“Looks pretty dead to me? A little bit harsh don't you think Rayne?”

 Lucas caught up to me as I pushed my way through the thick crowd that still loitered in Execution Square. My job was done, I knew I finally had a few spare moments in which I could relax and my body had finally decided to give in. My head had begun to pound and every square inch of me ached something terrible. It felt as if I needed to sleep for a week, and desperately wanted to do so somewhere that wasn't that rat infested flat, nor under sheets that smelled of mildew.

 A sigh escaped my lips at Lucas's voice, in that moment conversation was so not on my to-do list. My brow furrowed in a frown as I picked up my pace and considered his words; finally clear of Execution square I made a bee-line for the tunnel that would lead to the Hybrid living quarters.

 “What d'you mean harsh? It was the truth.”I said with a shrug.

 Determined to badger me I knew that Lucas would keep up no matter how fast I walked, so there was really no use in ignoring him.

 “Yes, but come on, you know how the transition hits them. It was like you just had to put your own exclamation point down on him. Not enough that you had just executed him.”

 “So? Come on Lucas, what exactly did you expect? Me to offer a shoulder to cry on?” I asked, anger slowly starting to colour my voice. I turned around to face him, walking backwards slowed my pace but I didn't stop moving. “That man did not deserve a single shred of sympathy.”

 “No, no, nothing of the sort. But this is exactly my point Rayne.” Lucas gestured incomprehensibly in my direction and I frowned at him, far from understanding his meaning. He rolled his eyes at my lack of understanding and went on to elaborate. “You're normally so cold, so detached from your cases; just as we all are, it's just what we do. But that? That was anger, heat and flame to your words, you meant to burn him. What's with the sudden display of emotion?”

 It was hard not to admit that Lucas had a point. Shane's case had gotten under my skin like no other, not even those I'd worked in my very first years in the job. I was still reeling with the rage, not to mention the fear, it had instilled in me. It felt unnatural, strange, and I didn't like it.

 Another sigh fell from me and I turned my back on Lucas once again; we had reached the stone steps leading to the upper levels which were challenge enough for my weary body, backwards they would have been near impossible. But I knew I would not escape Lucas and his questioning quite so easily. A shrug lifted my shoulders as I started up the stairs.

 “I don't know, it just got to me a bit is all. The whole case felt like hard work, working behind that grubby bar while trying to do my real job at the same time. Him resisting, at every turn, to take the last step while constantly breathing down my neck so it felt I could do nothing about it. A whole week up there was a hell of a lot longer than I was expecting, and, to top it all off, I got pretty much zero sleep the whole time I was there...”

 My rant trailed off into an indistinguishable groan as I raked hooked fingers through my red hair; they came away feeling greasy. A shower and then sleep and everything would feel better again. Venting my anger to Lucas had actually helped a little, a weight seemed to have lifted and I didn't feel as if I was lugging a tonne of bricks over my shoulders – not that it eased the physical ache in my body any, but it helped some. I cast a quick look over my shoulder and bore Lucas an apologetic smile.

 “You know what it can get like up there Lucas. The human blood starts trying to take over, and without any sleep to recharge, it was starting to get the better of me. I feel better just being back, but still holding onto some residual emotion it would appear. I'll be fine, just need a rest is all...some time off maybe.”

 We walked our way along the gently curving corridor, passing many arched doorways lined with heavy black curtains at regular intervals. I counted down the numbers on the rooms until my own quarters loomed ahead.

 At my last words Lucas had begun to chuckle softly, a murmuring sound that floated gently behind us. But by the time I had thrown open the curtains and caught sight of my own bed – the ache in my body reaching bone deep and a groan of desperation escaping my lips – his laughter had grown loud and full throated until it rang up and down the tunnel, surrounding us with the noise.

 “What's so funny?” I asked with annoyance as I stomped to my cupboard to fetch some towels. I really wanted nothing more than to sink into my bed and sleep, but I had to wash first; my encounter with Shane still crawled on my skin.

 “Oh, nothing...” Lucas forced out between guffaws.

 Finally I managed to drag a large bath sheet from the depths of the dark mahogany cupboard that was set flush into the stone wall of my living quarters – it was enchanted, a useful little trick that saved on packing, but I had to admit mine was a mess.

 “Yeah right, you don't laugh like that for nothing Lucas. Come on, spill; I could do with a good laugh.” Though I had the sinking feeling that the laughter was at my expense.

 “Okay, it's just...some time off? Lucifer is just going to love that idea.” Lucas made a show of composing himself, squashing the laughter so he could speak to me without his shoulders vibrating.

