Angelique
by Maggie Finson
Part 4
Tiand was spending a lot of time watching me, which wasn't all that comfortable a feeling. Well, you try bearing up under the detailed scrutiny of a full fledged Elohim for hours at a time, and see how well you handle it.
Finally, I'd had more than enough of it. Turning to face the Angel with hands on my hips and a nearly belligerent expression on my face, I demanded, "What!?"
"Uhmm," the Elohim cleared his throat without averting his beautiful hazel eyes from my own azure ones. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, uh... Angelique. I was just wondering how you ended up with a name more fitting for an angel, then got to thinking that you're every bit as beautiful as any female angel I've ever laid eyes on. More so, even."
Uh, oh. I was still new at this girl thing, but could already recognize a come on when I heard it. "Thank you, Tiand, the name was given to me, I didn't choose it, but what's your point with all this? Your staring has made me more nervous than a cat who fell out of a tree and landed in the middle of the dog pound."
"Look," he let out a long, drawn out sigh while gathering his resolve to finish the conversation with at least a modicum of dignity, "I know we got off to a bad start, with the drawn swords and all..."
"And?" I questioned, with a lift of one fine eyebrow and a devilish little shrug that had his eyes even wider open than they had been. (Okay, okay, I couldn't help it, all right? I am half Succubus, after all, and Tiand is a very good looking male, even if he is part of the opposition.)
"Well..." I could see him decide to plunge into the potentially hot water this was likely leading to. "I'd like to have the chance to make it all up to you, the animosity when we first met, I mean."
"Oh?" This was leading to something that could be at least fun, but had some pretty dangerous repercussions if not handled correctly. The get of an angel and a demon was not something to lightly consider, if things went so far as a real sweaty palmed wrestling match in bed. Neither side was very pleased with the resulting half breed, and life for those unfortunate beings was more miserable than the worst sinner condemned to the nastier parts of Hell. "What, exactly, did you have in mind?"
"Maybe a little get together here in the Human Realms once all this is taken care of," Tiand answered, a bit hesitantly. "You know, dinner, a show, maybe a little dancing. There aren't really any Rules against fraternization with the opposition, you know. At least, not any major ones."
"That's something to think about," I replied, giving him a very good thousand watt type smile. I pursed my lips in a way that I had already learned drove most males to near insanity. "I suppose we could try that. Once all this mess is over and done with, that is."
"Great!" Tiand was giving me a smile that had my insides all squirmy, squishy, and wet. This was a two way street, and both of us were on a collision course at higher speed than was entirely safe. "I'd like that."
"Yeah, me too."
"IF you two are done flirting," Ariel interrupted almost acidly, but with a knowing grin, "I think we've located our pigeons."
"You're as bad as Lorilei." Syl grinned at my near embarrassment over the fact that I had actually made a date with an Angel. "Now pay attention to business. We have to make this look good without doing any really serious damage to anyone."
"Now, that should be a challenge," I retorted.
"Be good, Little Sister," Syl cautioned me.
Sheesh! First a lecherous dwarf, next up, an amorous Angel, and then I had to help stage a faked fight when all my training and instincts were aimed at doing all the damage I could possibly inflict. I'd need all my concentration for that, and gave the other Hell Maid an understanding, chagrined little nod of agreement.
"Let's go then," Ariel commanded, as he finished a similar conversation with Tiand.
The three hares in that farce of a chase were very well disguised, blending in very well with the Humanity and pets they were mimicking so successfully. Lorilei had the appearance of a young Human female with a small child (Dimona) in tow, complete with the harassed expression a young mother often wears while trying to control an active little girl in public.
Helga wasn't helping matters, disguised as an overly frisky pup on a leash that constantly got tangled with Dimona's little legs, much to the pair's delight and Lor's exasperation.
Lorilei turned her dark haired head toward us and let out a short, pungent curse, returning to her normal form as both Dimona and Helga did the same. The Humans around all of us went on about their business, or lack of it, without a single glance for either party readying themselves for a fight. I made a quick mental note to ask someone why that was, then plunged into the fray.
