Incubus Dreams - October 29th

[anita_blake]

Anita pulls up into the driveway of Ronnie's house, armed and ready for a fight. Not that she fully expects a fight, but she's prepared anyway. Ronnie had called and said she had a lead on the missing swanmane, and so Anita had come as quickly as possible. She gets out of the Jeep and sprints up to Ronnie's door, knocking impatiently.

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[ab_npc]

Ronnie is all but waiting at the door, opening it after checking to make sure it's Anita.

"Hey," she says, obviously in a rush herself. "Just got to grab my jacket and we're outta here. I scoured the databases with the name Laurie Bacon and got zilch, so I called up Reece and the swanmane who saw her last. Asked around the clubs where they met up for fun -- freaky shit, Anita -- but still nothing. This morning I followed her route from home to work, and a guy bundled up on the street said he'd seen her thrown into a dark van with some sort of logo on the side."

She just keeps talking as she grabs her coat and throws it on over her shoulder holster. Like Anita, she'd rather be safe than sorry. "Got a partial license plate out of him. The van belongs to a company fleet. I tracked 'em back to a warehouse near the river."

Grabbing her bag of essentials, she herds Anita back out the door and locks it behind them. The keys go into her bag, and she gets into Anita's Jeep.

[anita_blake]

Anita slides into the driver's seat and fastens her seatbelt.

"A partial plate? What company is the fleet registered to? Was it any help?"

What the hell would someone with a warehouse -- and access to a company fleet car -- want with a BDSM-loving swanmane?

[ab_npc]

"Breikman's Auto Parts," Ronnie says, clicking her own seatbelt into place. "When I called with a 'quick questionnaire', I learned that they have seven vans, log sheets for when they're out around town. Supposedly they keep the drivers listed with them, too, but we don't know if the person driving was actually the one who works for the company. The witness to the abduction said it happened between two and three in the morning. I didn't want to ask for too many particulars and raise enough suspicion to make them jump and run."

Sometimes it paid to be cautious. If their search doesn't turn anything up, she'll go in for a more official inquiry and get the names and schedules to track down the drivers most often using their IDed van.

"The company keeps their excess inventory in a warehouse on Stein Street off the 55. They only make runs to the warehouse every other week, which means there could be a good amount of privacy there for whoever has access to it."

[anita_blake]

Anita starts the car and pulls out onto the road.

"The last thing I want to do is lose the swanmane. There aren't a whole lot of those, and I think Donovan would be rather unhappy if we fuck this up and she dies."

[ab_npc]

"Maybe we'll get lucky, and she'll just be tied up there without a guard?"

Yeah. Wishful thinking. She knows.

[anita_blake]

"Because luck is something we're always burdened with an overabundance of," Anita says, looking at Ronnie skeptically.

[ab_npc]

"Fine," Ronnie concedes with a sigh. "We'll go in assuming the worst, as always, and hopefully we'll be pleasantly surprised."

With a swanmane that's into BDSM, though, her imagination can make it pretty darn bad.

She sits in relative silence while Anita drives, only speaking up to give directions to the warehouse.

[anita_blake]

Anita keeps her opinions about pleasant surprises to herself, and just follows the directions. It's not a part of town she spends any time in, and quickly gets herself turned around. Priority one, then, make sure Ronnie doesn't die here; she'll never get herself home otherwise.

The car pulls up in front of the warehouse, and sure enough, there's a marked auto parts van parked nearby. "So much for nobody being home," she mutters.

[ab_npc]

"Damn. Strike one," Ronnie murmurs. "I guess it's show time, then. I'll follow your lead."

She carefully opens the car door. The Jeep probably made enough noise on its own to alert someone to their presence, but there's no fault in being cautious. She closes the door to a crack before drawing her gun, safety still on and pointed to the ground.

She keeps one eye on Anita. She'd much rather defer to her best friend's experience. Ronnie might be a pretty good shot, but she doesn't have nearly the training and expertise that Anita has. Better to follow the professional.

[anita_blake]

Anita pulls her own gun and crouches behind the car. After a three count, she moves quickly to the wall beside the door, staying low. She gives a little push on the door, and finds it opens easily. Not a good sign.

She slips inside, making sure that Ronnie follows before taking a look around. It's about the worst possible setup. A huge, empty space with no cover, overlooked by offices with smoky windows on three sides.

"Shit," Anita breathes, pressing her back against the outer wall and scanning the upper floor for any sign of movement.

[ab_npc]

Ronnie takes in the situation unhappily. There were no men with guns pointed at them in the main room, but she doesn't trust those smoky windows.

"Do you think there's another entrance to those offices? A back door we can use instead of risking it in there?"

Her eyes are still on the windows when something moves behind one of them. The tint of the window makes it a bit unclear, but she can tell it's humanoid rather than a shifted lycanthrope.

"Movement, fourth office from the left," she whispers.

[anita_blake]

Anita has time to turn her head toward the motion before a chip of the concrete floor explodes beside her and the gunshot report echoes through the empty room. She immediately rolls to her left and tries to track where the shot had come from.

[ab_npc]

"Shit," Ronnie curses. Being shot at for entering a damn warehouse wasn't on her to-do list for today. She has to assume that Anita is all right, since her friend didn't make a sound after the shot. Her own eyes stay where that movement had been in the windows, but the shot itself had come from elsewhere. A quick scan of the room reveals someone ducking out of view before she can click off the safety of her gun and aim effectively.

"Gunman. Stairs at 2 o'clock."

She hopes Anita has a plan of some sort, 'cause running out into that room looks like fucking suicide at this point.

[anita_blake]

Anita spins, but the stairs are clear by the time she gets there. There's obviously more than one person here, and they are sitting ducks.

"Ronnie, go!" she shouts, pointing back toward the door. Just then, something slaps her on the back of her shoulder, and she hears another gunshot.

That's odd, she thinks. I didn't hear that one hit the ground. Then the gun in her hand suddenly feels very, very heavy, and her arm drops. She looks down and sees a little blossom of red on her shirt. Oh.

[ab_npc]

Ronnie doesn't hear it hit ground either, and wide eyes take in Anita's dropped posture. She doesn't have time to think, just to react. Anita is close enough that she is able to grab her friend by the waist and shove her out the door.

Spinning back, she aims at the gunman that's poking out near the stairs and fires. She inwardly curses when she hears the shot ricochet. A miss. Damn.

A moment later, she's out the door behind Anita.

[anita_blake]

"That went well, I think," Anita says through clenched teeth as Ronnie drags her back to the Jeep. She presses her other hand against her shoulder. At least it looks like the bullet had gone straight through and wasn't lodged against a bone or something.

"I need to get back to the Circus." She chuckles, lightheaded and giddy from the blood loss. "But I think you'll have to drive."