Defection - (ON HOLD)

4. Escape

|| Dedicated to Evanses: Thank you for helping me with this story :) ||

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4. Escape

Between rejecting a number of souls for his collection in the last week, and destroying valuable relationships, Hale now held the newly made unbeatable record for ‘most unreliable employee of the year’ for having royally pissed off Asmodeus and antagonising the witch coven that had just thrown him out of their bar.

Bye, bye Wall of fame! Were his thought as he stumbled out of ‘Brews’, lost his footing on the slick sidewalk and fell face-first at her feet.

The fact that she had moved out of the way seconds before his body could collide with hers tipped him off about her identity. Turning onto his back on the sidewalk he had fallen on, Hale squinted to see her clearly through the heavy downpour.

“Thrown out again Hale?” She arched one sharp eyebrow questioningly.

Hale sighed. “What do you want now?” Gesturing to him prone body still lying on the sidewalk, he continued. “You know what? I blame you for this, you and your stupid unreliable predictions!"

“I do my part as necessitated Caradoc. You came to me remember?” Devony reached out to pull him to his feet.

After regaining his bearings, Hale looked around the seer inquiringly. He saw no vehicle nearby, that she could have used, and he knew for a fact she had not transported, because he would have felt it.

Peeved, he asked, “How are you not dripping wet like the rest of us?”

“My witch.”

“Your witch? How did you get a bloody stubborn witch to do your bidding?” He asked exasperated. “I have tons on contract and they ALL refuse me!”

“That is because they don’t work for you Hale, they work with you. It is different.”

“Huh. Anyway, you’re here I assume to give me more badly delivered predictions that are set to ruin my life?”

“I do not appreciate you’re tone Hale, you sound ungrateful right now, which you should not. You met her! It is a beautiful thing.”

Hale’s mind swirled with questions, ‘met her?’, ‘beautiful thing?’ he was confused.

“You knew exactly what I was going to have to do?”

She nodded, giving him an impish smile, hands folded at her back as she swung back and forth on the balls of her feet, in child-like excitement, as if waiting for him to catch up.

“Couldn’t you have just said so before? Why did you spout all that gibberish! If you’d told me about it straight, then I would have not—” Hale broke off, choking on the words. Then what? He would not have gone ... and not met Arsinoe. He could not imagine not knowing her now that he did.

Devony raised that annoying eyebrow in response again, her eyes twinkling with mirth. “Hmm. You were saying something?”

He glared at her for a little while, before giving up. Puffing out a burst of air grumpily he acquiesced. “Fine! But here, I don’t fancy having this conversation in the rain.”

Following Asmodeus' orders flawlessly, Hale had delivered Arsinoe until the gates of hell and then come back to earth, not having returned to the Underworld since. It had been six days since his talk with Devony, and he was just as confused as ever!

He roamed the streets — not doing his job, mind you — simply seeking something. He longed to recreate the feelings that had swamped him when he had been in company of the enchanting Valkyrie, but to no avail. There was none like her, and he walked away from any encounters — with either human or demon — disappointed.