Author note: welcome back, my fantastic readers! Glad to be posting another chapter. I think Taylor should get back to work, don't you? And what the heck, if it's bad form to name names, just let me know. Special thanks to my followers/favorites in no particular order: grapejuice101, Twiphase, MrFoxHoundSir, Halopro, Asmadey, IAmAbyss, Park1117, avatarrange, kyrogue23, LocomotiveClown, Shadow queen 579, CaosD, Bud200, Bri2.23, akira45, and The Literary Lord. Next shout out will go out to my reviewers. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 29: A strip tease and angels, please
As much as Taylor loved the hotel's library, right now they only felt roiling irritation regarding it. Their search for information about the four-winged angel had come up short. In fact, the library was bereft of anything related to heaven and angels in general. It was like the very idea of having information about it was declared taboo, leaving the library strewn with books all over the place in a vain attempt to get a shred of something they could use. They even tried looking for something on the Infernet on angels, but had to stop when all of it involved Angel Dust or lewd advertisements and sites, leaving them without any leads to move forward on. So Taylor resigned themselves to sit among the piles of books they had made, trying their best to draw the features of the four-winged angel from memory before they could forget. After crumpling their fourth attempt and trying anew, they heard someone clear their throat nearby.
"Taylor? What are you doing?" asked Charlie from the library doorway in a perplexed voice.
Turning to see her and Vaggie looking around at the mess and the fire demon with worried eyes, they realized their last shot was standing right in front of them. They bolted up from the floor, picked up one of their failed drawings, and ran up to Charlie in a frenzy. They held up the picture to her and spoke eagerly.
"Charlie! Do you know what this is called?"
The demoness shrunk back at the manic-sounding fire demon before them, but took a moment to regard the sketch.
"Is it… a flaming chalice?" She asked tentatively.
Taylor groaned in frustration. They started pointing to different parts of the picture as they spoke intensely.
"No, no! These are rings, that's a robe, these are four wings, and these are supposed to be clawed hands, but I keep messing up the proportions. And don't get me started on the eyes and-"
"Whoa, slow down, Taylor! You're scaring us and not making any sense! What is going on?" Vaggie spoke forcefully, interrupting Taylor's rant.
Taylor stopped, took a real look at their concerned faces and realized they probably sounded insane right now. Taking a couple of deep breaths, they started again in a calmer tone.
"Okay. Every so often, I've been having dreams. Dreams of your father, Charlie, before he fell from Heaven. But I'm watching it from the viewpoint of another angel that I got to see tonight, and they looked like this…" they lift up the paper and they glanced at it, dissatisfied. "sort of. I can't get the rendering quite right and I'm afraid if I don't get it right now, I'll forget like the last times." They said with another dejected look at the picture.
"You're seeing dad from when he was an angel in Heaven? Are you sure? How is that possible?" Charlie asked skeptically.
"I don't know! But I know it's him. Does he have six wings?"
Both of them gasped, taken aback.
"How did you know that? Only a select few people even know about that. Plus, he rarely even uses them; I've only seen them a handful of times!" Charlie cried out.
"See? I saw him talk about your mom, and Eve, and even that moron Adam, but I'm not sure who it is I'm seeing it through." They sighed as they scanned around at the mess. "I tried to find something related to it here and on the Infernet, but there isn't anything about Heaven or angels anywhere!" They waved their hands in exasperation and gazed at the two demonesses, who looked at each other with widened eyes.
"Sorry Taylor, I don't know much about Heaven or angels either, it's not something mom and dad liked to talk about. But I do know that he was a six-winged seraphim. Or, I guess, he still is one." Charlie said apologetically.
"A seraphim?" They repeated. Then it hit them. "Oh! That's where the 'my Phim' comes from! Of course!" Taylor was excited for solving one mystery at least.
'Then what would a Nim be short for?' they wondered.
"Taylor, can you tell us about what you saw? Dad never talks about that time because it's too painful, but I'd really like to know." Charlie pleaded.
They nodded eagerly.
"Yes, of course!" They stopped as they remembered the paper in their hand. "But first, I need to figure this out, I'll lose the image if I don't take care of it now." They jolted as they remembered something and had an idea. "I'll be right back!" They dashed out of the room as they bounded over to the elevator. "Oh, Pentious! Time for payback for waking me up!"
