*Orion POV. Two hours earlier.*
Perfect. That's what this was. A perfect situation to find ourselves in. There was no one strong enough left behind as the fallen angel and Alex vanished with a flutter of wings and sulfur. A wicked smile started to spread across my face. 'His' face. It was almost remarkable how she hadn't noticed. Hadn't felt the difference between us as I'd fucked her not twenty-four hours ago.
God. that had felt so good. To be in this body and give her exactly what she had missed. I would make her realize just how much she missed me. Just how much better I was than this damn meat suit. Whether she liked it or not. Just a little longer and I could get rid of it. It was bad enough to have his consciousness hovering like a fog in the back of my mind sometimes. I was grateful for the ability to shut him out completely when I had control like this.
I scoffed at myself. This stupid human. He really thought I could give him immortality. I almost pitied him. But a deal was a deal. And he was technically immortal as long as I used him as a vessel. So I 'was' holding up my end of the bargain. He just hadn't read the fine print before agreeing. And that wasn't my fault.
I cracked my neck, letting the momentary ache wash over me before I thought through my next moves. A few things needed to be done before I could take what I needed. Mostly, the damn nephilim's and that disgusting cambion she had sired with him. It made me sick to have to pretend to love it as he would. But it hadn't seen through my rouse, so the act had paid off in the end. But what to do with them? How would I get them out of here so I could get the grace from the library?
There was an easy solution. Cause a scene somewhere else and send them to deal with it. But that would cost me resources I wasn't sure I could spend just yet. I mulled it over in my head. The only other option would be to kill them all, but I doubted I could take on the cambion by myself, let alone the two nephilim's. So it would have to be option number one. It was too easy to step away from everyone into an empty room and then step further into Hell. They trusted this damn meat suit too much. It's what had made this job all too easy to begin with. They never questioned his motives, never questioned where he went or why.
Hell had been a mess since Alex had abandoned us for the humans she claimed as family. A mess that I had cleaned up to the best of my abilities. It wasn't hard to have the rest of the lower demons gather under me. They had long been tired of her actions and Crowley's obsession with an improper ruler. They had rallied behind me easily. And so it had been even easier to have others start to recruit and or kidnap monsters of all different kinds. There had been plenty of spaces to hide them in Hell too. Places so out of the way that even if Alex, or Lucifer, had returned to Hell they'd have never seen the experiments. The humans had never questioned the disappearances either. They seemed to believe they were making a difference. Little did they know how many we had here, locked in cages.
One such place is where I walked out. A series of enchanted steel bars lined the hall, keeping the test subjects exactly where I needed them. Many of them gnashed or clawed at the bars as I walked by, giving themselves a nasty shock as they did so. I simply folded my hands behind my back and smiled as I walked down the hall. Not as many had died in the last batch as the first, and all of them were starved for their new vices.
"Afternoon, sir." Mehak, a smaller, lower-class demon said as I approached a pair of double doors at the end of the hall.
"Mehak," I acknowledged him, still adjusting to the voice I spoke with. "What are the numbers?"
"We have twenty-five hybrids ready for the next stage, sir," Mehak reported. "Only lost two of them with the introduction to the new mixture."
"Wonderful." I clapped a hand on his back. "I need you to let ten of them lose in Lebanon."
"You want…" Mehak blinked at me. "You want to let some of them out? But we haven't perfected it yet."
"I know we haven't," I growled. "But this is the only way I can get the last ingredient. A nice. Big. Distraction."
"A distraction?" Mehak asked, green eyes wide.
"Yes. So the hunters run off to deal with it and I can take on the archangel by myself."
"Right." Mehak cleared his throat. "Then it will be done. What do you want done with the ones we just brought in?"
"Leave them to me. It'll be fun to play with them while I wait for the hybrids to do what they do best." I smirked down at the lesser demon.
And oh, would it be fun. It had always been a delight to break souls down into their most basic forms and feelings. To tear them apart little by little and listen to their screams. Tearing monsters apart and putting them back together again in all new ways was just another level of the same practice.
It was an art form. To take a vampire, remove all the blood from its body and replace it with that of a werewolf. To watch it struggle against the restraints as it slowly died. Or taking a werewolf and forcing it down for a starved vampire to tear into. Its quick healing would keep it alive long enough to go through the change, but it would be tortuous, especially if the vampire got to its neck first. But now, there was a science behind it, and we had the hybrids. And they would be so much fun to release onto the unexpected.
It didn't take long, maybe a half hour, before I felt the vibrate of a phone in my pocket. It was his phone, barely a drone above the screams as I pulled it from my pocket, arms now covered in blood up to my elbows. I couldn't keep the sadistic smirk from my face as I saw the devil's bride calling him. I pressed a firm palm to the monster I had been working on, quieting it for now.
I cleared my throat and answered, "Yes, Elly?"
"We have a problem!" The older blonde yelled through the receiver.
"What's going on?" I asked, pushing mock concern through the voice as he did.
"The bunker is under attack by something." She said, her voice ever so slightly shaky. Delectable.
"What do you mean 'something'? Is it a monster or angel or worse?" I asked, even knowing exactly what it was.
