A/N - This is chaptered out, but it wasn't originally as a multi part story. I only decided to s[lit it up into chapters after realizing how long it was going to be. So if some of the chapters seem a bit weird that's the reason why, otherwise please enjoy

The night air felt a bit colder than usual despite the summery time of year. A very clear drop of temperature caught everyone caught all who were out in the area off guard. A young man walked the streets with his head down while trying to tighten his very light jacket around him in a failing attempt to keep out the chill. He was on a pretty busy street so he felt relatively safe for the moment, there wasn't a whole lot of crime in this part of the city so he didn't have to worry about getting mugged, there wasn't even a prostitute walking the sidewalk. At least one that could be easily recognizable by most people's standard. And if there were they were making sure they weren't standing out in any way to draw any obvious attention. Then again maybe this sudden chill might be keeping them indoors as well, or at least more warmly dressed. "Fuck it's cold," he muttered, ignoring the slight fog indicating his breath hanging in the air, as he started rubbing his arms to try to get warmer. "Bastards didn't say anything about this on the news this morning."

Pulling out his phone he went to check the temperature, but his phone wasn't on. "What the hell?". He tried turning it on. It did for a brief moment, just long enough for him to see that the battery was dead. "Fuck!", he spat. "I know this POS was fully charged before I left." He started banging on the phone, despite knowing that wouldn't work. Now he couldn't even call a cab if he had to. "Why did I agree to head out tonight?", he asked himself as he kept going feeling miserable. "I don't even like the people he works with to begin with." Still keeping his head down he continued toward the reluctantly agreed upon destination. As he kept walking, out of the corner of his eye he couldn't help but notice a older man being back lighted as he stood in front of a open doorway. The idea that this guy didn't seem bothered by the cold, not even wearing a coat, irritated him slightly.

"Cold tonight isn't it?", the man asked. He seemed friendly enough so he stopped. Which was weird because he wouldn't stop for some random stranger on the street looking to start up a conversation, especially after a stupid line like that. But it was like something was compelling him to slow down and look at the man.

"You ain't lying there dude," he said as he started blowing into his hand. He looked past the stranger at the building itself. He couldn't exactly see inside since the guy was blocking the door enough that he couldn't get a good look. So he studied at the exterior, and was surprised to see it was some sort of shelter. His brow creased a bit, he'd walked this street more times times than he could count and never noticed it before. He knew people called him oblivious at times but he couldn't be that bad, could he?

"Do you want to come in?", he looked at the man after the surprising offer was made. "Just put on a fresh pot of joe. So it should be nice and piping hot, perfect for a cold spell like this one."

"No thanks," he quickly said. Gesturing toward the building he went on, "I think other people need it more than me."

"I realize that son," this man said with a friendly chuckle and he took a step closer to him. "But I was figuring that you might want to get out of this cold for a bit." All right that did sound more than a little tempting considering how much he was shivering at the moment. "And the coffee should heat you right up. Just a couple of minutes to get the chill off you bones."

"Okay you win," he finally conceded. "But the moment I hear I'm probably going to hell and I'm out of here."

The stranger laughed a pretty hearty laugh if he had ever heard one. "That's one thing you won't have to worry about here. Come on," he put a arm around his shoulder as he started to guide him toward the door, "I'll get you a seat by the space heater. Glad I thought to pull that out of storage. I'm even more thankful it worked. I was planning on throwing it out and getting a new one, then this happened."

"Is that offer open to anybody?", a new voice asked. Both of them looked behind them to see a blond haired woman standing there shivering as much as he was. Granted her coat looked way warmer than his jacket at the moment.

"Of course," the strange old man said as he looked at her. "The more the merrier I always say." He started to heard them in then it looked like something occurred to him, "Now where are my manners, my friends call me Steve."

"Trevor," he responded, if the old guy was offering a bit of warmth from this sudden cold then it would just be rude.

Both of them looked back at the woman who just said, "Jules." The way she said her name was friendly enough, but something made him look at her a little more closely, it was like she was on some kind of alert, like she was looking for something to come out and attack her The old man didn't seem to notice as he gestured for them to go first.

"Ladies first," he said more or less automatically, such a thing being driven into him by both both his parents and grandparents for as long as he could remember.

She smiled and told him,"Thank you," both of them parted to let her by. Trevor saw her reach out and put a hand, noticing the leather looking thing on her wrist for the first time, on the door jam as she took a look inside before going in. He blinked a few times, the cold must be causing his eyes to play tricks on him. He could have sworn there was a piece of paper left behind once she lifted her hand away. But nothing was there. Steve didn't even act like he noticed anything was off as he entered behind them and closed the door, using a little extra force to get it to close.

