by Danae Ayusso
“I’ll take that offer!” someone called out from the seat by the door.
I smooched my lips at the stranger and he smiled wide.
Angelus wasn’t amused and stepped in front of my seat, blocking the other, more than willing to take me up on my offer, man’s view of me.
“Aw, does my little Angel of angels not want to share?” I continued to taunt.
“No,” he said to my surprise then growled, not meaning to have said it aloud.
“Good to know,” I said and a smile consumed my face.
When our stop came, Angelus pulled me to my feet and literally dragged me through the crowd and out of the subway. I tried to pull away from him, but his grip was like an iron vice!
“You’re being a prick again,” I informed him, getting shoulder checked by some asshole going the wrong way down the stairs.
Angelus growled, following the man that ran into me movements from the corner of his eye. “I was unaware that I stopped being a prick,” he said, his attention forward again.
“Was that a joke?” I stumbled over my own feet in surprise.
“No.”
Damn it. This man makes no sense, and I’m tired of trying to figure him out.
“Where are we going?” I finally asked.
“Twenty-one.”
Had I mentioned how irritating this goddamn angel was?
“You do realize that I have to eat, right?” I said and pulled away from him then, for good measure, punched him in the kidney getting a grunt and snarl in return. “What do you eat? I’ve never seen you eat,” I snapped at him. “Are you manorexic?”
“What...shut up,” he groaned. “I need to sleep and figure out what is going on. And that is near impossible with your constantly running mouth. Is it that difficult to shut-”
I covered his mouth with my hand and strained to hear.
He started to pull my hand away, and I shook my head. Thankfully Angelus understood and nodded then pulled my hand away, and we ducked into the closest alleyway.
If I were a superhero, I’d say that my spidey senses were tingling. Since I’m not, and am demon instead, and a woman that had lived alone, for the most part, her entire life, especially in NYC, I knew when someone is following me and when said asshole following me wasn’t going to slip me their number, but pull a blade on me and demand my purse or something instead—yeah, I was totally having that feeling. Carefully I sliced across the palm of my hand with my thumbnail and repeated with the other hand, pumping each to bleed the wounds. A silver blade appeared in Angelus’ hand and I snorted.
“That won’t work,” I informed him, quickly drawing the necessary runes on the red brick wall behind us. “They’re angels.”
When finished, I spun around just as two angels rounded the corner and looked between Angelus and me.
“Don’t tell me you were assigned this appointment as well,” one of them groaned.
Angelus’ head tilted to the side. “Why else would I be in the company of a demon, Samuel?”
Samuel made a face and a blade appeared in his hand. “This is total bullshit. How many people are they going to assign one demon to?”
“Castiel has the same appointment?” Angelus asked, his head tilted to the side, eying the other angel.
Castiel nodded quickly then blew his falling blond bangs from his eyes.
Angelus dismissed his blade and stroked his chin, eying the two angels. “Did you call contracts to confirm that this is not a clerical error?”
“We did,” Samuel huffed. “We couldn’t get a copy of the contract, but verbal confirmation was given. That happened with my last appointment as well; some demon had them in their batch. I think Central Hub has their heads up their asses or something. From what some of the others have been bitching about, their batches are being double booked between our Hub and the Vatican Hub. It’s turned into a goddamn dogfight. Did you hear someone iced Karael? That’s some crazy shit. Karael was a badass and the best in Europe. I’m just thankful I didn’t get his batch, whoa. That must be one über powerful dude to be able to take him out.”
Aw, if only they knew.
Angelus nodded. “Has anyone come after either of you?”
They both laughed and shook their heads. “We aren’t dumb enough to sell our souls. You know how that goes, I rather have imprisonment then live in fear that some asshole was going to repo my soul at anytime...you know all too well how that goes. Tough break about Father O’Malley though, I know he was a friend.”
“Thank you,” Angelus said.
