Little by little
Oct. 1st, 2024 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessI am knocking down the notes I have on the recorded. Only two to go. thank god so I can get moving on more of it. I have about 8K in notes. I have many new things to look into (like a clairvoyant lady doc in St Louis?? WTH? Oh I hope I can find more on her)
But that also means I had a boring BORING day of transcription and laundry so have the fannish 50 that was interrupt by the power loss (it's still actually raining here)
but first boosting the signal again on the needy baskets for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomgiftbasket which you can find the few remaining ones right here I've not seen any of yinz doing these fandoms but maybe? Feel free to share it around.
Title: Un Inferno Tutto Mio (A Hell of my Own)
Summary: After the death of Pentious and the routing of Alastor, the Vees have been flexing their muscle but when Valentino increases his abuse on Angel and targets Charlie as well, everyone has had enough. Angel has to take a stand with a little help from his friends.
Author Note - Written for spikesgirl58’s six word challenge and the six words were Swallow, Pocket, Inscribe, Sky, Disastrous, & Wooden and for cozy_coffee’s prompt in comment_fic of any, any, “Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”― Mark Twain Also written for the allbingo prompt of Devil to pay and Song in another language (Veleno- the Italian rendition of Poison which is Angel’s song after all)
“Are you sure?”
When Lucifer himself asks this, he should probably have second thoughts but Angel does not. “As sure as I can be.”
“It will be disastrous for you if you fail.”
Angel hugged Fat Nuggets to his chest as he imagined all the ways it could go wrong, all the ways Valentino would torture him if he messed this up. When Lucifer had shocked Angel by knocking on his hotel door, he never imagine what the lord of hell would want to discuss. Yes, he’d been there the second time Valentino had propositioned Charlie, how he had laughed at her off in spite of seeing her fight the angels on extermination day. Angel wouldn’t have done it but the Vees were out of control.
Even before that second encounter, Angel had been walking a tightrope. He was the only one to be able to get inside Vee Tower since he worked there daily. Alastor had been humiliated when he allowed his overconfidence to get in his way while fighting Adam. Vox and Val would not shut up about Alastor fleeing. Lucifer hadn’t helped matter by showing up so late for the battle, too late to save Pentious. Angel shuddered at the remembrance of their loss.
The Vees took that to be a shift in hell’s power, moving in their favor. Lucifer had let his duties slip too long. Sinner overlords imagined they could take him. Angel doubted it but there would be so much blood and body parts on the ground in the attempt to steal his throne. The Vees discussed this stuff like the actors and staff were pets who couldn’t think, feel, and understand everything that was happening. Angel relayed every detail to the hotel crew.
Lucifer had taken it all in stride, working on a plan but Angel had no details for that. This calm controlled approach lasted until the evening Angel was walking in town with Vaggie and Charlie on a shopping trip. They had passed a club just as Valentino exited his limo. He couldn’t let things go, suggesting a partnership with the princess, promising her more money and power than she had already. They could have handled it until Valentino dared to fondle Charlie, suggesting a scenario even Angel would balk at attempting.
Angel lost it. He’d punched Valentino hard enough to knock out his gold tooth. Valentino sent him hurtling into the street where he bounced off a truck, not hard enough to be killed and respawned but enough that he had broken bones and been off work for days. Vaggie and Charlie sent Valentino on his way and had gotten Angel home but the anger and sorrow on Charlie’s face hurt him deeply. Angel did the only thing he could: inscribe those emotions on his heart and let them guide him. He needed to keep her from having to deal with Valentino. Someone needed to put him in check.
He wouldn’t have thought that someone was him but after the vicious week he’d been forced to endure after he returned to work that left him healing major wounds and respawning twice - once after Valentino waterboarded him to death and once after he strangled Angel in what was –for him – erotic asphyxiation – Angel was ready to take a chance. While laying on the penthouse floor pretending to be unconscious after a knife play session that was anything but fun, Angel listened to all three Vees outlining a plan to take out Alastor and burn the rebuilt hotel to the ground if they could. Lucifer hadn’t been pleased. Hence their current talk. Lucifer was determined to make Valentino see there was a devil to pay for his actions and Angel was happy to help.
“I have it planned out, sir,” Angel said, his hands shaking against Nuggs warm little body. Of course he was trembling. This was scary. Could he respawn if Valentino and Vox cut him to pieces and put them in different dumpsters around the city? “I can do it and if I fail, there’s always you. I just…I need to do it. I need to be the one.”
“I understand. What do you need of me?”
“To finish what I start if I fail,” Angel said bleakly. He hugged Fat Nuggets tighter. Would this be the last time he ever held his baby? “What I need most is for Alastor to set Vox off at the right moment. I need a power failure and I know Alastor can whip Vox into enough of a frenzy to do it. What I need from you, Lord Lucifer, is to be sure Alastor does it. If you goad him, he’ll do it just to prove to you he can.”
Lucifer’s lips curved into a wicked grin. “I can do that.”
