The Fine Line of Heaven and Hell

Update: Chapter beta'd by Gaia! (That's all I can do tonight; I have to do laundry.)

A/N: My insomnia has been kicking in big-time lately, so I’ll probably slow down a bit on chapters. It gets to the point sometimes that I’ve almost passed out while in the company of my family or friends. I really should start taking those pills, but I just can’t bring myself to do so. *chuckle* It’s like I have a phobia of taking sleeping pills. Well, next chapter, next chapter.

Oh, in the last chapter, I never said what color Leon’s hair was. Honestly, it was going to be blond, but I changed my mind. I think I was in the middle of deciding when I wrote the chapter, so I suppose I just forgot or skipped it over while thinking I’d go back to it later. It’s red, by the way. BRIGHT red. I decided this when thinking about the temper you all didn’t know he had. ^.^ Is red hair and blue eyes a strange combination?

To my newest reader, Luinil: Your enthusiasm is both terrifying and endearing. ^.^ I’m glad you like my story so far, and I hope you continue reading and reviewing. I assure you, whether you wind up liking the full story or not, I will not stop posting if I can help it. I want to finish this story because I plan to write many more, some of which I will post here as well. I can honestly say I’ve never had such an excited reader before. Then again, it’s rare that I showcase my works, anyway.

I don't mind talking to anyone who would like to speak with me. My AIM screen name is Flarika. If you don't have AIM, I also have an email you can catch me at: dark_pyris@yahoo.com.

Just wanted to thank you.

Chapter 7-Misfortunes
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Jerrick was rather frustrated at the moment. He’d been watching Shuey on camera the
entire day, and not doing his work at all. If he wasn’t careful, his boss might kill him for
his lack of work ethic. When she had awoken, he’d called on her and asked her to work a
double shift today with Leon. He’d been hoping they’d get along to some degree, but so
far when he asked questions, she glared or completely ignored him. Once he got
frustrated with her, he grabbed at her shoulder, allowing him to get a marvelous look at
the dagger the feisty woman always ran around with. She’d pointed it right between his
eyes. It was a fairly rare target for Shuey; she usually went for the wrist or throat.

Currently Leon was trying to discreetly stare at her and failing miserably. Jerrick could
almost see the vein in Shuey’s temple pulse in irritation. Finally, a slightly crackled,
“What?” was directed at the staring angel. Said angel jumped out of his skin as what had
become known as “Dare, the dagger” was buried into the counter. She really needed to
stop doing that, his boss had questioned him on it last time. That dagger had a name like
Dare for a reason. Every time she used it, she was daring you to push her further, like she
really wanted to bring forth rivers of blood. Maybe she got it from her father; he got
pretty violent sometimes, too.

Leon proceeded to raise both hands in a show of pacifism, even though that angel was far
from a pacifist. He’d never seen such a strange being before. Since meeting the angel,
Jerrick had seen many sides to him. Most times he acted clumsy and shy, but inside was
an entirely different scenario. He watched everything around him patiently, as if waiting
to strike. He’d seen Leon pretend not to notice someone sneak up behind him, then turn
around at the precise moment and slaughter his attacker in the most efficient way. He and
this angel went as far back as his teenage years. Honestly, no one knew how old the
creature really was. Not even Leon contained this knowledge, he supposed.

He still remembered the day he’d met Leon. He’d just turned fifteen, not having any
powers to lay claim to yet, and his wings protruded from his back in a glaringly obvious
way. He had been wandering the streets of Los Angeles when the angel had burst out of a
bar, his entire body spattered with blood. One of his wings had been torn off, marking
him as one of the downcast angels. He’d been exiled.

That was what initiated the Jerrick’s interest in Leon. Why had the man been banished
from the gates of 'Heaven'? To this day, he still didn’t know. He watched avidly as Leon
exacerbated the situation. Shuey was ready to stab him, he could see it in the way her
mouth was drawn into a deep frown. It was admirable to see her care enough for her job
not to kill her coworker. It was at that moment that he got to see her true potential.

