Chasing Robes & Shadows

He laughed morosely before their attention turned as a dark-haired whirlwind charged up the stairs.

"Shit," Shaw's voice was barely audible, then she turned, Terry also stared open-mouthed at the sight.

Mel looked up and stopped a third of the way before the top of the stairs from the basement, glossy black wings flapped behind her and Shaw saw the tip of the devil's tail swing. She had on the craziest platform heels Shaw could remember, and she'd seen some wild ones these last few years on vice, black and red and at least two inches in front and six or more in back but Shaw's shock was doubled at the thought of how fast the girl had come up the stairs. She had on black thigh-high stockings with red garter straps under a tiny black skirt with red pleats. Above the hip-hugging waistband was taut, bare flesh until the bottom of an unbuttoned and too-small black, long sleeved blazer that only intermittently covered her gravity-defying chest and didn't even reach to mid-abdomen with no shirt or bra under it.

"You made it, Joyce! And, you look very authentic," Mel said as she took the last few steps and Shaw had to lean her head back to look her in the eyes, not a feeling the policewoman was used to.

"Best I could do on short notice," she grunted as Mel took her in a tight hug, once the surprise wore off she returned it. The wings maybe were part of the girl...

"I'll be around, it's beer-thirty, sure you're ok?" Terry said as he tapped the side of his hand to his forehead, a big smile on his face as he glanced at Mel then back at Shaw.

"Thanks, fine for now," she told him and he pulled the door open and stepped out.

"C'mon," Mel released the hug, "Chris is upstairs and we have something to show you. But we'll save the other surprise for later."

"Lead on."

Mel smiled and again left Shaw amazed as the girl quickly ascended the stairs. She followed but stopped on the third step and simply watched. Everything that Halloween video had promised but hadn't delivered was live and a few steps above her on the stairs.

The girl had no underwear on, with a skirt that barely covered her ass. Shaw saw a strip of black pubic hair between the demon's legs, 'the cuffs match the collar' Shaw thought. Shit. First the redhead, now this one. She'd gone to college with some wild ones but this crowd...

She thought again about certain parties around town.

Most of the way up the stairs Mel glanced back and Joyce felt her face flush when the girl's expression went 'got ya!' The demon's laughter was clear as she made it to the top of the stairs and turned left. Shaw chastised herself and climbed quickly.

She turned into what was a large rec room with a very large television against the far wall. She'd been right the previous night, Dave had some padding but Chris was lithe, solid, firm muscle as she saw him from behind as he worked on a VCR near the TV. His second-skin leather pants showed an ass... Then she realized Mel had caught her again and stood with the tip of her tongue caught between her teeth.

"It's really impressive, isn't it?"

Shaw didn't so much hear the demon's rasp as she felt it in her core, she'd thought the voice was attention-getting at the diner. But here? It was a weapon. Chris had on a tight sleeveless vest and turned, his arms weren't thick but his shoulders and chest were nothing but taut muscle.

"Oh, hey, hi Joyce. Just setting up the VCR to record the news, apparently our favorite reporter gets a prime slot recapping all about the Broiler and plenty of other things this gang's been doing. Including that assault by their old boss up at the dorms. Anna wants us to record it since we'll all be busy."

From the front those jeans promised something... more. It had been impressive on video. But here? Oh hell. It's been way too long, Shaw thought. Think... about... something... else.

"Um, yeah, Jayne interviewed a few of us officers, we like to cooperate when it's a cautionary tale. I had the impression Asha and Tracy weren't very, oh, cooperative."

Shaw fought to keep her eyes on the two young people's eyes and this discussion was just what the doctor ordered. Until she saw Mel unhook something from her waist. It was the leash. She attached it to a hook on a leather strap she just realized Chris had around his neck. Oh hell. THIS kind of party too.

The demonic creature led them across the landing to a door. Chris pulled a key out of a snug pocket and opened the door and the pair ushered Shaw into what was a large bedroom, a desk along the far wall with a computer on it the only unusual piece of furniture. Mel led Chris and they pulled the door closed then she pulled him to a pair of bookshelves attached to the wall and he grabbed a Coke can.

"Take a look at this," he said as he offered the can to Shaw.

Shaw rotated the can. The top had never been popped but it had apparently exploded outward, a jagged metal split from the top and down a third the length of the can. It appeared to be singed or burned.

"What's this?"