 “You know what he's like Rayne. If we can't work then there is no point in our existence, we become superfluous to the grand design. You know as well as I do how expendable we are. We're tools in the machine of Hell, Rayne, not employee's; we don't get all the nice cosy benefits that humans get with their jobs. That's just the way it works.”

 An edge of bitterness had crept into his voice as Lucas took a seat on the edge of my bed. He spoke the truth and, because we got to see and experience the other side of that coin, it appeared all the more unfair.

 “Yes I know, he is the ultimate of all slave drivers,” I said with a roll of my eyes, though I still had to have some hope. “But there can't really be an overload of free cases at the moment, can there?”

 “How do you figure that out?” Lucas asked with a frown.

 “Well, you,” I said, as if it were an obvious answer. “You told me you brought your mark in three days ago, shouldn't you have been sent back out by now, at least yesterday or earlier today at the latest? There can't be a whole lot going on if you're still kicking your heels around here. Surely he can afford me a week of R&R.”

 A pink blush crept to his cheeks as Lucas purposefully dropped his gaze to stare at the floor. Perhaps he had thought, with all of his earlier boasting, that I would have overlooked the fact that he had yet to be given another case – what with all the envy at his victory clouding my perception or something. But it hadn't gone unnoticed. In fact I had found it quite a welcoming little snippet of information; though Lucas and his blushing had me feeling that there was more to his story than I first believed; and I grew more certain that I probably wouldn't like it.

 “Yes, well...” Lucas cleared his throat before he continued, still making a show of avoiding my eyes. “That, I suppose, is mostly my own fault. Played a little too fast and loose with the free will concept on that job.” A sudden smirk crept to his lips as he looked back up at me, a wicked glint in his purple eyes.

 “Guess I was just a little too eager to beat you this time. And then you go and take forever getting your guy that I needn't have bothered, “he added, flippantly, “so really, Rayne, it's part your fault too.”

 I snorted, “Oh please Lucas, don't try and pull that one on me. We may be competitive but you'd never risk your own arse that much just to try and beat me. You love yourself far too much to do that.”

 He gave me a lazy shrug, “can't blame me for trying,” Was his simple reply.

 “Yes I bloody can. Trying to blame me for some shit your landed yourself in?” I swatted him on the shoulder in mild irritation and took a seat on the bed beside him. My thoughts of a shower and sleep slowly slipped away from me as I knew Lucas had a story to tell. “So, go on then, what happened?” I asked, expectantly.

 Lucas pushed himself up, leaning forwards and resting his elbows on his knees. He avoided my gaze once again and sat silently for a moment, as if gathering his thoughts. If he was choosing his words that carefully – words to give to me of all people – then it must have been bad. I'd said before that I didn't have real friends, only acquaintances among my colleagues; Lucas was probably my one and only exception to that rule. We could generally tell each other anything without mincing our words, so his caution had me concerned.

 “The woman, she was just incredibly twisted,” he said.

 It seemed a strange choice of opening words. They were all twisted, one way or another, they had to be or we wouldn't have a job to do.

 “She had a rather colourful history, though she never really stuck with one crime for very long. That's mainly the reason why she'd not turned up on our radar before, she was smart about it all. She'd jump ship on anything if it started to get dicey, lay low and let any heat die down before moving on to some new venture. Though, this time it seemed, her most recent little scheme was bringing in far too much regular profit for her to cut and run. I think it must have been the first time she'd really started to get sloppy.”

 Lucas paused in his story. I nodded to let him know that I'd followed his words up to then, and that I was up to speed on all the details so far, but he still didn't continue.

 “And?” I said, “so what was it that got her so hooked she forgot about her self preservation?” I prompted him to continue.

 Lucas shook his head. “It was only drug dealing,” he said dismissively, “nothing spectacular. But she'd found herself a nice little niche in the market, selling to the local children. Most of them were barely even teenagers, all coming along to buy on the recommendations of friends who'd given them a taste of the drugs. What with the rifeness of peer pressure she had a fantastic little profit ring in them when they came along each week with their pocket money, or school dinner money. It was sickening.

 “But of course, when you've an army of doped up kids wandering around, people start to ask questions.”

 “Okay, yeah I suppose they do. But I still don't see how you fit into all this – apart from her being your mark. Come on, cough up, what did you do?” I asked once again. He wasn't about to get out of spilling the beans.

 “I was getting to that,” Lucas snapped, clicking his tongue in irritation at my impatience. “By the time I arrived to collect her soul, the human police had already started sniffing around and she'd started doing everything in her power to keep up her squeaky-clean image. I swear they can make things so fucking awkward sometimes.”