Leon had apparently had enough of Shuey, subtly moving completely behind her and
making her very suspicious. Her knuckles were white from gripping Dare so hard. Just as
she whirled about and lashed the dagger out towards his arm, the angel gripped one pale
wrist and then the other, using his hip to pin her to the wall. His voice came out lowly
and heavy over the speaker next to Jerrick’s side. “Are you finished being so fucking
moody?” He was rather excited to see that she only fisted her free hand and glared.
“No?”

Just as the word left his mouth, Shuey had somehow managed to put some amount of
space between them and in an awe-inspiring display of flexibility, her knee aimed itself
directly at his gut. “Remove your hands,” she said simply, and he knew Leon would take
the challenge. He merely tightened his grip on her and put more air in between them,
forcing her to drop her knee. He leaned his weight on her hands, making that lovely brow
furrow. She didn’t know what to do.

At the moment Jerrick stood to diffuse the situation before Leon truly got upset and killed
the woman, said angel chuckled lowly. “So this is why he wanted me to teach you. That
attitude could get you killed, you know.” With avid amusement, the demon watched as
Shuey’s blue eye widened comically. Even though he knew he’d hear it from her
somehow, maybe she’d cut him somewhere, he enjoyed seeing such an expression on the
stoic beauty. When the cherry-haired angel lowered his hands, he waited patiently for her
to hit him.

Leon knew it was coming, she’d punch him for this. Instead, she just sheathed her
dagger, which Jerrick had taken to calling ridiculous names, and looked at him with an
unreadable expression. Not sure what to expect now, the angel stepped backwards and
leaned against the bar warily. “Teach me?” Had Jerrick not told her? Her eyes
momentarily flickered to a nearby camera, narrowing dangerously after a moment.
Without a word, she stalked out of the bar, leaving him to hope she would come back by
the end of his shift.

When Jerrick saw Shuey storm out of the bar, he knew exactly where she was headed. He
stood up in preparation of the oncoming chaos. He barely saw her come through the
corridor to his office, the cameras nearly missing the flurry of motion as she seemingly
ran. The doors flew open, banging loudly against the wall as she came into his office.
“Why him?” She demanded point blank, her hair falling in place just slow enough to give
him a decent glare from both her eyes. It was rather frightening to see both of her eyes in
glare mode. Outright terrifying once you thought about it. Like having two psychotic
people at one time very pissed off at you.

Shuey glowered at Cordon, standing behind his desk with his hands resting flat upon the
mahogany surface. “Because he’s the best one to teach you, and I’ll be teaching you, too.
This way, you'll know the differences in our fighting styles. He’s more acquainted with
angelic abilities and he’s the only damn one I can trust. Is that good enough for you?”

No, it wasn’t okay. The man grated on her nerves worse than the one before her, and she
couldn’t even kill him?! How was she supposed to learn anything from him if all he did
was annoy her? “I could always tell your father to take responsibility and train you
himself.”

So that was the hanger on this deal. She really had no choice in whether she was going to
stay or go. She had to train, had to get to know this demon, and had to wait until she
turned nineteen. That was two years! Regardless of how much the training and knowing
these two would help, she was tempted to face her father instead. Logic slowly catching
up and surpassing her annoyance, she finally realized that she was trapped. And she’d
wanted to use this situation to her advantage? She was just Cordon’s fucking puppet…
and she couldn’t do a damn thing about it. “Fine,” she spat, turning tail and stalking from
the room much like a drenched cat.

Jerrick sighed, sinking into his seat slowly and running a hand through dark hair. This
was going to be a very hard creature to attract. Why had he chosen this again? Ah, yes,
because of what a prize she was… even more so now that he knew her lineage. A rare
prize, indeed. He glanced at the screen to see Shuey return to the bar without even
looking Leon’s way.

Leon watched Shuey carefully, gauging whether or not she would attack him once more.
Deciding she wouldn’t, he turned back to the demon before him, asking him simple
questions and trying to figure out what he wanted. Apparently he’d forgotten the name of
his favorite drink, which he always drunk here. “Shuey, could you help this one out? He
says he’s a regular, so you may know how to help him better.”

