AN: Happy 4th of July to my American readers.
Cheers!
Ellen woke up still feeling a bit tired. She pushed herself to a sit, looked down and let out a little gasp of shock. She was wearing pajamas. She didn't put pajamas on before going to bed. Alastor must have come in to check on her while she was sleeping.
She undid the top couple of buttons on her red silk top, to look at her wound. Someone had stitched the holes close. She moved to her waist to find those holes had also been stitched closed.
She looked over to her bedside table and her heart melted. There was a tray of breakfast. A small fruit salad, eggs and bacon with a few slices of toast. There was a little note folded on the center of the tray.
She already knew who it was from just by looking at the calligraphy.
'Off to see Rosie. Please eat to gather your strength, I will be back to check in when I can.
-A '
She smiled. Today was going to be a good day. She could feel it.
Once fed and dressed Ellen made her way down to the lobby. She took her time getting ready. She was in no rush to go anywhere. It was a little past midday but most of the residents seemed to still be gathered in the parlor. It was clear the morning workshop had concluded as everyone was lightly scattered, off in their own conversations.
She was going to join Angel and Husker but changed her mind heading over to Charlie and Vaggie instead. Angel and Husk looked to be enjoying each other's company a little more than usual, and she didn't want to interrupt that.
"Oh! Ellen, come join us." Charlie patted the seat beside her. She smiled, taking the seat.
Charlie seemed to be working up the nerves to speak, Vaggie filled the silence.
"You made it back in one piece, so it must have gone okay."
Ellen leaned back with a small sigh. "I am no spy, but I think I did okay. Didn't get much though. They want to take out Alastor first. Vox admitted it was only 'cause it was a personal thing. Not too sure if that counts for anything."
"Husk said you were a bit shaken up when you got back. You okay?"
She waved her hand. "Nothing I couldn't handle."
Vaggie raised an eyebrow, her arms crossing her chest and a small smirk pulling at her lips. "You sound like Alastor."
She just shrugged.
Charlie finally spoke up. "If Alastor is their first target and they're looking to strike soon they must know of a weakness right? What makes now the right time?"
Ellen sat up. "They think he's licking his wounds. Between the Angelic wound, his broken staff and loss against Adam, he's been taken down a few pegs."
Charlie and Vaggie turned to her with confused looks. "How do you know about the last extermination?"
"Oh." She looked across the lobby. "Vox showed me the footage of Adam and Alastors battle."
Charlie's eyes widened. "Alastor got hurt? But he- I-" tears started welling up in her eyes.
Ellen looked at the two confused. Surely they must know? But the blank stares spoke volumes. "You didn't know? You guys didn't see that footage? I thought for sure Vox would have posted that as soon as it happened. Wouldn't that tarnish Alastors reputation?"
Vaggie hugged Charlie but shook her head. "I don't know why I didn't see it. You're right, I haven't seen his cane since the battle." She met her eyes concern clouding them. "He got hit by an angelic weapon and didn't die?" She looked to Charlie who held her head in her hands. "Maybe he's stronger than I thought." She paused thinking. "You're right, it's weird Vox wouldn't post that for all of Hell to see. Maybe… maybe he didn't want anyone else to take out Alastor before he did?"
"I don't think he has that kind of self control." Ellen muttered under her breath.
"Maybe waiting for the right moment?"
Ellen shrugged. "That's possible I guess, but why wait a few months? Wouldn't it have been easier to strike while he was down? I know Alastor plays with good sportsmanship, but I've met Vox. He's not afraid to make a low blow if he thinks that'll secure a victory." She placed a hand to the wound on her chest.
"I could only imagine the pandemonium that would occur if Hell knew Alastor was an easy target. Many would make moves to get out of their deals no doubt."
Ellen closed her eyes to think. "Vox and Alastor clearly have some unfinished business. Vox definitely wants to be the one to take out Alastor. Something to brag about, I just don't know why he wouldn't take pot shots at Alastor when he easily could."
Charlie looked between the two. "If sinners thought they could take him, there would be more attacks on the hotel. There haven't been."
"They don't know. But then why keep that footage to not use it? It would be hard to fight the backlash, even for Alastor." Ellen sat up. "Blackmail? Bribery?"
The three girls remained silent trying to find a reasonable explanation. It seemed neither of them could.
A knock on the door halted their conversation. Charlie quickly sat up jumping to feet making her way to the door. Wiping her face and straightening her suit. Vaggie and Ellen shared a look before they followed. Ellen stayed behind, keeping out of sight.
Charlie took a steading breath and opened the door wide, no doubt wearing a smile just as big. "Hi! Welcome to the Hazbin Ho-"
"Where is the missus?"
"Um sorry who?"
