Out of Place Chapter 13

[galadriel1010]

Ianto blinked, “Bless you.”

James rolled his eyes, “The Chupacabra is a mythical creature. Vampiric, humanoid figures that attack and kill livestock. Wikipedia informs us that they have been sighted in Russia and Spain, although the legend started in Puerto Rico.”

They snorted with laughter, “Wikipedia?” John laughed, “Oh dear. So what of the ‘Chupacabra’?”

“It’s not an urban legend. It’s real.” Sally leant forwards, “There are some loose in the city, but you can see them, you can fight them, in a warehouse out on the edge of the desert.”

“Fight them? Why would you want to fight a vampire?” Ianto asked, knowing the answer and feeling things dropping into place. His comm. activated suddenly and he heard Jack’s warning in his ear, telling him to let John go alone from this point.

Jack shook his head, “Not a vampire, vampiric. We don’t know that they drink blood, but they eat human flesh. If you let them, that is.”

“Best not to let them really.” John grinned dangerously, having got the same message as Ianto, “Well I’m game, you Matt?”

Just then, Ianto’s leg vibrated and he stood up in surprise, fishing his phone out of his pocket, “Hello? Oh, hey.”

They watched him as he talked to the other person on the phone with a definite expression of ‘oops’, “Yeah, I’m just in the bar. Some guys I met here. No, he’s not with me. Yeah I’ll… Yes… No, I’ll… Yeah, OK. Alright then, I’ll… Babe.” He pulled a face and grabbed his wallet from the table, pulling his coat on with a very worried expression, “I’m coming back now… No, no I can’t drive. Yeah, yes I’m sorry. I’ll… OK, bye.” He hung up and ran his fingers through his hair, “Sorry about that, my boyfriend. I’ve got to go. Nice to meet you all, maybe I’ll see you around again?”

“Yeah, yeah, that’d be cool.” After Ianto had made his goodbyes, John was left feeling surprisingly bereft, even though he knew the conversation had been staged and both he and Ianto were spoken for. His remaining companions were staring at him with expressions ranging from compassion to outright bemusement, “What?”

“We just assumed that you two…” Alice blushed, “You know.”

“Yeah.” He shrugged, “I guess so did I. Ah well, you win some you lose some. Tell me about the Chupacabra.”

Jasmine pulled up by the side of the road and grinned up at Ianto as he pulled the door open, restraining herself from ruffling his hair until they were on the move again, “Has my boyfriend been getting you drunk?”

“Just a bit.” He chuckled ruefully, “I’m going to regret that in the morning. How’s it going?”

“They’re just on their way out, heading to the warehouse. John’ll check it out and if it’s the right place we’ll arrange a plan before tomorrow night.” She tapped on the steering wheel as she controlled the car effortlessly and sighed, puffing her cheeks out, “Sounds promising though. We’ve had a look at the Wikipedia page.” Ianto snorted, “Yeah, I know, but it’s the best we have. Officially the Chupacabra is an urban legend, most reported sightings are just coyotes.”

“This ain’t no coyote.”

“No, it’s not.” She glared at a swerving driver and licked her lips, “Bed for you when we get in dear. Bed and lots of water.”

“Yes Commander.” He laughed when she shoved him playfully, “Sorry boss.”

“Not to worry. Jack’ll be glad to have you back safe.” She hesitated, “He’s not good when he can’t protect you, when it’s up to someone else.”

Ianto smiled, “Yeah, I know.”

“You’re smiling about it.”

He shrugged and turned his soft glow on her, “It all shows that he cares, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, yeah I guess it does.” She smiled, but it was strained

“You want him home?”

“Oh yes.” The laugh, the smile, the body were those of a teenager, but the eyes were so much older as they flicked easily around the street, anywhere but at him, “But he’s doing the job he has to do, like we all do. But there’s no risk if it’s me or Jack.”

“Hey.” Ianto shook his head, “The risk’s as high for you two as it is for us, it’s just different. And you know that you’re both too high profile to go in there. They’d heard of Jack at least.”

“Yeah, we heard.” She worried at her bottom lip lightly, and then sighed, “We’ll talk about it later.”

Jay pushed the door open with her hip and passed Jack one of the mugs of coffee she carried, setting hers down on the desk and looping her arms loosely around his neck from behind, “I sent Yan to bed.”

“Thanks.” He covered her hands with one of his own and smiled up at her, “One day he’ll learn not to try to keep up with John.”

“Hah, yeah, maybe.” She squeezed Jack’s shoulders gently, “How’s he doing?”

“They’re just heading out there. I’ve told him not to face one, we don’t want them knowing how much experience he has.” The Torchwood commander simply nodded in agreement, so Jack felt the need to fill her silence, “I’ve checked the location, it’s close to where we’re getting the signals from.”

“So they’ve escaped?”

“Or been let loose. Maybe someone thought they’d been killed.” He shrugged, “Even we can’t always tell.”

“True enough. You want me to do anything?”

“No, I’ve got it covered. He’s just going to hang around for an hour or o, have a couple of drinks, then get a taxi back. I’m just here because it’s procedure.” He smiled into his mug, “One of Ianto’s, yeah?” She nodded, “Thought o. You get some sleep, or try to. I’ll wake you up when he’s on his way back.”