“Then I think we’re set. I just need to talk to Husk.”
And to stop shaking. He had this. He was double dead if he didn’t.
# # #
“For fuck’s sake, Angel, you are so wooden out there tonight,” Valentino raged. “Fizzarolli’s sex dolls would do a better job of it.”
This is my own hell. I still don’t know how I got into this mess, how I ever fell for him. He’s cruel, like my father. How did I miss the signs? Angel thought. Yes, he was off his game. He was frightened but he had only to remind himself that he was a monster too. He earned his one-way ticket to Hell. Valentino had never met the real him. He’d only met the lovesick fool who signed away his soul. The lovesick fool currently sitting on a nasty couch with a black eye hidden under makeup because his owner had struck him one for not being willing to tell him where Charlie went on a daily basis. Worse would be waiting for him once the shoot was over unless he gave in.
He sweetened his voice, raising it up into the most Angel Dusty of registers. “Sorry, Val. I’ll do better.”
“You damn well better or you’ll be filming the nastiest torture porn I can think of.”
That wasn’t an idle threat. It would take his personal hell and treble the suffering. Angel put in the best performance of his life. No, that’s coming later. You’ll never be better than you will be tonight. He’d prepared for it. Now he just had to be sure everything went forward like he’d planned it out. He had learned a thing or two at his father’s feet, after all.
At least Valentino liked the final shoot. He sashayed over to Angel in the most amazing boots that he would steal if they’d fit his weird spider paws. Sadly, they wouldn’t. Valentino tipped Angel’s chin up, looking into his face almost tenderly. This was the performance that had won Angel over all those decades ago. This was the Val he’d fallen for, the sweet, handsome man with the honey hips and tantalizing promises. He used to have to remind himself of those times just to make it through. Now he reminded himself that this was the man who had threatened Charlie and that was enough to steel his spine. He could revisit his former self without fear. He was Henroin’s son after all. He’d never been a good man. He’d make his father proud.
“Let’s go up to the penthouse,” Valentino promised and that’s what Angel had been hoping for. He’d planned for there or his dressing room but the penthouse worked better.
“Sure, baby,” he purred, fluttering his lashes at Valentino who gobbled up the attention.
Valentino put a possessive hand in the small of Angel’s back leading him up to the penthouse suite with all its narcissistic posters of a half-dressed Valentino and a few pictures of him and Vox. None of Angel existed here which spoke of how little he meant to Valentino who immediately spread a hefty few lines of cocaine on the table.
“Treat yourself, baby.”
Angel did because he could use the rush and if he didn’t, Valentino would either get suspicious and then paranoid or he’d get angry and abusive. He did, however, kneel at the table opposite the couch where Valentino sat just so he was out of easy arm’s reach. When Angel had done a few lines, Valentino called for Kitty, his robotic servant, to bring drinks.
While Valentino drank, Angel stripped slowly out of his clothing, doing a sinuous dance, channeling his inner snake. It caused a pang as he remembered Pentious. Valentino lit a cigarette and Angel watched the glowing tip, hoping it wouldn’t soon meet his flesh.
“You going to tell me what I want to know about the princess?” Valentino’s voice promised violence. He blew a cloud of red smoke Angel’s way
“After we’re done, I’ll tell you everything.” Angel made puppy eyes at him, willing Val to believe him.
“That’s my baby.”
“Can I use the bathroom first?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t want you to be distracted.”
Angel picked up his discarded clothing and carried it with him. He texted Husk an emoji, the one they had prearranged, something cute and harmless that if Vox managed to uncover it after the fact it wouldn’t be thought twice of. He flushed to make his trip seem real and sauntered back out in nothing but his heeled boots. Valentino seeing his feet would never do because Val would take the time to tell him how ugly they were.
Val crooked a finger at Angel and he raced across the room, jumping into Valentino’s arms. He could do this. He’d done it so many times before. What was one last time to him? Angel opened his throat to swallow Valentino down. He wouldn’t be kind or gentle about how he face fucked Angel, not like he had been when they first met.
Angel ignored the raunchy patter as Valentino worked him. He finally pulled free and pushed Angel flat. Angel could handle this too, the shock of Valentino shoving inside with nothing but spit as lube as familiar as his own skin.
The bite marks, bleeding freely all over Angel shoulder, were nothing but love kisses because it no longer mattered. With every jarring thrust he met with one of his own, Angel wondered what was taking so long. He didn’t want to have to wait because if this finished and he didn’t betray Charlie, he’d be going through another round of respawn-murder-respawn and he’d like to avoid that.
Valentino didn’t even notice Angel hadn’t cummed by the time he’d finished and sat back for a smoke. For fuck’s sake, had the lord of hell and one of the scarier overlords he’d ever seen failed him? Valentino offered Angel a cigarette when what he wanted was a towel to clean the blood off his torso. Suddenly every light in the penthouse went out.
“Oh, what the fuck?”