Lor threw a very nice (nasty) confusion spell that swirled around all of us like a localized tornado of misdirection, purposelessness, and forgetfulness. I countered with a quick dispel, that sent the thing spinning off harmlessly to dissipate in the air over our heads.
Ariel pulled out an impressive mace that flickered with lightning and flame, and rumbled with the intimations of thunder, moving toward Lorilei in a short arching flight with upraised weapon. The attack missed, but left a very large whole in the pavement where the target had been moments earlier. Syl walloped Helga with a glittering arc of metal that was her sword. The sweeping attack was turned by Helga's natural armor, but the Hell Hound yelped in real pain, and sank her own teeth into Syl's left calf.
Dimona managed to trip up both Septham and Tiand with a diabolically active bolo that kept wrapping its cords around legs, arms, and the occasional throat.
I managed to get off another quick spell, (I hoped Lor would forgive the scorching of her tail and pretty bottom later on) and the fracas was over as quickly as it began.
Lorilei and company had vanished again, right in front of our noses, so to speak, and we were unable to pick up their trail from the tangled mess of traces left over from the fight.
"Well, wasn't that entertaining." Syl chuckled while massaging the calf that Helga had bitten.
"I guess you could call it that," I grumped, while massaging aching temples. "That was one nasty confusion spell she threw at us. Getting it diverted gave me an awful headache."
"At least you managed to do something useful," Tiand ruefully put in, as he disentangled his legs from Dimona's bolo. "That damned Imp had me and Septham so tied up all we could do was manage not to trip and fall over."
"It was a good fight, though," Ariel said, as he repaired the gaping hole his mace had battered into the pavement by the simple expedient of waving his hand over it. Then the blasted thing obligingly filled in and smoothed itself. "Good work, everyone."
"How did you do that?" I questioned him in genuine curiosity mixed with a lot of professional interest.
"I'll show you sometime," he promised. "It isn't all that difficult, really, once you get the knack."
"Hey!" Tiand, finally untangled, looked at our group, then searched the surrounding area with his eyes. "Where's the Incubus?"
"Ohhh," a groan emerged from a jumble of smashed crates against a wall to our left. The wreckage began heaving and tumbling out of the disorganized heap it was in to become the beginnings of an equally disorganized tangle of broken wooden slats and plywood spreading in a semi-circle from the wall.
"Oh, never mind," the Angel brightly added. "There he is."
A head emerged from the mess as Richard let out another groan. "Remind me to never, never, get Lorilei angry with me again."
"What happened to you?" Septham questioned, with a small grin at the Incubus' discomfort and decidedly mussed up appearance.
"I tried to distract her with a little seduction magic," he answered, getting to his feet very slowly, stretching his back and arms carefully as he did to the accompaniment of creaks, cracks and pops. The Incubus grimaced at one particularly loud pop. "It didn't work. She TK'd me into the middle of those shipping crates, then piled the wreckage on top of me. None too gently, either, I might add."
"Had to make it look realistic, didn't she?" I smirked at the disheveled Incubus as he continued working out the kinks in his back and shoulders.
"Look?!" Richard actually appeared a little outraged. "She was damned mad at me, and wasn't fooling around."
"You haven't seen her in action, or at least practicing what she is capable of doing magic-wise," I offered, without the least remorse for seeming to pick on the fellow. "She could have done a whole lot worse to you."
"Oh, dark gods," he muttered, "I don't even want to think about that right now."
"What now?" Syl asked Ariel. "We've had ourselves a nice little running confrontation, and are licking our wounds. Do we hunt her down again?"
"Not just yet," the Angel replied thoughtfully. "First we make sure all of us are fit. Then probably cast around for a trail, and wait to see if Shen-Dai invites her in. If he does, someone is in for a very unpleasant surprise, and I don't think it's going to be that little Succubus we all know and mostly love. But we'd better be ready to jump in and help her when it's time." Obviously thinking about the sheer, unadulterated power our supposed quarry had just displayed, he shook his head in near bemusement before going on. "Because even that little dynamo won't be up to handling the Rogue, all his minions and hangers on with only an Imp and a Hell Hound for backup."