"I keep meaning to get that fixed," he said as he turned around. "Started doing that a couple of years ago. I didn't think anything of it at the time but it's been getting worse."

"Old buildings tend to do that," Jules commented as she looked around while she rubbed her hands together to warm them up. Trevor did the same, a little surprised at how spartan the interior actually was. He was expecting a couple of rows of tables and chairs at least like most shelters he'd seen on T.V. But there were no tables, just a handful of folding chairs by that offered space heater sitting on an old wooden stool, which to be honest did look like it had seen better days. But it was warm in here, in fact he felt himself starting to sweat a little.

"That they do," Steve readily agreed. "About the time I do get it fix will probably be around the time it stops closing completely." He chuckled to himself as he gently guided them to the heater. "Now go right ahead and grab a seat, talk a little, get to know each other a bit. Who knows, this might be the start of something special." When they finally did sit he looked strangely satisfied. "I'll go get that coffee I promised you. I'm currently out of cream and sugar though, I hope that's all right."

"Just the way I like it," Jules told him.

Trevor told him, "Just as long as it's not decaff, I'm going to need the buzz considering where I'm going. I'm going to be bored out of my mind."

"No worries there my boy," Steve said with that same smile. "And a lady after my own heart. I'll be back in a few ticks."

Once they were alone, Jules looked back to were he went before returning her attention to him. She looked him over a bit, not exactly like a piece of meat but it was still a little unnerving. Finally she stopped looking at him and smiled a bit as she went, "I'm sure he's a nice guy who means well and all but before you get any ideas," she reached up and lightly rubbed a slim gold pin that was a couple of inches long, there was some sort of markings inscribed on it that he couldn't quite make out from where he was sitting, "but I'm already spoken for."

"Same here," he informed her. "In fact I'm wondering how long I should stay before leaving. He's going to wonder where I am before long." He looked at his phone, yup still useless at the moment. "And I'm out of a charge apparently."

"The cold might have zapped the battery," Jules offered.

"Probably," he agreed. "I don't suppose you have a charger on you?"

She at least looked apologetic as she answered with, "Don't carry one, sorry."

"Guess I should expect a ton of voice mails asking where I'm at after I charge this up then," he sighed and started looking around. Even if she did have a charge cord with her, or he thought to bring his, where was he going to pug it in? He wasn't seeing an outlet anywhere. Then he noticed Jules was staring intently at the heater. It took him a moment but he realized why she was staring at it, his grandparents had a model similar to this one. Those coils should be glowing a reddish orange by now, so it wasn't working. But why was it so warm in here? "What the hell?", he started to get up but she grabbed his arm and got him to sit back down.

"Don't move," she told him, an edge in her voice that wasn't there before startled him. He kept looking back and forth between her and the heater as she reached into her coat. He was suddenly very afraid of an old space heater. This was ridiculous. Then she slapped something on his forehead. He got a brief look at some red paper blocking his vision slightly before he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

After making sure he wasn't going to fall out of the chair Jules wondered exactly how she was going to drag this poor bastard out of here. She kept her eyes on the heater, it had to be connected to the Horror some how. Then she remembered about Steve and whipped around with her Madou Brush in hand to see him stand there holding two Styrofoam cups of coffee, still smiling at her. "I thought you were a Makai Priest." Jules positioned herself so she was between the two of them. "It's a vibe I quickly learned to read."

"Guess I need to work on that," she quipped. Now was Steve here the Horror they were looking for, or was he just a pawn trying to look out for his own skin?

"Nice trick with that talisman though, I almost didn't see it vanish like it did, that was a very neat trick. Although I should be a bit peeved you knock our friend out like that." he said gesturing one of the cups toward Trevor, "Wasted a perfectly good dose of poison, thiese things ain't exactly cheap and easy to come by you know."

Jules eyed the older man, no Horror she knew of poisoned their victim's first, so working for the Horror then. So she tried to get through to him, because otherwise she would have to do something she might regret later. "What ever the Horror promised you you have to know it won't keep it's word. It'll consume you at some point."

"Oh I'm aware of that," he said taking a step forward, Jules took up a defensive position that caused him to stop and look at the coffee in his hands. "Told it it could have me as soon as my body finally gives out, and the way things are going that should happening sooner rather than later. But before then I feed it every so often and it's happy. Better than having it just roam about don't you think?" Okay she wasn't going to regret this all that much if it got physical between them. Which was now as he threw one of those coffees at her. Jules easily dodged and kept from getting scalded from the hot liquid and went after the old man.

