Chapter 93: Rachel stumps Vincent...

It would take a long time, but there would be a recovery. There would be chaos, and then healing, and after that a time to rebuild. After that, there would be chances for revenge. Ms. Black was comfortable with all of that. In the meantime, however, there was much to learn.

She sat crouched in the shadows of the treeline, listening intently to the conversation held among the night's victors. It was certainly too far away for a human's ears. The raccoon that sat beside her, though, had excellent hearing. He had answered her sorcerous summons without much resistance, eventually sitting obediently beside her. It was a simple thing to summon an animal, and equally easy to take advantage of its senses. All Ms. Black had to do, really, was murmur the incantation and keep her hand on the magically calmed raccoon's head.

Ms. Black would have loved to simply leave. She could have slipped off into the night. Her magic and her native wits would have enabled her to find transportation and shelter. She would need new clothing -- her blazer and top were both covered in both champagne and her own blood. Healing her head of the concussions Carlisle had given her hadn't been easy. She'd had to do it in short, hazy, tiring stages, but each time she managed the spell, her mind was clearer and her head and face were less bloody and battered until she was finally healed. It would have been nice to withdraw, but there was too much to learn here that was too important for the future.

Through the animal's ears, she heard everything. She learned who and what Alex and his rescuers were. Listened in as they discussed their plans. Gleaned vital insight to their relationships, their intentions, their moral boundaries. She heard them decide to leave Lydia to be dealt with by Rachel and the other angels, and couldn't really bring herself to feel the least bit bad about it.

The raccoon also enabled her to hear the pair of vampires sneaking up on her at each of her flanks. She waited, listening intently. The raccoon caught their scent and let her discern details about them. They were both heavy, both garbed in an awful lot of fabric. Ms. Black realized how remarkable it was that they could move with any stealth at all, yet alone so quietly in the woods despite those great big antebellum dresses.

When they were just close enough, Ms. Black flicked her wand up in the air with only a snapped pair of words. The two vampires were lifted off their feet. Both of them hung in the air, unable to move as Ms. Black stood and stepped backward between the pair. The raccoon scampered off into the trees.

"You might have had a chance against me in the city," Ms. Black said darkly, "but not out here in the woods. My first Practice was born of the wild."

"Our mistake," one of the heavyset undead ladies began. "We thought you were one of them."

"Really, now," grunted the other one, "we could all just go our separate ways. You've made your point. This doesn't have to be a fuss."

Ms. Black smiled. "The one good thing about tonight is that there will be far fewer of you lot to deal with for a good while," she mused. While she continued to hold the wand aloft, Ms. Black stepped to one side and reached for the trunk of the tall cottonwood tree nearby. Words from a tongue that died out many centuries ago came softly from her mouth. The vampires watched with alarm as the bottom of the tree's trunk seemed to writhe and then twist. Leaves fell precipitously from the lower boughs.

With a rush, one of the tree's boughs lashed out at the two of them. All of the smaller branches coming off of the bough had been twisted into long, rigid spikes. There were more than enough of the nasty things to ensure that each of the vampires was impaled through the heart. Ms. Black waited long enough to see the pair both begin to crumble to ash, their fine dresses hanging on the branch before she dared take her eyes off of either one.

As she turned, however, she found herself confronted with a towering wall of fur. The rest happened too quickly for her to process it. One moment she had stepped into some huge animal, and in the next a furry arm was wrapped around her shoulders. She didn't have time to cry out before her head was twisted entirely too far around.

A moment later, Ms. Black's lifeless body slumped to the ground. The fur receded, soon changing to skin. Diana stepped over the dead sorceress and past the piles of ash and silken dresses to stand at the edge of the treeline.

In the distance, Diana could see Alex and his assorted companions gathering what little they would take with them as they prepared to leave. The nude woman decided to linger until they had gone. Once they were safely off, she would make her way back into a more urban environment where she could make a couple of phone calls and get back to her people.

As she watched with increasing curiosity, Diana found herself regretting her earlier words. She had been thinking pragmatically, concerning herself primarily with her own survival and that of the young man who would so clearly make an excellent mate.

He would come around to that eventually. She would just have to get him alone to explain things to him. That would happen in time.

She had his scent.

************

Rachel had the mansion burning quite brightly shortly after the others left. All of the hapless victims of the vampires -- those who had survived, anyway -- were long gone. The group rolled Wade's truck up to the driveway to make its involvement in the blaze look a little more realistic. Ever the master of seemingly useless knowledge, Jason had a good idea of what specific parts of the truck needed to be obliterated beyond any recognition to avoid a trace. Rachel had bid them all a fond and friendly farewell before setting about her work.

As the flames roared up in earnest, Rachel carried her heavily duct-taped prisoner to a spot at the edge of the treeline surrounding the house. By now she could hear the sirens of approaching fire engines off in the distance. As Lorelei had said, there was only so much the authorities could ignore regardless of their bribes or compromised procedures. Rachel ensured the firefighters would find that this particular blaze would be surprisingly hot and would leave behind surprisingly little.

"I do not recognize the authority of any court of Heaven," Lydia stated bitterly.

