Jezebel's Tale

Chapter 12 -- Oops, my bad.

Jez just got done giving the lecture for psychology 101 and was heading back to the apartment for lunch when she saw an Angel flag her down.

Jez smiled and walked over, she noticed he looked nervous so she said, "What is it?"

The Angel took a big breath and introduced himself to her. "Arch," he bowed, "I am Gene your second in command. I am not sure how to say this but your command as caused an incident with the Weres."

Jez confused says, "What happened?"

Gene said sounding nervous, "Well you see when the command came down to only kill in self defense there was a group of 8 Angels working with 2 Weres hunting down some vampires in LA. You know how vampires are, needed to be put down before the humans noticed all the dying."

Jez nods and wonders if he is intimidated by her, he seems so nervous like she will lose it and kill him or something.

Jez says, "Take a deep breath, relax, and tell me what the problem is."

Gene says, "Well, your command didn't take into account saving others, so when 5 vampires jumped one of the Weres, the Angels were constrained by your command and were forced to just watch him die. The Were that was with him was not happy, not happy at all I'm afraid."

Jez rolls her eyes and says, "Shit, didn't think about that."

Jez closes her eyes and quickly sends out a command that angels can only kill in self defense or to defend another.

Gene nods, "That should fix it, or at least keep it from happening again."

Jez mutters, "Stupid. I should have thought of that."

In a louder voice she says, "So, what's the standard for something like this, to smooth things over with the Weres, I assume oops, my bad will not work."

Jez shakes her head, "Hold off a minute, come with me for lunch and we will talk, a parking lot isn't the best place for this conversation."

Jez leads Gene to the apartment, she decides either he is a naturally nervous person meaning the old Arch probably picked him because he wasn't likely to challenge or attack him, or it's possible it's because his new boss is a Demon succubus as well, only time will tell.

Gene looks surprised as Jezebel makes them both lunch and serves it up. She hopes he is not ineffective, nervous she can deal with, ineffective she will replace.

Gene explains, "Weres are very straight forward, they also fight at the drop of a hat. An apology would cause offense actually, the best bet is to wait it out I think."

Jez peers at him and repeats in disbelief, "Wait it out?"

Jez pulls her phone and calls Andrew, "Hi dad, got a sec." She explains the issue to him succinctly and asks what he would do.

Andy says, "Well, if you wait it out as your second suggested they will probably attack and kill a few angels, probably 8, the same number that was there. Or you could claim responsibility, don't apologize to a Were ever, but tell them you made a mistake and you will submit to a challenge if they want it.

"It will be over that way in one fight, of course you'll have to kill one of their Weres if they don't just let it go."

Jez says, "So my choices are kill a Were or stand by and wait for 8 angels to get whacked?"

Andy answers, "Yes, that about sums it up."

Jez says, "Wait, does the fight have to be to the death, what if I just knock one unconscious?"

She hears her father sigh into the phone and answer, "Yes, that would work, but it will be extremely hard to do that, you would have to fight without fire and Weres are very strong, there is a really good chance you could die."

Jezebel snickers, "Dad, did you forget I'm a succubus?" She continues more seriously, "I can put him down in other ways you know."

She hears her father cough in embarrassment and get out, "Good plan."

Jez says, "Thanks dad, talk to you later."

Jez hangs up and says, "Ok Gene, tell them I admit the fault is mine and will submit to a challenge to settle the matter. See if you can get them to come here."

While Jezebel finishes up her sentence an out of breath Sandy runs into the room and blurts out, "What's happening, I felt your distress."

Jezebel introduces Sandy to Gene, and then takes Sandy into the other room allowing Gene to make that phone call.

Jezebel explains to Sandy what's going on finishing with, "Sorry Dee, my distress was just about me screwing up the order and getting someone killed."

Sandy snorts and says scathingly, "Yes, you said not kill, so why the hell didn't they try to restrain or stop the vampires from killing the Were, at that point the vamps probably would have probably started attacking the Angels who would have been able to kill them."

Jez blushes and says, "Oh damn, I was so hung up on screwing up I didn't think about that, the bastards probably used it as an excuse."

"Gene, get in here now," she bellows. Maybe Gene was nervous because he was hiding a deeper reason she thought.

Gene stumbles into the room and Jez demands to know the truth of why the angels let the Were die.

