Demon Seals

Chapter Fourteen: The Rebel

This past week brought parent teacher conferences for the first term at my school. Man, that took a lot out of me! I'm loving my job, though. It's fun, it's challenging, and I wouldn't change a thing.

This chapter marks the 100th post in my Demon Blood AU. I have a total of 100 story chapters and one-shots right here, right now. You guys, there is still such a long, long way to go before this 'verse meets its end. If it ever ends. There is so much I could still write about, but this is a pretty awesome achievement! Especially when you consider the two year gap between chapter postings back during "Demon's Year". Anyway...

In chapter thirteen of my last story "Demon's Year", Danielle's friend Roxy Parker was kidnapped and tortured by the Hunter we all hate: Gordon Walker. Near the end of that chapter, Roxy had something happen, saw someone who was dead while she was in a coma. This is the other side of that part of the story.

Danielle was gone.

Uriel glared at Jared, who was happily doing a rock-climbing excursion with a group of teenage boys. "There can be no mistaking it this time," he rumbled. "The girl has somehow managed to escape her Heaven without setting off the alarms."

Castiel nodded. "I agree — Uriel? What are you doing?"

Uriel manifested himself and strode forward, grabbing Jared by the shoulder, spinning him around, and slamming him against the nearest rock wall. "Where is she?" he demanded.

Jared gasped and struggled against the angel's hold. "What the hell? Let go of me!" he returned angrily.

"Where is Danielle?" Uriel snarled in the soul's face.

"I don't know!" Jared shouted back at him. "Here, like she should be?"

Uriel released his grip and Jared and gestured around the Heaven they were currently in. "Do you see her?" he asked.

"Sometimes she goes off for her own memory recall," Jared said with a perplexed expression. "It's normal."

"She is not here!" Uriel insisted. "Where has she gone?"

"Uriel," Castiel called out, making himself visible to Jared, "I do not think he knows."

"He must know something," Uriel snapped. "I know every other angel believes the two of you do as you're told, but I am certain that you both are conspiring against the will of Heaven when we are not here."

"Check your paranoia," Jared retorted, "it's showing hardcore."

Uriel's face twisted, and Jared was sent flying back against the wall by the angel's will alone with a grunt of pain. "Uriel!" Castiel yelled, striding forward and forcing the other angel to turn around. "This is not how we treat the souls in our charge."

"It's what he deserves for lying!"

"No," Castiel said firmly. "Jared is not the one who has done wrong here. We will find Danielle, but not by acting as though we are no better than the souls who are sent to perdition!"

Uriel glared at Castiel, but released his hold on Jared, who sagged a couple inches, breathing hard. "What do you suppose we do to find her?" he asked icily.

"We report her as missing," Castiel told the other angel. "We send out search parties. We find Danielle."

Uriel's jaw clenched. "Fine," he grit out and took flight without another word.

"We will find Danielle," Castiel told Jared, "but I cannot guarantee the condition she'll return in."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jared asked at once. "What are you going to do to her?"

Castiel had no good answers for the soul. He left without replying, ignoring Jared's yells for him to come back and explain himself.

There was nothing he could say to bring comfort. It was better to say nothing at all.

For two and a half days, the angels searched for Danielle.

For two and a half days, they were unsuccessful in their search.

"It's as though she's vanished from our borders entirely!" Balthazar complained.

Borders…

"I think it may be possible to take Ash's work and apply it to traveling beyond the borders," Danielle says thoughtfully as Castiel spies on her and Jared.

Could it be…?

"What if she's not within our borders?" Castiel asked.

Balthazar and Uriel turned to look at him. "What?" Uriel said. "That's impossible."

"Is it?" Castiel pressed. "We have searched everywhere within the spaces of Heaven. Can you tell me that travel beyond our borders is not possible without a shadow of a doubt?"

Uriel opened his mouth and paused.

"It could be worth looking into," Balthazar said quietly. "Just because it has never happened before does not make it impossible for a soul to theoretically do the same as any angel or Reaper."

There was a moment of silence as the three angels considered the idea.

"I will go report to Sariah," Balthazar finally said. "You two should waste no time and go see if this theory of Castiel's is correct."

"I agree," Castiel said. "Come, Uriel."

The angels split up and began their search anew.

Castiel had not been beyond the borders of Heaven for quite some time. Nothing had ever broken into Heaven, so patrols in this area were few and far between. Occasionally, the souls of coma patients and prisoners of war wandered this particular space, but never with enough awareness to try and enter Heaven. What was Danielle hoping to accomplish by setting foot out here?

The two angels searched the nothingness outside the borders of Heaven for many hours. Sariah called out to let them know that she was going to send out additional patrols to scan the beyond, and Castiel hoped they might help. This nothingness was far vaster than he had first anticipated.

