Darker Angels

Miss Murder: I'd be deeply honored to have myself classed in the same category as you. You're most welcome for the Descendants of Darkness thing.

Tazzy: So happy you're enjoying both this and the Red Shaman story. I think you'll like this chapter.

DarkCrusnikMagician: Sorry about the Gun/Abel drought. I'll try to make up for it later. Glad you think the Tres storyline took an interesting turn.

To everyone still reading and reviewing, thank you.

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Hugue was watching the red dress. Not the woman in the dress, mind you, because that would have been most un-priestly. (Not that he ever took much notice of his vows in the first place unless it was a convenient escape, as it had been on many occasions.) No, he was watching the dress in horrified fascination, it barely skimmed mid thigh on impossibly long legs, he was waiting to see if it rode any higher when she moved and she was moving a *lot*. But as Abel and Gun had so unnecessarily pointed out, she *was* on a dance floor and people tended to move quite a bit on one.



Red dress, garter’s black

She smells of sex



Hugue closed his eyes, thinking the song was insanely appropriate considering the circumstances.



Give a young man a heart-attack

I wanna be next!



He almost groaned aloud at the last line, tamping down the insane urge to nod in agreement to it. What was *wrong* with him, he wondered. He looked puzzledly at Gun a few moments later as he felt himself being enveloped in some sort of mental shield.



Gun leaned sideways from his seat at the bar and said into his ear. “I’m covering both you and Abel from Circe’s rather interesting ability.”



“Which is?” Hugue shouted back at him.



Gun sighed heavily and simply fed the answer directly into his head since trying to shout over the music was nearly pointless. //She can get nearly anyone to tell her what she wants to know after a dance. Kind of weird but useful in these situations. It only seems to work on straight or bi-sexual men. They never even remember they told her anything they shouldn’t have. That’s the reason her code name is Siren.//



//That’s very odd.//



//We think she probably gets it from Oracle, as she’s more *his* than anyone else’s. You know how children take more after one parent than the other.//



//Actually, it’s from Mater.// came Circe’s voice into their heads. //Modified telepathy.//



//Why do you insist on calling Dad, Mater?// Gun asked with a sigh.



//Please! He’s a bigger mother hen than Mama ever dreamed of being.//



//It’s just because you’re the only girl and usually only when he thinks you’re going to get hurt.//



//He and Dad need to get over it because it’s annoying.// Circe said before turning to face the young man who’d been grinding his hips into hers and smiling.



Here comes trouble

With a capital T





“That’s it! Mastermind, I’m going to go get our daughter,” the man everyone called Oracle said to the redhead hanging upside down from the ankles on the outside of one of the many cages in the room.



“Oh, stop it,” he said, flipping upright and sliding down the cage. “We’re just here for backup in case the kids need us.”



“I doubt most heartily they’ll need us,” the other man said, glancing sideways at him. “I think this was just a ploy to get me into leather.”



“Hmmm. Maybe,” Mastermind purred into his husband’s ear. “It’s certainly worth a little subterfuge to see you in that outfit.”





Hugue downed the rest of the wine he’d been nursing half the night. Whatever Gun had done to shield him from Circe’s spell it certainly wasn’t helping all that much. He still had the urge to join her on the dance floor. Worse, to shove every other man away from her and that would have possibly compromised the mission. She had been reporting back regularly what had been said when she’d asked so her methods were very effective. They had information on plots and subplots within subplots, delusions of grandeur, thoughts of attempting to overthrow Rosenkreuz. Gun had chuckled at the last one, saying there was no way in hell Rosenkreuz was going down that easily.



Abel had frowned a little when Gun had said that, wondering how he knew the level of power Rosenkreuz truly held. Then it seemed to hit him. He remembered Blaze mentioning that three of the members of Red Shaman had been trained by Rosenkreuz in it’s original incarnation and that the current regime was weak compared to that. They were also the only ones to ever escape that organization and live. He also remembered that one of those individuals happened to be Gun’s father.



Well, I am imagining

A dark lit place

Or your place or my place



//Hey, Gun. Let Abel and Hugue go for a minute.//



//Why?// Gun asked his sister suspiciously.



