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He went to the station straight from Autumn's.

Ashdown seemed washed out, enough that he was actually afraid he'd stepped back into the Otherworld a few times. Lucas was spooked. With hands stuffed in his pockets, his shoulders tightened at loud noises that echoed as Lady's voice in his ears, he wasn't sure how he was going to find the man he was aiming for but he was confident he'd figure it out. He really didn't have a choice in the matter. (That's what Lady said.) If there were many others like himself, hell, even just a few, that was a problem. That was danger. Danger to the town, to his friends...his two.

His jaw clicked in a nervous habit, a byproduct of a metal plate in his face that he could forget until moments like these. Approaching the precinct, he noted a well dressed man outside, something familiar about him. He didn't put two and two together until he was able to see the color of the man's eyes. That sharp dressed couple at the fashion week -- he'd been one of them.

Lucas hesitated, looking over his shoulder - no rain - and then back to the man. "Can you help me find...Jeremiah?"

Lucas didn't blink, just staring at the man for a moment. His lips were in a tight, off-center line, one brow lifted, the other low over pale eyes. He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but for this guy to be Jeremiah...was not it.

"Oh," he said, every bit as dumb as he felt. "I'm Lucas."

He gave a moment for that to sink in, his eyes flitting away, not offering a hand. There wasn't a certainty he could trust himself, after the pain that had just riddled his body. "She's fine, but we need to talk." The ex-soldier shook his head slowly, his heart sinking. He really didn't want to put this on anyone else but it was already out of his control. "If you've got somewhere we can go, anyway. I can come back if it's not a good time, just -- it has to be before the twenty-first."

Yep. There was a deadline on this can of crazy.

Lucas arched a brow, lips drawn in a thin line. "Sure," he replied, but it was less than friendly. He didn't like this anymore than the Detective. Having three people speak of the man only to run into a fellow that actually treated him like a cop was less than pleasant, but he wasn't here to be nice.

"You'll forgive me if my humor is absent," he rehashed the man's words, clipped, "I just had my body ravaged in a rainy shithole and watched my good friend practically disown me after a shadow-deer broke her heart." His pale eyes were tired, mistrusting. "I'm not even sure talking to you is the right thing to do, I just don't want anyone to get hurt."

He lifted his prosthetic hand out of his pocket and made a 'you lead' motion with it. "Whatever is best, Detective. I wont take more of your time than is necessary." Running his good hand through his own hair, he followed some paces behind Jeremiah, hoping he wasn't walking into a trap.

Jeremiah lead the way to his car. It was a sleek thing and clearly meant to be back in England, not here, with how the driver and passenger sides were opposite. "Sarcasm is the only solution sometimes," he replied. "Go ahead and get in and then we can talk about what you've just said."

He would wake until Lucas got into the front seat before he would get in himself. When his phone pinged with a text, his eyes flicked to the phone and then snorted.



"The best thing you can do is talk to someone in a situation like this. Someone who knows," Jeremiah replied once they were both in and he started the car. He was checking his mirror to back out. "As other ashdown has something of a penchant for what you've experienced." His smile was thin. "One of my last trips I watched my husband be flayed until his heart burst and then experienced my own death. Getting hurt is going to happen. The only thing we can do is prepare."

Blue-green eyes went to Lucas briefly then back to the road. "So in this, take as much of my time as you need."

"That place is inexplicably tied to everything, it will crop up in conversation regardless of you wanting to talk about it or not." Jeremiah's attention was back on the road, blue-green eyes focused on driving and listening to Lucas as he spoke.

His face was back to mostly neutral, just the slightest tightening of his jaw and then his knuckles going white around the steering wheel. There were no words, not until Lucas finished speaking and he let out a sharp breath. "I can handle whatever I need to." Jeremiah released each finger one at a time and flexed them around the steering wheel. The way he spoke, the tension in his body that was briefly visible, he absolutely meant it and did not doubt it. "... and you really need to be mindful. It doesn't matter that you belong to it or not but the more you name it, the more you bring attention to yourself and the more danger that comes."

His eyes flicked to Lucas. The fact that the salve hurt him said so much and it made him greatly uneasy. "If you go there during the full moon you won't be a danger?" he asked for clarification. The detective lieutenant was already processing, the gears turning.

"I appreciate that you are coming to me with this. I need to know so that I can make sure people are prepared, that we know what it is coming - at least part of it - and get ready." As much as they could get ready.

They were going in an older residential neighborhood at this point and came to a stop at a stop sign. Jeremiah did not immediately go again because the mention of Lady, the description, had him staring. "You've seen Krasnya too?"

Then he shook his head and started driving again. "I'm not sure what her role is in all of this, I've yet to speak to Aleksy about what's happened at the house - I need to but I'm concerned he'd not be able to keep his stomach intact - but ..." Jeremiah let out a hiss of breath. "It's not deliberate misdirection, not all of it. The fact of the matter is that if we get information too fast, too soon, it just ... leads to our deaths that much sooner."

Blunt. Honesty.

"She isn't wrong," Jeremiah replied. He was parking his car in front of a ridiculously nice two story house with an equally ridiculous garden that was in front of it. "I can see the places where the veil between the places is thin. I don't know where they are without some looking but I can find them all the same."

The car was put into park and he turned it off before he was getting out. Jeremiah stilled at hearing that she wanted the world destroyed before he shook his head. This world, from what he knew, was ...

"Did she say what the pieces are? Where?" Lucas was given a look at mentioning Aleksy was frustrating and difficult. "Aleksy is Aleksy," was all he simply said. "Did Krasnya say something about him as well?" There had to be a reason why the younger man was calling Aleksy a key.

There was a small white cat waiting for him on the porch at the door (with his viney flower mohawk) and Jeremiah stopped to scoop him up. "I don't know," Jeremiah sighed. "The deaths that we experienced in the house were an illusion but eventually there will be true death." His head tilted towards the door as he unlocked it and pushed it open. "I would prefer to talk about this inside." Death and the rest of it.

"Thanks," Jeremiah replied. It was not the first time someone had said that and, if he were honest, some part of him took pride in the fact that so much work had been put into his home and it was as nice as it was.

"That is something that we need to know. If it is part of ... " His hand waved in the air. The idea that there were possibly people who were part of The Enemy ... It was not a good thought. Yet if destroying those pieces destroyed the world but also got rid of The Enemy. The situation was vaguely bleak no matter what but there had to be a solution. Had to be.

His fingers were pressed to Hellbine's fur as he waited for Lucas, closing the door behind him. The house was just as nice on the inside. A chair and a table immediately past the front door. There were jackets there, and more than one pair of shoes (so clearly not just Jeremiah's). He was leading the way past the living room (there was a piano) and sitting room to the kitchen.

"Othercats can find entrances easier but all cats can go to other ashdown. 'One foot in, one foot out,' or that's how the saying goes about cats." Still making that face at hearing Otherworld. "Hellbine here is just a messenger or likes to think himself such." The small cat was curled around Jeremiah's neck, bright blue eyes watching Lucas.

The kitchen was nice, well set up, and Jeremiah gestured for him to take a seat at the center island on a stool. "Aleksy sees the truth. It's one of the gifts he received. We all get them after we start dreaming of that place." Jeremiah gave Lucas a smile that was tinged with sadness. "Do you want a drink?" Before he started in on the entire death cycle thing.