Angels Unawares

By Wesa

Series: Brimstone

AU: TTD

Disclaimers: Brimstone characters belong to Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, Warner Brothers, and now I guess to SciFi. Cassie and Lindor belong to me (Sorry, Luke). Israfel belongs to himself and to God.

Rating: PG-13 for suggested violence and sexual situations.

By Wesa.

In her Lilith persona so as not to be recognized, Cassie gazed at the man in the hospital bed, willing him to waken. When he stirred, she allowed her natural luminous glow to partly show through her human skin, competing with the early dawn light that shone through the east-facing windows. "Fear not, Joseph," she said softly. "You will survive these injuries." He gazed at her in adoration, reaching to cross himself. "Your life is in jeopardy because the woman knows who you are. She knows, Joseph. She'll come for you. She'll kill you if you don't tell the detective what you know," Cassie murmured. "God knows you're keeping silent to protect the vow you made to Him, but He never meant you to offer consolation to the Damned. She was never meant to escape from Hell. You owe her nothing."

"There was nothing in the vows I took about exceptions to the Silence of the Confessional," Father Joseph whispered, his eyes widening fearfully. "Get thee behind me, Satan!"

Cassie smiled. "Certainly, though I think you have your genders confused." She toned down her brightness as she moved to the head of his bed.

He turned as much as his pain would allow him to, trying to keep her in his line of sight. "What are you doing?"

"You know, it's very difficult to get behind you when you keep turning like that," Cassie pointed out. "Besides, I can't think it's good for your stitches."

"What do you want of me?" Cassie didn't answer, but merely tilted her head to one side and smiled. "I will not betray my God!" the priest insisted.

"He's my God, too, you know," Cassie replied. "He's my Father. It would be no betrayal to tell the man who is coming about the Countess. Father wants her recaptured. It is not His will that any more victims should be tortured and killed."

"There's another way. There has to be another way!" Joseph panicked.

"Now settle down, your health isn't good enough to be able to stand for your blood pressure to shoot up that much." Cassie fluffed the pillows under Father Joseph's head. "You do know her real name, don't you?"

He hesitated, then shook his head. "The others call her Amber."

"It's more modern than her real name," Cassie said, seating herself on the edge of the priest's bed, where he could get a good look at her legs and smell the scent she knew came through from her angelic body. "And Amber Bethany is more suited to her chosen method of selecting victims in this century than Countess Elizabeth Bathory." Father Joseph looked up at her blankly. "Don't know the name? Tsk." She paused, stroking the priest's hand. "Whatever has become of public education? She'll be back for you, Joseph, if you don't tell the detective what you know." With a flash of intensely bright light, she was gone, leaving Father Joseph shivering in fear.

A moment later there was a knock on the open door. "Father? Are you awake?" Zeke called softly as he entered, taking out his police badge and ID. "I'm Detective Ezekiel Stone. I wondered if you might feel up to answering a few questions. - Hey, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Father Joseph shook his head. "Far, far worse," he whispered. "She was a demon from Hell. She must have been."

"Here? She was here?" Zeke reached for his gun. "Wait - Who was here?"

"She's gone," Father Joseph told him. "And I doubt the gun would do either of us any good, not against that one." He frowned suspiciously. "You believe me? Why would you believe me?"

Zeke hesitated. He'd already told Father Horn who he was and what his mission was on Earth, and the blind priest had believed him. Rosalyn hadn't believed him, or at least she had thought he was speaking metaphorically when he had told her he had made a deal with the Devil, until Lindor had proved his words. Would he be pushing his luck to tell Father Joseph the truth?

"It'll sound crazy," Zeke finally said slowly, "but I swear it's true. I was a cop in New York. Married. I had a good life, and I loved my wife. Then she was raped, and the guy who did it got off on a technicality, so I tracked him down and killed him. A few months later I was killed by a punk thief, and because I had killed a man in cold blood, I was sent to Hell." Father Joseph gasped. "I'm not crazy, Father," Zeke added gently. "A couple of years ago there was a breakout. I don't know how, someone found a tear in the fabric of Creation, or something. Anyway, a hundred and thirteen escaped, and now they're back, walking the Earth. Some are worse than others, but they're in the same world with the woman I love, and they don't belong here. So when the Devil offered me another chance at life if I would send them back, I agreed." His mouth quirked into a lopsided smile. "I guess you could call me a demon from Hell, too. At least, I am one of the Damned, for now. So tell me, who was here, and what did she tell you?"

