Hallows: The Golden Viper

B.S.T.I.I.

Gorillaz- Feel Good Inc

Carson

Lucien and Dante are sitting with Ashley and David on the couches. He looks calm and is smiling but he feels different. Maybe not the right word. Distant. Far away even though we're in the same room. Not the emotional thing B.B. talks about. The way it feels when we're in different states.

"Holy s**t, these feel like space rocks," Damian says holding up a little nug. How the f**k did she get the little hairs to be pink?

"Oh, my god. These are gorgeous. No wonder she was featured in High Times," Ash says taking it from him.

"She was featured on High Times?" Lucien jumps up and comes over to us. "Holy s**t this is magical,"

"Yeah, I sent it in when she gave it to me for my feature on Little Kids for the edible foam snake we released on the basketball court when Dad first showed up," B.B. nods. "I named it A Sticky Situation and it comes in the colorful flavors of Strawberry Butterfly and Blueberry Stacy,"

"What is Little Kids?" Dante asks.

"It's National Geographic's Science magazine for kids," David answers. "She's been featured eight times,"

"My favorite was the recycled biodegradable pots for plants. She made these cute little pots that you can plant seeds in and once the seed sprouts and is ready to be planted, the pot serves as fertilizer. You can just bury the pot with it instead of ripping it out. You can get a pack of four for eight bucks," Mom adds. "That was a cool fourth-grade science project,"

"Do you remember her spyware phase?" Delilah laughs.

"f**k, yes," Lucien laughs. "That has aged phenomenally,"

"I'd say frighteningly," Damian snorts. "Vic calls those tools cattle. He gave them all cute cow names on his app,"

"Yeah, his favorite is Betsy MooMoo. She's part of one of the stones up in Washington. They're at war with the werewolves there and she's f*****g the Alpha," I nod. "I think her real name is Anabelle,"

"That's what he was listening to the other night," Damian laughs. "You unintentionally invented Supernatural reality podcasting. I respect it. It was a good show,"

B.B. just smiles and keeps rolling pink glitter blunts. She was freaking out earlier. I couldn't get over here fast enough. Ro said she handled the situation beautifully all things considered. As soon I saw them, I knew they were fine. She's going to blow this out of the water. I can already tell. She's trying to numb the scare right now but she's going to baby the hell out of Lucien for a while.

"B, what the f**k is this?" Delilah laughs holding up a pink blunt.

"This is how I do this. I get snacks and drinks of the alcoholic kind. I put what I want on the T.V. and I turn off the lights. No thinking about work. No thinking about school. No thinking about death and destruction. I am going to give you all an iPad mini and a pen. Write, doodle, whatever you want. If you don't want to do that, don't,"

"Where are you going to get a bunch of iPad minis for us?" I ask worriedly. She sighs.

"Okay, don't tell her this," she points at us and goes around the room. "Stacy did this huge giveaway and Delilah was in charge of sending out the links but she forgot," she glares at her. "So, I created a bunch of fake accounts and paid the girls on the sixth floor to help me and I won twenty-two of them. They got a bunch of free s**t. It was one of her save the public school kids things for her crew,"

"f**k, I did forget," Delilah covers her mouth. "Was that last week?"

"Three weeks ago, Del. She was over the moon about you helping. You're welcome,"

"I'm sorry," she laughs. B.B. turns to Ash.

"Does she tell you about stuff like that because it happens all the time,"

"Oh, so now his skills are convenient to you," Delilah scoffs.

"Zero One, bring the minis," she calls out. The lab's shelf door slides open. We still haven't figured out how she gets that thing open. I stand up when Zero One walks out in his almost-finished glory carrying a box in his arms.

"Good evening, B.B. Are these the minis you were referring to?" the robot extends its arms to show her.

"Yes, thank you, Zero One," she takes the box.

"The fiberglass will be here in the morning," I say looking him over.

The robot is the same height as her. There are parts where she left pieces of the mannequin holding the wiring together. It's just a body of wires. The face has a little speaker in its mouth and a couple of high-tech lenses where the eyes are meant to be but that's it.

"Do you recognize the voice?" she asks. I shake my head. "Zero One recite quotes from sh!t my girlfriend says for me,"

"Of course. Sh!t, My Girlfriend Says, written and directed by Lucien Daniels. Bruce Wayne It. In which the bunny slippers girl hands a stack of money to Stacy Whitmore who is crying. Stacy stands laughing and runs off into the sunset,"

"Is that Noodle from Gorillaz?" I ask. She nods. "That is cool as hell. I already love this thing,"

"I don't know how to process this," David says looking from the robot to the lab.

