Lemon to a knife fight

[Monroe Huang]

Roe couldn't remember the last time he had been so nervous. Like the last time he felt like his insides were going to turn inside out, he'd been confessing his feelings to a guy he liked. Now he was just going to meet his twin. Except that wasn't the part that made him feel so nervous. It was the idea of what might happen when they caught up with Josh and Rae.

See, Aldon was friends with the pair but Roe had milder friends. Between the two of them, Roe was pretty sure he was the relaxed one, the less aggressive one (for sure, considering the state of feral wolves), and he didn't really like the way Aldon's friends played. They were mean and Roe was a delicate little thing. Okay, so he wasn't exactly delicate but his feelings were hurt pretty easily and he avoided people that tended to hurt them.

That on top of the knowledge that vampires were colluding to take human prisoners kinda wracked his nerves. Roe didn't know what they'd do to stop anything from happening, just the two of them. (And what if Aldon joined his friends??) He had more sense than that, didn't he? Maybe, but then he was also dating that guy who used to be a hunter so Roe didn't know if he even knew his twin the way he thought he had once.

Crouching down outside the barrier that the vampires had made, Roe listened to the chaos on the other side. There were people laughing--probably vampires--and people crying--probably humans. At one point, he heard something move above his head and he thought he'd been discovered. He decided to change location, but just as he was stepping away, he saw Aldon further on down the street. Looking up, he wondered if the person above him could see Aldon. Was he even still there? Didn't sound like it. They probably just hung around, saw nothing, and left again.

Roe made a motion for Aldon to hurry toward him.

[Aldon Huang]

If Aldon had to be honest with himself--which he rarely was--he didn't want to go to the suburbs to see what the vampires were up to. Nobody liked vampires. Nobody sane, anyway. There were some nutjobs who idolized them or whatever but Aldon was doing just fine keeping himself away from the guys with long, pointy teeth. He'd lived out his entire life not messing with vampires and, yes, he resented Rae and Josh very much for dragging him into this.

Hell, if he'd agreed to go with them earlier, he'd be WITH the vampires NOW!

Grumbling all the way down, he tried to drag his feet as much as possible but knowing that Roe was waiting there for him, he couldn't bring himself to turn around. Now, if Roe hadn't been there, Aldon might not have made it either. As it was, he slouched into view around a corner to see the massive barrier that the vampires had erected for themselves. It wasn't just the physical barrier, either. Aldon felt the magic prickling in the air, prickling at the hairs in back of his neck.

"What?" he hissed as he ran forward, half-crouched to keep as low as possible. "What's going on?" Beyond, he heard a shrill, terrified scream--then callous laughter. Aldon shivered and grabbed onto Roe's arm. "Did you see Rae or Josh anywhere?!"

[Monroe Huang]

Shit. Shit. Why was he here? Why was he doing this? He felt instant regret now that he was trapped next to the weird barrier. Like Aldon, he could feel the tingle of magic in the air so... So that meant there were witches, too. Honestly, of all the supers they might have had to deal with, witches were the ones that Roe wanted least to encounter. Witches were powerful and unpredictable. Some of them could do stuff that Roe and Aldon would never know how to block or defend against.

"No," Roe hissed right back. "I haven't seen anybody I know yet."

He eyed the barrier above him, hoping that whatever thing had been crawling above wasn't nearby. They could be dealing with anything behind the barrier. Which reminded him--the barrier.

"Um, so I think the barrier is partly magical," he said, as if Aldon hadn't observed it himself. "...How are we getting in? Do we want in? They're probably in there..."

[Aldon Huang]

"Good!" Aldon grumbled, certain that he didn't want to know anyone who would willingly join the vampires in this madness. Except Josh and Rae, but then again, Rae was already half-crazy before this and Josh... Well, Josh different from the rest of them, even the ferals. If there was such a thing as ultra feral, Aldon thought that Josh fit the bill pretty well.

He scooted closer to Roe and angled a quick glance up the wall, sighting nothing. Just a bird. Aldon squinted his eyes at it, as it hopped spryly along the section of twisted metal, then suddenly flew off. Was that just a normal bird? Or was it a shifter, spying for the vampires?

"I don't want in!" Aldon started scooting away, dragging Roe with him. "I want Rae and Josh to come OUT! C'mon, let's see how far this thing goes." He gestured uselessly to the magical barrier—which, yes, he felt so there was no use in Roe pointing that out earlier. Crouched low, Aldon took off along the perimeter of the wall, feeling his way around it. It seemed to enclose several blocks, from what he had seen, as well as a part of the woods. There were cops trying to break on through but the magical barrier would stop them, Aldon was sure.

"Maybe I can get Rae to come close to the wall so we can talk to him! Or... You think I can spring over the wall if I go wolf??"

[Monroe Huang]

"Me either!"

He didn't want in and he didn't like the look of that bird earlier and this whole thing was making him nervous. Maybe he should have called Ashley about it. Maybe he could have done something. But probably not. Who could? Another wizard? Witch? Whatever? Roe frowned. Maybe they should ask Alva's new boyfriend but then that would make things super weird if Rae and Josh were really in there. Were they, though? Probably. They both liked to make trouble. And they weren't fans of humans. And... probably.

"Okay, but how do we know he's in there?" Roe asked, grabbing onto Ald's shoulder, half afraid he was really going to do it. "We don't want in there if they're not in there yet, right? Maybe they're not here yet."

[Aldon Huang]

See, this was why nobody trusted them alone, and definitely not together—neither of them were what the French called... ingenious. Ald sure as hell wasn't. Roe was gullible to a fault. They weren't alpha, not even beta, and not really gamma. Nobody looked to them for leadership and probably for the best at that. Not to say that they were stupid, but Ald personally didn't want to expose himself to any more danger than he absolutely needed.

He frowned at Roe, with his logic. "They left Josh's place hours ago! I'm sure they're in there if that's what they came here to do!" Stupid freaking Josh and his stupid freaking ideas about... whatever, world domination and stuff. And Rae! What the hell did Rae get out of this?

"I'm gonna go in!" Ald shook off Roe's hand and squared his shoulders. "If they catch me, I'll... uh... pretend I wanna be one of them! You stay here, I might need somebody to call Alva and that weird witch guy." This wasn't his most brilliant plan, but it was better than crouching there, silently cursing out his friends.