Angel smiled fiercely. Here in the dark, he was the predator, like he’d been back in Brooklyn. He brought out his lowest set of arms, in one hand his trusty barb wire covered bat and in the other, not his favored tommy gun but rather a pistole with a silencer.
“We don’t need lights to party, baby,” he purred and shot Valentino in the groin.
Valentino shrieked in pain. Angel allowed himself to glow, the faint fuchsia light from his heart marking, some of his pink patches and his eyes lit up just enough of Valentino to see the rage and agony in his eyes.
“You little fucking cunt, I’m going to-“
Angel blew out one of Val’s knees and then the other. “You’re going to what, you vicious fuck?” He transferred the pistol to one his lower set of hands and hefted his bat. “You’re going to take a beating like you expect me to do. Now you’re going to learn why I went to hell.”
He slammed the bat into Val’s face, loving the sound of his glasses and some facial bones break. His stomach soured a bit as the smart part of his brain grew disgusted with the violent parts of it enjoying this. Blood splattered as the barbed wire tore flesh. Once Angel started swinging, it became nearly impossible to stop. He barely came to his senses in time. He had to be out of here before the lights came back on. He needed an alibi, not that it was likely to be believed.
Leaning on the bat, breathing heavily, he tried to make his more demonic form obey him. He was so rarely this beast anymore if felt like being in someone else’s body. He never knew how to process the sensations from the eye spots that cropped up on his back. “Did you know, Val, that I was a mob enforcer?”
Valentino panted, making horrible pain filled squeaks. “B-B-baby, why?”
Angel laughed humorlessly. “Why? Why the fuck do you think? You’ve abused and raped me for the last time, Val. You’ve threatened Charlie for the last time. My mamina used to quote her favorite author when she wanted me to feel better about something Papi made me do. ‘It’ll be okay, Anthony, dear heart. You’re my good boy. Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.’ I’m showing you mine, Val. This is what I was. This is how I ended up in hell. I was a monster and now you’re seeing the real me. Do you like me now? Did you think I used up all my angelic steel bullets on the angels?”
Val raised his arms, bones jutting out of them as he tried to shield himself. “You can’t-”
Before he could command him to stop and he’d have to obey, Angel shot him through the skull and then the heart and twice again for good measure, emptying his pistol. He expected to feel staggered when his owner died for good but there was no sensation at all. He raced into the bathroom and grabbed his folded clothes.
Darting out to the balcony, Angel scanned the red sky with its big pentagram hanging there. If his friends failed him, he’d have to jump and run for it. There! The sound of wings beating reached his ears and Angel jumped onto the railing still holding his weapons. When Husk was in range, Angel leapt into the air. His friend caught him and beat his wings hard.
“Faster,” was all Angel could say. The traffic below was snarled with no power to the lights so the air was the best way to go. Vox couldn’t track him without power. Angel’s story would be he left the minute the power went off but he had to be somewhere far enough away that he couldn’t have just run there when the power and the surveillance cameras came back on.
Husk’s arms trembled as they cradled him. The strain of carrying double was getting to him but he didn’t complain. He also didn’t spare his breath until they were many blocks away, not to the hotel but toward the prearranged club, one Angel knew Vox kept track of. He most likely watched the hotel daily too but Angel wanted to be sure. Finally Husk’s strength began to fail, his limbs sweaty under Angel’s bare body.
“Set down, Husky. We can jog from here.”
Husk did. In the chaos no one even noticed. Husk tugged Angel into the nearest alley and pulled a container of wipes from his pocket.
“You’ll need these. I can smell the blood on you.”
Angel gave him his clothes to hold and wiped off the best he could in the pitch black. He saved a few for Husk to get the blood off his fur, transferred there from carrying Angel. He dressed and pulled Husk down the street to the club. They pushed their way inside and thankfully it was still dark. Angel forced his way to the side of the club. From here the cameras in front of the bar would pick them up. Only then did he nearly collapse.
Husk pulled him tight. “You okay?”
“I did it, Husk. I fucking did it.” Clinging to Husk’s shoulders, Angel started shaking all over. “I’m free.”
Husk folded his wings around them as they stood against the wall. “I’m so glad, kid.”
“I’m free. Charlie’s safe. I…I…” Angel broke, shattering into a stuttering cry as tears flooded down his face. He buried his face against the top of Husk’s head. He had left his hat at home. His fur smelled of whiskey and Angel clung to him as if life depended on it. “Why am I crying for that bastard? Why?”
“You’re crying for all the pain he put you through, for all the suffering, maybe you’re crying because you’re too happy for words,” Husk whispered, rubbing Angel’s back.
“I didn’t just shoot him,” he murmured so softly he wasn’t sure Husk heard. “I beat him like he owned the mob money.” Angel thought he might have actually had his orgasm then but he refused to think about it, would never admit it if it were true. “I enjoyed every broken bone, Husk. What would heaven want with me?”