"Do you guys want to hear the coolest story about this lab ever?" Delilah asks.

"Nah, we have better stories," Lucien shakes his head.

"It's not a competition guys," Damian scoffs. "I'd win,"

"This one is going to piss Mom and Espinosa off at the same time," Delilah adds.

"Yes," B.B. points at her excitedly.

"Okay, so I was thirteen when I discovered this," Delilah points at the lab. "B was twelve. Mom had cut her off after she bought these weird toads off the dark web that cost a hundred thousand each or something,"

"Ten," B.B. rolls her eyes.

"B.B. and I weren't on the same side of campus at the time. So, I didn't know she hadn't gone to school that day and I came home to get my goodie bag. As I was getting it from the maid's room back here, she was coming out of her lab," she points back at the shelves. "It wasn't this fancy then. The panel used to pop out and at first she was using those ugly white sound-absorbing foam tiles,"

"She dropped a backpack filled with crack rocks," B.B. glares at her.

"You have a whole ass science lab under the house," Delilah laughs. "Anyway, we both kind of freeze and we agree that we never speak of it again and she shows me her lab,"

"That week Mom won the Piano Award and hosted the gala here in the house," B.B. laughs.

"We told Mom and David we were going over to Lucien and Carson's for video game night but we were down here breaking bad with B.B.'s very first Fallen-approved drug," Delilah places her hand on B.B.'s shoulder like a proud older sister. "I mean originally she did it to f**k me over but I think it was a win,"

"You two-" David covers his mouth. Ashley is pressing her lips together unable to look at either of them.

"What do you mean she did it to f**k you over?" their dad laughs.

"I reverse-engineered the formula she gave me. The more the consumer ingests the less it wants to. It's why we don't have any crackheads in Hellbourne anymore," she smirks.

"That's the drug that made us famous and wanted," I nod.

"And rich as f**k," Lucien adds. "Montoya tried to kill Marcos because of that,"

"She took a shot at all of us because of it. We had to bench it. We gave them one of Jimenez's cooks and while they were taking him away, we paid the Reverand to take him out. Boom, problem solved," Delilah grins.

"You invented the cure to crack addiction?" David asks. "Why haven't you sold it?"

"And have all the rednecks come after her for revenge? Are you f*****g stupid?" Delilah glares at him. "That stays in the Blackstone Vault. Along with the serum for cross-splicing Hallows and the original text for your hunter's mark,"

"And zombies," Damian adds.

"What?" the adults all say at the same time.

"Done," B.B. holds up a bunch of pink blunts.

"Zombies?" Dante laughs. "You created Zombies?"

"Zomfish," she rolls her eyes. "James hasn't decided on the tank size we need or they would already be here on display. It's not as bad as Damian is making it seem,"

"Yes it is," he glares at her. "That strung-out crack w***e almost took my head off,"

"On the scale of s**t we've done together that's not the worse thing that's happened in my lab or in your clinic. Admit it," she smirks.

"That's true but it's in the top five," he sighs.

"How were we terrible helicopter parents and completely absent as well?" Dante asks. "All three of us just chose to ignore this,"

"You choose to ignore it," David and Ashley scoff at the same time.

"I did miss when she started crossing boundaries. She used to be very respectful," David adds.

"No," Delilah shakes her head. "She's always been like that. How do you think we got so good at dodging you?"

"And convincing you that these weren't the droids you're looking for," I laugh. "Holy s**t I can say that now,"

"f*****g Starwars," Delilah groans. B.B. loves my obsession with Starwars. She's a Kylo Ren fan girl.

"Okay, we're ready," B.B. says. "Del, you and I are on drinks. Parents, you are on snacks duty. Carson and Lucien, pick your favorite Rick and Morty season,"

"I don't know what that is. Start at the beginning?" David asks.

"Sure," we all agree.

"Sweet, meet back here in thirty," she nods. "Everyone take a mini and a pen,"

"Why does she assign people tasks like we're playing tag?" Dante asks.

"We've always done that," Lucien answers as he closes the curtains around the room while I pull the projector screen down. "It works still so why f**k with it?"

"I don't know. I kind of like your chessboard approach," I shrug.

"I like Ahsan's Klick thing," Damian says. "Why didn't she give me a task?"

