Beatrid hadn't bothered to put Red back on his leash. She didn't want to waste the extra few seconds that would take and, besides, the dog was well trained. He wouldn't run away, he would just lead her straight to wherever it was that demon had taken off to. Unfortunately, this decision not to take those few extra seconds and put the dog back on its damned leash would end up biting her in the ass soon enough. Thank God not literally, because figuratively was bad enough.
Running hard as the doberman bounded ahead of her, dodging easily around the seemingly stunned citizens, she just about died when she heard that idiot behind her start screaming fire not five seconds after she'd made it out the door. No! That's not what she meant! She had meant for him to start that up after she was well out of the way! Of course, she hadn't said that and of course that would have probably been asking a bit much, but any human with a brain knew you didn't scream "fire!" in the middle of a crowd!
And, much to her horror and frustration, it had the expected result.
The once glassy-eyed crowd began to panic, people started to run every which way, and Beatrid soon found herself cursing like a sailor as she began to just shoulder her way roughly past people, shouting above the crowd here and there for people to get the hell out of her way. Not that it did much good. In the darkness with everyone just running around like decapitated chickens, no one was paying attention to her uniform. She was just another citizen, and her voice hardly carried above all the horrified chatter. Fuck!
Fortunately, what did get people's attention was the hundred-pound doberman that was with her, and a lot of people did move aside for that, which cleared a temporary path for Beatrid. Shoving her way through the crowd, knowing she was losing precious seconds dealing with this fiasco, she was glad when she could finally, finally dodge around a few remaining people as the crowd thinned out at the edges before breaking free completely and falling into a hard run to keep up with the dog that had bolted ahead of her, keen on its magical target, and dashed around the the inn.
It had stopped raining by now and the moon had even peeked out from behind some clouds, and in the moonlight, away from the crowd now, her keen, trained eyes could spot the footprints, thick blood splotches here and there. Good that it had stopped raining, otherwise they might have been washed away. Good...but the demon was obviously fast, wounded or not. Still, no doubt it would be tired by the time it reached--
"Shit!" Red had abruptly bolted off away from the inn and off that trail, taking off in an alternate direction, and Beatrid started to race after him, deciding the demon must have decided against its earlier course...but luckily for her, she was wise enough to glance down to the footprints. And...these ones looked oddly the same. There was a blood trail there, too...wait, two alternate trails? But...how? The trails made no sense since the other one continued on toward the barn while that one broke off there...at least, it didn't make sense if there was just one demon. There was no way only one very injured demon could make those kinds of tracks in so little time and get it to make sense in the least.
...Oh great. What if this demon had friends?
Beatrid skidded to a stop as Red vanished into the darkness, biting her lip, for a second indecisive, not knowing whether she should go after him, shout a command to get him to stop, or just let him go, but she decided then that she couldn't go after him. If there were possibly two demons...well, Red was on that one, and there was nothing she could do about it now--she'd wasted too much time in her moment of indecision. She had to investigate the other set of tracks. Fuck! She should have put the damned dog back on its leash! No matter...no time to think about that now!
Turning, her pistol still at the ready, she took off and went back to following the original tracks, heading toward the barn--and she came to an abrupt stop and pressed her back against the stable wall when she heard voices coming from within. A lot of voices. She tilted her head so she could put her ear against the wall and try and make sense of the words, and then she slowly crept along it, boots silent in a practiced way, making her way toward the entrance. Fuck...how many people were involved? Oh well. If they were demons, their powers would be useless, so she had no fears about that. All she had to worry about was how well they could fight without their powers. Augh...hopefully someone had had the brains to call for more backup.
And hope that no civilians were involved. That was always the crappy part of her job.
Taking a deep breath, Beatrid cocked her pistol and decided not to bother wasting anymore time than she already had--they would have probably heard that, anyway, but she made sure to act before that bit of knowledge would to them much good.
"If I were you, I'd stay right where you are," she said calmly but firmly, moving abruptly into the little group's line of sight, pistol at the ready--though her blue eyes widened a little at the sight that met her. There were three people there. She quickly recognized the demon by her wings, she didn't recognize the other man, and...
And she certainly recognized the red-haired guy.
Lucky for him, she hadn't arrived when he'd been encouraging the group to run.
Her eyes flashed over to the red-head briefly, her gun aimed somewhere between the demon and the other stranger--she didn't know who he was, but he looked pretty damned cozy, standing near that demon and all. "You dumbshit, didn't I tell you not to get involved? Whatever, you're gonna make yourself useful, now, so stay put." It wasn't a request, it was a demand. She needed backup, and if he wanted to be so nosy, he was going to help. "And you two...don't move, or I will put holes in you. Do what I say, and I won't hurt you, and right now you're gonna put your hands up and move up against that wall behind you."
[Ah! Hope this makes sense. I rushed and am tired. Don't forget about meee! ^_~ And Gold, I made a big assumption in my post--that your guy's appearance would change back when she got close and everything. Hope that was okay, and if not, I'll edit!]