Repossessors of Souls: Expendable Pawns

by Danae Ayusso

  Angelus rolled his eyes but laughed.

  “And I can’t tell you why that girl is in love with a sullen stick in the mud...the only thing missing is the body glitter at this point.”

  Angelus softly punched him in the leg. “If you call me Eddy, I am kicking your ass.”

  The god laughed a booming laugh that caused the ground to shake and the heavens to fill with electrically charged clouds of angry energy. “That is what Junior keeps calling you,” Thor informed him and the angel groaned. “Zee is like a niece, a daughter, to us and we will do everything we can. This was an ass backwards play to begin with. They knew the rules, and they broke them.”

  Angelus shook his head. “You cannot interfere…it is not your fight.” He sounded defeated.

  Thor threw his long, muscular, arm across the angel’s shoulders and gave him a reassuring squeeze. “It became personal when they left Junior’s true identity out of Zee’s dossier. That made it personal. When they specifically disregarded the orders from one of the highest powers in Hell, that was trying to protect his daughter, his blood. That made it personal. When they went after my best friend. That made it personal,” he said and softly knocked into Angelus with a smirk. “You really need to learn to work on your people skills, Angel. It’s been centuries since we’ve hung out, and believe it or not, I know that I’m your only damn friend, and you are the only one dumb enough to continue to hang out and listen to me bitch when it could prove to be an electrifying experience.”

  Angelus nodded with a smirk. “True. I will work on that, if we survive this.”

  “You will,” Thor assured him then looked up at the billowing black clouds consuming the sky. “I promise you, Angel, those assholes will never see it coming….

  ….Angelus’ heavenly soft feathers tickled Zion’s arms and she sighed in contentment. “Remind me again why I get the angels?” she rhetorically asked.

  Angelus pulled back and looked at her then snapped his teeth, and she smiled wide. He smiled warmly at her. “We flipped a coin, remember?” he smirked before he captured her mouth with his and then mumbled the words that she told him to never say against her lips. His stubbornness amused her on levels that she never knew existed, and turned her on at the same time—she was well aware of her issues and would seek professional help for them later.

  He pulled away, ‘Why me?’ he mouthed, his eyes burning into hers—that question he had wanted answered for centuries, but he didn’t care to know the answer, because it honestly didn’t matter.

  “Rhetorical?” she mused then wagged her tongue at him.

  Not wanting her to know the truth, he nodded. “Always,” he whispered, caressing the contours of her lips with the tip of his tongue.

  Zion, well aware that he was serious and there was nothing rhetorical about his question, took his face between her hands and smiled. ‘Always and forever you,’ she mouthed. ‘It was you before I took my first breath, and it will be you well after I take my last, my sullen, cynical angel.’

  Angelus nodded and his bottom lip quivered.

  They stopped the elevator two floors below where they needed to go and checked on what was going on. It was elementary to control the corporal projections, it was slightly taxing on their systems, but they were both finding the strength needed in the other….

  ….Zion chewed on her lip as she looked at the closed box from the couch.

  Angelus sat next to her, he was as confused as she was for once.

  “I don’t get it, what are those?” she asked, pulling her knees to her chest.

  Odin sat on the floor next to the couch, and Zion rubbed his tense shoulders. “Those are,” he said then paused, debating to tell her the truth or not, but since her father sent them up for her, he knew that she needed to know the truth. “Those are the Armlets of Nyx. They were rumored to have been destroyed way before man first walked upright.”

  Angelus groaned. “There is no way.”

  Zion smacked him. “Zip it, Chief. What are the Armlets of Nyx?”

  Odin chuckled at the expression on Angelus face. “They are linking bracelets that were created by the primordial Greek Goddess of the night; Nyx. Because of her lack of corporeal state, she knew that she would never feel the warmth of the sun on her skin, or feel the touch of a man caressing her body, thus she would never know love. So she made linking bracelets that would tie her to another, that was strong enough to power them, an equal in essence, and the bracelets would solidify her body in the form of a corporeal projection. She could control it independently from her actual non-corporeal body and feel, see, hear, taste, and experience everything that the projection was experiencing. It was important that at the same time she would still be in her natural form so her duties were not neglected.