He acted like he was going to throw the other one but she kicked it out of his hand. Then he started throwing some kicks of his own that she blocked. The old guy was moving like a professional fighter, he might have even been one in his younger days. But something told her that he wasn't expecting much of a fight from any ol' Makai Priest, male or female. As she steadily block or dodged whatever attack he tried to throw at her Jules was quickly showing him that he wasn't dealing with just any Makai Priest. She was one of the few who could actually fight and seal a Horror. Keeping him at arms length she backed up just long enough to get around a punch by bending foreward at the waist, and brought her right foot up to smash him in the face in the process. As he stumbled back holding his nose she rose back up and brought her brush down in a huge arc aiming for his head.

He saw this coming from a mile away and brought up his arms to block it. Just like she wanted him to. Jules stopped just short of striking his arms, instead kicking out with a foot that knocked him back to the wall behind him. She spun away after the blow and looked at him him glaring at her. She couldn't help it, the smirk just appeared on her lips as she waved him on. He looked to the side suddenly then started smiling as well. She lost the smirk as confusion briefly took her. Then she heard some sort of grinding, whirring sounding mechanical noise behind her and it hit her. The heater he had them sit by wasn't connected to the Horror, it was the Horror. She glanced back to see that heater sprout a set of demonic looking clockwork arms and legs from a equally demonic looking body as it got off the stool it was on.

The Horror turned it's frame to the poor bastard she knocked out. She ran in and hit it with the energized bristles of her brush as it reached out for him. Jumping up a bit he pushed off the metal body of the Horror and made sure her other foot hit the chair the poor guy was sitting on to push it away from the thing trying to eat she was grabbed from behind by Steve as she kept her attention on making sure neither she or the guy was eaten. After a brief struggle she was able to break free of his grasp, turn around and throw him to the ground. Quickly she grabbed the unconscious man and pulled him further away from the fight. In one motion she jumped around in front of the guy, pulled a red slim slip of paper out of her coat as turned around to face the Horror and the old man. Running her brush over it she placed it on the ground to form a quick barrier between them. The Horror immediately began assusuting it and she knew it wasn't going to last long to begin with. She didn't need it to. She brought up her brush and quickly brought her other hand on top of the glowing bristles.

Jules and, despite being on the other side of the barrier, the old man ducked as the paper she placed earlier in the jam exploded, causing the door to open up. "You think that's going to help?", Steve sneered. "There's a barrier around this place."

"One that will let people in but not out," Jules quickly cut him off. "We have records of this particular's Horror's bag of tricks you know. Besides I wasn't trying to get us out." The Horror and the old man both looked at the door as a shape walked through the smoke still lingering in the air. "I was letting someone in." In a dark long coat and holding a black staff with gold inlay in various spots, a single man with dirty blond like hair walked in with a purpose as he locked his eyes on the Horror immediately. That smirk return to her lips as she turned back to the old man, "Say hi to the hubby."

The horror started speaking in it's language, one both foreign and ancient, but she, and those of the Makai Order, knew enough of it to know it said one thing, "Makai Knight."

She stood next to Carter as they faced the Horror and the old man. Jules had no question in her mind that she could have probably taken on this Horror by herself. But with the Steve there fighter her too and not to mention sleeping beauty in the chair she didn't need to be distracted at the wrong moment. Even Carter admitted he had similar misgivings when facing multiple opponents, you sometimes got your eyes on the wrong opponent at the wrong time and that was it. But two on two, well that was a different story altogether. "You're late," she told Carter jokingly. His only reaction was to glance at her briefly before returning his attention to the Horror. That wasn't him being annoyed at her comment, no that was his 'are you serious right now?' look. She learned that one even before they became a couple. "How about we spice things up a bit," she told him. "You occupy the old man and I take on the Horror." Again he said nothing, he pulled the staff apart revealing the hidden blades inside. "The usual boring way then," she said with a fake yawn. As one they charged the Horror and the old man.

The old man moved to try and block Carter's path, Jules was already there knocking him out of the way as Carter continued on toward the their target. She also knew she had another task to worry about, since she knew spells and magic in general it was her job to figure out what was keeping the barrier up and disable it if possible. It was why she was out here first. Since she didn't spot anything on the outside that meant it was in here, but where was it? Jules didn't spot anything when she first walked in and set the explosive seal, even talking to the guy who was still knocked out in the chair she didn't spot it. Speaking of they had to get him out of here some how. Jules caught a punch thrown at here head and twisted the old man's arm in a hammer lock that forced the old man around. Wrapping her other arm around his neck she struggled with him eventually getting turned around to see Carter fight the Horror. Watching them her eye caught something, a slight shimmery effect that usually indicated one thing. Pushing the old man away with a kick to the rump she retrieved a grey slip of paper and used her brush to hurl it at the Horror as it turned to a metal spike as soon as it left her hand. It hit the shimmery area and the Horror reacted, so did the open door way as the air seemed to shimmer as well. "There!", she yelled at Carter.

