The infelicitous

chapter 2

"He's home!"
The voice echoed, bouncing across the brightly lit room behind the metal doors hidden at the bottom of the steps. Within moments, Leylan felt a heavy bulk charge at him, knocking him over. He laughed, stroking the smaller girl's hair, looking into her delicate blue eyes.
Freja was round faced; with icy blue eyes that seem to crackle like miniture lightning, matched with gracefully created features halo'd between butterscotch coloured braids. Even the jagged scar across her neck, snaking up across her jawline, was incapable of ruining her childish beauty.

"You missed my birthday, Ley" she pouted, having been very excited to spend her 12th with him, he knew.
"Here Speedy" he responded, pulling out a shabbily wrapped gift from his pocket, consisting of a small doll he had snuck out of a dodgy corner shop in West End. "I promise I didn't forget". He grinned again. Pulling at her braid, pushing her gently off him, he eyed her as she rabidly teared off the wrapping in earnest.
"Where's Kayla?" He asks.
"With Dakota I think"
"And that's where?" He replies, rolling his eyes. But, in the it took for him to land his gaze back on her, she was no longer there. Laylan just catching a blur of her hair as she ran off, room 7's door slamming shut behind her.
He muttered unintelligible words about the attitudes of pre-teens, getting back to his feet with a huff.

It didn't take long for Laylan to find her, his keen hearing picking up her jingly laugh from within The office. He sighed inwardly, knocking gently as Kayla laughed again, cut short by hushed voices.
"Come in".
He wanted nothing more then to kick the door in, but restrained himself. With clutched fists, he pushed the sturdy door open with his shoulder, the skin on his wrists rippling with smooth, mauve scales.
Kayla sat apon the desk, leaning against her hands, her pointed black nails druming on the oak wood. Her fishnet-tight clad legs swung carelessly off the edge, mini skirt pushed up her thigh. She was wearing her usual dressage; off the shoulder top revealing her aztec owl tattoo on her collarbone, everything black to contrast her pale skin. Her hair was violet now, her natural brunette only visible in the shaved side of her hair.

And...and she was smiling at him.

Kayla bounded towards him, pulling him tight into an inbrace. Leylan rested his chin on her shoulder. She was only 2 inches smaller then him, but she had a tendency to step on her tiptoes.
He opened an eye. Dakota Manaloff stared back at him, annoyance in their oval shaped face. The air seemed to shimmer around Dakota, one minute framed by a mass of wavy blonde hair, the next Leylan was looking at a pompadour style. Their eyes hardened too, body shifted to a leaner, more muscular stance. In both forms, Dakota resembled a fine looking 18 year old.
Leylan pulled away, slipping his hand into his pocket, before throwing the lipstick gently to her. "Fix up, you look a mess", he teased. She stuck the finger up at him, grinning to herself.

He turned his gaze back to Dakota.
"Oh no, don't change for me Capt', I don't mind you as a woman either" he smirked.
"Don't joke, Leylan" Dakota sighed, standing straight.
Leylan felt himself nod absently.
"Well, was it worth it?" Dakota asked, a hint of impacience in his deepened voice.
Leylan hesitated. "Well Capt' ,to be truthful. She didn't seem like much. Just a regular copper to me. A good jumper hell yea, but a dæmon?  No Capt'. Just a human." He stumbled over his words, feeling his body flush. He plays with his lip stud, biting onto the metal. "Just a human" he whispers again.
Dakota and Kayla sigh harmoniously, Dakota scratching his hair. Leylan pictured another marked handprint, images flashing past his mind. Finally, Dakota spoke up, ripping Leylan away from his thoughts.
"You disguises your mission carefully didn't you?"
"Yea Capt', made a runner with her stuff off the train. I dropped the handbag too, just a failed theft. Nothing suspicious...but I'm worried Capt'. This is the third failed suspect this month. What if we don't find her?" He babbled, pausing for breath.

"Leylan calm down, we will find her." Kayla placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezingly it reasurringly. "We will find her and make her pay for Luciana's death. Your sister won't go forgotten I promise."