[center][h1] Corpses in the Closet [/h1]
[h3][b]Characters:[/b] Damon & Juan 
[b]Location:[/b]  Warehouse    
[b]Time:[/b] Afternoon
 [/h3][/center]

Juan’s pace had increased, his shoes slapping the pavement vigorously in his attempt to keep a fair distance between him and his tail. On hearing Damon’s words, his head quickly turned backwards and noted the stalkers’ number. Six. Darius,  Darius… Juan inwardly chided at the low yet manageable number. The fox was underestimating him severely by sending a small number but his mind, surprisingly connecting possibilities, wondered if the earlier scorch marks had anything to do with the meager amount now chasing them. Either way he wasn’t about to bitch about it. 
  
His lips curled into a wicked smile, answering Damon’s question with a vague answer instead of reassurance. Most stupid and inexperienced demons would’ve scrambled past him, leaving him to the foxes to be rendered to pieces, but that was what made Damon different. The shapeshifter’s interest was sparked and unless his curiosity was stated, the demon would likely stick to him for a bit. “That’s where I have to disagree with you, hun. It’s the [i]best[/i] place to lead them to and you’ll see why in a moment.” 

When he was feet from the door, his hand raised to his side. A thick, sulfuric smell filled the air and in moments his blade chain appeared within his grasp. His fingers wrapped about the blade ready to wield it. Wasting no time, his weapon ripped to his front and slashed across his other hand’s fingertips. It drew fresh blood. Wet and warm, the tar like substance oozed to the surface where it lingered there in small droplets. Juan ignored the sting licking across his mind, instead he reached out his wounded hand. In a brief, delicate stroke, he brushed the forefinger across the double doors’ center. At first it seemed nothing was there. At least until he finished the downward stroke and an arcane [url=http://1-art.eu/images/magic-symbol2.jpg]symbol[/url] appeared. It glowed bright gold, shimmering while it hung there for a moment. Suddenly it vanished. Absorbed into the door when Juan pressed his palms and shoved the doors away as he walked a few feet inside. Then he came to an abrupt stop. 

The chimera whispered in warning. “Stay still and don’t react, Damon, until I state otherwise. No matter what.”  

There was no windows within the warehouse as everything was shrouded within darkness, a pitch black seemed to drown the pair. Tick...tick… Juan counted the seconds passing by.  Outside the foxes snarled and snapped, hesitate on going inside. Their confusion worsened in their waiting. Juan merely stood there in wait, never once moving. His mind still ticking down the time until the doors started to rumble quietly, squeaking open again when one of the foxes peered in. Bright, white eyes narrowed on the man’s exposed back. Its lips curled back and revealed several teeth in fury. Juan didn’t seemed to knowledge the fox was there. Driven by the lacking of reaction to its presence, the fox pushed in further, followed by the five others, and started toward Juan. Its paws gently tapped the hard concrete floor with its nails before it paused right behind him. Suddenly it lunged at his exposed back. 

Juan never moved a muscle. The moment he was supposed to feel the canine teeth on his neck, his blood leaking down his neck and worse, the fox gave an ear piercing bark. Its sound vibrated off the walls and seemed to fade into the building. Shortly, it was followed by two, then three until finally the rest of the foxes had gone eerily quiet. Bright yellow light flooded the once dark building and illuminated Juan, his body turned to glimpse the image behind him. When the foxes attacked, the warehouse defenses kicked in. From key and randomized points, ten to twelve light beams lanced into each creature as they stood motionless and pinned in place. Like insects put on display. It kept them frozen in place and harmless now. 

Slowly Juan stepped to the side, his avoiding the frozen prey and removing himself from the entrance. “Damon, sweetie, you can move now. It won’t active again until I reset it.” 

