Soul

Caleb

4

Ro stared at the boy on the ground in front of her. He didn't look all that much older than she was herself, maybe a year or so. He wasn't attractive in the conventional sense, his eyes slightly too big, his face a shade too angular, but yet there was something oddly magnetic about his strong, almost mocking gaze. He ran a hand through his untidy black hair, then winced at the movement.

"Thank you very much for that battering you gave me," he said sarcasm dripping. "I'll be black and blue for a week now." His words had an odd, lilting quality to them and there was a faint hesitancy about his speech that made Ro suspect that English was not his first language. She raised her sword, but didn't ignite it.

"What are you?" she asked quietly. She was definitely suspicious of this-this creature. Just because he hadn't attacked her yet, that didn't mean he wouldn't.

He opened his mouth to respond, but there was a sudden, urgent clattering on the stairs and before Ro could blink, Si and the twins were surrounding the Mystery Dude, looking faintly murderous.

"Answer her question." Gabe's voice, as icy as Ro had ever heard it, came from the behind her. The boy/demon thing sighed.

"Okay, can we all just calm down for a bit here? I swear, I didn't break in with the intention of hurting you guys, I was sent here to help you."

"Help us with what, exactly?" Leslie asked, eying him suspiciously. "Sent here by who?"

"I'll tell you, if you all stop interu-"

"I would very much like to know why an angel felt the need to break into my house and and attack one of my collegues."

Everyone turned to stare at Gabe in unison. He was leaning against the doorframe, his expression carefully composed.

"A what?" Luke gaped at the mystery guy.

"Are you sure?" Si asked quietly

"Positive." Gabe walked slowly across the room and stopped beside Ro. He eyed the boy with cold amusement. " I'm guessing this is your first assignment, judging from your big headed idiocy in thinking you could just sneak in here without us noticing."

The boy snorted. "Well, I managed to bypass all your outside wards, didn't I? Jeez, it wasn't exactly hard. What idiot put them in place for you, anyway?"

Ro swung her sword low and stopped just in front of his neck, the tip of it just touching underneath his chin. "That would be me. Now hurry up and tell us why you're here before I decide you're too much of an annoyance to continue breathing."

He snickered. "Yeah, like you could kill me, sunshine."

She pressed the blade harder. "Wanna bet? Now cut the crap and tell us what you want!"

"I've been trying to do that since you and the rest of the Magical Muppets showed up, in case you haven't noticed," the boy said, shooting them all a look of annoyance.

Ro couldn't believe it. There was no way something as pure as an angel could come across as so, well, assholeish. It was like the world's worst oxymoron.

"Anyway, my name is Caleb and your icy pal over there is one hudred per cent right about what I am. As for why I'm here....I've got some interesting info for you guys."  He paused and flashed them all an arrogant smirk that made Ro want to punch his head clean off.

"I'm, guessing you guys have been having a bit of a problem with those pesky Hell portals, yeah? I'm willing to bet that those things have been popping up all over the joint."

"Are you saying you know what's going on?" Gabe asked sharply, his expression hardening. He had been trying to find out what the cause of this anomoly was for the past six months, with no success.

"Damn straight. See, your beautiful city here just happens to be sitting near a rather fragile portion of the Barrier between this world and the Otherworld. A weak spot, we'll call it. That makes it a perfect area for someone to start messing around. A little push here, a little push there and you've got holes opening up all over. So say someone wanted to take over this little world of yours? Someone who's been waiting to invade for a very long time?"

Gabe's sharp intake of breath made them all turn to look at him. "Of course," he said quietly, more to himself than the rest of the room. "Of course he's behind it."

"Who is, Gabe?" Leslie asked.

Caleb grinned at her, answering instead. "Who do you think, blondie? The biggest, baddest demon of them all. The King of Hell."

Ro, Si and the twins exchanged glances. This did not sound good.

"So what, you're here to warn us is that it?" Ro asked scornfully after a while. This guy was way too full of himself. "Or have your bosses given you any insight as to how we stop this- this king guy before he tries to take us over?"

"Well that's what I'm here for, obviously. To help you fix this."

"How could you possibly be of any help to us whatsoever?" Si asked.

"Hello? I'm an angel, idiot! Awesome demon-sensing powers abounding here. If you actually want to  find this guy before he opens up the gate to let his buddies in, you're gonna need me big time. Otherwise, you can kiss this sweet little reality goodbye."

Everyone froze in place and a deathly silence solidified itself in the room. Ro stared at Caleb. He couldn't possibly be implying what she thought he was.

"What do you mean?" Gabe asked tersely. There was a note of uncertainty in his tone that made Ro's stomach tighten. Gabe was never anything less than perfectly confident.

Caleb snickered. "Do I have to spell it out for you morons? He's already here!"

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There we go. Caleb is such a lovely boy. So modest and polite. I'll try and upload faster in the future guys.

Today's song is Sweet Blasphemy by Black Veil Brides.