Hell Hath No Fury

Hell Hath No Fury Chapter Eighteen
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… damn it, I wish that macro worked, lol… Readers/Reviewers: Here it is. The final three chapters all in one day. FINALLY! Thank you for sticking with this so long. *eyes ADASN warily* *deep sigh* lol…

Kurt heard the voices like so many bees, beating his senses and making his skin crawl. They were not talking to him, though. They were talking around him, about him, through him, but not addressing him at all. He swallowed and his throat felt as if it were on fire and bleeding. Kitty was gone. Liz was gone. It was his fault. They were planning, he knew, to rescue the girls but it was too late. He did not know much about demons other than he apparently was one and this meant he was bad, that he should be in Kitty and Liz’s place. He stood, his tail lashing slowly, and started to walk towards the metal door leading from the library and into the small sitting room that had not been used since the old man in the picture above the door had died.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” Hellboy crossed to him in two giant steps, grabbing Kurt’s elbow and jerking the teenager around to face him. “We need your help!”
“Bitte,” he murmured, “it’s my fault…”
“Bullshit,” Hellboy barked. “I’m sick to death of this self pity crap. I don’t know where it came from but if I hear it again, I’m goin’ upside you head, got me?” Kurt’s wide, yellow eyes blinked up at him, aghast. “You think I’m bad because I’m a demon?” he snarled. “You think every demon is bad?”
“Um, hello?” Abe waved a webbed hand, trying to get Hellboy’s attention back to the planning table. “Focus, please!”
Hellboy did not let go of Kurt’s arm but rather moved him physically to the table. “What’ve we got?”
“The portal was opened using the stones, I’m afraid,” Abe sighed, waving vaguely towards the faintly glowing orbs at the far end of the table. “When this is over, I suggest locking them up. Now, we will need to open the portal again and then comes the hard part…”
“Finding Azazel,” Hellboy sighed. “Damn…”
“Exactly,” Abe replied, sliding his gaze to Kurt quickly, then away. “Hell is a large place, needless to say. It’s infinite, almost, and finding Azazel in Hell is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”
“He’s cocky,” Hellboy murmured, staring down at the open book before him, the one Abe had selected for it’s thorough discussion of Azazel and his history. “He’ll come…”
Kurt found his voice. “He wants me. Give me to him. He’ll come if you stop protecting me.”
Abe stiffened and looked quickly, distinctly, guilty. Then he relaxed and sighed. “Kurt, don’t be ridiculous. We won’t hand you over to Azazel. We do not deal in human sacrifice!”
“I’m a demon,” he mourned, looking down at the image of his father in the book. “I belong with him.”
Hellboy inhaled deeply, closing his eyes. “I’m hopin’ you were like this before you went to that institute because if they made you like this, I’m gonna kick their asses myself. Look, kid, we’ll have the Demons Can Be Good talk later, kay? Right now, suck it up and worry about your friend!” He was worried, to put it mildly, about Liz, more than he would willingly let on in front of Kurt, and it was coming out as anger. “Abe, we’re not using him as bait.”
“Actually,” the amphibious man said slowly, his voice altered by the special helmet he wore outside of his tank, “that’s the best idea we have.”
Kurt brightened noticeably. “Ja! Just tell me what I need to do and…”
“Whoa! Using little Blue here as bait doesn’t mean Azazel will give the girls back!” He finally released Kurt’s arm only to poke Abe in the chest, adding, “It’s been two hours. You know how time passes in Hell. I’m not waiting. Call the Institute if you want, but I’m going to call out Azazel!”
Kurt shrank back as Hellboy stalked from the room, the door slamming shut in his wake, sending several small glass items tumbling from shelves. “Abe,” he said softly, “bitte…”
“Listen to me very carefully, Kurt,” he cut him off. “Hellboy is right. It is foolish to use you for bait. We do not know why Azazel wants you back after so many years… we can only assume he has recently learned of your existence which is almost unheard of… Demons always keep track of their offspring,” he stopped himself just short of saying spawn. Pressing on, he added sotto voce, “This is very dangerous Kurt.”
“Kitty showed me kindness,” Kurt replied slowly, his eyes narrowing with determination. “She was not afraid of me. Because of me, she’s in Hell… I need to be the one to save her.”
Abe frowned. “Kurt, you don’t understand the implications…” The building shook around them, ending whatever else he might have said. The lights flickered and dimmed, then went out entirely, red emergency lights coming up and bathing the room in a bloody glow. “Oh, hell…” Kurt had vanished in the time it took Abe’s eyes to adjust to the glow.

Hellboy smiled, baring his teeth. “Took ya long enough.”
Azazel tilted his head to one side, smiling slightly. “You know what I want.”
“Yeah, well, we can’t always get what we want, as some great philosopher once said,” he shrugged.
Azazel snorted, raising a brow. “She hid my son from me… he is my heir. So many years he has missed below.” He paused and stepped forward. The room had shifted to become pure darkness.
Hellboy had to fight the vertigo that threatened, had to remind himself that he was standing on solid ground and this was all an illusion by Azazel. “If I didn’t know better,” he said as if he were speaking to a friend, “I’d say you were concerned.” He itched to lunge at him but he held himself back. To do it now would mean the end for the girls, he thought. Too soon…
“You have no idea, do you? You’re more human than demon.” Azazel spat the word ‘human,’ starting to pace, blue sparks shooting from his feet with each step. “Even when you were a demon, you were low. One of those spawned after The Fall.” He turned suddenly and faced Hellboy head on, spreading black, iridescent wings, blacker than the illusion of the night around them, blacker than the Pit itself. “I want my son.”
“Give us Kitty and Liz.”
“Sure,” he smiled slowly.
Hellboy blinked at the suddenly bright room. He had chosen the old lab, the place he remembered best from childhood, for his summoning. It had not been difficult… he could feel Azazel around him even now, in the brightness. All he had had to do was shout for him, demand he show himself. The lab did not seem like the same place he had entered just fifteen minutes before, not since Azazel’s appearance. It was bright again, very clean, very ordered, but it smelled of sulfur and burning flesh and around him, Hellboy could feel the residue of the underworld clinging to the walls and floor, even his skin. “Fuck,” he muttered, turning on his heel to regroup with Abe, to report his failure. He stopped short, though, and nearly gagged. Two bodies lay neatly on the floor, arms folded over their chests, eyes closed, bodies still. “Oh God…”