Chapter Fourteen: Surveillance, Verdicts and Vengeance
Vaggie cursed loudly. She was lost in an enraged mood swing. She was mostly enraged with herself. She'd gone way too far and there was no way that Evan could be angrier at her than she was at herself. She'd let herself get carried away and insult Charlie. There was nothing that made what she'd done acceptable. She was safe back at the hotel while Charlie's Hellhound guards were out monitoring her, making sure that she stayed safe. She should have been out there as well, surveilling the area. She had been extremely skilled at surveillance as a guerilla back in El Salvador.
She had no excuse for not being out there, looking for Charlie… Except that she didn't believe for an instant that Charlie wouldn't recognize her. Charlie had proven that she could see Vaggie from a way away and through a crowd. She would gladly lend her knowledge of Charlie to the search. But she wasn't sure that she could reasonably be out there without Charlie noticing her. And in a way, she wanted Charlie to do this. It was good for her to see a better sample of the common Demon than just the ones that she came across at the Hotel, where it was safe and completely contained.
Soon, Selene and Lorcan came back in.
"Lupa is doing fine keeping track of Charlie. She's disguised herself as a homeless vagrant with mild to moderate mental illness. She's excellent at that because of her past. She was a homeless Hellhound after her family was killed. She wasn't mentally ill, but she knew many who were and now we're taking watching Miss Charlotte in shifts." Lorcan said.
"If you wish to aid us in monitoring her, we wouldn't say no." Selene said.
"I can't. She would recognize me immediately. She recognizes my aura, I think. Or she can smell me. I don't really know. I wish I could, but between being pregnant and not really reliable due to my mood swings and being immediately noticeable, I wouldn't be a reliable reconnaissance member." Vaggie said.
"You know, you have the bearing of a soldier." Lorcan said bluntly.
Vaggie sighed. She didn't like remembering that part of her life.
"I trained hard as a child in combat and spying and general scouting and I became a guerilla in El Salvador when I was sixteen." Vaggie said. I was hardly the best or the strongest or the fastest. But I was good at what I did. And I was unassuming because nobody thought someone as small as me could be a killer. So I could get into people's houses that normally wouldn't let someone in. Turned out I wasn't protecting my nation. I was protecting the drug cartels' profits." Vaggie said bitterly.
"Oh. Sorry." Lorcan said. Vaggie shrugged, waving him off.
"I saw an Angelic weapon in the lobby when I first got here." Selene said. Vaggie rolled her eyes.
"I came into Hell on the day of an Extermination. It was fight and kill or die. I killed. I took their weapons. Charlie is fond of that particular spear. She calls me her warrior princess sometimes." Vaggie said, smiling sheepishly. She didn't really need the other weapons. Spears and swords. She could use them if they were melted down and their shapes changed.
But she mostly used bayonets, trench spikes, combat daggers, machetes, Tasers, guns and a few other weapons in life. She was good with improvised weapons. And she had learned how to fight with a spear. But for the most part, she had little to no use for Angelic weapons.
"Are you sure that just one Hellhound is enough to keep track of Charlie?" Vaggie asked.
"Yes. She's not a very smart homeless Demon. But she's made some friends by willingly sharing the scrap food that she got from a restaurant." Lorcan said bluntly.
"Honestly, that decision could go either way. They could decide to be her friends, or they could decide that she's soft and attack her in her sleep for whatever shit she has on her." Selene said. Vaggie sighed. She'd spent some time doing various things around Hell. She'd met Charlie when she was an enforcer for an Overlord, but she'd been homeless before that. So she knew how to handle herself as a homeless Demon. And being generous generally backfired after a time. Even those who appreciated her acts of kindness would eventually realize that she was an easy target if she refused to fight for what was hers.
"Well, I'm sure that if she's in danger, one of you will keep track to make sure that she doesn't get hurt." Vaggie said. That didn't exactly give Charlie the full homeless experience. But on the other hand, she didn't want to see her fiancée get hurt. There was really no good choice in such a situation.
-0-
Lucifer sighed. This was a difficult decision. This wasn't just any Nessian Hellhound. This Hellhound was over 500 years old and was dating his son. He didn't like that he already knew what he was going to do. He went down to the dungeons and opened the doors.
"I want to know, Skara… How long have you been passing my information to Evanthos?" Lucifer asked calmly. This would partially dictate how he handled this situation. He was going to fire her regardless of her answer. But he wanted to know how long she'd been breaching security around the palace.
"At least a century. I'm not sure exactly how long. But shortly after Evan left, Your Majesty." Skara said. Lucifer nodded, thinking for a long moment. He sat down on a chair outside the cell, penting his fingers into a triangle and closing his eyes, thinking. That was a serious breach of protocol, not to mention security. He was fully within his rights to execute her.
