I'm happy that you guys seem to be enjoying the writing style and pace. Thanks, folks. Here's another one for you all.
Catherine had spent the following day in paranoia. She stayed in her home, not having heard anything from the angel, demons, or this so-called help that Matt was supposedly sending over. Someone had probably gotten to them first.
She had used her time reading up on what she could, finding nothing that could actually be of any real use to her. The Bible didn't have any new information than when she first read through it. There was no information on any sort of hierarchy or leaderships of Hell, even Knights. It was all very tight-knit and she didn't like it. If this was so secret, she probably shouldn't be in the middle of it.
Day began to turn into night and the only angel for miles stood outside of her house, leaning his shoulder against a tree. Abbadon wasn't done, not by a long shot. She had wanted him for some reason and it was just easier to wait by the girl's side than to have her scooped up again like last time. Apparently, the demon thought there was some sort of connection between the two of them.
So, he waited in pale moonlight, trying to remember what it was like so long ago to face off against a Knight of Hell. She was probably much stronger now, but it concerned him to know what she wanted with him.
Everything grew quiet far too quickly for his tastes. The crickets stopped, the wind quit. She was here. Balthazar pushed off of the tree and began to walk towards the house, when he began to sense the demons coming in black smoke.
"I asked nicely," Abbadon's voice carried across the wind.
He turned just in time for her fist to connect.
Catherine looked up from her research, having sworn that she had heard something, but the noise had stopped. She rose slowly from the computer and books, grabbing her pistol silently. In a few paces, she made it halfway to the window and stopped again to listen... only there was nothing to listen to. It was far too quiet.
Suddenly, a loud howl of the wind shook the house, breaking the windows and scattering the salt lines. The devil's traps were still in place, but they weren't as numerous as they should have been. Perhaps making a safe room a few years ago would have been a good idea, but she never planned to fight against something like this.
Cat tried to run before being encircled by the black smoke, a couple of them appearing around her. She fired shots at their heads in an attempt to slow them down while trying to run and break free of the remaining smoke. It wasn't long until one of them slammed her against a wall and she fell to the floor.
Now there were four sets of feet in front of her, one of them approaching fast. Once he was close enough, about to do whatever he was about to do—she figured killing her—Catherine sat up quickly to slam the blade that he was about to stab her with into his own abdomen. From the look on its face and the light show just beneath the skin, she knew it had killed the monster.
The other three approached all at once. She yanked the blade out of the first demon and slashed at another's throat.
Balthazar's back fell hard against rocks lining the edge of a brook. Before he could attempt getting up, Abbadon already had her hold on him, twisting him up like she had done to the hunter the night before, with a hand around his neck and an angel sword to his eyes. To his credit, she was more roughed up than he was, but it didn't matter in this particular moment.
"I need your help," she said again breathlessly while nearly straddling him, the first words she had spoken since she first ran into him in the night.
His lips pulled up into a smirk. "You mentioned that, dear." His next words were stopped as she drove the blade into his shoulder. Bal gasped after a second of cringing. "Oh, please," he breathed, "Whatever is it that you need?"
"Your grace," she answered him in a smile, "and you're going to give it to me or, so help me, I will take it."
He only gave a pained laugh to her threat. "And what does a demon need with an angel's grace?"
"You don't like Crowley, right?" she smiled, "I'm going to kill him. I can't do it without your grace."
"Yes, you can-" Abbadon twisted the blade, making his words come up short again.
"No, I can't!" she growled. "It's stronger if you take it out yourself. No one knows an angel's grace better than the angel. Give it to me or I'll go for silver."
Balthazar took another deep breath. "You can go to Hell, is what you can do."
"Fine!" she spat and ripped the blade away from his shoulder. Abbadon reared back to drive the blade into his throat, when she sensed something and turned just in time to stop another blade from entering her ribs.
She parried the second angel blade and telepathically threw Catherine back a few yards. The distraction gave Balthazar the time to push the demon off of him and drive her into the water. "What are you really after, Abby?" he screamed in anger towards her once he was standing again.
