Chronicle - Mel and Chris Ch. 04

Chris

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

Chris smiled as his back was turned to Mel and someone else as he finished setting up the VCR. He wore a tight sleeveless vest and his very tight leather pants from Halloween 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."

Chris flashed a look at a grinning Mel as the detective's eyes lingered as she scanned his body before she finally locked her eyes on his.

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

Shaw's eyes widened as Mel unhooked her leash from her waist. She attached it to a hook on the leather strap around Chris's neck.

The demon 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 standard gray 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," Mel'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 rotated the can a last time before she handed it 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 ass-kicking 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, "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 keep an eye on her 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 picture. The fuzzy one. 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 and a grinning Chris looked at Shaw then Mel looked at the bed and back at the detective.

Joyce's mouth moved but no words came but she managed to shake her head slightly.

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

Sam

Sam wandered the ground floor and assured people not checking out the video game setup the birthday boy would make a cameo appearance and made sure people had drinks and snacks. With Mel not sponging up the testosterone Sam caught plenty of eyes as her gown offered fleeting clear views of her pale white breasts and their small pink and at the moment very erect nipples. She felt a hand on her ass and a voice in her ear.

"You're getting as bad as Mel," it was Teresa, "teasing the poor boys. And this hot ass you're showing off."

"Maybe I should take this g-string off, eh...," Sam said when the doorbell rang and someone from the kitchen called Teresa.

"Go," said Sam and she took a few steps to get to the front door and opened it.

"Holy shit," she snapped, "Asha, do you and Mel shop at the same store?"

"What, Sam, is she dressed like a pirate too?"

"Um, you and her have the same top on. Well, she doesn't have the bustier under hers, she, um, doesn't have anything under hers."

Asha snorted and the long and curved white feather in her black, broad-brimmed cavalier hat shook and the crimson hair that cascaded from under it highlighted her face and the one golden eye not covered by a patch. Her long black skirt and the white petticoat under it both had long slits to her crotch that seemed designed to offer plentiful views.

"Hey, Sam, these are getting cold," she turned toward the voice at Asha's right, it was Dave, he had three pizza boxes.

She stepped back and Asha led her retinue into the house. Cheers broke out as folks saw or smelled the pizzas.

"Put 'em the table just there," Sam pointed to the new arrivals' right.

"Hey, teach," Asha's brother Aron had three more pizza boxes, "this is Brandi. Brandi, my instructor Sam. I've mentioned her."

"Hi, Aron, good to see you," Sam said and Asha snorted, "nice to meet you, Brandi."

"Hi," Brandi's voice dripped with, something, Sam couldn't quite place it but the greeting wasn't overly enthusiastic. But Sam smiled at the willowy blonde who carried bags with what smelled like garlic bread.

She knew Asha and Aron were fraternal twins, just like her girlfriend and Terry. But unlike those two, the pirate and the Roman legionnaire both had only that smooth and beautiful latte colored skin and those unique golden eyes in common. They otherwise offered little resemblance. Aron was thin, lithe, but he'd helped her carry some equipment in the lab and was strong. His long milk chocolate brown hair was wavy and definitely didn't mesh with his Roman soldier's costume. But it did show off his nice legs, not quite Chris's Sam thought, but few were.

Sam didn't know his sister well, the 'other' redhead now, only a couple of fleeting meetings. She wasn't quite Mel's height but softer, curvier and beautiful and with this costume seemed determined to challenge the demon for everyone's attention. The bustier simply pushed those huge tits up and left the nipples exposed and Sam was pretty sure she had nothing under that skirt although it had been only a quick glimpse. But even though her almost knee-height boots had wild heels, she still wouldn't catch the demon in hers.

Third-hand accounts from Chris via Dave had her as friendly, outgoing, recently recovered from a broken ankle over Thanksgiving. Her knife-wielding heroics at the Broiler robbery and kidnapping wasn't anything anyone had expected. Sam couldn't quite read her expression as she directed her three companions in laying out the feast but chuckled a bit as it was obvious that was all she was going to do.

