When she opened her eyes she knew the day was going to be rough. Despite getting some sleep, she still felt exhausted, and her arm that she wrapped looked worse than it did last night. She groaned sitting up slowly hoping it was just a rush of blood making her head hurt and not the start of a headache. She managed to get herself out of bed and into the shower. She spent much longer there than she intended just letting the water run off her. It was definitely a headache coming on. After getting ready for the day, she gave her room a quick clean up. She picked up her dress, but couldn't bring herself to throw it out. She sighed hanging in her closet.
Ellen made her way downstairs and stopped at the bottom of the stairs, her nose wrinkling. It turns out the smell of burning flesh had yet to dissipate, though it was very faint. Her stomach flipped. Maybe she would hold off on breakfast for now. She walked by the door to Alastor's office, only pausing for a second before continuing. She wasn't ready to deal with that right now. He would no doubt corner her at some point to answer all of his questions, hopefully it would be after her headache went away. She doubted it.
She found Charlie and the gang sitting in the lounge. Most looked bored while Charlie was excitedly discussing the morning's activities. She went and joined them, sitting beside Angel who was glued to his phone.
"Oh! Ellen, I'm glad you joined us! I was just telling everyone that maybe since, you know, you're not really down here officially, that maybe you could lead an activity for today." Charlie's eyes were gleaming but Ellen felt put on the spot.
"Oh. I-" she looked around the group, no one looking interested. Maybe she could suggest something small, she hated being here like everyone else it seemed.
"Well, it's not an activity per say, but as some kind of goal for the day, maybe try doing something nice for someone else without expecting something in return. Doing a good deed."
"Please, I suck people off without expecting reciprocation all the time."
"Yeah but you get paid to do that Angel. I'm talking about being nice and helping someone just because." Ellen gave him a sideways glance. "Helping an old lady across the street, holding the door open for someone with their hands full, paying for the coffee for the guy behind you. That kinda stuff." She shrugged.
Charlie's eyes were practically stars, they were shining so bright. " .Gosh! That's an AMAZING idea!" She quickly went off about everyone having a book to journal about their good deeds and feelings about the day. Ellen quickly tuned out.
"Oh Shit."
Charlie glared at Angel who had now sat up, eyes wide on his phone. "Guys, we may have a bit of a problem." He turned his screen so Charlie and Vaggie could see. Based on their reactions it wasn't good. And then they both turned to look at her. Definitely not good.
Angel handed his phone to her and finally Ellen saw it. It was a shaky phone recording of the open house last night, close to the end of the evening where people were mingled in the front foyer. In full view, she watched herself in her lovely evening attire sprint by and up the stairs. The person filming even zoomed in making it very obvious she was no demon. Even hushed voices could be heard asking what she was. It faded to black as she reached the top step.
She looked up and all eyes were on her. All surprised except Vaggie. She was pissed. Oh shit indeed.
Angel stood, scooping up Nifty and Husker quickly followed. "Good meeting everyone, I think I'm just gonna head out…" and Ellen was left with Charlie and Vaggie.
"WHAT the Fuck was THAT! We told you not to go specifically for that reason! Now we're going to have dozens of demons coming to break the doors down! What the fuck!"
Ellen felt herself shrink back. Vaggie was right of course. She was the one that mentioned the fact it would risk the safety of everyone. And she did it anyway. She wasn't going to drag Alastor into it. While he had been the one to invite her, she was the one who ultimately ran through the crowd. Even if it was for that stubborn jerk. No, she couldn't tell them why she did it. She remained silent trying to keep her emotions in check. She was going to face the consequences.
"Nothing! You have nothing to say?!"
She shook her head, biting her tongue.
Vaggie stood, pacing and muttering under her breath. Charlie just stared. And that was even worse.
"I'm sorry." Slipped out before she could stop it.
"Sorry?! SORRY isn't going to fix this! When hordes of demons come to break that door down, are YOU going to be fending them off! NO! It'll be ME and Lucifer and Alastor that will have to clean up YOUR mess! And it's not going to be just one wave, they'll keep coming until either you're dead or the rest of us!"