The priest shook his head. "She didn't say who she was," he replied slowly. "She only told me that I had to tell you what I knew or Amber would come and kill me. And she said something about Amber's real name being Elizabeth Bathory."

"What made you think she was a demon?" he asked.

"She was trying to make me break my vows," Father Joseph murmured. "I can't be more specific than that. I'm sorry."

"She tried to seduce you?"

"Kind of half-heartedly," the priest admitted.

"She used your vow to observe the silence of the Confessional to feed you information," Zeke observed with a grin as he realized the 'demon' had been Cassie. "She's as tricky as her husband." I wonder if he knows?

"Her husband?" repeated Father Joseph.

Zeke shook his head. "You don't want to know," he assured him.

**********

On the roof six floors above, Luke embraced his wife. "You did well," he told her. "You fed him enough information that he doesn't have to break the Silence of the Confessional to tell Ezekiel what he needs to know about the Countess. That will be enough." He smiled down at her. "You're sneaky," he added. "I find I like this in my wife."

Cassie chuckled and caressed him intimately. "I like this in your wife," she countered, leaning over backwards and dragging him down to the hospital rooftop with her. "Come here."

"Again? Are you in heat?" he laughed delightedly. "You're insatiable!"

"Don't let that keep you from trying, my husband!" Cassie insisted, divesting him of garments as she rolled them both over and straddled him. She leaned down and pressed her mouth against his, her tongue probing enthusiastically while Luke ran his hands up her thighs and under her short skirt.

As the stars faded in the growing light of morning, they made love, trying again to merge their spirits as they had managed to do only once since the day of their creation.

**********

Another growth spurt had made Lindor too restless for the confines of the schoolroom, so Ros suggested a natural science outing. Israfel came along to provide protection, and they picked up Max and a picnic lunch, and by mid-morning the four of them were in the forested canyons above the city, where Lindor's natural curiosity led them in an exploration of the flora, fauna, and geology of the region.

"Man, I wish I'd had teachers like you when I was a kid," Max told her. "We never got to come anywhere like this for school." She gestured at the forest towering around them. "I feel like I'm on vacation."

"I only have one student to keep up with," Ros pointed out. "Granted, he's an exceptional student, and more difficult to keep up with than most, but he's still only one."

"It must make lesson planning interesting," Israfel observed, watching Lindor prod at a rock.

"All I do is provide the information," Ros said. "He absorbs everything. I don't even try to test him anymore." She gasped as Lindor turned and she saw the animal her charge held. "Lindor, put that down! Carefully!"

The boy looked at his teacher innocently, still gently stroking the eye ridges of the rattlesnake he was holding. "It's all right, Mrs. Stone," he said. "She's not afraid. She won't bite me."

"Obey first, argue later," Ros told him urgently.

Israfel smiled wryly as Lindor put the snake back where he had found it. "He's so much like his father, always thinking he knows best. I hope it doesn't get him into as much trouble." He sniffed and swallowed hard, and Max reached up to touch his face soothingly.

Ros hugged Lindor tightly, grateful for his safety, and stroked his dark red curls back away from his face. "I didn't know that snake couldn't hurt you, Lindor," she said tenderly. "I was afraid for you. Please don't do anything like that again."

**********

Finally getting home from the hospital around noon, Zeke looked around the hotel lobby, searching for Max. He'd come to depend on her computer expertise and her researching abilities, and he was dismayed to find she wasn't behind the front desk.

One of her part-time clerks looked up when Zeke questioned him. "Max went out somewhere with her new boyfriend," he explained, "the one with the big motorcycle. She said she'd be back around four."

Zeke sighed in frustration at Israfel's timing. "Is that her computer?" he asked, pointing at the laptop on the counter. The boy nodded. "Do you know how to look stuff up on that thing?"

"Are you kidding? She'd kill me," he protested with a horrified expression.