Ellen pulled herself around a corner, further out of sight. Shit.
"The little doe. Where is she?"
Vaggie and Charlie shared a look. Charlie laughed nervously, "I don't know-"
The demon pulled a machine gun and before anyone could even take a breath he fired one shot before being stabbed by Vaggie, who had already pushed Charlie to the floor to dodge the bullet. Husk and Angel were at the door looking out.
Ellen peeked from around the corner to find the group charging out the front doors, gunfire filling the air. So it seemed Vox had let all of Hell know the great Radio Demon had gotten hitched. Still nothing about the battle footage. Interesting. A bit of guilt seeped into her. The battle raging outside was her fault. Although this time, maybe she could help.
She crept to the door taking a quick peek outside. Her eyes went straight up. Vox had to have eyes on the hotel no doubt. He had managed to find out that was where she was residing, and clearly other sinners were able to put it together also. If she could take that out, she could help take out the sinners. A quick glance, she saw a drone. Two? Easy. She smiled. Now she just needed a little bit of Alastor's power. She just needed someone to threaten her. A demon locked eyes with her and her smile grew. He charged at her and she felt the power slowly seep into her. In a quick movement she threw a tentacle toward the charging demon making simple work of him. She then launched it up, taking the two drones out. Now she could come out and play.
The second she stepped out there was a large rush of power that filled her. She had watched Alastor fight the last time the hotel was attacked, it seemed easy enough. This would be good practice to learn how to control his magic better. She was stuck in Hell for eternity now anyway, why not join the crowd? And if she wasn't using angelic steel or devouring them she wasn't really killing them.
It was nice to have that kind of power, it seemed too easy to take out all of the demons. A much easier fight than her battle with Vox. These sinners were much weaker, and much less observant.
"Hey Smiles it's about time ya- Ellen?! What the fuck?"
She grinned down at Angel. He looked at her horrified. That gave her pause. She quickly blocked a few shots fired at him while he was distracted by her. She raised herself on tentacles taking a look at the roof tops. She should have known. A quick wave of her wrist cleared the two roofs that had snipers getting set up. She was getting good at this!
Her gaze swept the ground looking for the next group of demons unlucky enough to catch her eye. She found one, but not what she was looking for. Alastor stood a little distance from her glaring up at her. In a quick movement she felt a substantial loss of power only having a few tentacles left to her control. Alastor had summoned his own, meeting her up in the air.
"Darling." He greeted her with an edge of annoyance. "Is there a reason you're not inside?"
She smiled at him. "Thought I should get some practice in."
One of his tentacles stopped a spear midair that had been thrown at her.
"I must insist you return to your room. I will take care of this."
She looked at him with smug amusement. "I think I have this handled well enough on my own." She took a quick sweeping look around her before lowering herself to her feet. He followed her, the two ripping demons apart as they passed them.
"You put yourself in unnecessary danger again. Just because you have access to my power doesn't mean you use it as you wish. It was only meant for unavoidable circumstances. This-" he gestured around them."- is not that."
She turned to face him, a tentacle sweeping a demon off his feet behind him before ripping him in two. "Did you feel any panic? Fear? No. I kept myself composed. You know me well enough this shouldn't have been a worry."
He got in her face, eyes narrowed. "It is if you're drawing a vast amount of power out of nowhere darling."
Her face softened. "I took a lot?" How would she know how much she was taking, could she take all of his power?
His jaw clenched, staring at her in silence for a long moment before turning and unleashing carnage. She felt the rest of her borrowed power leave. Angel approached his back to hers, keeping his focus on the assault.
"What was that?"
She shook her head. If these demons were here for her, there was no point in hiding it anymore. They were going to find out soon enough. She opened her mouth only to be pulled upwards as a demon took a swipe at her with a blade. Angel took him out as Ellen looked down to find a black tentacle wrapped around her waist. He pulled her to him.
"If you aren't going to go inside, at least stay out of the way my dear. They are after you."
"Actually they were looking for a little doe," she muttered mostly to herself. "I take it all of Hell knows about us now?"
His tentacle held her to his hip, not bothering to even look at her, eyes focused on the battle below them.
"It's in the newspaper. Rosie found out before I did." Another demon was ripped to shreds, their blood splattering across her. She only bothered wiping her face.
"Was there anything about..umm your soul?"
He turned and glared at her then. "Got overconfident did you?"
"No, Vox used his powers."
His look softened only for a second, before returning to a glare. "And I'm sure you were going to tell me?"
"Like I've had a chance until now." She replied sarcastically.
He lowered the two of them to the ground, returning to his normal state, brushing off dust from his jacket. She was a little surprised there wasn't a speck of blood or carnage on him. The ground around them was littered with demons. She made a game of trying to get to the door without stepping in anything, keeping blood off her shoes. It didn't matter, she had been splattered with blood anyway.