Juan inhaled deeply, his head turned to skim the familiar mess left in his office. It was just like when he last left it. Several shelving units, mostly crude, metal structures, made basic bookcases to storage for numerous office supplies. Though unlike most people who kept just the commonly found pens, paper, and files, Juan had also had jars filled by everything from various powders to floating parts in preserving liquid, and even books written in strange languages. Most the walls, like those that separated the laboratory and bathroom, were temporary inserts. Flimsy, thin and lacking sound proof abilities which made him grateful the building’s original walls were much, much thicker. Edging to the desk in office corner, Juan reached over and flipped on a light switch. The overhanging fluorescent bulbs buzzed alive and filled the room with bright, overwhelming light everywhere.   

“Now that our company is currently occupied, we can gather our supplies quickly and make our exit. Most of what we need is in the laboratory which is that way.” He said, pointing toward it, his voice included a bit more information. “Also, Damon...there might be a mess back there dearie so be careful.”         

Removing himself from Juan’s shadow Damon looked over at the foxes. He could likely consume all of them in one go, it’ll take less than a second. But those lights… Damon’s sense told him he shouldn’t mess with those. At least not until he can figure out what exactly Juan just did. [b]”Say Juan, shouldn’t we kill them? I don’t know much about these shadow foxes, but it wouldn’t do us any good if they could return to Darius.”[/b] Though in truth Damon also wanted to eat one. Even if they were more shadow-like than actual foxes, the fact that they took on a physical form meant that Damon could consume them, and with it their knowledge and creation. Could be useful.

"I aim to but you see, hun, then I would have to shut off the only defense we currently have. I'm sure you rather enjoy your meal then have to eat, rush and likely fail getting everything we need. You know how I hate having to do things a second time when it it’s not done right the first." Juan state though he had a feeling Damon had more motives than just playing it safe. As talented as Damon could be, if he thought by consuming the foxes it would’ve given him the ability to create more than he would’ve been disappointed. It was the kitsune that made them and due to the earlier encounters with ‘Lola’ it was clear it was different depending on the individual or so he guessed. He casted the thought away, noting Damon could at least use the mass, while skimming the shelves for something. His eyes carefully monitoring the shapeshifter while his fingers reached for the first jar. It was filled with bloody feathers, their color slightly a mother of pearl and seemed to have a faded glow. Like a light struggling to keep on but would dim and die in time. 

Regardless Damon headed over to the laboratory. Sure enough the place has seen better days and better organization. This wasn’t even controlled chaos as far as Damon could tell; it was like robbers just ransacked the place. Which might have happened, but one could never be certain with Juan. [b]”Alright Juan, what do you need and what should I not touch?”[/b] Cause Damon could use some more mass, and if he can’t get it from the foxes, he was going to help himself to some of Juan’s stuff.

Juan, as if he could read Damon's mind, added in the demon's wake one last thing. "Also, Damon, try not to consume my things unless we need to carry them. Some of them have protection sigils and others have been altered to point I have no idea what they will do to you. It might end up killing you and we can't have that, can we?" 

[b]”I’ve eaten silver before Juan. And stuff that was on fire. Hurts like hell, but I don’t get tougher by playing it safe, ya know?”[/b] Damon joked. he would be smiling if he wasn’t in his amorphous form right now, which had a lack of a face. He carefully stepped over some of the things on the ground and tried to make sense of where everything was and should be at.

“True, but something’s bound to kill you and I rather not risk it happening in my lab. I might actually miss your charming personality.” He paused in gathering, his mind thoughtfully considering what Damon might need before adding at last. "I have a little black medical emergency bag in the cabinet by the countersink. Defibrillator, heart monitor, a bag rack, and..." 

He continued trying to recall Emmet's condition, making a judgement call. It seemed medical beyond mere patching was more difficult in this state, his body turned and settled against the shelving unit for a moment in thought. "Not completely sure since I'm not clear on how much the Doc can mend or heal, though it might be a good idea to replenish the bandages, stitches, and sort like that. Adrenaline might a good idea as well. By way, don't upset the giant leech in the tank on your way through. Thing's more sour than Emmet is at times. The corpse on the operation table, however, has already been stripped of the needed elements so feel free to devour that if you feel peckish."