Without batting a lash, she looked up at the purple-skinned demon and concocted
something without question before sliding it down the bar and returning to her previous
task of stocking the alcohol. It was rather surprising until he realized that she must not
speak to the customers directly. He guessed she somehow put faces and drinks together
instead of names. He wondered if the man before him was called “Whisky Mac” in her
mind. The though made him laugh aloud, in return earning him a raised eyebrow and one
of Shuey’s accidental outward shrugs. He’d learned yesterday while working with her
that she didn’t mask her feelings, she simply didn’t know how to express emotions… or
maybe she didn’t have any. What was true, he did not know; maybe both. The russethaired
woman beside him somehow unnerved him. It was as if all the anger she’d had
before had vanished into thin air. Was she bipolar or something?

“Can I ask you something?” Leon began slowly, taking a different approach than the one
he’d been using. Slowly, Shuey set a new bottle of gin above the vermouth and the
flavorings and looked up at him. Without even a change in her expression, her entire
body seemed to be asking him what he wanted to know. Maybe it was at that point that
she began to truly draw his attention. After a moment or so, she nodded. “What do you
know of me?”

She turned her head, watching the customers drink their drinks idly as she appeared to
think the question over. “You are an angel. Approximately six feet tall, muscular build,
red hair, and you have some relation with Cordon.” She mused a bit more before looking
back at him. “You will teach me how to fight like an angel, while he teaches me to fight
as a demon.” He stared at her briefly in astonishment; she’d answered him?

“Why’d you answer me, when you didn’t before?” he ventured after he returned from his
momentary lack of mental motion. “Wait, why would we both have to teach you? Aren’t
you an angel?” She glared at him then, swiftly turning to a guest and fixing up a drink
without asking him what he wanted. The man seemed satisfied with it; it seemed to be
what he’d come for as he trailed back to the table he’d been sitting at.

“No, I’m not. In regards to the previous questions: because you’re bothersome, and
because it is what I need.” She rattled it off in monotone, as if she were reading a history
book that she found very boring. Knowing it was because she had no feelings for this
matter made it seem incredibly strange. Did her situation not matter to her?

“So what are you, if you aren’t an angel?” Shuey looked at him for an unknown period of
time before meandering around the bar with a cloth. Today’s outfit was rather low cut,
showing a fair amount of cleavage and the pants looked as though they’d fall off. The
clothes today were far different from yesterday’s t-shirt and cargo pants. Idly, he
wondered if she went shopping for her clothes or stole them from completely random
people.

“You don’t need to know,” she said bluntly as she leaned ever so slightly to wipe a
section of bar further off. It would have been sexy if she hadn’t been glaring at him.
“You are here to do a job. If you cannot work, it would be easier if you left.” Without
another word, the subject that focused on her had been completely derailed and sent
sprawling onto the floor. He only hoped it would be easier to teach her than it was to hold
a conversation with her.

Leon scowled at her, his previous façade as a nice guy shattered upon pinning her to the
wall. Well, at least he was pretending to be nice. Shuey heard him mumble a few things
under his breath at her, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Her only benefit was that he
actually started to work once more, gathering a few glasses that had been left behind and
beginning to clean them up. Satisfied, she went back to restocking the shelves for the
meeting tonight.

Slowly, the bar began to fill with demons, and even a human or two. Shuey often found
herself wondering why there were so many meetings between the demons; maybe it was
just this particular group. Deamon often came in and irritated her with questions, and this
evening was no different from other ones. His blond friend was nowhere to be found
today, although that was more of a relief than a disappointment.

The dark-skinned demon meandered up to the bar, nodding to Leon without looking
directly at him. “Ah, Angel, where’s my drink?” The regulars often called her that
because they did not know her name. This man called her that as a joke, having seen both
of her eyes previously. She glanced at the angel nearby, gauging his reaction carefully
before taking a tall glass in hand and grabbing for the grenadine to coat the bottom of the
glass for his Dracula’s EFFEN Kiss. He had some really fruity tastes for such a masculine
demon, but it wasn’t her job to tell him that. She poured the vodka in, shortly followed by
the cola and tossing a couple of cherries on top for garnish. She’d never done spiders or
anything like that. Cherries were enough, right?