The little angel appeared to have a lot more information than we did. Obviously angels gossiped like women with nothing better to do.
“A lycan tried to repossess my soul,” Angelus informed them, and their eyes widened. “I did not sign a contract or barter my soul since it does not belong to me. Something is wrong at the Hub. My batch went from standard Children of Light and humans, to a High Priestess of Theistic Satanism in a very reclusive Luciferian group.”
“Shut up!” Samuel gasped. “Was that a high priority?”
Angelus shook his head. “No. It was not, and yet another thing to check into,” he said as more of an afterthought. “Either way, it does not matter, something is not right, and I am going to follow up and see what is going on. Would you care to come with me?”
They laughed. “No.”
Samuel’s hands were itching to pull his swords, ready to strike me down.
The entire situation made me feel for those that I had repoed in the past. Not that I was a raging bitch about it and coldhearted like these douche bags, but still, it put it into perspective for me.
“So did you want to flip for the repo or what?” Samuel suggested, obviously not wanting to step on Angelus’ toes; my sullen angel must have been an even bigger badass than he let on.
“Hello, I’m right here,” I complained, waving at them. “Don’t I get a say in who is going to try to stick me and with what?”
“Shut up, demonic whore.”
An archangel blade was suddenly in Angelus’ hand and he snarled, confusing the two angels in front of us. “You will watch what you say to her,” he warned, and I smiled; maybe he was warming up to me. “She is my appointment, and I will be the one that repossesses her soul. Do I make myself clear?”
Or not.
“But-” they started to argue.
“Zion is not just a demon concubine that was pulled from Hell,” Angelus informed them. “She is a repo man, one of the best on the demonic side of our Hub. You cannot tell me that you did not know that. Who do you think killed Karael?” he venomously snarled and they took a half step back. “She is a formidable opponent, one that he underestimated, and what did it get him?” he mused. “The only thing left of him was the blackened remains of his wingspan.” He smirked, his angelic features turning slightly demonic, and it was really sexy, hot and bothered, sociopath talking shit to his brothers-in-arms, sort of way.
I assumed that was my cue, but with him I never knew.
I started chanting, “Regna terrae, cantate Deo, psallite Domino, qui fertis super caelum caeli ad Orientem. Ecce dabit voci Suae vocem virtutis, tribuite virtutem Deo. Deus caeli, Deus terrae humiliter majestati gloriae Tuae supplicamus.”
“She’s going to get away!” the interlopers yelled.
I looked up at them and smirked. “Ut ab omni infernalium spirituum potestate, laqueo, deceptione et nequitia, omnis fallaciae, libera nos, Domine. Vade, Satana, inventor et magister omnis fallaciae, hostis humanae salutis!” I yelled, startling them...it was all for theatrics.
“Maybe,” Angelus said indifferently. “But not before you will.”
“Humiliare sub potenti manu!” I slammed my bloody palms in the middle of the symbol I drew on the wall, and both the angels screamed—I had hoped that there was enough demon in Angelus still to keep him from rebounding as well—and the alley was suddenly flooded with an explosion of blinding light.
When the light blinked out, I l
aughed. “Still with me, Chief?”
“Ow,” Angelus complained, rubbing his eyes.
“Yeah, I’m a nasty little bitch to say the least.” I smiled wide, admiring my own impressiveness; blackened outlines only remained of the angels’ feet from where they once stood.
“How far did they go?” Angelus asked, tearing a white piece of cloth that suddenly appeared in his hand and quickly wrapped it around each of my hands to stem the bleeding. I hissed when he pulled it tight and his head snapped up. “It will help with the bleeding and, in theory, cause them to heal quicker.”
No shit, Sherlock.
“You just can’t say sorry for hurting me, huh?” I said.
His head tilted to the side and he smirked. “No. My balls still hurt.”