"And what do you think, Evan? What would your reaction be if I were to execute her?" Lucifer asked.
"You'd have forever made an enemy of me." Evan said bluntly.
"If you ever hope to have me succeed you to your throne, executing Skara is not the action that you should take." Evan said. Lucifer thought again, penting his fingers once more. Evan knew that Lucifer did that to help himself focus when he really needed to think.
"Why don't we go somewhere more comfortable? My office." Lucifer said, taking Skara and Evan up to his office and sat down.
"You may sit." Lucifer said. Again, it was a minor gesture.
But it showed, however subtly that Lucifer was in charge here. That he had full control over their lives at the moment. They nodded and sat down. He looked at Skara, staring at her for a moment.
"Why did you betray me? You've always been one of my most faithful servants. Your birth is the result of a line of well-chosen crossbreeding experiments between different bloodlines. Your birth showed most strongly traits of the Enakon and Dibriakond Bloodlines. You were experienced and talented and powerful. Why would you give up all that I could offer you as my servant?" Lucifer asked.
"Because Evan can offer me something that you never could. Love. I love him and… I…" She said, starting to wither under Lucifer's gaze. He was looking interestedly at her.
"I was considering choosing you for my next breeding project anyway. If it was sex you were after…"
"I said love. You know, like the love that you and Her Majesty share. The love that I share with Evan. I'm not some horny teenager. I know what I'm talking about. I've known Evan for most of his life and all of mine. We sparred together as kids. I helped him train with his powers." Skara said.
"I was willing to risk my life for him. You can't guilt me into returning to work for you." She said. Lucifer laughed for a few minutes at that suggestion.
"I have no interest in taking you back. You've betrayed me. The best you can hope for now is to be fired. So give me one good reason why I shouldn't strip you of your powers." Lucifer said calmly.
"I'm more popular than even you know. I've trained new recruits for almost 400 years. My death wouldn't go unnoticed amongst the ranks of your Hellhounds." Skara said.
"I'm well-liked and frankly, I doubt that many would appreciate if I were killed." Skara said. Lucifer nodded, staring intently at her, trying to assess whether she was threatening him.
"Are you indicating that if I were to sentence you to death, you would encourage other members of my Nessian Hellhounds to rebel?" Lucifer asked. Skara was caught between fear and defiance. The last person to threaten Lucifer… Nobody quite knew what happened to them.
"No. She's just letting you know that killing her would undoubtedly have negative repercussions." Evan said. Lucifer nodded.
"Would you care for something to drink?" Lucifer asked.
"Tea? Sure." Skara said. She could use something to settle her nerves.
"Delta… Make us some tea." Lucifer said.
"Yes, Your Majesty." Delta said. She made the tea quickly and brought it back. She secretly hoped to leave Lucifer's service. She felt trapped here. She had gone into his service, largely because her family was poor and Lucifer gave them a generous sum to buy her. But she hadn't been allowed to see her family since. Lucifer looked at her as she set the tea down and showed them each of the options. She'd given them four different tins of leaves that they could choose from or mix and match.
"You can go now." Lucifer said when she was done. She nodded, looking anxiously at Evan, whom she knew was going to great lengths to remove Skara from the mansion. She dropped a small piece of paper in Evan's lap, making sure Lucifer didn't see. She then hurried out of the room. Evan unfolded the paper in his lap.
*Get me out if you're able*
*Delta*
Evan put the paper in his pocket, planning to burn it later. He would get Delta out if he could. He would test her fighting skills. Assuming he could get her out. He would need to work his advantage. He thought for a long moment while he drank his tea. He had mixed some mint in with some Greed and some Pride.
"Father… How would you feel about selling me a few of your Hellhounds?" Evan asked cautiously. Lucifer leaned in, always interested in making deals.
"Oh, and… What would you offer in exchange for these Hellhounds? They're not cheap." He said.
"I know they're not. I aided you for many years in making them." Evan said.
"I'm hoping to have children with Skara. How would you like the chance to observe her pregnancy and the results thereof?" Evan asked, knowing that it was a tempting offer. A Demon Noble and a Hellhound having children. Assuming that it would even work to mix Hellhound blood, even Nessian Hellhound blood and Noble Blood, the results might not be what they wanted. And he was sure that Lucifer would positively salivate over the chance to see what happened with such an interesting mixture.
Lucifer thought for a moment.
