Topic: Dealing With Devils

Natalya Bristol

Date: 2012-04-22 21:56 EST
((Takes place parallel to the events of Dancing with a Demon.)) _____________________________

Adam had been quiet for a long time. Too long, in Nat's mind. She hadn't stopped pacing, too anxious to simply sit in the silence that hung heavily around the stillness that was Rhys' most trusted friend. Her boots crunched in the salt she had spilled under Adam's instructions as she moved back and forth, whistling through her teeth as she tossed her twin blades form hand to hand. She wanted action, she wanted to be able to do something ....but like everyone who knew demons, she didn't want to come face to face with the condemned who wanted them dead.

Biting at her lip, she looked down at Adam's still, silent form. "Come on," she murmured, her voice tense and uncomfortable. "Come back."

Adam was quiet - too quiet, maybe - the calm before the storm. As far as Natalya could see, he was the epitomy of calm, and it was hard to tell where his consciousness was, if he could hear her or not. Far away, lost in a place where he couldn't be reached, at least, for now. They had taken every possible precaution, but both of them knew they were playing a dangerous game and taking a big risk - a risk they had no choice in taking and that they hoped would pay off. Minutes ticked by, seeming like hours. Nearly an hour Adam sat there motionless, as still as a statue, while clouds slowly gathered outside, a storm approaching.

Muttering to herself under her breath in the Russian that made Adam so uncomfortable when he was conscious, Nat tucked her blades back into the sheaths at her hips, reaching up to let her hair free from the claw that was pinching at her scalp. The longer Adam was gone, the jumpier she was getting, the more aware of how far away Rhys was - how far both men were from her protection. The darkening sky outside the window drew her attention, and she returned to linger there, frowning as she watched storm clouds gathering over the town, tourists and locals running for shelter as the first heavy drops of rain began to fall. Had she been one of them, she might not have thought anything of it ....but Nat was one of the few who walked on both sides of the line between natural and supernatural. She knew a demon storm when she saw it.

Clouds were gathering outside, fast approaching the town, omninous in shape and nature. Dark, black, billowing clouds that any hunter would recognize as a demon storm. There was little shelter to be found during such a storm. One could only hope the storm passed overhead, the demons searching for something other than them. The sound of thunder warned of the storm's approach, moving at an unnaturally rapid speed, looking more like black smoke than mere storm clouds. And then the wind picked up from the west, whirling and hissing ominously like a thousand demonic voices all crying out at once in a hideous menacing chorus that drove fear into even the most courageous of souls.

Curses in Russian were at best gutteral, at worst incomprehensible. This was an occasion when the worst came to bear, spilling from Nat's lips in a low hiss as she backed away from the window, glancing to and fro, looking for something she could use to keep out what was obviously going to force its way in. Her hands dropped to her hips, drawing the twin athames from their sheaths once again as she braced herself, standing deliberately between Adam's silent body and the vulnerable windows. "Adam, now would be a very good time to wake up."

It was too late to stop it, too late to do anything but face the storm head on. The shadows gathered just as Nat stepped away from the window, and there was a sudden earth-shattering boom of thunder, lightning flashing across the sky, a storm the likes of which had no natural cause. Shadows gathered outside the window, insubstanial dark shapes surrounding the building, descending like a dark, black cloud of smoke. And then an unnatural gust of wind, joined by the echo of demonic voices, shattered the window of the room and every window in the building with a deafening crash of glass and metal.

"Adam ..."

Her warning came too late. The booming thunder overwhelmed her voice, setting the building to shaking so violently that she was knocked to one knee. Fear bloomed for a brief moment, replaced with a fury that any creature would dare to challenge her here of all places, in this space she had chosen to make her own. The light dimmed, her only warning of what was to come, and suddenly the air was filled with shattering glass, fragments shooting toward her and Adam's body with more purpose than any random event should have.

Nat let out a scream of defiance, lurching to cover Adam's body with her own, protecting the vulnerable man as glass debris scored over her leather coat, tore into her jeans, and ripped open bloody gashes in her neck, her hands, her scalp, her cheek. Shaking the glass from her hair, ignoring the sting as blood trickled from those new injuries, she pushed herself back onto her feet, turning her face into the howling wind. "Come on, then, if you're coming! I am not afraid of you!"

The wind howled again as if in answer to her challenge, blowing the salt away from the windows, throwing open the door and doing the same, the insubstantial shapes twisting and turning, too many to keep track of, moving this way and that, until a score of them found purchase, claiming bodies of innocents and turning them to their own purpose, no longer human, only shells of their former selves. Poor, pitiful creatures doomed to harbor a demon, while their own soul cried out helplessly for mercy inside a body that was no longer theirs.

