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L O C A T I O N: Somewhere in New York City
T I M E: Present Day ( July ) Sometime Around 10 AM
Benjamin led the way down the street. His feet thumped the pavement as cars drove past, the drivers' eyes barely sparing the pair a glance. Trees expanded across the neighbor's yards breaking up the blandness of the concrete. All the houses had similar, or identical, architecture interwoven into their designs. Each one still held its own identity.
He took a sharp turn onto the worn road leading to the old Benson's place. The place they crossed paths with last night. Benjamin's eyes widened when he spotted the moving van parked outside. About four men were hauling out anything from dressers to couches through the door. Benjamin cast a worry glance at Athena as they continued onward, not straying too close to the place. A nearby grey Subaru Forester rolled into the driveway and ground to a stop. A small family of four began to exit including twin boys.
"We need to head home, now," Benjamin stated.
He quickly backtracked farther down the street and onto a side alley, heading to his house.
After exchanging a worried glance in Benjamin's direction and a quick nod of agreement, they ran back home. Much of her earlier coldness had dissipated with only a few of its residue still in her system that she knew tea would fix with no problem. Still, she cast another look back at the family moving into the house with trepidation.
They ran back home and quickly thanked Emma for lunch as they took their food upstairs. Athena finished the lunch and then swiftly hopped into the shower. Only when she's finished with her shower and her routine, she returns to the loft, still drying her hair with a towel.
"I guess you'll be heading out to investigate the house later?"Benjamin held his cellphone to his ear. He silenced her with a finger as he continued his conversation, Duff on the other end. He continued to pace while he held the one-sided conversation.
"Yeah, I'm still here. Sorry, Athena walked out of the shower and distracted me."Donned now only torn jean shorts sitting at her hips and a loose grey baggy shirt with short sleeves, one corner of her shirt tucked into her shorts. Her long hair was quickly drying but her towel continued to dry her hair. Athena sat down on the sofa as she waited for him to finish the phone call.
He paused, listening to Duff's gruff voice before he continued.
"Anyways, there's an old house in my neighbor. I never paid it much mind... until now. Athena and I were walking home in the evening when we both sensed something. I saw a dark, shrouded figure in the window. A child, I think. Athena sensed something dark and wrong within the house."Benjamin waited for a reply.
"No shit, that's why I want you to come over and we can check it out. If something is in my territory, I want it out now."Nodding, he finally ended the conversation.
"Kay, I will see you shortly." He hung up and set his phone down, turning to Athena.
A reassuring smirk crossed his lips, answering her earlier question.
"Duff is coming over in an hour or two. So do you need anything before we get ready to go?"With the towel still loosely hanging around her neck, with most of her hair now more dry than damp, she lightly shrugged. Leaning forward on her knees, she tucked her chin into her hand with her elbow on her knee and regarded him with a contemplative look.
"I'll need to have a cup of tea, but otherwise, not really?" She hummed thoughtfully.
She stood back up, moving toward the book she received from Morrigan. Opening it and skimming through it gave her an idea of what she ought to be looking for, but without more information, her idea of what the entity was limited. Athena closed it again to lean against the table where she had set the book to continue drying her hair and look in Benjamin's direction.
"I'm prepared this time, so, we'll wing it," Athena said, hoping for the best.
"You sure about that?" Benjamin looked uncomfortable at the suggestion.
He looked to his window and sorted his thoughts, considering how to best phrase it. His hand rubbed his neck a few times before just uttering the words in his head, in a blunt fashion.
"Duff's and my experiences with winging it, usually end in destruction. I don't want you to get hurt." Benjamin chanced a glance at her to observe her reaction.
She waited for a beat, observing Benjamin with an unwavering look.
"The best we can do is investigate the house and try to find out what the entity is," Athena said with the slight tilt of her head. Her hands stilled the towel.
A gleam flickered in her eyes, looking away, and she flashed a derisive smile.
"I won't get hurt, I don't think that's something you ought to worry too much about." Righting herself to continue drying her hair, she moved toward the bathroom as she continued with the planning.
"Well, how about we go in, and just try and find out where the source is? And if things go wrong, we get out."Benjamin continued to watch her until she looked away. He chewed the inside of his mouth a moment as he brushed his lower face. The boy paced a short distance from his sofa to the wall and back again, debating on his part in the conversation. He knew that look.
"I disagree, nothing ever works out that easy." He paused to face her retreating back.
"Duff and I have regeneration abilities. What abilities do you have?"Popping into the bathroom and quickly finishing the remainder of her after-care shower routine, her hair was pulled into a single braid down her back and walked back toward Benjamin.
