Hell-Frozen Rain

[Ash Leone]

Prompt List

• Funeral
  
• Valentine's Day
  
• Drowning
  
• Smash
  
• Storm
  
• Phone Call
  
• Obsession
  
• Slap
  
• Winter
  
• Starvation

[Ash Leone]

Phone Call
This post takes place in the present.

Dealing with Danielle Vida was usually a series of trial and error situations that Ash was pretty good at navigating.  Common sense alone usually served him well in knowing what was going to be a useless venture and what might actually work, and the fact that he could read minds and may have had the beginnings of some kind of ability in premonition picked up any slack that common sense couldn't.  The funny thing about Dani was that even with those advantages, Ash still incorrectly judged situations with her on occasion.  She was that unpredictable, fickle and just generally...odd.  

Going away for a few days to handle a 'problem' in Europe shouldn't have been a problem in New York.  He had a very capable staff to handle his business, and members of that staff were just as capable of maintaining the sanctuary that he offered in his place of business.  It was only a few days, so the hard part should have been the task in Europe.

The hard part was still the task in Europe, but it was made more difficult by the problem that became New York.  The first call came through when he was on the plane, so he called Dani back as soon as he landed, concerned that she was calling so soon.

"Dani?  What did you need?" he asked, trying not to be concerned and succeeding in not letting it into his voice; hiding emotions was an art he was a master of.

"Hey, where are the new ribbons for the credit card machine?" she asked, and he paused a moment, blinking and surprised at the mundane question.  Okay.  No big deal.

"In the office, on the shelf above the computer.  Was that all you needed?"

"Yep!  Talk to you in a few days!"

"See you then."

He hung up, relieved that there was no major reason for the call and allowing himself to believe that it was over.  It wasn't.

The next call came through when he was meeting with the small group of Aruns that operated in that area, getting the details on the hunt they'd called him for assistance with.  He hadn't hunted with this family at any point in this generation, but their parents had given them the information they'd needed to find him for help.  He didn't question it because there were quite a few branches of witch bloodlines that had the same information and relationship with him in many areas outside of New York.  He'd forged a closer relationship with the New York witches because of his decision to live there, but that didn't stop the others from calling every few years.  Actually, the only part of this that was at all odd for him happened to be the phone calls.

"Dani?"

"Hey, where is the broom?"

"In the utility closet with the mop."

"Okay, thought I looked there.  Thanks."

"You're welcome."

He'd gotten a funny look from the Aruns, but he waved it off.  "I own a restaurant."  That was all they needed, and it was back to the briefing, which went off without a hitch.  It was shortly into the planning that his phone rang again.

"Hey, what time should I do last call?"

"The same time as every other night, Dani.  Aren't Darren, Anthony and Dave scheduled to tend bar in the evenings?"

"Yeah, but just in case one of them calls off."

"They will not call off."

"Alright, just checking.  Love you."

"Love you, too."

He frowned at the phone when he hung up and nobody commented, going back to the planning, only to be interrupted again forty minutes later.  "Yes, Dani."

"Hey, what's the combo for the safe?"

After stepping away to give her the combo, he again hung up and returned to work.  Ten minutes later, it rang again.  

"Hey, how do I get into Quickbooks?"

A brief explanation later, he hung up and put his phone on silent.  If she called again before their planning was finished, he didn't answer.  She did.  He called her later and gave her every bit of information on the restaurant that he could think of, just a little irritated and trying to keep from letting that on, and his mood improved talking to her of other things once he'd finished with explanations.  He didn't explain what he was doing, still, and he couldn't help wondering if she was annoyed by that, but he wasn't above being 'fair'.  He was annoyed by the constant phone calls.

He was asleep in his rented room when she next called, since it was some ridiculous time in the morning.  If he hadn't adjusted his ridiculously nocturnal sleeping schedule from the states, he'd have had a pretty normal schedule here (not perfect, but better), but he was being forced to adjust to a more nocturnal schedule here, as well.  When she called, she was waking him up, which probably explained his concern.  He momentarily forgot that it wasn't ass o'clock in the morning for her.

"Dani?  What's wrong?"

"Hey, do you have any idea why there is a hum coming from the lamp downstairs?"

"What?"

"The lamp downstairs, there's a loud humming sound coming from it, do you know why?"