"We told you about that spot in Bonneville Glen? The housemates told us Peter and Carole would take Cokes to the Glen with them and that last day they'd taken two. This one was hidden, not easy to find."

"Garbage," Mel chimed in, "we were picking up garbage other people left and found it hidden behind a wall. But that was also good, kept the sun off of it and away from the worst of the weather."

"Do you know what happened to it?"

"Not for sure," Chris said, "but the tear sorta looks like electrical arcing. Saw it doing welding when things would go wrong. I cut a bit off, right there, and used a microscope at school, definitely some melting each side of the split."

He pointed to a cut out gap, Shaw nodded.

"So you think someone shocked this? Up there? That doesn't make sense."

"Does if you have a ray gun. But I don't think even a stun gun would do this."

"No," Shaw said as she rotated the can a few more times, "and the force hereabouts at least didn't have them back in '81. We're only just experimenting now, only a handful around. Back then, they were like hen's teeth."

"That's if WE made it," the girl's wings shivered as her body shook with her emphatic statement, "but WE didn't. Peter and Carole were in their spot in the Glen and were surprised."

Shaw mulled it over before she handed the can back to Chris, who returned it to the shelf, with the split hidden to the back. Just an inexplicable souvenir in a college guy's bedroom.

"Kind of thin evidence, though. My lieutenant would laugh at me. And we DID search up there, we had a ranger take officers to all of the nooks. No sign anyone was injured enough to bleed badly, it's all tiny gravel, no way anyone could clean that up."

"Star Trek," Mel said, "phasers. Maybe the can was a demonstration. 'We'll do this to you.' Or maybe it has a stun setting."

"Mel, I appreciate your..."

Chris and Mel looked at each other, frowned slightly, looked back at the suddenly silent Shaw before Mel spoke softly.

"Joyce, you ok?"

"Motherfu... the Church. The black robe."

"Your turn to speak in code, detective," Chris chuckled.

"Five years ago, Halloween, Chris, you're a local, right?"

He nodded.

"That derelict church that burned down. You remember? Where the Gatewest Center is now?"

"Oh, yeah. The biker gang lived there, right? It was THAT Halloween? Shit!"

"Close enough. That was where Peter and I ran into each other. That was when he was with Anna. The other Anna, the cat or elf or whatever one I told you about last night. The one who matched that picture."

The pair nodded.

"He'd brought them all to the Church. I was there undercover. After the fire started we saved a girl, a friend of his, she was being chased by people in black robes who had some nasty knives. Peter took out the guy but the second, a woman, might've gotten him but she went into a fit, her whole body in a spasm and she went down. I remember now, I thought I smelled ozone. But hell, the place was full of smoke and fire. Who knows."

"Ozone," Chris said, "like after lightning. Or some sort of electrical shock."

"Chris," Mel's voice was quiet and she turned to look at a window with its closed blinds, Shaw was happy the girl could sound like a young person if only rarely, "the little probes. Could they have?"

"Probes? The invisible ones you told me about?"

"Sure. You said this Anna was inside," Chris said, "could floating balls have gotten inside? They really aren't big, bit bigger than soccer or basketballs. They'd have kept an eye on that Anna I'm sure..."

Shaw glanced and sat down in an office chair in front of the desk.

"Yeah, the place had old stained glass windows up high in the front and around the sides but they'd been removed or busted years before. Some holes had been covered but not all of them. Plenty big enough."

They were all silent.

"And, your pictures. The fuzz. We had the same thing, any pictures that might've shown Anna and Cat. And they had two big, muscular guards with them. They just looked like big, solid people. Normal faces except for the dark glasses. Pale skin."

"Like 'new' Anna," Mel said.

"C'mon," she continued as she led Chris by his leash again and she paused at the door, her bright raspiness returned and strengthened, "let's get downstairs before everyone thinks we're up here fucking. Unless, Joyce..."

Mel gave her the look again, just the tip of her tongue between her teeth as she looked at a grinning Chris then at the bed then back at her.

Joyce's mouth didn't work but she managed to shake her head slightly.

"Ok. We'll wait until Anna gets here and spring the other surprise with her."

A handful of wide-eyed guys followed Shaw down the stairs as Mel led Chris ahead of her, a couple of classmates but mostly soccer teammates of Chris, from his group introduction to Shaw. They'd apparently arrived just after her and had been around a video game set in that large rec room and her biggest surprise had been the strength of the look she'd traded with Terry as he'd managed the group. A few other appraising looks made clear that her age or her costume left them with questions but no one had the guts to ask but mostly their attention was locked on the demon who led the parade with her leashed prey.

