. "Got a lead." he said

Raven tuned her ear slightly as Nathan's phone rang. She heard what was said and instinctively knew the old woman had seen her daughter and Lucifer. She had been to that old church many times, but had never found others living there. It had been a few years though. Nathan finished his call and annouced they had a lead. Raven nodded, "I'll send squeak and the watchman to check it out." She offered, "They won't warrant as much attention as two rather large men with guns under their coats." She looked him up and down and then Argo. "Ok, maybe one rather large man and one growing giant." She smiled and turned to look in the mirror again.

"Just out of interest, would Lisa and Kevin be willing to put up Moira and her son for a while longer?" She asked Nathan as she looked at him through the reflection. "I'll be better off on my own. My scent might put her in danger." She looked at Argo and felt sadenned, "And it might be wise for you to keep your distance a little too. Don't spend too much time downwind of me." She touched his cheek again tenderly....

"Oh I think they would enjoy it very much." Nathan told her. Indeed it probably would do Lisa a lot of good to have them around. Especially Moria's son. Having a young boy around would keep them on their toes. Argo smiled and nodded. He knew the ways of his kind now, his sister had been going through those phases as well. when she had Melisa would take off up onto the mountain where they had built a place for her. She would stay there until the time had past and her scent didn't drive the men mad with desire.

"You will not be going alone mother. I have just found you and I am not about to lose you again. Being your son, I have a higher tollerance then others would have. "

Nathan grinned, "You're not leaving with out me either. Now two winged people might be noticed flying about in the light of day, and four surely is going to bring alot of attention should you find them. Might take a mere human to do some snooping around here and there to locate where they have gone and maybe get a bit closer to them."

Raven furrowed her brow somewhat. Going after Lucifer and Melisa alone? The four of them flying around during the day? Clearly, these two had confused what she had said. Shaking her head, she moved around the bar, trying to keep her wings in tightly. "I wasn't talking about Melisa and Lucifer." She said, "And I'm going nowhere until my breeding state is over and done with." She grinned slightly, "I was talking about Moira and her boy. It will be better for them if they stay wth Lisa and Kevin. If my scent rubs off on her, it'll put her in serious danger. She's got a mean right hook, don't get me wrong, but it won't just be human men being attracted. She's safer with your friends, Nathan." Perhaps that would clear up the confusion, she thought.....