"No, I don't."

"Okay, sorry, did I wake you up?"

"Yes, but it's fine.  Is everything else okay?"

"Oh, yeah, no problems.  How about for you?"

A few minutes later, he hung up and went back to sleep without further thought on the matter.  It was better that way.

The following day, there were no phone calls until well into the evening, when he could least deal with them.  His phone was on vibrate, or he never would have heard the ringing when they were all supposed to be blending in with the locals at a club where their targets were known to hunt.  He ducked into the bathroom to take the call.

"Yes?"

"Hey, where are my shoes? The black ones with the little glittery things on the tips?"

"I haven't the slightest clue.  Check under the bed.  Dani, do you really have to call me for every little thing that crosses your mind while you're at the bar?" he finally asked, the call while he's out trying to find a dangerous monster threatening to be the proverbial last straw.  The best part was that she probably had an answer that was at least entertaining, but he didn't get to hear it.  He was too busy paying attention to her and being irritated at the fact that she'd called him again for something silly or that she already knew how to do to pay attention to the fact that the guy he'd heard come into the bathroom behind him had only disappeared into the stall long enough to take his measure.  Since he'd deliberately tuned his aura to the frequency that looked, felt and tasted like human to other supes, his 'measure' didn't seem to be much, especially since he was distracted by a phone call from his girlfriend at the time.

His side of the conversation ended when he turned his back on the mirror for just an instant and was hit from the side by the guy that he'd paid so little attention to.  The phone clattered across the floor and his head was breaking the mirror behind him, his back crushed rather painfully against the bathroom counter, before he had a chance to deal with the threat.  He was not pleased, but the vampire that was trying to grab his wrists and throat was going to be unhappier by the time this was through.  The vamp succeeded in getting a grip on his wrists because he grabbed Ash by the throat and squeezed, prompting the triste to grip the wrist that was directly affecting his breathing.  He considered, briefly, blasting the fucker into next week, but he and the Aruns were hunting something here and he'd hate to blow his cover as a human so early in the game.  It didn't matter much, since the vampire's goal had only been to make him easier to manage so that he could take a bite out of his throat.

Ash was just pissed off enough to let him.

A short, harsh, "Don't!" was all he managed by way of warning to the idiot before the fangs broke his skin, and then he was dropped into a milder version of the bliss that a vampire bite could bring; either the vampire wasn't very good at it, or Ash had gotten better at resisting that pull with age.  Actually, a bit of both seemed to be most likely, since the moron didn't realize that the fact that his blood tasted delicious was really a great big magical joke on him.

The man took far more blood than was healthy for him (or Ash, really), and withdrew like he'd been burned all of a sudden, choking and clawing at his throat until he backed into the wall, then he slid to the floor, leaving a pissed off triste to right himself across the small bathroom.  Ash's shirt had been ripped by the vampire in its eagerness to drink harder and deeper, he had blood running down his throat and over his collarbone to soak into the fabric, and the two effects guaranteed that the shirt was ruined.  His phone fortunately was not in the same situation, though it had a few new dings and if Danielle was still on the other end, he hung up on her without even thinking so that he could text the Aruns and let them know that there was an incapacitated vampire in the men's room.  Maybe, if he was lucky, it would be the one they were looking for.

Sometime after the witches carried the vampire out under the pretense that he was a ridiculously drunk friend to the humans around them, Ash's phone rang again.  Dani had heard the fight and his pained sounds.  He would have expected her to ask him how badly he'd hurt the other guy, but Danielle Vida was unpredictable, and it was intentional on her part.

"Enough, Danielle.  No more phone calls unless it's an emergency," he told her, and he never called her Danielle unless he was pissed or extremely annoyed.  

"What?  Ash, what happened?  Are you alright?"

"Fine.  Do you hear me?"

"Of course, I hear you!  I heard whatever that was before, too.  I was worried, and you're telling me not to call you?  I'm never letting you leave again!" she told him, her voice bordering on hysterical.  Ash paused, confused and wondering where the fuck this Danielle had come from, and almost responded.  Actually, he started to, getting only a 'Wh-' out before he caught a sound in the background.  Laughter.  It was faint and sounded like the people were trying to muffle it, but it was definitely laughter and if he had to guess?  He'd say it was Darren and probably Sophia, which meant that they were in on Dani's obnoxious joke.  He had to wonder how many other calls they'd been laughing in the background of, which made him want to throw the fucking phone, but he was more dignified than that, and a triste to boot.  He could control his temper, however pissy it made him to have confirmation of his suspicions that she'd been fucking with him this entire time.

