Dark Division - The Capsa - Ch. 16

Two years passed with no word from Lizzie. Tom, Kerry and Jeff searched for her for a time, but she was gone. They realized at some point that she did not want to be found.

Oz had not told them about how she had appeared on his doorstep broken and battered. By the time she had arrived, he knew that her power was unlocked. It was also then that he realized she should be kept as far from Kerry and Jeff as possible. They were her mates and the likely key to her demise. So, he kept silent.

Lizzie spent months at Oz's mending physically and learning how to sleep again without seeing either of her mates in her mind. He worked with her on shooting as Jeff had before and even helped her with her fighting techniques. They grew close during those months. When she was ready, Oz told her the information they had from Gabriel. That left her knowing that she really could turn to no one, especially after discovering that Gabriel had lied to her for so long. And when she was done healing and learning, she and Oz both knew that she needed to move on and try to live her life. So, after 6 months, Lizzie left with a promise to keep in touch and a classic car freshly painted blue thanks to the old man.

Her life didn't return to normal from there, though. Lizzie tried working as an attorney again, but ended up drifting towards more and more morose personal injury cases. When she had a few large settlements, she just couldn't take it anymore and she bailed. The next few months had gone by with her hopping motel to motel or friends' houses, trying desperately to stay away from anywhere that she could be found. It was hard until she decided to take a break from it all for a while. The last big check for 3 million was what solidified her decision. That was it, no more cases. She just wanted a quiet life of safety.

Oz had been in contact with her constantly through that time, telling her every tidbit of research they had discovered. Now that she was fully able to defend herself, the information seemed less important though, as if she could avoid the world if she wanted. Even that first heat cycle alone again hadn't proved too dangerous. She had found a small cabin in the woods and bought it turning it into her new home. There her heat seemed lowered, but then again she had spent the last few months acquiring tattoos, which were wardings against a whole lot of beings. Oz had been more than happy to provide her with the patterns, hoping that if nothing could touch her, then nothing would kill her. On the other side of that first cycle, everything seemed like it was going to be okay.

Lizzie started to venture out little by little, although she found plenty to occupy her at the cabin. She even started taking on new legal work after a few more months. It was all able to be done remotely, so she didn't have to think about leaving and could just be there in her own peaceful part of the world.

When her next heat cycle started her second after her ungating, she wasn't even worried. Her cabin was remote and she had tattoos on her body to cover nearly anything that might sense her. As she unpacked the last of the provisions she would need for the month, the quiet was suddenly broken up by her phone. She ran over in time to see Oz's name pop up. A few minutes of the phone call and Lizzie was hopping in the Charger heading towards Oz's house. It would take her a few hours, but Oz had said this was important and she had to come in person.

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"Hey Oz, what's up?" Lizzie said it normally after Oz answered his door.

"Lizzie! So incredible to see you little lady. I'd hug you, but I can smell you from here."

"Sorry, I came as soon as you called, but my heat started yesterday. You said it was important, though." Lizzie smiled at him.

"It is. Me and the boys, we found someone who can help." Oz noted the tattoos that now adorned parts of Lizzie's arms and the large anti-possession tattoo that she now sported on the top of her chest. She looked different than he remembered, harder somehow.

"The boys? Oz, are you hiding something?" Lizzie locked her jaw looking at him.

"Look, you know I've been using every resource to get rid of this curse you have, which includes my best agents."

"Fine, well tell me who can help me and I'll make my way there. First, I need a drink though, and don't worry about my heat I took care of it earlier. It should be tolerable until morning." She shook her head walking past Oz into his house.

When she got to the doorway into Oz's living room she stopped dead in her tracks. Two sets of eyes met hers that she hadn't been faced with in almost 2 years.

"Hey Lizzie." Kerry spoke up smiling. Jeff was silent, casting his gaze down immediately.

"No fucking way Oz, no fucking way." Lizzie turned back to head for the door and Oz's hands seized her arms and then he dropped them immediately feeling his body respond to the touch in a way he was completely uncomfortable with.

