-Of Sinners and Saints-

[SakuraAlkaid]

Rei grew solemn at Ember's fears, her tone as flat and honest as Asher had heard it fall in a long time. Since she had assured him of the very same thing, he believed. "Ember, this man has saved my butt on more occasions than I can count. He's rather genius, and more resourceful than our entire police station put together, my hand to God. He might as well be a brother to me for as much as I trust and respect him. If it comes down to him taking a bullet or someone he's brought with him, he will and has taken the bullet, both literally and figuratively, every time. I assure you than nothing serious will happen to anyone involved, that includes Jess of course, if she comes with us if Jason can help it in the slightest..."

"He's as good of a hunter, if not better of one, than Rei is, Ember," Asher chimed in, his own tone falling awfully solemn. "I trust him as well. I may not like him much, since he often invites Rei to join him in some pretty serious hunts, but I can tell you that I have arrived at the execution site many times to see him being stitched up with Rei spotless and often cursing him about it."

"If you're not comfortable about it, though, it's completely fine. I swear to you I won't think a thing differently about you if you don't. Trust me, I understand completely. I just know I could trust you at our back in case things do turn out to be a little unpredictable..."

[GamerKale]

"I'm sure he has Rei, but you're human Jess isn't. I've lost..." Ember glanced from Rei to Asher and back. "People I had thought were very good friends when they found out I was a medium. You understand if I'm less trusting of a hunter." "Eh, who did that?" "Nobody you know, Jess. It was before we met. I'm going to go run some errands." Ember kissed Jess on the head. "Be safe and let me know you're alright." "You're going to have a ghost tailing me, aren't you?" "You'll never know." She shouted as the truck revved to life and she drove off. Jessabell frowned after Ember and then looked at Rei. "So, what's the game plan? Hey, can I get two P90s like Teal'c had in that one episode of Stargate? Oh oh or maybe I could have like a grenade launcher like The Terminator." Jess laughed at the thought.

[SakuraAlkaid]

As Ember drove off, both Asher and Rei sighed in unison. "I wish I would have known she wasn't too trusting of hunters," Rei mumbled to herself in an almost child-like manner. "I really liked her too, Ash, but I guess there's always next time. Sorry I might have caused her to change her mind about you, but you probably would have pushed her away sooner or later, right?" A joking smile crossed her lips, although she honestly was worried about causing damage to her brother's relationship with what had happened tonight. Asher lightly laughed it off, but silently worried the same thing.

"You really don't have to come with me if you don't feel comfortable, Jess. I promise you that I won't think differently of you, and just know that the only reason I even asked was because I trust you. Jason's in no way prejudiced also. I wish Ember would have stuck around to hear that... He's actually half shifter and half medium, so..." Asher's hand on her shoulder pulled Rei's gaze from the ground and placed a tender smile back on her lips.

"I'll make sure to clear things up with her as soon as I can get in touch with her, Rei. I just hope that she'll contact me soon after all of this..." he said softly, looking out in the direction she had driven off in.

[GamerKale]

"Oh for the love of fish. I'm ok, I'm going, and and and I really wish I had a third thing to be angry about. Ah, peaches. And I really hate peaches. There, now can we please go? Actually, no wait I have a question. How can you be a half medium? Either you can see ghosts or you can't, right? It's not like it's actually a type of neogene, is it?"

[Helbaworshipper]

Maram was about to get up from her chair when a call was announced for Delano. She watched him exit, taking a sip of her tea again.

"Looks like they're doing a hunt that involves on of my servants this time." A voice spoke, though Delano could tell the mixed like accent of the vampire brothel owner. "I kept telling her to stop being so obvious, but I can't protect her actions this time." After a bit more of a discussion on the strange crimes the woman had been responsible for, he only had one or two questions.

"I'm guessing she doesn't quite care that you're the one who granted her everything. Are you going to do anything about it?"

"I'm afraid not, but I can limit her powers a little. She had the audacity to try and make ancients come to her beck and call."

"The pride wouldn't let you live it down, even if you wanted to."

"Make sure you stay inside. I hear that the hunters had the nerve to go into your brothel and insist on investigating. I'm assuming you had to let him go to death?"

"Of course I had to, what else would the hunters have done? I have my pride, but I can't exactly kill a hunter that has no courage to try and actually fight me."

"Oh... So she didn't even try and fight you. I hope that your favorite is okay."

"Perfectly fine, but I have to deal with Adil Lotis."

"Good luck with that. I'll make sure that servant dies tonight with whatever I can do without getting too involved. Even with how powerful I am, it would be pointless to get directly involved."

"I don't need luck, but thank you for dropping your pride enough to say it." He put the phone down and walked back into the room. He nodded lightly to Maram, who proceeded to get up and follow him out of the room.

