Chapter 28

                                        

                                              
Gavin's entire understanding of the world fell away, all attention focused onto one thing. Hands pressed over Lone's heart, the Fallen pounded CPR into her chest, knowing that it was not even effective 7% of the time. But he had no other options left to him. His wings and connection to the Ascended were gone, there were no other allies around to help and the longer she went without breath, the more it seemed this was her true death.
                              
Gavin turned off his brain, not willing to think that, not willing to give up until his own heart failed. Everytime he pressed down on her chest, more water oozed out her throat, a reminder of how she almost died because of his failure. Back then and again now, he had failed in his role as her Guardian Angel. So he gave himself over entirely to the simple act of forcing air into her lungs and pulsing a heartbeat into her chest all in an attempt to keep her alive. He couldn't lose her now, but these emotions were just getting in the way. He cast it all aside and the world narrowed down to the here and now.
                              
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His hands were locked together, pushing down into the muscles of hte chest, arms rigid and corded with strain as he lost track of how long he'd been breathing for her, pulsing her heart, keeping her alive. And it wasn't working.
                              
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Everyone in the room was in perfect silence. Belle was unconscious, Coyote was serene, Gabriel was smoldering and Rimmon was patient. Azazel just watched them all, faintly amused. The King of hell seemed to be bored but willing to 'listen' to their bargain. He was probably expecting an offer of virgins, power, souls, some base rate to barter from so he could eventually escape and kill the fools that tried to summon him.
                              
Rimmon had told the others what was necessary for this to work and they all lied with ease, promising Azazel this was a bargain. It wasn't it was a distraction. Because while Rimmon and Coyote 'haggled' with Azazel, Gabriel was silently completing their second ritual of the night. A spell of containment.
                              
Demonkin are always connected to each other. Rimmon had only recently learned how to force his bretherin out of his mind and for hte first time in centuries embraced being alone inside his head. He could open himself up again and immerse himself back in whenever he wanted because it was a self containment. What they were about to force on Azazel, if it worked, would permanently lock him away from the Descended plane, banishing him to exist solely on the mortal plane. It would give the King plenty of time to try and exact revenge against hte group that is doing this to him, but it also gave the reluctant group of allies their only hope of helping their friends.
                              
Of course, none of them expected Azazel to stay fooled for long, which is why they had made the summoning sigil as powerful as possible. There was no way Gabriel could complete the containment ritual without the King feeling it and that was when everyone knew that trouble would really start. Coyote had reluctantly agreed to get Belle out of there and protect her as much as possible while the two Others inevitably got hteir asses handed to them by Azazel. Even together they were outclassed, it would take a Seraphim or higher to handle this King if he broke out of the sigil and hte mortals stood no chance at all. It was a curious fact that Coyote's ability to dampen the Otherness would only work if there was no sigil, but without the sigil, the Neutral would be dead before he could stop the demon. It's a hell of a catch 22 and they erred on the side of caution.
                              
And then Rimmon felt a sudden lurch in his gut and his entire body flooded with pain. His bond with Lone stretched, strained and tore, but ultimately held and he felt her start to die. They had just run out of time entirely. And because Lone had inadvertently tapped into everyone here, they felt a fainter, less consuming echo of her death throes. Even Azazel shuddered under the sensation. And then the King of hell howled and started to pound at the restraining wall of the sigil, each strike weakening it and eventually it would collapse.
                              
Rimmon smiled softly as a solution occured to him, something that was ananthema to his demonic nature but might just help salvage the situation enough that not everyone would end up quivering pieces of corpse meat. So he held the knife over his own wrist for a moment and sliced a quick, easy line from palm of his hand up to his elbow.
                              
The scent of brimestone blood filled the room and Rimmon casually flicked his own blood over the sigil, echoing the words that Gabriel was uttering. Inside the sigil Azazel erupted into a flurry of movement, trying to strain against and force the collapse of the protective sigil. It held once again, but it was fading, more worn now than mere seconds ago. Rimmon locked eyes with the Arc Angel on his right and the Arc gave a solemn nod, recognizing the sacrifice Rimmon was making. Just as an Angel can Fall, a Demon can Rise.
                              
To Rimmons horror and surprise, Gabriel summoned his glorious wings forth and swiftly cut off one of the mighty wings with the knife in his hands. It was a ghastly sight and Rimmon couldn't stop the Arc or even utter a word of caution without breaking the sigil and condemning them all. And so the Risen demon Rimmon watched as Gabriel mutilated himself, scattering the feathersat the sigil and reinforcing it with his power as Rimmon had done. The Risen and the Fallen were now on the same boat as Gavin, unable to willingly return to their own planes. And not one to be left out, Coyote smiled at the no longer Others and pulled out a string of colourful beads.
                              
While Gabriel and Rimmon continued to chant the containment ritual, Dumb Coyote started to sing in his native language. As he sang, softly so as not to interrupt the containment ritual, he reinforced the sigil with his own power. The beads fell and rolled around the sigil, the Neutral looking grey and impossibly ancient as he settled, the beads discarded, the song finished. Only Belle wasn't able to sacrifice of herself for this, though not by choice. She was still unconscious and would remain that way while Azazel raged inside the sigil. But now it showed no signs of breaking, their sacrifices were deemed worthy enough by some benevolent overseer, and Azazel could not stop them. And then the containment ritual completed and all hell broke loose.
                              
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Gavin gave a startled shout and fell away from Lone's still body. She still wasn't breathing, her heart refused to beat and his own body was exhausted passed the point of saving her. But just when his heart felt like it was shattering inside his chest, something surged through his hands and sunk into her chest, then echoed back into his own body. That was what had made his shout and fall back.
                              
In front of him, Lone's body twitched and writhed, thrashing and vomiting water. The black lines danced under her skin again, but this time they pulsed as if creating an artificial heartbeat. Gavin stared at his mortal ward, not knowing what was happening and how things had gotten so esoteric. He was no longer Ascended, and he had felt it when Rimmon and Gabriel had cast off hteir Otherness as well. And yet here was Lone, seeming to take in some unnatural powers, even while dead.
                              
The woman he had loved and was convinced he had just lost, coughed, a wretched, tearing sound. She coughed again, gouts of water being expelled from her lungs and her body arched. Like when Gabriel had helped her so long ago, Lone gave a hoarse scream and wings tore from her back, painting hte floor with blood and feathers. The wings dissolved and Gavin watched in mute testimony when her body then presented a demonic style tail, which also disappeared as quickly as it came. Lone looked mortal again and shivered as the black kept pulsing in her veins, giving her not quite a corpse a strange, macabre look. Unable to keep himself away any longer, Gavin crawled over to Lone's side and hesitantly put his hand to the mark on her chest.
                              
His body went rigid with the contact and as Lone screamed, so did Gavin. THe black spread from her body and flowed into his hand, filling him up with an acid burning pain. But it didn't stay in his blood, instead creeping tthrough his body and leaking out the reopened wounds from where he tore off his wings. Gavin screamed as the blackness flared behind him, a black, tar like mimicry of his once glorious wings before it collapsed into dust behind him. He shook softly, recognizing in the end what had happened.
                              
The Twisted. That monstrous abomination that had haunted and hunted them this entire time. A corrupted Fallen that was turned into an abherration had once been Uriel. And even though that Angel would never live again, his last act had been to save Lone in pennance for his sins. It wasn't enough to save the Angel, but it saved the mortal. Lone was breathing again. Gavin pulled her into his arms and rocked gently while she regained consciousness. One day he would tell her about his brother, the Angel that had given the last of his immortal soul to save her mortal life, but for now he just needed to get her home.