"Max? Nah, she's a pussycat. She just sounds like she might do you damage." Zeke smiled his best reassuring smile. "Look, I'll take the flak, if there is any. Okay?"

"Well, okay," the boy agreed reluctantly, reaching for the computer. "What do you want to know about?"

"Not what, who," Zeke corrected. "Elizabeth Bathory."

"Ah, the Blood Countess," the boy grinned as he started Max's computer. "What'cha doing? Writing a screenplay? I think that's already been done."

Zeke frowned, wondering if dead cops were subject to déjà vu. Hadn't he had this conversation with Max once? "Uh, yeah," he agreed. "We're doing a remake. You've heard of the lady?"

"Sure, the only historically documented case of vampirism. I don't know many of the specifics," he admitted, "but I do know I wouldn't have wanted to be one of her servants. They had a habit of disappearing." His fingers tapped at the keyboard.

"Does everyone know how to use those things except me?" Zeke asked.

The replacement desk clerk glanced at him. "Yup. I have an eight year old nephew if you need lessons."

**********

Now that he knew for certain that Elizabeth Bathory, alias Amber Bethany, was his immediate objective, Zeke needed to find her before she could continue her blood quest. The only people he could think of who might know where she spent her days were her fellow prostitutes - if in fact Amber was actually a prostitute at all - and he only knew the name of one of them. It was late afternoon before he found her, only a block away from where he had encountered her the previous night.

"You're a cop?" Leila asked, frowning dubiously at his ID. "You're the pervert from the mission."

"Mistaken identity." Zeke assured her. "So do you know where Amber lives?"

"You gonna bust her?"

"Not for prostitution," Zeke assured her. "I want to talk to her about some of the hookers and teenagers that have gone missing."

"I don't talk to cops," Leila insisted.

Zeke sighed and started to turn away, paused, and turned back. "What about the kid?" he asked. "I heard what you said at the mission last night. I know you love kids, and I don't think that little girl was hers."

Leila frowned, hesitating a moment longer. "Amber has a place on Fenton and Worcester," she said at last. "Don't tell her I told you."

"I won't mention your name at all," Zeke assured her, smiling. "Thanks," he added over his shoulder as he hurried away.

**********

The house on the hill reminded Zeke of the house in Hitchcock's Psycho. It was his own fault, of course, for coming up to it from the east, with it silhouetted against the fading sunset. He shivered a little, told himself it was all in his imagination, and anyway, he'd seen worse. A lot worse. He straightened his shoulders and circled around to the back. He had no intention of making a frontal assault, not after the previous night's encounter.

The old house had an exterior entrance to the cellar. To Zeke's complete lack of surprise, it was securely locked. He wrenched open one of the doors and started down the stairs, his gun held vertically at shoulder level. After reading the internet articles about the Blood Countess who had tortured and murdered at least 30 and possibly over 600 young women, he thought he was prepared for anything. He'd read the speculation that her choice of young women as victims was in rejection of her own lesbianism, or that observing the torture of Turkish captives had permanently warped her at a young age. But Zeke rather thought the vampire 'myth' that had grown up around the Countess was the true story, that she had killed her victims for their blood, to use it as a skin treatment to keep her young. It fit with the oblique hints the Devil and his wife had dropped.

Luke and Cassie watched from the shadows. "He has no idea what he's facing," Cassie murmured. "He has no idea."

"Humans always think they're ready," Luke replied, tightening his arm around her. "I honestly hope Ezekiel manages to send this one back to Hell where she belongs," he added. "She's ending lives that haven't had a chance to go wrong yet."

Zeke opened a door and froze, staring in horror. If he weren't dead, he would have gagged. The room looked like a medieval torture chamber, with the bodies of young women and girls littering the room. Most were dead, but some appeared to still be alive, if barely. Many looked to have been there for weeks, perhaps months. Some were still attached to the equipment used to bleed them out. On Zeke's right, Amber hovered over the baby she'd had with her at the mission the evening before. In her hand was the knife from her attacker of the previous evening.

At Zeke's intrusion into her private blood spa, the Countess looked up from the crying baby. Reacting much faster than he did, she came after Zeke with her knife, knocking his gun from his hand before he could bring it to bear.