“Thanks.” She moved back and ran her fingers briefly through his hair, bending down to kiss his forehead before she left the room.

John got out of the car and shivered involuntarily at the brooding presence on the edge of the city and the burning hot wind that blasted around it from the desert, even this late at night. Sally followed his gaze and smiled slightly, “This whole area used to be miles out of the city, but the desert’s being encroached on further and further. They fell out of use, but now they’re closer…” She sighed, “Give it a couple of years and this’ll be busy and industrial. No wonder the creatures of our nightmares are coming closer.”

“The city’s encroaching on their territory?” He took a deep breath and regretted it, the air seemed to burn; unlike the air in Cardiff which was always cold and wet, “Did you know that a higher proportion of the USA is wilderness than Africa?”

“Really?” She raised her eyebrows and looked around as the second car arrived with Jack, James and Alice, “Maybe there’s more to find out there then.”

“Yeah, maybe there is.” He pulled Alice into a one armed hug as she got within reaching distance and ruffled her mad curls, “Tell me this place has got air conditioning?”

James laughed, “You know what they say, if you can’t stand the heat.”

“Get out of the fire.” Jack finished for him, “Don’t want to back out?”

“Not a chance.” He grinned wolfishly, “I can cope with ‘heat’.” And he made inverted commas with his fingers, “It’s just heat I have a problem with.”

“Haha, well said.” Dan thumped him on the shoulder and he stumbled slightly. The guy had to be a body builder or something, and quite a bit taller than the former time agent, “Let’s get in there before the party’s finished guys.”

Inside it was similar to the alien bar, but louder, smokier, much more crowded. There were more humans, and more different species, but there wasn’t the variety, they were all humanoid and could pass as human, especially in the dark, smoky atmosphere. Under the heavy thump of the bass, the shouting and yelling, he heard the distinctive snarl of a Weevil. Suddenly it all became real.

“Do you want a drink?” James had to yell in his ear

“On me.” He insisted, “What do you fancy?”

“Thanks mate. You choose.”

John nodded and made his way across to the bar, leaving the group to find a quiet corner and him to have a look around. Apart from that first snarl, he hadn’t heard anything more from the Weevil, but the smell indicated that it was definitely there. “Five hypervodkas please.”

“We don’t do hypervodkas.” The teenager behind the bar looked frazzled, stressed and unbelievably bored.

He winked, “It’ll have to be doubles with a shot of Absinthe then.”

“We’ve got Absente?”

“That’ll do.” Would it? Who knew, he was making it up as he went along. “Thanks doll.”

“Cath.” She glared at him and it was clearly not an invitation to use it, “My name is Cath.”

“Lesbian?”

“None of your business.”

“That’s a yes then.” He shrugged as she shot him a look to kill and picked up the glasses, “My loss.” That seemed to mollify her slightly, even though she tried to pretend she hadn’t heard.

“To new friends, and damn good fun.” He raised his glass with a laugh

Half an hour later, Jack and Alice and Sally and Dan were grinding against each other on the dance floor, well lubricated by the cocktails John had been inventing since they got there. John scanned the crowd constantly, looking for faces he recognised, accents out of place. It was like trying to find a specific needle in a box of needles. And God knew, Captain John Hart loved a challenge.

James tapped his arm and giggled slightly, “Hey, other James, the cage’ll be here soon, we should get a good place.”

“Yeah, yeah OK.” He stood up and followed James across the dance floor, not really surprised when the man ground back against him occasionally. Just for good measure he grabbed hold of his arse and squeezed, but it felt wrong, “You’re drunk.”

“Very.” James laughed, “There’s the others.”

They joined the rest of their group around a raised area and now John could hear the snarls of the Weevil and smell it even better, “Shit.”

“Wait till you see it.”

The crowd was gathering around them and they were jostled almost constantly. John jostled back for good measure and Alice laughed at him, “You enjoy that.”

“What, being arsey? Love it.” He tugged her close and grinned at Jack over her head, “Don’t worry, I’m just tactile.”

“I wasn’t worrying. I’d only worry if you did it to me.”

They laughed together again and John felt strangely guilty, but pushed it aside as a countdown started, rippling through the crowd. “What are we counting for?”

“Watch and see!”

He turned back to the raised area and hugged Alice, joining in the countdown with gusto, “Three, two, one!” There was a clank of gears and whirring of machinery and a cage rose up through the platform. Inside was the easily recognisable form of a Weevil. “Oh shit indeed.”

Alice laughed, “You should fight it, go into the cage.”

He shook his head fiercely, he didn’t know how Jack and Ianto did that almost for fun, although he had his suspicions about a euphemism, “Not likely. Not when I’ve had this much to drink.”

“I got ya.” Jack agreed, “Yeah, I wouldn’t either.”

Two hours later they fell out of the warehouse together as part of a milling throng. Everyone was high, some on drugs, some on alcohol, some on the atmosphere. John seemed to be the only person there who had noticed that, quietly, in a corner of the room, one of the guys who went into the cage had died of his injuries. He shivered and blinked in the soft dawn light that suffused the area and studied the desert that would soon be eaten up by the ceaseless urbanisation and reflected that whilst many things changed, humanity never would.