Chapter 4: Saved by a demon

"Suit yourself."

A click caused Angel to squeeze her eyes shut tighter and hold her breath but, instead of a gunshot going off, a voice called out. Angel opened her eyes hesitantly, letting her breath out as the male took his finger off the trigger and his eyes glanced at the kitchen doorway. "Roy? Are you in here?" The voice..was familiar. Angel's eyes lit up with relief, recognizing the voice to belong to a friend! "Maxine?" Angel called out, making the male flick his gaze to her and scowl as footsteps came toward the kitchen. "Angel?" A girl said as she walked in, the girl being known as Maxine. Maxine was a demon with blonde and red hair that was messy in a neat way somehow, along with her hair was horns that grew from the top of her head and went back just to curl up and to the sides, and she had a demon tail. The demon also kept on a leather jacket, a pair of black jeans, and combat boots but her shirts were always different in design, today's shirt had a skull on it.

When she walked in, Angel let out another held breath in the form of a relieved sigh. Maxine paused in the doorway with shock written clear on her face. Her eyes snapped to the male as the gun he held was still pointed at Angel. "Roy!" She shouted angrily, running over to grasp the gun. "The fuck you think you're doing?!" She yelled, fighting to take the gun from him as he grunted and fought to keep it but she was quick to jerk it out of his hands aggressively. He glared at her, watching her shove his gun into one of her pockets and away from him. "I was about to kill this girl for being rude, Maxine!" He growled in frustration as his angered look went over to Angel, her ears going down and her tail covering over her thighs while tears still slid down her cheeks from earlier. Maxine followed his gaze, the sight of the she-wolf triggering immediate concern but anger overpowered it when she looked back at the male. "No! You can not kill this girl and you shouldn't be killing anyone at all just for being rude!" She said, her expression saying that she was ready to smack the hell out of him for what he almost did. He crossed his arms, looking at Maxine without acknowledgment of her expression. "Why can't I kill her? It's not like she's protected." He said. Maxine arched one of her eyebrows and crossed her own arms, seeming to mock his calmness as she leaned her weight back onto her leg. "She's protected by me and almost all of the town." She said, a protective glare present in her eyes. The glare and her words cause the male to blink in surprise before he shook his head in disbelief." You're lying." Was simply said by him before his eyes traveled back to the wolf sitting on the floor. "There's no way the whole town would protect one girl for no reason, especially when she's rude." He narrowed his eyes at Angel and she shrunk back, all confidence gone from her system as she dropped her gaze to her lap. Maxine stepped in front of the male's eyesight and before he knew it, a demon tail had struck his cheek. His eyes widened and snapped to the she-demon just in time to see her own red eyes glistening with dangerous intentions, a threat begging to be crossed over. "You listen here. She is a kind-hearted person who has been through way too much. She has more than earned her right to stay here and be protected. You fucking hurt her even once and you'll need to leave, cause trust me, you'll have someone wanting to kill you at every turn in this town." She growled, causing the male to back up from her with an uneasy expression upon his face. Angel looked up, sensing bad energy as her ears went down and she raised her non-bleeding hand up to wipe the stray tears still on her face. She didn't want any more fights to happen, especially after the one she had with the male, she knew there would be more blood and punches if a fight happened between Maxine and him. She tried to breathe but everything that happened caught up with her and caused her to hiccup. She had someone break into her home and try to kill her, the realization of it made her want to cry more. Maxine averted her angered gaze from the male to Angel, the anger draining in an instant when she saw the she-wolf holding back tears.

