The Eyes:They See

Kidnapped
The Eyes: They See
Author’s Note: I do not own any of the characters from either world they belong to the Lovely Laurell K Hamilton and the Wonderful Joss Weadon.

Chapter Five: Kidnapped

Xander groaned as he picked up his body from where the Powers had literally dropped him, on the side of the road. He felt as though he was shoved out of a second story window. Brushing himself off Xander looked around trying to get a grip on the new world. Everything looked normal. The trees were green, the sky blue, and the asphalt black and cracked.

As far as Xander could tell he was left on the side of a long country road. He looked down both sides of the road hoping to see something so as to give him a clue as to where he was and which way to go. Looking up at the sky he raised his hand up to the powers, “What this is the best you could do? The middle of nowhere with no ID and no money, some help you are. I hope Willow magic shocks your ass.” He scolded them. A small brown leather wallet fell and landed on his head. Grabbing it Xander flicked off the powers and rubbed his hands up and down his arms, in an attempt to warm up, he started walking down the road heading left. Xander hoped he would find some place to stay before it got dark.

Three hours later Xander finally found his way into town. It was small, one of those farming towns where everybody knows everyone else, and they don’t take to kindly to strangers. After attempting to charm the natives with a tale about trying to work his way across country, Xander found himself staying at Amy’s, a cheap run down inn. In order to pay for his accommodations Xander had offered his services as a handyman and was going to start fixing the place up, painting, fixing doors and windows. Chuck, Amy’s grandson, now owned the inn. He had been meaning to fix the place up so that more rooms could be opened and it looked nicer to visitors passing through to St. Louis, however, money was a major problem. Chuck was not a big man but he looked more like he belongs on a farm than he did behind a desk at a inn. He was 5’10 with enough muscle to bench 380. Chuck figured that if this Xander kid could do a halfway decent job and fix up a few rooms and help with the exterior, than the new guests might generate enough money to pay for the major work to be done. While he never wanted to get into the hotel business, the inn was their family’s pride and joy until his uncle ran it into the ground. And honestly he saw a lot of himself the kid. Chick Winslow did not know what a great deal he was getting in hiring Xander Harris.

One month later.

Xander ran his hand threw his sweat soaked hair before picking up another two by four from the flat bed of the truck. He knew he needed a break but he wanted to finish putting the joist on the overhand of the roof before dark. He was glad he still retained all his carpentry and construction knowledge but he could tell that some of his memories were fading. Things from his old life were getting hazy. Peoples’ faces were blurring together, major events that he once remembered clearly were quickly losing detail, while others were fading completely out of existence. At first Xander thought to write down everything he could remember about his old life, but figured that it would be counterproductive. If he spent too much time trying to remember his past his present would most likely kill him.

As Xander started measuring and marking the wood for cutting he remembers back to his first week in this world. He nearly had a heart attack when he discovered that the supernatural was public knowledge here. That vampires were citizens of the good old US of A and one needed a warrant to kill them. Xander was also startled to realize that he himself was not quite human. Curse the PTB and their sick sence of humor as if he did not have enough to deal with. After realizing that he was a were he had earned a new respect for what OZ went through every month. However he was glad to realize that he had control over his beast and kept his mind. He could also partially change when he wanted to without the aid of the moon. This he supposed was his in to the supernatural community.

“Hey Chuck, I got the joists put up on the west side from rooms 8 to 14. I’ll start on the shingles tomorrow.”

“Great. Man you look exhausted. Take the day off tomorrow you can work on the roof this weekend, that way I can help out.” Chuck told Xander.

“There was a lot of lifting to do today; I just need to get a good night sleep. How about I do some light work tomorrow and we can roof on Saturday, it really is a two person job.”

“Good, I don’t want to work you to death my wife would kill me. I think she likes you more than me.”

“She just likes me because I eat all of her food.” Xander responded with a smile.

“Speaking of Mary made one of her world famous burgers I was just going to send little Mikey to give it to you. Just stop by my place on your way to your room.” Chuck lived with his wife Mary and his son Mike in small house just behind the Inn. It use to be the honeymoon cottage back when Amy owned the place but it was easier to live on the property than to commute every day, plus it was cheaper than paying rent on a place for his family and paying for someone to run the desk when he went home.

“God I did not realize how starving I was until you mention that.” Xander quickly made his way to the cottage and back to his room. He was had barely taken two bites from his burger when the room filled up with mist. Xander already weak from exhaustion quickly fell to the floor unconscious.

**

Anita quickly sat up in bed, her jerky movement waking Nathanial, who had slept right through the phone ringing. “Is the body like the last?” Anita asked Zerbrowski. She then turned to Nathanial and told him to go back to sleep. She was always jealous at how he could look so impeccably beautiful just waking up. How was it that with so much hair he never had bed head? His hair was still perfectly in its’ braid not a strand had fallen out. Running her hand through her own long hair she noted that it had mostly dried in her sleep and was full of tangles. She had a habit of looking like crap rolled over when she woke and being surrounded by all these perfect men was not fair.

Nathanial looked at her questioningly with a bit of fear hidden behind his eyes. Anita knew that Nathanial hated these middle of the night phone calls because it always meant that something bad was happening. She knew it frightened him. He had just recently started to feel safe, like he might actually survive to adulthood. She loved him and wanted to protect him and let him feel safe but she did not always know how to make him feel safe, nor did she always have the energy. “I’ll start making your coffee Anita.” Nathanial said as he moved to get out of bed.

“Go back to sleep, I can make the coffee this morning.” She told him before going back to her phone call.

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen it yet. Dolph just called me in. I’m assuming from the little I’ve heard, that we are being called in this early and you were asked for specifically that it is another skinned body.” Zerbrowski answered.