"Okay, the FUCK is going on?" Angel stood in Ellen's way, blocking her from getting through the front door.
Alastor came up behind her taking her arm and slipping into shadow reappeared inside the lobby.
"Hey!"
He spun on his heel to get into Angel's face. "In case you may have forgotten, Ellen is back to her mortal form and can't be seen outside. You also left her open to attack, if I hadn't grabbed her you would be dragging her corpse in."
"Alastor?" Charlie made a cautious step toward him. He turned quickly, glaring at her.
"What?!"
Charlie flinched back at the bite from him. Ellen stepped between the two giving Alastor a glare. He was allowed to be mad at her, but he wasn't allowed to take it out on everyone else. She took a steadying breath.
"Okay look. Things have kind of gotten a bit out of hand. Let's just take a second and-"
"No! Things between you and freaky face have started stirring up shit from out there." Angel gestured to the door. "It's affecting us now." He gestured to the room.
Ellen pressed her lips together. She looked around the room, her gut filling with guilt. He was right. And now that all of Hell knew, they should know what they were up against. She felt Alastor close the distance between them, standing directly behind her, a hand lain on her shoulder.
She took a breath. "So I may have-"
"-Sold your soul to Alastor."
She glanced at Husker in shock. Not exactly what she was going to admit. "You…what? You knew?" She felt Alastors claws grip her shoulder a bit tighter. She looked up to find he was staring daggers at Husker. So she wasn't the only one to let some stuff slip.
"No." Charlie looked at her in shock, her hands covering her mouth. The look made Ellen shrink back or at least she would have if Alastor hadn't kept her from retreating.
Vaggie glared at Alastor, spear raised. "What did you do? You promised no soul deals."
"No deal was made I assure you. I kept my word." He sounded annoyed.
"It was a contract. I was the primary signer."
"You don't have to lie Ellen, we know Alastor." Vaggie's eye narrowed even more.
Charlie took a hesitant step forward. "But Ellen, you can't go home. I- Why would you do it?"
Ellen looked up at Alastor, "How much are we sharing?"
"What are you guys like, a couple or somethin? " Angel crossed his arms.
Alastor leaned over Ellen's head. "We are well past the courting stage." He sounded pleased with himself.
"Courting?" Nifty asked, seemingly appearing from nowhere.
"You guys were dating?! You guys were fuckin datin! Holy shit!." Angel's hands moved to his head in surprise, a small laugh of disbelief erupting from him. " I knew somethin was up."
Vaggie's spear fell from its upright position now just hanging heavy in her hands. "What's past dating? Are you guys… engaged?"
"Engaged?" Alastor tilted his head.
She shook her head. Not really important. She let out a small huff. She didn't want to beat around the bush, might as well be straight forward and get it all out in the open.
"Yes Alastor has my soul, he agreed to and signed the contract, and we are married. There it's all out there. Oh!" She turned to Angel. "Yes we fucked, we had to consummate the marriage." She heard the static pitch before his claws dug into her shoulder again, a little harsher than before. He glared at her. She shrugged. "I'm tired of him asking."
He leaned down to whisper in her ear. "I believe that violates clause 'B' section one of our contract."
She eyed him from her peripheral vision. "It's not like they aren't going to put it together. It's kinda one of the binding parts of a marriage."
He continued to glare at her, unconvinced. She rolled her eyes, lowering her voice.
"Strictly for conjugal reasons. Right, dear?" She raised an amused eyebrow.
The room was stunned silent.
"I trust you can handle the rest of this on your own? Without breaching more of the privacy clause, hmm?"
She gave Alastor a thumbs up and a smile.
He rolled his eyes, but sank into shadow and out of sight.
She watched Charlie, Vaggie and Angel all start to ask questions at the same time. Husker had moved away, going to the bar and grabbing a bottle and helping himself to it.
Ellen held her hands up to stop the on slaughter of questions, but it didn't work. After giving a glare to the others as they continued to yell over each other she finally screamed over them to get their attention.
"HEY! One at a time guys! Geez. I'll answer what I can."
"Why?!" Vaggie looked horrified. "Married really?!
"I can't tell you why, but there was… a good reason."
"How is he in bed?" Angel wagged his eyes brows.
She turned and glared at him. "I'm not even going to entertain that one."
He scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Fine. What's with all the tentacle powers and stuff. Do you have matchin powers with smiles now?"
"That one I think I can answer. As a means of protecting me I have access to his power only if he isn't present to protect me himself. I only take what I need."
"You can just…take his power?"
"No. no it's not like that. It's only if I'm in danger; Imminent danger that I have access to it."
