Author's note: We're now back on Earth to discover what's going to happen to Azrael, among other things. Thanks for all the reviews, followers, and favorites, it helps me stay focus on pursuing this story. A special thank you to Bebec, my wonderful French Beta who keeps helping me even though this is an English story. And now, enjoy!


Chapter 5

It Doesn't Smell Good

Chloe woke up with a start, drenched in sweat, and panting. Her heart was beating so hard it felt as if it was about to come out of her chest. It took her a moment to understand that she was in her bed and not really surrounded by dozens of burning demons wriggling on the ground in agony. The vivid images of her nightmare were still imprinted in her mind eye. Her first reflex was to look for Lucifer's reassuring presence beside her. Not seeing him there brought back painful memories. It hadn't just been a nightmare, but more a repeat of what had taken place less than a day ago. Instead of finding her lover at his rightful place beside her, Beatrice was there, still sleeping soundly. At least it was a small comfort to know that she hadn't woken her baby up. She would have scared her for sure.

Her alarm clock was displaying 2:51 am. Way too early to wake up. Unfortunately, she doubted being able to go back to sleep in her agitated state. She contemplated the idea of getting up to go brew a cup of herb tea when a noise from downstairs lit up all her alarm bells.

Something heavy had fallen on the floor somewhere in the apartment. It was quickly followed by hushed voices arguing urgently.

She stood up quickly and went down the stairs to discover what the fuss was all about.

The sight that welcomed her instantly brought tears to her eyes.

A bloodied Azrael was lying on the couch with one wing draped around the back of the seat and the other sprawled on the floor. She looked so still and pale that Chloe doubted she were even still alive. The two angelic brothers were arguing beside her, neither seeming ready to yield to the other's idea.

"I'm telling you, neither of us hold the power to heal that kind of wing injury properly. She needs Raphael!" Growled Michael.

"And I'm telling you again, that she explicitly asked me not to bring her to the Silver City!" Argued Amenadiel with a strong note of exasperation in his voice.

Michael was fuming. "That doesn't make any sense!"

Chloe approached slowly, almost afraid to look at the angel's injuries.

When she took it all in, the words escaped her lips without her consent. "Oh! God!"

The wing injury that the brothers were arguing about looked quite nasty indeed. A bone was sticking out from the flesh right in the middle of the main arch, making it look all askew. It had to be very painful. Aside from it, Azrael was also bleeding from a few very deep claw marks over her belly and torso. Chloe was afraid to learn what could have succeeded at hurting such an immortal being.

Without opening her eyes, Azrael surprised her brothers by interceding in their quarrel with a faint but clear voice. "Will you two just stop arguing? I will not lower myself by asking help from someone who thought Lucifer was not worthy enough to be saved when he needed it. This is my choice, and I am deciding that your help will be plenty enough. Now, will one of you two please do something before I bleed to death?" She finished in a fading whisper. Reprimanding them seemed to have taken all her remaining strength.

Chloe could all too well understand Rae's sentiment towards those heavenly brothers who turned their backs on Lucifer for so long. It had taken thousands of years, and Lucifer sacrificing everything to save humanity, before those siblings dared to acknowledge his valor. As much as their apparent new support of Lucifer was lifting Chloe's spirit and warmed her heart on Lucifer's behalf, she couldn't suppress her resentment for how they had treated him until now.

The two brothers were rudely brought back to Earth by their sister's words. Chloe thought they looked sheepish for losing their time arguing.

Amenadiel took the lead by giving orders to his younger brother. "Now that the matter is settled, hold her wing sprawled wide while I try to align it before I heal her. Otherwise the wing will never mend properly."

Michael reluctantly complied and took a hold of his sister's wing. "I just hope you know what you're doing," he sulked.

Amenadiel also hoped so.

Wanting to be of use, Chloe went to Azrael's head and laid a hand over her shoulder in a comforting manner while pushing her long black hair matted with perspiration out of her face. She could feel the angel shivering, probably in too much pain to control her reactions.