"A multitude of them," she said thoughtfully.
"Like you, I can regenerate, but it's circumstantial and I can see energy. Which, now that I say that aloud, sounds weird, so it's definitely something you have to see to understand." Athena sounded sheepish.
"Otherwise, I don't have anything in the way of combative abilities so I can't help you in a fight, unfortunately.""Which is likely to happen. We don't know how violent this spirit-or whatever it is- might be. Do you have any way to keep it from messing with you?" Benjamin asked when she finally came out of the bathroom.
His arms crossed over his chest as he prepared to stand his ground. He stared at her with a hard edge to his expression and patiently waited for her reassurances. Watered down or not.
Athena didn't seem bothered by the hard edge in his gaze as she continued to think.
"I should be fine—it won't get to mess with me like last time since I was caught off-guard," she said with a hand on her chin in thought.
"I'll have to see if I can mess with it instead, if I have to."Benjamin could tell his attempt to be intimating failed with Athena. Forced to admit he lost the battle, it chaffed his pride and irritated his protective wolf. He snorted then glanced at the nearest clock. As he suspected, barely a few minutes had passed since they started this conversation.
"Fine. Just promise me, if things start looking really bad then you leave. I don't want to see you hurt." His voice held some pain when he considered the possibility.
Athena looked up, breaking her musings at the possible defenses she could use to combat the entity. Walking over until she stood just an arms' length from him, she reached over and tapped his arm.
"Hey, I'll be okay, Benjamin," she reassured with a smile, her voice soothing.
"If anything happens, I'll leave, but I won't leave you behind if I can help it. You and Duff, okay?""All right. We got some time to kill." He turned away and walked to the sofa, picking up a controller.
"Want to play something while we wait?" Benjamin gave a softer smile that filled with warmth.
Nodding, she grinned.
"Yeah, let me grab some tea and then I'll be down to kick your butt," she said with a confident smirk.
~|~
The hours flew by faster than Athena and Benjamin expected before Duff arrived. Emma climbed the stairs with the gruff older wolf in tow. She knocked on the door before Benjamin rose from his seat, placing the game on pause, then opened it. He gave a smile and thanked Emma, gesturing for his 'uncle' to enter.
With bushy, salt, and pepper eyebrows, Duff looked Athena up then down. Despite the meeting with Barron yesterday, the wolf still clung to his caution.
"All right, so what's the plan with this thing in your territory?" He grouched and he took a seat on a nearby chair.
Benjamin inhaled then looked at Athena. He hoped she might explain better about what she sensed than he could.
Athena set the controller down on the coffee table and regarded both wolves with a subtle lift of her brow. Crossing her arms, she glanced at Benjamin once more as he looked to her.
"The plan is for us to go in and find out what exactly this entity is and then come up with a plan to get it out after we have more information," Athena explained.
"Call it a scouting or a reconnaissance mission, and try not to engage more than necessary. Then we'll regroup outside. Clear?"Duff huffed under his breath then asked another question. "What exactly are we looking for? I'm assuming you're going to try to identify this thing."
Her brows furrowed in thought.
"We'll use a black light to find traces of the ritual or whatever may have summoned the creature, if it was summoned. To be honest, I'm not too sure of what we are looking for, considering we saw it at a glance, at a distance." Humming aloud her thoughts, she continued, lifting her gaze to the older wolf.
"That's what this mission is for—reconnaissance."Duff stiffened, then forced himself to relax. "Can we set a time limit because I rather not provoke it any more than we need to. I've dealt with a poltergeist before and the longer I stuck around, the angrier it got. I rather not have knives stabbed into my head."
Athena nodded, agreeing.
"It's day time, but I think we should limit it to about two hours, at most. Sounds good?"Benjamin took this opportunity to interrupt Athena's next reply. He stepped toward Duff causing the elder wolf's head to dart into his direction. Though Benjamin hadn't done much, a small and subtle language played out. One between an Alpha and his Beta.
"Well, we can pass ourselves off as stray dogs if we need to. I'm not sure if Athena has a few spells up her sleeve?" His eyes looked back at her, checking to see if she had any better ideas.
Duff scoffed. “Have you seen us in wolf form? That’s as ideal as trying to pass off a bear as a throw rug.”
Athena tapped a finger to her chin in thought.
"If it comes to passing off as something, I could probably make you appear more like a dog, if you want that, and I can make myself appear invisible and make both of you also invisible if you wanted that," she said without waiting a beat, immediately after Duff's remark.