"You would permit me to use alchemy to further enhance the child? Already, the alchemical enhancements making Skara a Nessian Hellhound and your own Nephalem blood would make the child extremely powerful. I'm curious to see if using more alchemy would be beneficial or detrimental." Lucifer said. Evan looked at Skara, who had seen the note.
Skara nodded.
"Good. Then as soon as you achieve pregnancy, come back to the palace. I will offer you five Hellhounds of your choice to take with you to wherever you now live." Lucifer said. Lucifer was ashamed to say that he didn't know where Evan was staying most of the time. Evan kept the secret well-guarded.
"I couldn't accept any fewer than ten in exchange for what you want." Evan said.
"Six." Lucifer said. This was the final part of the deal.
"Eight." Evan insisted. They were haggling for how much each would get.
And naturally, each of them wanted to feel like they were getting more than the other.
"Seven." Lucifer countered.
"Seven and Skara." Evan said. The deal had actually worked pretty well.
Lucifer sighed, seeming put upon. That would still be eight. But he'd already agreed to let Skara go.
"Deal." Lucifer said, calling all of his Hellhounds to the audience chamber, where he said he had a very important announcement.
-0-
He, Evan and Skara went to the throne room, also known as the audience chamber, where Hellhounds were already gathering. Once every Hellhound was gathered, Lucifer spoke up.
"I am transferring ownership of seven of you to my son, Evan. It is ultimately up to him to decide who he wants." Lucifer said prominently.
"However, I will take into account if any one of you wants to go.
*I am opening my mind to you. You may tell me your name mentally if you wish to go and will take that into account.* Evan said. He reached out to Delta and told her that he was choosing her. He was contacted by six more almost immediately. Garda, Night, Eclipse, Tsuki, Lupa, Selene and Lorcan all chose to go with Evan. Lupa, Selene and Lorcan wanted to go with Evan because they were guarding Charlie anyway and knew that Evan was becoming close with her again, giving them more of a chance.
Evan knew that Lucifer had some more Created Nessian Hellhounds, but he was cycling out the need for them. His needs were mostly taken care of by his Natural Nessian Hellhounds. He wouldn't destroy the Created ones. But he was starting to train some Natural Nessian Hellhounds in new skills, like research, interrogation and seduction. Seduction was another way to get information and do research. Those who had been seduced, who were talking after sex were far more pliable than normal. He was also training Natural Hellhounds in bartending, which was another way to get information out of loose lipped Demons.
Evan fully intended to come back and make a trade for more Created Nessian Hellhounds. Most of Evan's servants didn't live in his home. He didn't care to have an army on his property. Most of them, he provided them with their own home and they spread out and gathered information in whatever turf they lived in. Turfs tended to grow and shrink, spread and recede over time. One Overlord would take over their neighbor's turf. For instance, recently Valentino's turf grew massively overnight practically. It wasn't known exactly what happened, but that night, Valentino had a moderate sized turf.
Then the next day, he was spreading out his agents, prostitutes, strippers, bar owners and other employees to the two surrounding territories and having them bring them under his thumb. Evan normally wouldn't care how or why he did it. But the territory to Valentino's east was owned by someone that Evan himself had put into power and was taking a cut of his profits. The one to the north also had an Overlord in it that had been convinced by Evan to pay protection money to him. Val's actions put a dent in Evan's bottom line. He had sent agents to talk to Valentino about the benefits of having insurance on his territory.
So far, all three of them had been killed rather brutally. He was planning to send one of his alchemically and magically enhanced lieutenants this time to give a final ultimatum to Valentino. Already, he had his servants spreading negative rumors about Valentino and many other things in his now enlarged territory. Some of the rumors were true. For instance, the way that Valentino rather shamelessly abused his employees. Even in Hell, there was a certain decorum that was generally followed.
Bosses didn't have to be nice to their workers. They could be jerks to their employees, and even sexual harassment, things like slapping their butts and whistling at them usually flew right under the radar. Nobody cared. But viciously beating and raping their employees did tend to get people's attention. Val had heard of many of Valentino's employees' negative treatment at the Overlord's hands and was using that to hound him. Already, Valentino's influx of workers had slowed and many had even left and gone to neighboring turfs. Some of Valentino's contacts had left and his profits had decreased by at least 30%.
His rage was growing. Today, Evan was going to send a pair of lieutenants to 'talk to' Valentino, tell him how things were going to be and how they could help get Val's business started again. But Val would really have to play ball. He took the Hellhounds that he'd chosen and left, taking them back to his own mansion, helping them get settled into their chambers.
"Relax for now, I'll be working on some alchemical processes to enhance you with my own trademark abilities and transfer your ownership fully from my father to me." Evan said.
The servants all nodded and went about their days, getting settled into their new rooms.