Chloe tried to soothe her with sweet words. "You're going to be ok. I know it's hard, but try to relax your muscles so Amenadiel can right your wing properly. It's gonna be over soon."

Chloe heard Azrael take a few deep breathes to try and do as Chloe had instructed her. Amenadiel waited a moment then took advantage of one of his sister's expirations to snap the bone back into place.

The cry of pain that Azrael let out chilled them to the core. She mercifully passed out from the mind blowing pain only seconds later. After making sure that the wing was rightly aligned, Amenadiel spread his own black appendages to pick out a long feather and at last heal his sister.

Woken up by the angel's screaming, Daniel came out from Trixie's room in a rush with a baseball bat held high. His panic seemed to lessen a bit when he saw them all gathered in the living room with stern faces, yet calm.

"What the Hell is going on?" He lowered the bat at the sight of the injured angel. "Oh! Damn! Will she be ok?"

Michael was taking great care of placing Rae's right wing in a comfortable position, resting it partly on the floor. He answered Dan's worry with a trembling voice. "We can only hope that she'll be able to fly again once it has properly healed, but it will still take a while before we know. Our healing powers are not strong enough to mend entirely that kind of wing wound. Her other injuries should be doing better though."

From her crouching position, Chloe raised her eyes to look at the claw marks. True enough, there was almost no traces of them anymore, aside from all the blood that still plastered Rae's robe. She noticed that the angel's breathing had even out. Her colors were also slowly coming back. Chloe sighed in relief. Her friend would be okay. Thinking of friends... The detective narrowed her eyes at the new worry forming in her mind.

"Where are Maze and Doom?" She looked around wildly, the panic starting to rise in her heart.

Amenadiel's grimacing face did nothing to alleviate her worries. "We encountered some trouble and had to split up so I could take Azrael to safety."

From there, the black angel related their encounter with the winged demon at the night club and how they found Azrael beaten almost to death. His educated guess was that his sister had ended up there after being drawn by the feel of numerous deaths happening all at once.

When Amenadiel finished his story and a stunned silence settled over the living room, Chloe heard a creaking noise coming from over the stairs. She turned around to find Beatrice standing stiffly in the middle of the stairs with her lower lip trembling. There was no way to say how much of the gruesome story her little girl had heard.

"Is Azrael okay, Mommy?" Her daughter asked in a trembling voice.

Chloe all but ran to take her into a comforting hug. "Yeah! Baby! She's ok! Amenadiel took care of her and now she will be sleeping for a while. Nothing to worry."

Trixie looked around the room and narrowed her eyes when Chloe released her from her embrace. "Maze and Doomy are not back yet."

It wasn't a question, and Chloe could hear the fear in her daughter's voice. She took the little girl's hand in her own and guided her downstairs. She tried to use her most comforting and joyful tone. Well, she hoped it sounded joyful.

"Not yet, Sweetie. But it shouldn't be long now. It's probably just a question of minutes before they do. In the meantime, why don't you come and help me with Azrael's clothing? We're gonna change her into something more comfortable."

Chloe wasn't sure her daughter bought her acting, but she complied nonetheless. Chloe first sent her to fetch some material as a way to distract her while she cleaned Azrael from all the blood plastered over her face and hands. As directed, Trixie brought back some scissors, then fetched one of Chloe's pyjama. The angel's robe turned out to be unsalvageable and with Azrael's wings out, they had to cut through the fabric to take it off. They changed her into clean clothing, the pyjama top slipped backwards to accommodate her wings.

Chloe welcomed the distraction of taking care of her angelic friend. The waiting was killing her! Maze had to be ok. Chloe couldn't accept the possibility of having lost her too. One single beast, as big as it could be, couldn't take down the fearless Mazikeen. It was simply unconceivable. And Doom would protect her for sure. He was a fearsome creature after all. She prayed that her hound would also come out of it alive...

In spite of her dark thoughts, Chloe plastered a bright smile on her face for her daughter's sake. But the restlessness displayed by Amenadiel gave up the fact that not everything was as bright as she wanted to let her daughter believe. Once more, Chloe remembered too late that her baby girl was way too perceptive to buy it. Damn it! Yet, if somewhat looking tense and suspicious, Trixie didn't comment but kept helping her silently.

