Chapter 10 – The confrontation.
They got up just before 7am to shower, eat a quick breakfast and get ready, they decided to make an impression so they dressed up, low heal boots being the only compromise they made for the situation.
Might as well look hot Jez supposed. Couldn't hurt anyway.
"Damn right," Sandy remarked replying to her thoughts, "and no one does sexy better than you."
Jezebel thought a certain Witch might, but she just smiled at the thought not bothering to say so.
Promptly at 7am the door bell rang and they grabbed their stuff and headed for the door.
Jez felt good about this, she had thought about the conversation in the Sapphire Club over the last hour and was glad she had not harmed someone with no choice. She got a cold smile on her face at the thought of hurting the person behind it however. That she decided wouldn't be bad at all.
Jez opened the door and surprisingly there was only one Angel there, Captain Daniel Price. She realized he did this on purpose. Mainly to keep the antagonism at a minimum and make sure she did not feel threatened enough to attack. She thought it was fairly brave of him as well.
He nodded at both of them, "Good morning Jezebel, Sandy."
Jez nodded back, not quite sure she was ready to be friends with this Angel, the absurdity of the fact she may have to kill him one day was putting a damper on her feeling. Plus who knew if he could be trusted. She reminded herself his superiors can't be trusted so neither can he as their slave so to speak.
Jez shrugged, then again, 50 years of friendship weighed against a few months of insanity and she understood how her father could do it.
It didn't take long to get to the airport where a Learjet was waiting and before they knew it they were up in the air. Both of them were drinking orange juice, it was a little too early for anything strong. Plus they needed their wits about them.
A few hours later they came to landing at LAX where they found a limo waiting off to the side of the plane. Jez grabbed Sandy's hand, squeezed it gently and led her inside.
There were two extremely large Angels in the limo and they were expressionless, the only sign of life Jez saw was when they nodded to Daniel.
Daniel nodded back to them and turned to Jez, "Two of the Arch's bodyguards." Then he shrugged.
They were driven to a large mansion just outside of LA close to the beach. Jezebel couldn't help but be impressed by the place. She took a deep breath and relaxed her state. She hoped it would go well but she was ready to kill as well, to protect Sandy as well as herself. Her nerves settled and she felt aware of everything around her.
Jezebel looked over at Sandy who exuded confidence, after exchanging a look they allowed Daniel to lead them into the mansion.
The entryway and stairs were done in marble, marble columns up to the high ceiling lined the staircase. They went straight toward the back, passing by a number of side rooms to enter some open double doors that looked to lead into a large ball room.
There were two more towering Angels at the door that gestured they should stop. They stopped and the guards were completely professional while going through her and Sandy's purses. The one going through Sandy's raised his eyebrows at the small stones in there but shrugged and handed the purse back.
Sandy whispered to Jez, "There is a powerful Witch in there with them."
Jez nodded and understood, she was Sandy's to deal with if it became necessary.
The guards let them past and they walked in the room which gave Jez her first look at an Archangel, it was not what she expected at all.
She had expected someone like Daniel but this Angel was obese. He had a handsome face she thought, but clearly this Angel always let his powers or others do the actual work. He was wearing white pants and a white button down shirt.
There were 4 other bodyguards posted around him and standing next to him was an attractive Eurasian woman about 5' tall, she looked about 25 and she had a arrogant smile on her face.
Jez decided reacting was best in this situation and waited for someone else to talk first. Why risk doing something stupid if she could just show a little patience?
She watched Daniel walk forward and kneel, "Arch, I brought Jezebel as requested, this other is Sandy her roommate.
Jezebel noted he did not name her a Witch, but it was obvious the other woman knew anyway.
"I would like to say that she came rather than fight, I do not believe her to be a threat to you or other Angels unless she or her family is attacked or threatened," Daniel continued, "What is your wish?"
The Arch snorts and dismisses Daniel from the room then turns to Jezebel, "Come forward and kneel."
