Touch of Heavenly Light

There’d been a request for help – a scatter of farms in Illinois (she wasn’t about to call the handful of buildings stretching along a road a town) – suffering from animal attacks. Livestock had been found dead, at least two farmhands had rapidly followed. Frank’s progress had been stalled. Apologies had spilled from the phone as she’d made her way through the lobby of the Grey Haven. He’d still be there before the end of the month, hopefully before the end of the week. Kara flashed the now familiar woman at the front desk a tight smile before she continued past to the elevator. At the rate Frank was going her bank account would be bled dry before he even crossed into Virginia.

Kara slumped back against the wall of the elevator, looking up into the small lights that studded the ceiling as it rose. She’d made it all of a week back at the motel before she’d left again, trying to convince herself it was the convenience of the Grey Haven that had her coming back, not the extra escape it provided from the threat of Virgil.

’He’s out of town on personal business. Can I take a name? A message?’ Kara wasn’t sure that the assistant at the BCA had translated the mumbled words she managed before she’d put the phone down. Maybe it was better not knowing that Virgil was probably still in Mystic Falls, for her peace of mind at least. As soon as Frank was here she could make sure that she wasn’t, but she was caught in that trap still, ready to gnaw her leg off to get away from it.

She probably left a trail of grit and dust behind as she reached her floor and made her way down the end of the hallway and what she was sure was the absolute cheapest room in the place – which was still a dozen steps up on what she’d had at the motel. A double, with a bathroom that was still half the size of her apartment in Minnesota. By now Roberto had probably finished killing the plants he was meant to be watering for her and had moved on to sleeping on her sofa and running up her electricity bill by watching the game on the TV that she’d bought during her marriage, and had gotten her brothers to help load up in the truck when she’d cleared her stuff out of their apartment.

There was one here, tucked discretely into a unit at the bottom of the bed, of course. It was as blank as it had been when she’d moved into the room with a monthly rate agreed in advance. Kara didn’t even glance at it now. She dropped her purse on the end of the bed, kicked off her shoes and trailed towards the shower. The farm they’d gone digging around today, supposedly in search of a pair of missing teenagers (ones that supposedly might have been attracted by the pair of horses that were still grazing on the land). They’d found nothing but dust and spiderwebs, giant ones that she was sure still clung to her hair.

At least the hot water didn’t run out here. She could spend twenty minutes in that huge shower, letting the hot water drive the disappointment out of her. She was back to feeling mildly apathetic about the whole thing by the time she emerged. With the towel tucked around herself, she padded back towards the bedroom, and had to bite back a scream when she saw the figure standing in the middle of it. ”Jesus,”{/b] Kara muttered, clutching at her towel. She puffed out a breath, glad that Faye hadn’t given her a heart attack. ”What are you doing here? I just spoke to Frank. He said you were all still caught up in something. I wasn’t expecting…” This. She gestured at her friend and team mate as though that would explain everything. The staff here were well aware that she was worried about people finding out where she was staying, she’d been promised discretion, and that usually would’ve meant someone letting her know if a guest had arrived (the conventional way).

Tagged: ARIEL * Word Count: 699

At eighteen she’d presumed that eventually she would get used to the voices, finding some sort of balance with them that meant she wouldn’t lose all control every time they struck. By the time she was married and slipping out of the their bed it had seemed like it was never going to happen for her. Kara had considered herself lucky that Virgil was a deep sleeper, when he was awake he would follow her without complaint, backing her up when the awkward questions over how she’d stumbled into a situation hit. Maybe she’d been wrong to trust that he hadn’t seen anything suspicious in it all – after all, your wife leaving your bed in the middle of the night was one hell of an excuse to bring someone else into that bed when she wasn’t there.

It had grown no easier since. Sometimes it felt as though control was right there beyond her fingertips, but then she’d be caught up in a bad one and all faith would disappear. Coming to a half dozen miles from where she’d started with no clue of how she got there still making her blood run cold. One of these days it felt as though whatever continued to hand out lives when her original 9 had probably run out already would take it all back. Then she’d need back up and while Frank and the others had been hundreds of miles away from her it had felt like she’d had none.

The doubts had been swirling around in the shower with the dirty water. Virgil’s appearance here had just added to them and God she hated it. That fragile feeling had never sat well with her. As a teenager she’d felt untouchable, but now everything chipped away at that confidence. Walking out of the bathroom to find Faye standing right in the middle of it was almost enough to shatter everything – if she’d screamed instead of just muttering a curse the glittering exterior of the hotel might’ve ended up raining down on the square in murderous little shards.

Kara laughed breathlessly, rearranging the knot of the towel to make sure it wasn’t gonna unravel around her. At least Faye had arrived in here and not in the bathroom while she was still in the shower. She had to consider how lucky she’d been on a possible sliding scale of embarrassment here. ”I’d say definitely not,” Kara drawled lightly. ”There are these things called cell phones, you know. I’m sure you’ve still got the one Frank gave you. How about next time you give me a little warning?” Gesturing towards where her own phone still lay on the bed after she’d tossed it down at the end of the frustrating phone call, Kara snorted faintly. Angels might have done things a different way, but the thing that was in Faye was gonna have to learn how to tread on both sides of things if she wanted to avoid causing hysteria every time she arrived.

Considering that she wandered away without a word of warning sometimes, Kara knew she didn’t have much of a leg to stand on, but at least the fastest she could go then was the top speed of whatever vehicle she might’ve been in, there really wasn’t much of a comparison. She crossed towards the closet – which was about the same size as her bathroom back home, despite it just being intended for short stays. Her lips pressed together at the shiver that ran down her spine. Kara looked over her shoulder at Faye as she opened the closest and started pulling out sweats. ”So you weren’t with him? I thought that you were all together.” Only she’d obviously missed something in the brief updates she’d been getting from everybody. ”You weren’t in Illinois, you were doing some … angel stuff.” There was no question in her tone. She might’ve been blind to most of what was going on with her team, but she could still read between the lines on occasion.

Tagged: ARIEL * Word Count: 671