Maxine uncrossed her arms and turned away from the male to go over to Angel, kneeling next to her as the she-wolf sniffled and tried to keep herself from breaking down. Angel felt safe with Maxine but the presence of the male stopped her from curling up to the demon and crumbling. Though, it was also hard to stop from cracking when Maxine gave her the smile she always gave her when she needed comfort and brought her otherwise non-gentle hands to the wolf's face, a delicate touch wiping her tears for her. "It's okay, lil' wolf. No need to cry." Maxine said in a soft and caring tone. Angel felt her bottom lip tremble, the care the demon showed really making her want to do the opposite of what she said but she glanced at the male and reminded herself why she couldn't. She didn't want him to see how weak she really was. After all, he was staring at them with an expression on his face that Angel almost thought to be guilt but when he noticed her looking at him, he turned his head to hide it. There's no way he felt bad about this. Maxine moved her hands away from Angel's face and began patting her shoulders and arms with her eyes checking intently for anything wrong, the look turning to anger when she saw the she-wolf's left hand. She frowned at the blood slowly oozing from it before whipping her head toward the male with a glare worsening by the second. "Roy, what did you do to her?" She hissed out, trying her hardest to contain all the protective anger building up for the fact it'd make Angel feel worse. The male blinked, looking over with a confused face. "I did nothing." He answered as if it wasn't a lie. Maxine let out a deep breath through her nose, very fed up with the male's attitude but decided to deal with it as she gently held Angel's hand and brought it up for the male to see. "Okay, then explain this." She asked, an edge to her voice that threatened him if he lied again as she gestured to the wolf's bleeding hand. Angel winced, not liking Maxine's tone but also because the adrenaline was wearing off and left the pain to settle in. The male seemed indifferent to Maxine as if he was used to this but then he frowned at Angel's hand, his gaze flickering to her pained face. "I stabbed her." He sighed, looking at the floor to not meet the angered eyes of the demon. The demon glared even more before looking at Angel's hand and running one of her fingers delicately over the wound. Despite being gentle, Angel whimpered in pain and tried to jerk her hand away, this caused the gentle hold to tighten. "What did you use?" Maxine questioned, continuing to examine the wolf's hand. "Just a normal knife." He answered more straightforward this time causing Maxine to sigh in relief and let go of Angel's hand, standing up. "Okay. Good."

The she-demon bent down, sliding her hands under Angel's knees and the top of her back before being mindful of her wings as she heaved her up and held her bridal style. Confusion flooded the male's face as did slight amazement that she could pick the wolf up so easily. "How..?" The mumble he made caused Maxine to look over with a sad look. "She..doesn't weigh much.." She admitted. The male frowned, now noticing how skinny Angel actually was in the loose tank top, she couldn't have weighed but a hundred pounds, possibly less. "Just..stay here. I want to talk to you after I get her hand patched up." Maxine said, the male nodding to show he'd stay. The she-demon turned to walk out of the kitchen, holding the wolf closer when she shivered. The movement of walking made cold air hit Angel's exposed skin and she curled up closer to Maxine to find warmth, closing her eyes as her tiredness returned. Maxine looked down at her as she started up the stairs, the hand at the wolf's back gently patting it. "It's gonna be okay, Angel. I'll make sure of it." She promised in a soft tone. Angel didn't respond and Maxine didn't expect her to, just continuing her way up the stairs and then down the hall to Angel's bedroom. Once she managed the door open, she walked over to the bed before carefully setting the drowsy wolf down and making her sit up. Maxine stepped back, chewing on her bottom lip as she thought before smiling at Angel. "Ok. I'll be right back, just sit tight. Can you do that for me?" Angel nodded absentmindedly, not really listening but Maxine knew she wasn't going to get her to focus, seeing as Angel was lost in her own thoughts and looking down at her hand. A frown made its way onto the demon's face, her mind getting a flashback to about a few months ago. Her eyes glanced at Angel's unevenly cut hair and had to look away when she remembered how she kicked down the bathroom door just in time to catch the she-wolf finish chopping off her very long hair with a knife, crying, and in an anxiety attack. As much as she didn't want to remember, her mind reminded her of how Angel almost stabbed herself right after the she-demon barged in. "..Don't..don't you go thinking anything bad, Angel," Maxine whispered the warning, almost saying it to herself. Angel finally seemed to focus on what the demon said, looking up with eyebrows furrowed with worry. Maxine smiled reassuringly, patting the wolf's leg before turning and heading to the bathroom that was connected to the bedroom. Angel let her focus drift again, staring at her bleeding hand as the blood slowly stained her leg and stockings, ruining the white part of them with deep red. She studied the openness of her hand due to the knife going right through it, the blood feeling warm running down her leg and going all the way down to her toes, it made her wonder how much blood she's lost because of how much had gone down her leg in such a short time. This wonder increased when the blood began to fall off her foot in little drops to the floor. What was strange as well was the pain felt..nice. She felt like bad things were coming out with the blood she lost and it made her feel better, she wanted to do it more and see how much better she could feel.