“You did it to keep him from harming your friends. I think heaven might weigh in that factor,” Husk said. “And if not, then you have Lucifer’s favor which is no small thing.”
“I know.” Angel wiped his sopping wet facial fur. “It doesn’t feel any different but then again, it didn’t feel too different when he took my soul. How do I even know it’s back?”
“We’ll worry about that later.”
“Husk, can I tell you something I’ve been thinking about since that last night before the angels hit the hotel?”
“Of course.”
“I want to kiss you. Can I or…did I ruin everything by being vicious?”
“As if I haven’t been,” Husk snorted. “Yes, please, I’d like that.”
Angel brushed his lips to Husk’s, soft, tender and the lights chose then to come back on. Angel kept kissing for a few moments longer because what did he care if Vox saw him doing it. It would give his alibi weight. He’d run off the moment the lights went out to meet his lover at a club. He looked up and smiled right into the camera.
“Let’s go home.”
“I’ll call Charlie to send the limo,” Husk said.
# # #
Angel walked into the hotel knowing they wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at him he was free. He still had a little blood on him but not enough that the cameras would have picked up on it. It wasn’t like his soul gleamed from within him. His appearance was unchanged. His black sclera remained like onyx, a trophy from the vicious fight he and Arackniss had gotten into just before he died. He still had the gold tooth from when Valentino had it shoved into his head after knocking his actual tooth out. But maybe they could tell after all. Yes, he didn’t feel some amazing rush now that he had his soul back but there was a lightness to him.
Valentino was dead. He’d seen to it. Vox and Velvette would be on his ass soon enough. If his alibi held, he’d tender his resignation as one of Hell’s premiere porn stars or at least start making his own damn movies the way he wanted to do it. If his alibi failed, then there’d be a war and he’d be caught up in it. Either way he didn’t care because damn it, he was free. He’d ask Lucifer later about how could he be a hundred percent sure he had regained his soul.
Charlie darted across the lobby and threw her arms around him. Angel picked her up, swinging her around. She kissed his cheek and he hated she had to smell blood and Valentino’s sweat.
“You did it!” she cried.
“He’s never going to bother us again,” he said.
Lucifer stopped glaring at Alastor long enough to say, “You did well.”
“Thanks to you two provoking Vox into killing the power. I…I’m wrung out guys. I need to-”
Angel never got to say what he needed. The events caught up to him and his nervous system shut him down. He was on the floor by the time he had woken, surrounded by his friends who helped him to his room and Husk had settled him in the tub resting in hot soapy water. Husk had helped him so many times before with his wounds Angel no longer felt a moment’s worry about him seeing him naked and injured.
Husk started sponging the deep bites on his shoulder clean. “This is the last time I’ll ever have to do this,” he said.
Angel covered his eyes and wept again. He still didn’t know who he was crying for or why. It was the last time. He would never stagger in bleeding and hurting like someone had drove a bus up his backside. He would never be gas lighted so hard that he thought he was all to blame for being so hurt. Sure he’d get into fights in the future. He’d bleed more but never again at Valentino’s hands and if that was as close to heaven he got, it was close enough. It might be his own hell but he had just reshaped it. It would be a better hell now, a hell where he had friends who had become his family, friends he would died for, friends he would kill for. This was a hell that suited him and in that moment, Angel savored his victory.
So fannish 50 is going to be fan recs since my brain is dead. But here have the ad for the Helluva Boss Halloween merch (kinda sad there doesn't seem to be Hazbin stuff too) and I can't believe what they got away with here (NSFW)
It's A Strange Magic Stargate Atlantis
When you need me, I will be the love beside you Torchwood
From Bad To Worse The Owl House
[ART] there was only one (very small) bed Deadpool/Wolverine
In Vision I Roamed The Owl House
Watching and Learning Teen Wolf
Bitter Bite
Chaos - Business as Usual Teen Wolf
Tongue-Tied Hazbin Hotel
Games People Play Stargate Atlantis
No Tears To Cry FAKE
stand back 陈情令 | The Untamed
Science Applied to Real Life Teen Wolf/Harry Potter
Jumper Maintenance Stargate Atlantis/Stargate
Never Giving Up Torchwood
[ART] the OTHER Dogpool Deadpool/Wolverine
Claws Out Hazbin hotel
Talismans Teen Wolf
[ART] hey Baldur's Gate
Half-Baked Ideas Teen Wolf/Harry Potter
Working Together Teen Wolf
Done Crying Over You Buffy the Vampire Slayer
It's Raining Men Stargate Atlantis/Stargate
...well, better than the alternative Hazbin Hotel
All You Can Do Is Your Best The Owl House
[ART] it's oozy time, baby~ Deadpool/Wolverine NSFW
Stubborn Ancient Technology Stargate Atlantis/Stargate
Despite the Danger Stargate Atlantis
Interruption Eerie Indiana/Eerie Indiana: The Other Dimension
Soap's nightmare betrayal Call of Duty
House Rules Hazbin Hotel wip
Take Back The Night The Owl House
Overlord Angel Hazbi Hotel comic book on IG
But that also means I had a boring BORING day of transcription and laundry so have the fannish 50 that was interrupt by the power loss (it's still actually raining here)
but first boosting the signal again on the needy baskets for
fandomgiftbasket which you can find the few remaining ones right here I've not seen any of yinz doing these fandoms but maybe? Feel free to share it around.Title: Un Inferno Tutto Mio (A Hell of my Own)
Summary: After the death of Pentious and the routing of Alastor, the Vees have been flexing their muscle but when Valentino increases his abuse on Angel and targets Charlie as well, everyone has had enough. Angel has to take a stand with a little help from his friends.
