Know Your Quarry - The Magnus Archives - Daisy & John

[aroberuka]

Title: Know Your Quarry
Fandom: The Magnus Archives
Challenge/Prompt: Rare_Ship_Treasure_Trove - Blood and Thunder; Genprompt bingo - Repeats and Repetitions
Content Warnings: Implied/referenced canon-typical violence, but nothing graphic.
AO3 Link: here

***

The creature that calls himself Jonathan Sims squirms in her grasp. Heart pounding. Blood thundering. I didn’t, he says, look at him, Basira says, but blood doesn’t lie and Sims’s blood smells like fear and death and Calvin slamming her into the fence.

Her heart picks up the pace, each beat calling for John, John, John.

Soon, she promises, and the beast settles for now.

 

Soon brings change. Daisy on wobbly legs stands between John and the Hunt. Her body, shaking. His pulse, deafening. The beast knows his blood, and she is aching to feed.

But there is quiet, too, and John’s hands on her wrists, anchoring her to the here-and-now. His voice in her ears, full of misplaced concern.

Daisy breathes in and out until only the quiet is left.

 

John runs, then Basira. Daisy keeps the beast in check long enough not to pounce on their retreating backs. And then there’s just her, alone in the quiet.

Johnnyboy sings the Hunter and Joooohn sings the Not-Anybody. Her blood picks up the chant, John, John, John. Hands on her wrist. Blood thundering. Close, so close. Smells like fear and death and unfinished business.

She remembers: soon.

 

The beast stirs.

Daisy hopes she can keep her pointed in the right direction.

***