Let's Make a Deal

Interlude.

   "Lucifer?"

   The King of Hell had collapsed quite heavily after settling, to the point that Alastor actually had for the briefest moment thought he'd died. It was a reasonable concern because the devil had stopped breathing entirely. After moving him around a bit to check his pulse though, he felt the King suck in a breath that was rather shallow. Lucifer had warned him before that breaking contracts with powerful demons was quite draining on him, he hadn't expected it to be this much though. He knew personally that Lilith was a powerful foe, that was why he had made the original deal with her, but to put the devil of all people in this situation? Well, she was meant to be his equal, his partner, that was her job as the Queen of Hell. One she filled poorly apparently.

   A burst of lightning lit up the Radio Tower like a white beacon and as it was followed by the trembling rolling of thunder, the steady sound of rain beating on the windows soon accompanied it. It had been a while since they had a true acid storm, one that was strong enough to cause a lightning storm with it anyway. Once a month or every other one they got horrible storms like this, but they were quite rare. Usually Hell was plagued with an unbearable heat instead, as one would expect from the original home of the Hellfire after all.

    Alastor turned his head back around to King sprawled across him and hummed, the ears on top of his head flicking curiously. He should get him comfortable at least, then he can deal with the rest of this. Adjusting the other in his arms again he used his shadows to move them from the Radio Tower over toward his bedroom beneath it, carefully laying the devil on the bed and looking down at him. Alastor can't leave him lying there in his blood, if anyone walked in that would not be good and Vaggie had proven before she wasn't above using Keekee to break into his room.

   Turning to the side he waved his hand at his feet and the shadow stretched up in front of him. "Go to the Apple Tower and get some clothes." The shadow nodded eagerly and vanished from sight. Alastor spared one more glance at his own bed before heading to the bathroom to get a cloth and a bucket of water.

   It doesn't take him long to clean Lucifer up with the shadow's help. With how out of it the King was, he was rather easy to manipulate on the bed. He was easily rolled around, his clothes discarded to be burned and the cloth ran over his body. Alastor washed the blood from his skin, turning it back to that perfectly stone white complexion and carefully scrubbed the rest of the blood from his hair. When he was finally clean, he had the shadow help dress him in duck pajamas it brought. They were his favorite ones, the red ones with the yellow ducks. The creature probably knew that and fetched them purposefully. He really should do something about the freedom it thought it had to pick at him.

   By the time they were done the storm had really started shaking Hell, the acid rain falling in heavy waves and the lightning striking close enough that Alastor wondered if the Radio Tower was acting like a beacon for it. It wasn't as if he couldn't protect the Hotel from being set on fire by lightning, but the fact the storm was raging this hard was what kept drawing his attention.

   Another glance was spared at the bed, at the body barely breathing on top of it and the briefest thought started flickering through his mind. Whatever was blooming from it was quickly cut off by the sound of banging on his door.

   "Alastor! Is my Dad in there!?"

   The panic in the Princess' of Hell's voice had him crossing the room at a faster than average pace. Grasping the handle of the door he pulled it open and plastered a bright wide smile on his face. "Well hello, dear Charlotte! What can I do for you? Why the panic, darling?" That was exactly what this was, panic. He can read it on her face as easily as he could read any other. The young Hellborn was quite emotional when it came to literally anything in her life. Well, it was part of what made her so much fun.