The salt was as much a weapon for the demons now as it had been a defense against them, forcing Nat to close her eyes or be blinded, stinging in the bleeding wounds inflicted by the glass that now lay scattered over the floor around her. One hand shook at Adam's shoulder even as she stared toward the shapes crowding outside the door. "Adam ....Adam, come back! I can't stop them on my own!"

Natalya Bristol

Date: 2012-04-22 22:00 EST
But Adam was far away, dealing with problems of his own in his astral state of being, fighting for his own existence, fighting to get back, ignorant of what was going on and unable to protect himself or Natalya in the physical world.

"It's too late. You can call to him all you want, but he can't help you now. He's as good as dead."

The voice was female and came from the direction of the doorway, where a woman was stepping over the threshold, glass crunching under her boots, dressed in jeans and a sweater, either a local or a pilgrim swept up in the chaos that was going on outside. She had a pretty face, but that face was contorted by a feral grin, human eyes distorted by a hellish yellow glow that seemed to burn from inside her skull. She was flanked by four more - two males, two females - but there were plenty more where those came from.

Nat spun about, glass crunching underfoot as she came back to her feet, her blades at the ready. "He's not dead," she insisted in a deathly quiet voice. "You've failed to get to him in there, you're coming for him here. I won't let you kill him."

Yet despite her bravado, Nat could feel reluctance freezing her limbs. The mind, the soul in command, those were demonic; the body, the soul that had been suppressed, they were mortal, and she did not want to kill an innocent, not unless she was given no choice.

"And I won't kill these people just for your pleasure, you sick bitch." The knives flipped in her hands, fists closing over the hilts as she turned the blades harmlessly against her wrists.

The demon possessing the woman laughed, the sound guttural and unearthly and enough to send a chill up one's spine with the cold-hearted hatred of it. "Stupid mortal....It's not the man we want, but you." She flicked a hand, a quick, silent gesture the communicated orders to her minions, the four of them fanning out around her, not only to protect her but to close in on their target.

There was no word to describe the sudden chill that gripped at Nat's heart. She had never even considered that she might become a target for Rhys' demons, not even when Adam had insisted upon warding the apartment himself when they had arrived. She had assumed that Abaddon and his ilk would want Adam over her, forgetting that she had the potential to be a bigger thorn in Rhys' side than his friend.

As the four closed in, Nat reached back with a foot, gently kicking Adam's body clear of her, her dark eyes scanning each body that approached her. "You'll have to kill me," she told the demon who wore the female's face. "And then how much use will I be to you, suka""

Whatever language the woman the demon was wearing was accustomed to mattered little. She laughed at the other woman's bravado, switching easily to Natalya's native Russian, speaking it as perfectly as if she had been born to it. "Glupye devushki," she muttered, clucking her tongue condescendingly at Natalya, like an elder disapproving of a child's errant behavior. "You are just a tool, bait, a slice of cheese in a mouse trap. It matters little whether you're dead or alive. The end will be the same. If you wish to die, that is your choice, but if not, I suggest you cooperate."

The demon eyed Natalya, as if sizing up her opponent. She wasn't worried. There were many of them, and only one of her. They would wear her down; it was only a matter of time.

A hiss snarled from between Nat's teeth, hearing her own native tongue twisted and defiled, used against her in this moment of conflict. "You cannot take me, can you?" she spat toward the possessed who crowded around her. "You have so much power, and yet you cannot simply reach out and take me. You need me to come with you." She laughed suddenly, relief making itself known. The building had been blessed by no less a person than the bishop of Lourdes; they were on hallowed ground. That was her advantage.

The demon chuckled malevolently, amused and unworried about what she saw as a tiny problem, easily resolved. "We cannot take you against your will here, but there is another who is unable to defy us." She gave a curt nod of her head to the others and they rushed forward, but though it looked like they might attack Natalya, it was Adam they were after, for some reason, despite what the demon had said earlier.

Nat braced for the rush, realising a split second too late that she was not their intended victim. "Nyet!" Lurching backward, she lashed out with the hilt in one hand, her punch aimed for the temple of the nearest male. Yet in the same instant, her heel twisted awkwardly on the bed of shattered glass over the floor, turning her ankle from under her and throwing her off-balance. "No ....Adam, for the love of God, wake up!"

The hilt found its target, one male staggering back momentarily, slowly him but not stopping him, as it might have stopped a human. He only sneered at Natalya, drawing back to backhand her across the face. She had made first contact and as such, was no longer protected by the meager, pathetic blessings the clergyman had put in place.

