big gun

The scythe had made it all official. Before Elias had gone burying it in Death’s back (or had taken his head off, he hadn’t revealed exactly how he’d done it), the guy had just been a powerless blowhard. He could stand and whine that the job was being done badly, that his fellow reapers were associating with murderers, but it hadn’t been his place to do anything about it. Not until Elias had made it his place.

Damien grumbled under his breath as he fished his phone out of his pocket. Planning how to switch that balance of power to his own hands with Aurora had felt good, but it was also a pipe dream, the same way robbing banks had been when he’d pulled Sonny out of Connie’s room to tell him how they were gonna keep paying for her care. A couple of banks, that was all. Places that were insured and could afford to lose the money. He’d added it all up and knew how much they’d need for a lifetime of care at the facility. How was a little sketchier, same way it was with their plan for his succession to the throne, but they’d figure that out as they went. As long as Elias didn’t take the other matters into his own hands the same way.

Pulling Aurora close to kiss her goodbye, he’d reminded her again to keep watch for a giant blond dick. Elias would find more than he bargained for if he came for either her or Sonny, but he wouldn’t put it past him to try. Damien stood in his own living room, having bounced back home, pulling up the number for that thing in his brother. Fifty years ago he might’ve jumped at the idea of finding a weapon to kill the demon, especially if someone had told him there was a chance Sonny would survive. Times had changed though, hate had mellowed, bargains had been struck and Damien knew there was likely no way to save Sonny if the demon died. That meant Koschei needed to cool his fucking jets for a while.

”Hey,” Damien bit out. Hearing that ‘yeah?’ in Sonny’s ton pissed him off, they’d been brought up better than that. ”We need to talk, in person. Not at my place, the walls just…” Sprung ears. Nudging his glasses up out of the way, Damien pinched the bridge of his nose. Once upon a time he’d had infinite patience. ”Because shit’s coming our way again. You telling me you’ve got something better to do?” The predicted war between Lucifer and Crowley hadn’t exactly kicked off. That just seemed to leave room for all the other assholes to stir up trouble.

In the end they’d agreed on a motel – a step up for Koschei probably, and the sort of place that would likely leave Elias retching too hard to go poking around. Sat on the end of the bed, half an hour after he’d told Koschei to be there, his temper was brewing. Over the last fifty years he’d learned what made demons tick and the sort of games they played to get everybody else ticking like bombs on the brink of explosion. Even if this was for his own good, Koschei would keep him waiting. Damien let out a long breath as the door opened and closed, coldly eyeing the demon’s smirk. By now he’d learned how to diffuse his own temper, most of the time.

Like the ‘yeah’, the demon’s ‘brother’ pissed him off. He might’ve walked like Sonny, talked mostly like him, looked exactly like him still, but he wasn’t his brother. Damien’s mouth pinched in a thin line before he chuckled bitterly. ”I woulda asked you the same thing. What rock has Crowley got you living under these days?” Cowering while the rest of the town went to crap. ”I needed shitty,” he puffed finally.

Propping his forearms on his thighs, Damien stared up at Sonny. In life his brother had usually listened to him, with a demon in tow there was a good chance he’d do the opposite. ”When I said we had shit coming our way, what I meant was you do.” Brows hitching faintly, Damien shook his head. ”There’s been a change, a new boss. You can’t keep fucking around the way you were. Word’s come down from him, anybody who disturbs the natural order gets stopped.” Sarcasm dripped off his words. Elias didn’t have a clue what the natural order really was, he just wanted to impose his version of order on them all, even if it cost him his brother.

Tagged: SONNY BECK * Word Count: 771

Broken bodies and blood stains, the reek of sulphur in the air. Hunters converging on a spot on the map like fleas on an old dog’s back, just waiting to track down whatever was causing the mayhem. Dread had always filled the pit of his stomach as he’d arrive. Seeing his brother – or rather the thing wearing him – standing there in the middle of it all, just waiting for him to turn up had been a torment every single time. Even looking down at him now, Damien heard that slithering voice in the back of his head that whispered that he could solve the problem now. Drive the thing out of him and Sonny would finally be at peace. And he might end up standing there looking at the broken spirit that was all that was left of his big brother.

The smug son of a bitch was all he saw staring back at him as he looked up at him. If Sonny was there then he was buried deep tonight, and Koschei would probably only let him out for a little added torture to spice up what had been a shitty day already. ”You’re hilarious,” Damien said flatly. ”I spend just as much time in your neck of woods as I do up there, knee deep in the shit you guys create. Although, I guess you don’t get back there much these days. Hell’s still off limits, hmm?” If Crowley had finally managed to get the upper hand with Lucifer, news woulda spread already and Koschei might already have been in the wind.

Maybe running would end up being the best thing for the demon. Get Sonny out of dodge until things had calmed down. Sonny’s body had stopped being just a fragile flesh shell when that thing had slithered into his brother, wounds disappearing in an instant, but who knew if the virus could infect it the same way it could almost everybody else. Would anybody even notice if something that was already corrupted to the core got a little more violent and crazy? Probably not. Elias would undoubtedly have something to say about it though. His mouth’d pinch up, his eyes would get a little colder and he’d try laying down the law like he’d threatened to.

Damien’s shoulders started tightening beneath the black cloth of his suit. There were times it felt more like a straight jacket than something smart and presentable (as though bank robbers needed that touch of class to prove they weren’t just thugs). ”Bowing down, like you’d be doing anything differently if you had Death’s scythe to your neck,” he puffed. ”He didn’t just slip into the big guy’s loafers when he happened to be taking a nap. He killed Death to take his place.” That’d given him just enough pause that he hadn’t tried snatching the scythe from Elias’ hands and burying it in his smug face. He’d taken the job in the first place to try and save his brother, but now he had more than what was left of Sonny to lose. He had Aurora, he couldn’t be torn away from the woman he loved because the demon refused to listen.

Puffing out a breath, Damien got to his feet. There wouldn’t be a second chance with Elias. One screw up and that was likely to be it. ”I don’t think he’d go questioning that. His problem is that someone connected to me wants to kill some people. He sees me standing around debating with you about what the Hell you’ve done here and that stink starts rubbing off on me.” He jabbed a thumb at his chest, alright feeling it growing tight as though he actually needed to breathe. Snorting, Damien eyed his brother, catching an edge to his voice that didn’t seem like it was just Sonny’s. ”I didn’t say he was smart. How many things do you know would go taking on Death himself? You think Crowley’s gonna come whining to Death about his lap dog getting killed?” He would though. Damien knew it would be one of the worst fucking moves he’d ever make, but he wouldn’t be able to just let it go when his brother died because this jackass had decided to mouth off to the wrong thing.

Tagged: SONNY BECK * Word Count: 715