"I hear them laughing.  I'll talk to you when I get home."

He hung up, and was allowed to finish the job without Danielle's interference.  When he got off the plane in New York, glancing around for Danielle (his ride from the airport), he caught a glimpse of her on her cell.  

His phone rang.

[Ash Leone]

S M A S H

It was suicide to show up to a home that he knew had been ravaged so badly that the two Vida queens had just been murdered in, but Ash was expected, and he knew it.  This show wasn't meant for him, it was perhaps Lucifer checking names off of a list, or getting revenge for something they didn't know about, or even working to prevent events that even Ash and his far-reaching understanding of the world hadn't predicted, but it didn't matter.  Celeste was dead, his Dani was dead, and his presence had been requested. 

He'd be heard long before he reached the door, from the car pulling up and the door slamming shut to his soft steps up the driveway to the house, and he didn't try to stop that from drawing the monster's attention inside, nor did he attempt to find a quiet way into the house.  He came in the front door that Celeste had used not so long before him, and just like Celeste, Lucifer struck when he'd barely entered the house.  Unlike Celeste, Ash was better equipped for Lucifer, and had been since he'd heard the bastard was roaming free. 

He felt the searing heat wash over and around him, so strong that his hair moved as if in an invisible wind, but it was more like opening an oven door than the agonizing attack that Celeste had endured.  Ash's eyes dipped shut against the burn and he pulled a face as though he smelled something just slightly off, but he was otherwise unphased by the attack, and he looked calm in the face of the carnage before him.  Lucifer stood there in Tim's body, Celeste on the floor with her neck bent at the wrong angle and Danielle tied to a chair, tortured and broken.  His calm nearly broke at that, but he'd disconnected when the power vacuum had sucked at him, and he breathed deep, eyes scanning back to Lucifer himself.

"Now, either you've gotten a lot stronger, or you've had help.  Not the boy I remember, are you?" Lucifer smirked, looking him up and down. 

"So they kicked you out of Trevor's body.  Too sloppy to realize he had witch blood, or too lazy to care?" Ash shot back, and he tried to keep his eyes off of the murdered women.  "That why you came here?  Lost your golden vessel and wanted to take it out on the rest of the bloodline?  It's a pretty pathetic look on someone who's supposed to be as powerful and scary as you."

Lucifer's smirk on Tim's face actually widened at that, his eyes narrowing in contrast.  He was used to taking attitude because it seemed like everyone wanted to feel like a badass sassing off against him, but most of them paid for it dearly, and Leone had already played this game with him and lost.  The triste was usually smarter than that.

"Did you know she was his sister?"

"I figured it out pretty quickly, not sure what your excuse is."

"You protected her when I took her brother, just in case I needed another vessel.  She's completely warded against me," Lucifer said, which wasn't any new information for Ash, but Tim's eyes watched his impassive face carefully.  Lucifer could feel the rage so carefully contained, the despair, but Leone was steel and he didn't budge; Lucifer wanted to see it happen.  "So who was her daddy?  Come on, it's the question of the hour."

"You didn't ask Celeste before you killed her?"

Lucifer scoffed, waving dismissively in her direction.  "Barely gave her the chance to talk.  Nothing that woman ever said was true, and I wasn't about to suffer a liar in precious Danielle's final moments."

There was a muscle twitch in Ash's face, barely perceptible, but Lucifer smiled slowly.  The triste gave no other indication of caring, but he obviously cared very much, or he wouldn't have been there.  "Then I guess you're out of luck.  Only Celeste knew, everyone else is guessing."

"What's your guess, then?"

A pause.  "I think Tim was her father, yes.  The two hunted together often for years."

"So you had her warded to keep me out.  Too bad you couldn't protect her past that.  She put up a fight, you know, but once I stripped her magic, she was pretty spent.  Strange that I couldn't do that to you," he said conversationally, wandering over to Danielle and tilting her face up by the chin.  She was a bloody mess, the wound in her throat on better display for Leone with the gesture.  He let her head go and it dropped inelegantly back down.  He sighed, sounding almost disappointed that it was done with.