While the girls busied themselves with changing Azrael, Amenadiel was literally unable to stay put, walking anxiously around the living room. There was nothing he wanted more than to go back there right now and help Maze fight that frightening beast, but it was no doubt already too late. The cops were only minutes away when he left, so however it turned out, it was certainly all over by now. Was Maze even still alive? The fear of discovering she had died was twisting his insides into jumble. He knew he would never be able to forgive himself if something bad happened to her. He tried to call Maze's cell phone, but didn't get any answer, trice, though he knew perfectly well that she always put it on mute before going on a hunt.

Feeling useless, Dan was looking at his angelic friend who was circling aimlessly around the place with the air of a lost puppy. He took pity on him and forced the black angel down on a chair. "Man! Calm down. Don't do this to yourself. I'm sure Maze is ok." As an afterthought he added, "We could probably find some news on TV about what's happening over there." The idea made Amenadiel brighten with hope.

Daniel lit the TV up, selected a news channel, and cranked up the volume. There seemed to be nothing about the gruesome event, yet. Dan returned to sit beside a very nervous Amanadiel. Now that the feeling of urgency was diminishing, Dan was becoming increasingly aware of an awful odour attacking his nostrils.

"What the hell is that horrible smell?" He inquired to no one in particular.

"I don't know!" Answered Chloe, who looked like she was just becoming aware of it too. "It almost smells like a sewer's backflow."

Amenadiel growled, clearly annoyed. "It's not. I'm the one who stinks." Everyone turned to the angel with their brows lifted questioningly. So he continued, if somewhat reluctantly. "We made an incursion in LA's sewers to catch those bloody underground demons before ending up at the club."

He explained their encounter with the creepy demons, leaving out the part about Maze's new powers, preferring to let her tell about it on her own terms. Michael looked very glad of hearing that after only one night, they already were at a count of five demons down. He thought it was going well for them and congratulated Amenadiel for the good work. The latter didn't seem to be sharing his brother's idea of a good work.

When Chloe and Trixie were done taking care of Azrael, Michael carried his sister upstairs to lay her down on Chloe's bed. Trixie and her mother helped stretch out the angel's wings the best way they could to keep her from hurting herself further. The skin over the broken bone looked almost healed, but as Amenadiel had warned, the bone in itself would take a while to mend completely.

They returned downstairs to gather together in the living room and wait anxiously for a TV report about the night club's slaughter or for the return of their friend. Michael kept standing proudly behind them with his sword on his back, like a silent sentinel watching over them.

Trixie reluctantly accepted to go wait in her bedroom. Chloe knew that her daughter would still hear some of what would be said since her bedroom's door had not been replaced yet, but if she could at least avoid her kid from seeing disturbing images, that would at least be that.

It wasn't that long before a first TV report came in. Apparently, no one knew exactly what was going on inside the Twilight Club yet, but the first witnesses talked of a real carnage. There was no report of shooting though, which was baffling the reporters since they were expecting it to be yet another lone gun action perpetrated in the name of religion. Instead, panicked witnesses appeared on camera, most of them looking injured and in shock, to tell of an attack by a huge creature, or maybe many, though most admitted having not gotten a good glance at it before escaping. Or maybe it had more plausibly been only some disguised crazy people? One of the survivor, looking completely awe-struck, swore having been saved from a giant winged beast by an angel of great beauty. The confusion was total among the witnesses, everyone seeming not even to believe their own version of the events.

The crime scene looked to be in as much confusion as the witnesses were. There was a huge number of police cars and ambulances already there and it had the appearance of a siege with cops barricaded behind cars with their weapons out. It wasn't clear yet if any of them already went inside or if they still waited to do so. There had been no official words from any authorities yet about the whole event.

All of a sudden, four pairs of eyes turned as one in the direction of the front door when they heard a key working its way through the lock. The door had barely finished opening that Chloe was already jumping into Maze's arms.

"You're ok!" Chloe gasped.

