With Mr. Hartley's words still ringing in his ears, Angel slowly headed for home. He wouldn't have been able to live with himself if he just sat back and watched everything unfold, he had to do something. The only question was what. He floated through the sea of people on his way home, a rock of uncertainty in the waves of humanity. There may not have been anything he was capable of doing, his only option may have been to do everything his pride told him not to, even if it meant regretting the decision. The only thing Angel could think of doing was try to get in contact with his father, but he didn't even know where to start, he didn't even think his mother knew how to get a hold of him.
Angel paused at his mailbox, and grabbed the few letters inside, before unlocking the front door and wandering into the living room. He dropped his bag by the door, then left the bills on the table along with the keys to his house. Silence rang in his ears as he moved towards the living room, eventually settling on the creaky couch. He turned the TV on, still tuned into the news station from yesterday. The reporters droned on about some fluff piece involving one of the local schools. He sprawled out on his back and carefully tore open the letter from his mom. A small smile crossed his features as a picture of her and her girlfriend, Ashley, fell out, and skimmed the brief note his mother had wrote. In some places her lopsided letters blended together, but it wasn't sloppy enough to be considered illegible. Hi sweetheart, how's school going? Everything is going well here, and I wish you could have come with us. It will still be a few days before I can come home, so take care.
With a sigh, he slid the letter and picture back into the envelope then placed it on the coffee table as a special report came on. "This just in, we've received word that Lucifer and his accompanying party of Nobles will be hosting a conference later this evening at Madison Square Garden. We have yet to receive word of what this meeting will address, but as we will keep you updated with the latest news. Next up-
Angel clicked off the TV and sat in silence for a few moments. Horns blared in the distance, and the clock on the wall ticked off the passing seconds while he lay there, immersed in his thoughts. This was the opportunity he had been looking for. If he could just somehow find his father at the conference, he might have been able to shine some light on this whole situation. With some patience, and a little luck, by the end of the evening Angel might have been safely back in his home with most of his problems solved.
The couch squeaked in protest as he stood again. Angel brought his bag into his room, and changed out of his uniform, before easing himself into his desk chair and chipping away at bits and pieces of his homework. He couldn't stay focused on any one subject for too long. Eventually he left his books abandoned on the desk and threw on a deep pocketed hoodie. On his way through the house he turned on a few lights, and grabbed his keys off the counter. There was no way to tell when he would be back, and he didn't want to return to a pitch black house. Angel took care to lock the front door, before dragging his bike out and hopping on and making his way downtown.
Nobles from the corners of the world were gathering in New York for the first summit meeting this side of the century. Thousands of humans had gathered around the Square in hopes of glimpsing the inner workings of the society they had integrated themselves with. The massive sea of people spanned a few blocks, and with it, vanished Angels hopes of sneaking in through the front. There was no feasible way for him to work his way through all these people with enough time left over to find where his father was. There has to be another way in. With a sigh, he walked his bike through the outer ring of the crowd, working his way forwards in a serpentine pattern until the crowd thinned and he could mount it again.
Several guards had been posted along the front of the building to prevent any particularly adventurous souls from wandering inside and harassing the still gathering demons. Every once and awhile the more vain of the Nobles would brave the crowd and calmly slip inside without so much as a sideways glance to the inferior species. If many of them had gotten their way, the humans would have been a lot less than the equals they thought themselves to be. Despite the executive order to stop the fighting, many of them eagerly awaited any reason to pit themselves against the humans. It wasn't like they had anything to offer them other than their souls and the treaty that had been made could only last for so long.
Angel stashed his bike down some long abandoned side street. After surveying the back of the building, and getting chased off several times, he spotted a large truck pulling up to the loading bay, and waited nearby in the shadows. When the coast was clear in-between several large crates being brought inside, Angel took his chance and snuck inside. He stayed close to the wall as he crept around the room. Some of the delivery crew cut back and forth a few more times, and he hid himself behind some of the temporarily placed crates. Angel kept his eyes trained on the room they were bringing everything, as their comings and goings became less and less frequent. The metal door to the loading bay slid shut, followed by the doors of the truck opening and closing, then the truck drove off. There was no way to tell if they were done or when they would be coming back, so he made quick work of slipping into the back rooms. His footsteps echoed off the concrete floor and the pounding of his heart rang in his ears as he tried to pick up on anything other than his own pounding and his beating heart.