“Are you still in your choo choo train pajamas?” She asked as she got out of bed and started pulling her clothes out of her dresser. A pair of black jeans and a navy blue polo.

“Of course not, they’re teddy bears this week.” Zerbrowski told her. There was a definite smirk to his voice. Anita moved to the kitchen the blue cordless phone firmly pressed against her ear and he right shoulder.

“Where was it found?” Anita asked as she pulled the coffee grounds out of the fridge. She always kept them in the refrigerator because the cold kept the grounds fresh even though they did not last long enough to go bad. She quickly dumped six heaping spoonfuls into the filter before filling the pot up with four cups. She knew that when Nathanial awoke he would make another pot. Although lately he had been on a tea kick because Jason was hooking up with a woman, a Joan something, who worked at the tea and herb shop on River Street.

“The small park on Persimmon Ave; head to the fountain at the center,” He told her.

“I know where that is, it’s all the way across town. It’ll take me forty minutes to get there. There shouldn’t be too much traffic at least until seven.”

“I’ll tell Dolph. I live about fifteen minutes from the dump.” Zerbrowski told her.

“What do you think about the location? The two parks are nowhere near each other.” Anita asked.

“It widens the possible locations for the killer home or at least where the skinning is taking place. If they are willing to travel across town with the body than it drastically changes the search area. We were thinking the killer was using a warehouse; however this raises the possibility that it could be taking place out in the country especially with the first vic living outside of the city.

“I was afraid of that.” Anita told him before hanging up. She needed to get dressed fast, hopefully there was more evidence at this scene. She hated it but the more bodies found the more evidence to be found and she needed every possible hint to find this person before they tried to raise a demon. Anita quickly got dressed, kissed Nathanial, poured the coffee into her green thermos and ran out of the house. She would get breakfast after seeing the body. She knew she was going to have to feed the Ardeur sometime today. She had neglected it for the past few days. Currently she was testing to see how long she could safely go without feeding the Ardeur. Jean-Claude told her that he should not keep pushing the Ardeur it was not healthy for her nor was it healthy for Damian as her power was keeping him alive. However, she hated the Ardeur, the need to feed off of sexual energy made her feel dirty. It was completely against her catholic beliefs to have sex with so many men.

**

Light streamed in through the small window of the partial basement. There was only one window in the room giving the barest glimpse of life beyond the cement prison. A man lying naked curled up in a large cage opened his eye and tried to look at the window. He was quietly muttering to himself over and over again, “I am Xander, I am Xander,” a mantra to remind himself who he was. His deep brown eye, surrounded by blood and bruises, stared at that window, as if it held his salvation, hoping to see something of the world outside.

Yesterday, a baby raccoon had spent the day huddled, by the window, seeking shelter from the rain. Every so often, whenever Xander needed it most, something would appear in that window to distract him from his pain. Sometimes he felt as if the heavens were giving him small signs to just hold on a bit longer and something would save him. But there was nothing there today. And he knew he needed it today. He felt as though he was losing the last bit of his sanity. That he would lose his last piece of identity.

Xander slowly tried to straighten his legs from their curled fetal position. The pain was excruciation, ever muscle in his body was screaming against movement. His skin was burning from having gone through his second attempt at being skinned. He could almost hear his broken ribs voicing out their complaints. No matter how much it hurt Xander refused to give up, as some of his fellow prisoners had. He refused to give up his humanity and turn into the animal that his captors wanted him to be. The physical pain his body was going through would be nothing compared to the mental anguish he would be going through if he were to give up and relieve himself where he lay. He would not lie in his own waste just to save himself the pain of moving a few feet.

He crawled inch by inch and hefted himself t a squat, the putrid smell of the basement was a constant burn to his eyes and nose. It had been a few days since his captors had hosed the floor down. And while the cold wet water would chill him to the bones and cause him to shiver for hours in an attempt to keep his thin, staved, naked body warm, the small reprieve from the stench of body waste, blood, and rotting food was well worth it. Xander barely had time to get back to the corner of his cage when he heard the door open and heavy footsteps coming down the stairs.

**

Nathanial waited until he heard the front door quietly slam closed before he rolled out of bed. He could never fall back asleep when Anita had to leave of a police call. He knew he worried for nothing because she always came back. Anita was tough, the toughest person he knew but after spending so much time around master vampires, insane wares and a multitude of other supernatural beasties he knew it was a matter of time before something tougher would come.

Moving through the kitchen Nathanial pulled out his cup and the tea that Jason brought him. After putting the kettle on he started on cleaning the coffee pot, mug and the dishes she had left last night. She was never very good at cleaning her dishes and that was fine with him. He enjoyed having something that he could do to help her out.

The kettle let out a loud whistle and Nathanial turned off the sink to make his way over to the stove. A thick mist filled the room. Nathanial quickly ran out of the room but the mist followed him. The deep mist smelt of moisture and moss, it was cold and overwhelming. Scrambling he stumbled through the house slamming into furniture. He tripped over the sofa falling to the ground with a hard thud. He stood up as best he could as the mist made him wobbly. He nearly made it to the front door when the mist caught up with him. It infiltrated his lungs, burning down his bronchial tubes and constricting his air flow. He felt as though he were drowning in a fiery lake. He could feel himself sinking as he crashed to his knees. He started to shift his hands turning into black claws. He prepared to fight. However, there was nothing to fight, just poisonous air and claws were no use without a tangible opponent. Nathanial tried to scream out to Damian hoping the vampire could hear him from the garage apartment. The attempt to scream left him coughing furiously unable to breathe. Within a few seconds the room went black and he lost the battle to remain conscious.



AN: I’m sorry this has taken so long but writers block has hit me. However I just read Flirt and it seems to be sparking me with inspiration.

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