No Light, No Light (Private)

[Miranda_]

Lupe gave a half smile, touched by Gabrielle's concern. "Don't worry about me," she said.

"Dolph will probably insist in accompanying me everywhere, in any case. You know how protective my elder brother is. You take care, yourself. I'll see you later."

[Sarah_K_O_M]

Gabrielle gave Lupe a small salute, then shuffled past her and started going down the steps, moving around the people leaving. She could see Constantine still at the dias, arguing with a young man in a black coat.

She grimaced. Great. That guy.

[Miranda_]

The man in question was Othello Redfern, and he was incensed that an important mission had been given to Gabrielle rather than him. He was tall, with blond hair and silvery blue eyes, and figured himself superior to a dhampir like Gabrielle.

Othello glared at Constantine. "I don't see why you're giving the mission to her," he hissed. "I have far more experience in this sort of thing."

[Sarah_K_O_M]

"Yes, but unlike you, she follows my orders and doesn't backtalk. You, however...." Constantine gestured to the two of them. "Case in point."

Gabrielle walked up to them both. She saluted Constantine smartly, clicking her heels together and assuming a straight posture. Othello, she ignored.

"You needed me, sir?"

[Miranda_]

Othello scowled at both Gabrielle and Constantine, and flounced off in a huff, shoving past Gabrielle as he did so. He was annoyed about losing the mission, especially since he hadn't heard from Ty for a while and was starting to worry.

[Sarah_K_O_M]

Constantine sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He made a mental note to talk to Mordred about his son, the way the boy treated every mission given to someone else was getting ridiculous.

"Sir?"

"Hmm?" Constantine looked up to see Gabrielle looking at him, her head tilted. "Ah yes, sorry. Your report?"

Gabrielle passed him a few sheets of paper, both sides covered in her haphazardly elegant looking scrawl.

"I'll have a better one typed up tonight, sir."

Constantine folded it and put it into his pocket. He waved his hand."It can wait. I need you to carry out a mission for me tonight. High priority.”

“Has it to do with this, sir?”

He nodded.

“We found a similar body, just an hour ago. I need you to go to the area, look around, investigate, question the local spirits if you can and keep watch. Whoever they are, they revisited the last body multiple times, they may do so again here.” He passed her a slip of paper. “Here's the address.”

“Understood, sir.” Gabrielle took the paper, scanned it briefly, then tucked it into the breast pocket of her shirt. She saluted once more, then took her leave.

---

It was always the scummiest areas for some reason, Gabrielle thought, nudging a dead rat with her boot. They never picked anywhere you'd actually want to live in, like a penthouse or even just a bungalow.

The body had been found inside an abandoned building near the Border Wall in Washington/Diligence sector. They wouldn't have even found it if a local hadn't called the police when her tv started showing demonic afterimages.
Gabrielle put her shoulder to the rusted iron door and shoved it open, the door screaming against every inch given. She winced. Nice and inconspicuous, that was.

She stepped inside, and was first hit by the stench of sulphur, followed by a sudden pressure that ground itself into her head until she could feel her brain beginning to bleed inside her skull. Then something hit her from behind and things went black.

---

She woke up, shackled to a chair by the ankles and wrists with wooden restraints decorated with strangely wet runes. Her coat, gun and sword had all been removed and, judging by the IV needle jammed into her forearm, she was being bled.

A trap. Of course.

[Miranda_]

Ty awoke with a jump as he heard sounds nearby. Despite his earlier conclusions, the fear leapt into his throat as he immediately thought it might yet be Janeseh. Bravely, yet quaking with fear, he inched in his ropes in the direction of the sounds.

[Sarah_K_O_M]

Gabrielle glared at the IV, then leant down, straining painfully against her restraints and gripped in in her teeth. With a quick jerk, she tore it out of her skin, the wound healing up a second later. She stared at the blood spots, noticing that under the fresh, there were other, much larger stains. Then she started sniffing the air, trying to detect something under the smell of blood.

“Is someone else here?”

She started trying to turn in her chair to get a better look.

[Miranda_]

Ty eventually managed to wriggle into the patch of light. He stopped when he saw a girl chained to a chair, wearing a similar uniform to what his elder brother wore whenever he was working for the watch.

[Sarah_K_O_M]

Gabrielle had to to tilt her head back to look at Ty.

“Hi there.” she said, as nonchalantly as she could manage given the circumstances. “You don't happen to know anything about what's going on, do you?”