Their Best Bet (Closed for Lucian_Devine)

[Lucian_Devine]

Gadiel, who had of course been looking into Aosoth's eyes, saw the exact moment that she realized, truly realized what he'd done. He saw her ruby eyes open in complete and utter shock, and when they did, they weren't met with scorn or mocking, but what he hoped she understood to be true happiness as another tear fell. He knew how much she wanted, and knew how little he could give her, but that one thing, that he could give her, and had been happy to. Between that look and his words, he had hoped that it would be enough, but when Aosoth started to speak, he knew that he'd lost her, well and truly lost her.

The pair moved as one once more, steeling their faces, widening their stances, and squaring their shoulders. "As you wish, Aosoth." Gadiel conceded softly as he held her gaze, sharing a moment of silence with her before nodding along with her as she counted it down for them.

When Aosoth said the word "three", they each leaned forward, leaning their chests into each other's hands as they pressed their hands into each other's chests. Gadiel expected pain. He expected a burning and searing pain beyond anything he'd ever experienced before, but this was worlds beyond anything he'd ever experienced, imagined and even tried to imagine.

The second Aosoth's hand touched his chest, Gadiel's left hand clamped onto Aosoth's shoulder like a vice as his head dropped onto her shoulder. His throat let loose a deep a primal scream that he'd never made before, and his eyes were closed so tightly that tears were streaming down his cheeks. What's worse was that it wasn't just a passing pain, but a long and lingering pain that seemed like it would never end!

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

The pain was all-encompassing.

Fire singed her nerves, drew tears to wide eyes, and caused ringing in slightly pointed ears. It wasn't that she hadn't expected it. She had due to the pain caused by drawing the sigils, BUT she hadn't believed it would hit so quickly! Without thinking, she stumbled closer, her clawed hand flexing against the pale marbled chest of the masculine presence before her. Tears poured in vast rivulets along the rounded slopes of her cheeks even as her head fell forward to rest next to the hand still pressed against Gadiel's chest.

Pain shocked her wings into motion, now darkened gray and black, never to be white again. She felt the brush of countless feathers and struggled against the urge to scream as those softened bits of self grew long and touched burnished flesh. Aosoth felt broken beyond measure between the growth and pain of the binding. Uncounted moments later, the pain finally eased, but by then, the contract was visible between their feet- a dusty parchment outlining the bet.

As soon as the pain eased, Aosoth stepped back, her breath a jagged wind underlined by flowing tears and gasping sobs. Still, she bent to the ground and delicately lifted up the parchment with one trembling hand. "The game is afoot, Gadiel." She snapped limber digits and made a copy before handing the original form to her counterpart. "Be sure this is what you agreed to before I leave." The moment he took the copy from her hand, her own gaze would latch onto the agreement, noting the rules, the initial city, and the rest of their conversation. Everything was in order, but she knew it would be.

The Morningstar enjoyed these games far too much to allow cheating from the outset.

"Is there anything else, or are we finished here?" While the query was quietly asked, the demoness did NOT gaze upon her one-time partner. Instead, she studied her toes, flared her wings, and tucked them tight. Anything to avoid his bright violet gaze and the pain she knew she'd see within their depths.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

Even when the pain had started to ease, Gadiel had been in no hurry to separate himself from Aosoth. As such though, when she stepped back, he crumpled, catching himself on a single knee and a clenched fist. "Gaw...FUCK!" He shouted, barely able to stop himself from taking the creator's name in vain by shouting a cuss instead.

"Does it...always hurt like that, Aosoth? Gadiel asked, as he was still gasping for breath, blinking back tear, and looking up at Aosoth from his kneeling position as she bent to the ground and picked up the document that would show their entire agreement in writing. As she did so, he saw the third vial on the ground, it's label pressed into the ground, unreadable unless it was picked up or turned over. "I mean seriously...who would ever do that more than once?"
When Aosoth snapped her fingers, making a copy of the document for him, Gadiel forced himself to his feet and took the original document that she offered to him so that he could read it in it's entirety. It was everything they'd agreed upon, as he'd expected it would. With stakes this high, the risks of cheating were too great. The only smart thing to do was play fair.

Aosoth's final query came with her head bowed, a flare of her wings that he could see was painless for her now, and a final tuck back into position. He flicked his tongue across his lips, hesitating before speaking, knowing that regardless of his intent, his words could be taken so many different ways, and yet he knew he had to try, for the same reason he'd done it in the first place.