There was some hubbub on the ground floor that seemed to indicate additional arrivals but it silenced quickly after Mel led Chris onto the landing and they made the right turn into the dining and living room area. Shaw hadn't seen them so assumed that cute redhead Sam and Teresa were likely in that area. As Shaw herself left the stairs she saw Teresa mostly from the rear. With her short hair, especially slicked back as it was, and her svelte figure, she and her brother's resemblance was uncanny. Despite that, Teresa was... pretty. Shaw smiled tightly at the thought, this girl would've attracted plenty of boys and had probably had some uncomfortable times before she'd understood herself. That cute redhead too. Their manner made clear they were a couple, no less than this Mel and her leashed 'drudge' Chris.

Shaw pushed through and saw that the knife-fighting heroine of the Broiler had arrived. She stood with her hands on her hips, a pose that pulled her own undersized black blazer open enough that those huge tits held in a black, open cup bustier were exposed almost to the uncovered nipples. She had a broad-brimmed black hat with a feather, an eye patch over her left eye, a long black skirt with a white petticoat under it, both with long slits. Her right leg was angled outward to open one of the slits and showed over the calf black boots with high and thick heels but otherwise bare legs except for a scabbard on her right thigh. And nothing else.

Shaw saw the pirate's boyfriend Dave and two others next to the dining room table, now covered with pizza boxes and a couple of brown paper bags. Shaw knew Asha had a brother and suspected the handsome boy in the Roman legionnaire's costume was him, there was scant resemblance beyond their skin, that smooth coffee-with-milk color.

And the eyes. Gold. Shaw shuddered slightly as she thought about the photo she'd seen at Bill 'n Ada's. The bottle blonde in the skimpy toga with the grumpy expression next to him must be his girlfriend, Shaw guessed.

She looked back at Asha, realized the pirate's eye was locked onto Mel and the taller demon's posture showed her returning the look. The utter silence and slack jaws as the hellspawn and the buccaneer sized each other up was like a fluid that forced itself on everyone.

No, in everyone. Shaw felt a new tingle between her legs. Fuck. If I could bottle this...

Without averting her gaze Mel reached and unhooked the leash from Chris's neckband, coiled it and reattached it to her waistband.

She looked across the room and saw Sam near the front door. Apparently that cute and curvy redhead was on permanent greeting duty, her eyes slowly moved from Asha to Mel and back. Like everyone else. But then she saw Sam's gaze pass her and it found Teresa and the angel's lust was clear. That didn't surprise Shaw. What did was when Sam's gaze quickly found Chris but didn't change its aspect. But that cute redhead seemed to will herself to look away, back at the pirate and demon who slowly closed the gap.

Oh, hell, thought Shaw, what the hell is going on in this house? I need to know and somehow bottle it. I'll get rich...

The detective moved slowly and avoided getting into the sight line between the vixens so she could make her way to the redhead in the diaphanous gown. She felt a bit sorry for the girl, she'd seemed to enjoy having some eyes on her when she'd let Shaw in, but she could've been naked now and no one would've noticed.

As Shaw made her way past static people who may as well have been traffic cones, the devil girl and the pirate moved toward each other slowly, both ensured as much sensual flesh as possible was exposed with each step to meet halfway. They clasped hands but stood at a distance.

"So many sailors you've sent to their willing dooms," Shaw knew Mel was barely nineteen and from the previous evening it seemed her natural voice was rough and husky, but this was a languorous, rasped, sensual purr that kicked the tingle between Shaw's legs up a notch. She saw Sam's tongue run slowly across her lips, her eyes locked.

"The souls you've devoured screamed in joy," Asha's voice was toward the opposite end of the register, a slow high alto that flowed like thick syrup and forced itself into the pussy that Mel's voice had moistened. Twenty. The damned girl would be twenty one in a couple of months. Shit. These two could kill people.

"That's a lovely bustier and skirt, pirate captain."

"I couldn't let you get all the attention like Halloween, girl-child of the underworld."

"Thank you for bringing the pizzas. Good you could make it."

"Wouldn't be anywhere else."