With that pleasant thought, we all forced ourselves to relax and allow our natural, if vastly accelerated, healing functions to do what they were supposed to be there for.
"Umm..." Lyle, the latest addition to my menu, let out a very contented moan as I sucked his still rigid member dry of its contents. Not to mention enough of his essence to supply my own needs from healing that had been necessary after that brouhaha with Lorilei.
"Damn!" I sat up in mid swallow at the insistent tugging on my awareness from the direction the others were hiding out in what sounded like a cell phone insistently calling for attention. Evidently Lorilei had worked a whole lot faster than any of us had hoped, or was in more trouble than I cared to think about. Either way, it was time to go, and the fight I would be getting into next would be no sham. "Got to go for now, lover. Things have come up."
"Can't it wait until we're finished?" Lyle, a fairly good looking young fellow with the build and constitution of a professional linebacker, grumped at me.
"Nope, 'fraid not, hon," I replied with real regret, as I kissed him lightly, getting one last taste of his delicious essence, and incidentally, tying his soul to myself so I could find him later. "But I'll be back. You can count on it, sweets."
Following that final, for the time, kiss, I slowly went through the door of his bedroom, then wished myself back to where the others were waiting. I even remembered to simulate the sound of his apartment door closing quietly behind someone leaving.
"It's about time," Tiand groused, as I popped into our staging area. "I hope you fed well."
"Well enough." My reply was a bit arch, but the Angel had actually seemed jealous when I had told everyone I needed to feed so my recharge would be complete. "Enough to get my batteries charged. Is it time to go in?"
"Aye, Lass," Syl nodded grimly, then ruined that with a quick grin. "Don't get your plump little behind killed in there, all right? I'd hate to think of all that training being wasted."
"Bruises and broken bones, you mean," I grumbled, then checked to make sure Heaven's Bane and Hell's Defenses were ready. All of them hummed in thrilled anticipation for an answer. "Hope it was all worth it, Syl."
"It was," she responded, as a swirling, technicolor vortex opened up in front of Ariel.
"The Gate is open," that one shouted over the howling winds in the vortex. "Let's go!"
We all dove into the thing almost at the same time.
Our group emerged to see a very busy Imp trying to avoid being skewered, pulped, or just grabbed by a motley assortment of armed Humans, one sorceror, a cursing Angel, and several creatures that appeared to be hybrids of either angel or demon and human.
The badly overmatched Imp nimbly danced between her foes, ducking between legs, dodging around blows that would have split her in two if landed, managed to strike several successful blows of her own, all while laughing maniacally and howling with Impish mirth at her opponents' clumsiness. Glancing our way, Dimona shouted, "A little help here would be appreciated!"
"Grrrllrowww!" Helga added, unable to speak with a mouthful of screaming flesh that looked to be a cross between the worst of demon-kind and Humanity.
With a shouted out, "Harrgh!" I left the ground and drew Heaven's Bane to intercept a rather filthy looking Angel angling to take the Imp from above and behind. Obviously, I hadn't really considered what I was doing up to the point where I was looking into the burly (and smelly) chest of the Angel I had meant to attack. My mental note to be more careful about judging the speed and distance of a target next time was cut short by my helmeted head impacting on his breastbone.
I couldn't tell if the loud crack was from his breastbone or my poor neck, but my bets were on the breastbone since I was still conscious and the Angel dropped to the ground like I'd poleaxed him. On later reflection, I may as well have done that to him. The gaping wounds in his chest made by the horns of my helmet were sizzling and smoking like a gutted computer under a water sprinkler, and he was making no effort to move, or even appear semi-conscious.