"We have no idea. We thought they were vamps, but cutting their heads off just pisses them off mo….fucking hell!" A gun fired almost too close to the receiver. "Just get back to the bunker and help us!"
"Right. On the way." I said.
I couldn't keep the laugh down as I hung up. It bubbled up in my throat and wracked my chest. Oh, this was going to be so much damn fun.
I waited just a bit longer, to give them ample time to be distracted before I walked seamlessly back into the bunker's garage. Everyone would be too busy with monsters outside now to notice an extended absence, and I could feign getting here too late if need be.
The bunker itself was quiet and dark as I walked down the metal stairs. My footsteps clicking on the metal seemed to be the only sound. I couldn't keep the smile off my face. This was going to be all too easy.
"There you are!" The older blonde rounded the corner, smearing the plan I had in my head. "Come on we should be out there. I just came back in for more silver shit."
"Whoa, are they that much trouble?" I asked, turning my face into a mask of concern.
"You have no idea! And one of us is refusing to help!" The woman yelled the last bit down the hall.
"Who's refusing to help? Surely everyone would be out there to get rid of these things." This could be even better than I had hoped for. Or throw a small wrench into the plan.
"Gabe is sitting on his ass in his room." She huffed. "Something about 'already doing enough for us' and 'not needing to get himself killed in some stupid monster attack'."
It was hard to keep the excitement from my eyes. I had originally hoped to snag an old vial of grace from the library, but with a fresh source so close by…how could I possibly resist that?
"Why don't you go back out, love? And I'll go talk to him." I pushed past her, starting down the hall.
"Wait." The woman said, making me pause. "What did you call me?"
"Don't get sappy on me now, love," I said, turning back to her. "We have bigger things to worry about."
"No. You said 'love'." Her blue eyes studied me. Scrutinizing everything she saw in front of her. "You don't call anyone that except Alex."
"So I slipped. Come now, Elly." I shrugged, trying to push her on.
"Ketch doesn't just 'slip'. He may make stupid decisions and cause us all a lot of grief sometimes. But the man does not 'slip'." I could see the puzzle pieces behind her eyes. "I thought you'd been acting weird. And Luci said something about you not being yourself. But I thought it was all just because of Kore."
That damn devil. He would ruin things. "Exactly. I have been incredibly worried about that thing. You can't blame me for that."
"Kore is not some 'thing'." Her eyes narrowed on me. "Who the fuck are you."
I sighed, the mask falling away. "And I was so hoping things wouldn't go this way."
For all her credit, the woman was faster than I thought she would be. Her first, and only, shot sped past me, just missing my ear. But she was crashing over the table and across the room, her back hitting the wall almost too hard, before she could take another. Humans were so fragile.
"We didn't have to do this, you know." I said, walking over to where she now slumped against the floor, "You could have walked away and let me do what I needed to do." I crouched down and took her face in my hand. "For what it's worth, you were such a pretty meat suit."
The fire in her eyes never left, and it should have been a clue to what came next. How could I have missed her grabbing a whiskey glass as it had rolled past her hand. I hadn't seen the idea in her eyes until it was already colliding with my head. I hissed as the glass shattered against his skin, blood immediately welling up and falling from the slashes. It hurt, for the few seconds it took to heal the stupid thing.
"You bitch." I hissed, hand falling to her throat and squeezing.
"You'll have to forgive me for that one, Ketch." The woman said, a smile on her face as I squeezed her throat. "But I had to try."
I snarled as she spoke. "You really think he can…"
'This wasn't part of the deal.' Of course, the asshole would pick now to fight back against my control.
"This doesn't concern the deal," I growled.
'It does if you want me to keep my part of it.' He argued back. 'Put her down.'
"You think you have any say over what I do here?" I laughed, closing my fist around her throat more. She struggled for air now.
I felt his fight against my control grow stronger. 'Let her go!'
"Or what? It's one life amongst the many others you've already taken. Who would believe you didn't kill her for some other gain?" I teased him. Played with those guilts and regrets that made him all too easy of a target.
'You want the wrath of Lucifer? Then, by all means, kill her. See what he does to whatever your plan is.' I could feel the warning in his tone.
I growled again. He was right. Even with as much hatred as I harbored for the dark angel, there was little I could do against him in a fight.
"Fine." I loosened my grip on her throat. "But I'm not letting her stop me."
The woman was all too easy to pick up and slam back down. I could feel the air rush from her lungs, pleased this time to watch her eyes roll back and shut. That should keep her out for a while.
I straightened from her unconscious body and rolled my shoulders. "Now get lost, you won't want to see what comes next."
'You promised…' I pushed his consciousness away once more. Locking it into away.
"I've promised a lot of things." My fingers ran over the smooth wooden table as I walked back toward the hallway. "Doesn't mean I've ever intended to keep any."
The smirk returned to my face as I took the steps to the spare archangel's room. There was something almost ironic about him being the one left alone here. To be the one who refused to fight, right when I needed grace the most. It was almost too easy. Even with the devil's bitch causing problems.
