Chapter 22

                                        

                                              
Rimmon and Gabriel stared at the fire escape, trying to figure out why the hell Gavin just bolted out of here like his ass was on fire. And then Rimmon felt it, the mortal peril of the soul he was bound to. The Demon didn't have a fancy set of wings to take him to her though, and he grunted as another wave of will sucking weakness spread through him, an echo of what Lone was feeling.
                              
The old Neutral caught Rimmon the moment the Demon's legs gave out, lowering the Demon carefully onto the couch. "Let her draw your strength. Let them both draw it. They need your help." Coyote instructed, trying to coach the Descended.
                              
"What the hell are you doing?" Gabriel demanded, seeming to finally put things together. That Coyote wasn't trying to seperate out the marks on Lone, but seemed to be encouraging them all to sink them in even deeper.
                              
"What's necessary." Coyote replied, hoping that his protege would survive his efforts. She'd never forgive him, for actively helping the two men in her life manipulate and use her. But Coyote had long ago accepted that sometimes you had to do bad things for a good reason. And right now that meant shutting the Arc Angel up before he could do something stupid. Like try to interfere. So Coyote smothered even the Arc Angel's otherness, letting the Angel feel true mortality for the first time in centuries.
                              
"Oh god I don't like this..." Rimmon breathed, face quickly turning gray as the two souls that were connecting to him drew on his resevoir of strength.
                              
"I think god is the wrong person for you to be complaining to, don't you?" Gabriel asked, looking shocked at how....weak his body was.
                              
"Hey, are you alright?" Belle asked the Angel wrapped around her.
                              
Gabriel frowned down at the mortal in his arms, expecting the overwhelming protectiveness would disappear the moment he was locked away from the Otherness. He didn't feel any cessation of this strange pull to have her in his arms. "How do you mean?"
                              
Belle put one of her hands to his forehead. "You're burning up. As in high grade fever..." she worried, making him release her as she squirmed out of his grip. "Can Angels get head colds?" she asked, looking over ay Coyote who was wetting a towel.
                              
"No, but given the right mix of disasters, their mortal bodies can perish. Here." Coyote tossed the wet towl at the human and she started mopping at Gabriel with the wet towel.
                              
Trying to nurse an Arc Angel is neigh impossible. Especially when that Arc is Gabriel, and he has never really had to suffer a mortal body for long. However, Belle was seduced statesmen before, if there was anyone who could convice a stubborn, hard headed man to do what she wanted, it was Belle. Within ten minutes Coyote and Belle had both Angel and Demon being rspectively bundled up or cooled off as necessary.
                              
"I don't understand..." Coyote breathed, only just having gotten the two supposed immortals stabalized.
                              
Belle saw both men start to close their eyes, settling for sleep that neither should need. Her dainty fingers curled around Coyote's wrist and gently led him outside. "What is going on?" she asked softly, eyes and voice full of tears.
                              
Coyote sighed and slumped against the wall, old body creaking and groaning with him as he settled onto the floor. Belle stared down at him and then settled next to him, naturally graceful and stunningly beautiful when she wasn't trying to be a whore. The Neutral looked at her and could see the destiny this woman was supposed to have. It wasn't pretty and he was obscenely grateful that fate had intervened and her destiny had been burned. Like his had, like Lone's had. Belle would never live the life she was supposed to, never have the destiny that was meant for her. And never die the painful death that was waiting for her before the end of next year.