Chris lessened the spell that froze the room when he stepped forward and shook Dave's hand, the latter did quick introductions to the rest of Asha's party. Mel released the crimson pirate's hands and she quickly hugged Dave to elicit another glared challenge from Asha before she greeted Aron and a glum looking girl introduced as Brandi, indeed she was Aron's girlfriend, in a toga that offered a smidgen more coverage than did the costumes of the demon and the pirate.

"A question, Sam," Shaw saw her jump slightly before she forced her attention onto the policewoman and she smiled shyly, "does Mel ever wear a bra? Or panties?"

Sam's smile broadened and she took a slow breath.

"Not unless she has good reason, and then only ones that push 'em up even more," Sam's voice was slow, her manner trance like, "and usually no undies either. After she arrived last summer Chris got her a job temping and she looked the perfect office drone. Then he bought her a pair of stockings and garters and that was it. No more pantyhose. She says why wear short skirts if she's just going to show off undies. But she has the sense when to dress right, though, but if those people in the offices had known she was commando..."

The spell relaxed but wasn't erased, everyone shuffled for position to get at the pizzas and garlic bread. In the shuffle, Asha's eyes locked onto Shaw's and for a split-second her self-assurance turned to doubt as she looked at the detective. But she recovered as quickly and dismissed Shaw as she turned away.

Pizza. Garlic bread. Beer. Wine. A true college party. It had been a while.

Shaw smiled as she sipped a beer. She wasn't in the habit of drinking anything not from a sealed container but a commercial keg had astronomically low odds for being spiked. And it was good beer, apparently a friend of a friend had acquired it in San Francisco and driven it across two states! The crowd moved in waves as they followed Asha and then Mel, no one even bothered to hide that they stared at every chance. The former's shaved pussy and the latter's black landing strip. The pirate's round and double-D breasts in that bustier and the demon's slightly smaller tits that simply ignored gravity. Two round and firm asses. And both young women made sure there were plenty of opportunities to get those views.

Shaw had noticed how glum Aron's Brandi seemed, a sour look and mood since she'd arrived. She was probably used to being the center of attention, Shaw mused, but tonight was practically ignored despite her perfect B-cup breasts and long, lithe legs. She'd arrived with bikini panties that she'd removed and had adjusted her toga to undergird and no longer cover one breast. And she still pouted about too little notice.

Hell, Shaw's crotch was plenty wet and she'd never been attracted to women. But the hypnotic spell put out by the demon and the pirate was unavoidable even with the party spread across three house levels. If the swinger 'sex' parties she'd occasionally investigated and on rare cases had busted for underage or unwilling participants had had a tenth of the pheromones in play here they'd have carried half of those middle-aged fools out on stretchers. Again she had the thought to dump the force and convince this crew to let her hire them out to those sorts of parties. Henri and Gypsy Rose wouldn't appreciate THIS competition.

She'd just wandered into the kitchen with the beer when the crimson head was next to hers, hat and eye patch discarded for the moment.

"Detective Shaw, I know you and my boyfriend are hiding some secret about you being here."

"Good evening, Miss Washington," the formality seemed appropriate, "nothing untoward."

"Better be. If not, we might see if I can get my knife faster than you get that gun from your ankle..."

The glint in those golden eyes caused Shaw to squint and smile back. As did the slightest inflection in the pirate's voice that reminded her of Captain Rourke, another Angeleno who'd fled that huge city ringed by mountains and an ocean for a much smaller one ringed by mountains and a smelly lake four times as salty as that ocean. A fleeting thought wondered if the two families had ever crossed paths?

"Your friend Miss Turnbull doing well? Not here tonight?"

"Tracy's getting drilled front and rear," Shaw raised both eyebrows at that, "well, in a couple hours. Her sorta-boyfriend's not at the Broiler anymore, now he's down at La Caille, her parents are in town so they went there. But unless another drug deal goes down she'll have her legs wrapped around his ass before morning!"

"How do I get a boyfriend like that?"

"Me too. She'd invited me and Dave but no, he INSISTED we come HERE. Hmmf. But I hear tell that Terry is no slouch in the sack, way you've been looking at him. And him at you. You should be able to seal that deal easily."

She elbowed Shaw in the ribs and quickly strode toward Chris and her arch-enemy, the black-haired demon, who were in the far corner of the living room talking to a heavyset man she remembered as Roger and his wife, Jeanie. But she thought back on Asha's last comment. She had been friendly, maybe too friendly, to that attractive kid. And he was on the rebound. Shit.