Jeane laughed and let him, grinning. Hey, she had sort of promised him a reward for good behavior.

Barely a week later, Cal was grumbling as, once again, he and his brother were called out to another state to deal with some sort of monster problem. They were getting pretty well-known, for their lack of overt advertising. This job was fairly routine, really... Clearing out some supernatural squatters in an old, mostly-abandoned house a little further north in New England wasn't difficult at all, all things considered.

But damn, Cal still hated banshees. The word 'hate' didn't even begin to describe what he felt for banshees, and he made sure to take out his feelings on these ones with extreme prejudice.

Niko watched with thinly veiled amusement as Cal went after the banshees. There was already one dead that had been too slow to escape his brother's blade, but there were at least half a dozen more.

"Remember, Cal, we were told to clean out this place, not make a bigger mess of it." Niko continued herding a few banshees towards the exit. "However, they did not specify about outside the warehouse."

Cal really didn't care. When he saw his brother herding the banshees towards the exit, he took up a sort of post at the door, more than happy to kill any banshee that tried to get a bit uppity.

"I think the damn I was going to give got left at home," Cal replied.

"You'll care when I make you clean up your mess." Niko sounded amused, herding the last of the banshees outside. It wasn't a hard job, by any means, but he was prepared for resistence.

"That's nothing new," Cal retorted. Still, he was more than willing to put a few more banshees out of their misery. Taking a last, quick look around to make sure there were no others waiting to ambush them when their backs were turned, Cal went out with his brother to take care of the last of the infestation.

Niko had left Cal his share of them, but he paused when he noticed three dead off to the side of the others, blood leaking from various orifices. He hadn't done that, and he knew Cal hadn't.

Instantly he shifted, starting to scan the area for whatever else was there. "Cal," he called quietly, his voice leaving no room for argument.

Cal's attention immediately sharpened when he heard his brother, and he started to scan the area as well. Playtime with the banshees was over. He rolled his shoulders slightly and looked around more obviously when the back of his neck prickled a little bit. Something was watching them, and he wasn't sure from where.

Niko looked up and found a woman perched on a rooftop not far away from them, yellowish-red eyes watching them. She looked Indian, wearing dark blue and gold, and she did not look happy.

And Niko couldn't tell what she was. At least, not yet.

The remaining two banshees fell silently, more blood leaking from them. Niko barely shifted at that. Okay, she could kill without touching people. That made her more dangerous. He was not liking how this was going.

Cal's eyes narrowed as the last two banshees fell dead on their own. He was always wary when such things happened, because it meant such things could happen to him and Niko, too. He noticed the woman up on the rooftop right around the same moment that his brother did. It was obvious she wasn't human, but the wind wasn't right for him to catch any sort of scent that would help them identify what she was. He glanced at his brother. He could shoot her from there, he was certain. It wouldn't be difficult.

Niko paused for a few moments. He could have Cal shoot her and that could end the problem. Or it could just piss her off and they could have someone on their asses again. Besides, she hadn't made a threatening move towards them.

Yet.

The woman jumped down from the rooftop, landing lightly and starting to walk towards them, clearly expecting them to get the hell out of her way.

Cal's Eagle was immediately pointed towards her as she came closer. As she got closer to them, the wind shifted a little, bringing the scent of... green and earthy and dusty and something else Cal couldn't quite identify. But definitely not human. And he wasn't entirely sure what she was, only that she seemed to be able to kill things without trying. Not that he cared that the banshees were dead, of course, but still.

The woman looked at the two and her upper lip curled in clear disdain of them. "Foolish humans," she spat. "You would dare defy me?" Her eyes almost started glowing and she focused on Cal first, since he was openly opposing her.

Cal raised an eyebrow a bit and glanced quickly at his brother. Nope, there hadn't been any defiance yet. Just caution. Then he turned his attention back to her, watching her carefully. He could gate if he had to; it had been a while since he'd done so, much longer than the necessary three days. He'd been doing good in that respect, really. So he could get away, and get Niko away, if he had to.

The woman's eyes narrowed further before she raised a hand, glaring at Cal. His gun started to break apart into pieces, which then fell to the ground.

"You mortals should know better than to anger a god by now."

Niko frowned. Okay, that narrowed things down considerably. Judging on what she'd already done, and her words, the first thing that popped to his mind was Kali. Indian goddess of death and destruction.

And that was all kinds of Not Good.

"Cal," he instructed quietly, glancing at his brother. Time for them to make a tactical retreat to reassess the situation.

Cal dropped the gun when it started to disintegrate, stepping closer to his brother. At his brother's instruction (not that he even needed that much), he reached over carefully and touched his brother's arm. A split second later, he was building the gate around them, taking them back to the hotel room they'd rented for the last couple of days.

Kali watched them go, her eyes widening briefly in surprise. She hadn't known any of the Auphe were left, even a part-Auphe. Well, well. Suddenly she was interested.

Niko looked faintly green when they landed in the hotel room, but he kept control of his stomach. "That was... unexpected."

"No kidding," Cal replied, steadying Niko for a moment before letting him go. "I thought we were done with all these damn gods." Niko still looked a little unsettled from the gate, but was fine for the most part, so Cal went and sat on the bed.

"Apparently not." Niko kept his voice dry as he moved over to get a glass of water, hoping to help settle his stomach. He still hated gating. He just hoped that was the last they saw of Kali.

Cal didn't comment about the glass of water. Niko was getting better about gating, really. At least, he hadn't hurled the last few times. That counted.

"So now what?" Because he knew they couldn't just leave things as they were now.

"Research," Niko replied promptly. "Go call Jeane and see what she knows." Because Jeane had turned into a wonderful source of information, and Niko didn't have access to all his normal books.

That surprised Cal a bit. Niko usually knew everything there was to know about nonhuman creatures already, it was very rare he needed to consult an outside source. The fact that he did had Cal pulling out his phone. Yeah, Jeane was the best person to call. He hit the speed-dial button for her.

Jeane blinked when her phone started buzzing at her. She paused her movie to answer. "'lo?" She hadn't actually bothered to check and see who was calling, since she hadn't been expecting to hear from Cal for another few days.

"I didn't wake you up, did I?" Cal asked when Jeane answered her phone. "It's not that late, is it?" Not that they were in another timezone or anything, but Jeane tended to keep weird hours sometimes.

"Nah, I was just watching a movie. Peter Pan." Jeane smiled and shifted so she was curled up on the couch, a carton of ice cream against her stomach. "So what's up? Did you finish early or something? Or just get bored or taunting Niko?"