  “Through these bracelets she found love, and after her children were born—Hypnos, the God of Sleep, and Thánatos, the God of Death— her only love was lost to her, apparently at the hands of her children…not that it’s important at the moment. When he was lost to her, she refused to grace the world with her beauty ever again, and remained a shadowy figure. The bracelets were lost at the beginning of human creation, however Adramelech is unlike any other, and his collection goes far beyond just concubines. The man could win the soul of the devil on a single hand of cards, if the devil was man enough to play him. Adramelech has never been beaten, and he isn’t about to be beaten now….

  ….“Mother fuckers!” Zion shrieked when Angelus slipped a hand in the front of her pants and started teasing her body.

  “It is a good thing that I did not need to hear,” Angelus complained, pulling his hand from her pants then sucked on his fingers and she moaned.

  “Shut up,” Zion snorted, trying to keep from ripping his pants off. “Look what they did to my shoes,” she complained.

  Angelus shook his head, truly amused. “They are fine and you know it.”

  Zion looked down at her clean high heels and sighed contently. “Mind over matter, asshole.”

  Again he shook his head. “I am never buying you shoes again.”

  Her mouth fell open with a popping sound and she started to pout, but instead wrapped her arms around his neck. “You can buy me whatever you want, whenever you want,” she whispered against his lips. “Just don’t give them to me and let me take them from you so you can keep getting them for me,” she suggested then licked his bottom lip and he snapped his teeth at her, sucking her tongue into his mouth, and she shivered in his arms and moaned loudly.

  Angelus slapped her ass when she finally pulled away from him and smirked.

  Zion sighed, she really doesn’t want to do this and rather be home with her sullen angel that was slowly driving her mad with desire. “Are you ready?” she pouted.

  He was thinking much the same, the perfect day would be spent in bed watching the strange women he loves do whatever it is that she did all day. Hopefully not shopping, he hated shopping; that would be his own personal Hell in his opinion.

  Angelus sighed. “No, but when will we be? We might as well go out in a blaze of glory, as you would say.”

  Zion pulled herself tight against him and softly caressed his lips with hers. “Sullen ass angel,” she whispered, and he smiled and pressed the button to the top floor.

  Wrapped in Angelus’ wings of invisibility, they waited in the elevator car, watching what was happening through the eyes of their projections.

  Zion was confused as to why Stolas was there, he wasn’t high enough in the company to get to hang out with the big dogs, and Angelus noticed what she saw and his temper got the better of him.

  “Really?” she groaned, watching Stolas slump down to the floor with an angelic dagger sticking out from his throat.

  Tenderly Angelus caressed her head then softly kissed the tip of her nose. “Did I fail to mention that I am the jealous type?” he mused.

  A smile filled her face.

  “Who’s next?” she asked, liking the idea of her angel killing everyone that ever
wronged her—it was the vengeful demon side of her coming out to play.

  Angelus shrugged, batting his lashes; it wasn’t really a suggestion, and she knew it.

  The elevator doors opened, and they held their breaths and carefully floated into the conference room, and when the doors closed, no one was the wiser and that was exactly where they needed to be….

  ….“It is not going to work,” Angelus pointed out.

  Zion rolled her eyes. “Man the fuck up and let your balls drop. Do you have a better idea? I’m waiting,” she said and drummed her nails on the table, irritating the angel even more. “That is what I thought. Unless your daddy is suddenly going to make an appearance and help us, we are going to have to do this on our own.”

  Angelus snarled in frustration then stormed out of the dining room and out the back doors.

  “Goddamn drama queen,” she mumbled under her breath.

  Freya shook her head and slid a fortune cookie over to the demon that hardly touched her takeout.

