Orange Crush

Interlude 2 - Bad Times At The El Royale

Samael almost had to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, especially because he was the only one who truly knew the depths of that ridiculousness. That neither Josh nor that other guy he'd fallen in with, Jaedra, could tell that it wasn't even a real Black Glacier they'd found? It was just too amusing. And - cherry on top - those estúpidos were actually trying to feed the fake snake.

Both of them were just too unwilling to let a living thing suffer. Proof that, truly, they didn't belong in this place, because they themselves would suffer the most.

Oh? Did Samael feel a twinge of sympathy?

Well, perish that thought. There was no weakness he could allow himself, not even a droplet.

Turning away from this particular feed, Samael picked up his phone and sent a call on down to Loki. "You ready?" he asked.

"Hey to you too," Loki grumbled. "Yeah, I'm ready to make that move for you. Just say the bloody word, huh?"

"It's a go," said Samael.

"I'm only doing this so we can meet up in person again one of these days," Loki said.

Samael had to scoff at the thought. He had too much on his mind to even consider a dinner date. But a promise was a promise, and for Loki, he had no problem keeping to his commitments as needed. Loki was, after all, one of the few deities in whose good graces he remained.

"The onkorynchos, right?" Samael asked.

Loki grunted and muttered some swear in Old Norse, or perhaps in Norwegian; Samael's linguistic wires were too easily crossed to tell the difference sometimes. "That was the agreement, yes."

"Sounds good to me." Samael hung up, imagining, as he did so, Loki's continued aggrieved swearing. Whatever, whatever. No time to worry about manners.

He turned back to one of his other screens. Not the one showing the view from the fake snake, though. He could do without continuing to chuckle at the sight of Josh and Jaedra stupidly trying to feed the damn thing. Instead, he concentrated on a screen piping in a live feed from downstairs in this very building.

In addition to being his royal palace of sorts, this building was a hotel favored by those who could afford the nightly rates - most of whom were visitors from abroad, as it were. And it always surprised him how many local denizens of Purgatorio were willing to offer their bodies for a night with some rich, famous asshole who would probably rather snort cocaine out of their ass than fuck it.

Those were the most desperate, the ones who felt most hopeless about their chances of joining Father in His Kingdom someday.

Samael didn't blame them, because he had had that same desperation and hopelessness on many an occasion himself.

Of course, he didn't get to be in his current position by moping about his misfortunes day in and day out. Samael had spent millennia clawing his way up to power in Purgatorio, and now, he could almost feel that power slipping out of the same claws.

Well, not if he could find some way to ensure his dominance endured.

A way that would likely involve both Josh and that boy, the Breaker, the one who'd suffered so much as it was.

But that plan wasn't anywhere near ready to move on until Loki did his part.

And until then, Samael would content himself watching one of the billionaires indulge his desire for a younger woman than his wife to reverse-cowgirl him. Pretty vanilla as far as kinks and infidelities went, so it was perfect for Samael to sit back and watch without feeling too gross about it, during or after.

Yes, even a Prince of Darkness has his limits. Is that really such a surprise?