Can Anybody Find Me?

Chapter 26

Rimmon stopped mid sentence and started to laugh. The Arc Angel, Neutral and mortal all stared at him as if the Demon had lost his mind, and he didn't care. Whereever his mortal and her Fallen were, Rimmon knew exactly what they were doing right now. And it wasn't knitting tea cosies. They were dancing the ultimate intimate and although Rimmon had hoped to be the one to tempt Lone first, he wasn't upset by this turn of events.

Firstly, as a Demon, Rimmon wasn't as monogamous as most mortals tried to be. Secondly, he was still planning on having Lone, whether or not Gavin had had her as well. Thirdly, he was just glad that they were both still alive. That thought troubled the Demon though and he shoved it aside to focus on the two men and one woman watching him cackle at nothing. It probably looked like he'd lost all his damn marbles, but Rimmon didn't care, he was just as happy being crazy as he was being sane.

"What's so funny?" Coyote asked, a smirk tweaking the old man's mouth. It almost seemed like he already knew what had made Rimmon laugh but there was no way the old pugilist could know.

"Nothing you need to worry about yet." Rimmon waved off, knowing that his casual demeanor would have them all dismissing his behaviour as just another odd Demon moment.  If he had been the same Demon he had before meeting Lone, he would have gobbed on Gavin to Gabriel, tell the Arc what the Guardian was doing with his ward. Because although Gavin had ripped off his own wings, thus discarding his Ascended status, he had done in to fullfill his duty and could be brought back from Fallen status. Even though Rimmon knew that the Ascended were generally humorless atomotons, everyone was given a chance to plead their case to be reAscended and this was a situation where Gavin would have been immediately forigven. He'd done it to save this ward. Whom he was now being intimate with. It was that act that said louder than words that Gavin wasn't gonig to petition to reAscend. He wanted to stay here with Lone, and he couldn't do that if they made him immortal again.

And Rimmon knew all this, and kept their secret anyways. If he'd told Gabriel, Gavin and Lone would have been seperated immediately upon rescue and never allowed near each other again, in the hopes that no Nephilim will be created. Even though Gavin was clearly not planning on going back Upside, Rimmon couldn't condemn the man to a mortal life that required that he either stay away from the woman he loved, or was murdered for loving her. In fact, the only way that Gavin and Lone could be together and not incur possible death sentences, was for Rimmon to Tempt Lone, and then claim Gavin as well. But the Demon was nowhere near magnanimous enough for that neat solution, assuming he could even talk the other two into it.

Shoving aside such concerns for a time when their continuing survival didn't depend on his absolute concentration, Rimmon smiled at the other three people in the room with him. "Let's do this." he beckoned for the others to come closer.

A Summoning is no easy task, although their lives were all being made easier simply by being what they were. Angel, Demon, Neutral and mortal, the four balances of the world, each holding a different aspect that was necessary to make this a Powerful summoning. Mortals who attempt to summon either Ascended or Descended almost never succeeded because although they had the right elements and sigil etc... they lacked the draw of having immortals in their group. And those poor bastards who succed and pull a low level whatever to them, most often ended up dead. For some reason mortals really like to try and summon demons, and demons really don't like being forced into anything.

Coyote was set at North, the Neutral standing in for Earth. He was their grounder, the stable one, pulling everything together and making it greater than the sum of its parts. He combined the sacred with the practical and would be a secret weapon against the summoned Demon. Belle was set at West, the mortal standing in for Water. She was their harmonizer, the balancer between male and female, high and low. She represented all the aspects of love, and was their lure for Azazel. Gabriel was set at East, the Arc standing in for Air. He was their abstract complication, the mind and mercurial as the changes of the wind. His power offered the drive behind this ritual and would be ananthema to their caged creature. And Rimmon set himself at South, the Demon standing in for Fire. Only he was aware that as much as he was standing in for the tempering of trails and the forge, his unique situation also made his dually stand in for the journey of purification, and it was his presence that guaranteed that their Summoning would at least attract Azazel's attention.