Ariel was plucking (literally) a Human/Angel hybrid with one hand while his other gave a squat demon-like creature a solid whack with the mace it held. The creature went down in a haze of what passed for its blood and a cloud of feathers from the half angel.
Tiand had gotten himself backed into a corner (figuratively) with three armored and well armed renegade Angels doing their absolute best to surround and hack him into bite sized bits for their less fastidious comrades to chew on later.
On my way down to give him some help, my armored foot landed on one of the renegade's heads. Then kept right on going until I was standing knee deep in a very much ex-Angel. That one's fall pulled me to the ground as well, and my flailing for balance (with Heaven's Bane, of course) took the head off one of the others. Okay, accidents sometimes make a girl look really good at what she does. Besides, who am I to quibble over Murphy giving me a break for change?
Tiand finished his remaining opponent off, then gave me a savage grin of appreciation. "A bit unorthodox, but well done!"
"What in Heaven was that supposed to be?" Syl walked up while watching me extract my foot from the Angel's chest, by pulling it out of the gaping hole his head had become. A quick look around let me know that the fight was over with.
"Worked, didn't it?" I grumbled, while shaking the excess gore off my dainty foot and well turned calf with a grimace of distaste.
Syl grumbled something about beginner's luck, then stared at me with hands planted on her hips. "And just what was that Harrgh you let out at the start of things?"
"Uh, a battle cry?" Giving her a hopeful look, I could see she wasn't buying that. "Oh, all right! I was trying not to piss in my panties, and that's all I could get to come out without screaming in terror at what I was thinking of doing."
"We have got to work on your battle cries and fighting songs," Syl replied as she shook her head in near disgust, then chuckled. "I don't think Yuck!, or Gaagh!, no matter how musical they come out, make an appropriate battle song for a self respecting Hell Maid with two dead Angels on her score card after her first fight."
"You sing what you want," I grumped, "and I'll holler what I want."
"Must be the Succubus in you," my martial mentor grumbled almost to herself. "Makes you a little squeamish about spilled guts, and mushed brains."
Picking an especially noisome gob of something from between the joining of my armored boot and bare calf, I grimaced. "I'm wearing a good part of one of those Angels, Syl. It's nasty!"
"Is any of that blood and gore yours?" she pointedly questioned.
"No."
"Then don't be so damned school girlish about it, all right?" Syl admonished, before giving me a careful looking over to make sure none of it was mine. "And be glad it's theirs instead of yours."
Well, I had to admit, she had a pretty good point there.
Helga scampered up, still chewing on something I preferred not identifying. "Mmph! 'Bout time you guys showed up. Me 'n Dimona were just about to finish those idiots off ourselves."
"I noticed," Ariel said, his deep voice joining the conversation with just the slightest hint of sarcasm in it. "Now, where is Lorilei?"
"At the castle," crunch, crack, slurp, slurp, "or palace, whatever."
"Would you mind too much leading the way, O mighty appetite on four legs?" the Angel questioned acidly. "We are here to help her and destroy that Rogue, after all."
"Oh, yeah." Helga raised her head, slavering dripping jaws, glowing eyes, and mouthful of sharply pointed teeth and pointed her red-stained nose towards a path not far from where we were gathered. "Place is all lit up like Vegas on a good night. Can't miss it."
"You mean that place with all the lightning, smoke and loud booms coming out of it?" I questioned the hound.
"That's it." Helga gave me her best doggy grin, and began trotting toward the pyrotechnic display that I just knew had to have dear little Lorilei at its heart. "Come on, she probably needs the help really badly by now."
Richard rejoined the group, dusting himself off and shaking a bit of gore from his own booted foot, glanced in the proper direction once, then announced matter-of-factly, "Oh, there she is. Are we going or not? You look really good in red," he also informed me, almost nonchalantly.
"Thanks, I think."
He grinned, then our conversation ended as Ariel began running toward the scene of what all of us knew was probably a very nasty fight.
