Chapter 14: The Angel of Death and a World of Shadows

Alix and Keep tracked Este's scent to a quaint little house in the French Quarter right around the witching hour, something Alix found mildly amusing all things considered. She left Keep to watch for any unexpected company while she broke the lock and let herself inside. Este wasn't home; Alix would've been able to sense the souls of anyone inside, but she was alone. The house was surprisingly cozy, but then Alix didn't spend a lot of time in the homes of serial killers so she wasn't sure what to expect to begin with. There were small shrines for certain Greek gods, including one with statues representing each of the pantheon gods, though Artemis was curiously missing, likely removed after their first meeting.

They say not to meet your heroes after all.

The thought earned a quiet laugh before Alix moved further inside.

She smiled: this time, she would be the one laying a trap.

#

Keep had hidden well melted into the shadows and there was nothing else to tip Este off that her home had been invaded; by the time she crossed the threshold, it was too late. She stepped through the door and suddenly the world changed, replaced with an exact replica void of color or real light and outlined in pale, silvery lines with glowing lights filling the room like tiny stars.

"What on Earth—?" She stopped when a shadowy beast—one of the suremnocte, a creature of living void with far too many teeth and far too many eyes—caused the stars to flicker around her, terror rising inside as she looked around with wide violet eyes.

"Hello again, little witch." Alix broke her silence with a brief smile, more of the ink-black creatures moving behind her as if she attracted them, "I believe we have some unfinished business." Este looked up at Alix and a chill ran down her spine as her missing arm itched.

"You bloody mollisher!" Este's gaze sparked to match the gold thread of her soul as she shouted the insult, but Alix didn't care because any humanity she might normally display was gone. Alix's expression was cold, void of all emotion just as the world around them was of color.

Not even the eternal hunger was visible in her hellfire gaze.

She said nothing as she approached Este, her silence speaking volumes as the other woman was backing up against the wall behind her. "Wha-what is this place?" Alix flashed a brief smile filled with hunger-driven madness.

"Do you like it?" She gestured at the world around them, "I call it the world of shadows; in essence, we're in the Moira—the veil." She glanced at the false stars around them, "As for all of this? Well," a fire lit in Alix's palm, the black flames licking out in dark blues and deep purples from a core as dark as her eyes as frost spread down her arm, "it's only fair that you see the world the way I do before you die, don't you think?" Este shrank back closer to the wall; even as powerful as she was and as lucky as she'd been in the past, Alix was known as the God Slayer and Angel of Death for good reason: her Hellfire could burn out a being's soul, it didn't matter who or what they were, that flame meant death.

And it would have for Este Demetriou as well, but fate had other plans that day.

"Azrael?" Zadkiel's voice cut through the darkness from outside the Moira as if from underwater and Alix stopped, the flame in her hand flickering out as she tilted her head slightly to one side, listening. "Your Hound is here, so you must be nearby." She exhaled slowly, running her fingers through her raven hair and raking it up into a knot as the hellfire in her eyes flickered back to liquid mercury. Alix took a step back, away from Este and the world rippled around her.

"Have fun while I'm gone," she spoke quickly to the confused woman, "and do try to stay alive, I haven't taken my pound of flesh, yet." Then she was gone, suddenly appearing in the living room of Este's house just as Zadkiel had turned his back. "What are you doing here?" Zadkiel turned to face her again, glancing briefly at Keep as the Hellhound drifted silently to her side.

"Looking for you." She started to ask a follow-up question, but he'd already guessed what it was, "Your Hounds showed me the way." He gestured at Isiel and Irael where the two sat in the shadows behind him and Alix shot the pair a sharp look. The twins shied away from her, but she couldn't stay too angry with them when they hadn't really done anything wrong.

"You did what I asked of you, go on home now, loves." Her voice was uncharacteristically gentle as she dismissed the two Hellhounds and they turned, their striped forms disappearing into the dark in a split second.

"What is this place?" Zadkiel broke his silence as he looked around and Alix shrugged.

"Just a house," she spoke dismissively, her expression giving nothing away despite the look of disbelief he shot her, "What did you find? Is Luci still there?" Alix asked as if she didn't already know the answer: Lucifer wouldn't be leaving until she did one way or another. He shot her another look she couldn't quite decipher at her use of the nickname.

