Alastor, Altruist

Surprise

"Alastor, put him down!"

I can hear Charlie and the others yelling at me to stop, but I really don't care at all. All that I'm focused on right now is the demon in front of me, currently writhing as my shadows suspend him in mid air by the throat.

"What was that you said before? A mortal soul would be no match for you? I think it's time we retest that theory, don't you?" I say, squeezing the shadows tighter around his throat.

I don't know how or why he's here, and as a demon no less. But it doesn't matter. He humiliated me, and broke my microphone. So I'm going to humiliate him. And break his neck. And when he regenerates, I'll snap it again. And again. And-

"Alastor! Stop it! Just hear me out for a second." Charlie says, trying to sound authoritative. How cute.

"A bit preoccupied at the moment, my dear."

"Put him down. Now." Charlie grabs my arm and gives me a face that she thinks means she's serious. But to me, that face means 'put him down, or you'll lose my trust, and get you farther from earning your freedom.' For a moment I wonder if the instant gratification of killing this wretch would be worth it anyway.

I drop Adam, sending him crashing to the floor with a satisfying thud, as he sputters and coughs. I glare at him for a moment longer before finally turning and facing Charlie.

"What is it?" I ask in a bit more of a menacing voice than I intend, but it's hard to keep oneself composed when being denied murdering the person who had almost killed you 3 days ago.

"Alastor, don't you understand what this means? If Adam is here, that means that souls can go from heaven to hell. And if that's true, then maybe that means that they can go from hell to heaven too! We have to bring him to Sera."

"Oh, take him, and say what exactly? Hey, Sera, here's one of the angels that we murdered! Good news, he didn't die, he just turned into a demon! You didn't want to help us before we had killed 100 angels. Do you feel like helping us now?" Angel Dust says from over on the couch, crossing his arms in annoyance.

"No way in hell am I going to be a pawn in your stupid little hote-" I smack Adam in the face with a shadow to shut him up. His face twists with rage and he stands up to come at me, and I swiftly swipe his feet out from under him with another shadow.

"I'm sorry, hon, but I've gotta agree with Angel and... Alastor." Vaggie says, saying my name as if agreeing with me is the most unthinkable and undesirable thing. "Adam's too dangerous to keep alive. He literally just tried to kill us!"

"He did what?" I ask, clenching my fist tightly. Normally, I'd summon my microphone and grip that tightly as a way of letting out the murderous rage inside me without showing any cracks in my calm demeanor, but of course, I can't do that now.

"Yeah, that's right. I came back to kill you little bitc-" I was about to strangle the lowlife once again when he's promptly shut up by Vaggie, who throws a spear that flies inches above his head, landing in the wall behind him.

"Finish that sentence and I'll make you wish you stayed dead." She says with an impressive amount of hatred in her voice.

"This idiot came and attacked the hotel after he manifested without even checking if he had his powers still." Husk says from behind the bar, looking bored with life in general, as per usual. "Which he does not."

"They crushed him immediately. I saw the whole thing." Nifty chimes in with a laugh, popping up on my shoulder out of seemingly nowhere as she has a tendency to do, gripping her tiny bug-stabbing dagger.

"Oh, fuck!" Adam says when he sees Nifty, and scrambles up onto one of the couches, genuine fear in his eyes. The six of us stare at him for a moment before laughing at him, minus Charlie. She does, however, try to take advantage of the lighter moment to plead her case.

"Look, guys, I know what you're saying. But... this could be the key we need to convincing heaven to give this hotel a chance. If he tries to attack us again or anything like that then we can get rid of him, but I really think we need to give this a shot. We only need to keep him here until we can get a meeting with Sera. Please? For me?" Charlie says, clasping her hands together and activating the puppy eyes that makes it hard for even me to say no to her, and makes the rest of them melt in her hands.

A general mutter of reluctant agreement passes through the room. It seems I have no choice in this matter, as seems to be a far too often occurrence as of late.

"Yeah, no. There's no way I'm staying here with you bunch of freaks." Adam says, standing from the couch. Me, Vaggie, and Angel are all in place, barring his way before he can even take so much as a step toward the door.

"Your choices are stay here... or die." I say, hoping that Adam will opt for the latter. Nifty hops off my back, giggling maniacally and eyeing Adam up. He stumbles backwards and falls into the couch again.

"Who wants pancakes?!" Comes an irritating voice as the sound of the front door closing echoes into the living room. Lucifer walks into the room, holding a bag which I assume must hold said pancakes. He stops as he spots demon Adam sitting on the couch.

"Oh, who's this? New guest?" He asks, placing the bag down and walking over, taking large strides to try and compensate for his puny little legs.

"Oh great. It's the king freak." Adam says, rolling his eyes.

Recognition and surprise cross Lucifer's face, nearly immediately giving way to rage. Horns sprout from his head, fire forming around his fist as he lunges for Adam, Charlie jumping to try and stop him.

"No, Dad, wait!"