Jezebel shakes her head and replies respectfully yet firmly, "No, I am hoping for peace but I am not yours to command. I will defend my life and freedom if I must. The purge is over I don't even know why you wanted me here."
The Arch grimaces, "You are part Angel, I had hoped you would submit to my command. Yes, you aren't a threat now, but you are young, full of foolish ideals.
"But in four hundred years, when your beautiful Witch partner is dead and buried. When you have felt loss and pain and inevitable betrayal, will you still feel the same? You will also be much more powerful, I cannot risk someone of your power going rogue."
Jez was stunned, she was under no illusion that the years wouldn't change her, but to become a monster? That will never happen. She would not let it.
The Archangel made a subtle signal, immediately the 4 bodyguards started moving toward Jez and Sandy. She noticed Sandy pulling a rock from her purse as she raised her fire shield and prepared to meet any attacks.
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What Jez wasn't seeing was the immediate and fast as thought battle happening between her and the other Witch. Sandy immediately started setting up a water bridge but it kept getting disrupted, they were fighting back and forth using gravity effects to cancel out each other's efforts.
To Sandy however all the opposing forces being built was a mere distraction to keep her opponent busy. She pulled out a stone from her purse, pointed it at the other Witch and activated its potential.
The other Witch never saw it coming. Despite there being no water bridge lightning cut across the room, a river of it, and took one of the Angels and the Witch out of the fight, permanently.
Sandy grinned as she remembered last night.
They were in the back of the club getting dressed and Sandy said to Jez, "Remember what your father said about working together, I think I understand what he meant."
Jez replied, "What did you have in mind."
Sandy took out a rock and said, "I could charge this every night, draining myself for 3 weeks, at the end of that I would have a rock that could cast lightning just once without a water channel, it would rip through the air easily."
Jez looked confused for a minute, but then smiled in understanding. As a succubus she took life force through lust, but she could also give it!
Jez connected to all the men outside and started to feed. When she was mostly full she threw another line to Sandy and fed her life energy.
Sandy took all the life energy Jez was directing her way and immediately redirected it to the rock as potential energy for lightning.
They did this all throughout the night with no one noticing, every hour or so as new customers came in Jez took a little energy from the fresh room and sent it to her. This added up very fast.
Sandy knew this advantage wouldn't really work during a fight, but to set up for a fight it would be a game changer. She could accumulate magical items much faster than a Witch normally could.
Sandy's thoughts returned to the present, the rock was useless now but if they got through this she knew they could build up a stock, as well as other useful effects. She did feel a little bad about the people she killed, but not enough to roll over and die, or even worse, watch Jezebel die.
Sandy started to watch Jezebel fight the other three Angels. She wanted to help by grabbing one or more of them with a bubble of gravity to hold them helplessly, but they were moving so fast she couldn't target them.
All Sandy could do was to surround herself with her own gravity bubble to prevent being burned or struck. Yes, she could blanket an area and take them out, but that would hurt Jezebel as well. She extended a line of force to outline a water bridge, hoping Jez would notice. Safe in her cocoon of gravity she watched helplessly as her love fought for her life.
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Jezebel knew she had to take them out quickly, luckily for her they were not all using 5 streams of fire each like her father had during training. Maybe they weren't capable of it. Two of them were using 3 streams. 11 were still too damn much for her to last very long. She concentrated on one at a time, attacking with 5 streams of fire and her fists.
She took the first out quickly, once distracted by a right cross to his face her streams of fire lit him like a torch. The second one took almost no effort at all, she cycled the extra power through her streams twice in a fraction of a second and then broke through, he burned. She didn't even have a chance to close to fighting range.
The last one was the one using 5 streams of fire and gave Jez a little more trouble, he was very experienced and she was in trouble. She saw Sandy's line of force and knew what it meant, when she got him into position she said
now
loudly, inside her head knowing that Sandy would hear it.
Then she kicked high right into his chest and the Angel flew back, right at the same time when Sandy released her lightning through the channel. The lightning wasn't strong enough to kill him but it was enough that he lost focus and Jezebel's 5 whips of fire dove in and burned him to a crisp.