[SakuraAlkaid]

After five seconds or so of looking at Jess, both siblings burst out in honest laughter. Asher calmed down first with Rei not too far behind him. "His mother's a medium, but you're right. I did say that wrong. He has no powers from her aside from his good sense of perception of the surrounding world. I just meant that he's no stranger to the neogene or any other of human/once human/half human whatever you can think of, and he'll protect them all if at all possible.If you're all set to go, though, we can head back to my house now and meet up with the guys. They should be back there by now, after all."

"The guys?" Asher asked, turning his attention from Jess to Rei. "Who have you recruited so far?"

"Just Jason, Kazuto, and Kazuto's friend so far. Jess was the only other person I knew to ask," she replied quickly before returning her gaze to Jess. "I do have one question before we go, though," Rei began with a completely serious expression on her face. "How can anyone not like peaches?"

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"I guess no one's home," Jason replied to Kazuto with a sigh. "We'll just have to try again later, I guess. Maybe with Rei with us. She wouldn't think twice about busting down his door if she felt he could help us. Especially since she isn't to fond of him," he added with a laugh. "Want to head back now? If she's not back home by now, something must have been seriously wrong."

[kai the pkk]

Kazuto: sure we have no choice right I'm actually happy to come back later I don't know how you can stand it the smell is killing me ( he turns around) bleh let's get going ( he walks back to jeep with jason) serious how we're you Able to stand it?

[SakuraAlkaid]

"Being a hunter gets you used to a lot of things, including the smell of rotting, decaying bodies. You may not believe me, but I'm being one hundred percent honest with you when I say that I have smelt worse than the scents of lust," Jason said as he climbed into the Jeep. He faintly smirked, continuing with, "Plus, once I caught my initial whiff of the area, I began to breathe through my mouth. The smell wasn't strong enough on it's own to make me taste it, so without my enhanced nose it became more tolerable," before he drove off, heading back toward Rei's house.

[kai the pkk]

Kazuto: id like to say your lucky but I really don't think that's the appropriate word Rotting decaying bodies huh? You never forget that smell so you saying the smell was bad enough you decided to breath through your mouth? ( he hops into the passenger side)

[SakuraAlkaid]

"You mean you didn't notice?" Jason replied with a faint smirk. "I guess I'm getting better at being more discrete with my actions after all. Like I said, though, a normal person wouldn't smell it like we do, so by breathing through my mouth I cut off my enhanced sense of smell. Since it wasn't strong to a normal person, I knew I wouldn't get the taste of it in my mouth like you sometimes do if something smells strongly enough, and I got to escape the awful smells that leak from the walls of a brothel." He paused for a moment, focusing on the road before them as he turned onto a side street.

"You learn all kinds of small tricks like that when you're a hunter, though. Especially when you're a half shifter hunter like me. As I said, you smell all kinds of strange and disgusting things when you're job is to hunt down and kill criminals for a living. If I didn't learn little tricks like that, my job would be utterly miserable."

[GamerKale]

"Jason, Kazuto, and Kazuto's friend. Sounds like the start to a bad joke. And as for peaches! They taste terrible and smell worse. Unless they are in a cobbler. Somehow the combination of ice cream, sugar, and batter make them eatable." Once they were piled into the car. "Can we get some cobbler after we're done tonight?" Jess closed her eyes and fell asleep as soon as the engine started.

[SakuraAlkaid]

Rei couldn't help but giggle again as Jess climbed into the car. "Hey Ash, a vampire, a shifter, and a half shifter hunter walk into a bar..." He rolled his eyes and walked to his car, ignoring his sister as he climbed into the driver's seat. He started the car before Rei could get in, but waited for her to get buckled up before he took off.

"She was right," he replied in almost a whisper. He didn't want to wake up Jess, but he felt he had to get his point across."That does sound like the start to a bad joke, and you should never mention it again." Rei giggled under her breath, trying to be as silent as possible, and Asher began to drive off, heading to Rei's house.

---------------------------------------------

Jason pulled up outside of Rei's house a split second before Asher did. He looked toward Kazuto as he stopped the car, undoing his seatbelt as he did. "I told you she should be back, although I thought that she would have already been back by now. I guess the situation was a little more interesting than we thought." Rei climbed out of the car in front of them, her box in hand, and waved over at the two in the Jeep with a playful smile as she went to open the door.

"She's in a good mood. That's nice," he said as he climbed out himself.

Asher turned around after undoing his seatbelt to wake Jess up as gently as possible. He wasn't sure what she had endured last night, but it couldn't have been too good based on how they had found her earlier.

[kai the pkk]

Kazuto: yeah I guess things are okay then ( he follows Jason as the two enter her house and soon after Everett knocks on the door in the same outfit from before except he has a guitar case on his back with what should be a guitar inside as he just makes himself at home)

Everett: hey hey hi howa it going good to see you ( he sets the case down as he gets comfy in a chair and starts to doze off) sleeeep

Kazuto:......okay so amyway we picked up the bike without incident ( he smiles) no scratches at allhow'd things go on your end rei?

