Dark Knight's Heir Chapter four

[mangacat201]

Author: Mangacat

Pairing: Jared/Jensen, others

Rating: R - NC-17

Parts: 2/20+

Word Count: 3200/ 60 000+

Disclaimer: I totally wanna own them ... *cough* sadly that's not possible, nor is getting paid for this. So I have fun and they're not going to get hurt... much. Promise.

Warnings: Erm, m/m sex, violence, language, gore (i.e. epic battle of the good against the bad), het sex (OMG, minor pairings), character death (minor).

Summary:

Jared Padalecki lives a Joe Average life with his fiancé... until a handsome stranger with an unbelievable story and a mysterious tale of destiny breaks the peace to safe his life.

A/N: Oi… I can’t believe it’s time again already. Just for the record, I’m leaving for Iceland tomorrow and I don’t know how the trade will be for the next two weeks, so don’t be cross when I can’t answer all your comments, kay? The new chapter will come as soon as I’m back.

Masterpost

Jared could feel his pulse beating wildly in his own ears. This was all too much, he thought, and his mind was about to shut down, not that his brain was highly occupied right now as he followed Jensen’s lead, running through the streets and back alleys of Chicago on the way to God knew where. Maybe that exactly was the problem. His brain had too little to do with running and dodging and enough capacity to run through the chain of events that had turned his life upside down at the snap of fingers and left him dangling high and dry, with no choice but to follow this man that had saved his life twice now. Jensen had been right once again about getting away, and he wouldn’t have wanted to meet those three gracious ladies on the corridor, or even worse, his apartment, with no fast escape nearby. Still, he thought of all the things that would happen now, or more precisely would not happen. He obviously wasn’t going to turn up for work, which was just as well, since he recognized his vision of Joan as being somehow linked to this whole mess. He didn’t know how long he would have to hide from danger, so his parents might try to reach him and notice his absence. On top of it all, he still hadn’t heard anything from Tom in about a day, and if his fiancée came home to an empty apartment that might very well be trashed, but that had first aid supplies littered around, he would probably worry himself sick. Jared swallowed around the burning in his throat that spoke of choked down tears and tried not to think too closely about it. He wanted to be able to reach out and hold that strong body to him, hear that soothing voice that always accompanied advice if the strain of life weighed down on him.

Instead he had to put up with this wad of changes in his life – apparently escaping mortal danger at knife’s edge was going to happen on a regular basis – with no way of knowing if everything was alright with the people closest to him. And didn’t that thought actually light up a candle real fast?

“Wait a minute, if these… these people…”

´”Demons.”

“Yeah, might be demons, I’m still not sure about that…”

Jensen shot him a really hard glare over the shoulder, not even slowing down a notch, but it made Jared cave surprisingly fast.

“Ok, so maybe it is actual demons and…”

“Are you actually trying to get to a point?”

“I’m, yeah, I mean, if they know me, wouldn’t they go after anyone that’s close to me? Oh my God, what if they wait, and Tom comes home, and they…”

That made Jensen snort loudly, although he immediately winced, looking hopeful that Jared wouldn’t catch it. He caught Jared’s incredulous look as they strolled along the street and cringed.

“Sorry, but not going to happen.”

“Are you sure? Why not? I mean…”

“Look, Jared, I really can’t explain that right now! We’ve got to get off the streets and somewhere the demon-bitch-brigade won’t be able to follow us.”

“And where’s that going to be? Are we supposed to go looking for a phone booth now?”

Jensen rolled his eyes, and although Jared could only see the back of his head, he felt the movement quite clearly.

“Sorry, that’s science fiction. You’ve got the wrong genre.”

“Ha, ha, very funny.”

“Well, how was I supposed to answer that? Look, demons and some other high-grade nasties like to live really high up in the tallest possible buildings for whatever reason, so we go were they won’t follow – Undertown.”

By the time Jensen had finished his explanation they stood in front of the door to a dilapidated and very obviously abandoned building, Jared wasn’t sure if it had originally been apartments or factory storage. There was no one else in sight, and when the door creaked ominously at Jensen’s hearty shove, Jared’s attention snapped back to the inside. He followed the man all the way to the opposite wall, where a rickety staircase dwindled down into a basement. They went down there, and Jensen rooted around a bit on one wall, until he found a switch that opened the latch to a covered hole in the ground. If you didn’t know it was there by the rise of the latch, it would have looked just like another patch of rough floor. Jensen opened the entrance to a black void that didn’t show how far down it went, but Jared told himself not to be a wuss. If Jensen could manage to hold off demons when outnumbered one to three or five, a little darkness wasn’t going to kill him. They began to descend into the shaft, blackness enveloped them, and Jared was only able to see Jensen’s light crown of hair bobbing further down on the ladder, as the rest of his black-clad figure vanished into the shadows. When they both had firm ground underneath their feet once more, Jensen moved with practiced ease to a spot on the wall that only faintly showed the outline of a torch stuck to the wall through the dim, cold light that filtered down from the upside. The young man whispered something at the torch that Jared could only catch single snippets from; what he heard sounded oddly familiar and made his stomach lunge as he watched Jensen rasp his hand over the handle, a thin blue crackle creeping up from his wrists, instantly igniting the torch to sharp, bright light. 