It was a habit to start humming something as I approached the archangel's door. The smile on my face was thick with excitement as a blade appeared in my hands. I tapped my knuckles against the door before opening it without waiting for a response.
"Oh, Gabriel," I said. "We need to have a little chat."
"I already told Elly I'm not…" His hazel eyes found the knife and the words froze in his throat.
"I think we both know this isn't about their little skirmish," I said as his eyes met mine, fear flooding them.
"Look man, we can…I don't even know what you'd want with me. Doesn't Alex have anything you can ask for?" He stammered as I stepped towards him. "Or you could ask Lucifer when they get back."
I clicked my tongue. "You should do your best to cooperate."
I saw the shift in his eyes as he thought about escape. Thought about using those pretty little wings to get away. But I was on him faster, holding him to the bed.
"Don't even think about it little dove." I hissed. "This will be over so much quicker if you just let me take what I need."
I could practically smell the fear as it washed off of him. And a desperate, trapped animal, tried anything to get away. So I wasn't surprised in the slightest when he still tried to blink away. But I had a hold on him now, so the furthest he got was to the dresser against the wall before I had him pinned by the throat.
"I tried to ask nicely." I swung the knife down towards him.
It met and sliced through the dresser's softwood as he tried to blink away again, fear clouding his judgment of distance. He was still in my grasp, just a few inches to the left instead.
"Now, now Gabriel." I smiled, "This is no way to play these games."
He didn't get a third chance to escape as I threw him across the room. His body slammed into the wall, cracking the wooden boards that lined it. He was too dazed to move before I was on him again, slashing the knife across his chest, splattering blood across the floor.
"We could've done this so much easier, Gabriel." I slashed the knife down his arm. "This didn't need to be so hard."
I grabbed him by the throat again, using it as a grip to whip his body onto the floor, pinning him to it with my knee to push more air out of his lungs. There wasn't a need to beat him, but the pleasure of watching something of this caliber bleed was all too much fun. Such a pleasure to watch the beads of blood rise to the surface as I cut a neat line across his cheek.
"Now, are you going to play nice and let me take what I need?" I asked though it wasn't a question at this point.
There wasn't much time now, I could hear a commotion in the front room. Had felt the increase of power as others had returned. They would be here in a few seconds, I was sure of it. The momentary distraction of listening to their voices coming down the hall was just enough for the stupid archangel to try to escape one last time. I kept him in my claws, slamming us into his bed once again, breaking the boards beneath it.
"Enough, Gabriel." I loomed over him, the knife pressing to his throat. "I'll be done here soon."
The door swinging open before I was done hadn't been part of the plan. Her amber eyes staring me down in her lover's body hadn't been part of it either. But God, had it felt good to have her see me like this. To see 'him' like this. I could see every question in her eyes as they played in her mind. It was delicious to watch her everything crumble.
"Why?" she finally asked out loud, her voice weak as it trembled ever so slightly.
"Why what sweetheart?" I couldn't resist asking.
"Why are you doing this?" She asked, her eyes somewhere else entirely even as they focused on this vessel.
"Well." I dug my knee firmer into the archangel's chest, feeling my eyes flicker from the grey she would know, to the pitch black I preferred. "I had to get your attention somehow."
"But you've…" The pieces clicked into place slowly behind her eyes. "You're not Arthur."
"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!" I threw my arms into the air triumphantly. "Of course, I'm not! You think this whimpering meat sack would have half the balls to do anything I've done?"
"I…I don't understand." She stammered. "Who…why…"
"Oh no, sweetheart. You'll have to wait a little longer for those answers." I pressed the tip of the blade to my lips, "And as for the archangel here…"
My attention turned back to the sniveling archangel as quickly as it had left him. With a quick swipe of the blade, I easily cut through the archangel's neck, and brilliant blue grace started to slowly drip from it. It was beautiful to watch as it seeped from the cut, separate from the red blood that glittered like rubies beneath its power.
"There we go. Absolutely beautiful," I whispered mostly to myself as I produced a small vial to collect it in. "Don't worry. I only needed a drop."
"You can't…" She tried to protest. She had always been so stubborn. It was what I had fallen for her over. That thick skinned, Winchester fire.
"Oh, but I just did sweetheart," I said coldly. "And now that I have…" I stood up on the bed, looming over the room with the vial and knife still in my hands. "I'm going to leave before the calvary gets here."
I blinked from the room before she could do anything else. Though I doubt she would have been able to hurt me. It was why I had made this stupid man the deal to begin with. She wouldn't hurt him. She had barely ever lifted a hand to him. I had seen it in his memories, even when he was actively trying to kill them all, she refused to kill him until it was the only thing she could do to protect her family. Even then the shot was sloppy.
I stepped into Hell effortlessly and walked down the long hall of cages again. The ones we hadn't released howled and cried through those bars at me. Their claws reached for me, curled and ready to rip at me as if they had a choice. But they couldn't stop me now. Couldn't stop the war that was to come as I reached the room we'd used for experiments, Mehak still standing before the doors as I had left him earlier.
"Get ready, Mehak," I said, dangling the vial of grace in front of him. His eyes went wide as he took in the blood that covered my hands and face. "We have the last piece."