"Tell it to the judge, bitch," Rachel smirked. She looked skyward, where clouds were rolling in again from the coast. The angel lifted her flaming sword, pointed it to the stars and watched as a light from the blade shot like a flare into the night above her.

It wasn't a long wait. The rest of the world saw nothing and heard nothing, but from over the clouds Rachel saw the appearance of a piercing white light. It seemed to hardly move at first, but that was how these things were done, at least where he was concerned. There was the first omen of approach, followed by a speeding trail of light -- three lights, actually, as he was bringing assistants -- which finally took on the image of angels with their wings fully spread.

The squires with him were both women. Naturally, they were also very pretty. Rachel knew that was loaded with meaning, of course. Everything would be loaded with meaning. She had given up caring a long time ago, but tonight she thought it was cute that he tried so hard.

"Hello, Vincent," Rachel said with her voice dripping with such sweetness that it couldn't possibly be mistaken for sincerity.

"Rachel," he said severely. His mouth was open to speak again, but Rachel cut him off.

"What have you been up to tonight?" she asked. Her hands were now clasped behind her back with her sword gone again. She twisted left and right at the shoulders as if she were shy. The smile on her face practically outshone her halo.

"You know what my duties are here," Vincent scowled. "I suppose this succubus has transgressed against your charge in some way that merits your direct and overt intervention?"

"Uh-huh!" Rachel nodded. She even hopped up a bit on her toes for emphasis. Her grin just wouldn't go away.

"And the home now ablaze nearby?" Vincent asked dryly. "Did the house somehow attack your dear Alexander?"

Rachel's jaw fell open as she brought her hands to her cheeks in mock surprise. "Why, Vincent! I didn't even know if you still remembered his name! Gosh, you're so on top of things!" She pointedly looked to the two women at his side. "Did you know he was this on top of things?"

Vincent sighed dramatically. "I grow tired of this, Rachel. We will take the succubus to be judged. You may expect an assembly to be ready before the next morning where you may state your case. Is that all?"

"Yeah," Rachel said, looking down and kicking a rock while she stuck her lower lip out in a pout. "It's just...well, I figured you should probably know a couple other things, too."

Vincent gestured to his companions, who both stepped forward to take up Lydia by either arm. He sighed yet again. "Such as?"

"Oh," Rachel shrugged, "just that Ba'al has been utterly and permanently slain."

The two angels taking hold of Lydia both stopped and blinked. Vincent's scowl cracked, overcome with disbelief. "What?" he asked.

"'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on!'" Rachel smiled, adopting a chipper English accent. She knew her Monty Python quite well: "This demon duke is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you 'adn't nailed 'im to the perch, 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! This is an ex-demon duke!!'"

The other angels all looked at her as if she was quite strange, but Rachel was more than used to that by now. The fact that she could see understanding dawning upon Vincent was priceless, though. "How...?"

"Alex did it," Rachel said. "Followed him right into Hell and got all medieval on his ass. Well, Roman, really. He had a gladius. Really knew how to use it, too. Ladies, you know what it's like to be with a guy who can really handle his... hrm," she frowned, looking back from the other two angels to Vincent, "no, I imagine you probably don't."

Vincent's eyes were wide. "How did this happen?"

"It was Colonel Mustard in the billiard room with the candlestick! Come on, I just told you! Ba'al and Skanktastic here tried to kidnap Lorelei and drag her back to Hell, and so Alex went after him and shanked his monkey ass!"

"You're sure?"

"Yup! Saw it myself. Assisted, even," Rachel smiled. She paused for effect before she said, "Right after I killed your old buddy Harrow."

The glorious angel's face went white. His mouth fell open.

"Here, catch," Rachel said. She tossed Vincent one of Harrow's large, bone-white teeth. It bounced up against Vincent's chest and then fell to the ground. "Aw, you didn't catch. I brought that all the way from Hell for you."

Her smile never abated, nor did her good cheer. The two women assisting Vincent were suitably stunned, while Lydia just looked on with a hateful glare. "Harrow is dead... by your hand?"

"Yep! Well. To be fair, I got an assist from a couple of very brave mortals. One of 'em rammed him with an SUV, and the other one clocked Harrow with one motherfucker of a right cross. I guess you were right, when demons aren't wearing human shells it really does just come down to courage for mortals. Sure worked for Alex, and Drew's one brave dude. Cute, too." Rachel looked sideways to the other two angels. "And I'm pretty sure he's single, ladies. I'm not saying I know for sure, but from the looks of things," she went on, holding up her two hands roughly ten to twelve inches apart, "I'll bet he's got a cock this—"

"Is there anything else?" Vincent snapped to cut her off. When she looked back at him, Rachel could see that his face had gone from white to very, very red.

"Just that the whole balance of power between good and evil in the city got a fan-fucking-tastic shift tonight. A whole fuck-ton of very evil supernaturals died here," Rachel answered. "You know. Vampires and sorcerers. Ones that lived in 'your' city. That and we left Ba'al's little corner of Hell in complete and utter chaos. And, y'know, we captured her, too," the angel added, giving Lydia a side-swiping kick in the butt as she was led past. Then she tossed the succubus a wink.

"Ssssoooo," Rachel said, once again folding her hands behind her back and twisting left to right, "what have you accomplished tonight, Vincent? Anything interesting?"