When Rimmon was confidant that all of them were as ready as they could be, he pricked the tip of a finger, let the bead drop into a goblet of water and passed it around for hte others to add their own drops. Setting the blood tainted water in hte center of the sigil, Rimmon took one last pause to center himself and then spoke the opening lines that would seal his own fate.

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Lone wasn't going to ask how Gavin had healed, face burning red as she realized that while they'd been distracted they had missed a miracle. She didn't have time to even really worry about it now, they were taking advantage of Gavin's returned strength. He wasn't as powerful as when he'd been Ascended, but neither was he dying as Lone dragged him down another hallway towards possible escape.

The lovers paused, trying to find a way around a rather large and coverless ampitheatre that they had run into three times now. It was the size of a small town, and every hallway they tried seemed to defy physics and led them back towards it. If Lone had any awareness of what the Descended plane was like, or if Gavin had been at the top of his game, they would have realized that they were being herded and directed there. THere was no escape, and someone was toying with them like rats in a maze.

They charged down a hallway in the opposite direction, stumbled out into the same damn ampitheatre and just like that, there was no hallways leading back out anymore. Whomever had wanted them in here had effectively trapped them at last.

"Come into my parlour..." a smooth, rich and deep voice laughed out of the darkness at them.

"Said the spider to the fly." Lone retorted, voice sounding angery but it was just to mask the fear. Gavin was still hanging onto her, weight pressing down into her shoulder. His back wasn't bleeding out anymore, but that didn't mean he was back to fighting firm. Elonore Priest stared into the darkness swirling in front of them and saw a face she'd never even imagined would haunt her now. Azazel wore the face of her father.

It made Lone take an involuntary step back, which only made Azazel chuckle. Clenching her teeth around the nausea and fear boiling in her gut and making her muscles quake, Lone took that step back, pushing her shoulders back and refusing to bow down in abject terror. The chuckle echoing around hte ampitheature grew into a full, throaty laugh.

"Oh I like you. I can see why my Chalice wanted to keep you for herself." Azazel walked towards Lone and Gavin, looking exactly like her father had before he became a drunk. He was the vaguely remembered handsome father that Lone had had before her mother's death. It twisted a spike of pain and despair in Lone's gut, but she wasn't alone to face this. Gavin was standing with her, and even as injured and weak as he was, the Fallen was willing to face the King of hell head on. Azazel walked up to Gavin and held his face an inch away from the Fallen's. "Do you really think you, or any of those fools working on the moral plane with you, could keep me away from her? She was always mine to take, once she came here, there was never any escape for her. The spirit sighted are mine Fallen. Acknowledge that truth."

Lone felt like she was missing a major part of the conversation. It had to do with her, she knew that much, and she was bright enough to have deduced that it was her talent at seeing auras that was so special, but she had no clue why.

"Lone is her own woman, belonging to no one and owing to no one." Gavin growled out, voice rough and raspy.

Again Azazel just laughed in the face of their defiance, not seeming bothered by it at all. He turned from being in Gavin's face to grin down at Lone's. "And you my lovely coquette," he reached a hand up to brush a strand of hair out of Lone's face. "You will help me tear down the gates of heaven so I can make both plane's mine."

"I will do no such thing." Lone's voice was low but hard. Azazel pressed his nose against Lone's still wearing the visage of her dead father, just to torment her.

"Yes, you will." Azazel promised, then licked Lone's lip and made her jerk back a step while he laughed.

Gavin slammed a fist into Azazel's  jaw and the King of hell didn't stagger. With a casual seeming backhand, he sent Gavin sprawling almost ten feet away, caging Lone against the wall with his arms. "You will be mine Elonore." Azazel promised, still smiling dementedly.

Lone stared up at the face of her dead father and felt the old, familiar fear start to take over. She'd never been strong enough to fight back before, and now was seeming to be no different. Shaking her head in silent denial, Lone felt a five shivering creep over her body. It reminded her of how the Twisted made her feel, and knowing nothing else to do, Lone closed her eyes and invited the Twisted in.