Co-operation

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"No. Absolutely not!" Ruby Lockhart's grey eyes were narrowed in defiance, despite the fact she was stood in her commander's office right then. "Bringing them in will only bring more questions and red tape!" She insisted, her slender fists balled up by her sides.
"This isn't a discussion, Lockhart. I have my orders, and now you have yours." The grey haired man told her, though he sounded somewhat weary, like he was all too accustomed to these childish outbursts. "You are to meet your new partner at 8pm and brief them on the case. The sooner we clear this whole mess up, the sooner I can go back to letting you do things your way, alright? Believe me, I don't want these blind fools involved anymore than you do, but this last case has made local news. We need to stop it before it goes national, or global."
Ruby's lips pursed together as she continued to scowl, seeming to be considering all this new information. There was a reason she didn't have a partner; no one could put up with her hotheaded, shoot first ask questions later attitude. It created mountains of paper work, but unfortunately she came from a long line of the divisions pure bred hunters, and her skills were... invaluable. 
"Fine!" She huffed at last. "But if this yokel ends up dead because they couldn't do what I said or panics when faced with the truth, I won't be held to blame!" Having said that, she stormed from the office, waves of dark hair swinging behind her before the door slammed shut.

Ruby’s earlier good humour was instantly gone with that last accusation. At this rate, Tobias had little to worry about if he feared losing his sorceress lover to this norm. “I’m sorry, for a moment there it sounded like you were making me a suspect.” She answered coolly, though it was quite obvious there was very little she was sorry about right then.

“Shit!” Jett growled as he tossed his shirt on and flicked the light switch in graceful moves. He could taste the malevolence that had radiated from that connection, and it was mocking him rather impulsive. More so than usual. “Get your shit and get out.” He informed the blonde in his bed, well aware that she hadn’t been asleep at all.

"What? No. I'm sorry. I come on strong alot. I don't mean to. I'm just trying to figure all this out and do it in a rational way." Red said softly. He was glad when the waitress came and set down another cup of coffee. "The whole demon thing that my captain was yelling about seemed crazy to me, even for him. I'm trying to find him answers. Rational ones."

"Oh come on now, honey. Don't I usually get a round two?" The busty blonde purred, sitting up without a hint of shame.

“Rational will get you killed around here.” Ruby replied, though didn’t drink her coffee. “Rational makes people blind to what they can’t explain, then some nastie rips their throat out.” That said, she did finally pick up her coffee cup.

Jett narrowed his bright blue eyes at the blonde. “If I hadn’t been shitfaced last night, you wouldn’t have gotten a round one.” He told her with the same kind of bluntness as his sister.

"I'm sorry... nasties?" Red asked, dropping another sugar packet into his own cup. "What's your definition of a nasty? The guys like your brother's friends?" 

"Is that why you called me by the Gypsy's name?" The blond snapped as she got up and began putting on her clothes. "You're not going save her, you know. You or that stupid sister of yours. She belongs to the master. He'll have her and sooner than you think." She purred.

Red would get his first hint of the bad blood between Ruby and her brother’s cohorts when the cup she was holding suddenly shattered, though she didn’t seem to react to the scalding liquid, or the sharp pieces of ceramic. “You’re awful fixated on them.” She muttered, simply picking up a napkin and wiping herself down. Some habits were hard to see as something unusual to a norm if you had lived your life around magic.

Jett was upon the blonde in less time it took her her to put her clothing on. He held her to the wall by her slender throat, sorely tempted to simply squeeze until she ceased moving. “Makes sense...” he sneered as he paused to breathe her in. “I should have noticed it sooner... you reek of it. Darkness and filth... my guess is, harpy, or a plain old witches familiar.”

Red got up and took a rag from the waitress, gently resting it on her hands. He finished cleaning up for her silently. He seemed to be thinking deeply about things. 

"And there you claim to be the best of the best. You tell me." She chuckled.

Ruby was watching Red with a strange expression, not understanding what him so lost in thought. “Are we doing this?” She asked at last. “Sooner I find wh9 is kidnapping and killing virgins, sooner you can get out of this shithole town, right?”

Jett waved his free hand over the woman’s face, and instantly the outward glamor faded and a creature with waxy, grey skin was left behind. The young man hadn’t replaced his belt yet, meaning his weapons were still on the other side of the room. “You things must really be afraid of me if you went to his length just to keep me from the hunt last night.”