“Touché,” I conceeded. “Beavis and Butthead should be enjoying some lovely Poutine in Toronto as we speak,” I said and his eyes widened. “I’m not just any demon, Chief, I got skills you ain’t ever seen. True, most of those skills are in the bedroom. I wasn’t kidding when I said you could tie me up and spank me, however, I rather tie you up.”
“I will keep that in mind,” he said then took my hand in his, and we hurried back to the busy NYC sidewalk. We moved through the crowd in a hurry, to only the Dark Mother knew where, but as long as I was with Angelus, I didn’t care where we went, as long as we went together.
Twenty-one I liked. Why he didn’t he take me there the first time, I didn’t know, but he should have. The SoHo top floor loft had exposed brick, lots of windows, metal beams that spanned the entire width of the open space, a galley styled kitchen that looked as if it had never been used, a bed on one wall, couch and a stack of pillows on the opposite wall with nothing but open space between them. I liked it much more than I should have, and he was starting to win me over, even if it wasn’t his intention. It was minimalist meets Priest.
Holy Hell, the closet I could have in this place! It makes me tingle just thinking about it.
“The bathroom is through there,” Angelus said and motioned towards the door-less doorway on the right. “There is hot water, I think, and you may have the bed.”
“Aw, and here I thought you were going to make me sleep on the floor like the disgusting demonic dog that I am.”
Sarcasm noted.
“That is always an option,” he informed me, securing the thirty locks he had on the door; paranoid much? “I am going to take a nap, try not to get into trouble or get yourself killed while I am indisposed.”
I flipped him off.
“Is that an offer?” he asked uninterested and pushed past me then flopped down on the couch, pulling a pillow over his face.
“Your hospitality is beyond words,” I mumbled under my breath, sulking towards the bed.
Of course he didn’t say anything, and was pretending that I wasn’t even there and didn’t exist, which he was super good at doing. Something was going on with him, beyond just the messed up batches and repo attempts, this was something else...something I suspected had to do with me.
Since he wasn’t sharing, I was going to attempt to interrogate him to see what he knows; the past seventy-two hours had presented more than enough to start with.
“Do you know who my father is?” I called out.
Angelus being Angelus, didn’t say anything and continued to lay there like a lifeless log on the couch.
“I’ll keep asking,” I promised him. “And I’ll keep running my mouth way past when my voice turns into that of a pre-op transsexual that missed an estrogen dosage, until you tell me what I want to know.”
Again, he ignored me.
“I’ll find ways to amuse myself, clothing optional of course, that will keep you up in more ways than one,” I purred as seductively as possible.
And that did it.
“Damn it!” Angelus snarled, sat up then threw the pillow at me. “What is wrong with you?” he demanded.
I smirked. “Rhetorical?”
“Yes.”
I should have felt bad that he wasn’t getting any sleep and that I was purposely bothering him, but I didn’t. In fact, it was greatly amusing me and was starting to turn me on. It got me slightly hot and bothered when I pushed his buttons in all the right ways that it makes him want to lash out at me, but he won’t, and I love that control I have over him.
My issues were snowballing to epic, should be committed, levels.
“What do I have to do to get you to shut up?” Angelus demanded. "Tell me, Zion, because my ageless ass is at a loss. What will quiet that ever running mouth of yours?"
It was too easy.
“You have something you could put in it,” I suggested then licked my lips, and he rolled his eyes. Yeah, didn't think so. “Answer my questions. It isn’t that hard to do. Yes. No. Sure. Why not? Maybe. I would accept any of those, I’d appreciate more detail, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.”
“What difference will it make?” he countered.
Really, he’s going to pull his typical defensive bullshit? Ugh! I hate this angel.
I looked at him and sighed. “Everyone is giving us little pieces to the puzzle.”
“Puzzles,” he corrected.
“Huh?”
“Never mind,” he said and folded his legs in front of him then looked at his hands. “What have you put together?”
Weird thing to ask, but whatever, at least he isn’t being a prick at the moment.