"Vaggie that's enough!"
"Charlie, she's put a giant target on the hotel. If she's here…" Vaggie turned away.
Charlie gave Ellen a small glance before turning to her girlfriend. "This is the safest place in hell for her. We can do this. Who is going to challenge the hotel with The king of hell and one of the most powerful overlords residing here? So we'll have a few more attacks-" She rolled her wrists. "- we always pull through."
Ellen's eyes moved to the shadows on the wall behind them. They were moving. Her eyes immediately went to the office door where she wasn't surprised to find Alastor standing, watching. Great. He probably was only watching to make sure she kept him out of it. Although he did look much better than last night. The soup must have helped. She was glad he was back to his normal self. Or at least played off he was.
He cleared his throat, getting the attention of the other two. "If you two are quite finished, I would like a few words with Ellen as well. She had quite the eventful evening last night." His eyes narrowed.
Vaggie only groaned, but waved Ellen away. "She's all yours, Al."
"Come my dear, we have much to discuss."
She moved to Alastor's office door but made sure not to cross the threshold. If she so much as set foot into the room, she would be stuck there until he let her go. He had taken a seat behind his desk, his fingers knitted together in front of him. He gestured to the chair in front of him. "Please sit."
She resisted the urge to move. He looked angry. Did he remember all of what happened last night? She hoped not.
"I will only ask nicely once more, should you choose to ignore it, then I will simply make you, but either way you will be seated. Now, please sit."
She took a step forward. As soon as she was past the doorway it closed behind her. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. She took the seat.
"Very good. Now-" with a wave of his wrist two cups appeared, one for him and one for her. Hers was tea. "- I believe I should start by saying thank you." He glared at her. "Despite the many times I asked you to leave, you stayed and… assisted me."
"So you're feeling better?"
"Much."
"Did the soup help?"
He raised an eyebrow. "It did very much. Who helped you?"
"No one. I made it myself." She tried to smile proudly, but it didn't reach her eyes.
He hummed in thought for a few seconds before moving on. "I would like you to tell me what happened last night."
She knew this was coming. "I would like to know how you got that wound on your chest."
He narrowed his eyes. "A story for another time perhaps, but I do have better things to do today, so if you could quickly answer so we can both be on our way."
Ellen leaned back. Of course this was all about him, when wasn't it? Her mind quickly went back to when they shared a dance on the balcony, jacket off, tail exposed. Maybe she could bargain.
She sat up straight, leaning over the desk, arm out. "I will answer three questions with full honesty if you answer three of mine with full honesty. Deal?"
His eyes narrowed thinking a moment before he put his hand in hers. The air around the room began spinning and a flash of green light lit up the room causing Ellen to shield her eyes. When everything died down he was leaning back in his chair taking a sip of his coffee. She could tell from the smell. "I would suggest you start soon, I give you two minutes before Vaggie comes to break that door down. And I don't intend on dealing with her when she does."
"Okay, one, how and when did you get that wound?"
"Before you got here Charlie had some…political problems with heaven. They sent down angels to exterminate her and the hotel. As part of my job here I protect the hotel and its residents. I was asked to deal with the head Angel. I may have overestimated Adam." His ears pinned back the name. "He landed a blow and-" his mouth started glowing green and his eyes narrowed, his ears pinned down further. "-I barely made it out with my life. Despite all the care, it wouldn't close. I've been dealing with it since then." The green glow left his mouth. "Now firstly, how did you close the wound?"
She wanted to say something simple along the lines of "My blood just kind of closed it" but the words died in her throat and she felt her mouth take on a mind of its own, her voice seeming not hers anymore. "I'm not entirely sure. It could have been you drinking my blood, but when some of mine entered your wound it seemed to close around it. Every drop healed a little more. I don't fully understand why though. I did cycle my arm between feeding and healing a few times. I only stopped when I noticed-''
She threw her hand to cover her mouth, her cheeks burning. She was not going to mention that. Her hand was being pulled from her mouth with a force beyond this realm. Her panicked eyes looked over to Alastor who looked like he was enjoying himself with the show. Oh how the tables were about to turn. She could see the green glow at her mouth and throat and the more she resisted the brighter it glowed.