Author Note - Written for spikesgirl58’s six word challenge and the six words were Swallow, Pocket, Inscribe, Sky, Disastrous, & Wooden and for cozy_coffee’s prompt in comment_fic of any, any, “Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”― Mark Twain Also written for the allbingo prompt of Devil to pay and Song in another language (Veleno- the Italian rendition of Poison which is Angel’s song after all)
“Are you sure?”
When Lucifer himself asks this, he should probably have second thoughts but Angel does not. “As sure as I can be.”
“It will be disastrous for you if you fail.”
Angel hugged Fat Nuggets to his chest as he imagined all the ways it could go wrong, all the ways Valentino would torture him if he messed this up. When Lucifer had shocked Angel by knocking on his hotel door, he never imagine what the lord of hell would want to discuss. Yes, he’d been there the second time Valentino had propositioned Charlie, how he had laughed at her off in spite of seeing her fight the angels on extermination day. Angel wouldn’t have done it but the Vees were out of control.
Even before that second encounter, Angel had been walking a tightrope. He was the only one to be able to get inside Vee Tower since he worked there daily. Alastor had been humiliated when he allowed his overconfidence to get in his way while fighting Adam. Vox and Val would not shut up about Alastor fleeing. Lucifer hadn’t helped matter by showing up so late for the battle, too late to save Pentious. Angel shuddered at the remembrance of their loss.
The Vees took that to be a shift in hell’s power, moving in their favor. Lucifer had let his duties slip too long. Sinner overlords imagined they could take him. Angel doubted it but there would be so much blood and body parts on the ground in the attempt to steal his throne. The Vees discussed this stuff like the actors and staff were pets who couldn’t think, feel, and understand everything that was happening. Angel relayed every detail to the hotel crew.
Lucifer had taken it all in stride, working on a plan but Angel had no details for that. This calm controlled approach lasted until the evening Angel was walking in town with Vaggie and Charlie on a shopping trip. They had passed a club just as Valentino exited his limo. He couldn’t let things go, suggesting a partnership with the princess, promising her more money and power than she had already. They could have handled it until Valentino dared to fondle Charlie, suggesting a scenario even Angel would balk at attempting.
Angel lost it. He’d punched Valentino hard enough to knock out his gold tooth. Valentino sent him hurtling into the street where he bounced off a truck, not hard enough to be killed and respawned but enough that he had broken bones and been off work for days. Vaggie and Charlie sent Valentino on his way and had gotten Angel home but the anger and sorrow on Charlie’s face hurt him deeply. Angel did the only thing he could: inscribe those emotions on his heart and let them guide him. He needed to keep her from having to deal with Valentino. Someone needed to put him in check.
He wouldn’t have thought that someone was him but after the vicious week he’d been forced to endure after he returned to work that left him healing major wounds and respawning twice - once after Valentino waterboarded him to death and once after he strangled Angel in what was –for him – erotic asphyxiation – Angel was ready to take a chance. While laying on the penthouse floor pretending to be unconscious after a knife play session that was anything but fun, Angel listened to all three Vees outlining a plan to take out Alastor and burn the rebuilt hotel to the ground if they could. Lucifer hadn’t been pleased. Hence their current talk. Lucifer was determined to make Valentino see there was a devil to pay for his actions and Angel was happy to help.
“I have it planned out, sir,” Angel said, his hands shaking against Nuggs warm little body. Of course he was trembling. This was scary. Could he respawn if Valentino and Vox cut him to pieces and put them in different dumpsters around the city? “I can do it and if I fail, there’s always you. I just…I need to do it. I need to be the one.”
“I understand. What do you need of me?”
“To finish what I start if I fail,” Angel said bleakly. He hugged Fat Nuggets tighter. Would this be the last time he ever held his baby? “What I need most is for Alastor to set Vox off at the right moment. I need a power failure and I know Alastor can whip Vox into enough of a frenzy to do it. What I need from you, Lord Lucifer, is to be sure Alastor does it. If you goad him, he’ll do it just to prove to you he can.”
Lucifer’s lips curved into a wicked grin. “I can do that.”
“Then I think we’re set. I just need to talk to Husk.”
And to stop shaking. He had this. He was double dead if he didn’t.