 Lucas scraped his hands through his long, sandy blonde hair in frustration. It appeared that we had both been given tough cases that had taken their toll on our emotions, and we were both still feeling it no matter the front that Lucas put up. Without an audience he didn't always pile on so much of his bravado as when we were in public, but this was probably the first time I'd been given a glimpse of some real vulnerability in all the long years that I had known him. It was a little awkward, to tell the truth, so, rather than comment, I chose instead to ignore his small display of emotion and press on for him to continue the story.

 “She wasn't keen to take that last step so you could bag her?” I shrugged, “neither was Shane, that's not what Lucifer has you on house arrest for. What did you do?” I repeated the question once again, my voice firm and demanding.

 Lucas cast me a small scowl, finally finding my eyes again with his hard gaze. “Like I said, she was doing her best to keep it clean while the police were still a big presence, but the kids were always still lurking around. A lot of them were getting anxious about not being able to get their regular fix, and I just knew she wasn't going to keep getting away with it for much longer.

 “I was in a bind, I had to do something quickly or she was going to end up in a cell and I would be coming back home empty handed.”

 It was a toss up as to what would have been punished more severely, coming home without a coveted soul, or whatever it was that Lucas had done to land himself in Lucifer's bad books. Either way it wouldn't have been good, so I could hardly blame him for breaking the free will rules a little, if it meant he'd be coming back with his bounty.

 “I take it she wouldn't have been released on bail?” I asked.

 Lucas shrugged. “Don't know for certain, but I couldn't take any chances. Besides I wasn't sure how many of her other crimes were still floating around unsolved that might find fresh evidence and finally be pinned on her. And it's not like I could perform a prison break.”

 “Oh, tell me you didn't do something stupid.” I moaned. A minor little infraction, bending the rules to test their mettle, that's what I'd been expecting. But what Lucas was slowly hinting at grew far bigger and more serious in my mind with every word he spoke.

 “Well obviously Rayne, Lucifer wouldn't have me on lock-down awaiting trial for playing my the rules and using my head now would he,” Lucas shouted, the anger he felt obvious as it twisted his handsome features into something dark that belied his human appearance.

 He rose from the bed and started to pace the floor in a small, tight circle – there wasn't that much room in the living quarters for angry pacing, but he seemed to need some way to vent the tension. He was awaiting a trial? Well he'd certainly kept that news quiet, and I supposed it explained the unfamiliar displays of emotion he'd displayed.

 “I'm sorry,” I muttered softly, “but you know what I mean. You got rid of the police, how?” I was certain the conclusion I'd drawn as to what he'd done was correct, it seemed the only logical course of action that he could have taken. Still wasn't sure on how though.

 Lucas sighed. “Yes I know what you mean. I didn't kill them if that's the direction your mind is wandering, I'm not that much of a fool. Besides, you know if I'd done that my head would have rolled already. No, I just had to convince them to give up their investigation and go away was all.”

 “Hypnosis?” I asked. It was like a light had been thrown on inside my head as the revelation dawned on me. “I always forget you can do that.”

 As hybrids we are gifted with but a few of the demonic powers possessed by our pureblood parent, passed on at conception, though the unique powers we do inherit depend on a number of things. The breed and strength of the demon father – human mothers are always favoured for fear of a female demon, possessed by post-natal hormones, killing a child born with a human appearance, birthed knowingly or not. Purity of the human blood was important, as well as its susceptibility to the taint of darkness, though there was no way to gauge this for certain so really it was all just luck of the draw.

 Hypnosis was one of the rarer abilities and Lucas found himself one of the lucky few who could perform it. It made me suspect that a Whisperer may have fathered him, but I never spoke of my suspicions. We were never informed of our parentage so there seemed little point in wondering for anything beyond my own amusement. However, as it was such a rare ability for a hybrid to possess, the rules surrounding its use during our cases were sketchy at best. It would seem that one of the big no nos included sending a squad of police away from their drug investigation.

 “Yes, hypnosis. But, apparently I used it on too many people who had no direct relation to my case. I messed up big time Rayne, and something tells me I'm not going to get away with just a slap on the wrist.” Lucas sighed again and a tense, depressed silence fell over the room.

 I had no idea what to say. I could play at comforting a human, should the situation call for it – all the trite sympathies in the book seemed to go over well with them – but what in the hell should I say to Lucas; probably the one and only creature in existence I cared a bit for? Nothing came to mind, so I ignored it.

 “So...you don't think there's much of a chance of me getting some time off then?” I asked, hoping just to lighten the mood more than anything.

 “I don't believe that holiday time is sanctioned in your line of work Rayne.”

 A new, dark and velvety voice echoed from the doorway and startled the two of us. A jolt of surprise made the hair on my arms stand on end, and Lucas visibly jumped before my eyes. And it was no wonder, Lucifer was the last thing in Hell I'd have expected to see standing in my doorway.