At the same time, Amenadiel almost choke on the demon's name. "Maze!"

In a heartbeat, he was up and just a few feet away from his love interest, yet unwilling to interrupt the two hugging women.

Chloe was clinging almost desperately to her friend. "I knew a little demon couldn't take you down." But her reaction was saying the exact opposite.

Maze patted her back sympathetically. "Jeee, Decker, thanks for the vote of confidence." In spite of her ironic words, Maze was smiling brightly which also resounded in her voice.

Chloe chuckled in relief as she released her friend. Apparently her heart wouldn't finish breaking tonight. Maze was fine and even Doom coming behind her looked fairly whole.

The two friends had barely disengaged from their hug that Maze got smashed into another one, this time delivered by a clinging Trixie.

"Maaaaze!" The kid squealed happily. "Did you get that big bad Demon?"

Chloe winced. Of course her daughter had figured out what had been going on.

Maze snorted. "Did you ever doubt it, kid? The little shit got just what it deserved. I almost cut it in half before sending it straight back to Hell!"

Trixie loosen her hold around her friend to look up at her. "I knew you could do it." She said confidently with great seriousness. "But I think the others were not that confident though." She added with a smirk.

"I bet they weren't." The demon answered with a grimace that screamed annoyance.

Chloe's chuckling at watching their interaction stopped short when she took notice of the nauseating smell coming off the hound who was pushing his way beside her to reach Trixie.

Chloe wrinkled her nose. "Pffffew! You didn't exaggerate, Amenadiel, when you said Doomy stank even worse than you." The disgusted sound that Beatrice emitted when Doom rubbed against her corroborated her first impression about his dirtiness.

Amenadiel seemed oblivious to the detective's words. He kept gaping at Maze with a look of awe and love that made Chloe's heart swell with happiness for her friends. Well, maybe she jumped a bit too fast to conclusions...

"Take that foolish smile off your face, Amenadiel!" admonished Maze as she walked straight past him without giving him a second glance.

Ouep! Chloe thought. She'd definitely missed another episode of the soap opera that was Maze's and Amenadiel's relationship.

Then she noticed that both Maze and Doom were limping and her heart sank. "Are you hurt, Maze?"

"It's almost nothing." Dismissed the new Valkyrie. She took a quick glance around the room before addressing Amenadiel. "Where is Azrael? Did she make it?"

It was one of the rare times Chloe had heard Maze sound that much concerned about anyone.

Seeing that Amenadiel was still stunned into silence, Chloe decided to answer Maze's worries. "She's in my room, sleeping. Amenadiel healed her. Even though, it will still take some times before she is back to her full strength."

Maze visibly deflated with relief. "That... That's good!" She cleared her voice as if to get rid of something stuck in her throat.

Michael stepped in front of Maze, confusion written all over his face. "What did you mean when you said that you sent that demon straight back to Hell?"

"Exactly what I said!" Maze smiled enigmatically.

"Explain!" The angel said dryly.

Maze made a show of letting herself down on the couch lazily. Everyone was now looking at her, clearly starting to understand that there was some truth behind her words.

"Well, looks like God's gifts held some hidden qualities after all." She was clearly enjoying dragging her explanations in length.

Seeing annoyance replace Michael's previous puzzled expression, she decided to explain herself properly before the touchy angel burst out. Bulging eyes stared at her during her entire telling of her fight with the demon and the way she sent it through the vortex. At least that's what she now thought it had been.

Trixie was looking at her in awe. "You have a fiery whip?"

Maze tried to school her features to not show how cool she thought that whip was. "Ouep! I can show you if you want."

Chloe interceded rapidly. "Maybe some other time! And definitely some other place. The apartment is already wreck enough as it is."

Maze and Trixie made the exact same annoyed eye roll and smirk. Those two were hanging out way too much.

Maze stood up suddenly. "I smell worse than garbage. I need a shower!" Before she reached the stairs, she turned around and added, "Doom will certainly need some grooming too, but I'm telling you right now, I'm not the one who'll do it," she addressed to Chloe. And with that, she disappeared upstairs.

