*Happy Halloween! I hope you all have had as great a one as I have writing this!

Chapter 98

"Did that beast hurt you?" the man in the cage asked as Chuck wrapped a bandage around Kahlan's still bleeding hand.

"No, I told you they are my friends," she told him as she moved closer to him. "I did this to myself to heal what you did to him," she added and her tone conveyed how much she didn't like what he had done.

He raised his hands in submission. "I did nothing! His ungodliness did that to him just by taking in my visage," the man assured her.

Kahlan smirked. "Ungodliness? So, you are an angel?"

The man stood up tall and nodded. "Yes."

"Aren't angels supposed to have wings? Or are you a fallen angel or something?" Chuck asked him.

"I am no fallen angel," the man insisted. "But I understand that some humans must see to believe, so. . ." he continued and suddenly two beautiful, white wings unfurled from his back and stuck out through the bars of the cage.

Chuck gasped and then a huge smile spread on his face. "Wow."

Kahlan sighed as she shook her head. "Why would hunters have an angel locked in a cage?"

The man huffed. "To use me, why else?"

Kahlan moved a little closer to him. "Use you for what?"

The man looked her up and down. "Let me out of here, and I'll tell you."

Kahlan folded her arms across her chest. "Tell me what I want to know, and I'll think about it."

"But you're an angel! Aren't you guys like powerful and shit?" Chuck asked him.

The man sighed. "We have certain abilities, yes, but we also have our limits." He looked at Chuck with pleading eyes. "Please let me out. I know you have faith."

Chuck ran his hand through his hair as he studied the angel. After a few moments, he looked at his best friend and then back to the man. "Sorry, man, but I have more faith in her, and she calls the shots."

The man's wings curled back up and disappeared as he wilted, and then he took a deep breath as he sat down on the floor of his cage as he studied Kahlan. "You're no different than those who put me in here," he offered dejectedly.

"Excuse me?" Kahlan asked as she bristled. "I am nothing like those son of a bitches!"

"No? Yet you want to use me just like them."

She huffed. "I don't want to use you! I just want to ask you a few questions because I hope to God that your answers will help me find my husband!"

The angel frowned as he stood back up, concern filling his features. "Your husband?" he asked in clear confusion. "But Aaron is dead."

That statement hit her harder than any hand ever had, and it was like the air had been knocked from her lungs as she sank to her knees.

"Really?! Why would just blurt that out like that?!" Chuck demanded of the angel as he rushed to the hurting woman and pulled her to his chest.

The angel winced as he moved closer to the bars. "I am so sorry, child. I forget how emotionally fragile you humans are. Here you have been searching for your husband for almost two months, and I say that without even thinking how it would affect you. Please forgive me!"

"Ohhh, Kay, I am so sorry! I'm so sorry," Chuck repeated as he rocked her. When she started bawling, he pulled her closer and looked at the angel. "How do you even know that? How do you know his name and that he's her husband?"

The angel's face showed how sorry he was, and he wilted even more. "Angels know things about all humans, including when one dies."

Chuck took a breath intent on comforting his best friend even more, but his head snapped back to the angel. "Whadaya mean 'we've been looking for him for two months'?"

The caged man shrugged. "I assumed that you have been looking for him since he died. I don't know how or where it happened, just that it did."

Chuck sucked in a breath and pushed Kahlan far enough away from him that he could see her face. "He's not dead, Kay! Did you hear him? He said he's been dead for a couple months. He's talking about when Hotch was changed!"

Kahlan sucked in a breath as her eyes locked with Chuck's. "What?" she asked as she tried to blink away her tears.

Chuck smiled. "He's talking about when Hotch was changed. He's not dead!"

Kahlan wiped her face off and sucked in more air as she studied his face. After a moment, she pushed herself up and went to the cage. "Are you talking about the beginning of October?" she asked the angel.

The angel looked back and forth between the two humans and then towards the door to the master bedroom. "Those friends of yours, they are vampires, aren't they? And they changed your husband?" Kahlan nodded, and that made the angel angry. "And yet you help them?! You aren't like the men who trapped me in here. You're worse than them!" he yelled as he backed against the bars to get as far away from her as he could.

