~~Beatrice~~
Everyone left. Sándor was apparently a really, really strong Begotten, to the point he surprised Fiona when he opened a pathway back to the real world without issue. A wave of the gargoyle's hand, and the darkness in the forest flickered. Fiona, or Vrall or whatever, went through it with her man, and they disappeared, supposedly to arrive near Damien's apartment so he could take a moment to recoup. Two crows sat on Damien's shoulders, and several more plus a few rats scurried along with them. Mulder, Scully, and the few that survived Jack's assault. A second later, Sándor did it again for Clara, opening to somewhere in the Carthian district. And then again, for Aaron, who was dragging the now barely conscious Othello. Sándor opened a portal to the outskirts of town, guided by Aaron's suggestions. Mark had already left with Azamel, so, that left Beatrice, Jennifer, and the gargoyle.
"Why did you not leave with your friends?" the beast asked.
Triss shrugged, and dragged herself over to the altar she knew had been Sándor's imprisonment. This was where Elen had done her ritual, with knife and skin. Triss could almost feel the residue of a strange power emanating from it. Not so strange, really. It felt similar to Crúac.
"I thought Athalia might come through. I wanted to talk to her," she said.
"The door between our lairs has closed. I am, once again, closed off from the other Begotten."
"Closed off?" she said.
"Yes. Athalia, Fiona, Azamel, and Mark have linked their lairs. They may travel between their many realms freely. I... have not linked my lair with anyone in many years."
"Sounds lonely," Jennifer said. She came up behind Beatrice, and hugged her, arms looping around her stomach. She either wanted to keep close in case Triss started to fall, or she just wanted to be close in general. It was good, either way. Triss was too exhausted to be surly and dismissive. And it felt good to let Jennifer in close again. She leaned back into Jennifer's body, and sighed.
Triss turned her head enough to give her friend a small kiss on the cheek. "How long were you under Elen's control?"
"Four years."
"Jesus Christ." She shivered, and set her hands on the altar. It was sloped upward, but at the lowest point where it pointed toward the center of the clearing, it was low enough that her arms came down in order for her palms to reach it, with a bit of a slouch, too. "He murdered your family, to capture you?"
"... yes." Slowly, with delicate hands completely at odds with the Horror she'd seen earlier, the gargoyle lowered some of the many bodies into the hole he dug. They didn't deserve a burial, especially if they helped Jeremiah capture Sándor, and yet the monster was burying them. From how careful he was being, she suspected he'd give them a proper burial, if it'd been viable.
"Horrible," Jennifer said. "Absolutely horrible."
Triss winced. Yeah, it was horrible. But how long ago did Triss and Jen brutally butcher a bunch of kine, sacrificing them into a big rusty bowl, so Triss could communicate with some otherworldly entity of blood and pain? Those people had been brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, maybe even mothers and fathers too. Tough to think of the hunters as being so low, when--no. No, don't think that shit. The people you killed were just scumbags and worthless cockroaches. What you did is not the same as killing the family members of the people you were hunting. Jeremiah and Angela were the lowest of the low. Don't compare your journey into the world of blood sacrifice, to their pathetic, cowardly, shitty tactics.
"Well," Triss said, "fuck him. He taught Angela to fight dirty like that, and it got them killed."
"Yes... yes, it did." The gargoyle put on the smallest smile, before he came over to them, and squatted like he was perching on a jutting stone of a church wall. God damn he was huge, muscular as all fuck, and she stared at the beast for a few seconds as he pulled his huge wings in snug to his back.
His face was expressive in a way she hadn't been prepared for. It was a demon face, yes, but a human demon face, with dark steel-colored skin, deep set eyes, pronounced eyebrow ridges, and of course, giant horns. Like, big, curly, scary, giant horns. And with his very hard, broad chin, he would have looked perfectly at home sitting on a throne, looking stoic, and giving orders to his army of demons. When he talked, she could see hints of his teeth behind his lips, all of them sharp, with some very nasty, pronouncd fangs. Those teeth had chomped Jeremiah into bite sized chunks.
Speaking of teeth, and biting.
"Your neck ok?" she said, gesturing to it.
That, of all things, brought a real, if momentary smile to the squatting monster's face. "Yes, mostly." He raised one of his hands to his neck, and rubbed at the wound. The skin was mostly closed, but she'd managed to fuck his neck up pretty good. Damn proud of that.
"I guess Athalia didn't come back," Jen said.
Triss nodded. "I'm not surprised. It... it..." Fuck it. She turned around, and hugged Jennifer, full on hug. She set her face in her friend's neck, and just held on. No crying, no sobbing. She'd cried enough for a decade, at least. But, she wanted a hug. "Killing Angela wasn't fun."
Jennifer chuckled, a tiny laugh, only audible cause Triss was close enough to feel it. "You thought it would be?"
"Yes. I thought I'd kill her, laughing and dancing the whole time, you know? It'd be great. I'd feel great." Sighing, she ran her hands up and down Jen's back a little, continuing the hug. "Instead, all I did was... execute a defeated, broken, stupid girl. And I did it in front of her crying mom." After making sure the hug was good and long, she backed off and set her hands on Jen's shoulders. "Felt more like... like a scene from Old Yeller, or something, you know? I was putting down a rabid dog. I wanted to be screaming with joy! Not... not..."
"Jeremiah's last words," Sándor said, his quiet voice rumbling with so much bass, he sounded more like a subwoofer, "were to tell Angela to run. His last words... were an attempt to save her, while he died." The gargoyle, still squatting with his two lower arms resting on his knees, raised his two higher arms out in front of him, and slowly grabbed the air, as if grabbing Jeremiah again. "I did not kill a monster. I killed a person. It had to be done, but that does not alleviate the weight such death places on our... souls."
Ugh, she hated that that sounded right. Killing people brought with it something she couldn't quite put her finger on, until Sándor just said it: weight. She'd been killing a lot of people lately, and that weight was starting to pull her down, like shackles tied around her throat. Killing Angela was more weight on her soul, and good god, that fucking sucked. Killing the bitch should have freed her, not added to a growing mountain of bones tied to her.
"You sound... wise, I guess," she said, smiling up at the gargoyle. Jen slipped behind her, and started hugging her again, this time putting a kiss on her ear as she did. Triss didn't pull her head away this time. It felt nice, to have Jen's hands on her, and after tonight, after the misery of Athalia's sobs faded, maybe she'd let her do more. Not tonight, but later.
"I've been around for many centuries," the beast said. "I guess... wisdom snuck up on me."
