Prophecy: Tome of Blood

9. Can't Fight Destiny

There was too much to do. Despite the fact that the entire group was there at the shop they found that their focus was pulled in one too many directions, and they bickered back and forth amongst themselves as they tried to establish priority. Toby stood quietly, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried so hard not to lash out at them, but their voices grated heavily on his ears and he couldn't drown them out. With a quick move he slammed his hands down on the table, quieting them all if only because they knew that he demanded their attention.

"One at a damn time." He seethed, looking at each of them.

"Look, I'm as happy as anybody that Qui'hara's back, but we need to focus on figuring out what happened to Percy." Austin knew that he was shown favoritism, so he spoke first, alarmed ever since Dill had told them of the missing ghost.

"I'm not sure about that, she probably wandered off after a pair of shoes. It's a little suspicious that Qui'hara reappears after all this time, don't you think? Whoever took her in the first place must've had a hell of a reason to send her back like that." Still his boyfriend-rather, fiancé-disagreed with him.

"I'm not so sure, you don't know what she told me." He countered, noting their curious glances and preparing for the backlash. "You can't be mad, she asked me not to say anything, but a while ago she told me she'd been having blackouts, you know, coming to in different places and losing time."

"And you didn't think that was worth mentioning?" Dill was the first to exclaim, his voice rising shrilly.

"Calm down for a second, leave Austin be," Cliff held out his hand to quell the unrest. "None of this explains why the Anchoress' cult is on a rampage, or why she hasn't been with them. Regardless of what happened to Percy, we can't let our innocents go unprotected-we need to focus on controlling this before it gets out of hand, then we can worry about the rest."

"No." But Myrna was stern, "no, I won't leave Qui'hara, not again. You're all lucky that I even took the time to come here for this, I should still be there. We know something happened to her, and it probably has to do with the prophecy, its important either way for me to go back to her."

"How important is it going to be if the world falls apart around us?" Lorelei looked at her, shaking her head.

"Enough!" Again Toby pounded on the table when the commotion began, and he ran his hand through his hair as he thought about it. "Dill, you're with me, we'll go see if we can hunt down Percy."

"What? Why me? Lorelei has an appointment today, I can't miss that." The Radrora demon whined, looking over at his beloved.

"Because I need your ability, that's why." In a show of irritation, Toby raised his voice to mimic him.

"It's okay, I'll go with her," once again Austin interjected, smiling at his friend. "I've got to go over there anyway, to get my shots." That statement earned him a sympathetic look from his fiancé, who, hypocritically, did not want him to have to go alone. In all the commotion he hadn't forgotten the situation that they were in, that Austin was still dying.

"There you go, now shut up." But Toby was back in form, pairing them off in his head as he tried to balance all the different tasks they needed to get done. "I guess that leaves you, Cliff, you get to handle the cult. Take Liam with you," he turned next to the cyborg, "unless you also need to be attached to your girlfriend's hip."

"Don't be a dick, you know I can hear you, right?" Dill continued to whine from the other side of the table.

"I think it's a grand idea, I haven't any problem with it." Liam was glad to do his part, especially considering that it saved him the trouble of volunteering for the job. He'd been looking for a good opportunity to get Cliff alone, and, well, he couldn't have planned it better himself.