An Angel bent on reaching a specific point on foot, and in a hurry, is something to see. Ariel, with Dimona perched on his left shoulder, thundered down the path, sweeping any opposition out of the way as if it were rubbish in the road that needed to be moved from the right of way.
Of course, the rest of us, trailing along at our own individual best possible -- and varied -- speeds, were left to clean up that rubbish. Don't ask how many of what I tore my own way through during that frenetic charge. I couldn't tell then, and I couldn't tell you now. All I did was whale away with Heaven's Bane whenever something I didn't recognize as friend got close enough for the coldly flaming blade to reach. And kept running.
A clawed, scaly hand gripped my shoulder and the base of my wing in an attempt to pull me down. Hell's Defenses really got into the fracas then. I felt energy flow outward, heard a crackling, hissing sound that reminded me of frying steaks on a hot grill, along with a ululating scream of agony as the offending member crisped to the consistency of well fried bacon.
My wings were undamaged. Wings... Damn! I'd forgotten all about those in the meelee. Not only could I keep up with that battering ram of an Angel up front, I could leap frog him directly to the now crumbling palace. I had the awful feeling that a certain little Succubus needed some extra help right away, as I leaped into the air and began using those appendages. Shortly after that, my brain decided to join in and I began analyzing the things I was seeing from my new vantage.
The palace had once been a pretty nice place. It had gone to, pardon the expression, Hell since it had been put up, though. Pretty recently, too, and appeared to be continuing its downward journey as I watched in near awe.
Two towers were nothing but stumps spewing smoke, sparks, and pieces of masonry like some demented roman candles that refused to run out of gunpowder. An intact minaret was swaying back and forth as if trying to decide on where the best place to fall would be, the marble walls were cracked and beginning to crumble in spots, and the roof was entirely gone in enough places to allow a horde of Angels or winged Demons easy access from the air. If it hadn't been for all the magical energy roaring through and around them.
The closer I got, the more all that swirling energy menaced anyone idiotic enough to try entering the wreck of a palace through the obvious openings. I detected the feel of one very angry, frightened, and desperate little Succubus intermixed with others I didn't recognize, but who were equally desperate and angry.
With all the energy spewing and clawing its way upwards, it was suicidal to attempt an entrance through what was left of the roof. Anyone short of the Big Guy upstairs, and probably Lucifer himself, would have been torn to tiny, well done pieces if they had tried. Only one set of doors appeared at least halfway safe to get near, and the windows were non-approachable, too.
Oh, yeah, there was one Hell of a fight going on at the front and only doors otherwise safe enough to enter.
Some non-human magic user with traces of both Angel and Demon in her was pressed against the heavy metal reinforced wooden doors, throwing all kinds of nasty spells at a crowd of renegade Angels, disaffected Demons, half breeds of both descriptions, and a few Humans. She was almost holding her own, too.
Almost. The gathering of baddies were gradually wearing her resistance to their approach down, and she was beginning to lose the fight. Putting up my own shields, I approached the whole mess with an idiocy I seldom displayed as a Human, and never again have as the cute little Hell Maid/Succubus I am now.
Well, to be honest, there wasn't any other way to do it. I tried figuring out an alternate approach in the short time I had, even considered letting the unidentified Magic User wear the opposition down a bit more before getting involved. Instead, I jumped right in. Literally.
I used the tried and true 'land on their heads and the fight goes right out of them' method again. Two Angels went down, but this time I also kicked my way free before they fell. Messy, but very effective. My feet had barely touched the ground when I began screaming out, "Lorilei! I'm with Lorilei!" at the top of my voice.
Which gathered me a lot more attention than I thought was healthy, but did keep the magic user from trying to zap me. Either or, you know how it is sometimes. I formed a ring of very impressive Hellfire around me that actually did crisp three Humans and one of the nastier hybrids in the bunch. At least that cleared the immediate vicinity around me.