"all right. All right." Red held up his hands as if he were giving up. No sooner had he done that then a strange hiss sounded behind him. "We have to go." The waitress said. "She has been discovered." When he turned to ask the woman what she meant a creature with grey skin slammed into him and sent him flying across the dinner. He wod sink into darkness before seeing the large man from the bar show up and begin shooting. 

"Oh the town was joyously quiet last night." The creature purred. "We had run of the place. The master was pleased."

Ruby tossed a few obscenities in Tobias’ general direction before she dragged Red somewhere safer and joined Tobias in dispatching the creatures inhabiting the bar. “I had this under control, you know.” She informed him as a small fist slammed into one of the screeching women. 

This bothered Jett even more. If they had the run of the town, then that meant both he and Ruby were otherwise occupied, along with Tobias. As much as he disliked the way the large warlock looked at his sister, he couldn’t deny that Tobias kept the town safe. “Well shit...” He growled before extending a hand behind him as the dagger from his belt sped across the room and into his palm. That down, he slid it neatly between the woman’s ribs. It wouldn’t kill her right away, but it would hurt like hell.

"I can see that!" Tobais barked as the cook lunged over the counter and range and landed on top of him. He had his gun out and under the monster's gnashing teeth, muttering an incantation that turned it into a bunny. It wouldn't last long but it would give him a moment to breathe through the sudden mob. "Better get your boyfriend to safer ground. They like humans here, you know." He shouted at Ruby. "Only reason this damn diner is open..."

The blonde screamed and shouted terrible things at him. She tried to claw at him until she was simply frozen in that pose. 
It was then that the Order contacted Jett to tell him about the attack on the diner.

“Oh, so now he’s my boyfriend?” Ruby muttered, a wave of her hand creating a glowing shield between them and the rest of the mob. “I can hold them off, you take Red and get back to headquarters. They need to know about this!” She insisted, though her brother appeared right in the thick of things halfway through her little outburst about self reliance. 
“As always, I’m here to save your ass. Both of you.” Jett remarked with a snort as he sliced the head clean off one of the creatures. “For once in your life, Ru, just do what a man says.” He added, having known Tobias had told her to take the human and go.

"And once again you lost the gypsy. You seem good at that." Tobias snapped, glaring at Jett. 
"Ruby...I can't Red to headquarters. He can't see much more than Piper's bar, the diner and maybe the courthouse. We're stuck with him."

“Ruby was with her when she tossed me out the bar, don’t blame this on me!” Jett snarled at Tobias. “Which make you wonder, what was my perfect sister up to when she was supposed to be watching out for her best friends safety?” He asked, his accusing glare resting on Ruby this time.

"some people know the meaning of sleeping." Tobias snapped, not bothering to tell Jett when the illusion wore off and the monster cook returned to his true form behind the younger man. He turned his back on it even, getting out his lighter and a lone cigarette. "We aren't done with them, Ruby. There's more coming."

The fact that Ruby wasn’t meeting her twin’s gaze was an indication to him that sleeping had indeed been the last thing she had been doing last night. Jett glanced between Tobias and his sister for only a brief moment before he felt the cook’s hot breath on his neck. 
No more than a second later Jett was smeared with blood, Ruby’s gun still aimed just behind her sibling. “We’ve got things here, Jett. Take the human back to my apartment. Think you can manage that?” She asked thinly, not thinking Tobias would take issue with Red being in Ruby’s home.

"you two fix this. I'm not involving the Order." Tobias snapped, tossing the unfinished fag and heading for the door. "I'm going to buy ammo and get drunk." The fact that she'd wanted Red taken to her apartment had done more than just upset him.

Ruby watched Tobias’ back as he walked away. He didn’t understand the guilt she was feeling right then. Piper had been snatched because Ruby couldn’t keep her damned legs together around Tobias. “Yeah, run away!” She growled before turning her back on him too and setting about the clean up of the rest of the diner.

"what... happened?" Red felt like he'd been run over by a truck. He sat up and rubbed the back of his head with a loud groan.

Both Ruby and Jett were in her apartment by this point, though they said little to each other beyond planning their next course of action. 
“You hit your head.” She told Red rather bluntly from where she appeared to be scribbling things on a map that almost seemed to glow. “Tell me again why you were sent to help?” She added with a snort. 
“Shit Ruby, give the guy a break.” Jett growled. “Just because you’re clearly pissed off with Warlock boy, don’t take it out on the norm.” He was at least astute enough to pick up on some things. “It doesn’t matter who did what. Some shitbag has Piper and we’ve yet to even figure out where she was taken!”