"Just wait little lady. They found a lady that might be able to break the curse and you can't go there alone. "

"I can take care of my damn self. I have been training for years now, and I'm fine alone. Give me the name and address and I'll go there." She huffed, pissed off to even be near the two bastards that cursed her.

"You can't go alone. The men you are mated with have to go with you." He looked at her with a level gaze.

"You know very well what they did to me, and you expect me to trust them?" Lizzie was fuming as she looked into his eyes.

"Now you and I both know that was some hoodoo that caused that. Those boys in there love you, and they never would have done that if not under a spell. They have searched for two years to find anything to fix it. So, take your pigheaded self in there and talk it out with them." Oz took on the father tone with her that she hated.

"Fine." One word was all she had as she turned to walk back into Oz's living room and sat across from them. The room was thick with tension as she sat down on his favorite chair.

"It's good to see you Lizzie." Kerry was soft as he spoke. His heart was racing at seeing her again. She looked different in many ways. She had tattoos on her, some of which he recognized from the dungeon in the bunker. She now wore black eyeliner and mascara around her eyes and red lipstick, which made his body respond instantly. The small tank top she had on hugged her and she was much more muscular now than he remembered. He looked into her face and still saw the woman he fell in love with though. His mind flooded with memories.

"I wish I could say the same. When are we leaving?" Lizzie muttered at him, her eyes caught Kerry's and saw the pain and regret painted there.

"Is that it? Two years and we didn't even know you were okay, and you ask when we are leaving." Jeff looked at her with hurt written on his features. His smoldering green eyes reflected pain and not the anger that he used to hide it.

"Yeah Jeff that's it. You assholes raped me and marked me, why the hell would you care if I was okay? So, yea after two years I kind of got over you both and now we should get going so I never have to see either of you again." She was steely in her gaze back at him, not willing to yield anything to him emotionally.

"Lizzie, listen, I know you understand that we wouldn't have hurt you if we had a choice in the matter. We love you, and we just want to reclose the gates so you can be happy." Kerry gave her that puppy dog look that she remembered all too well.

"I understand it all Kerry, but it still took a good part of a year to get the images out of my brain, so you'll forgive me if I don't jump up and hug you." She sighed not sure what else to say to him.

"It was the same for us, but we never stopped trying to make it right. Are you doing okay now?" Kerry asked her while Jeff scowled off to his side. He was taking in her appearance and how much he still cared about her. Jeff didn't know how he could ever make it better after what happened between them, but he knew that being in the same room with her made him ache to just hold her.

"Kerry, it happened, so there's no real going back. I'm trying now to just deal with it. If you guys really do love me then help me reclose the gates so I can be free again." She softened trying to convey more than her words with how she was looking at him.

"It's this uh witch in Louisiana. Your mother gave her the spell to rescind the contract Gabriel signed. Supposedly, she is the only one that can use it and it will reclose the gates. It's about two days of driving, unless we stay at hotels." Jeff spoke sniffling a little under his breath as he grazed a hand under his eye wiping away any potential remnants of the tear that he felt.

"I have my bag packed in the trunk, 'cause Oz said he might need me to stay a few days. So we can leave when you're ready." She looked up at Oz with a death glare.

"Alright, grab it and we'll take Stella." Jeff stood up, ready to get on the road.

"No way. I'm not riding in that car." Lizzie was firm.

"Well, it doesn't make sense for us to take separate cars; it won't work if we trade off driving. We can take yours." Jeff offered.

"I'm not letting you touch Henry. So, fuck it...we'll take the Torino and I'll deal with it." Jeff smiled a little to himself. He knew Oz had fixed up a nice classic for Lizzie, but her naming it was so perfect. It was a nice thing to hear from her mouth.

The four of them walked out to where Lizzie had parked and Jeff leaned admiring Henry. The beautiful car was painted a perfect blue with black stripes. He took a special moment to look it over and even walked to the side to note the way the hood scoop perfectly complimented it.

"Hey, stop eyeing my ride. You can't fuck him Jeff." Lizzie snapped at him making Jeff look at her with a glare.