# # #
“For fuck’s sake, Angel, you are so wooden out there tonight,” Valentino raged. “Fizzarolli’s sex dolls would do a better job of it.”
This is my own hell. I still don’t know how I got into this mess, how I ever fell for him. He’s cruel, like my father. How did I miss the signs? Angel thought. Yes, he was off his game. He was frightened but he had only to remind himself that he was a monster too. He earned his one-way ticket to Hell. Valentino had never met the real him. He’d only met the lovesick fool who signed away his soul. The lovesick fool currently sitting on a nasty couch with a black eye hidden under makeup because his owner had struck him one for not being willing to tell him where Charlie went on a daily basis. Worse would be waiting for him once the shoot was over unless he gave in.
He sweetened his voice, raising it up into the most Angel Dusty of registers. “Sorry, Val. I’ll do better.”
“You damn well better or you’ll be filming the nastiest torture porn I can think of.”
That wasn’t an idle threat. It would take his personal hell and treble the suffering. Angel put in the best performance of his life. No, that’s coming later. You’ll never be better than you will be tonight. He’d prepared for it. Now he just had to be sure everything went forward like he’d planned it out. He had learned a thing or two at his father’s feet, after all.
At least Valentino liked the final shoot. He sashayed over to Angel in the most amazing boots that he would steal if they’d fit his weird spider paws. Sadly, they wouldn’t. Valentino tipped Angel’s chin up, looking into his face almost tenderly. This was the performance that had won Angel over all those decades ago. This was the Val he’d fallen for, the sweet, handsome man with the honey hips and tantalizing promises. He used to have to remind himself of those times just to make it through. Now he reminded himself that this was the man who had threatened Charlie and that was enough to steel his spine. He could revisit his former self without fear. He was Henroin’s son after all. He’d never been a good man. He’d make his father proud.
“Let’s go up to the penthouse,” Valentino promised and that’s what Angel had been hoping for. He’d planned for there or his dressing room but the penthouse worked better.
“Sure, baby,” he purred, fluttering his lashes at Valentino who gobbled up the attention.
Valentino put a possessive hand in the small of Angel’s back leading him up to the penthouse suite with all its narcissistic posters of a half-dressed Valentino and a few pictures of him and Vox. None of Angel existed here which spoke of how little he meant to Valentino who immediately spread a hefty few lines of cocaine on the table.
“Treat yourself, baby.”
Angel did because he could use the rush and if he didn’t, Valentino would either get suspicious and then paranoid or he’d get angry and abusive. He did, however, kneel at the table opposite the couch where Valentino sat just so he was out of easy arm’s reach. When Angel had done a few lines, Valentino called for Kitty, his robotic servant, to bring drinks.
While Valentino drank, Angel stripped slowly out of his clothing, doing a sinuous dance, channeling his inner snake. It caused a pang as he remembered Pentious. Valentino lit a cigarette and Angel watched the glowing tip, hoping it wouldn’t soon meet his flesh.
“You going to tell me what I want to know about the princess?” Valentino’s voice promised violence. He blew a cloud of red smoke Angel’s way
“After we’re done, I’ll tell you everything.” Angel made puppy eyes at him, willing Val to believe him.
“That’s my baby.”
“Can I use the bathroom first?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t want you to be distracted.”
Angel picked up his discarded clothing and carried it with him. He texted Husk an emoji, the one they had prearranged, something cute and harmless that if Vox managed to uncover it after the fact it wouldn’t be thought twice of. He flushed to make his trip seem real and sauntered back out in nothing but his heeled boots. Valentino seeing his feet would never do because Val would take the time to tell him how ugly they were.
Val crooked a finger at Angel and he raced across the room, jumping into Valentino’s arms. He could do this. He’d done it so many times before. What was one last time to him? Angel opened his throat to swallow Valentino down. He wouldn’t be kind or gentle about how he face fucked Angel, not like he had been when they first met.
Angel ignored the raunchy patter as Valentino worked him. He finally pulled free and pushed Angel flat. Angel could handle this too, the shock of Valentino shoving inside with nothing but spit as lube as familiar as his own skin.
The bite marks, bleeding freely all over Angel shoulder, were nothing but love kisses because it no longer mattered. With every jarring thrust he met with one of his own, Angel wondered what was taking so long. He didn’t want to have to wait because if this finished and he didn’t betray Charlie, he’d be going through another round of respawn-murder-respawn and he’d like to avoid that.
Valentino didn’t even notice Angel hadn’t cummed by the time he’d finished and sat back for a smoke. For fuck’s sake, had the lord of hell and one of the scarier overlords he’d ever seen failed him? Valentino offered Angel a cigarette when what he wanted was a towel to clean the blood off his torso. Suddenly every light in the penthouse went out.
“Oh, what the fuck?”
Angel smiled fiercely. Here in the dark, he was the predator, like he’d been back in Brooklyn. He brought out his lowest set of arms, in one hand his trusty barb wire covered bat and in the other, not his favored tommy gun but rather a pistole with a silencer.