Juan snatched a bag and set it on the table, alongside the selected jars, random equipment, and papers. He was starting to pile the gathered materials into it, namely something to help occupy his mind and enabling Kasain some breathing room without his fidgeting or worrisome form hovering over the demon's shoulder. 

Damon went over to the counter and cabinets and find the items Juan had asked him to. Fairly unimpressive all things considered, since Damon had consumed these sort of things before. Still, maybe they were unique to Juan, so he consumed those for the purpose of recreating them later. Juan also told him about a leech to avoid and a corpse on the operation table. Damon noted it when he came in, but he wasn’t certain Juan was willing to let him go at it. Stepping gingerly to the corpse Damon first observed the eviscerated body. It was obvious that Juan had been operating on this person. Turning him over Damon noticed scars on it’s back; this person was once an angel. Was once an angel that is, before it’s wings were cut off. Whether or not he died an angel or fell Damon wasn’t sure. He was about to find out.

A four pairs of large clawed hands made of some sort of bone-like material bursted form Damon’s body. They worked together to grab and lift the body straight into Damon’s mouth, which he formed shortly after he created his arms to it’ll be easier for him to digest the body. One second later and Damon had consumed the body of the angel, and a flood of memories entered his head. Normally he could skip this, but he decided to enjoy the angel’s lasts moments before his unfortunate fate that got him into Juan’s hands.

[i]In Damon’s mind, he saw a tavern. Or more like a bar, like a stereotypical biker bar. Strangely not very busy despite it being late into the hour, but Damon didn’t bother to dig further for exact details. He did see the angel however. He had his wings which poked out from his back. He seemed to be drinking alone and sad. Damon rooted around for memories and he discovered that the angel had been feeling depressed. Seemed like he was laid off his job and now was out of work. This angel seemed to once have been some sort of volunteer, or perhaps a first-responder of sorts, before he got fired. Apparently he was overzealous about handling crisis when they occurred, as more memories revealed that this angel had a bad tendency of showing up to a disaster before the rest of his team and trying to take charge, often making things worse. Damon guessed that his bosses were tired of him trying to play hero and kicked him off the force, leaving him here at the bar.

But for the angel, that wasn’t the worst of it. No, the worse was who replaced him. A human of all things. A human with no magic, no notable physical abilities, just a sob story and a desire to do something about it. Digging through the memories Damon couldn’t find much about this guy aside from what this angel had learned. The human was a homosexual, kicked out from his family, lived on the streets, got picked up by an organization that helped the homeless, and managed to get his life back on track thanks to them. A nice story to Damon, but obviously not for the angel. He felt angry that he was being replaced by a sad gay human just because he had a hard life with no skills to back it up. At least that’s what the angel figured, and Damon couldn’t really figure out what the human could do since it seemed like the angel only saw the guy once. So now the angel had a chip on his shoulder, which would explain what happened in the next scene.

Someone came inside and the angel didn’t see who, so Damon couldn’t see either. From the sound however the newcomer decided to take a seat by the angel. And that’s when Damon heard the all too familiar voice of Juan. He seemed to be flirting with the angel and trying to bed him, but the angel was getting angrier. A lot of homophobic thoughts later, and the angel just snapped and tried to attack Juan. Fight didn’t even last more than two minutes before the angel got himself gutted and left bleeding on the floor. But that wasn’t the end of it. While he was bleeding out and his vision was getting blurry, both he and Damon could feel his body getting dragged away. Damon figured that Juan was going to take the body away. The angel’s lasts memories were staring into the night skies, and a whispered prayer for forgiveness and another chance. Given his fate, Damon was going to take a wild guess that redemption wasn’t going to happen..[/i]

Damon came back to reality as the memory passed. Hardly a second went by before he returned to Juan. [b]”I got the stuff. You know, if it’s just plain medical equipment, I can easily make those. Is there anything in particular here we need? Like, magic stuff? Things that I couldn’t say, get by visiting a hospital for a few minutes?”[/b]

"True but that also takes mass from you, which I assume could be used in better ways. Also, I'm familiar with the machines and can easily take them apart and alter them if needed in the future. Namely with black market magitech so trying to explain them in details would be more hassle.." Juan answered, finishing up than closing his bag. "I've covered the magic aspect on my bit." 

