"If you had your gun would you shoot it at the sky, why?
To see where it would fall, will you come down at all?
If you had your gun would you shoot it at the sky, why?
To see where your bullet would fall, will you come down at all?
This is your heart.
Can you feel it? Can you feel it?
Pumps through your veins.
Can you feel it? Can you feel it?"
Chapter Twenty Five - “Laura Palmer”
BALT
“You're absolutely positive this is the right place?” I asked Henry as I pointed to one of the circled areas on the map. Using the information Henry had gathered for us, and Bernadette's knowledge on Ipos' men, we'd circled several places which we were sure that Immi could have been hidden in. They were spread out far and wide, however they were all in a similar pattern: circling the angels' landing pad. They almost surrounded where the angels had been landing for several centuries.
We'd planned out (roughly) how we were going to save her. Harmony had wanted to save any other angels who had been kidnapped but we told her there was no point. If we were caught, what use would it be to us? They'd have even more blood, the more that they could use, the more successful the resurrections would be. Marcus, Bernadette and I had decided to not tell Harmony about the resurrections being successful. Of course, the more powerful the person (and the more alive you wanted them) the more angel blood was needed. So far, it had been tested on pretty low status demons and animals. They'd tried a few humans, plucking them from Hell before sending them back. They needed an estimate on how much blood to use.
“Yerp. Traced it directly to there. Is this for the mission? Can we come too?” He sounded extremely excited. I had no idea why. It wasn't like it was going to be a pleasant job...
“Why?”
“Well, we helped, di'n't we? Shouldn't we get to go too?” He tried to reason with me. “An', we've got the blueprints to each of those buildings... I think. We could help you get in there. There's a reason why I-I mean we-haven't been uh... exorcised yet.”
I just rose my eyebrows at him, still thinking about it. It would be nice for the extra help purely because we couldn't let Emily, Caroline or Harmony in there at the beginning. They'd notice an angel in their building and he had no idea what the angels would do if they realised just how much trouble Immi was in.
“Fine.” I shrugged. “But you have to sign a blood deal.”
I expected Henry's face to pale, and I smirked when it did. A blood deal was a serious thing amongst demons. It was more serious than the deal between us and the angels, theirs was a contract which was sent to The Court. A blood deal was only done amongst demons, and was monitored by Lilith, the first demon to have ever been created. You broke a blood deal, you were sent to Hell and hung up with humans who were bound to Hell to be tortured for eternity. No demon wanted that.
“W-w-what?” He stammered. The rest of his friends looked bewildered and slightly scared.
“A blood deal. This is the real thing.” I told him. Either way, he wasn't going to tell anyone about what was happening. If it got out, not only would the angels' lives be on the line, so would ours. I didn't fancy having to fight for the rest of my near-immortal life. “You're either in, or you're not.”
“Fine!” Henry shouted, trying to act macho. I knew that he thought I was bluffing. Unfortunately for him, I wasn't. My neck was on the line. I wasn't having a rat outsmart me and make my death have a price.
“You ready then?” I asked. We were in a small abandoned house. It wasn't one that was outside in the countryside, it was in the city. It had been boarded up and the realtors were currently trying to find the deceased's next-of-kin to take the house. That meant that for today (at least) we were safe here. It was also near one of the areas where Immi was supposed to be held.
“Y-yeah. We all are.” He told us firmly after looking round to his group. They didn't seem so sure, they were just staring blankly at him. I bet they didn't expect to be getting into blood deals today.
“All right. Marcus, get the bowl.” I said.
A blood deal was sort of like a contract. Everyone involved drew blood and the deal was sent to a higher power after but that was where the similarities ended, and the differences began. For one, there was no silver cord that wrapped itself around you, you just bled yourself into the bowl and secondly, you didn't confirm by saying deal... once you bled into the bowl that was it. No turning back. In the demon world, they were taken extremely seriously. If you broke one, you didn't need to go to Hell... Hell would be brought to you. And we demons weren't merciless.
When Marcus came in, he handed me the bowl and his bag. Inside, was a bunch of herbs and ingredients we needed to use. Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as a whole “hole in the table” magic that happened at Gustav's. This one involved herbs, blood and a chant. It wasn't the prettiest of deals.
Mashing up the herbs I placed them in the bowl before telling Henry and his goons to make a circle around the bowl. After placing all of the things needed (a crow's feather, fingernails from a virgin but I think these were from a baby, some jimsonweed and a sparrow's beak) in the bowl, I looked up to see their reactions. I could see Henry was terrified–he didn't expect me to go through with it.
“You can turn back, there's still time.” I chuckled darkly. He shook his head, after a few seconds.
“No. No, I want to be involved.” I could see he wanted to say more but he refrained himself. Well, at least he could control what came out of that gross mouth of his.