Jared marvelled at that casual display of… erm what?

“Wait…” he stared at the blue flickering flame of the torch. “Did you just…”

But Jensen didn’t even turn around to acknowledge that he’d heard Jared and just walked on. Jared turned back, staring transfixed at the torch, until he saw another flicker at the edge of his vision, and, almost instantly, the torch flicked out, leaving little dots swimming in front of his eyes.

“You’d better stay in the light and keep close, or you’ll lose your way pretty fast around here. And what may find you won’t be too friendly.”

Jared’s head whipped around to see Jensen striding into the light of a second torch, and, at the same time, he felt the hairs of his neck stand up with an eerie coldness that couldn’t be explained by a draft. He quickly sped up to join the other man in the ring of light and watched how another torch ignited when they approached, the last one winking out instantly.

“Why, this is pretty neat trick for energy saving. Is that a movement detector?”

Jensen finally turned to look at him, frown firmly in place and one eyebrow cocked.

“You are really one of those people, are you? No better than a civilian, really.”

“I AM a civilian, wait, one of whom exactly? I feel like that’s an insult.”

“You know, Jared, things happen up there, and sometimes they happen in front of people’s eyes. Normal people who know nothing about a world beneath and behind the things they perceive as real. It happens more often than you think, but what do people do when they’re faced with such an instance? They start explaining it away. If not to other people, then at least in their own minds. Demons, vampire hunters, magic, these things have no place in the little world of ordinary people.”

“So you’re saying that igniting these torches, it’s…” Jared waved his hand around.”…magic?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Well, because there’s no such thing as magic!”

“Isn’t there now, and why pray tell?”

“Because things don’t just… happen out of thin air. There has to be another… plausible explanation.”

“Why? You mean just as plausible as the Greeks explaining seasons with a woman descending to the lands of death, and the medieval people regarding the world as a disk, because there was no way to prove otherwise? Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it can’t kill you.”

“But all the time… wouldn’t people have KNOWN if there was such a… parallel world to ours where all these things existed?”

Jensen looked at him exasperated.

“Have you heard one word I was saying?? They don’t WANT to know. Besides, there has been plenty of belief. Where do you think all the stories come from? You know about the creatures of the night, you just don’t regard them as something that will affect you, other then in scary stories and nightmares. Well, think again. Even these walls are not exactly safe for someone like you to walk.”

“What do you mean?” Jared looked around, and, in the light of the torches, the walls looked like an old maintenance tunnel for… well, something or other. He had known that Chicago had an extensive set of unused or blocked tunnels from various states of city development. But other than needing a very good map, (which by the way he hoped that Jensen had.) he couldn’t think of any danger worse than getting hopelessly lost, or falling into some sewer pit or… “Well, yeah, I think I see your point.”

Jensen looked at him as if he had followed his train of thought all the way and smirked.

“You don’t even begin to understand what real danger is around here. We are in Undertown, Jared, and it’s called that for a reason.”

He passed a crossing and went swishing left without even so much as a glance for markers. Jared didn’t know if he should be mollified by that or terribly afraid. It meant that either Jensen knew this system of ways through the city blindfolded, or he was putting on a very confident show of leading them somewhere about which he didn’t have the slightest clue. Jared very much hoped it wasn’t the latter, but his thoughts were interrupted by the voice beside him.

“You think there’s a way for things that don’t exactly pass for human – and you’d be really surprised how many of them actually DO – to go out and about invisible from the ‘real’ world?” He swept a hand around in a big gesture. “This is it. This is where we gather.”

Jared gaped at him speechless for a moment. Then he - of course - asked the first thing that came to his mind in the totally disconnected way that happens when words don’t bother bypassing the brain on the way to one’s mouth.

“Does that mean you’re actually not human?”

He shuddered at the insight and recoiled a bit, while Jensen just looked at him like he was a particularly interesting species of bug that had done something unexpected. Then he rolled his eyes.

“Actually I am quite human, thank you very much. But I guess it won’t hurt to tell you a bit more about the way the supernatural world is leaking into people’s lives up there. You see, there are the creatures, by which I mean all those things out there that have a… certain shape that you won’t actually find in any biology book, but which don’t have any way of disguising themselves successfully into human society except in the dead of the night.”

Jared listened avidly. He didn’t really want to admit it to himself, but he had always been a sponge when it came to facts, and if some were more odd than others, well… life had recently shown him the finger concerning that one. But Jensen went on without pause.