"This seems an awkward time to start a game, don't you think, some random time between sunset and sunrise. How about we agree to start and end each one at sunrise, unless the hour gets triggered, and you use some of that free time to just...fly...before the game starts and you lose access to them again...?"

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

"Yes, it always feels like that: every game, every bet, every soul. One does what one can to mitigate the agony, but sometimes you must take it."

The words slipped quietly into the space between them. How could she explain that the pain was a way of making SURE that a pair were committed to their agreement? If one backed out before the binding had settled, the bet or game crumpled, washed away on wings of ash. It was the best way to test the combatants. Not only that, but the pain underlined just how serious the stakes were. She'd felt that pain in myriad ways...and in the end, she had always won.

"I will not lose them this time, Gadiel. The Creator burned them away due to the fall, and though the Morningstar prefers more "dragony" appendages, I never bothered to make myself more. What would have been the point?" Her voice faltered momentarily as her wings lifted again, full of dark feathers and rustling quietly. "I agree to the dawn as our beginning, three days from now."

Finally, Aosoth reached down and placed a gentle hand upon his bent head, clawed fingers ruffling his tousled mane. Eventually, she stopped and reached down to help him up. Still, she did not look at him, her eyes trained to look beyond, into the darkness of the crossroad. "Now, if our business is done? I would really like to return...home."

She hoped he'd let her leave without speaking another word.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

Aosoth's words were soft and quiet, leading to an unexpectedly tender moment between the two of them as he'd felt her clawed hand on his head and in his hair as he'd taken that extra bit to recover that she hadn't needed. She's misunderstood his words a bit, but he smiled, even as he allowed their gazes to avoid each others'.

"I meant a fly before our game begins and you are bound to a vessel and unable to use them." Gadiel said as he led the way towards the outermost circle of the demon trap, which flashed once more, along with their parchments, when they agreed upon a different starting time. "It would be a shame to be bound to a vessel before you got a chance to take your newly regrown wings for their first test flight after all."

Gadiel spoke his last works at Aosoth rather than to her, once again respecting the fact that she didn't want to meet his gaze. He also did so as he placed his foot in front of the outer most line in the dirt of the demon trap.

Without saying another word or hesitating after deliberately letting his foot land there, Gadiel pushed his foot forward in the dirt. The motion broke the seal of the trap, causing a quick but blindingly bright flash of light in the process, before settling back into the twilight of the stars and the moon once more. Though it wasn't necessary, he also brushed his foot to the side, brushing away even more of the outer circle, as well as the outer pentagram, as a show of good faith once more. He then stepped back, bowing his head and averting his eyes, even though Aosoth didn't need to exit the trap that way if she didn't want to with the seal broken as it was.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

​

Aosoth scooted out of the pentagram with a sigh and dared a quick look back at her counterpart before spinning twice and disappearing into the ether. Almost as soon as her spin ended, the burbling of the River Styx greeted her as it wended its way through the Seventh Gate. She was home. Immediately, her wings caught a downdraft, and she launched herself up, flying amongst the roiling "clouds" that divvied one level from another.

She'd worry about finding her vessels after a good fly.

---

The demoness did not search long for the right kind of host. She knew what she required, and there were always women on Earth tired of hurting, being bullied, or being abused. The depths of rage some of those women felt? It was like catnip to one such as herself. She could ASK to use them, and as long as no lasting harm happened while she used their bodies, they'd be happy to provide her with a safe place to land.

What took the most time was locating the myriad tricks and weapons she could use while on Earth. Her home, located deep within the seventh circle, held little of note because everything within only worked in HER hellscape. She could not bring any of it to mortal lands without a true need. This bet, as important as it might be, did not require that kind of firepower. Instead, she researched what would work best on Earth and readied three go-bags, each loaded with various things for spellwork and capture.

Of course, returning to the mortal lands was a bit difficult without being summoned. Unlike the Angelic Host, those who were considered Fallen had to be invited and make deals to use the host body. Finding the right SORT of host took time, but by the morning of the fourth day, she'd managed to do so. The woman she'd chosen, Coretta Jones, was exactly the type of body she liked. Caramel-hued, bright-eyed, petite. The fact that the woman was a naturally gifted medium and a dab hand with runic-based spells only made her a better fit.

