[Chapter one: Tethered]

The feeling of freedom was something the demon often took for granted, he realized. He never knew just how much he loved the fact that he could do what he pleased without anyone watching and scorning him. He never realized just how much he loved what he did, just how much he really did enjoy his work. He had never quite realized how truly good it felt to win a fight, and he never realized just how used to winning he was until he lost. And when he said lost, he really had been defeated with humiliating ease by no less than one of those bigwig proud angels. So full of themselves and, as he realized, so damn strong.

He had originally been on a search for weak humans that he could easily take advantage of, inhabit, and do any manner of nasty things to before sending them off, but apparently he had drawn some kind of attention to himself, that or they were on the lookout for him because he was notorious for this kind of thing. Either way, he had definitely gotten himself into a battle he couldn't win.

So here he was, red hair trailing the floor, his head too heavy to keep upright anymore. His nose was definitely broken, judging by the amount of blood dripping from it and how much it hurt. There were broken ribs and one of his precious horns was cracked up the middle and blood was trickling from the base of it. He was broken, beaten and just do done but he refused to surrender to the angel. He didn't dare, in case he somehow managed to get out of this situation he could never return to where he came from, too ashamed and having to bear the mark of having surrendered to angel. He would rather be purified or killed before he surrendered. Again he heard the words from the angel's mouth and he growled, dark eyes looking up at the white clad figure defiantly.

"I'll never surrender to you," he snarled, eyes narrowing dangerously, but the angel just smirked, grabbing his long red hair and raising him to eye level which was over half a foot of the ground. Crimson took a short moment to curse his height. Maybe if he was taller… But then again the angel was also really tall.

"I'm going to say it one more time for your uneducated and filthy little ears. Surrender to me. If you surrender you'll go right back where you came from. You won't feel a thing."

Crimson laughed, causing more blood to come up and the laugh turned into a cough. nevertheless he managed a defiant grin. "I said I would never surrender to you. Are you divine beings deaf or something?"

The angel didn't look very happy at this and let him fall to the floor, foot kicking out and all Crimson knew from there on was a haze of pain. one of his horns, the one already irritated and cut down the middle had been snapped off in the angels kick. He screamed, mostly against his will, and held his bleeding stub of a horn. It sent waves of pain through his body, causing him to writhe in pain. He hurt so badly he could hardly register what the angel said next.

"You know, I've heard that the best way to get rid of vermin is to cut off their tails. I've heard that it slows them down while you stomp on them to get rid of them completely." And then with those wise words Crimson gritted his teeth, suppressing an agonized scream as the angel roughly severed his tail from his body.

"And then if you want to put an end to a pesky bird.. Wasn't it to cut off their wings?"

Crimson groaned, he didn't think he could handle another burst of pain like the last two without screaming and crying like a newborn baby. He couldn't use the wings to flee, they ripped and tattered, but unless they were cut off they would heal. Why didn't the damn angel just kill him already? What was the point of all the torture? He was sure that he was soon to find out.