I shrugged. “An IKEA bookcase that took me like four months before I threw it out the window. You’d think that they would have words on their goddamn directions, but no, it’s nothing but a bunch of little pictures that make no fucking sense, and after it collapsed like ten times and took a header out the fifth-story window, Loke got me a new one and talked the salesman he was flirting with into putting it together for me.”
Angelus’ lips went taut and his eyes crinkled in the corners.
Why was that amusing to him?
“Okay,” he finally said and wiped the moisture from the corner of his eye. “I meant, what have you…really?” he asked, sounding exasperated and amused all at once. “In what world do you live that you would think that I was asking about your home improvement and shitty furniture making skills when we are talking about both of us being mistakenly put up for repossession? I have to know.”
Oh. My bad.
Again, I shrugged. “I’m just cool like that?” I offered.
“To say the least,” he agreed. “Back to the non-IKEA and lack of Zion’s building skills related discussion.”
I made a face at him, and he smirked.
“Both of us have come up for repossession, you a few times,” he said.
“I’m just cool like that,” I reminded him.
“Indeed,” he partially agreed, again. “I am sure that the same has happened for me, though comparatively speaking, I am harder to track down than you. Children of the Light are getting batches with appointments that should have been given to the Children of the Dark, and vice versa. Each had, I am assuming, a human target that was of the opposite spectrum of faith—you had Father O’Malley, and I had High Priestess Symphonia—that were both nearly impossible repossessions, and should have been considered High Priority assignments, but they weren’t, and our batches were slowly being added to as we repossessed. Does that sound about right?”
Now Angelus was just being completely condescending and belittling.
“Father O’Malley wasn’t that difficult of a repo, he went willingly,” I reminded him.
Slowly he shook his head. “You walked into a House of Light, repossessed the soul of a man of the cloth, a devout follower of my father, in a church that was filled with angels. That was not easy.”
“It was.”
“Zion, I would have killed you. I wanted to kill you,” he admitted. “If you would not have gone about it the way you did, showing respect to not only Father O’Malley but to me and my kind and my father and his house, I would have killed you.”
That sucks.
“But you didn’t,” I whispered.
“I wanted too,” he reiterated. “They knew I would be there.”
“What do you mean, who?” I demanded.
Angelus looked at his hands again, his thumb absently caressing over the delicate runes carved into the brass cuff around his wrist. “Father O’Malley was up for repossession many years ago. He was my appointment, and when I went to repossess his soul, he smiled and offered me some coffee. For hours we sat and talked. He listened more than he talked, I felt compelled to talk to him, as if it was his gift to my father’s word. When he offered me his soul, so I could get on my way, I declined and returned to Central Hub and demanded to purchase the contract. It was a man of the cloth, those are not cheap, and the contract holder refused to sell. Even after I ran a blade through her heart and vanquished her skanky ass back to Hell, she would not relinquish it. However, Upper Management offered an extension on the contract with conditions.”
Holy hell, can someone say misguided anger issues?
“And those were?” I asked.
He looked up at me, appearing slightly confused. “I was stuck in NYC at this Hub until the extension expired, and I would be present for the repossession. I thought they meant that I would have to do it, but that was not it at all.”
I pulled my knees up then hugged them and rested my chin on my knees. “Why do you think they did that? I mean, why would they give me that appointment when you were right there?” I asked the obvious.
Angelus’ eyes moved over my face many times, his brow pulling together in contemplation before he snarled, startling me. “Because I was there,” he hissed.
Apparently the train derailed somewhere along the line.
“What are you talking about, why would that matter?”
He was on his feet in an instant and angrily paced back and forth. “Because they knew that you would be the only person that I could not hurt, and would not hurt. It is as if this is some kind of game! Put a piece here, pull a piece from there, push them together in the ultimate death match. It is...” he stopped and looked at me. “It does not matter. We need to get some information. Can that winged hobbit tell us anything?”