'No!' Crystal clear was that word but no one was in the room with her, no one could read her thoughts either so now she was confused. She looked for the source of the sound but her blood lost had made any worrying she would have done unable to start, she didn't find anyone with her. 'You will not hurt yourself.' She heard again causing her ears to go down as she bowed her head submissively. The voice had the tone of an Alpha, someone Angel obeyed without question and even with her blood loss, she knew better than to not listen. 'Do you understand me?' The unknown Alpha asked. "Yes," Angel whispered. 'Good girl.' The voice praised her and she couldn't help but feel a bit happier. It was even stranger of a feeling than the pain but she felt safe and protected despite not knowing who the voice belonged to ,or if it didn't belong to someone and she was going crazy, she really hoped it was the former of those thoughts if it had to be either. A few seconds passed with Angel pondering the clearly dominant voice of an Alpha before Maxine came back into the room with some bandages, a rag, and would disinfectant. She paused on her way to Angel, looking up as if she could sense something was in the room but chose to ignore it as she went to the bed and set everything down next to Angel before kneeling in front of her and holding her hand out. "Hand." Maxine simply demanded. Angel eyed the disinfectant with hatred and a frown, a pained look already in her eyes at the mere sight of the bottle because she knew the bottle held liquid that stung like hell. Maxine sighed when Angel didn't listen. "Little one, give me your hand." She demanded more sternly making Angel look over with her ears up. The demon stared right at her with an intense look that showed she cared but her patience was starting to run out. Angel looked away, mumbling under her breath about her dislike for Maxine's choice of nickname to use before she gave in and put her bleeding hand into Maxine's. Maxine smiled, gently gripping onto it to keep it in place before her other hand reached to the disinfectant. Her thumb popped the cap off before she tipped it over onto the rag to dampen it with the stuff. "Alright Lil' wolf. This is gonna sting but it'll help." The demon said, making Angel glare at her for informing her of something she already knew and for yet another disliked nickname. Maxine ignored the glare, snapping the disinfectant's cap close and setting it down to grab the rag. She brought it over to Angel's hand, the she-wolf wincing even though the rag hadn't even touched the wound. "Relax, Angel," Maxine said, waiting for the she-wolf to stop being so tense. Angel took a deep breath, relaxing her shoulders but tensing right back up and yelping as Maxine placed the rag on her hand. The sting burning throughout her hand and arm making her want to pull her hand away but she calmed down, knowing moving would make it hurt worse.

Maxine was careful with cleaning the blood and the cut, getting rid of the drying blood that stained her hand and had started to scab over the wound. "Fuck.." She muttered when she got it mostly clean, seeing how open the wound was. It wasn't as bad as most wounds she's seen but for Angel to have to deal with it made her regret not coming over sooner, she could have stopped this from happening. "We're gonna have to stitch your hand.." She said, looking up at Angel just in time to see her ears flop down, she saw how terrified she was to have a needle going through her skin. "No no no!" Angel whimpered, trying to back away from the demon but instead yelping with Maxine's hold on her hand. "Angel! Stop, it's okay!" Maxine reacted quick, raising her other hand to signal that she wasn't trying to hurt her. "I'll numb it before I go stitching it, I'll make sure you won't feel it." She assured her, trying to get the wolf to calm down. Angel whimpered like a scared animal, she wasn't sure about it but she knew Maxine wouldn't intentionally cause her pain so she relaxed a bit. "You gonna let me do this?" Maxine asked in a careful tone. Angel was hesitant but nodded with uneasiness bright in her eyes. "I promise to be careful. Just let me go get what I need." Maxine said, releasing Angel's hand and going to the bathroom. Angel just sat there again, patient and nervous. The wait for what needed to happen was the worst of this but as she sat there, the pain and what happened only maybe half an hour ago came back to the front of her mind. That guy had done this and it reminded her of someone else, someone she didn't want to think of. She pushed the thoughts away, her eyes closing as exhaustion flooded in. Sleep sounded good, she could forget the things that happened for a while and with the promise of relief from reality, she allowed the exhaustion to swept her into the darkness of her mind.

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"I'll see you soon, little one."