"It won't last long, but it'll be long enough for what we have to do."Benjamin bit his lip.
“I don’t have much information about the family that moved in. I don’t know if they are dog lovers or what. We could try a few different approaches.” He paused long enough to grab his soda and down a drink before continuing.
“First, as much as I hate taking the risk, we can observe the family’s routine. The kid might be less willing to chase off a ‘lost’ dog than the parent might be. If we can get in, we can guard the family and search the house while looking normal.” Benjamin noted as he continued to weigh the idea in his head.
“It at least allows us to get a more clear idea of their daily routine.” He looked at the other two to see if they objected to his idea, deciding to move on when they didn’t.
“Athena, it might be a good idea to alter Duff’s or my werewolf appearance to be more mutt-like. We are considered really large ‘dogs’ and there’s some unnaturalness to our anatomy on close inspection. If this doesn’t work, we can come up with a plan B. Maybe becoming friends with the kid?”Duff spoke up. “I’m not wearing a collar or getting chipped.”
Athena seemed amused as she glanced in Duff's direction, but nodded.
Benjamin sighed, frowning, before making the choice for them all.
“Then I will. Athena can be the owner since it looked like the kid was around our age. That means we need to head to the nearest Wal-mart to print out a tag and buy some supplies.” And Athena nodded again.
"Sounds good. Let's get going and start this, shall we?" “We should consider plan B first before heading out and get our story straight when or if the kid starts to investigate. I don’t want to underestimate him and have this thing blow up in our faces.” Benjamin noted as he considered a quick cover story.
“Athena, do you have an address registered in your name?” Athena hummed.
"I do not, unfortunately, since I'm still a minor. Everything is under my dad's name or my company's name. Probably best if we play it where I'm on vacation, hence an address I could use." Chewing her bottom lip, she tilted her head and crossed her arms across her chest.
“That’s what I was thinking. The tag still needs a valid address or the moment they don’t see one, they might suspect things are off. I just didn’t want your actual name connected with your profession. Last we need is a fan stalking you again.” Athena shuddered at the thought.
"We can use my company's public address, since, it would mean you do belong to me, but can be technically vetted through my company. Instead of their phone number, we can use Duff's on the dog tag so that when they call, Duff picks up the phone instead."Duff rolled his eyes at the mention of Benjamin belonging to her. “I do sound the oldest so it makes sense. Just don’t let her tug you around too much, Benjamin.”
The popstar lifted a brow in Duff's direction before looking in Benjamin's. Her arched brow remained as she looked on curiously.
"Tugging?" She blinked.
"Do you want to be tugged on with the collar and leash on?" And then lightly frowned in confusion.
For a moment, Benjamin didn’t know what to say. His inner smartass wanted to make a comment, but he knew it might’ve been taken the wrong way. Duff managed to save Benjamin from incriminating himself.
“Please, can we just cover plan B? The scent is overwhelming at this point and I’m feeling nauseous now.”
Athena's confusion was apparent, but said nothing and glanced between the two males.
“Duff, that’s enough. But you are right, we need to consider plan B.” “What happens if the kid calls the pound?”
“That’s why I suggested a lost dog instead of a stray. I'd rather not be chased by the local animal control and worst case scenario, even if they do pick me up, at least, they'll have a number to call.” “I hope they don't decide to spay you while you’re there.”
Athena winced.
“Moving on.” Benjamin snapped as he ignored that statement, mainly for his own comfort.
“If I’m chased away, we have Athena come to the house looking for her ‘dog’. Maybe coaxing the kid into helping by placing up posters or just walking around the neighborhood.” Athena merely nodded again, lifting a hand to her temple as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
"At the very least, it'll give me an opportunity to talk to them and go from there. The conversation can go either way, but I'd like a few pictures of you and me for reference so they can see it instead of just using a lost poster. That way I can show it to them on my phone."And then she winced again.
"How much evidence did we want to provide, at this point?" She shook her head.
"If I'm a doggie parent, wouldn't I have, uh, what, loads of pictures of my dog on my phone?"“Depends on your storage and if your phone has been replaced. I know a kid at school that has only a few pictures of his dog on his phone. Most of your pictures could be at home, which you’re not. Also, it depends on how long you have had the pet too. Less time means less chance to take pictures, right?” Duff interrupted. “Let’s go get the stuff, and we can gloss over the details along the way. You both will have to squeeze into the truck as it doesn’t have a back seat.”
Already, the older man lifted onto his feet and began to move toward the door.
Athena moved to grab her cellphone, wallet, and a hat to follow Duff as she and Benjamin continued to talk details.
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