Warlock

The Terrible Ringing Noise

"Who ordered a burger with a side of guacamole? You? Catch. Who ordered Chinese takeout? Catch. Who ordered... a salad? Really? That's a depressing post-escape lunch. Have fun a little." Skye tossed a container of salad to the werewolf woman who had ordered it.

Loch's method of finding the owner of each order was much simpler, as he only had to skim over their thoughts. A few of their escapees had very strange surface thoughts, relating to either his or Skye's appearance, but for the most part they were all focused on the hunger biting at their stomachs. The two draconem unfortunately focused on whether Skye planned on keeping them as prisoners of war. Once he finished passing out his orders, Loch tried to forget the stranger thoughts.

The crunching, the slurping, the smacking, all of the sounds of eating made him wonder why he ever complained about the sound of the city. Loch retreated to his own apartment, but the hundred-year-old wooden door did nothing to protect his ears. The spell for deafness was not worth it. He was laying on the couch with two pillows over his ears when Skye entered. "I'm not collecting thirty different orders again. You need to talk to Trinity about that safe house."

As always, his pain brought amusement to Skye. He tapped one of the red pins on the globe. "Did you scare everyone in this place to a different country with your sparkling personality?" He fell onto the couch and leaned against Loch. "Don't worry, it sparkles more than you think. Trinity is holding a meeting at the café again today, so I'm going to talk to her in about an hour. There's a lot that we can do in an hour." Skye wiggled an eyebrow and laughed at Loch's terror. "Relax, I'm joking. Too many people around for that."

Each day was more frightening than the last. Loch liked Skye, he definitely knew that at this point, but...

A ringing noise interrupted his thoughts before they could go too far. What did that mean? Right, the front door. Loch reluctantly pried himself loose from Skye's hold and went to the intercom. If it was a human, they could be there to retrieve their escaped victims. But if it was an Other, they could be there to investigate him and prove his inhumanity. Loch hoped it was a human; they were easier to fool. He pressed the call button.

"State your name and purpose. Be quick or I'll dump ice water on you." There actually was a window on the top floor from which he could dump objects onto the passerby below.

"You're a rude one. Let me in." Loch recognized the faint Scottish accent. He banged his head against the wall several times before pressing the call button again.

"State your name and purpose. The directions are simple. I can repeat them more slowly if you need help understanding."

He heard a huff of annoyance from the other side before she replied. The smirk lighting Skye's face added frosting to the delicious joy he found in insulting the pixie. "My name is Trinity, and I have been told that you recently came upon a group of people that are of interest to me."

Loch looked back at Skye, who shrugged. "I haven't told her yet. But you do still have that werewolf lurking around." Right, his twenty-four hour guard and trespasser. However, he could not have seen them unless they had gone outside. Loch cursed himself for forgetting the vampires' night-wandering habits.

"The door is unlocked." Nobody ever expected an unlocked door in a city, especially with murderers on the loose.

The pixie was surprisingly fast considering her stature, so Loch only had a minute to find and hide any suspicious items lying around his apartment. Then she was there, in all of her four-foot glory. He squinted to see the shadows that painted her like a child and snickered to himself.

"So what is a human doing with such a large group of my kind?" Skye was silent, and Loch realized he could not rely on him to speak when it came to lying to his own kind. Fortunately, Loch was more than happy to mock Trinity.