Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

75. Heart of darkness

(A/N: Season 1 Episode 18 -
"Heart of darkness")

Evan was on his second glass of Scotch when Agent Kyle walked into the bar. Evan didn't sleep a wink after seeing Catherine with the creature. Instead he spent the evening roaming the streets. He tried to find where the creature went after it left Catherine.

And now here he was.

"That was fast," Evan notes, drinking from his glass.

"You said it was urgent. I came."

"It is."

"And is this urgent information the reason you're hitting the sauce at noon?"

"Sauce..." Evan looks at the glass. "This is Lockburn 18...and the reason I am drinking it is none of your business," Evan sneers drunkenly.
"I found your...creature." He looks at Kyle, who sits up straighter. "I think we may need to enter the tunnels. I saw that thing enter a sewer pipe near Varican Spring. I think that's where he's been hiding out."

"And you picked up the trail where?"

"Does it matter?" They only needed the creature. Not Catherine.

Kyle got to his feet and looked down at Evan. "Forgive me for being skeptical, but before I put ten agents at risk I'd like to know that your intel is solid."

Evan scoffs up at him. "Unless you want the trail to go cold, I suggest you drop the questions and employ your team. The intel is solid." Evan turns back to his glass. "Now sit down. Have a drink."

"I will have a celebratory one after...
Look, if anything goes wrong, I want you to be protected." Kyle takes something out of his pocket. It's a small canister looking thing, 10cm length and 5cm wide.

"Creature mace?" Evan snorts, taking it.

"It's a panic button."

How will a panic button help me if they're too far away and I'm face to face with the creature?

"Muirfield takes care of its own," Kyle claps Evan on the back and then he takes his coat and leaves the bar.

Evan frowns and picks up his phone, scrolls to Catherine's number and then looks at her profile picture. A strange sense of being watched makes him turn his head. At one of the other tables two men are sitting. The one with a bald head and cap keeps looking at Evan and away, like he's following him and if he moves so will the man.

"They certainly do look after their own," he mumbles before he gathers his phone, house keys and finishes his drink.

He passes a man at the end of the bar, stops a foot away and then turns him around, hitting the man straight across the mouth.

****

It felt a little domesticated in Catherine's apartment. She unpacked some groceries and Vincent was using her wash and dryer for his laundry, undressing whatever he feels need to be washed too. He was about to take his jeans off when he feels her eyes on his back. He's still in a black muscle T shirt that needs to come off too. He looks at her, turning around slightly.

"Don't let me stop you," she smiles.
He chuckles but doesn't remove his belt. "I wish you could've stayed last night, I'm sorry but Heather was here."

"It's fine, I had to check in with JT anyway." He rolls up a few more shirts.

"What's he doing now anyway? Now that you guys are uh - " She shrugs, lemon in hand, not wanting to say the word but knowing which word.

"Homeless?" Vincent offers.

"I was going to say in flux."

"Well, he's sleeping in his office. Showering at the gym and doing his laundry at the dorms."