"I only stopped when I noticed you were squeezing your thighs together, biting back moans of pleasure." The second the words where out the green colour vanished and the tightness of her throat subsided. She could speak freely now, not constrained to telling only the truth.
"I beg your pardon?" His tone was pitched a bit too high. Just by looking at him Ellen could tell Alastor was visibly panicked. His eyes wide, looking everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. His back was straight, his ears just as erect. Static echoed through the otherwise silent room. Not something she had seen from him before.
"It's okay, nothing happened." She assured him now feeling just as panicked as he was. "I get it, it…it was a taxing night on your body and between the drinking and pain I'm sure it just…" she wasn't helping ease his panic at all, it looked as though she was making it worse. "It wasn't just you okay? I was kinda turned on, too!" She blurted out and instantly regretted it. The static buzzing grew tenfold and he sat there like a deer in headlights. Oh the irony. And then there was pounding on the door.
"Alastor! You promised no deals!"
The static quieted a little bit, but he was still not fully composed, antlers slowly extending past his head, eyes black.
She knew today was going to be a shit day, she should have just stayed in her room. Her cheeks heated, but she stood and went to the door. She opened it just enough to poke her head through, to find Vaggie, spear pointed at her face.
"Hey, Vaggie. What brings you by?"
"What did you do?"
She tried not to flinch at the statement. This was all really her doing. She had been the one to initiate the deal and also kinda broke Alastor. She glanced over her shoulder to Alastor who was still trying to get himself composed. No antlers anymore, he was working on it.
"Uhhh." She returned her gaze to Vaggie trying to put on a convincing smile. "We made a little deal, nothing for souls, just a little something to get information out of each other."
Vaggie raised her eyebrow. "What information could you have that Alastor would agree to something like that?"
"Good question! I uhh-" she swallowed nervously. "- well that's for him to find out I guess."
Vaggie lowered her spear and tried to push past her to get in but Ellen blocked. "What did you do to him? Why is he screeching like that?"
"Oh. Yeah umm, I may have said something I shouldn't have. He's um…re-tuning?"
A smile creeped onto Vaggie's face. "No way."
"Anyway, we still have stuff to discuss so if you don't mind…" She pushed Vaggie out of the way of the door before closing it in her face with a heavy sigh. She glared at the Radio Demon now fully re-composed. "Thanks for the help." She muttered sarcastically.
Ellen returned to her seat taking a sip of her tea. At least he wouldn't see her bruised arm. She made sure to wear a long sleeved shirt to cover it up. There was silence for a few minutes and Ellen was starting to wonder if she should just leave when Alastor asked. "You said you cycled your arm between feeding and healing, what did you mean by that?"
She felt no pressure to tell the truth; this was just a simple question. "I was afraid you'd bleed out before I could find you something, and since I didn't really want to part with any of my uhhh…flesh, I thought blood would be better than nothing." She shrugged and took another sip of tea. "It'll take a bit of time, but I'll recover."
His eyes narrowed again and she knew he was about to scold her. She raised her hand and beat him to it. "Yeah yeah, you called me stupid for suggesting it, but you also promised you would stop before bleeding me dry." She gestured to herself. "You kept your word. You also mentioned I was a delectable sample and I'm choosing to take that as quite the compliment coming from someone who consumes flesh regularly."
"I'm glad you find this amusing." He barely got the sentence out through gritted teeth.
She learned back. "Not amusing. You were stubborn as hell, but as I told you when you were drunk, you were nothing but a proper gentleman the whole evening."
He seemed to relax a little bit. "Good." He took some time absorbing all that had been said. "And your arm?"
Ellen instinctively looked to her bruised arm, hidden under her sleeve. She pulled it a bit closer to herself. "It'll heal."
