The art of in and out (Pride/Del/open)

Del spared a look from one to the other. They were here sure as the sun would rise no matter what the outcome was. He didn’t see any vehicles of known Marshals in the area and his team hadn’t been called which to his thinking meant their boy Jaedon hadn’t shifted. Not shifting meant he’d soldiered through whatever beating they meant for him. He ran down the usual’s in his head so more rough housing than deading. Course it was very easy to go overboard especially if he managed to fight back. They’d be loathe to break anything as that would mean they couldn’t charge him. But losing him for a few days was fair game.



Sighing he pounded on the door like well like the police. Stepping back, he held up his credentials for the camera at the door. Whispering he said to the ladies " You two are too much…No matter what no killing and no infecting." He resigning himself to his and their fate. He had learned long ago to work with what he had. And truth be told he wouldn’t leave anyone to the tender care of the long arm of the law unless he had no other choice which was a decidedly weird stance for the Lieutenant of a law enforcement unit.



He was not happy with what was to come but he could only do so much. He had to marshal his unit and conserve everywhere he could. As such he would let a little hand smacking happen. Anything else and he would have to put his big cop pants on and make things far messier than they needed to be.



As the door slid open and one f the Uni’s attached to the unit stood attempting to bar their path he straight armed the man back. " Get your watch commander. Now boy don’t test me when ya’ll got my cousin held up in here. You should no better than to take blue unless its damned well necessary" He said falling into character as if he really was a concerned cousin here to work the system. He knew the ladies while not looking the part were believable enough NOLA families tended to run the full spectrum of color and lack thereof.



Del sighed as the uni stammered and looked left right at the other officers beginning to mill about not one of them lacking a show of having been in a fight. That was normally a bad sign but they were mostly smiling which usually meant worse. The WC was a frail looking woman who look as if she’d gone a round or two with Tyson in his prime. Del swallowed a smile thinking good for you at Jaedon.



The WC placed both fists on her hips. And it was clear her frail looks had cost many fools their teeth and worse. “Dat yore boy. Hell I’da known dat sort o boy was running around might tossed abadge his way to get him on my unit. Specially wit all the damn infected and suck heads bangin roun.” Del’s face didn’t drop but his heart did. The woman had just disparaged a lot of folks he loved and cared about. But he couldn’t read her for filth as he was preparing to ask a favor from her

Aminta didn’t want to blow their cover but the feeling behind the watch commanders words were hateful enough that she felt the hate prickle along her skin. Its heat causing her face to grow red with barely contained anger bordering on rage. Several rebuttals sprang to mind. None of them which would help with their present situation. Imperceptibly she stepped closer to Pepper it was in her mind a them against the Pride matter. And in her book Del was a wildcard. He for all the subtle preternatural energy and scenting of Chidera was both mortal and a cop. One who was for all intents and purposes the enemy of any and every preternatural being. She suddenly didn’t feel good about enlisting him.



The marks left on the police by Jaedon did give her hope. She didn’t see any claw marks or bites. Well no lion bites. The fact he hadn’t shifted was proof of his time with Chidera. He was giving just enough of a fight to keep them focused on him and somehow not enough that they got it into their minds to put him out of their misery. Thank god for all the tourists she thought. If they weren’t as stressed out and overworked as they were they’d surely have put together that no uninfected person could have continued putting up the fight Jaedon clearly had.

 

Smiling wide and hot as the Phoenix/Eagle bar. In short he was acting a storm and as convincing as the bougainvillea’s bloom that summer would be sweet and not as hot as old scratches backside. “Hell yes that’s my boy. Its my blood and looks like ya’ll done stayed on his good side. So lets call it lesson earned and we go get outta your hair so ya’ll can get back to rousting the knuckleheads that deserve it.”

He put on his best comradely voice. He even opened his blazer so his badge could clearly be seen and raised his left hand as if he were in church signifying. The suit them being tired and that smile that said he was friend even despite the WC’s rampant specism just about sold it. He saw the power pose slacken. The other present members of the AGU all began to see Del and by extension Jaedon his cousin as if not friends at least not true enemies.

She looked them over once twice and third time was the charm she said “Hell you know where the cells at Vincent go get your cousin and makesure you call my sister.” She waved them off done with the matter. She was as tried as her men but needed to show strength. So, she attempted to turn her act of civility into a transaction. Show her men that she was stronger savvier than them all.

Most men would have balked and tried to puff themselves up. To attempt to counter instead Del smiled and slid next to the WC, “Thought that was you Sheila. You know I dne change dphones about three times in the last week maybe you can…” Pausing he looked to Pep and Aminta “Hey why donch’all head left down dat hall thena right and … I mean Sheila if that’s okay with you they get him we get goin?”

His tatic really simple. Divide and conquer. He knew the closer they got to Jaedon the stronger they’d know for sure. And with him next to the WC they definitely had their out if it got hairy.

Anyone who’d been in a more than a few fights knew that sometimes the only way to win was to outlast the enemy. It was a strategy that informed the rope-a-dope, It was the secret behind the way of the intercepting fist. Fight smarter and harder. Fifteen rounds was still hell but a manageable hell when you trained for thirty. Five a walk in the park when you trained for twenty. So tired, pulpy in parts, far more sore than he had been in so long he almost forgot how to stay limber. He had to do so when no one was watching but he stretched and stayed moving until he heard the guards coming At which point he dropped laid as if he was seemingly resting between them coming to pick a fight or two. The last round had been three at once. He pushed just enough to keep them entertained. As long ashe lost eventually they seemed okay that he’d been taught a lesson.