Leon was staring at her, not even attempting to mask the fact by doing something. Shuey
arched a brow, questioning the look immediately. “Have you ever bartended before?” he
asked blandly, probably wondering why she never had to look up drinks in the small
book under the counter. With an internal laugh, she smirked at him and shook her head.
“Then how…”

She’d read many books while she was growing up. Once she’d gone through everything
useful, she had begun reading the less important things, which happened to turn out to be
one of the most valuable skills she could read about. She had even read the book beneath
the counter before beginning to pour drinks, at first only mixing those she remembered,
or guessing at how they were made. The customers had never complained, though, so she
didn’t care. “You’re going to ignore me again?” he surmised after a brief moment of her
getting lost in faint memories.

Leon glared at the girl standing before him, a smirk on her face and her eyes growing
somewhat dim in thought. He’d been trying to be nice, hoping somewhere in the back of
his mind that she’d be easier to deal with that way. Once he’d seen her first reaction to
him though, he should’ve known that she wouldn’t be all hunky-dory. He had even
thought she would calm down a bit once she knew he was going to train her, but she
seemed just that much more aggressive towards him.

Knowing this, he no longer found any reason to be pleasant with her. If he showed no
kindness or rudeness at all, maybe things would go more smoothly. He still didn’t know
why Jerrick wanted them both to train her. She had said herself that she wasn’t an angel,
and Jerrick was better at teaching than him. She’d said that he was going to teach her to
fight like an angel while his friend taught her like a demon. “Why?” he mused aloud,
earning a few strange looks from guests.

For Shuey, the rest of the evening remained uneventful for the most part. Leon had asked
a few questions and murmured to himself for a while, but for the most part remained
silent. When the time for him to leave rolled around, Jerrick and a scantily clad female
appeared in the doorway, draped in a very revealing dress. The straps on her shoulders
were spaghetti thin and the slit along the leg stopped just before the line of her
underwear… if there were any. The v of the dress hung very low, nearly showing
everything clothes were meant to conceal. When they ambled over to the bar, Shuey
nodded at Leon, then to the pair.

The redhead looked the woman over, raised a brow and followed them out briefly.
Shortly after they left, the barely dressed woman returned and smiled at her. “How about
a Blue Angel before I get to work?” she said, her red painted lips curling up in what
might have been considered a seductive smile. After pouring in the ingredients and
shaking them up, she pulled out a cocktail glass and tipped in the contents. “I’m Rina.
You are?”

Shuey didn’t plan on answering the question, and Deamon stood nearby, waiting for
another round of Dracula’s EFFEN Kiss. Seeing her turn away from Rina, the black man
sidled up next to her. “That’s Angel, she’s quite a beauty, and a difficult quest. I wouldn’t
venture for her, if I were you.” The woman was not a demon, that much was obvious. It
seemed that Jerrick didn’t like demons working in his inn. Ignoring the insult, Shuey
fixed up the muscular man’s drink and slid it to him without question.

The woman smiled and thanked the demon, leaning onto the bar and watching as she
worked. “Where did you learn your tending?” Deamon shook his head at her, laughing
loudly as the woman persisted on learning about the stoic girl behind the bar. “Are you
mute?”

Finally, Shuey really couldn’t take it anymore. “I taught myself. If you don’t want
anything else, please do not address me.” Long brown hair draped over one shoulder as
equally brown eyes narrowed at the blatant rejection.

After a long span of silence as Rina drank her Blue Angel, she stood and walked through
the small gate of the bar. “I’m here to take your place and give you the rest of the night
off. Mr. Cordon wants you to rest now because he needs you for something tomorrow."
With a nod, Shuey trailed out of the bar, barely glancing to the side as Deamon winked at
her. Even though he was an arrogant, annoying ass, he really wasn’t so bad.

Working a double shift was hard, and she was rather tired.


A/N: I got a whole bunch of reviews yesterday. *chuckle* I got six. Five were from Luinil, and one was from Snidne. I like Snidne’s reviews, they always make me grin or laugh. I enjoy reviews from everybody, though, and any time someone has something to say, it makes me smile. ^.^ Thanks again everyone for reviewing.

Okay, I know the format of this one was strange, but I wanted Jerrick in this chapter, too. I don’t know why, but I did. *grin* I didn’t really like this chapter, but it’s the lull before the story, so it happens. Next chapter she’d going to start learning how to fight, which will make things a little more interesting, I’m sure. *smile* Thanks for reading this one, too.