She took a long, slow breath as her eyes bore into him. "They changed him so he wouldn't be dead, so he could continue being a great man, an amazing federal agent who has put away countless bad people, and a wonderful father and husband! And if you are a true representative of God and his heaven, and you all judge a person solely on what he is and not how he acts, then I'm damn glad they changed him instead of letting him die and letting him go to your heaven!" she screamed as her hands balled into fists and anger filled her eyes. "And I hope you rot in this fucking cage!" she added, turned on her heel, and started for the door.

Once she was out it, Chuck shook his head at the angel and then moved to follow her.

"Wait! Please, Charles," the man begged. "It has been so long since I have been around good people that I have apparently forgotten how to act, and I know you are good people. I know Aaron was a great man; I just didn't know he'd been turned."

Chuck took a deep breath and then turned back to him. "It was a shock to all of us, but I assure you he is still the great man he has always been. In fact, he's even better because his new abilities help him do his job even better."

The man smiled. "Angels also know when a human is lying or not, so I know you are speaking the truth; and since these vampires are with you, I must trust in your judgement on them, too." He sighed. "I am so out of practice with dealing with anyone other than those so called hunters. . . but that is no excuse for what I said and how I acted." He locked eyes with Chuck. "Please get her back in here so that I may beg her forgiveness."

"If you can help us find Hotch, that will go a long way to her forgiving you," Chuck pushed.

"I don't know how I can help. I truly thought he was dead."

"We came here looking for a man named Ashton Reese. If you could help us find him. . ."

Confusion overtook the angel's features again. "But he's dead, too."

XXXXX

The sounds and vibrations emitting from the di sma had lulled Hotch to a sleep filled with dreams of home and his little girl, but an ear-splitting screech jolted him awake. For a micro-second, he didn't know where he was, but reality set in rather disappointingly when he finally realized the horrible sound had come from the reptilian being and everyone in the cell was quickly covering their ears as they complained as loudly as they could.

"Cut that shit out, you filthy bugger!" Red screamed as he slammed a hard fist into the bars beside the scaled creature effectively shutting him up.

Hotch had no idea what had caused the commotion and his ears were still ringing as he struggled to get standing. He wasn't sure how long he'd slept, but his arms were numb from hanging above his head and needed relief.

The leprechaun's malicious eyes roamed over everyone in the cell, and then fixed on the cage by the door.

Hotch mentally winced. Oh shit. His eyes searched the cell; the little furry creatures were nowhere that he could see, and he had to fight back the smile that wanted to spread across his face. At least some of us got out.

A disgruntled squeal escaped Red as he unlocked the door while his eyes roamed over everyone again. He stepped up to the cage that had gotten closer to the door than Hotch remembered it being, and the leprechaun's foot lifted the opened lid. Finding it empty, a long sigh escaped him as his eyes morphed into scarlet. "What the 'el 'appened to the rodents?!" he demanded of them all but his eyes settled on the reptilian being clearly thinking it had eaten them.

While he was fixated on the scaled creature, Hotch's eyes swept across the rest of the occupants of the cell, and his breath caught in his chest because they were all looking at him. Shit! He swallowed and took a deep breath as he stood up taller. "Maybe the lid came open when they dumped it on the ground," he offered before anyone could tell on him.

Red's head snapped to him. "Maybe, git?"

Hotch stood up as tall as he could and shrugged. "Maybe."

"He let them out!"

Hotch turned to see the goatman pointing at him, and he had to fight the urge to tell the furry beast to shut the hell up.

Red turned to the goatman and then back to Hotch. "Did 'e now?"

Hotch's eyes roamed over everyone again. He knew they wouldn't back up any lie he could come up with, so he looked at the tall, red-headed man and shrugged again. "Maybe."

Red rushed to him, grabbed the back of Hotch's hair in a meaty hand, and locked eyes with him. "Alpha or no, in the pits, your all gits!"

"I don't know what that means," Hotch told him honestly.

"Don't worry, ye will, git. Ye will," Red told him as his hands went up and released the lock holding Hotch's wrist chain to the ceiling. "Ye'll learn it real good by the time I'm done with ye!" the leprechaun assured him as he yanked on the chain and pulled Hotch from the cell.