Chloe gaged the people gathered in the living room and quickly reached her conclusion. "Well, I guess it means I'll be the one who ends up with that task. Want to give me a hand, Monkey?"

Trixie smiled happily. "Sure! It's gonna be fun!"

Chloe doubted it very much.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After her shower, Maze observed her injuries in front of the mirror. She couldn't find any bruises over her body while she should have plenty of them, considering all the hits she took during the night. And the deep wounds that the winged beast had inflicted on her limbs with its claws looked almost closed by now. She almost didn't feel them at all when it had quite incapacitated her less than an hour ago. That was strange. Being a demon, she'd always healed fast, if somewhat slower when the wound was inflicted by demonic or celestial means, but there was fast and FAST. What she was seeing even surpassed angelic metabolism. Not for the first time, and probably not for the last either, Mazikeen wondered with a slight unease what God had made her evolve into...

Pushing that new development in the back of her mind, Maze dressed up in her night clothes and freed the bathroom for Amenadiel who also wanted to rub the sewer's dirt off him before the girls would give Doom his bath.

Maze went straight to bed where she lay wide awake, staring at the ceiling, and thinking about the day's events. Her entire existence was upside down and she doubted ever being able to find her footing again. A deep feeling of helplessness washed over her and left her feeble with dizziness. She was far from experiencing the strong sentiment of power that had coursed through her during her fight at the club. It rather felt like she had no control over anything anymore, and if there was one thing Mazikeen hated, it was not being in control. She desperately needed to regain command over her life. She passed the next few moments trying to make sense of the disasters raging inside as well as around her.

After a while, Amenadiel entered her room cautiously. He seemed hesitant to join her. The poor lighting probably left him unsure whether she were awake or not.

"You can come! As long as you keep your side of the bed." She said bluntly.

He didn't say anything and climbed into bed, settling himself comfortably beneath the covers, a safe distance from her. He turned his back to her as if to show that he was ready to give her all the space and time she needed.

She felt him startle when she happened to be the one who spoke. "Could you... Would you mind training me to fight with those wings?" She hated the way her voice sounded so small and vulnerable.

He turned his head towards her, then his whole body to face her left side. "I would be honored." He answered simply.

She only nodded slightly, not even sure he could see her in the dark. After a long moment of silence, Amenadiel risked a question to which he desperately needed answering.

"That vortex you created to send those demons to Hell, you're not like... planning to do anything crazy with it, are you?"

Maze kept silent.

The angel took a deep breath before speaking again. He didn't want to start a fight, but he knew her, knew of her deep and blind devotion towards Lucifer, and he couldn't let her make raw decisions that could get her killed. There was no way she hadn't thought about the possibilities.

He tried to keep his voice steady and calm. "Maze..., you don't even know if living beings could pass through it."

"You're right. I don't know, yet." She corrected.

Amenadiel closed his eyes and sighed. Yes, he knew her all too well by now.

He continued his plea for common sense. "And, you have no idea if it would also work the other way around. For all we know, you could stay locked up in Hell if you ever succeeded at getting there in the first place."

"Your point?"

"It's a crazy idea, Maze, and you know it. But you seem to have already made up your mind about it. Haven't you?"

"Ok, yes! I'm thinking about it!" She admitted impatiently. "And you know there's nothing you could say to make me change my mind if I chose to risk it."

"I know..." He said softly. "Still, I need to tell you that I don't agree with you. I'm sure even Lucifer would think it to be too risky."

"Does that mean you won't train me?"

He sighed deeply. "No! I'll train you. If only to help insure that you'll come back alive if you chose to get on with that stupid idea."

Maze reached out to hold his hand. "Thanks!" She whispered softly.

They both fell asleep, still holding hands.


Author's note: Well, I thought it was the kind of crazy plan Maze would get herself into. I hope you're still enjoying this story. You'll learn some more about Lucifer in the next chapter and about how Trixie is dealing with everything. I also reserve you a great surprise about Trixie. I'm so excited for you to discover what it is. Hiiiiii! Thanks for reading, and commenting. Your feedbacks always make my day! :)