He regarded Ash again, starting towards him with slow, leisurely movements.  The last time he'd seen the man, he'd had longer hair, wore lighter clothing and didn't have nearly the hard resolve and tight control he currently possessed, and this new impression made him seem taller and more imposing somehow, not that Lucifer was threatened.  It was simply an unexpected change, and made him think that perhaps he should have called on the young triste much sooner.  "You always were smart, but this...what have you done, Ash?"

It was arrogance that put Lucifer so damn close to where Ash stood, standing there so damn still; Lucifer himself had put out so much energy in the fight with the Old Ones and then being thrust out of Trevor Browning's skin that he really shouldn't have been indulging his anger like this, but what fight did he expect here?  He'd honestly planned to strip Leone as soon as he walked in the door, just as he'd done to Celeste Vida and as he'd done to Danielle shortly after he'd revealed his nature.  That Leone still stood there, impervious to his attempt, had not been part of the plan, and while it was interesting and a little exciting, it also wasn't the cathartic smashing of things that annoyed him that he'd been hoping for.

Ash, who was only an inch taller than Tim, still leaned down slightly to put their faces closer, his stony expression giving way to just a taste of the fury beneath.  "I studied and made friends, you dumb fuck," he snarled, and he swung his fist up fast enough that Lucifer's surprised hesitation landed the blow squarely to the side of Tim's head.  The human form pitched sideways from the force of it, blood spraying as Lucifer stumbled to the floor beside Celeste's broken body, and Ash shed his black overcoat for easier movement.  It was the last contained, calm motion he made, because Lucifer was picking himself up with a bubble of surprised laughter, and Ash turned from draping the coat over a chair to explode into violent motion.

All of the rage and desperate grief was there in his movement, sharp and devastatingly brutal.  Lucifer took a few more hits before he pushed back, using Tim's bulkier frame to try and take an advantage, but Lucifer didn't have Ash's fury, and Ash had been smart enough to come prepared to block the worst of Lucifer's magic.  It wouldn't last forever, but it would last long enough.  Again, the heat seared at his skin and washed over him near harmlessly, and Lucifer screamed his frustration only for Ash to lash out with his own power in return, coupling it with another blow.  It had taken a few of them for Lucifer to realize that he had some of brass knuckles on, likely blessed with something stronger than a mere priest could offer.  They were dangerous, and Ash was using them well for a man that Lucifer hadn't known to be incredibly physical.  He'd grown and changed a lot over the centuries, he was realizing.

They were both bleeding, a cut from Lucifer's elbow painting one side of Ash's face red and leaking into his eye, though the triste had blinked it back and just didn't seem to care.  That was what Lucifer hadn't banked on, because Leone cared so damn much about people and was always so careful to be mindful of who could be affected by somethine he did, or who he might be leaving unprotected if he were to risk himself unnecessarily.  This was an Ash that had left those concerns behind, who was living entirely in this one violent, destructive moment, and if Lucifer himself wasn't the one bearing the brunt of that brutality, he probably would have reveled in the release of that control and fear.  As it was, he still laughed in Ash's face as he hit him hard enough to send him stumbling backward a step, but Ash turned to look back at him, teeth smeared with the blood from his lip where Lucifer had just bloodied it, and he had to admit that it was quite the look for him. 

"You're going to end up killing your friend if you keep up with this, and for what?  I'll just leave and find someone else," Lucifer told him, a little breathlessly, so props to Ash.

The triste was on him immediately, throwing them both to the floor after crashing through half of the furniture in the room.  Lucifer was fairly certain they'd both have broken ribs, and he smashed a lamp into Ash's neck hard enough to shatter it and bloody the man up, and hopefully break his collarbone, even if he'd been aiming for his face.  If anything did break, he got no more than a grunt from Ash, who slammed him to the floor hard enough that it cracked beneath them, sending them both in a dive straight down into the basement below.  The cement was not forgiving and offered a few seconds of peace as they both caught up to the change in scenery and the new pains, which Lucifer was blaming entirely on Ash for putting so much damn force into throwing them both down.  He was on his feet before the triste, however, and that was the unfortunate truth of this fight and how it would go; Ash was much stronger than Lucifer had expected, and his will was even more impressive, but he was still not in Lucifer's league.  Nobody really was, and wasn't that the whole struggle?  Lucifer would win, because nobody was strong enough to stop him.