It had been a foolish gesture to break that unseen barrier, but the demons had read her right. Nat would rather take all the attack upon herself than allow Adam to become their victim while he was vulnerable. Knocked to the side by the forceful hand that smacked against her cheek, she dropped to her back, kicking up with her sharp heeled boot. aiming the stiletto for the knee of the one who had hit her. If she could just take them down without killing them ....

Flipping back onto her feet, she spun a new kick to the male on her other side, whipping about to face the possessed women.

Natalya Bristol

Date: 2012-04-22 22:05 EST
That contact was all it had taken to break the protection the bishop had set in place, and at that moment, all Hell literally broke loose, no holds barrred from the demons. They'd come away successfully with their prey or let the humans they were wearing die trying. Either way, they had the advantage in numbers. Even if Adam were awake, the demons knew they had already won.

Natalya's stiletto found flesh, slowing the first male down. He lunged to grab hold of her foot, but she was too quick, falling back and spinning, making contact with the male who flanked her, knocking him momentarily out of the way. One woman snarled, moving to charge her when the demon who seemed the leader barked an order in a language Natalya didn't understand and she fell back.

By the time the melee was over, the fifth demon had Adam in her grasp and was holding a knife at his throat, tight enough to draw blood.

"How much do you value his life, devushka?" the one who seemed to be in the lead asked, as she stepped forward. "Enough to trade yourself for him?"

Braced, bristling, ready for the next attack, Nat didn't immediately realise what had happened. She crouched, her eyes scanning the bodies crowding back from her, feeling the first surge of triumph ....when she realised that she was looking at four shapes. Four, where there should have been five. Horror and defeat bit deep, knowing she was lost even before she turned, twisting slowly on her heels to find Adam's body mere inches from death.

Suddenly the objective changed, the offer put to her more attractive than the alternative. "Let him go," Nat heard herself say in a dull voice, the defiance seeping from her form. "Release him without harming him, and I'll go with you."

"Throw down your knives and surrender yourself," the leader countered, not taking any chances and being played the fool - not making any promises either. "I give you my word we will not harm you." Not them personally, anyway. A deal with a demon was always tricky business as they spoke in lies and riddles. "It is not you we want, devushka. It is the angel. If you wish to save him, then give yourself over. Abaddon only wishes the sword. He means your beloved no harm."

"I'm not asking you not to harm me," Nat pointed out in a low voice, her fingers flexing around her blade hilts uncomfortably. Her eyes stayed on Adam, on the deadly blade that was so close to taking his life. "Get the knife away from him." She had only one alternative if the demons did not leave Adam be, the painful alternative that would see her taking innocent life.

And they just had to mention Rhys. Nat felt as though she had been kicked in the stomach. Adam was Rhys' friend, yes ....but he wasn't Rhys. She didn't love him with everything she had. Suddenly, she had no choice. "I'm sorry, Adam," she whispered softly, as a moment later the knives fell from her hands, her posture sagging in true defeat.

The woman who was harboring a demon stepped forward a pace, closer, but still out of Natalya's reach, an almost cruel grin on her face, her eyes glowing an unnaturally feral shade of yellowish gold. "How much as your angel told you, devushka" Has he told you that he made a bargain with my master" A bargain for a life not your own. A bargain for the safety of a woman he once loved and still loves in the deepest recesses of his heart' A woman he thinks is his soul mate?" While she spoke, the two males moved closer, one each flanking Natalya, ready to do their mistress' bidding.

Some feelings could not be suppressed, some pain was too easily inflicted. Nat knew there was an entire lifetime of ignorance in her about Rhys' past; she knew there was more that he hadn't told her than he had. And she could make a guess at who this special woman, this woman he loved enough to make a deal with a demon for, was ....Riley, the only other woman he had ever mentioned to her. The name that brought pain simmering to his eyes whenever he spoke of her.

A spike of something indescribable lanced through her heart, violent and ruthless, a grimace flaring on her face as she glared impotently back at her tormentor. Latin blossomed from her lips, spat out in a commanding call ....a summoning to the beings who should have been watching over them all before any of this had begun. "Domini caeli, angeli Domini, in adiutorium Adam filius tuus!"

Rage flared in the demoness' eyes when Natalya called out that command, recognising the summoning for what it was. "Foolish, devushka. You have just sealed his fate and your own."

She snapped her fingers at the two males who grabbed hold of Natalya's arms, the leader turning on a heel for the door. She had what she'd come for and she wasn't going to hang around to do battle with angels. "Kill him," she ordered, her back to the fifth demon who sneered maliciously.

With another snap of fingers, the apartment around them melted away. Natalya was a captive in Hell.

((Shock! Horror! Talk about a cliff hanger! ;-) ))