Sam had the thought she should get knives, forks, in case anyone wanted them but then Asha turned and stared and the formerly noisy crowd of classmates and soccer teammates went absolutely silent.

She saw Mel and a leashed Chris pause, demonic coal black eyes locked onto a single exposed piratical gold eye. Sam shivered. The sudden electricity between the two vixens could've powered the neighborhood. No, thought Sam, maybe half of the state. Without moving her gaze Mel's left hand unhooked the leash from the ring on the leather band around Chris's neck, coiled it and reattached it to her waistband. Asha stood with her hands on her hips and her right leg angled outward to open a slit on her skirt.

After a moment both of them stepped forward slowly so their blazers moved just enough to award a quick clear view to anyone with a lucky angle. Both shuffled again and Sam confirmed two things. Asha had no underwear and she definitely shaved. Sam wondered if the scabbard on that redhead's right thigh had a real knife. The stories of the Broiler incident said it probably did.

Sam also confirmed Mel hadn't donned underwear while she'd been upstairs.

Then each young woman stepped forward and met halfway but to Sam's surprise it wasn't Mel's usual hug. They took each other's hands but stood at a distance.

"So many sailors you've sent to their willing dooms," Sam had never heard Mel's usually deep voice so langrous, rasped, a sensual purr that forced her thighs to rub together and moisture pushed against her g-string.

"The souls you've devoured screamed in joy," Asha's voice was the opposite end of the register, a slow soprano that flowed over Sam like syrup.

"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."

Sam looked at Teresa and thought to drag her downstairs and fuck her brains out. Right now. Then she looked at Chris and the memory of sitting on his face at Halloween while Mel fucked him forced its way in, not to mention Mel's encouragement for the angel to wrap her mouth around his gooey cock when he came. She closed her eyes for a heartbeat to calm herself and then saw the slack faces around the room. Shit. She may as well lose the g-string. No one here was going to pay the least attention to her the rest of the evening. Hell. Lose the gown. Just keep the halo.

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

"Wouldn't be anywhere else."

Chris lessened the spell 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 electric arc before she greeted Aron and a glum looking Brandi. That blonde's tiny and tight toga around her small but absolutely perfect bust and her long bare legs would've made her the talk of any and every other party.

"A question, Sam," it was the policewoman, Shaw, who'd somehow slid around the crowd to stand next to her, "does Mel ever wear a bra? Or panties?"

Sam smiled and 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 panties either. After she arrived last summer Chris got her a job temping in offices 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 told me those short skirts have no reason if she has undies on. 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. Just before she decided to join the fight Sam was gladdened by Asha's flashed expression of confusion when she saw the policewoman. Sam was sure there was recognition in it. Had Shaw been involved with the Broiler investigation? That reporter Cat who'd been there had only interviewed a man, a middle-aged detective, Pearson, if Sam's memory wasn't completely amiss. Asha hadn't been too complimentary about the police, had complained 'had the police dealt with this gang properly when their leader attacked my friend Tracy the first time she wouldn't have had to deal with this too!' She watched Asha dismiss the officer's presence as she went to Dave's side and reconfirmed her ownership as he stood next to Chris and Mel.

Chris

"Does the name Fred ring a bell, Asha?"

Chris didn't expect the reaction as Asha's eyes widened before she glared at them. A few people picked over the last pieces of pizzas and Dave helped Sam and Teresa collect used paper plates and empty boxes into a large garbage bag. Terry and Shaw stood close to each other and smiled as they talked but had been nudged away from the cleanup crew.

"Asha, you okay? I didn't mean...," Mel's voice was apologetic, her black wings flapped slightly as she reached out and took the redhead's shoulders.

"How do you two know that name?" Asha's voice was low, barely audible as her eyes danced from Mel to Chris and back.

"We, um, well," Chris rethought his words multiple times, "we saw it."

"My father, his name was Fred," Asha's voice stayed very soft but she reached up and took Mel's hands in hers, lowered them then released Mel's right hand and reached out and Chris responded, one hand took Asha's and the other Mel's free hand.