Suddenly, Castiel heard two female voices. One of them sounded like it might be Danielle. Gesturing wordlessly, Uriel immediately followed Castiel as he sought out the owners of the voices.

"… kill Sam? And how are you in Heaven?"

"Heaven's bitch."

"We have found her," Uriel exclaimed loudly, and the nothingness around them shook with the force of his true voice.

"They found me."

"Dani?"

The angels quickly closed in.

"You've gotta go," Danielle spoke in a fast, urgent tone of voice. "Live, Roxy. Take care of yourself and Taryn and just… live, okay?"

"But I don't —!"

Castiel caught his first glimpse of the two females. One was clearly Danielle in a white gown, and the other was a young woman with dark skin and a bright shock of red hair. He watched as Danielle raised her right hand, yelled the word "LIVE!" and then smacked her open palm against the other female's chest. The darker girl gasped and stumbled back a step toward what Castiel knew was a thinner layer that separated this place from the realm of the living.

Danielle turned toward the angels, hands held up in supplication. "Castiel," she spoke quickly with true fear in her voice, "Uriel, wait, please, I can explain —!"

But it seemed that Uriel wanted no explanation. He spun himself into a form that Danielle could see and struck out forcefully, sinking his hand into Danielle's abdomen to tear at the very core of her soul, and sending out a shockwave that ruffled Castiel's feathers. He watched the other female cry out from the shockwave and then topple through the thin part of the barrier as Danielle screamed, trying to curl herself around Uriel's hand.

Castiel did not know why he froze long enough for Uriel to do what he did, but as he watched Danielle scream and writhe, something ached inside him. And then a tear slipped from the soul's left eye and the something inside him snapped.

He had no words to describe what this thing was inside of him, nor why it reacted as it did to Danielle's punishment at Uriel's hand. He just knew with absolute certainty that she did not deserve what the angel was doing to her. This was not justice. This was not the will of God. This was a wrathful move from an angry angel, and it had to stop.

Now.

Danielle has been found, he quickly sent out to Sariah before he strode forward. "That is enough, Uriel," he insisted, grabbing the other angel's arm and forcing him to withdraw it from Danielle's center. The young soul collapsed, crying and shaking as she curled over her legs and pressed her face to the ground. "Our orders were to find and retrieve Danielle," he forced himself to continue, "not to punish without authorization."

"But look at what she has done!" Uriel roared back. "She is not troublesome, Castiel, she is a threat, pure and simple!"

"How is she a threat?" Castiel returned incredulously. "She spoke to a soul whose body is in a coma. Chances are that soul won't even remember a thing about the conversation the two of them had." He noticed that Danielle stilled slightly at his words. "Are you assuming that she will try to escape back to Earth? That is not possible without a demon's Deal, the will of an angel, or the dark magic of a very powerful witch. It is highly unlikely that Danielle has access to any of those things."

"Souls are not to leave their place in Heaven," Uriel said. "It is the way with no exceptions."

"Keeping us locked up?" Danielle suddenly snapped, still breathing harshly. "I knew it. We are prisoners within paradise." She raised her head and glared at Uriel. "This is not what Heaven should be," she said, arms curled around her torso as she sat up. "True paradise is being able to be with all of your loved ones, not just memories of them or a single soul mate."

"That is enough, maggot," Uriel snarled, hand raising as though he was determined to plunge it into her again, and Castiel reacted without thinking, grabbing the other angel and restraining him.

"Stand down," he commanded tightly, thankful to finally feel the approach of Sariah, Balthazar, and others from their garrison. "Danielle will be dealt with, but with justice, not wrath."

Uriel gave Castiel a hard, inscrutable look, but relented.

"It seems we have a little rebel on our hands," Sariah commented when she arrived. "Did you see what she was doing?"

"She was speaking to a soul in a coma," Castiel answered at once. "I believe she called the soul 'Roxy'."

"A friend of yours, perhaps?" Sariah suggested. Danielle glared at the angel and kept her silence. "I see. It would seem that our patrols of your Heaven have been too spread out." Danielle snorted. "We shall have to remedy that."

Sariah turned to one of the other angels, Ishmael. "Please escort the soul to the prison. She needs to learn a lesson for her impudent behavior."

Ishmael nodded and strode forward, pulling Danielle to her feet. The young soul rose without protest, face devoid of emotion. When her eyes met Castiel's, he realized that she was terrified.

When had he become so adept at understanding this human?

Danielle stiffened slightly when Ishmael pulled her close, and then the two were gone. "I expect a full report within the next day," Sariah informed both Castiel and Uriel. "You are dismissed."

It was relieving to return home, but Castiel wondered — worried — whether Danielle was truly facing justice. He flew over Jared's Heaven and realized the soul inside was still calling out for answers.

Castiel felt regret that he had none to give.