“Then there are what we call half-lives. They can actually pass as human and can move among the masses with relative ease, but, having said that, there are different types. It might be someone formerly human that came into a supernatural affliction of some sort, werewolves for example, if you will. The other kind is much nastier. They are the supernatural creatures that can disguise themselves as human in different ways, by putting on a skin or conjuring up an illusional veil around themselves. Demons, for example, are particularly good at that, as you see with your…”

Suddenly Jensen snapped his mouth shut, as if to keep the next words from escaping.

“Never mind.”

Jared looked at him, rather puzzled by that, but Jensen found his footing again and went on, before he could ask a question.

“Last, there’s what you might call the Aware. People – humans  – that are aware of the world in the corners of reality, and who have more or less powerful abilities to fend for themselves in this kind of place.”

“You mean…”

“Witches, warlocks – like me – healers, seers, traders… some have very little ability - just enough for a few exceptionally good street frauds; others are more powerful, capable of fighting off the high profile enemies. They all use different weapons, or magic, and, of course, not all of them have the wellbeing of the human race in mind.”

“Sooo, you’re actually…” Jared flicked his hand at the torch lighting up their path.

“I’m no kitchen-witch if that’s what you mean, and I certainly won’t wriggle my nose.”

Jared had to grin at that… Jensen would lose all that mysterious handsome stranger image, but look utterly adorable – and where had that thought sneaked in? He squashed it immediately.

“So how do you do it then?”

“Concentration, mainly. Thoughts, sometimes spells, might be in words or in gestures, occasionally throw in a potion or two, depending on your profession. This lighting spell? Easy, you could do it too, now that you’ve r…”

Jensen halted mid word and pressed his lips into a thin line, which was quite a feat with those… (never mind!) and a pinched look adorned his face. He suddenly looked tense and uncomfortable, as if something had come back to him that had slipped his mind before.

“You know, a lot of your explanations end in half sentences and silence. Not exactly making it any more believable. I mean, me? Doing any spells? Yeah right! I think it’s time you laid some more of these cards on the table instead of bluffing all the time.”

“I’m… sorry, this is not the right time or place to talk about this kind of thing. I will tell you more about it, but I’d rather we were safe from prying eyes and ears in the walls. You never know who’s around when you come here, but there’s more than one creature out and about that would sell this kind of information very fast for profit. Ask me something else, anything.”

Jared pondered rooting around stubbornly for a moment, but from the set of Jensen’s jaw and his tense shoulders he figured he might actually be outclassed in that department for once. The other man had offered to talk about something different, if Jared only could find something to ask. That finally brought a nagging thought to the forefront of his mind that had fluttered around his consciousness for quite some time now.

“Your sword.”

Jensen looked at him blankly.

“Where is it? I mean, it’s a huge ass piece of steel, and I think I’ve seen you draw it from the back – which is kind of the only spot you could put it, actually – but it’s not there. Do you like… shrink it or something?”

The other man shot him once again one of these incredulous looks that made Jared feel like a first grader landed in a college class… without the required amount of IQ to warrant skipping like that.

“No I don't, in fact, it’s right where you pointed it out, on my back.”

“Is it what… invisible then?”

“Of course not, you wouldn’t be able to see it when I fought if it was, would you?” Instead Jensen reached back to where the collar of his coat met skin and pulled something – a latch.

“But the scabbard is. As long as I touch it anyway.”

The move had made the whole sword appear in front of Jared’s eyes out of thin air, and he was completely taken aback. It was one thing to see it appear and disappear in the flurry of fighting, but quite another to get a demonstration. Breath rushed into his lungs in a sharp intake. His eyes steadfastly refused to show him anything else than what was actually there. And that meant a huge, four foot something sword that appeared to be the most ordinary thing in the world was invisible most of the time. He stepped up to Jensen and raised his arm to the handle, aware of the wary expression on the other man’s face, traced with something that might be expectation. And then his fingers stopped involuntarily, maybe half an inch from touching the cool metal of the handle that – now up close – had the form of a dragon curling its body as the cross-bar and a shimmering tear-shaped crystal embedded at the end.

“It doesn’t want to be touched.”

The words were out again before his brain could think them, but now it was a very different feeling, like something whispered to him from the very core of his being, a sense, an awareness that he’d never felt before although it felt familiar in a instinctive way that made him shiver with anticipation and fear. Jensen locked eyes with him for a long moment, his expression now thoughtful and severe.

“You’re right. And you shouldn’t ever try. It’s not a sword one owns, in any way.”

Jared flicked his gaze from the sword to Jensen’s eyes and back, but didn’t lower his hand, pondering if he should try it just to spite the other man. In that moment, a flickering white discharge sprang from the cold metal and onto his fingers, like someone gathering static charge from a plush pullover will zap you on occasion, and he flinched back violently, all thoughts about touching the sword forgotten.

“You’ve got much to learn, but thankfully at least you don’t seem to be entirely hopeless.”

With that, Jensen turned and started walking again.

Chapter five