As the sun rose over Central Park, Aosoth drew in her first true breath and tucked the mortal soul behind a wall in her mind. Until this hunt ended, there was no need for her. Now she could let the game...begin.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

Though Gadiel kept his head bowed and his gaze averted, he felt a tingle run up his spine before he felt Aosoth's presence disappear from the mortal realm. He let out a soft sigh, wishing that he could have seen her fly just once before he disappeared, even if he understood why it couldn't happen and why she preferred it otherwise.

With a soft sigh, Gadiel doubled back to the center of the demon trap and moved to sit once more. He pulled the third vial from the dirt, and his fingers toyed with it, circling the rim and the various curves before he turned it over. He looked at the label on the vial just once more time as he slid his finger across it, ensuring that it was securely in place. His eyes then closed as he closed his fist around the vial as he steeled himself for what was to come.

When Gadiel was as ready as he was going to get, he opened his hand and pushed the empty vial back into the dirt before rising to his feet. He looked down at the parchment that he held, closed his eyes, and was gone from the mortal plane.



Gadiel had chosen the city of New York for so many reasons. Yes, it had it's fair share of vessels for Aosoth, but it had it's fair share of vessels for him as well. The hard part of course was picking the perfect one. He could pick one to try to blend in, but then she could have expected him to do that. That would mean that he should pick one that stands out. Or perhaps she would have suspected that he would have expected her to expect him to do that, meaning that he should pick one that blends in. But what if... "Fuck it...I'm going on gut instinct for game one." Gadiel said into the infinite void of heaven that he'd been staring into before disappearing out of heaven and back into the mortal world once more, this time in the mortal vessel of his choice.



Maxwell Jameson had been an ally for good for a long time. He worked as a public defender, and had basically been doing nothing else ever since he'd started doing it. The arm of the law was long and misguided, and he considered it his mission to give the best possible legal defense to those that couldn't afford it. His single-minded devotion also came with a secondary purpose though, and in this case it was to help hide the angel that was hiding in the back of his consciousness from the fallen angel that would be searching for it.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

Manhattan's skyline was a dizzying array, lit as it was by the sun's rising. Peachy-pink clouds lingered, burning away slowly as the heat index rose and the denizens began to go about their days. Far above the scurrying ant-like forms, Aosoth watched, safely ensconced within the shell of her chosen vessel and hidden behind stout stone and glass walls. Witchery paid VERY well, at least if one judged based upon "Coretta's" penthouse.

Her home was a large, airy affair in one of those highrises that littered Manhattan's Upper East Side while overlooking Central Park. Though there was some distance between that vast swath of green and her vessel's home, Aosoth found it quite comfortable. In fact, the Fallen Angel was hard-pressed to think of a more comforting abode. The penthouse had been properly warded by the end of her first day on Earth. Enochian script and sigils were traced onto the entry and exit doors, the rising scent of sage and myrrh adding heft to each hand-drawn sigil and script. Runes graced window sills and door frames, traced in cinnamon oil and Coretta's own blood, hidden beneath spring and summer foliage, stashed in corners or beneath hand-woven rugs.

Gadiel would have to search far afield to find her.

---

"Come, Mrs. Latrell, and tell me your problems."

The nice older lady had come to Coretta's home for an appointment hoping to speak to her dearly departed husband. Of course, Aosoth had no reason to be involved in that particular contretemps. What good could her power do? So she'd stepped back and allowed Coretta to run the show, staying hidden deep within the mortal woman's psyche as she went about her day and not stepping forward until much later when the witchy woman decided it was past time to go to the gym.

Working out was harder in a mortal body. Damage hurt. Kicks, punches, scrapes? They all seared flesh and left bruises and abrasions behind, but neither the Demoness nor her host were overly worried. The pain helped focus the pair as they prepared themselves for the first ritual of the week, a simple search for Gadiel's Angelic signal. Just like every human wandering the face of the Earth, Angels and "demons: had unique "souls" that resonated sharply when certain notes were sung or certain sigils were drawn. Though Aosoth could not find him immediately, doing the first rite would at least give her a general location.

'Don't think about it yet. Focus on punching this dude's face off, instead...' The low purr of Coretta's thoughts drew Aosoth back to the present only to be knocked silly by an uppercut from her sparring partner. 'Wrath's General is NOT living up to her reputation...' An internal snicker goaded the demoness into a flurry of attacks that ended with the man flat on his back, staring at the ceiling, his head still ringing.
'Better. I guess Dougie will pay me back once you're gone; ain't no way I could do that!!'

