In the End (24 page)

Mara shook her head, smiling, and sat next to Lucien. “Could you see if there's any hashbrowns – Jocelin, dear, what are you doing?”

Jocelin had in his hands the biscuit, a sausage, and some jam, and was doing unspeakable things with them while staring intently at Lucien.  Lalael was looking vaguely sickened, and had put down his half-eaten toast. Lucien blinked, then turned back to the priestess.

“
Hashbrowns? Next to the milk.”

“
There's new chickens in the henhouse,” she said as she served herself. “Saw them this morning.”

“
Oh?” said Lalael.

“
They're naked,” Mara added.

The gods stared blankly at her. “Who are?” Lalael asked.

“
The chickens.”

“
Mara,” Lucien began gently, “Chickens don't wear clothes to begin with.” Lalael elbowed him.

“
Thank you, my lord, I'm so happy you're here to remind me. Snappy intellect as usual, only polished by that nice cup of coffee. You know, the one I brought you? The chickens are plucked. They have no feathers. They are like hairless cats, but without down instead of without fur.”

“
This place just gets more and more surreal,” Lucien grumbled, stabbing at the food on his plate. “Have you noticed anything, Andrew?” Mara's assistant sat across the table from her, right next to Jocelin, who fixed the side of Andrew's head with an intense stare.

“
Too much power around.” Lalael said, looking about at the high, thin stained glass windows in the stone walls.

“
I don't think we need to worry, do you?” Lucien asked, nibbling another piece of bacon. “Hey, who cooked this? It's perfect. They deserve a promotion.”

“
No.” The angel munched his toast thoughtfully. “We're anchoring it down into reality. It should be fine, but I wouldn't leave this place abandoned overnight.”

“
Thou hast no hair above thine eyes,” Jocelin stated. Andrew clapped his hands to his eyebrows.

“
Yes I do, Lord Jocelin!”

“
Lord?” The angel's head tilted slowly.

Andrew's eye twitched. “Er... Lady?”

“
Lady?”

“
Erm. Enjoying that biscuit, are you?”

Jocelin looked at the lump of biscuit. “It doesn't like us,” the angel whispered confidentially to Andrew as one of the followers ran up and whispered in Mara's ear.

“
What?” The priestess asked in shock.

Lalael looked over. “Something wrong, Mara?”

“
Richard says that there's a few people at the front door who seemed to be possessed.”

Lucien folded his napkin, and the two gods immediately slid their chairs back and strode swiftly out.

Jocelin watched them go with a small frown. “Where do Honored Fallen Lucien and the Lalael leave for?”

“
They've just gone out to help a few people who are sick. There are demons inside them.”

The angel looked blank. “But why?”

“
Because they're gods, and that's what gods do. No one else can take the demons out,” said Andrew.

“
But why?”

Mara shrugged. “That's just how gods work. Lord Lalael used to have visions about people possessed by demons, so they went off together and saved whoever it was. Lucien takes the demons out and then Lalael convinces the victims to stay.”

“
Why dost the Lalael go with the Honored Fallen Lucien, if the Honored Fallen has no requirements for him?” Jocelin asked darkly, beginning to glower.

“
It's a thing they do together. Something they help each other out with that no one else can do. Gets them out and about. Why did you want to know, Jocelin?”

“
Angel Jocelin!” the angel snapped, rising and exiting the way that the others had gone.

***

“
Go kill this for me, Lalael,” Lucien said, handing the angel a fat soul-eater. “No, not inside! Demon blood stains like anything, they'll never get it out of the grout. Go break its neck or feed it to the chickens. I just heard someone say that they're carnivorous. Anyway, what's wrong with you?” Lucien said, moving to the next patient, a young man.

“
Sick of houseguest,” the angel huffed. “Batshit crazy, won't gossip with me about the angels I know and hate. Cryptic and altogether irritating.”

“
Ektesh –
Lalael!”

“
Yeah, I know,” Lalael called from outside, where he'd thrown the small demon into the koi pond and was making sure it drowned properly. “Just what I've been feeling.”

“
No. Lalael, um. Get in here, please. Come and Look.”

“
I'll be right there – Ah, there he goes.” Satisfied that the soul-eater was fish food, the angel looked in the door.

“
Miss,” Lucien was saying to the young woman he'd previously exorcised, who had just woken up. “If you go through those doors there, someone will direct you to the dining hall, where you can meet the priestess. She'll give you some breakfast and get you cleaned up. Yes, yes, no need to thank me,” he said as the girl gushed. “Go away, this is – Lalael, come here right
now
.”

“
What –” the angel looked at the young man Lucien was kneeling next to, then Looked. He scrabbled away and swore. “
Limada-na katir pa Síela
! What's
that
?”

“
That, my dear comrade,” Lucien said, getting up very slowly and backing away cautiously. “That is someone possessed by a fifth-caste demon.”

“
What's that mean?” Lalael asked in a loud whisper, edging towards one of the eight huge, white marble pillars in the circular entry room. He kept his eyes on the beast that had taken possession of the young man.

Unlike the others, who twitched and cried out, or writhed and sobbed, the young man lay as still as death. The only sign that he hadn't passed on was a feverish flush and sweat on the man's face.

But those were the only symptoms visible to the mortal eye. When Lalael dismissed human sight and Saw, it told quite a different story. The beast which had infected the victim was half again as tall as Lucien, several times as wide at the shoulder, and covered in filthy fur of indeterminate color. Instead of being contained inside the victim's body, the demon crouched in and on the man's chest, most of the way ensconced and working itself slowly farther into the victim's chest like a pair of too-small jeans. The demon's shark-like black eyes were glazed and sightless, and four rows of teeth, again like a shark's, were clearly visible in its partially-open mouth as it panted. Two horns swept back from its head.