Heaven's Bane gleefully arced through the air with a mind of her own, slicing, dicing, and chopping with an abandon that would have warmed Popiel's heart. Hell's Defenses made sure that no one touched me physically with anything but weapons, and my protection spell had magical attacks fizzling off with relatively small results. Only, there were a lot of all the above coming at me, since I had landed right in the middle of the group trying to get to the doors. Did you know that a lot, an awful lot, of negligible hits can add up to several very big ones?
Believe me, they can. They did. I was scorched, bleeding, and had a miserable headache within seconds. But did that stop this intrepid idiot? Oh, no. I kept wading through the opposition and (thankfully) the hits lessened as I did. By the time I reached the magic user at the doors, there were only about half the bad guys left standing and capable of giving a fight to either one of us. Unfortunately, that would have been more than enough to overwhelm both of us.
I gave my as of yet unnamed companion a quick grin and salute with that manic sword, planted my feet, and prepared to make the nasties pay very dearly for getting past or over me.
Who knows? With her help, I might just have done it.
Never found out, though. Because just then, a living bulldozer named Ariel plowed into them from behind. Now, take a second or two to put yourself in the bad guys' place. First, one magic user had held them away from the only clear access to reach and help their boss for almost ten minutes, single handed. Then, just as they were beginning to wear her down, some insane Hell Maid literally drops on two of them, fries another bunch, then chops up another ten or so. The odds are still about fifteen to two, but the two are obviously tiring. Then, an Angel with a cackling Imp on his massive shoulder, closely followed by a slavering Hell Hound, another Hell Maid, two more Angels, and a male Demonic magic user crash into them from the back.
Demoralizing? Damned right. What would you have done?
Run? Give that contestant the prize, Jack.
They bolted like the Gates of Heaven and Hell had opened up and were turning a ravening horde apiece loose. Which, come to think of it, was a pretty accurate description of things just then.
Helga cheerfully bounded off after them, with Tiand and Septham on either side of her. Now, THAT was a strange sight. A pair of full fledged Elohim in full battle dress, running with a Hell Hound. After a group that still had a few other Angels in it.
Ariel flashed a brief grin, shouted a hearty, "Well Done!" and promptly crashed through the doors we had been fighting to protect.
Among all that, I heard an Impish cry of glee. Dimona, securely perched on Ariel's shoulder, was brandishing that wicked little wavy blade and cackling -- well -- demonically.
"Interesting friends you have there," the magic user commented a bit breathlessly, as Richard charged past us, too.
"Yep," was my intelligently sparkling response.
"Well, thanks for the help," she went on, with a weary grin. "I was inside when the fireworks started, managed to take out some of the opposition in there, then thought it might be a good idea to watch the door for help coming."
"And ran smack into a rescue party for the Rogue," I finished for her.
"That's right." Nodding her head, my companion flashed a smile that would have shamed the world's finest courtesan, and no few Succubae. "But I got some payback for the way they treated me here, and in the Human Realms. I'm Adrianna, by the way."
"Angelique," I returned, then stopped cold as Adrianna pulled her concealing hood back. Even inexperienced as I was, it was very clear that the lady was the result of an Angelic and Demonic coupling. The demon part being Succubus, the Angel being a pretty highly placed individual. And she had all the best features of both.
Her expression soured at my openly frank expression. "Got a problem with what I am?"
"Who am I to have a problem with what anyone is?" My response was quick, but not quick enough to seem like I was grasping at straws to keep from telling her the truth. "I'm a cross between a Succubus and a Hell Maid, and wasn't even female until Lorilei got hold of me in Hell. No way am I going to quibble about someone else's antecedents."
"Thought you were a little scrawny for a Hell Maid!" Adrianna's expression lightened, and she offered me a grin. "Which you are probably as tired of hearing as I am about what an abomination I am."
"You got that right," I grumbled, then grinned back.
"Well, you sure saved my butt." With a sigh, she glanced inside, where a lot of pyrotechnics were still going on. "Thanks. By the way, you make up for lack of size with sheer ferocity."
"That was pure terror!" With a grimace, I turned to stare into the palace. "I suppose we'd better get in there, huh?"
"I suppose."