The internal banter carried host and passenger through the rest of the evening. By midnight, Aosoth was once more fully in control and nude in the center of the living room. A large pentagram, nine feet in diameter, held a pure white goat, a silver bowl, and a sharp dagger within its confines. Aosoth had hand drawn each sigil, offered every chant, dripped the right amount of her host's blood, and gathered the appropriate tools for scrying. A black velvet bedecked table held a small quartz crystal ball and, once the goat had been sacrificed and the blood used to anoint it, the demoness wasted no time searching the crystal for a clue.

A direction.

A hint.

All that appeared was a flickering vision- a court house??

 

[Lucian_Devine]

"Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, and..." "I DIDN'T DO IT! I DIDN'T DO IT! I DIDN'T FUCKING DO IT!" Gadiel had been slogging through Maxwell's day, helping in the small way that he could by just knowing for sure that guilty people were guilty, sparing him the uncertainty and helping him just convince the guilty people to just take the best plea deal they could get. when the sound of somebody shouting through the halls caught, well everyone's attention.

Maxwell had just finished up with a client, and, like everyone else, was curious as to the cause of the shouting. When he saw that it was a roughed up looking black kid getting hauled toward the back room in cuffs by a couple of officers though, he stepped forward.

"What seems to be the problem officers?" Who do we have here, and has he been read his rights?" Maxwell asked as he stood in the way of the officers. "Kid's a fucking cop killer. He ain't got a lawyer, and he ain't gonna fucking get one, Jameson. Now get outa the fucking way." "Fuck you pig! I ain't no fucking cop killer! I was set up!" "I don't know, Benson. He says he isn't a cop killer. Why don't you put him in there, and let me have a word with him?"

As much as the officers didn't want to do it, they knew they had no choice. So before long, the kid was sitting in a room with Maxwell, uncuffed, with the cameras off, telling him exactly what happened. The story of course sounded sketchy, and it was no wonder why Officer Benson reacted the way that he did. Maxwell probably would have acted exactly the same way if not for Gadiel knowing for a fact that the kid was innocent.

"The kid doesn't look like a murderer, sound like a murderer, and more importantly, there's no taint on his soul." Gadiel told Maxwell in the privacy of the man's own mind. "If he can give us something to give to the authorities to point them to the real killer it would go a long way, but even a facial description would be something."

The hardest part about cases like this was of course heading home for the day, but with the officers knowing that they had a lawyer and telling them that they'd be checking back in the next day usually helped keep things in check, as long as he followed through. It was especially bad in this case, because he knew that he had things that he had to do. The first thing he had to do after he got off work was to stop off at the closest botanical shop for herbs and pray that they were still open. When the creator seemed to be with him, he bought enough moonwort, white sage, abalone, and fresh cinnamon to burn as incense whenever he was at home to last a week. He also bought a simple chain and blank pendant that he would inscribe when he got home. He was the most concerned about being caught unaware at home when he was asleep and alone, figuring that Aosoth would be less likely to try a very public kidnapping for obvious reasons. So he was prioritizing his protection there.

After paying for his haul, Maxwell headed home, but Gadiel took over when they entered the apartment, sweeping the place setting up the incense, inscribing the rune of protection into the pendant, putting it on, and then putting a shirt on over it before stepping back into Maxwell's mind once more. One day down, and six more to go.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

Days 2 and 3​

Searching for the right courthouse took time. Despite having an idea of what Gadiel required by way of a vessel, there were far too many mortals who could possibly fit his needs located within New York City's vast confines. Plus there was the need to figure out just HOW his host was connected to the law. Was he a judge?? A lawyer? A bailiff? A court stenographer? Maybe he was a court reporter. There were so many jobs connected to a building filled with maintaining the law, punishing the guilty, and protecting the innocent from harm. Gadiel could be any of them.

So the next afternoon was spent traipsing around until she found the building that most closely resembled what she'd seen within Coretta's scrying crystal. It was fairly weathered, located in Brooklyn, and the criminal court for Kings County. There was an air of suspension there as if something had blessed the area around it with light. However, Aosoth could not be SURE, and it wasn't like she could wander in without a reason, right? Instead, she marked the place on a well-worn map and retreated.

There was work to do.

The demoness spent the rest of the day marking the other criminal courts in each borough, bringing the total to seven. After that, she stepped back and allowed Coretta a chance to take over while plotting out the easiest way to find out who Gadiel was masquerading as. By the time her vessel had retreated to the penthouse for the evening's business, Aosoth had a plan. All she needed was the proper tools for the next bit of sleuthing, something she could gather once the sun rose again.

