War and Peace and Pancakes

Office Politics

Thirty six hours.

Probably the longest thirty-six hours he had ever gone through in his life.

Tim grimaced as he moved through several layers of security and up into the upper floor that led to the room that Alesky insisted was his office. He preferred to be down training or out in the field hunting, but at some point some asshole had even put his name on a plaque beside the door. Then Sam had given him a plant to decorate the place, which had promptly died when Tim forgot the thing needed water and sunlight to survive.

Urdu had left thirty si... nope, thirty seven hours now, ago. She had given him the odd bracelet that seemed to be made of stone and... felt... like her. Told him it would connect them even across realms. She could feel what he felt, would know when he was in trouble. And if he tapped it a couple times, it would call her home. Sam had a similar one, had put it around a stuffed animal that Urdu and her had picked up at some point while he had been working, and clung to it as she slept. And him.

But he swore the damned bear got more cuddles than he did.

Tim grinned for a moment, before he realized he was grinning stupidly at one of the guys that worked in some office in the building, that he had probably met and never intended to talk to ever again. The vampire flashed him a smile in return.

"Sorry, inside joke." Tim grumbled and stepped off the elevator, stalking in the direction of his office. The bear, wearing that bracelet, could almost fool the senses that Urdu was still there. It smelled like her. He may have not resisted when Sam had given it to him while she had gone to make breakfast.

"Tim. We're getting some weird reports from our forward scouts today." Alesky was stepping out of one of his offices, giving him a curious look, "did you send any teams out after our targets?"

He frowned, pausing for a moment as he looked to his boss, blinking a couple times. "What?"

"Reports should be on your desktop by now. Take a look."

"No. I haven't sent any teams. I was going with my teams this round." Tim shook his head, trying to focus himself. He was at work now, he needed to be on his game. Not that he promised Urdu that he wouldn't worry about her, but he knew what she meant. He would lose his shit if she let thoughts of him distract her and get her injured.

He paused in front of his door, glaring at his name plate before tapping in the code and turning the handle, choking in a breath as a wave of blood, decay and... death hit him hard enough to make him want to regurgitate his breakfast. Why the hell did he insist on eating so many pancakes when he didn't need them?

Tim froze, gripping the door, keeping his body standing in the way so that no one else could see around him and into the room. To the row of monster heads that lined across the ornamental glass shelf above the gas fireplace. Who needed a fireplace in their office? If it wasn't for the smell and liquids coming out of them, he would think it was a Halloween display a little early.

Blood of a couple different varieties pooled, congealed and dripped down across the glass and onto the carpeted floor, which had been a pompous shade of cream. Now it would forever be stained red.

He slammed the door shut and spun to face Alesky as the man stalked over to him, crossing the distance in preternatural speed. "Sir... how many... of our targets are unaccounted for?"

"It was nine this morning." Alesky glared at him, as if he could force Tim to open the door with just a look. When Tim didn't move, his eyes narrowed just a little bit more, "but I got notification several minutes ago that the siberia case has slipped our tail."