After rousing Sir Pentious and buttering the grumpy serpent up about his fantastic drawing abilities, Taylor headed back downstairs with a much more faithful rendering of the four-winged angel from their dreams. Pleased with the outcome, they looked around for Charlie and Vaggie and found them in the music room. They were chatting quietly when Taylor walked in.
"Sorry for the wait. I remembered how Sir Pentious drew a great portrait of Angel during the creativity exercise and went to him to draw it for me." They handed the picture to Charlie, who shared it with Vaggie.
"That was so nice of him! But I'm afraid it doesn't look like any angel I've ever seen." Charlie remarked.
"Yeah, me neither." Vaggie answered quietly.
Taylor nodded, disappointed. They took the picture back and put it away carefully before sitting in an armchair across from the demonesses. They then recalled their dreams to the two, from the first encounter and the many wonderful proposals Lucifer wanted to make happen, the sadness he felt from the constant rejections of said proposals, the fondness and admiration when he spoke about Charlie's mom, and how he believed that he did right by Eve by offering her the apple and giving her free will. By the end, Charlie was crying. Once she had settled down in Vaggie's arms, Taylor asked the blonde demoness an important question.
"Is there any way I can talk to your dad? He would know who this angel is, after all."
Charlie made an uncomfortable face.
"Uh, well, umm. He and I aren't exactly on speaking terms right now." She sighed sadly. "He doesn't believe in what I'm trying to do here, and only reaches out if he's bored or needs something. The last time he called was to have me take his place at the meeting we went to with Adam a few months back." She said in a pained voice.
Taylor remembered the male sounding voice from her phone call months back. They begrudgingly accepted the response, not wanting to force Charlie into anything. They suddenly felt a wave of sleepiness hit and realized that they had spent a better part of the night researching before yawning.
"I ought to get back to bed. I'll clean up the mess in the library when I get up."
"That's okay, Razzle and Dazzle took care of it!" Charlie chimed in.
"Great! I'll be sure to thank the little guys. I'll just-" they felt their phone buzz, interrupting their sentence. They tiredly opened a message from Antonio.
"Morning! We got another batch of clients coming in, plus we got training with Melanie for our next big wig after you're done. See you soon!"
Taylor groaned as they remembered their work responsibilities. They pocketed their phone and forced an upbeat voice.
"Never mind, gotta head in to work! You know what the song says, 'there ain't no rest for the wicked!'" They wished them a good day before they headed back up to their room to get ready, rubbing their eyes wearily.
'It's gonna be another fucking happy day in Hell.' they sang in their head wryly.
Come on, Taylor! You have to loosen up or you won't be able to spin in a smooth motion! And be sure to swing those hips more! Don't make me come over there and show you again!" Melanie corrected as she walked up to the gray wolf demon with yellow eyes and purple highlighted long flowing hair that Taylor changed into for the job. Antonio and Melanie had selected Valentino's second-in-command as their next target, and they thought the best course of action would be for Taylor to go in as a dancer and get them during a private showing. As such, Melanie had spent the past couple weeks being Taylor's pole and exotic dancing coach to give a convincing show.
To say Taylor was uncomfortable with the plan was an understatement. They already didn't like being in the spotlight or have any experience dancing, even less so sensually.
"Why can't I hang out on the side and do my heat exhaustion ability from there? It's stealthier that way." They had argued.
"Because that's what they will be expecting! They will have an eye out for a lurker in the shadows. This way, you'll be hiding in plain sight! The bright lights will obscure your spooky glowy eyes too!" Antonio countered. Melanie had agreed as well, leaving Taylor outvoted.
It was hard work getting the routine down. Melanie ended up being a tiny merciless slave driver, and despite Taylor's increased athletic abilities, they were using their muscles in new ways, leaving them tremendously sore after each session.
'How does Angel make this look so easy?' They thought achingly after each session's end when their arms felt ready to fall off and their legs were like jelly. If they hadn't had the gift of reinvigoration through breaking contracts, they would have abandoned the plan long ago.
Second, they were so self-conscious with the gyrating, pushing, spinning, and pulling in an erotic way that Melanie frequently scolded them for being too tense and had to guide them through the motions, amplifying their discomfort. They also felt so exposed in the outfits. They tended to dress much more modestly, so the extra skin was a big adjustment. If they weren't going in as a gray wolf, they would have looked beet red all the time.