  “Thanks. What if this doesn’t work?” Zion asked. “Honestly, it’s a brilliant plan, especially considering it’s mine, but the only way to get the bracelets to work is to purge fear from your heart. I don’t think I’m fearful of anything, but who knows with that goddamn angel.”

  Freya shrugged. “I don’t know, Zee. Men suck, hence why I’m a lesbian.”

  She laughed.“That they do and usually not as well as they let on.”

  “No shit, sisters unite!” Freya proclaimed. “Just follow your heart…that is what everyone says. Hell, maybe Mr. Fortune Cookie has some better advice for you. I’m going to go toke with Loke…Loki, but Loke flowed better,” she giggled then vanished.

  Zion rolled her eyes and smashed the fortune cookie with her fist then carefully picked up the thin, white paper fortune out from the remains. “The opposite of hate is love, and you can’t survive without both of those emotions, but you can survive with only one of those emotions. Purge hate from your system and your heart will never know fear,” she read aloud then sighed, shaking her head, and added what she and Loke always add to the end of fortunes, “In bed.”

  It wasn’t very amusing, in her opinion. “And Mr. Fortune Cookie was obviously indulging in copious amounts of shrooms this morning,” she complained, making a face then tossed the fortune on the table and headed from the room to find the bitchy angel.

  The tiny strip of paper radiated with a brilliant white light that filled the large dining room before it burned away into nothingness….

  ….“You think that this is some kind of game? Well guess what, now we are playing by our rules!” Zion proclaimed, playing it up to keep the attention of those in the room so they didn’t give the empty elevator a second thought.

  When the bodies erupted in flames, Zion jumped, startled, and Angelus held her tight to his chest.

  ‘Lucifer,’ he mouthed, and her eyes widened—that she did not entirely anticipate, but Angelus had….

  ….“If she comes to earth for this,” Angelus whispered, holding Zion’s trembling hands in his, reassuringly caressing them with his thumbs, “it will be over before it even begins.”

  Zion shook her head. “It isn’t fair. What did I ever do…did you ever do, that was so bad that we deserve to die and be nothing more than expendable pawns in this ridiculous game!” she demanded.

  “You will live,” Angelus promised her. “If nothing else, you will walk away. I promise you.”

  She scoffed, rolling her eyes.. “Why do you get to be the hero? Maybe I want to throw myself on the sword to save you.” She made a face at him.

  The corners of his mouth twitched slightly as he suppressed his amusement. “And ruin that overly priced blouse? Heaven forbid,” he mused and she laughed, nodding her agreement. “Stay here and I will walk in there and give them my soul. Agreed? Let me extend this common courtesy to you, as you did to Father O’Malley. A quick, and hopefully painless death, and you can take your happy-go-lucky shopaholic ass back to Macys or wherever it is that you call home.”

  Zion pulled her hands away from his. “This will work and you won’t be saving shit! You are the biggest, self-righteous asshole I have ever met, and I’m pretty damn confident when I say, that has ever been created. You just don’t know when to shut up, do you? You started out all nice and then you turn into Angelus, Captain Asshole Angel Extraordinaire! You should totally update that on your business card to reflect that.”

  “I will keep that in mind,” he said indifferently. “Many problems present themselves with your plan if Lucifer is there. The invisibility will not work on her perception thus she will see us. That is the strongest offense we have; my camouflage. She will also sense that that our projections are not real since there is no emotion in them to feed her malicious wrath. The others we could, in theory, walk past and accomplish our goal, but Lucifer, if she is there, will not simply be a walk in the park. We will fail and we will die.”

  Slowly Zion nodded, digesting everything he just said. “What happened to your faith?” she whispered.

  “What?”

