Chapter 19: Plans

Castiel’s POV

Castiel yawned over his rum and coke. He was breaking his own rule of ‘no drinking on the job’, but he was flat out from zero sleep over 24 hours and needed the caffeine. Leaning heavily on one of the tables, he kept his tired eyes trained at the door.

The commotion at the Church was an impromptu meeting of Enforcers and Peacekeepers when a lycan brandishing a pair of Angel Blades had openly provoked a Principal Guard in broad daylight. The news that lycans had two Angel Blades, three if you included Marco’s, meant that they had a direct line to a source. How many more did they have? What hellion was supplying their arsenal? Was it time to shut them down now?

Castiel was losing his resolve and control of his angels. Fear reigned supreme, and collective hate for wolves and demons alike built in all their hearts. Castiel’s too if he was honest. The discussion went all night and he was late to open the bar this morning. He drank again.

Alastair crossed in front of the window and entered. He blinked white eyes at Castiel, and dropped into a corner table by the window. Castiel stood to get the demon a drink but paused at voices outside. The door opened and Angel entered surrounded by a gaggle of geese in the form of 6 noisy nekos. Angel settled them into two tables and headed straight for the bar with two carved handle knives in her hands. Castiel raced to meet her. “Holy Hell Angel am I glad to see you!”

Angel smiled brightly at him, but it wasn’t her normal smile that weakened his knees. This was a mask. Or maybe he was just overtired? She went on tiptoe to quickly kiss his jawline with a hasty “Hi! Be right back!” And disappeared to the neko tables with wine bottles in hands. She had just looped back to bring them wine glasses when Eva and Ellie entered with their entourage and seated themselves at the other two joined tables. Angel looped the bar again for more wine and glasses while Castiel stood dumfounded at her efficient speed. Angel returned to him with a tired huff, dumped payment items to the box, and gave him a hip bump with arms crossed, mirroring his posture of leaning on the bar edge. “Step one.” She mumbled.

“What are you up to?” Castiel asked, shoulder bumping her back.

“I have a plan, and I’ll need your help. I think we have 5 days to do it.”

“5 days? What happens in 5 days?”

“War.” She said it flatly, as if she was ordering the steak from a menu. He stared blankly with eyebrows raised. “Yeah. Full moon is in 6 days. Wolves will probably attack in their lycan forms. So we have 5 days to join the city factions and save the world.” She smiled that smile again at him. It was definitely fake. “C’mon sir, keep up!”

Where the Hell had this Angel come from? Overconfident. Not a hint of fear. Even her tail near wagged behind her today instead of clinging to her leg. Something had happened, he decided. “Did Alanna tell you this? I thought you’d enjoy a chat and walk with my favourite Researcher, but not if it meant you’d return with.. these ideas.” Lord above, he must sound whiney.

“She helped with the moon thing and a bit about what full form wolves look like. I just want to be prepared when I see one for the first time, and what better way than to have a whole city army standing beside me?” She smiled again and that was a true one. He reached over to sweep hair strands behind her ear and sighed defeated. He was most certainly in trouble wrapped around her little finger. “Ok, I’m in.” He said weakly.

“Is Alastair drinking today?” She said, suddenly changing topics. Shit! Castiel had forgotten and jumped forward to grab the mojito glass at her reminder. “No, no sir, I’ll do it.” She quickly threw it together and walked to Alastair. Castiel watched their tense exchange, especially her tail as it drooped. The demon was actually speaking for once though.

It didn’t last long and she perked again as she went to the nekos. He made out her exaggerated voice with ‘Missss Rosie, did you hear about the new vamp in town?’ to which all the nekos gasped a ‘NO?!’ dramatically, and he smirked, suddenly aware of her plan. Eva leaned back in her chair and said to Angel ‘Oh, OH! Are you talking about Jasper? Yummy, right?!’ This got all the cats interested and it was like a new gossip level was unlocked. Angel crept back to Castiel while the 4 tables together became a continual chatter of gasps and exclamations swapping tea time.

Angel jokingly swayed her hips in a swagger walk all proud of herself and Castiel slow clapped. “Clever girl. What’s next?”

“Miss Parker, I think.”

—-

Angel’s POV

Angel was a literal mess. Every single thing made her jump and she had a headache from constantly flying eyes to watch the door. It turned out that her pissed-off, freaked-out, determined persona was exhausting. She had given more forced smiles and laughs than she thought were possible for one person. She kept Castiel at a distance to try and stop him from seeing right through her, but really all she wanted was a cuddle and a good nap.

Predictably, her dreams last night were of shirtless lycans in their full hairy forms on the attack. Alanna had actually been overly descriptive on the short walk to the Yard, not the little bit she told Castiel. She saw Castiel in chains, Parker in strewn bits, and Dai in a pool of blood. No final memorable words or jokester jabs, just blank eyes like the girl in the railway tunnels. When she awoke, she had to find Dai who proved he was very much still alive with peppered kisses all over her face and neck.

A normally silent Alastair had made sure to remind her about HER silence, but also strangely stated he’d make sure Angel was never left alone in the bar. Fat lot of good it did her before, and she said as much to him. She actually was snarky with a demon! God, she really was a mess!

It was only late morning when Taala entered, found her eyes, and headed for the couch. She felt drained, but since Taala could tell when she was lying she could drop the exhausting persona for a while.