The only part of the plan Taylor got behind was convincing Cherri to give them some of her explosives to use for the job. They lied and said they felt like they needed some more outlets for their frustrations, and the chaos loving cyclops demoness was more than willing to give them a plethora of options to suit their want for wreaking destruction.
After getting the routine down pat and all the preparations were completed, their contacts confirmed that their target would be arriving for the newcomer private show at Club Hell 666. When the night arrived, they told Charlie and Vaggie they were going out again for another big client meeting, but not before they assured a suspicious Vaggie that they were going to be responsible with the alcohol this time around. With a feeling of trepidation, they made their way to the club.
Taylor sat in the dressing room with one of their contacts, a lynx demoness who would be dancing alongside them in a double act. They themselves were wearing a tight-fitted black corset bra and purple booty shorts with black heels. Their long hair was pulled into a ponytail with their bangs hanging loose to show off the purple highlight. The lynx was putting the final touches on Taylor's disguise and going over the plan again with them. She spoke brusquely in a thick Russian accent.
"Alright, once more. We do our dance, you give the googly eyes to target the whole time, and then just as routine ends. Boom! All get up to escape, target flops over and is left behind in mess. You get in, do your thing, then get out and hide in crowd. We have clothes ready for you to change into outside." Just as she finished Taylor's makeup, she paused and looked sternly at them. "And?"
Taylor sighed. They replied dejectedly like a child being punished.
"Only go after the target. No extras, no matter how tempting. I know, I know."
"Right, very good. Now, we wait until show starts. It's as you say, go break a leg!"
Taylor chuckled nervously at the comment, hoping things went well enough that it didn't come to that. They were feeling apprehensive about going after another high-level dealmaker after the last time left them too sick to function, but they tried to console themselves by saying they went for too many at once that time and things would be better this time around. Plus, they needed to keep aiming higher to free Angel as soon as they could. But they couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that something was going to go wrong. They went to take a quick walk around before the club started to fill with customers to settle their nerves.
From the side of the stage, they took of the neon purple and ocean blue-themed restaurant with a striptease stage at the back. The stage itself had two poles for the dancers, sumptuous curtains and several stage lights above. The backdrop sported a giant glowing purple pentagram that could change for different routines. The ceiling had a giant circular aquarium with sharks and fish swimming languidly around. The audience area had a blue and white patterned carpet with several tables with purple tablecloths and blue stylized chairs. The main entrance had a neon sign saying Hell 666 above it and walls had vertical purple neon accents and more neon signs interspersed throughout the room. Taylor took note of the table their target, Valentino's second-in-command, would be sitting at. Taking a deep breath, they returned backstage as the club would be opening soon.
Soon enough, Taylor could hear the crowd filing into the audience space as their nervousness skyrocketed. They felt like their stomach was all in knots and their heart was pounding as the room felt too warm all of a sudden. They were interrupted in their spiraling by their lynx demoness contact putting a heavy hand on their shoulder and giving a confident thumbs up.
"You got this. It's one dance and they will never see you again." She said with a calm smirk.
Taylor nodded, a little assured. They smiled back and got themselves pumped for the mayhem that was coming.
With musical fanfare, the show began. Taylor and their contact waited in the wings as other routines went on before them. They heard hoots and hollers from the crowd, making the nervous butterflies come back in their stomach. They kept taking deep breaths to try to prepare themselves.
When it was finally their turn, Taylor puffed their chest out and strutted their way onto the stage like Melanie coached them to.
'Alright, it's showtime!' They said with as much enthusiasm they could muster in their head. They got to their pole and scanned the area. They saw their target: a brutish looking ram demon with horns that curled to the back of his head leering at them and they immediately got started on enveloping him in a heat blanket. They glanced around quickly to check the crowd and they froze as their blood turned to ice and their heart stopped.
They recognized him even though they hadn't ever seen him in person. The demon who they saw in the background of their client's painful memory flashes. The one who they saw, felt, do unspeakably cruel and barbarous things to their good friend. The moth overlord Valentino sat at one of the tables, his shark-like teeth grinning sinisterly through his heart-shaped glasses as he watched Taylor with interest. And to make things even worse, Angel Dust sat at his side, looking bored and uncomfortable.
"Oh, crap baskets."