Juan didn't mention he had notes as well, merely because he knew Damon was curious and he wasn't ready to reveal his suspicions quite yet. His hand move again to the shelve and reached for a bottle, ready to replace the removed enchantment.  He smirked and looked to the foxes still imprisoned over his shoulder. "Well, time to head out then. When I release this you have a few seconds while I replace it, then we need to leave. Might want to stand near them and get ready to snatch them quickly." 

Nodding to Juan, Damon positioned himself to the shadow foxes. He wasn’t sure if they would notice what he was about to do with them, to to be better safe than sorry he positioned himself in such a way that he could fall down on top of them and consume them as he hits the ground. This way they couldn’t fight him effectively from the front and puts him out of harm’s way in case something goes wrong with Juan’s security measures. Frozen in place Damon was practically waiting to strike the same moment the foxes could move again. [b]”Ready when you are.”[/b]

Juan moved, in one hand he held the plastic bottle and the other was the heavy bag, toward the doorway. Carefully avoiding the light beams and ensnared foxes, he managed his way to the side wall. He made one last glance to Damon than with one fast swipe, he removed the invisible sigil.

"Alright, enjoy the feast." 

The light beams faded as the six beasts dropped to the ground. Their muscles twitched and flickered to life, heads turned up just in time to see Damon's next move. Juan returned his focus to the doorway as his hand holding the bottle pressed and glided along the surface, his eyes following the movements while Damon finished up. The fluid was clear, invisible leaving only a lemon scent trace that it was there at all. The last touch was to pour his magic into the mark. 

The moment the foxes were released they would be embraced by the mass of darkness that was Damon. His formly body produced tendrils that  coiled around each fox, preventing them from falling onto the ground on their own. Instead they were pulled towards Damon’s considerable mass, who himself plummeted towards the ground. He slammed the foxes between the floor and his own tar-like torso, crushing them nearly to death. And shortly following the blunt force trauma would be the burning pain of Damon consuming them. It was not like any stomach acid or consuming fire. Damon’s digestive fluids, which he could easily produce on the surface of his body, were breaking down the shadow foxes by both their physical and magical components. Fortunately for them it was a quick process. Their bodies joined Damon’s mass the moment they hit the floor, and any pain they felt (If they could feel pain) was stopped as soon as he had consumed their heads, taking not only the mass but whatever serves as their memories and thoughts. Through the consumption of their heads Damon's discovered the source of their creation, the method to produce them himself. And while he may currently lack the means to do so, he now has the knowledge to create these very same foxes should such an opportunity present itself. 

Lifting his body off the ground Damon took on his human guise, looking spick and span. He doesn’t even look like he fell on the floor. [b]”Thank you for the meal! Now then, we should be off, no?”[/b]

Juan’s face was  now turned to Damon, his lips smirked, while he waited until the shapeshifter finished his meal. When Damon stretched off the floor and utter his thanks, he pushed off his position against the wall. “After yesterday, the least I could’ve done was offer you dinner.” 

With those words, he tightened his grip on the carrying bag and headed to the door. In a gentlemanly fashion he pushed one arm out, allowing Damon to walk through first then followed him into the light. When they started off, like clockwork Zi found them just like she stated. Juan didn’t seem surprised as Damon provided the transport and they were gone, making their way towards Emmet and Kasain within the safehouse.