“We don’t need lights to party, baby,” he purred and shot Valentino in the groin.
Valentino shrieked in pain. Angel allowed himself to glow, the faint fuchsia light from his heart marking, some of his pink patches and his eyes lit up just enough of Valentino to see the rage and agony in his eyes.
“You little fucking cunt, I’m going to-“
Angel blew out one of Val’s knees and then the other. “You’re going to what, you vicious fuck?” He transferred the pistol to one his lower set of hands and hefted his bat. “You’re going to take a beating like you expect me to do. Now you’re going to learn why I went to hell.”
He slammed the bat into Val’s face, loving the sound of his glasses and some facial bones break. His stomach soured a bit as the smart part of his brain grew disgusted with the violent parts of it enjoying this. Blood splattered as the barbed wire tore flesh. Once Angel started swinging, it became nearly impossible to stop. He barely came to his senses in time. He had to be out of here before the lights came back on. He needed an alibi, not that it was likely to be believed.
Leaning on the bat, breathing heavily, he tried to make his more demonic form obey him. He was so rarely this beast anymore if felt like being in someone else’s body. He never knew how to process the sensations from the eye spots that cropped up on his back. “Did you know, Val, that I was a mob enforcer?”
Valentino panted, making horrible pain filled squeaks. “B-B-baby, why?”
Angel laughed humorlessly. “Why? Why the fuck do you think? You’ve abused and raped me for the last time, Val. You’ve threatened Charlie for the last time. My mamina used to quote her favorite author when she wanted me to feel better about something Papi made me do. ‘It’ll be okay, Anthony, dear heart. You’re my good boy. Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.’ I’m showing you mine, Val. This is what I was. This is how I ended up in hell. I was a monster and now you’re seeing the real me. Do you like me now? Did you think I used up all my angelic steel bullets on the angels?”
Val raised his arms, bones jutting out of them as he tried to shield himself. “You can’t-”
Before he could command him to stop and he’d have to obey, Angel shot him through the skull and then the heart and twice again for good measure, emptying his pistol. He expected to feel staggered when his owner died for good but there was no sensation at all. He raced into the bathroom and grabbed his folded clothes.
Darting out to the balcony, Angel scanned the red sky with its big pentagram hanging there. If his friends failed him, he’d have to jump and run for it. There! The sound of wings beating reached his ears and Angel jumped onto the railing still holding his weapons. When Husk was in range, Angel leapt into the air. His friend caught him and beat his wings hard.
“Faster,” was all Angel could say. The traffic below was snarled with no power to the lights so the air was the best way to go. Vox couldn’t track him without power. Angel’s story would be he left the minute the power went off but he had to be somewhere far enough away that he couldn’t have just run there when the power and the surveillance cameras came back on.
Husk’s arms trembled as they cradled him. The strain of carrying double was getting to him but he didn’t complain. He also didn’t spare his breath until they were many blocks away, not to the hotel but toward the prearranged club, one Angel knew Vox kept track of. He most likely watched the hotel daily too but Angel wanted to be sure. Finally Husk’s strength began to fail, his limbs sweaty under Angel’s bare body.
“Set down, Husky. We can jog from here.”
Husk did. In the chaos no one even noticed. Husk tugged Angel into the nearest alley and pulled a container of wipes from his pocket.
“You’ll need these. I can smell the blood on you.”
Angel gave him his clothes to hold and wiped off the best he could in the pitch black. He saved a few for Husk to get the blood off his fur, transferred there from carrying Angel. He dressed and pulled Husk down the street to the club. They pushed their way inside and thankfully it was still dark. Angel forced his way to the side of the club. From here the cameras in front of the bar would pick them up. Only then did he nearly collapse.
Husk pulled him tight. “You okay?”
“I did it, Husk. I fucking did it.” Clinging to Husk’s shoulders, Angel started shaking all over. “I’m free.”
Husk folded his wings around them as they stood against the wall. “I’m so glad, kid.”
“I’m free. Charlie’s safe. I…I…” Angel broke, shattering into a stuttering cry as tears flooded down his face. He buried his face against the top of Husk’s head. He had left his hat at home. His fur smelled of whiskey and Angel clung to him as if life depended on it. “Why am I crying for that bastard? Why?”
“You’re crying for all the pain he put you through, for all the suffering, maybe you’re crying because you’re too happy for words,” Husk whispered, rubbing Angel’s back.
“I didn’t just shoot him,” he murmured so softly he wasn’t sure Husk heard. “I beat him like he owned the mob money.” Angel thought he might have actually had his orgasm then but he refused to think about it, would never admit it if it were true. “I enjoyed every broken bone, Husk. What would heaven want with me?”
“You did it to keep him from harming your friends. I think heaven might weigh in that factor,” Husk said. “And if not, then you have Lucifer’s favor which is no small thing.”