He stuck his arm out. "May I?"
She pulled her arm back completely. "It's not that bad, really."
An eyebrow raised in suspicion. "Then there is no harm in showing me."
Ellen bit her lip. Fuck! She could either deny and only prove it was bad or bend and show him it was indeed pretty bad. She let out an annoyed groan and started to roll her sleeve up. The cut looked red and angry, but the bruised skin around it made it look worse. She had never seen bruises so dark and while it hurt to touch she had managed to ignore it just fine.
He said nothing as he looked at it for a few minutes in silence, though his brow did furrow. She tried to get a read off of him, but he was too well practiced. He hid everything very well.
"I am curious what your definition of 'bad' is."
"Would you consider this bad?"
He took another glance at it before responding. "I suppose not. I have seen much worse, as I do enjoy a bit of carnage from time to time." He took a sip of his coffee, eyes flitting between her and her arm. "For normal sinners this is barely a concern, however you aren't normal are you my dear?" He put his cup down. Eyes now glued to her arm. "It's been a long time since I've seen such damage on skin like this, on a woman no less." He sighed, finally looking away.
If Ellen didn't know better she would have thought he was almost sorry for the damage. Maybe even guilty. But she knew better.
She started rolling her sleeve down and fixing her shirt. "Then it's not bad. Just bruises." Her mind flashed back to the similar comment she had made when he addressed his tail being cute. That seemed like ages ago. She couldn't help but wonder if it was flicking in annoyance throughout this conversation. The thought brought a small smile to her face.
Alastor let out a deep sigh then held his hand out, the palm glowing green. "I suppose I owe you a favour. Anything my dear, name your price and I shall deliver."
Ellen pinched his sleeve and moved his arm back across the table toward him. "Yeah uh, no thanks." She dropped it. "Friends help friends when in need, no debts or favours owed."
"Friends?"
She held her hands up in defense. "Hey, your words, not mine. People are honest when they're drunk. You said I was a good friend and you enjoyed my company."
His eyes narrowed again, though this time his ears were pinned back too.
"Second question, how did you get into my room? My door is always locked and as an extra precaution I use some dark magic to keep people out. I don't recall letting you in."
Ellen didn't need the ethereal prompting to speak, she had no reason to lie. "Well I was going to kick the door down but Lucifer must have heard. He asked if I was going to give you hell. When I confirmed that I was, he just unlocked your door."
Alastor's ears were pinned back again. "That little snake."
Ellen's stomach grumbled. She was done sitting here. She didn't have any other questions to ask right now anyway. She yawned. "I think I'm going to get something to eat."
"We haven't finished our conversation."
She smiled. "Yes but I don't recall putting a time limit on this deal. I can save my two remaining questions for as long as I want." She stood giving him a furtive smile. "Did I not mention that I live for finding loopholes in everything?" She hummed. "Guess it's a good thing I didn't make any deals with you while you were drunk. You seemed pretty keen on making one. I probably could have gotten you to agree to anything." Her smile turned into a sly smirk as static started resonating from the Radio Demon. She headed for the door. "Just be glad I'm not one to care for keeping tabs on favors or debts cause if I was, last night would have cost ya greatly my friend. Enjoy the rest of your day Alastor."
She closed the door behind her. Well at least one thing kinda worked out today. Now, she needed food.
She made her way to the kitchen to find Angel busy cooking something up. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was close to lunch time.
"Need any help?"
Angel turned quickly, surprised at her presence. "Nah I'm just 'bout done anyway."
"Can I set the table?"
"Sure. 'Made some pasta."
With a nod, Ellen grabbed all the dishware she needed and set the table just as the rest of the inhabitants arrived. To everyone's surprise, Lucifer also joined them, but the Radio Demon was nowhere to be seen, no surprise. She joined in on the light conversation at the table, enjoying the company present. Lucifer remained quiet for most of the meal, but did join in for some of the chatter. When all was done Ellen collected all the dirty dishes volunteering to do dishes. Shortly she was by herself in the kitchen with her thoughts.