"No," Cassie whispered, distraught that this child murderer might escape. "Sammael, he must save this child."

Luke caught at her hands. "We can't interfere," he warned. Cassie sobbed and buried her face in his chest, unable to watch.

The struggle between the two damned souls continued. Zeke wrestled with the Countess for possession of the knife, knocking bodies aside and bottles of blood off of shelves. In life Zeke would have had no difficulty overpowering her, but the Countess had spent nearly four centuries longer in Hell than he had, and that gave her great strength. She tripped him, knocking his feet from under him, then pinned him on his back. Zeke could see his gun, but it was just a fraction of an inch out of his reach. His fingers could touch the pistol, and he struggled to get a grip on its butt. Zeke thought he was about to be sent back to Hell when he managed to get hold of it at last.

The Countess smiled as he pulled the gun between their bodies, straddling him and holding the knife with its point down, ready to put out his eyes. "Too late," she said, just loudly enough to be heard over the baby's screams. Zeke pulled the trigger once - twice - in blind desperation, firing point-blank into her face.

She threw herself back, her hands clawing at her destroyed eyes as she screamed and tried to keep her soul within the youthful body she inhabited. It was a futile attempt. The whirling pool of light and dark came and washed over her, slowly disappearing and taking Elizabeth Bathory back to Hell with it.

"That was close, Detective," the Devil told him solemnly, appearing out of the shadows as soon as the fugitive's screams were silenced. "For a moment, we thought you were going to fail to keep your part of our bargain." Behind him, Cassie picked up the baby, crooning to her gently, calmingly, though her frightened tears still coursed down her face.

Zeke looked at them angrily. "You couldn't have told me anything? The kid could have been hurt!" he protested.

"God's rules, Ezekiel," Luke reminded him.

"We should all have more faith," Cassie said softly. "God wouldn't allow this tiny angel to feed that woman's blood lust. Sammael -"

Her husband looked at her. "No, my love. You know she must go back to her parents."

Reluctantly Cassie handed the baby over to Zeke. "You'll see she's taken care of properly until her parents are found?" she asked, knowing his answer already.

"Of course," Zeke assured her, taking the little girl and cradling her in his arms as if he knew what he was doing. The child looked up at him with terrified eyes and reached for Cassie, screaming.

"Shush, little one, it's all right," Cassie murmured. "Sammael, she's frightened, and I can't blame her. This is far worse than anything I suffered."

Luke looked at Cassie oddly, then at the child, a puzzled frown on his face. "Is this -?"

"Yes, my love. It seems Jazar has succumbed to the charms of one of our brothers." Cassie stroked the little girl's head soothingly. "It's all right, little sister. Ezekiel won't harm you." As if she understood the words, the child calmed instantly.

"You're kidding me," Zeke said. "This is a pregnant angel?"

**********

Two angels watched unseen as Father Joseph turned baby Jazar over to the representative from Child Protective Services. "What will happen to Jazar, Mom?" Lindor asked.

"She will go to live with a human family," Cassie replied, watching the CPS rep struggle with the belts of the infant's car seat. "By the time she can talk, she won't remember any of this."

"Will they know who she is?"

"No," Luke assured him as he and Israfel joined the family. "They won't have any idea."

"Will they love her? Will they be good to her?"

Cassie and Luke looked at each other. "Only God knows the answers to those questions, Lindor," Israfel murmured. "If it is His will, then Jazar will have an easy life."

"Much as I hate to admit it," Luke added, "there are some humans who never forget that their children may in fact be angels unawares. We can pray that Jazar is placed with such a family at least for this first incarnation." He smiled wryly at Cassie and Israfel. "If you tell Ezekiel I said that, I'll deny it."

Cassie kissed him gently on the cheek. "Of course you will, my husband. You are the Prince of Lies, after all."

"So we will not tell him you said it," Israfel countered, grinning, "and you may try to deny that."

Luke looked at Israfel with a new appreciation. "Not bad, my brother. You're learning," he said as Cassie and Lindor laughed, echoed by Jazar's laughter from the car seat as the CPS worker took her away into her new life.