"The bar owner was kidnapped?" Red sat up more quickly and wished he hadn't. His world was spinning. "She was my first contact here." He pushed to his feet more slowly the second time and went to the map where Ruby was. "Where is that? And don't tell me it's here. This place is one street large."

Ruby closed her eyes and appeared to be counting to ten before she opened them again. “Must we have the same ridiculous conversation every time?” She huffed. “Just because you cannot see something, does not mean it isn’t there.” She added, speaking slowly like Red were a child. 
Jett was watching his sister from his seat by the window, suspicion in his cobalt eyes. It had only really occurred to him lately that his sister’s moods changed depending on what mood Tobias himself was in that day. He didn’t mention it just yet however, he was focusing his energy in recalling every detail of his brief conversation with Piper.
“This is a map of our town...” she held up a slender hand to silence Red before he could argue otherwise. “Your limited mind can only comprehend a tiny fraction of it, which is why I have the misfortune of bringing you into my own home; you cannot exist within the walls of our office if you don’t believe they are there.” Ruby looked down at the map again, waving a hand over it so a blue glyph glowed over a building on the other side of town. “This is where our order are located, however, we can’t ask for backup. That, my dear Red, is why you were sent. This was supposed to be a quick and covert operation. That was before they took Piper. I don’t care what it takes, I am getting her back.”

"okay..." Red studied the map for what seemed like forever, rubbing the stubble on his chin. "So where is she? Has she died to make contact?" He turned on Jett. "How did you know she was gone if she kicked you out?"

For the first time Ruby met Jett’s gaze since they had arrived here. She knew exactly how he knew, and why it was him Piper has contacted. Piper had probably tried to reach her at the same moment she was selfishly wrapping herself around Tobias and ignoring the outside world.
Jett saw the look and understood his sister’s guilt instantly. He could grill her for it later, but right then Piper was in danger. “Even if I told you how, you won’t believe me, so let’s not bother, huh?” He told Red. “All that matters is that she was scared, and someone wanted her very much alive. For now.”

"I meant why." Red said darkly, their words finally getting the better of him. "If she was so gunho about kicking you out of her bar, why in the world would she call you for help?" He snapped.

Jet jumped down from his perch on the window, every muscle in his lean frame screaming that he was ready for a fight. “You know shit about this town, about us!” He warned as he squared up to the other man. “But for the record, Piper is a childhood friend. No matter what happens in the bar, she knows I would do anything for or her! Anything!”
Ruby sighed wearily as she rose to her feet, though didn’t intervene. Yet.

"And that's why she got kidnapped by some pschyo thinking he can open a portal to hell with her blood." Red snorted. "Where were you then, Mr. Childhood friend?"

Jett shoved Red roughly, though he knew the other man was right;it was his fault. “We don’t need your kind around here, you’re lucky my sister have a crap and didn’t just leave you to die in that diner!”
Ruby had silently walked away, leaving them arguing. She was in her bedroom now, the large trunk in her closet open as she picked out the weapons and guns she was taking with her to save her friend.

Red threw his hands up and headed toward the front door, his chest heaving. "You're nuts. All of you are completely and totally nuts." He muttered, the door slamming behind him. 

"Ruby...this is worse that what we thought." Piper appeared to her friend in the mirror of her dresser. "It's Azezal. He came to the place where they have me. He said if I don't give myself to him he's going to kill Jett. I...I can't let him..."

Ruby heard the door slam, and knew she would either have her work cut out tracking Red down and keeping him safe, or her brother would be out there doing something stupid.
“Jett is a big boy, don’t worry about they threaten they may do to him.” She told her friend calmly as she turned to face the mirror. “Just keep refusing him, no matter what. I’ll come and get you, I promise.”

A single tear slid down her friend's cheek and she shook her head. "I can't. You know I can't. I love him so much, Ruby. You know I do. Even after..." She didn't have to remind her the other woman. She'd been the one to get her through it. An innocent denial and misunderstanding had turned into years of hurt and tears. Azezal was feeding on that darkness now. It was clear by the deep purr in the back ground. "The ceremony is tonight...there is a sleeping concoction on my shelf in the back room of the bar. Give it to him. You take one too. Please. I need to know the people I love will be okay. He...he promised..."