//I want to play with them for a few minutes. Don’t worry, I’ll give Abel back to you in a while. Maybe.//



//Circe.// Gun said warningly.



//Look, it’s suspicious as hell that they haven’t danced with me even once since we got here considering we all came in together. We do *not* want certain people here to find that curious.//



//True. Abel, Hugue, sorry about this// Gun said.



“Sorry about what?” Abel shouted into his ear.



I’m not paralyzed

but I seem to be struck by you

I wanna make you move

Because you’re standing still



The instant Gun lifted the shields from them Hugue was moving toward Circe on the dance floor. He roughly shoved the person dancing with her sideways and wrapped one arm around her waist. It took all of ten seconds for Abel to join them, sliding around behind her.



If your body matches what your eyes can do

You’ll probably move right through me on my way to you





Just about everyone on the dance floor and off had paused momentarily to watch the raven haired beauty wedged between two fair men who were just as lovely as she was. The ensuing wave of lust was enough to nearly knock Mastermind over.



“Scheisse! Okay, better go get her before she starts a damn riot,” he said, already moving toward his daughter.





Circe slid from between them, leaving Hugue and Abel dancing together while she admired their combined beauty. She let out a surprised squeak that no one heard when she was lifted off of her feet and tossed over someone’s shoulder. She was prepared to deep fry whoever it was until she realized who’s shoulder she was dangling over.



//Mater, isn’t this a *little* overdramatic?//



//Tell your father that, kiddo.// he said, turning his head to glance at Hugue and Abel, who had seen him pick her up and were starting to move toward them. //Oh, no you don’t, boys. Go on with your dancing, you didn’t see anything outside of the mission happen.//



They both turned and started dancing again. //You’re positively evil, Mater.//



//Thank you. I take that as a high compliment.//



Gun caught sight of his sister being carried off the dance floor and started laughing as soon as he saw the expression on his father’s face. The look was one of purely malicious glee and he winked as he passed his son.



//Go dance with your boyfriend, Gun. I approve, he’s adorable.// he said and proceeded to carry Circe out the back door.



The instant he set her on her feet she was glaring at him. “What the hell was that for?”



“Because,” the man coming out of the shadows to Mastermind’s left said, “You have this annoying habit of not knowing your own strength when it comes to that particular ability of yours. Or did you *want* to incite a riot in the place you were trying to gather information?”



“Well, well, lover’s quarrel, perhaps?” a smooth voice said from behind them.



All three of them whipped around to see a man with long black hair smiling slightly around a clove cigarette and another man with short brown hair standing next to him.



Much to everyone’s surprise Mastermind began to snort and then giggle.



“Mastermind, what the hell is wrong with you?”



The giggling continued then turned into outright laughter. So much so that he doubled over with it and had soon dropped to his knees, tears streaming down his face from laughing so hard. He finally managed to get hold of himself enough to gasp out a few sentences.



“Oh, gods, Oracle! These . . . children are . . . the new . . . order of . . . Rosenkreuz,” he said, rolling onto his back and cackling hysterically.



Oracle’s glasses flashed as he looked the other two men up and down. His upper lip curled slightly in a sneer. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”



Isaak suddenly felt his knees go weak as the names registered to him. Cain held an almost obsessive reverence for the old order of Rosenkreuz and had tried to base some of his methods on them, though to little avail as the original organization had been very secretive. There had been only one team to move outside of that old guard and survive and all four of its’ members, Oracle, Mastermind, Berserker, and Prodigy were said to have attained eternal life. As a result, there was a mixture of reverence and hate among the new order and those codenames were never allowed to be used again.



Mastermind finally stopped laughing and had risen to his feet. He walked directly over to Isaak and put his middle finger and thumb on either side of his head at the temples.



“Haben Sie Angst, seien Sie sehr, sehr ängstlich,” he said, malicious glee evident in every syllable.



Oracle smiled a little at Dietrich, who was watching in stunned horror and apparently too terrified to move, then translated. “Be afraid, be very, very afraid.”



*****Mad Ramblings aka Author’s Notes*****



The first song used in this chapter is Here Comes Trouble by Trouble Tribe. The second is Paralyzer by Finger Eleven.