If they were going to kill him they’d have done it already. If they were goingto arrest him they would have to wait until the bruises settled down. As it stood theyd have to stay away form anything big charges wise. It’d have to be something small time served two or three days. He’d get an I bond they’d send him on his way wth a few unspoken threats. If he could hold out long enough. And being honest he wasn’t sure how much more he could handle before shifting and changing everything.



Even with the warmth and energy he was being bolstered with from Pep. His floaters had been broken. He was sure one or more toes his nose and left wrist had been dislocated several times causing him to have to realign them the very painful old fashioned way. The pain was a constant and they’d not fed him anything. It would eventually get so bad he’d have to shift just to keep from doing permanent harm to himself.



Sometimes the uninfected never knew how easy they had it. Just as he was contemplating a few rash maneuvers he felt it. He felt it before he smelled them. Pep Aminta here. They’d come for him. That much he never doubted just the timing. He was sure they’d not make it in time. The walls were two and a half feet if they were an inch. The place had been designed to a bunker of sorts and its lead lined walls and battle construction made finding him a real chore. It was considered a blacksite for a reason. Trying to stand again he realized the folly. He’d forgotten the last leg lock it’d sprained things low in his leg and muscle was decidedly harder to heal without shifting. Trying to speak between a sprained jaw and neck muscles He was shushed by Pep. Taking the help as Pep and Ami’s hands were on him. He looked past them to the three cops who followed them back. He’d counted twenty-three who’d come for him. That was including the twelve who he’d let bring him down. Twenty-three was understaffed for any normal precinct but the AGU was a special unit operating under their own purview. It made staffing difficult and maintaining that staff even harder as such they had their own rituals rites and for lack of sugarcoating, prejudices. Namely all black males were snitches and if hit hard enough often enough would rat out their own mothers. So, while they were breaking all sorts of laws in their eyes it was just the way things were done.



Making it out he did his best to look as pitiful and beaten as could be which wasn’t hard at all considering being close enough to touch made it both easier to not shift and more difficult to not want to. The touch and feel of them the curves he knew as intimately as one could know another being. He knew how they fit together so that either all their rough bits were facing the world or how to fit together that all the warmth and softness was lavished by each of their own warmth. Peps firemanning was a bit of a surprise but they arrived to the car and shoved inside they were off before he quite registered Del standing near the leader of the AGU. His smile was in place but from how he stood phone in his left all but physically blocking her from her men it was clear to him from Chidera’s planning that he was keeping her hostage. Eyes, tongues, and occasionally lovemaking lied but bullets always told the truth and it was clear Del was in a position to put a bullet in her and as many of her men as it took.

 

It was all she could do to not take out the watch commander. Even seeing Del stepping up acting as shield and distraction. No brownie points in her book. Their third was injured unsure how much so. And he was only useful because he was part of the institution that would easily and actively do so much worse if they truly knew he was more than the color of their skin. She choked back so much least of all were her tears seeing the hurt feeling the pain in him.



As they eased him out and into the car at a run Pep doing everything, she could to insure they arrived as quickly as possible. She didn’t bother with trying to free his limbs from the clothing she ripped seams tore shreds and otherwise did everything she could to have him naked with as much touch gingerly and quickly yet filled with the heat of the Pride. She rarely pushed. But in this she did. She pushed all of the shared love of Pep into him. She coaxed that beautiful full maned lion that was breathing heavily and hotly beneath his skin.



As Pepper slid down the driveway his beast exploded form him in a shower of shift goo coating the back of the SUV and her, she didn’t mind as she had no intention of staying in her human skin. She would wait until she insured their borders were sealed for the night. There was trouble in the air and she had no intentions of coming this close to losing anywhere else tonight.

 

Del stayed close enough to if necessary, take down the WC quick fast and in a hurry. He hoped that things wouldn’t come to that, but the truth was if it did he’d insure that this would be one right bloody mess. A load of cop bodies shot beaten and torn through as if a knife wielding wrecking ball came to life. As Pepper and her crew made it out, he begged off thanking her for her sisters number and managing to not promise anything. Not that he had plans in that direction to begin with, but he kept his word as often as he could.



With everyone tied up the lions loose of this for the night he was suddenly tired far more tired than he would ever let on. It was emotionally draining mostly as he knew what hell would be unleashed and knew he was the only one thinking of what he might have to do to clean things up.



Sighing even as he knew he was technically on shift tonight he decided to lump it all. Winding his way home he radioed in a 10-7 for himself. He’d take an on-call position for the night and make it up with a double on his last day of the week. Far easier to do once he recharged. Slipping onto his block he was greeted by the lights in his place being on and immediately ran through who it might be. He hoped Chidera but doubted with the happenings she’d withdraw from the city. No more than likely she was doing things it’d be best he not know about.



Opening his door he waited for whichever of is Krewe to announce themselves. He didn’t hear music which meant it wasn’t Nando he mused untying and removing his tie one-handed.

 

As Baby D came bouncing towards him full of sun and nervous energy, he couldn’t have been happier. It was just about the most perfect timing considering the last few months he’d been having. Stepping in for the biggest hug he lifted her as he hugged. “Girl, you bout the best present my eyes done seen since heck was a pup.”



As he hugged her the rightness of her being back home just struck him as perfect. He was not a tearful guy but she was nearly enough to make himone in the moment. He’d even ignire how much danger she was in. A pyromancer was a sought after commodity and true pyromancer were as rare as a green-eyed Asians.