The Depressions Of Angel Dust

•Chapter 14•

~Alastor's POV~

"Okay... uhmm..." I take a deep breath to calm my racing thoughts and sit on the corner of Angel's bed.

'Is he looking at you, Spike?' I ask.

'He'll definitely notice if I'm gone. Just... he said he'll return me once he's done. Since you're the one hellbent on making sure he's okay, let him have this, Alastor. Let yourself have this. You relaxed and finally slept last night with your eyes closed. You haven't slept with your eyes closed in years. Accept you feel safe around him and trust him to return me, okay?'

'But..."

'Is that uncertainty I hear?'

'Well you're technically not hearing anything as this is telepathic, you little shit.'

Spike giggles through our bond. 'Just go downstairs and help Charlie make breakfast. I expect to be fed too. I'm hungry. You made me skip out on dinner last night to wait for Angel. Pretty sure you're as hungry as me.'

I smile and rise from Angel's bed. I smooth over the corner out of habit then crinkle it again so he knows not of my presence in his room. "Fine. I will feed you after breakfast when we have alone time."

I leave the room, locking it behind me. I make my way to the kitchen and see that Charlie, Vaggie, and Niffty are already cooking. I want to help out the ladies but I decide not too. I have a lot of emotions flowing through me right now and I need to relax. I snap my fingers and a replica of my staff appears in my hand. It's not the real Spike but rather a fake one. I pause. I could've just done this from the beginning. I could've just snapped Spike to me. I sigh and roll my eyes, tired of how clumsy and idiotic I've been being lately.

I leave the hotel and decide to stay in the shadows, using the alleys, nooks, and crannies to get around. I am no where as powerful as I am with Spike when I'm without him. When together, we form a power bond where we can both use my power at its fullest. If we stray too far, our power bond disconnects and we each hold half my power while the other holds the other half. He holds half of my power as per our deal. I may look the same but one can sense such a huge shift in power. One can feel my power radiating off of me as I love to assert my dominance in such a way but that would be my greatest weakness right now.

My need to show I am more powerful can and will backfire on me at this moment if I am not careful as demons will attack if they sense I am not as powerful as usual. I walk and walk and walk. My mind calms as I just listen in to the sounds of the city. The screams, the gunshots, the cars, the explosions, the conversations, the whispers demons make as they talk to themselves. It's all so relaxing.

Wait... the whispers demons make as they talk to themselves? I have good hearing but I shouldn't be hearing whispers this loud when I am... Then it hits me. I have no clue where I am. I look around to see where I am at as I haven't been paying attention during my walk. I am in the quiet part of Pentagram City. This brings me back to my previous thought. I shouldn't be hearing whispers this loud when I am in the quiet part of Pentagram City. Especially when I am in the alleyways of the quite part of the city which are even quieter than the streets themselves.

I pause in my walking, showing the slightest hint of hesitation. That was all that was needed. A knife is thrown my way and I nearly dodge it. Keyword: nearly. It leaves a thin line across my stomach, slashing through my clothes, and just barely ripping through skin.

Instead of looking at the direction of where the knife is thrown, I stupidly look at the knife itself. Angelic material. Fuck. Before I can react, a demon rushes at me, another angelic knife in hand. I dodge as best I can but my arm gets stabbed. It's like that for the next minute. High speed attacking and dodging. I'm not nearly powerful enough to get away. After two minutes of our little murder tango, I manage to get some distance between us before looking at the demon.

We just stand there and look at each other. I can finally get a sense of his power. Sinners are split into ten levels depending on strength. The consensus is, Overlords are demons who have power levels that land on seven or up on the power scale. I am a level nine. Those levels are split into low, middle, and high tiers.

I am a high level nine at my strongest. I am a high level nine with Spike. Without Spike, as he holds half my power, I am currently a mid level four. This demon is quite strong. I started as a low level five, which is rare, and made my way up the ranks in record time. I know what all levels five and up feel like. This demon is a level six. A mid level six. He is clearly aiming for Overlord status.

He is aiming to kill me. Why? I know not. Killing a demon doesn't give you their souls, it releases them or abides by whatever death pact they made in the contract. I can tell by his face that he senses my current weakness. I am not strong enough to teleport away as Spike isn't in range or any where near me. I cannot summon tentacles, I cannot use my level nine form, and my magic is much weaker. All I wanted was to go for a walk. I have truly gotten myself into quite the pickle, haven't I? Suddenly, all the magic I have at use to keep things as they are such as my room teleporting about in the hotel, my radio tower in place where it is at the hotel, and my original radio tower out of sight is catching up to me. Those spells are controlled by me and not Spike. He won't feel it but I certainly will.

I haven't been this far from Spike since we made our deal. It turns out I have been walking for longer than I thought I had. I have been letting my emotions get in the way for far too long these past weeks. All the feelings that Angel has caused and the feelings caused by the incident with him. It's too much too fast and instead of letting myself process them, I have been avoiding them and ignoring them. That has caused me to be distracted, to let my guard down, to end up here. Wounded and facing a demon much more power than me who wouldn't be if I had taken Spike from Angel or just not have left the hotel. This is all my fault.

I have to get myself together. If I continue like this, I will die. I have to fight back. I refuse to die. I took out Overlords that were levels eight and nine while I was a level six. Power matters not if you don't know how to use it and I know how to use mine. I refuse to die here. Not here, not now, not ever. Not after everything I have fought for.

Failure to dispose of this demon is not an option.

Death is not option.

I will survive and add some shiny and pretty Angelic weapons to my collection.