Lizzie grabbed her bag from the trunk and headed towards the Torino. She hadn't expected the gut wrenching feeling as she made her way past the trunk where Kerry had broken that gate years before. Looking up she caught Kerry's eyes and they communicated with no words the regret and guilt that he felt about that night. She had forgiven Kerry first in her heart. It was a horrible thing, but they were already messing around and she knew he didn't mean for it to happen.

Jeff had been another thing, and taken her much longer to forgive. She had to in order to move past it, but still it hurt that he came to her room drunk, knowing what had happened. Her mind had never fully grasped what he had done to her while she was unconscious, and the feeling of being violated like that when she thought he was there to provide comfort just burned inside.

After situating herself in the back so Jeff couldn't see her in the rearview mirror, Lizzie settled down in the seat and put her headphones on playing music from her phone. She had no desire to participate in small talk with the two guys. She must have drifted off at some point around midnight, because she was waking up at a drive thru the next thing she knew. It was a seedy little joint, and that's when she realized it was already starting to get light outside.

"We were starving, so thought you might want something to eat." Kerry was leaning over the front seat shaking her awake. Lizzie blinked a few times taking in the large bright sign in front of her.

"I'll have a bacon cheeseburger and some fries with a chocolate milkshake." With those words, she pulled herself up and caught a steady look from Jeff in the rearview mirror. He didn't smile, just looked at her and she stared back.

A few minutes later and they were all eating in the car, parked off to the side. The silence was thick as she munched down her food. It was Jeff who chimed in this time.

"So, it looks like your mother found out about Gabriel's little deal and made a deal of her own down below. I think the idea was that this witch would have a spell to find you once the gates were open and you could then be used as a pretty powerful weapon or sired to whomever."

"And how did you find this out?"

"We might have tortured a few demons, but the important thing is that your mother was actually screwing Hell over too. I guess she was a little smarter than your dad. Instead of just giving the witch one spell to find you, she also gave her something more powerful. It's some type of spell that recloses the gates after finding you. I guess it's a hidden feature. The witch knows, but no one else did until she had a daughter." Jeff spoke perfunctorily trying to hide the feelings brewing inside of him. He was just trying to find a way to connect with Lizzie again and at least she was invested in this topic.

"I hope you didn't torture the daughter."

"No, we just followed some leads and ended up talking with her. I guess her mom is training her to take over because she's sick. This spell seemed particularly nasty though, and when she pressed well it freaked her out. She doesn't really want to learn something that Heaven and Hell will both be pissed about. So, we made her a deal. We'll take care of her mother, she doesn't have to even learn the spell and in exchange they'll reclose your gates." Jeff turned now and looked at her trying to make that connection even more.

"And the CIA is fine with you babysitting this witch forever?" Lizzie was instantly suspicious of what their real intentions were.

"No, of course they aren't. But, Oz is so we're going to take her back to live near him and she'll be safe."

"Fuck and I gave the old man a hard time. I can be a real bitch sometimes." She said the words and shook her head. She let things catch up to her too much at times and now after Oz had apparently gone out of his way she had vented anger onto him.

"He won't be too upset. You didn't exactly know." Kerry finally chimed in and turned to look at her.

"Well, listen, I'm pretty wired, do you want me to take a shift of driving Jeff? You guys can crash for a few hours?" Lizzie ventured it out unsure.

"That sounds great." Jeff hopped out opening the door for her from the back. He felt a glimmer of hope as they passed by each other. She had not recoiled as he thought she would. It was small really, but it was something.

The rest of the day was spent shifting drivers in relative silence as they sped down the road. Music filled the car, changing with each new set of hands on the wheel, but the conversation was pretty much gone. Despite stops for food, they made pretty good time, and when Lizzie was asleep again in the back, they only had about six hours left. She figured they would get to the small Louisiana town sometime in the night and be gone again by morning.

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"Where are we?" Her eyes opened slowly and she realized the Torino was stopped beneath a large neon sign. She felt like she had just fallen asleep, and thought maybe they had already arrived at the house.

"Hey, so they only have one room, Lizzie, sorry. Kerry and I are just tired and it looks like you are too." Jeff's voice roused her as he opened the back door of the car.