He stood, stumbling a step and laughing softly at that because how long had it been since he'd had a good old-fashioned beat down like this?  All of the posturing and big magic of his fight with the Old Ones was impressive and fun, but he'd known the whole time that Trevor Browning would offer a fantastic brawling form, and Tim was only slightly less enjoyable.  He figured he would have utterly destroyed Ash before they even got to the basement if he'd been wearing Trevor still, but this had been fun nonetheless.

Ash was picking himself up, no less furious but now also beaten and dazed from the fall, but he was recovering quickly.  Lucifer grabbed him by the hair, slamming his knee into the triste's face to slow him down a bit more and then yanking his face up to look at him as he leaned down close.  "This has been fun, and I'm impressed, you should know that because I don't say it lightly.  All good things come to an end, though."

"Go to hell," Ash snarled, and Lucifer grinned his own bloody grin. 

"Been there, kid.  See you when I get back, we'll pick this talk back up then."

He pulled Danielle's gun from where he'd stashed it at his back and where it had been causing him no small amount of discomfort for the entire fight, but he hadn't been willing to bother with it sooner.  He'd wanted to see what Ash could do, and damn, did it feel good.  Now, he was finished, and so was Ash.  He pressed the barrel of the gun with the firestone rounds to the triste's heart, taking in the look of the man's beaten form, kneeling in that basement, exhausted and bloodied; it was satisfying.  He apparently admired his victory a second too long, because Ash thrust his hand up with snake swiftness, plunging a blade into Lucifer's chest. 

He gasped, surprised, and pulled the trigger in a quick bid to cause similar harm to his opponent, but the gun had shifted when he'd been stabbed, and something was wrong.  The knife was ripped from his form when Ash fell, but Lucifer felt strangely disoriented, like the world had suddenly taken to spinning, and while he wasn't capable of getting nauseous, he felt like that must have been what this was most like.  Once again, he stumbled, but there was a violent flash and when Tim's body hit the floor, it was just the human bleeding beside the triste who'd stabbed him.  Ash groaned, turning his head to look at Tim and wishing that he could just fucking lay there and let it all just go, but he'd fucked it up.

"Sorry, Tim, my aim was off," he grunted.  He wasn't even sure if the hunter was conscious, but he forced himself up to his knees, swallowing down a scream at the fucking firestone gunshot wound that was just high enough on his chest not to be incapacitating, but low enough to be worse than just his shoulder.  He'd woven that damn firestone, and granted, this was better than the alternative, but he still didn't appreciate bleeding from his own weaponry.  He pressed on Tim's knife wound, looking him over and a little jealous that Lucifer's ability to heal himself had done wonders for Tim's durability during their fight, but it meant that the hunter was really only in danger from that last hit.  Considering Ash had been fully intending to kill both Tim and Lucifer with the enchanted blade, he almost just left Tim there, but the blade wasn't anymore dangerous to humans than a normal blade, and Lucifer had gotten away.  That made Tim's death tragic, and Ash would care later, he knew that.

Not that he really had the energy to spare right then, but if he didn't heal himself, he could muddle through, and so he forced power down into the knife wound, focusing on the worst of it to ensure that Tim was out of danger - when he woke up, he could call himself guild help or drive somewhere, and he'd need stitches, but it was superficial by the time Ash finished.  Only then did he crawl to his feet, making his way unsteadily up the basement stairs to the kitchen, where he dropped down beside Danielle after she'd been dropped in the destruction of his fight with Lucifer. 

It was only as he gently scooped her up into his arms that he broke down, clutching her to his chest and holding her there until the pain in his own body simply couldn't be ignored and he heard stirring downstairs.  Tim finally appeared, looking less like shit than Ash did, but scanning the room and choking back a sound.  "I gotta call the guilds or someone.  You look like you were hit by a truck."

Ash didn't comment at first, but when he finally looked up at Tim, he just looked raw.  "My phone is in my coat.  Call the guilds for Celeste, I'm taking Dani elsewhere."

Tim's eyes flicked down to her body, but to his credit, he didn't say anything about why Ash would be taking her anywhere except for a morgue.  "You're gonna need a hand getting her out of here, come on."