Day three began with a trip to one of Coretta's favorite places; Stick, Stone and Bone. Aosoth guided her vessel toward a collection of Black Tourmaline which were useful for protection. The pair chose seven, all relatively the same size and shape with one side flat enough to inscribe Enochian sigils or runic magic. After paying for them, Aosoth stepped back, allowed her host to go about that day's business, and only came out once they were back home. At that point, Aosoth took over, First, she inscribed Gadiel's name on each one before binding it with a tracking rune. All seven stones were left on the railing of Coretta's balcony, there to be bathed by the night's energies for an hour.

Just before ten PM, Aosoth headed back out into the city. Luckily, Coretta had noted that the runic work was only half completed. A momentary pause was all that was required to gather up an antique silver bracelet and charm it to react to the stones. That way, if Gadiel came into contact with ANY of them, the jewelry would heat up. The hotter the burn, the closer the courthouse was where she would be able to find her prey. It was an ingenious piece of work, and Aosoth was sure it would come in handy.

She continued placing her stones near their respective courthouses. By sun-up of day four, the demoness was certain she'd find him. Soon.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

When Maxwell returned, with Gadiel in tow of course, they were both glad to see that nobody had been stupid enough to try to harm the kid during the night. They took the opportunity. to question the kid, whose name was Darnell, further. They listened to the story again, listening about how the kid was just walking down the street, walked past the cop car, the cop car flashed his lights and pulled out after him, how Darnell hadn't been doing anything, but didn't trust cops and ran. The cop car chased him, got to a point where the car couldn't go, the two officers had chased him on foot, and how Darnell had hid but could see the officers. Darnell had watched one officer shoot the other, run back to the car, and call it in. The story sounded just as ridiculous the second time around, but just like the first time, Gadiel knew for a fact that the kid was telling the truth. The kid had no priors. So why would he go from literally nothing to killing a cop.

Maxwell sent Darnell back to holding after asking him where the shooting happened and headed to his car. It was while he was driving to the scene that Maxwell asked Gadiel, "Are you allowed to be helping me with things like this, normally I mean?" "Normally no. However, given that you are currently being generous enough to house me at all, under no small amount of risk to yourself, I feel that certain exceptions can be made, especially since this pertains to your job, which is part of your daily life." "Speaking of housing you. I don't think you ever mentioned why you were doing all of this in the first place." Gadiel physically chuckled at that, which admittedly which was very weird to Maxwell, hearing himself chuckle when it wasn't actually him chuckling, but he figured it was best not to think about that much, lest his head explode. "The answer to that is...so much more complicated than you would likely expect, but let's just say that a very close friend of mine is in trouble, and the only way to get them back is to play a very risky game, of which even all of this, is only just one part."

Maxwell and Gadiel remained silent for the remainder of the drive after that, with their destination naturally being behind a line of police tape. "Of course they'd be here..." Maxwell thought to himself. "We should have thought of this...this was a waste of a trip." "We did think of this. Now just grab a parking space, and make sure that you don't freak out, no matter what happens next." "Next? Why? What's going to happen next?"

Gadiel effortlessly took control of Maxwell's body then, paying him no mind as he walked it over towards the police tape line, walking it past the reporter line that was waiting none-to-patiently for an update. He made to walk under it so that the officer manning the line had to stop him, just so that he could call attention to himself. "Oh, is this where that cop was killed? Any update on all of that yet?" "No updates at this time." "Really? No updates on whether his partner really killed him or which one of these buildings is gonna release the footage of the shooting?! DAMN!" And without another he just walked back to his car, ignoring the reporters trailing after him for a statement and drove off, almost running over one of them in the process.

"What the hell man? You can't just do that like that! I mean do you know what you just did?" "I can't just do what, basically tell the truth and incidentally recruit a bunch of reporters to help us prove it way faster than we could possibly prove it ourselves?" Gadiel pulled over briefly and passed control back to Maxwell so he could explain while Maxwell drove them back to Darnell. "Lawyers always get a bad wrap for not having a soul, always lying, heaven not having them, blah blah blah, but reporters do just as much damage as lawyers do, but don't get nearly as bad a reputation. The difference here though, is that it doesn't matter what they do to get the evidence we need, because the evidence is actually going to help put a bad guy behind bars and get a good guy out from behind bars. So you just get us home safe. We'll look after Darnell until he gets out, and we'll take care of the rest as it comes, okay?"