Most of the doors he wandered past were either locked or opened into empty rooms. Voices carried out of some of them, but most of the occupants weren't speaking English, so the snippets of various conversations he caught made no sense to him. With a soft sigh he stopped in the middle of another hallway, and looked around. Everything looked the same to him down to the last crack in the floor. How long could he realistically wander around down here without getting caught? He didn't stand a chance in a fight, let alone if there was more than one of them. Where am I supposed to go?
He froze when one of the doors opened and ducked into the closest room, which was thankfully unlocked. He quickly closed the door back and looked around the cluttered room, before climbing behind a stack of crates and camping there. He could hear the footsteps of whoever had entered the hallway gradually getting louder, then they stopped just outside the room Angel had decided to hide in.
From where he was hidden away behind the crates, Angel held his breath, almost certain that whoever it was would come in here and find him. Everything would be over before it had even started. It can't be over not yet. Time slowed as the knob turned, and in came a group of several demons.
Angel pressed his back against the wall and waited until he heard the door click shut again. It was obvious from their style of dress and their accents that they were all from different walks of life. If it hadn't been for this meeting they probably wouldn't have gathered here in the first place. To call them anything more than business acquaintances would be a blatant lie. They were from different factions, but shared a common interest, and the group ranged from experienced warriors to the newest Nobel who had wormed his way into the position by inheritance alone. A man with a stock build and a thick, German accent was the first to speak, but he seemed to have been picking up from a previous tangent, because he didn't bother with an introduction. "As you are all aware of, I'm sure, you're here because we stand as the ones with the highest chance of taking the bride for ourselves."
A smaller man with a more delicate accent and refined speech pattern interrupted, "you really wanted us here so you can weed out the lesser competition. Do not think he has forgotten where your loyalties lie just because you are playing nice. I, for one, shall not bend a knee to you in the tournament."
The German glared at him, daring him to continue with his unwarranted comment. "As the tournament commences we need to assure that some of out lesser comrades don't stand a chance at stealing her away from us. It's been hundreds of years since the last time we actually had a decent offering, and I have as much intention of keeping her for myself as I'm sure you do."
The youngest of the group nodded in agreement, despite not having all the details of what was going on. He was far less informed than the others were, but given his elders all vying for a chance to prove themselves he wished to do the same. Maybe then he would be taken seriously and would be considered more than a pretty face (which he mostly was). He knew enough to ask, "What did this one do?"
Aside from offering up humans with particularly strong souls, the rest of the brides had done something that would often warrant a far worse fate than being sold as someone's bride. During the war many of rebels had been captured for various purposes, mostly display minions, but some others had been placed in the same position as their latest offering. There were still some holdovers that had been tucked away in various places around the world for the right time, and apparently now was that time.
With a sigh, the slender man removed a piece of lint from his sleeve and explained, "from what I've heard," he glanced at the German, silently daring him to challenge what he was saying. "She's one of commanders of the Nephlim army, of course one would not think that upon first glance. Poor thing actually believes someone will come to save her. And she nearly took out one of the guards eyes on the way over. Best keep a close eye on this one, it'll take a lot to break her."
The German rolled his eyes, "you and your sub servant women, no wonder you can't hold your own in a real fight."
"Unlike you I don't like to house rebels, they cause far too much trouble. You have to train them early otherwise you could have a serious problem on your hands. I would have thought you would have learned that by now. Especially with your brother's unfortunate incident."
A low growl ripped through his chest and he took a small step forward until he was inches away from his perceived aggressor. "Say that again, I dare you."
"Are you hard of hearing as well as lacking intelligence? Your thick skull must put an enormous amount of pressure on your brain." The younger of the pack took an anxious step back, not wanting to be in the way if the two started a brawl in the less than suitable space.
The door opened again, but instead of another demon it was one of the movers with more crates. "Excuse us Gentlemen, we have more crates to unload."
There was some shuffling, and a loud thud as more boxed were brought into the room and set down in the back. Angel breathed a sigh of relief when silence finally rang in his ears, and he took a chance to escape while he could.
While he wasn't entirely out of the woods yet, his mind was a hive of activity. Did he dare continue to search for his father? Or should he had tried to find the girl? They wouldn't have just left her alone, but he couldn't just let this happen could he? The thought of someone being handed off like some sort of commodity made his blood boil. People weren't prizes to be one. They were living, breathing things that had the right to choose what they wanted. It was wrong. All of it was wrong and it didn't sit right with him. He turned another corner, and ventured down another empty hallway. This was going to end here and now no matter what it took.