"Yeah, he's obsessed with Call of Duty," Lucien laughs. "He's been teaching us Military terms from his time with the Fringe,"

"You're a guest," I answer. I look back at Dante to see him sitting there with Ash. "Aren't you supposed to be helping David and Ashley?"

"I've never handled food," he shrugs. "If James comes in here and sees me doing stuff in the kitchen he'll be pissed,"

"He doesn't let B.B. go in there either," Lucien laughs. "It drives her nuts. She likes to cook stuff and she's really good with healthy snacks,"

"Why do you like to cook?"

"You ever see Carson in the kitchen?" Lucien laughs. "That and B.B. likes to eat,"

"A lot," Damian nods. "Especially when she's happy. I had to stop her from putting a slice of brain in her mouth when we were working on Ray's thing. She thought it was her tuna roll,"

"Do you guys think she's eaten other stuff?" " Dante laughs.

"I hope not," Damian shakes his head. "She has some really dangerous s**t in there,"

"What are you doing?" Brandon comes out of nowhere as I begin to set up the projector. "My master doesn't set up devices," he growls snatching the box from me. He whistles and one of my guys rushes inside. "Set this up, mortal,"

"Yes, sir," he comes over and starts setting it up. Everyone thinks it's hilarious that he calls them that.

"James, I've told you that I don't mind doing stuff. I prefer to do it myself," B.B. comes back to the room with Delilah and James following her. He's pushing a cart with drinks on it and Delilah is drinking one.

"Miss please," he sighs. "I just don't want you to get hurt,"

"While shaking a mixer? I'm not that dumb,"

"You are in no way dumb, Miss B.B. You are, however, very clumsy," he sighs. "Please, I'll get everything in order. The rest of you have a seat,"

"You are very clumsy," Delilah snorts.

"Oh, hey Brandon," B.B. greets my demon as he watches Randy set up the projector.

"Hello, Miss B.B.," he bows politely. "I do hope James gave you the package,"

"Yes, he did. Thank you for picking it up for me. How is Don Calliste?"

"May I ask what you said to him?" he smirks.

"Not in front of Carson," she laughs evilly and jumps over the couch.

"Don't jump on the couch B.B. It's old, sweetheart," Dante scolds her.

"Told you he wasn't going to notice," Delilah laughs.

"What did you do to my couch?" he asks coming over to look at it. B.B. looks back at her and laughs.

"Nothing, Dad she's messing with you,"

"One of you is lying,"

"Or maybe we're both lying," B.B. teases him. "The fact is that this might be your couch and it's in good condition,"

"Some might say it's better than ever," Delilah adds.

"You can't feed on me," he smirks. "I am no longer mortal. Good try though. You had me going. Bad snakes,"

"Holy s**t there are three of you," I blurt out. I step back when the three of them look over at me at the same time. The light reflects the tapetum in their eyes. Dante's are gold. B.B.'s are pitch black. And Delilah's are amber. Closer to orange than gold. "That's really cool. You all have different colors,"

"B.B. yours are so shiny," Lucien leans into her. She laughs and looks away. "Why if you're black death aren't your eyes black? Doesn't that make more sense?"

"Trixy has a gold shimmer. Eve has a glossy surface rather than the leathery one Trix has. When you shine your light on it, her skin reflects like glass. It's really fancy looking. Delilah's is f*****g glorious. Mun's scales are actual gold. It's like armor.

"You know, my dad used electroshock therapy to heighten my mother's viper. Cupcake could channel enough heat to cause a cosmic lightning storm. My Dad has a journal on it in the study. If you can get your snake to withstand high levels of heat like that, you wouldn't need to use the heat spells. It's just a thought. Conditioning s**t like that is brutal,"

"Yeah, I found them a while ago," B.B. shrugs. "How do you think Stacy and I have been training?"

"Wait, what have you and Stacy been doing?" Lucien stands up straight.

"Combat conditioning at the stump," James answers.

"Are you serious?" Delilah laughs.

"Yeah, it was Dylan's idea,"

"That is a very dangerous idea," Dante shakes his head.

"I thought so too," B.B. says excitedly. "You know because of the connection they make, right?"

"Yes," he nods.

"Dylan and Marcos are connected to Natalie. I'm connected to Lucien and Carson. Stacy is not connected to anyone but because we're connected to one another, our familiars don't have to reach out for anything anymore. They're not as aggressive and because we're conditioning they're stronger. Our abilities go past basic training. Stacy can scream loud enough to take out a tree,"

"Why aren't we included in this?" I ask.

"Because when she asked us we laughed," Lucien grins.