“All right.” I shrugged. “Er, Marcus, you might want to go out for this.” He nodded. Blood deals were nasty and could create problems for people who weren't involved but were spectators. Needless to say, most people stayed far from them.
“We'll be in the shed at the back. Come get us when you've finished.” I nodded at him and then turned back to the group.
“So, gentlemen, shall we start?” I asked, taking the bronze dagger from beside the bowl. Pressing it against my palm, I dragged it down to produce blood. I needed more than the others did. Holding my hand over the bowl, I brought the dagger to my palm again, and winced as I dug harder and let more blood dribble out. When I was satisfied that there was enough blood in the bowl, I passed the dagger onto Henry, who was stood next to me.
“So I just...” Henry trailed off, and motioned what I just did. Sighing, I nodded to confirm what he had to do.
“Only a bit.” I told him before carrying on with the deal. “By drawing your blood, you agree to keep whatever you see in the next twenty four hours to yourself. You are sworn not to tell anyone and accept the punishment if you do.” I stated out loud before saying the familiar Latin words for the second time in my life. “Sanguine sanguine multo te obligo. Si multum solvit, sanguinem tuum et tu siccaprofundo inferni succumbere. Sanguinem sanguine, animam pro anima, si quando faciatte ligaveris fractis acquiescere consequat.”
I chanted that several more times as the dagger was slowly passed round, until it came back to me. I then used my other palm, the uncut one, and made another cut to go over the blood they'd all dripped into the bowl. Then I grabbed the zippo lighter and threw it into the bowl, watching as there was a small explosion of black light.
Hearing thunder outside, I knew the deal was done. The contract had been sent and now they owed their lives to me. Well, if they told anyone what had happened.
“All right boys. Let's roll.”
~ ~ ~
What I expected was an abandoned warehouse. What I didn't expect was a hospital. A very large, clean looking (and unnerving) hospital. It didn't make much sense but at the same time it made complete sense. The one thing I wanted to really know, was why pick this place. Why pick the fringe of a city? Why not the outskirts?
“So how do we do this?” Harmony asked. We were stood outside the hospital (because having four cars meant that we wouldn't be inconspicuous) thinking of a plan. If it was a warehouse, or somewhere in the countryside we could have stormed in. Now our plans were halted.
“There are civilians going in.” Emily noted after a few minutes of just staring at the hospital. I looked to her. She had been silent the whole time, especially after I went to tell them it was alright to go back in after the blood deal. Now, she had a calculating look on her face. I was sure she was smarter than she let on. Which gave me an idea.
“So?”
“So, I guess we could use that as an advantage.” She shrugged.
“We can disguise ourselves.” Bernadette voiced her thoughts, to no-one in particular. “They've seen us all, but Shax won't be on ground floor. He'll be in the basement, or on the highest floor. It stops people from recognising him. Too many people see him around, he can't be anonymous. Also, he'll know where to be found.”
“Right...” I said, trying to make her get to the main point. We didn't have the time to dilly-dally. Lives were on the line here and there was one life I didn't want to be saved.
“So nobody will know who we are.” She shrugged and I resisted the urge to slam my face into my palm. She wasn't really contributing anything worthwhile.
“Alright.” I said, and found myself thinking of an idea. “Henry, you need to get to the security room. You can then tell us if anyone's coming in our directions.” He nodded, understanding what I meant. "It's an important job. Don't fuck it up."
“I'll get the earpieces out of the car then.” He said before walking off. Luckily, the cars had been parked a few minutes away.
“Marcus, Bernadette, Harmony and Caroline, you act as injured humans. Use Marcus' blood somewhere. I'm sure you can manage making a cut look real.” They looked as if they were about to argue before they were silenced by my expression. I wasn't going to deal with their shit now. We were too close to saving Immi to fail now. "You need to distract them."
“What about us?” Emily asked, her voice quiet. She seemed to be frightened and I didn't blame her. Apparently this was her first time coming to Earth. It couldn't have been pleasant. It was completely different to the books they'd read.
“We're going in undercover.” I told her, relishing in the thought of what Ipos was going to be recieving. I wasn't going to go soft on him-he'd made someone with an iron fist punch me.
Once we were in, there was no getting out. It was get Immi out, or die trying.
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Woo! Officially, off hold!
I haven't been able to write because I had a) writer's block and b) exams. I still have seven left to do, one which is English literature (not looking forward to that) and I really really need a B in it so yeah. And then I've two retakes to revise for, Chemistry (oh lordy that ain't gonna be fun), Maths (even worse), Geography and History!! So yeah, NOT FUN AT ALL!
But I hope you enjoyed this chapter and next will be in the building ;)
ALSO, LISTEN TO BASILLE! I've honestly fallen in love with his song Laura Palmer! ;D
Also, opinions on this cover ----> (on the side)