"Why did you give him your soul? You're trapped here now Ellen I- I don't understand."
She gave Charlie a sympathetic smile. "I know." She looked to feet feeling embarrassed having let the princess down. "I- I can't really say, just trust me when I say he needed it."
"Ha! I didn't take you for a fool. Whatever you got outta it, ain't worth it." Husker downed whatever was left of his bottle.
Ellen let out a frustrated sigh. She knew someone was going to make a remark about her giving up her soul "Look I get it. You all are worried about me. None of you trust Alastor. But I'm not stupid okay, I know better than to sign anything without reading between the lines first." She shot a look Husker's way.
"I know the value of my soul, I didn't trade it for something trivial. He may have it, but I've ensured its safe keeping." She could feel angry tears prickle in her eyes as she glared around the room. "I don't expect any of you to trust him, that's fine, but at least trust me. I know what I'm doing.
"I knew what it meant, I knew the consequences, I weighed the pros and cons. I may not be a sinner, but I know how Hell works. I've been through the same shit on earth. You all know there is more to this I can't tell you." Her voice was starting to crack as she slowly lost control of her emotions. Nothing she said seemed to get any of them to believe her.
"So we're just going to have to keep protecting you for the rest of eternity?" Angel asked.
"No, as my husband, that's Alastor's problem now. Like I said this wasn't an impromptu decision. There's a whole contract outlining the expectations, I wouldn't have signed it unless I felt it was fair."
Vaggie shook her head. "Ellen, he's a deal maker. He specializes in fucking people over in deals and contracts. One word out of place and that's it."
"I get that, but he didn't do that." Why didn't they get it?
"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. He doesn't give a shit about you. If you're smart, you'll find that out sooner than later. He got what he wanted, that's all you are, a means to an end."
She didn't hide tears as she tried unsuccessfully to glare at Husker. "I get you got fucked over by him, but I'm not you."
Husker raised his voice, a finger pointed in her direction. "Do you know how many souls he owns? It doesn't matter, why? Cause he got what he needed from them, you're just another cog in the machine." He scoffed, grabbing another bottle. "Don't come crying to me when you finally lose those rose coloured glasses."
Charlie stepped between the two. "Okay we don't know for sure that's what this is-"
"Of course that's what this is. This is Alastor we're talking about. Damn it Ellen, Charlie even told you not to trade your soul." Vaggie finally disapperated her spear.
Ellen gritted her teeth. "I know what I'm doing. He's not as bad as you all think he is."
Vaggie started closing the distance between the two of them. "Why are you defending him!? He owes you nothing! Wake up!"
Angel stood watching, both sets of arms crossed eyes darting between the four. "It's done. Ain't nothin you can do 'bout it now."
Vaggie abruptly turned to Charlie. "We send her to Emily. Like we should have done when she got here." Her eye narrowed.
Charlie bit her lip looking at Ellen nervously. "We agreed this would be her decision."
"Well she fucked it up, Charlie. She's not dead, she can't be redeemed and now there's nothing we can do for her. Maybe heaven can fix this."
"Heaven? No, I'm staying here." Ellen looked at Charlie with eyes wide in shock.
Vaggie glared at her. "This isn't up to you anymore."
"Like hell it's not! This is MY soul, my life, my decision." She glared back at Vaggie. She could feel herself getting warm. This was a hill she would die on. "I am married to Alastor, he has my soul, he is not going to just let you send me away like that."
"You don't even know what you're talking about! You plan on staying in Hell looking like that for all of eternity? How long do you really think you're going to last? You clearly haven't thought this through."
She could feel her anger building. Yes that part may not have been as thoroughly planned out, but whatever happened to her body on earth, it would die eventually. She wouldn't be like this forever, even if it took sixty years, she was sure she could hide out until then. It wasn't an impossible task. Not like trying to figure out how to get back to earth. No one knew anything about that, but death? Death was one of life's certainties. How long had she been here already and it hadn't been that bad.
"You don't get to tell me what to do with my life."
Charlie tried pushing herself in between the two. "Maybe we should take a second-"
"She can't stay here anymore." Vaggie turned to Charlie. "She's overstayed her welcome, we can't fix her and she's just brought more problems to the hotel."
"Vaggie no! We can't just send her away."
"Maybe you can't, but I can." Vaggie summoned her spear again, this time pointed at Ellen.
Ellen's eyes shot to Charlie, her heart racing. Vaggie wasn't actually going to throw her out was she? Where would she go?
Before anyone could move Alastor appeared from the shadows and took one look around the room. His eyes quickly fixed on the spear in his bride's face.
"Come darling, I think you're done here." He wrapped his arm around hers and the two sunk into shadow.