Hotch's eyes caught the smug look on the goatman's face and while he would have given almost anything to wipe it off right then and there, he was too busy trying to keep himself upright.

XXXXX

Chuck frowned. "But we're pretty sure he was one of the ones who took Hotc. . . Aaron," he tried hoping that the angel was wrong.

"When did Aaron go missing? While I haven't seen Reese or the others for over a week, I know he died three days ago."

"Hotch went missing four days ago," Kahlan told him as she reentered the room.

The angel winced. "Please forgive my behavior, child. I. . ."

"Forgiven," she interrupted him as she went to the cage and started on the lock. "Just tell us everything you can about this Reese guy and anyone else with him."

The lock clicked open and he nodded. "Any and everything I can because while I know they will get the judgement they deserve once they meet the Maker, they deserve everything they can get on their way to Him."

"What about 'do no harm' and all that shit?" Chuck asked him.

The angel stood up tall as his wings unfurled like his smile, brilliantly. "An eye for an eye is divine." He stuck out his hand to her. "Kahlan Lavonne, my name is Emerell, and I would like to offer my services to you and yours."

XXXXX

Red had taken Hotch about ten feet away from the cage and then fastened the chain hooked to Hotch's wrists to the ceiling effectively stringing him up, and Hotch mentally cringed. He's making sure we're close enough for all of them to see this. He's going to use me as a warning for them all. Son of a bitch!

"Ye will learn that gits don't do anything that they aren't told to do, ye wanker," Red told him as he locked eyes with him.

Hotch saw the leprechaun's hand go to the whip that was hooked to his belt, and that actually calmed him down a little. He smiled. "My father used to tell me I was a slow learner."

Red giggled that high-pitched giggle. "What? You think I'd use this on a wanker like you?" he asked as he gripped the old leather whip. He giggled again. "Na, see," he started as he moved to a cabinet set on the side of the passageway, "we have specialized weapons for your kind," he finished as he dug through the items.

"My kind?" Hotch asked as he tried to see what the man was doing. "You mean immortal?"

"Immortal or not, ye is what Christians refer to as an abomination, so. . ." he drew out as he turned back to Hotch with a malicious grin. "We use their weapons. They work so much better at teaching gits like you," he explained as he walked back up to Hotch and held up the new implement so Hotch could get a good look at it.

The vampire turned his head away from it. Shit!

"What's wrong, git? Ye don't like this whip?"

Hotch swallowed and tried to stay calm, but he was having a hard time of it. The new torture device was also a whip, but the intricate leatherwork on it was far more than just a braid.

Red shoved the whip even closer to Hotch's face. "See what they are, git?"

Hotch tried to turn his head even further away.

"What's it made of, git?"

"Crosses," Hotch muttered as his eyes slid shut.

"What? I don't think the rest of the gits heard that, wanker," Red insisted as he brushed the whip against Hotch's cheek sending up smoke tendrils as Hotch's skin hissed and burned.

"Crosses!" Hotch yelled as he tried to lean away from the holy object.

A couple occupants of the cell whimpered, and Hotch could picture the older ones comforting and shielding the younger ones making him mentally cringe.

Red giggled. "Yep, crosses," he agreed as he several steps back. "Now, 'ow many rodents did ye let out of that cage?"

Hotch swallowed as he studied him. He wasn't sure if the man knew or not. "Three, four. . . I'm not sure. They were pretty fast," he tried.

"So two per. . . that makes eight lashes, then, git," Red told him as he readied the whip.

"There was seven di sma in that cage!"

Hotch craned his head around to find the goatman smiling. Really? Whose side are you on? He noticed, though, that some of the other prisoners were even looking at the goatman with distain.

"Seven?!" Red hollered as he smiled. "That would have been fourteen, but I'll make it an even twenty since ye lied. How about that, git?"

Twenty? Son of a bitch! Twenty lashes from a regular whip would be bad enough, even for a vampire; but twenty lashes from a whip made up of tiny crosses all woven together would be horrible.

"It's even soaked in holy water, just to give it that extra punch," Red explained as he reared his arm back.

Of course it is! Hotch had already had enough holy water to last him a lifetime.