Hell Hath No Fury

Hell Hath No Fury Chapter Sixteen
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… *glomp * Readers/Reviewers: Sorry, I was fighting off the creeping crud again and my writing was slower than I intended. Mea maxima culpa…

Kitty could not get comfortable. The room, in and of itself, was fine but she just could not relax knowing that this Azazel was actively on the prowl. Liz noticed her shifting in the dark and sighed. “Sorry,” Kitty murmured. “Guess it’s just being in a strange bed and all,” she added, willing herself to be still.
Liz sat up and turned on the bedside light, her hair tousled and eyes narrowed as she came more fully awake. “Kitty, it’s been three days. You haven’t slept more than an hour or two at a time… it’s startin’ to show in your work, girl.”
“Hey,” Kitty protested, embarrassed. She sat up, folding the comforter down to her waist. “It’s just a new field of study for me is all. I’ve never looked into supernatural stuff before…”
Liz snorted. “Mutants are supernatural. You’ve done research on that, haven’t you?” She swung her legs out of bed and paused before putting her feet on the cold floor, yelping and making a leap onto the carpet where her slippers lay.
“Yeah, but not…” Kitty frowned. “Mutants aren’t the same as demons and mermen and…” she trailed off and sighed. “Never mind.” She tucked her feet under her knees to make room for Liz. She waited until her new friend sat on the foot of the bed before continuing. “I guess this whole thing is just so surreal…”
The older girl nodded, smiling sleepily. “You kinda get used to it. I mean, I did. Though I guess it was easy for me. I never knew about mutants and stuff. I guess I’d be feelin’ the same way if our places were reversed.” She paused for a long moment, so long Kitty began to wonder if she had dozed off, before she spoke again, softly. “Do you smell sulfur?”
“Wha?” Kitty wrinkled her nose and inhaled deeply. “Not really...” She did not want to say that she always smelled a hint of brimstone around Liz, a remnant of time spent with Hellboy, she was sure. “Not more than usual,” she added, blushing slightly.
Liz stood suddenly, moving with a smooth speed Kitty had not known possible in slippers, headed for the dark wooden door leading to the hallway. Her hand slapped a button Kitty had not noticed before and immediately claxons of warning sounded, braying and painful to the mutant’s unaccustomed ears. “Get dressed fast,” Liz ordered, kicking her shoes off and reaching for the closet door, only to shriek a moment later in surprise.
“What… oh my God!” Kitty recoiled without meaning to, scooting to the end of the bed and pressing against the wall. A towering figure stepped forward from the recesses of Liz’s closet, so dark she could not tell if he was a shade of black or some deep blue. Yellow-gold eyes blazed into hers, piercing her. She felt flayed, exposed. Her lungs burned as if she were drowning and her body felt oddly heavy.
Liz opened her mouth and screamed then, a long, blood curdling sound that lasted mere seconds before the demon’s hand came up as casually as one might swat a mosquito and sent her sprawling, hitting her head against the bed frame and eliciting a gasp as a gash opened in her tender scalp.
Kitty inhaled with a painful rush of air, the hold the demon had over her breaking when he turned his attention on Liz. She scrambled to her feet and dove for her friend, grabbing her wrist and phasing through the floor at the same time. She heard a roar as they passed through the solid surface and she did not know if it was her own blood in her ears or the demon, angry at their escape. Lights shorted as they fell onto the floor, her phasing breaking several electrical circuits. The room was dark for a brief second before the generators kicked on, flooding the place in a warm golden glow. They were in some sublevel Kitty had not yet seen, a large room full of odd looking globes and faintly menacing chirping noises. Liz groaned and stirred as Kitty stood, panting slightly. “What the Hell was that, Liz?” she demanded.
“Azazel,” a low voice replied. “At your service…”

“Where are they?” Hellboy barked, swinging through the door into Abe’s chamber like a man on a mission. Which, he supposed, he was. Kurt was on his heels, following so closely Hellboy could feel the occasional brush of fur against his arm. “They’re not in Liz’s room. Someone shut of that damned alarm!” he shouted.
Abe pushed himself along the clear exterior barrier of his enclosure and waited until the crying sirens fell silent. “I don’t know,” he replied to the first question. “It seems we have an intruder.”
“Thanks for the insight, Blue,” Hellboy snarled. “Where are the girls?”
Kurt swallowed hard, closing his eyes. He knew this would happen. He knew bad things happen wherever he went. “He took them,” he whispered. “He took them because I didn’t wait for him…”