"You laughed?" Delilah snorts.

"Yeah, they thought we were kidding," B.B. nods.

"I still think you're kidding," Lucien laughs. "What are you doing anyway? Applying your abilities to your Kung Fu black belt training?"

"You know Kung Fu?" Damian snorts.

"Yeah, we all do," I nod. "Our moms put us in classes since we were five,"

"Why Kung Fu?" Ash asks.

"Keanu Reeves," we all answer at the same time.

"He's a crow, isn't he?" B.B. asks.

"He has to be," Dante nods. "He's really pretty,"

"Are we ready?" Ashley and David join us along with Ruth and James. They move the couches around to accommodate all of us.

"Yes," Brandon hands me the remote and an iPad.

I can feel her inside of me right now. The constant buzzing is gone. It's calm. Not just her, all of us. It almost feels private. It's an odd sensation.

"Do you feel that?" Lucien sits on the couch next to me. "She's happy,"

"Is that what it is?" I laugh.

"Close your eyes. Doesn't it feel like white noise? Like you're sitting somewhere dark and there's warm water and everything is just so still. A water drop would sting in your ears if you moved," he falls back and takes a deep breath. "Is this inner peace? This has to be inner peace,"

"Jesus Christ," Damian laughs. "Is he always like that?"

"Yes," Delilah nods. "He's very sensitive. Although, he's been doing really well. So, when he flips out like this I just let him have it. It was bad when we were little. Anything shiny spooked him and B.B. was always f*****g covered in glitter. I'm convinced she made him creepy. If anyone is clumsy it's him,"

"I'm not clumsy," he shakes his head. We all laugh. "You guys think I'm clumsy?"

"A little," B.B. nods. "I actually wouldn't say clumsy exactly. You're unpredictable. Clumsy is when I find bruises and have no idea where they came from,"

"Or like when she trips on thin air," Damian adds. "Or switches the first and last letter of every word in a sentence and confuses herself,"

"So, I have glitches. Shut up," she rolls her eyes and lights up her blunt. "Stop talking about me when I'm present,"

I do the same and let the smoke sit in my lungs for a bit. She's happy. We all are. There's a sense of-I don't security maybe. It feels simple. Like it did when our parents got together when we were little. There was no safer place.

I want that again. For all of us and while Delilah has a point, there is no other way to do this. We can't work around the rules anymore. Too much is at risk already. If we can't do things the easy way, the hard way it is, and if B.B. wants to lead the raid. Who the f**k am I to stop her? Nothing has made her pause so far. She gives into the snake the same way she lets the reaper take control. It's beautiful.

"Holy s**t," David puts his hand on his chest. "Why is it so quiet?"

"That's what feeling calm feels like," B.B. smiles at him. "No, mark. No reaper essence. It's just you and your tired body,"

"I don't ever remember feeling this way," he gets emotional.

"s**t, he's high as f**k," Delilah laughs and looks over at B.B. "Stacy made this?"

"Yeah, Johnny's been teaching her a bunch of cool botany s**t," she nods.

"Johnny used to work for Goodwill. He's got shaman blood. It's what they specialize in. I took him off Goodwill's hands a couple of years ago when Goodwill tried to rip him off,"

"I want to strangle him," B.B. whispers. We all look over at her surprised. "I just want him to look me in the eyes and f*****g die,"

"Oh, s**t. Carter was right. She might be David's after all," Dante laughs.

"I'll take her," David grins.

"Why?" Lucien asks her.

"Ro is so sad," she whispers and rests her head on the table. Tears spill out and land on the wood. "He's angry. And that howling f**k is taking advantage of his mother. Stirring the f*****g pot. Mr. I'd never cross over to your side and kill anyone. f**k him. f*****g liar," she growls and then laughs. "I have half a mind to f*****g kill the girl with the beads in her hair. Just paint the Eastside a with her pretty royal red blood,"

"Are you okay?" I grin. She sits up putting her hand to her mouth.

"I didn't mean to say that out loud," she whispers and takes a shot.

"Honey, do you need a nap?" Ashley clears her throat. B.B. takes a deep breath and lets it out all at once before she laughs.

"Oh, my god. Stacy f*****g made this for me," she looks down at what's left of her blunt. "She's doing so good," she says a little out of it. Almost like she's in a trance. "I mean, she said she was done being the weak one. I never thought she was weak, but now," she clears her throat. "I'm f*****g scared of her," she looks over at Delilah and me. "I'd like for you guys to let me keep her,"

"Keep her?" I ask.