  “At one time you had faith,” Zion said. “I know you did, and now you have none. I don’t understand how you can have absolutely no faith in anything. After hearing Father O’Malley explain why he traded his soul to a Soul Shark, I was trying to keep from laughing. Faith? Who in their right mind trades their life, their soul, for faith? But when I thought about it, I’ve never had faith in my entire life. What was there to have faith in? I’m a demon, a concubine whose own master wouldn’t touch. So what did I have? It wasn’t until you,” she whispered, looking up at him with those large brown eyes of hers that made his heart race, “that I found faith. It isn’t faith in a higher power or that everything will be all right and that this will just be a bad memory to brag about surviving tomorrow. It is faith in you. I don’t know why, but I trust you, and I’ve never said that to anyone before, and I’ve only felt that with my Master. So when I say that I have faith that this will work, it is because I have faith in you.”

  That was exactly what Angelus didn’t want, he couldn’t make this woman hate him as long as she trusted him and had faith in him. But what would it matter if they both died when they stormed Central Hub?

  “Do not have faith in me, ever,” he snarled. “I could never have faith in a demon.”

  Zion pulled the last fortune cookie from her pocket and handed it to him. “Then have faith in something, Angelus,” she whispered, fighting back the tears he caused, then went to find Baldr.

  Angelus looked at the plastic wrapped cookie for over an hour as he scrambled to figure out a way to save the soul he kept lying to and pushing away. But he hadn’t the answers he needed so he opened the cookie and broke it, pulling out the thin piece of paper. “Have faith in what you feel in your heart, and do not push away the only thing that can save your soul, because she is your soul. I am always watching over you, my son, as are they.”

  The piece of paper illuminated in blinding white light and burned away from between his fingers. Angelus struggled to breathe, his father was watching and telling him what to do, what he had to do. God is watching, as are they.

  “Damn it,” he mumbled and scrambled across the floor and to find the only person that could help them now; Loke….

  ….The invisible couple carefully maneuvered around the piles of ashy remains so not to disturb them, which would have inadvertently gave away their position, and closed the space between them and the malicious woman.

  “Very impressive, Children,” Lucifer mused, her eyes moving around the area, sensing something was different, but she didn’t know what.

  “Lucifer,” Angelus snarled, his voice echoing throughout the room, pulling her attention to the seething angel seemingly in front of her.

  “It has been centuries, Brother,” Lucifer said.

  Angelus stepped forward. “We want our contracts. We have played your game, and you cheated, thus all contracts are null and void.”

&
nbsp; Lucifer turned her attention to her nails, trying to figure out why these two, this odd couple of the immortal world, were glowing. The closer they got to the other, the brighter their auras would glow. She’d heard of such things, usually in soul mates or those whose souls were intertwined with another, much like assignments up for repo, but she couldn’t figure out why they were glowing. Most likely, she surmised, it was the repo man to contact bond between them. It had been more than six-hundred years since she’d been topside to witness one of these ridiculous games, but this one she had a special interest in.

  Sensing that they were losing Lucifer’s attention, Zion screamed in frustration.

  Lucifer’s head snapped up and her eyes narrowed: Zion effectively got her attention.

  “Do I have your attention now?” Zion mused with a smirk.

  Silently, from the protection of their feathery cocoon, Zion started chanting and summoned from all worlds, of Heaven and Hell, and sub-spectrum of the Gods, and the spirit world as well….

  ….“You want me to play necromancer? Are you on drugs?” Zion whined.

  “It is the only way,” Odin lovingly informed her. “The sub-spectrum of the Gods and the spirit world are the only worlds in which Lucifer has no power. If you tap into those worlds, and flood the area with eidolons, use the Valkyrie if you like, that will block Lucifer from targeting, sensing and seeing you. As long as your binding holds, and you are both reading as demon and angel at the same time, it should confuse her and prevent her from pinpointing which, if any, is watching.”

  Zion shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense.”

  Baldr appeared next to her and rested his hand on hers. “Child, much like switching spectrums, Lucifer’s vision has to switch between the two, but not in the physical sense. Her vision bounces between the spectrum of Light of the angels and the spectrum of Darkness of the demons. That is why her eyes are always roaming. But you two will be straddling both worlds, thus there is less of a chance that she will see you.”