Gene looks uncomfortable and answers, "Umm, most Angels believe the Weres are just dumb brutes, I would say they let him die because the thought it was funny, and they knew they could blame it on your order, or at least thought they could."

Gene shrugs, "Most Angels wouldn't have done it regardless, some even think Weres aren't so bad, these 8 though." Gene's speech kind of trails off and stops.

Jez closes her eyes and counts to ten as the obvious question comes to mind.

"Gene, if these Angels believe they are dumb brutes and are of a minority that would laugh at their deaths, who the fuck was dumb enough to assign them to a joint species raid?"

Jez's eyes are blood red and filled with fire, Gene looks like he is going to shit his pants.

Jez felt Sandy touch her back and immediately relaxed about 5 notches but she is still clearly annoyed, "Well, answer the question Gene."

To Sandy privately in her head, 'Thanks love. I was ready to kill this idiot.' Sandy squeezed her tush in response and managed to look innocent while doing it, Gene didn't even notice.

Gene said in a hopeless voice, "The area supervisor is of a like mind."

Jez said, "And who is this supervisor."

Gene trembling now, "Well, ummm, me." The me part came out like a squeak.

Jezebel was seriously considering killing him when all the sudden he was lifted off the floor and thrown into the wall on the other side of the room. She looked back and saw sweet Sandy with a snarl on her face.

Sandy was livid and growled out, "You stinking worm, you were going to let her risk her life to save your worthless slimy ass and your 8 cronies."

Jez watched in amazement as the fire Gene shot at Sandy in a panic pulled a U turn and burned into one of his legs. Then he was slammed up against the wall again.

It was Jez's turn apparently, she reached out and caressed Sandy's neck with a fingertip caused the Witch to calm down. Sandy still held Gene against the wall but it looked less likely she would take him apart piece by piece now.

Jez pulled out her phone and sent a text to Daniel to get to her house as soon as possible. Then she called Natalie and asked if we owned any horse farms anywhere, surprisingly enough we did.

Jez turned to Gene and laid into him with a command, "You are no longer the area supervisor for LA or my second; you will spend the next 50 years cleaning horse stalls. You will treat the animals and humans on that farm with respect and obey their orders unless it will bring harm. In 50 years come back for a chat.

Jez nodded at Sandy to let him go, as soon as Gene hit the ground he ran out of the house. She then gave Sandy a hug and a kiss filled with gratitude for the backup.

A few minutes later Daniel came in to the house with a questioning look, "Yes Arch?"

Jez said, "Ah Daniel, congratulations, I am giving you a lot more work."

Daniel looked confused.

Jez said, "Gene just retired as my second, seems he had an undeniable urge to clean up horse shit for the next 50 years."

Sandy giggled.

Daniels mouth dropped open, "Your making me your second?"

Jez looks at Sandy, "He is a bit slow, maybe I should find someone else."

Sandy giggles, her eyes twinkling, "No, he deserves a chance."

Jez says, "Well, if you're sure Sandy. Yes, Daniel you're my second now."

Jez then took the time to explain her afternoon since class, Daniel frowning more and more as she went on.

Jez concluded, "So I need you to check and make sure at least my supervisors are not arrogant racist tools that are assigning other arrogant racist tools to work with other races. Meaning the first part is generally ok if it doesn't affect their judgment and they don't act on it.

"I also need you to assign a replacement to LA. Those 8 shmucks need to be sent to the werewolves to admit culpability and agree to a fight one at a time. Make sure the LA replacement knows to find Angels that don't hate Weres when they we have to work together, the same for the other races etc.

"I'm just lucky that Gene didn't have time to call with my offer before Sandy clued me in to what was going on."

Jez smiled at him and added, "Oh, and don't be shy about telling me about any stupid shit going on, it's better if we catch it before creating an incident.

"If these changes don't work I'm going to have to lock them down, problem is I think free will is important, so I'd rather take the if you're that stupid you get to be in charge of shoveling shit instead of Angels route."

Jez asks, "Any questions?"

Daniel asks, "Why did you pick me as your second."

Jez says, "Really, you don't know? Let's see, you were hoping I would beat the old Arch and bring change, which means it's time to put your work ethic where your mouth is. Second I like you. Third you are friends with Demons, a Witch and you don't seem to mind at all that I am a freaky Angel/Demon hybrid.