"Shit, a hotel? I thought we were driving through the night." She suddenly had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Well, we still have about 3 hours to go and we're all exhausted. So, we figured one night in a hotel wouldn't be such a bad thing. Like I said though, they only have one room. Kerry's getting it situated now."

"I guess if we have to, well we have to. Does it at least have two beds?"

"Yea, and don't worry Kerry and I agreed to split one already, so you've got your own to crash in."

"Hey, I got the key, and it's right here, so just grab the bags and we can leave the car." Kerry called out to them as he walked over to the second door beside the office and slid the card into the slot.

Lizzie hopped out and grabbed her bag heading inside. She was exhausted and understood, but the thought of being trapped in a confined space with the guys was already making her nervous. Her only consolation was that she could definitely defend herself if she needed to plus she had at least two guns and a few other weapons in her bag. Lizzie was far from the defenseless girl that Kerry and Jeff knew from years ago.

The three quickly situated themselves and then Jeff volunteered to go out for food. It left her alone with Kerry, who seemed just as nervous as she was. They both started to get comfortable and after a short bathroom trip, Lizzie was in shorts and a tank top and Kerry couldn't help but sneak a peek here and there.

Kerry didn't bother with the bathroom, instead just stripping off his flannel shirt and getting comfortable on the bed. He had no interest in giving up the ability to hide what Lizzie's ever-increasing scent was doing to him.

"When did you get that scar?" Her words caught him off guard. Then, he realized that with only a t-shirt on his newest scar on his left forearm was visible.

"I was actually dealing with a pretty nasty thing in Wyoming just after we went back out on rotation and picked this one up. Jeff stitched it, but he's definitely not as good as you are. His shoulder healed much cleaner."

"So, you guys don't live at the bunker anymore?"

"Nope, we have a few safe houses to crash at around the area, but we are back out investigating cases and doing the dirty work. We did three years there, so we had our break."

"What did you deal with up there?"

"Some type of nasty ghoul creature. I don't know if we ever definitively found out what it was, but it had a nice bite on it. I was just lucky it was my arm and not something else."

"Jesus. I don't know how you guys do this stuff. I don't think I could see all that stuff and still sleep."

"You get used to it. So, uh...are all those tattoos for protection? I don't remember you having any before."

"Well, when you hear that anything can get you knocked up and lead to your death, you start finding ways to protect yourself. It started with just the anti-possession tattoo here," Lizzie pointed to the large black circular pattern that covered the top of her left chest. "And then I figured if you're going to have one, well get them all. So, I just kept bothering Oz with getting more and more warding patterns so that nothing could even come close to me. Before I knew it, I had full sleeves and started on other parts. They don't look to bad though, huh?"

"No, it's kind of hot actually." He said it without thinking and the room fell silent again as Lizzie took in the words.

When the door opened, it saved them both from further awkwardness. Jeff entered with food and they all sat down around the small table. They ate quietly and soon after Lizzie turned in for the night. Her hope was that she would be able to wake up before the guys and find a shady spot to relieve some of her heat before they had to hit the road.

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By the time Lizzie woke up the next morning, she was covered in sweat. Her covers had been thrown off long before, and now she lay there breathing heavily.

"Hey, um...Kerry went for food. We didn't want to wake you, but now that you are. Well, as much as I don't want to ask you to; I think it would be better if you maybe put on some clothes." Jeff's voice roused her enough to sit up. Her hands instinctively went to her body and she realized that she had abandoned her clothing at some point with the blankets.

"Shit, I'm sorry. You know the heat just...well. Sorry Jeff."

"It's okay, I remember Lizzie. I just don't want you to be uncomfortable."

"Thanks Jeff. Don't worry; I'll take care of things before we head out." In a flash, Lizzie was up and out of the bed throwing on a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt to cover herself. Jeff stared at the laptop in front of him, trying to memorize the route he had to drive today. It was the only thing he could do to stop himself from staring at her. Lizzie was gorgeous and watching her as she slept had been too much. He was trying desperately to not think about her scent as he sat there and waited patiently for Kerry. They had already agreed that Lizzie couldn't be left alone with her heat, so he had offered to stay and make sure she was alright until his partner could return with breakfast.