He saw what happened at the door as well and nodded as he concentrated on the area where the spike was. The seal keeping the barrier in place was on the Horror. It started to protect the area more as Carter increased his assault with both blades. He blocked two strikes coming his way, one attack with one blade and a kick with the other. Jules saw what he was going to do immediately, he had both blades positioned so he could connect the other ends to form his double bladed sword. Doing so he pushed the Horror away and started swinging with the weapon having nearly doubled his reach as he held it with one hand. Jules shot an elbow back as she felt the old man coming up behind her, and tried not to feel any satisfaction as she felt his nose give away. She turned back to face him, briefly wondering if he thought that by eventually feeding himself to the Horror would absolve him of the sins of feeding other people to the thing.

It was the second time she had seen that particular line of thinking, The first time being her former mentor Vincent, it made her sick then and it made her just as sick now so she didn't exactly hold back as she beat up Steve while Carter took on the Horror. Then he got through and stabbed the shimmery area with one end of the staff. The Horror recoiled and screamed. Both of them looked at the door as the air shimmered again then seem to shatter. The barrier was broken. "No!" Steve yelled as he grabbed her. She was able to shrug him off again, punching him for good measure. Then he started stumbling toward Carter and the Horror, getting between the two of them. Jules quickly rushed over to help her husband in case he needed it. Then the air around the old man started to look funny, like he was a reflection in a fun house mirrored. "No!" he shouted out. "Not yet!" Both of them watched as he sucked up into the Horror.

Despite everything Jules did try to feel sorry for the old man, she really did. Nobody deserved to be devoured by a Horror no matter what they did. But in the end all she could muster was, "I tried to warn him."

The Horror started thrashing around, like it was trying to bring the building down on top of them. "Get him out of here," Carter told her. But she was already going for the guy she put the sleeping spell on. Grabbing his chair she started pulling him to the door. Once there she got under a arm and hoisted him up, taking his dead weight and got him out the door. She look back just long enough to see him spin his weapon over his head, forming the circle that would summon his armor. Knowing the fight was well in hand she dragged Trevor onto the open street. Getting across the street she spotted a empty bus waiting area and laid him on the bench. She looked around, nobody was in sight. So use did a quick motion with her brush and aimed at it the bench. It glowed softly, that should keep him warm enough until the sleep spell wore off. She went back to see if Carter needed any help but he was already exiting the building reconnecting his weapons back into the staff, she so could have taken that Horror if the numbers weren't against her. She went to met him as he looked past her to the sleeping man, "Is he why you went in early?"

"I didn't want him to get eaten," she told him. Carter simply nodded as he continued on to the sleeping man. Jules joined him. That's when they both heard a particular beep going off again and again. Seeing a soft light in his hand she realized it was his phone. She looked at it, twenty messages from the same number, more than likely the person he was planning on meeting. "Either you're friend is really worried or he's borderline possessive," she softly said as she replaced the phone.

"The barrier was what it made it so cold," a tinny voice said. Both her and Carter looked at the Gothic looking pin on his chest. "It absorbs all the heat in the area as part of the trap, which is why it was so warm in there. Apparently it sucked in battery life too. With it gone things should go back to normal soon enough."

"Any idea when it's going to start to feel warmer Xypher?", she asked as she rubbed her hands together.

"I'm not really sure but it might take a while," was his answer.

"Figures," she said, moving away just so she stay warm. That spell only kept you warm if you were in contact with the item it was cast on. "Times like these I almost wished we had a television set. Just so I can see them try to explain something like this," Jules tried to joke but wasn't feeling all that humorous at the moment. She looked at the building, trying not to think about all the souls that were lost to that Horror before they found out about it. "You know I really hate it when they take over an inanimate objects like that."

"It's rare," Carter said as he walked up to her, "but it happens."

"It's not even that," she went on still rubbing her arms slightly. "I mean you can't even use the flame to check for them. There's no eyes." She stopped talking when Carter putting his coat around her caught her off guard. She looked at him, he wasn't betraying anything like he usually did when out in public, but she knew him well enough to see the concern in his face. "You know, if you showed this side of you more often you'd probably have more friends." This time he did give her his annoyed look. So she reached up and kissed him. It wasn't much but his expression did soften a little.

Xypher on the other hand, "It's not fair. I say that and I get flicked." They ignored him as they walked away from the building and sleeping man.