"Why wouldn't I pick you?"

Daniel smiled and said, "Thanks, I'll take care of all that, did you want to know when and where the challenge will go down?"

Jez replies, "Yes, please let me know. Also call Natalie, I assume there is paper involved and a raise?"

Daniel grins, "Will do."

Jez watches Daniel leave the apartment and looks over at Sandy.

Jez says, "That was so hot watching you go off on Gene on my behalf."

Sandy blushes. "You think so?" she asks archly.

Jez looks her up and down like she is a hot meal and she hasn't eaten in a week. "Oh, I do, I definitely do," she purrs out.

Several hours' later two very satisfied ladies hop in the shower and clean up their afternoon fun. Jez heads into the kitchen and starts making homemade pizza for dinner.

When it's in the oven she grabs a couple of beers out of the fridge and hands one to Sandy quipping, "Wine just doesn't go with pizza hon."

Giggling Sandy takes a drink then looks up at Jez thoughtfully.

Sandy says, "Have you noticed how thoughtful Daniel is toward you, always respectful?"

Jez nods, "Yeah, one of the reasons I made him my second, he clearly doesn't hate me."

Sandy sighs.

"Jez, I never thought I would have to explain things to a Succubus," Sandy said, "I guess you can only ferret out attraction if it is anchored in the physical."

Jezebel still looked confused.

Sandy spells it out, "Jez, love, you have been listening to your own jokes to long. Angels are only sexless wonders of the flesh, they do have that whole soul screwing thing going on. Daniel has the equivalent of a soul hard on for you, I still can't believe you didn't pick that up."

Sandy read Jezebel as she went through her memories of the meetings with Daniel and cycled through denial, surprise, and then thoughtful intrigue.

Sandy snickered.

Jezebel whispered, "But, really? I thought they only did that to create children."

Sandy snorted, "Right, sure they do. Although I am sure it's never casual, it can't be as easy to just do it for pleasure as it is physically." Then giggling, "Giving the facts of life speech to a succubus, what a strange world."

Jezebel mock glares at Sandy but could only hold it a few seconds before cracking up herself.

Jez kicked the idea around in her head for a while and found that the idea of being with Daniel actually appealed to her, what wasn't to like, except maybe the creepy 300 year difference in age. Of course with a lifespan of 10,000 that probably wasn't a big deal, she was 24 not a teen.

Then looking up at Sandy she felt guilty for the thought, Sandy would have no way to share the experience, there was no way she could if it would hurt her.

Sandy reading her every step of the way, and secure in absolutely knowing the succubus was hers and wouldn't hurt her, even if she shared.

Giving Jez an adoring look and said, "Jez, we said in the beginning, we are committed to each other, but not exclusive. As long as we didn't sneak, and no one was hurt, it is all good. I am not worried, and I won't be jealous of Daniel. My only hope is he won't mind sharing you either."

Sandy grinned evilly, "Although I may peak, this soul sharing thing sounds interesting."

Sandy also in her private thoughts decided it was a good thing to ground her to another. She had talked to Cat and discovered witches do live longer because of the power, but 300 years is still only 3% of 10,000.

Eventually Jez would need those other connections to keep her sane when Sandy was no longer around, and she would make sure it happened.

They spent the next two weeks following their schedules and not much happened. Jez and Sandy continued to train at least 3 times a week to keep up their edge as well as taking care of college and work.

Jez thought Sandy was becoming very impressive, she had built up quite a few stones. Healing, flying, shields, locating, and her newest creation was a portal stone she made with the help of Cat. It would only work once per charging and it would only open up to their apartments, but it was still cool as an escape plan.

Sandy had also set up lightning traps all over the house that were keyed to her own energy somehow. Jez didn't really understand how it worked but knew it meant another witch could not make use of the power stored in the walls, at least not without a couple of hours to thread the 'lock'.

Natalie called Jez early on a Saturday morning, letting her know they were settled into the mansion, curious about it she and Sandy headed over there in the early afternoon.

They entered a gated community with a guard house. Giving her name the guard let her in. Driving down the street she could see mansions on her left and right, far away from the actual street to give privacy.

They pulled into the last house on the left and went up the winding driveway. There were a lot of trees and hedges keeping the large home hidden from view.