[SakuraAlkaid]

"Well, we met Jess's father. It was... Interesting," Rei replied with a light nervous laughter. She ran her fingers through her hair nervously and looked specifically at Jason before continuing. "For some reason dragons other than Jess just don't like me. Why is that?"

"Probably the same reason that you don't like them, mein liebling." He reached out and pet her on the head softly as if she were a child, drawing a playful pout from her in the process. "You're just as stubborn and prideful as a lot of them are." She swatted at his arm playfully and turned to look back at Kazuto while taking a seat on the end of her couch.

"I swear, between him and Asher, I'm going to lose it. I can be around crazy murderers and the criminally insane all day long, but having both of them around at once... I don't think I can take it." She sat the box on the bottom shelf of her coffee table and hoped that Jason wouldn't get curious about it. If he found out what it was, he would never let her live it down. As soon as she looked back up, Asher came through the door, nodding his hellos to everyone.

"Detective Delacroix, it's been awhile," Jason called in a slightly more serious tone as he extended his hand toward him. "I hope you've been well." Asher took his hand and shook politely, replying, "I have. I see you have as well." Jason nodded and pulled his hand free, propping himself up against the wall afterword.

"By the way, I took a few of your things, Rei. I'll put them back in a little bit, but until we're sure of what we're doing and I can get my hands on more of my own equipment, I'd rather hold onto them if you don't mind," Jason said, turning his gaze toward Rei. He noticed the box with a curious eye, but left it be for now. They had more important things to discuss. "I only took it because we went to go question Mr. Delano while you were away."

"You did what?" she replied with a gasp. He laughed lightly at her reaction and waved his hand in front of him, shaking his head back and forth in a matching pattern.

"It's no big deal. He didn't even come to the door. We just thought we would try to be productive since you were away, didn't we Kazuto?"

[kai the pkk]

( he sIts down on the couch next to rei since its one of the few spots left to sit) it can't be that bad come on I mean I'm pretty sure no wait you know what sometimes I forget how stressful your job can be ( he laughs lightly as he spots the box but ignores it but can probablly guess from the smell) oh umm? Yeah we went to go see him it gave us something to do you know but turns out it was a waste of time the dude wouldn't even come to the door it was hard to tell of he was there I couldn't pick up on his scent either there was a different aroma in the air ( he laughs but is completely serious) yeah we were being productive as Jason said no reason to worry ( he smiles to reeasure her )

[GamerKale]

Jess woke without much trouble once the engine was off. "Oh, we're here already? Great." Jessabell walked into the house, sniffing. "You must be Jason since you smell of gunpowder, oil, and there's some shifter in your blood. And you're the guy from the other night. Which makes this guy the brightest of the bunch." Jess said and flopped into the chair next to Everett and went straight to sleep.

[SakuraAlkaid]

"If you say so, I'll believe it, but I would like to know exactly what it was that you took from my room, Jason..." Rei replied with a somewhat dangerous edge to her voice. The edge hit Jason like she had reached out with a physical blade, and he laughed nervously, looking away from both her and her brother. Nothing says awkward like a female accusing you of taking stuff from her bedroom in front of her older, very protective, brother after all.

"Just a blade or two... And a handful of ammo. Nothing too big," he replied, still looking out the window.

"It better not have been my good blades... The last time you got your hands on them, you nearly broke them in half..." Rei replied with a sigh, knowing full well that that was what he had taken earlier. "Either way, I'm glad that your adventure to the brothel was less exciting than mine was yesterday. I almost had an all out brawl with that man in his own office..."

"So, now that we're all here," Asher interrupted, leaning against the closed door now that everyone was inside. "What exactly is going on, and what kind of plans do you have in mind?"

Jason took center stage now and explained the general plan exactly as he had to Kazuto earlier. If anyone had any suggestions, they could chime in at any time, but Rei found nothing she didn't approve of. Jason's plans were usually what she went by when they worked together, when plans even managed to stay together come the actual fight, so she trusted his judgement.

[GamerKale]

Jessabell opened an eye. "So, what? You want me to use a car to turn one of the walls into a door? And then just stay alive, is that about right?" She sat up and put one hand over the other, frowning. "Or should I just go au naturale?"

[SakuraAlkaid]

"It's completely your call on that, Jess," Rei chimed in to allow Jason a moment or two to gather his thoughts back. "Honestly, if you want to hang back and just help us keep an eye on the outside of the building, it's more help than we had before. Ash and I can get enough radios for everyone to be wired together if you guys want to just go in that way too, so just let us know what you feel most comfortable with and we'll tailor the plan to fit with it."

"That pretty much sums up what I was about to say next," Jason called as Rei fell silent again. "So, does anyone have any special requests, questions, comments, or overall concerns that we could address now that everything's out in the open?"

[GamerKale]

Jessabell mulled it over for a minute and then placed a hand on her wristbands. "I'm supposed to scare them, right? I'll be scarier if I'm bigger."