“
The soulnibblers and imps are ninth-caste. I'm first-and-a-half. Lucifer is first-caste,” Lucien said in a low voice, soft and even.

“
So,” Lalael gave a strained laugh, pulling Lucien behind the pillar with him, “What's it mean that it's fifth caste?”

“
It's smart enough and big enough to do a fat lot of damage, but too stupid to reason with. Not intelligent like we would define it.”

“
Did it notice us?”

“
Definitely not. Would have ripped that poor boy to shreds if it had realized we weren't human. Ripped right out of his body, trying to get to us instead.”

“
Then what?” Lalael asked, staring wide-eyed and sickened at Lucien as the Fallen knelt and peered out from behind the pillar.

“
Then we would have tried to kill it with our bare hands, or it would have broken our backs and eaten your heart while it was still beating.” He looked up at Lalael, who glared. “What?”

“
What about you?”

“
I'm not an angel,” Lucien said simply, looking around the pillar again.

“
Right,” said Lalael, and took his Beretta out. “I'll send someone for my shotgun if this doesn't work.”

Lucien caught his arm. “Don't.”

Lalael turned to him in shock, a shadow of fury already passing across his face.

Lucien spoke again, quickly: “I mean that if you kill the demon while it's inside him, we'll never get it out and he really won't have even the faintest whisper of a hope. No unplanned guns ablazing. And it'd be a waste of bullets. That thing won't even feel them.”

Lalael relaxed and lowered the weapon. “Oh. Alright.”

“
Honored Fallen Lucien and Lalael?” The other angel's voice echoed off the marble.

“
Jocelin.”

“
Oh crap. Shit. Shitshitshit. With the amount of energy Jocelin flings about – The boy's done for in three, two, one...”A loud roar shook the room, reverberating off the stone.  “On the other hand, so is Jocelin, so we'll have done with the houseguest –”

“
Who art thou?” Jocelin asked.

Lucien blinked at Lalael in surprise and looked around the pillar again. “Lalael, quick. Never mind what I said. Shoot it.
Shoot it.
Now. Now.
Now
.
”
The hairy demon was standing over its victim, growling and sniffing the air.  As it flexed its paws, sharp claws extended, the color of steel. Lalael glanced out from behind the pillar and shot it six times in quick succession without looking, each shot embedding itself in the demon's skull. It roared and shook its head, but didn't fall.

“
We're doomed,” Lucien said. Lalael looked around the pillar, shocked, and shot it twice more in the neck, aiming for the spine, but the demon's thick, tough skin
must have deflected the b
ullets.

Jocelin was looking at the demon quietly. It stepped forward slowly and dropped to all fours.

Lucien nodded sharply
. “I knew we needed something magic to take it down. In the next fifteen seconds, enchant your gun if you can. Get something on it like what's on my angelslayers. Guessing is fine at this point. Just try to take it down before it injures too many people.”
Lalael nodded and closed his eyes, clutching the gun tightly.

The demon flung itself toward Jocelin. The familiar crack of displaced air was followed by a loud thump and crash and crack, for as Jocelin's wide golden wings came fully realized and beat once and flung the angel over the demon's head, it crashed into a pillar on the opposite side of the room.

“
Lucien,” Lalael hissed suddenly. “It's too big to get through the pillars.”

“
No kidding, but I'm not going to go in there to get Jocelin, and you do not get to keep that thing as a pet. What is Jocelin
doing
?” Lucien demanded.

Jocelin was staring at the demon again. It had risen and was stalking around the perimeter of the pillared circle, snorting and eying the angel. “Thou art an evil thing. Evil things must be punished or killed.”

“
Come on, Jos,” Lucien was hissing quietly, “Keep it away from the kid...”

Lalael shut his eyes tighter and forced power at the gun. Lucien could feel him doing it. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand up, unless that was caused by their imminent death.

“
We have decided to kill thee.”

To the shock of the two fully-sentient beings in the room, the angel walked boldly up to the demon and gently took hold of its horns. The demon froze as Jocelin stared deep into its eyes. “We feel pity for thee and wish thou hadst not come.” The demon tried to raise its head to shake Jocelin off, but in the blink of an eye, in one small, swift movement, the angel had broken its neck with a deft, effortless twist.

Lalael and Lucien looked at each other in shock. Lalael lowered the gun again.

“
Servant Lalael, fetch thine own servants and remove this from the front hall, for it is unsightly.” Lalael went pale and unpleasantly flustered. Jocelin floated around the pillar and looked down at Lucien. “Our own, Most Highly Honored Fallen, why are you kneeling?”

“
Low to the floor,” Lucien mumbled. “Harder for the demon to see.”

“
We killed it for you, our Honored Fallen,” Jocelin said with something akin to pride. Lalael shifted his stance to reflect casual defensiveness. “It is a gift for you. Another.”

“
Thank you, Jocelin, but we could have managed by ourselves,” Lalael said. He put the safety on and tucked it away.

The other angel's face darkened, and Jocelin grabbed Lucien's wrist and dragged him up. “Lalael the Coward may handle the dead thing. You must come with us so we can tell everyone of your bravery and courage.”

Lalael flushed with rage.

“
Well, if you say so, Jos,” Lucien said hesitantly, glancing between Jocelin and Lalael, and Jocelin made a quiet happy noise at the nickname, “but you killed it.”