“I know.” Angel wiped his sopping wet facial fur. “It doesn’t feel any different but then again, it didn’t feel too different when he took my soul. How do I even know it’s back?”
“We’ll worry about that later.”
“Husk, can I tell you something I’ve been thinking about since that last night before the angels hit the hotel?”
“Of course.”
“I want to kiss you. Can I or…did I ruin everything by being vicious?”
“As if I haven’t been,” Husk snorted. “Yes, please, I’d like that.”
Angel brushed his lips to Husk’s, soft, tender and the lights chose then to come back on. Angel kept kissing for a few moments longer because what did he care if Vox saw him doing it. It would give his alibi weight. He’d run off the moment the lights went out to meet his lover at a club. He looked up and smiled right into the camera.
“Let’s go home.”
“I’ll call Charlie to send the limo,” Husk said.
# # #
Angel walked into the hotel knowing they wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at him he was free. He still had a little blood on him but not enough that the cameras would have picked up on it. It wasn’t like his soul gleamed from within him. His appearance was unchanged. His black sclera remained like onyx, a trophy from the vicious fight he and Arackniss had gotten into just before he died. He still had the gold tooth from when Valentino had it shoved into his head after knocking his actual tooth out. But maybe they could tell after all. Yes, he didn’t feel some amazing rush now that he had his soul back but there was a lightness to him.
Valentino was dead. He’d seen to it. Vox and Velvette would be on his ass soon enough. If his alibi held, he’d tender his resignation as one of Hell’s premiere porn stars or at least start making his own damn movies the way he wanted to do it. If his alibi failed, then there’d be a war and he’d be caught up in it. Either way he didn’t care because damn it, he was free. He’d ask Lucifer later about how could he be a hundred percent sure he had regained his soul.
Charlie darted across the lobby and threw her arms around him. Angel picked her up, swinging her around. She kissed his cheek and he hated she had to smell blood and Valentino’s sweat.
“You did it!” she cried.
“He’s never going to bother us again,” he said.
Lucifer stopped glaring at Alastor long enough to say, “You did well.”
“Thanks to you two provoking Vox into killing the power. I…I’m wrung out guys. I need to-”
Angel never got to say what he needed. The events caught up to him and his nervous system shut him down. He was on the floor by the time he had woken, surrounded by his friends who helped him to his room and Husk had settled him in the tub resting in hot soapy water. Husk had helped him so many times before with his wounds Angel no longer felt a moment’s worry about him seeing him naked and injured.
Husk started sponging the deep bites on his shoulder clean. “This is the last time I’ll ever have to do this,” he said.
Angel covered his eyes and wept again. He still didn’t know who he was crying for or why. It was the last time. He would never stagger in bleeding and hurting like someone had drove a bus up his backside. He would never be gas lighted so hard that he thought he was all to blame for being so hurt. Sure he’d get into fights in the future. He’d bleed more but never again at Valentino’s hands and if that was as close to heaven he got, it was close enough. It might be his own hell but he had just reshaped it. It would be a better hell now, a hell where he had friends who had become his family, friends he would died for, friends he would kill for. This was a hell that suited him and in that moment, Angel savored his victory.
So fannish 50 is going to be fan recs since my brain is dead. But here have the ad for the Helluva Boss Halloween merch (kinda sad there doesn't seem to be Hazbin stuff too) and I can't believe what they got away with here (NSFW)
It's A Strange Magic Stargate Atlantis
When you need me, I will be the love beside you Torchwood
From Bad To Worse The Owl House
[ART] there was only one (very small) bed Deadpool/Wolverine
In Vision I Roamed The Owl House
Watching and Learning Teen Wolf
Bitter Bite
Chaos - Business as Usual Teen Wolf
Tongue-Tied Hazbin Hotel
Games People Play Stargate Atlantis
No Tears To Cry FAKE
stand back 陈情令 | The Untamed
Science Applied to Real Life Teen Wolf/Harry Potter
Jumper Maintenance Stargate Atlantis/Stargate
Never Giving Up Torchwood
[ART] the OTHER Dogpool Deadpool/Wolverine
Claws Out Hazbin hotel
Talismans Teen Wolf
[ART] hey Baldur's Gate
Half-Baked Ideas Teen Wolf/Harry Potter
Working Together Teen Wolf
Done Crying Over You Buffy the Vampire Slayer
It's Raining Men Stargate Atlantis/Stargate
...well, better than the alternative Hazbin Hotel
All You Can Do Is Your Best The Owl House
[ART] it's oozy time, baby~ Deadpool/Wolverine NSFW
Stubborn Ancient Technology Stargate Atlantis/Stargate
Despite the Danger Stargate Atlantis
Interruption Eerie Indiana/Eerie Indiana: The Other Dimension
Soap's nightmare betrayal Call of Duty
House Rules Hazbin Hotel wip
Take Back The Night The Owl House
Overlord Angel Hazbi Hotel comic book on IG