With the introductions over, we walked in side by side.
Our entrance was greeted with a group gathered around what looked to be the catfight of the century, maybe the millennium. Lorilei, swearing like a longshoreman, was rolling on the floor with someone who appeared to be a human magic user.
"I'll show you a real mage bane, bitch!" she screamed so loudly we could hear it from a distance of fifty feet. "And I'll -- gack! -- do it the old fashioned, hard way! With my bare hands!"
"Hell Bitch!" the other hollered back. "I'll send you back to where you belong - aawwk!"
The magic had pretty well subsided, except for some residue floating around looking for something to attach itself to. I brushed aside the inquisitive, hopeful strands of what remained of a pretty nasty binding spell, and it went to sniff at Adrianna with the same results. Disappointed, it wandered off in search of more amenable prey.
A cracked and tipped over throne of crystal with a rather large body draped across it kind of hinted that the Rogue had been taken care of. I didn't recognize the weapon still imbedded in his chest, but it was definitely alive, humming with contentment, and determined to keep the lifeless form it had pinned to the stone floor right where it was.
A male figure, obviously an Angel, but one I had never seen before, limped to the prone form, grasped the weapon, a long pole with a curved blade at its end, and basically argued it loose from the pinned body.
"That would be Jedidiah, Lorilei's personal Death Angel," my companion offered as an aside, while we continued giving most of our attention to the fight still in progress.
"Death Angel?!" I questioned, once the information had soaked into my poor, overworked brain and introduced itself to my remaining consciousness. "Lor's?"
"Uh, huh."
"You know," I half mused, "somehow, that doesn't surprise me at all."
"She is a collector, isn't she?"
"You can believe that." Moving up to get a closer view of the fight, we could see that both combatants were showing signs of hard use. Lorilei was covered with blood, cuts, scrapes, burns, you name it, the injury was probably in there somewhere. And the Human was in a lot worse shape.
"Don't you think we ought to separate them?" Syl idly questioned the gathered audience at large. "Oh, never mind."
The human had learned the hard way what it's like to run head on into a certified mage bane bent on physical mayhem. I casually snatched her soul as it tried to flee, and stuffed it into my utility pouch for a later presentation to my little sister. She'd earned that one.
"Okay, everybody," Ariel announced, after checking the little Succubus over to make certain no permanent damage had been done, and repairing the worst of it as he did, "good job. Let's go home."
Leaving a Death Angel I had yet to be introduced to and Adrianna deep in conversation, I nodded with a weary happiness. "Sounds good. Though until recently I wouldn't have thought going to Hell would."
"Good fight, little sister," Syl congratulated me, with a resounding clap to the back that nearly had me sprawling face first on the floor. "We have things to do now. Say your good-byes, and let's get going."
"What?"
"Just what I said," Syl grinned evilly. "We have another assignment, since Lor is going to be laid up for awhile."
"But..."
"We just finished this one, I know," Syl answered with a stream of air out of puffed cheeks. "And a fine job it was. His Satanic Majesty wants us to check out what a certain goon named Baal, who happens to be Hell's overall military commander, is up to. There have been some unsettling rumblings from that direction recently that His Hellish Majesty wants checked out."
"With no rest from this one?"
"Sorry, little one," she replied, with a sigh of her own that actually seemed commiserating. "But you have to learn this sometime. A Hell Maid's work is never done. We just get an occasional break or some soft duty like hanging out with Lor. Now, come on."
Grumbling to myself and anyone else that might have cared to listen, I made my farewells, promised to meet Tiand whenever I had enough time, and watched Ariel lift both the body of the Rogue and Lor, then vanish into a portal.
"Damn it, Syl."
"Aw, come on, Little Sis," she grinned, again the irrepressible demon I had come to know. "We're going to work with some more Hell Maids. It'll be fun!"
"Define fun."
"I'll surprise you."
"Oh, boy," I grumped, as we entered a different portal leading to Hell knew what. "I can hardly wait."
END
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