"My father was Fred, he was from Ohio. My mother was Janet, from Iowa. You guys... oh, shit. You... didn't. It... didn't."

Chris turned his head, locked on his target for a heartbeat before he turned back.

"It did. Sam's fault. And otters. And Mel's RedFruit."

'Otters,' Asha mouthed, then she shook her head, "and what the fuck's a RedFruit?"

"How much do you want," Mel's pitched her voice low to match Asha, "to know?"

"Nothing. No more. For now."

They heard a laugh, a strangely flat one they'd all learned to recognize and turned to see a visually joyful Anna just in view in the hallway behind Terry and the policewoman. The tall and pale woman's almost luminous green eyes seemed guileless but Chris read Asha's face and turned to catch Mel's upraised eyebrow while Asha continued to look for another moment before she turned to the pair. They held the hug for four then five heartbeats. Asha squeezed their hands and walked off, caught Dave in the doorway to the kitchen and slipped her arm into his and led them out of sight.

"Her letter said she knew, at least suspected, about Anna," Mel leaned in and whispered, Chris nodded as they released hands and he slipped his hand under her skirt and tail to palm a bare ass cheek, "but her dad couldn't have been the... 'person' in that picture. There's something else going on. Her letter did say her parents were murderous psychopaths. Maybe they, you know, took care of the Golden Criminals after they made them turn over the padlet and show them how to use it."

"Yup," he squeezed and she wiggled, as they watched a commotion in the dining room as Sam and Shaw placed his birthday cake on the freshly-cleaned table and Teresa counted out candles and placed them.

"Looks like it's time for my cake and ice cream. That ought to keep most people occupied so let's do that then you can get a crow bar and separate Anna from Bobby and get her downstairs. I'll prise Dave away from Asha and have him bring that nice policewoman along and show her what we promised."

Sam

'Why did Teresa get the bloody candles and I got this stupidly heavy cake' ran through Sam's mind as she carefully climbed the stairs. Behind her, Teresa offered reminders to be careful and 'hurry up or it won't be his birthday anymore!' Sam finally topped the stairs.

"Make room," she grunted to clear a path through the kitchen, her dining room table target in the distance. She saw the policewoman alone at the far doorway near that table, Terry having been dispatched to haul the full garbage bag to the bins near the garage. Sam walked quickly and caught Shaw's eyes as she neared the table.

"Gimme a hand, officer?"

Shaw stepped quickly and they each grabbed an edge of the cake's thick cardboard base and set it on the table.

Deep red letters across the top of the cake spelled out 'Happy 22nd, Leather Boy, don't forget the ice cream! Devil Girl & Everyone!' Teresa followed with a big handful of candles and once Shaw and Sam set the cake down began placing them and the two women stepped back but stood alongside each other.

"Hey, Sam, another question," Shaw's voice was soft so Sam edged closer and leaned her head a bit, "I know they're 'leather boy' and 'devil girl' 'cuz that Halloween thing, but what's up with ice cream?"

"Oh, um," Sam glanced over as Mel and Chris approached the table and attendees arrived from the other floors, she bit her lower lip for a second, "um, well, it has to do with..."

Sam felt the heat as her cheeks reddened and the older woman laughed.

"Oh, uh... Mel says her ass is Chris's favorite part of her and if they'd met when she was younger he would've bribed her with ice cream until she let him stick his thingie up her butt," Sam blurted the last bit out too loudly, a couple of Chris's soccer teammates heard that and turned and leered, Sam waited for their attention to go back to the cake before she leaned closer to Shaw, who leaned as well, "... then he'd have been sent to jail... and... oh um, you get it? Their joke, like, he buys her ice cream after he sticks it, uh..."

Sam paused a few heartbeats.

"And that girl LOVES ice cream," Sam finished, she guessed that her face was redder than her hair. That Shaw almost doubled over in laughter didn't entirely surprise her. Sam was about to ask what exactly was this officer's relationship to her friends when Maria ran up the driveway, followed by Anna and Bobby.