It was a three story house with two story wings set to the left and right. They parked in the circular drive and headed for the front door. Natalie opened the door before they got to it, presumably feeling their approaching energy.

Natalie gave them a quick tour of the main house with its many rooms, including an indoor pool area. She didn't take them through the wings, just told them they both held a secondary kitchen and guest rooms.

Jez followed Natalie into a comfortable lounge room and got them all a drink. She also had more paperwork for Jez to sign and gave Jez a black American express corporate card.

Natalie said, "Well that's everything, it's all in your name now, and your corporate expense card came in the mail yesterday."

"Thanks Nat," Jez said, "How are you finding NY?"

Natalie loosened up a bit and smiled, "Great actually, after being in LA for 80 years it's good to have a change."

While chatting about the things to do and see near the mansion Daniel slipped into the room and grabbed a drink.

He smiled and greeted everyone then turned to Jezebel, "Arch, I took care of what you asked, I had to replace two other supervisors but I think we should be stable now.

"Those 8 responsible for the fiasco will report to the Weres tomorrow at 1pm PST to take responsibility and offer to fight in a challenge to make it right. The Weres wouldn't budge, they insisted it happen with the same pack the Angels allowed to come to harm."

"Thanks Daniel," she said, then smiling, "and please, call me Jez when in private and the pomp and ceremony isn't called for."

Daniel replied, "Of course Jez, anything you want."

Now that Jezebel was using social queues instead of just depending on her Succubus aura it was quite obvious Daniel wanted her. His eyes practically burned with it. What threw her off was she just couldn't feel it with her demon senses.

Sandy said nonchalantly, "Natalie, why don't you show me the grounds, I can set up a few magical alarms and start to invest power in the house, at least a little to start."

As Natalie answered in the affirmative Jez watched as Sandy turned to her so only she could see Sandy's face. She then waggled her eyebrows outrageously, like an evil villain about to despoil a virgin.

Jezebel managed not to laugh, barely, and said inside her head, 'Clown, thank you.'

Sandy winked at me in response to my thought, and headed out with Natalie leaving Daniel and her alone in the room.

Jezebel turned to Daniel and moved up close but not touching, in innocence she said, "I think we are both attracted to each other, but I have never done anything with an Angel, I am not sure, how. Also, how exactly do you feel about sharing, I will always be with Sandy as well."

She felt nervous, wondering if she was being to blunt, going too fast. In this case the succubus was the virgin, she was inexperienced and unsure of herself for the first time since the day she turned 18.

Daniel took her into his arms and held her, he knew this wasn't necessary for what they would do, the physical contact was meaningless to him, but he knew it would ground the beautiful half angel in his arms, give her a sense of the normal, for her at least.

He said, "I could never keep you from another you love, I actually like Sandy a lot, she has a generous soul, much like yours. I just want my own spot in your life."

With a self deprecating smile he added, "Plus on the pragmatic side, I cannot take care of or sate the physical side of you, the succubus side needs her and others. I can only take care of your Angel side. If we ignored that simple truth it would end in heart ache and disaster."

Jez smiled, "So what do I do?"

Daniel said, "Close your eyes, find your power core, not your powers, what feeds your powers is what you want. Now trace back the connection to what feeds that."

Jez did as he asked, back tracing her powers to her power base, her life force. Then she noticed the loop that went into her succubus powers which fed her life force, she ignored that looking for her angelic connection and saw the glowing thread.

Her mind followed that and she gasped as she viewed her own soul. It was endless, and blindingly bright. Instinctively she completed the journey of in her mind and joined her soul.

She perceived a bright flash of light and found herself in a field of flowers. She looked down at herself and saw a body, her body, and was confused. She looked up and saw Daniel a few feet away. He was standing there completely naked, much as she was.

It was different then nudity in the real world, she could see him and knew exactly who he was, a very good being, one that had escaped the arrogance and pride of the Angels through hard ship and tests of his soul. She could see herself reflected in his eyes and knew he liked what he saw as well.

"What is this place?" Jez asked. "Why do I have a body here, and you as well."

Daniel smiled and said, "It is your soul in communion with your mind automatically giving you a point of reference for understanding. We are not really physically here, and I am not seeing what you see, it is your perception only."