Abbadon quickly got back to her feet, staying in the water and watching the angel stalk along the edge closely. "I need Crowley," she growled, "I need the Winchesters. There's more going on than you think, Balthazar. You've been gone for a long time. It's a whole new world... Now give it to me!"
She had started to approach, when she dodged just in time for the angel blade to mar the skin of her cheek. The hunter was on her feet again, pointing her pistol to Abbadon daringly.
"These aren't normal bullets," Catherine told her levelly, "I'm not that stupid... Now why don't you tell us what's going on?"
"Oh, please... You think I'm weak?"
"No," the hunter answered, looking down to the demon's feet, "You would be screaming by now if you were. I dumped a few gallons of holy water up stream because I knew more of you were out here. That's how I found you two getting playful behind the bushes."
Abbadon watched as her ankles began to smolder. Soon, that was going to start hurting a whole lot more as the water really rushed in. She looked back up to see them both smirking to her. She just glowered. "I'll be back."
"No-" Catherine tried to interject, but Abbadon was already gone... She turned to point the gun at Balthazar.
He looked back at her, not really surprised. "I suppose you're expecting a thank you now."
"What was that?" she asked him. "Why do they want me dead and why does she have a kill list? Who are they?"
Balthazar thought critically for a moment, shifting his jaw as he did so before nodding. "We should go... We have a lot to talk about. First, let's get that blade back, yes? It's quite invaluable."
He began walking into the stream to retrieve the sword while she looked at him curiously, following him with the sights of her pistol. "Go? If you think you're going into my house, you have another-"
"Not your home," he interrupted, picking the blade out of the water bed where it had buried itself. "They know where you live. They'll be back, probably tomorrow night. Like I said," he started walking back to her, ignoring the gun, "we have a lot to talk about."
Once he had assured her that the demons wouldn't be coming back that night, she had set him out on the porch and they talked about things she didn't feel like she should know. He told her about Dean and Sam, how they stopped the Apocalypse, how they tried to stop Purgatory. He also told her about the archangels and Castiel, Lucifer and Crowley. It was quite unsettling, though he left out any mention of his death aside from the fact that he had died and was resurrected the night she had found him.
In return, Catherine informed him on any major news she had come across since the year of his supposed death. A lot of it didn't make sense to her, while it somehow made some sense to him. She didn't know about a lot of things that the Winchesters did, including the Leviathan or the tablets, so Balthazar wasn't aware of any of these coming to pass either.
At the end of their discussion, they watched each other from opposite sides of the porch; Balthazar sitting on the swing and studying her curiously, Catherine standing against the railing and watching him for any ill moves.
Finally, he spoke again. "I'm not going to kill you. I won't get anything out of it. I only followed you for information, after all."
Cat sighed tiredly. "Then why do they keep coming after me?"
"Because I stay around you. Easy way to draw me out," he answered, "but leaving your side won't work. You pissed off the Queen of Hell, dear. That doesn't come without a price." Catherine stayed quiet, so he continued. "I need to find Sam and Dean Winchester. From the way she talked, they know where Crowley is. It's the best leverage we got, for the both of us."
She bit her lip and looked back at him. "I thought you don't like them."
"I don't," was his honest answer, "but I feel as if they owe me." Bal leaned back in the swing and sighed. "Come with me or don't. Either way, you can't stay here."
She watched him closely for a moment, studying him just as he did to her moments ago. At length, she shifted and looked around, out into the yard and the long driveway past her car. "The morning," Catherine finally answered. "We'll leave at daylight... I'll mark off the sigils so that you can come in." With that, she pushed off of the railing and went back inside.
Surprised, Balthazar watched as she left him on the porch, curious as to why she would be willing to let him into her home. He quickly realized that she had no other choice but to trust him now.
I seem to just be making this shorter. The next one should be pretty long, so we'll see. They're finally going to set out on their big journey with lots of twists and turns involved! Hope you enjoyed this thing so far, guys. Thanks for reading.