"I could not get close if I wanted to remain unnoticed, but yes, he appears to still be there," Zadkiel spoke as he turned toward Alix's small castle, taking her by the wrist and dragging her along as if she were a child. "I will take you to Heaven with me. There, you will be out of his reach and you can serve out your thousand-year sentence in the Pit." A thousand years were nothing to Alix, not when she'd lived a few billion, so that wasn't what made her pull free of his grip in mild alarm.

"That's your plan?" He stopped when she shook him off, turning to meet her quicksilver gaze.

"You are a weapon, Azrael, one he absolutely cannot have. It would be for the best if you are where he cannot reach you." Zadkiel spoke calmly despite the outrage in her eyes.

"No, Zak. All that will do is postpone the inevitable here on Earth while you set me loose on Heaven because the Caretaker wants me dead just as much now as he did when I was born, maybe even more so. I may have been born there, but I'm not like you; I don't think I ever have been." There was something like grief or pain in her voice when she continued: the Corvid Prince had given her purpose when he named her his champion, but he had yet to write into her story a true home, "I haven't been welcome there in a very long time." He studied her for what felt like an eternity before something made him consent. He took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers as he exhaled slowly.

"Alright," he spoke finally, "then I suggest we make a plan because it is too late for you to simply run and Lucifer was not the type to sit down and talk things out even before you left Hell." Alix nodded her agreement, moving past him to continue up the road toward her home with Keep close on her heels.

#

The front door was open when the trio arrived back at the castle and Alix's hand moved near imperceptibly to the kinjal in her coat, the cursed black blade singing quietly as she freed it from its sheath. Keep bared his teeth in a silent snarl, his hackles and the sharp spines along his back standing on end at some unfamiliar and unwelcome scent. Zadkiel drew a weapon of his own from somewhere within his coat, a sword forged of concentrated divine energy, but he was a little slow to follow them over the threshold. Alix gave Keep a silent signal with the flick of a wrist and the hellhound's form vanished soundlessly into the shadows despite his large size. She moved down the hall with silent steps, following the hushed voices she could hear from deeper into the darkness. Then, when she found the source in her library, she stepped through the shadows, reappearing in range to close her free hand around Nathaniel River's throat to slam him against the wall while her kinjal kept his sister at bay.

"I thought I asked the pair of you to leave me be." Nathaniel struggled in her grip, his fingers trying to claw her hand away while his feet kicked in the air struggling desperately to reach the wood floor again. Tears ran down Marie's cheeks as she tried to get past Alix's blade so that she could try to help her brother. "I have bigger problems at the moment than a pair of amateur hunters," at her words, Keep slunk out of the shadows, and slowly drove Marie into the corner, "maybe I should just eat you and save myself from future trouble." Alix smiled as her eyes turned darker than black, swallowed by hellfire and she cocked her head to one side in thought, "I wonder what you'd taste like as His witnesses." She spoke softly, trailing off as Zadkiel stepped into the room behind her, his blade stowed away somewhere well hidden and open hands raised in what was apparently meant to be an appeasing gesture.

"Azrael, if you eat them, there will be repercussions even you will come to regret."

"Why shouldn't I, though? I'm a demon, after all, and half mad thanks to Him already." Alix's voice was bitter as she spoke the words, the hunger in her eyes barely able to match the pain.

"We need all of the help we can get," Zadkiel spoke with uncharacteristic gentleness, resting a hand on her shoulder, if hesitantly, in a show of reassurance. After a moment of silent consideration, Alix breathed a sigh of defeat as she let Nathaniel slip from her grasp and lowered her kinjal, allowing Marie to rush past Keep to her brother's aid as his feet and then knees hit the ground and he gasped for air. Alix closed her eyes, turning to lean against Zadkiel, her forehead pressed to his shoulder in an attempt to steal some of his warmth while she willed her hunger-driven darker impulses away. He stiffened at first, not sure what to expect when they hadn't parted on the best of terms all those years ago and was, as he knew full well, a living weapon, but after a moment he relaxed slightly, wrapping an arm tentatively around her as he realized what she was trying to do. "How long has it been since you had a decent rest?" He maintained his gentle tone and Alix mumbled something mostly incoherent about it being somewhere in 1800 BCE, trailing off when she realized it was around the last time she'd seen him. Zadkiel shook his head slightly and steered her towards the spiral stairs in the corner of her library, "At least try, you're no good to anyone if you pass out," she started to argue that she'd never passed out from exhaustion once in her entire very long life, but he didn't let her get a word in, "I'll deal with them." Still, she hesitated a moment more before relenting, disappearing up the stairs and down the hall.