"You know like she won't be part of the Fallen anymore. I can't be Creepy without my Eerie. You guys know she's not enforcement material. Not anymore," she shrugs looking between the two of us.

"Who's going to run the girls?" I ask.

"Natalie," B.B. answers. "She's got Victoria and Sabine with her,"

"Sabrina," Delilah corrects her. "Stacy is number four of thirteen,"

"You have Ro now and Victor and Ahsan. That's three for one," she shrugs.

"I'm really scared of you running around doing weird s**t with Stacy," Delilah admits. "I already don't like that she's the one going with you to Rionegro,"

"You're going to Rionegro?" Dante asks excitedly. "If De La Cruz is still alive try to kill him. Let me know if you can't. I'll pay him a visit myself,"

"Any particular reason?" B.B. asks.

"He's an asshole," he nods. David snorts.

"You're right. He is. De La Cruz is the dark figure in room thirty-seven," he gets serious. B.B. sits up and reaches for the bottle again. She pours two shots and slides one across the table to him. "You probably shouldn't go near him,"

"What's room thirty-seven?" Lucien asks.

"We don't talk about room thirty-seven," she says tossing the shot back. "The same way we don't f**k with the skin journal anymore,"

"This is the best weed I've ever had," I admit. "This is better than Adderall,"

"This is better than Modafinil," Lucien nods. "I don't feel sleepy but I feel like if it were an option I could do it,"

"I feel like I can do anything," Damian nods.

"We should keep this in the vault," Delilah suggests.

"Vault? No," B.B. shakes her head. "I'm taking this with me to the Eastside tomorrow. I know a little werewolf girl that could use this. It should keep her calm when I make her alpha,"

"Oh, s**t," Lucien laughs. "We're getting puppies and ponies. This is the best day ever and I almost died,"

"No more shots for you, sweetie," B.B. takes the glass from him. "How are you feeling?"

"Empty," he whispers. "But like in a good way. I've got like an hour before I need the noise to come back. I can't see and it's starting to make me nervous,"

"Damn," David looks us over. "You little f***s aren't scared of s**t are you?"

"This is Black Death," Lucien points at Dante. "He's my father-in-law. Werewolves and witches aren't s**t compared to him and we've all tried to kill him at least six times already,"

"What about cops?" he asks. We all laugh.

"We can't call it Bruce Wayne-ing for the cops that's disrespectful to the bat mantel," B.B. says excitedly.

"What do you want to call it?" Lucien laughs.

"Mmm, let's call it the Kennedy solution," she points at me. "Car! Oh, my god. You're a Kennedy,"

"Okay," I laugh.

"You can go Democrat. Oh, my god Car it would be beautiful,"

"Car's a bad guy though," Delilah shakes her head.

"Yeah, he is," she smiles proudly brushing my shoulder. "That's what makes it so perfect. We can save Democracy,"

"I don't want to save democracy. I say we bring forth the age of Theocracy and give the Hell Stone full reign of all Mortals and Supernaturals," I cover my mouth. Did I really just say that out loud?

"Oh," Delilah laughs. "You're evil is slipping,"

"Theocracy," B.B. looks at her blunt diligently. "Based on Hallow ranking?"

"Yes," I nod.

"Carson we need to smoke more when we hang out. That is the greatest idea you've ever had. I raise you cool masks so no one knows who the involved parties are,"

"And robes," Lucien agrees.

"If you guys have kids and they kill you to take that power from you, would that be a win or lose?" Dante asks.

"Win. It means we raised the perfect heirs," B.B. answers without hesitation.

"It means the next generation isn't going to be hopelessly lost. Their pain isn't going to be centered on their ugly pasts. It would mean the perfect system," I agree. "They'd be free to be who they are,"

"I am never smoking with you two again," Damian shakes his head. "I don't like what you're making me feel,"

"That's called bow of submission. Alphas acknowledging that they're not supreme. Kings finding out that gods will always be superior. It was my favorite form of torture," Ash smiles moving around as we all turn our attention to him. "The look on Louis the ninth's face when he bent the knee for Lucifer," he laughs letting his head fall back. "I'm never going to forget that,"

"This is why I love tea time with Ash. He has the coolest stories," B.B. giggles.

"Do you guys think we're going to make it past twenty-five?" Lucien suddenly asks. We all turn to look at him. "I want to die when I'm forty-six. Not too young but old enough for the new generation to tell me the shut the f**k up,"