Reluctantly Rogue Pt. 01 Ch. 018

(Note: This is a long, ongoing story. It is a story with sex. It's a sexy story. It is in many ways a story about sex. But, it is not strictly a sex story. Many chapters may even be SFW.

This chapter is mostly SFW!)

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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Angelic Confrontations

Among the several important items Atyr had forgotten in his rush to be free of his build site by the pool, had been the oilskin weather cloak. He missed it now, as with the growing gloom, a gentle rain began to fall over the town of Woodstead. Atyr made his way through the drizzle to the Birdhouse, flowers in hand. The door was shut. He wasn't sure if he should knock, or just walk in, so he knocked. After a few moments, a tired-looking Bird answered the door. She looked from Atyr to the soggy flowers in his hand, and broke into a wide grin.

"Well. Well, well. You've brought me flowers this rainy eve?" She laughed as he worked his lips into several tentative shapes, trying to figure out a polite response. A mischievous sparkle lit Bird's elderly eyes. "I'm sorry to say you've missed her by only the slightest bit. She's left for home now. But, if you're serious enough to meet her parents, you could always bring the flowers there?"

At the panic in his features, she patted his hand. "Or perhaps it's best if you leave them here. I can tell her where they came from when she arrives in the morning. Although." She winked at him. "I don't suspect she'll need the explanation, will she?"

Several stumbling interactions later, Atyr was back in the rainy gloom outside the Birdhouse, flowers delivered, cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Bird certainly knew how to catch him off guard. Had that sweet, elderly healer really just said, 'For all her reserved exterior, I think you'll find Kella is really quite warm inside,' and delivered it with a overly large wink, in case he missed the innuendo? Bird must have been a real wild one in her youth.

"Mr. Bracken, punctual once again. I am so glad you have returned; I do hope this promptness hints favorably towards your decision regarding my predicament."

Atyr spun, and found Helliot behind him, standing just to the side of the the front door of the Birdhouse. The man appeared perfectly dry.

"Oh, my apologies, Mr. Bracken. I had no intentions of catching you unaware. Are you prepared to recommence our conversation from the night previous?"

"Helliot. Mr. Helliot, hi. Yes, let's do that. Should we... are we headed off in the trees again?"

A gracious nod of the head. "If you don't mind, Mr. Bracken. These matters are rather personal to me."

Once in the trees, Helliot launched immediately into a succinct summary of the prior night's conversation. "If I may refresh us both on the relevant portions of our previous discussion." He clasped his red velvet hands. "I cannot, without disregarding my agreement with Abarabirdadellet, stray far from this place. I must be able to leave in order to deal with my daughter's age-long imprisonment.

"If Bird should die, that would free me to return home and to attempt a new course of action. However, I am become dearly fond of the lady, and the long, morbid wait for her passing takes its toll on me.

"If Bird should complete our agreement, that would also release me. However, she is unable to do so, due to the unfortunate circumstance that she can neither see nor hear me.

"Lastly, Abarabirdadellet could pass her stake in the agreement on to another. Ideally, this other might be a healer of good heart, who might undertake the quest I offered Abarabirdadellet over three score years ago. This last option would not only release me, but would set me directly back on the course for which I had initially prepared."

Helliot paused here, glancing at Atyr for confirmation that he understood. "That is where we stand, Mr. Bracken. All that is left to do, is for you to decide; whether you will agree to help me move forward with the matter of this long-uncompleted agreement with Abarabirdadellet; and if so, for you to name what you would require in return."

He looked meaningfully at Atyr. "Again, this may seem a slight task for you, but I assure you, it is of great import to me, and I would not likely balk at your price."

Despite the distractions of the day, Atyr actually had put some thought into this. Meeting Helliot's eye, he began, trying hard to sound more confident in his demand than he felt. "I would like to help you, but I do have a task at hand already. I'm building a cabin in the Brookwood. I often want for supplies, and have to take a week or more off to travel, work for coin, purchase goods, and return. If you give me," He shook water out of his shaggy hair and swallowed, gathering his courage before naming what he felt certain was an exorbitant price. "Two dozen banners..."

That sum was the better part of a year's wages for a labourer. Atyr could live easily until his cabin was built and he was well established in his new location. But there was more.

"And," he continued. "I'll want two good hunting hounds, well trained." He stopped, and forced himself to hold Helliot's eye.

The darkly dressed man smiled, but his brows were drawn down. He looked closely at Atyr, and shook his head slightly.

"Two dozen banners, and a pair of well-trained hounds. Mr. Bracken, I am not prepared to accept this price."

Atyr felt a twist in his stomach. He knew he was demanding too much, but the tall fae man had handed him three banners the previous morning with the same casualness a father might hand their child a kip to spend on a Fair Day. He nodded, and hesitated, wondering if he should come back with a request for a lower amount, or wait for a counter offer.

"I fully comprehend, Mr. Bracken, that we are from different worlds you and I, and that what seems reasonable to you might not to me, as well as the converse. However, I did expect a better proposal from you. I confess that, for the first time in our dealings, I am experiencing a slight sense of disappointment in you."

Atyr's stomach plunged. This was one step off an outright accusation of greed, and greed was a vice Atyr prided himself on avoiding. He bit down on his lip, hard. He opened his mouth to defend the offer, but Helliot rode over him.

"Here is my counteroffer. I will give you a single hound. This hound will be one of my own, from a line that has long been paired with my family. I can guarantee you, Mr. Bracken, this hound will be like none you have ever encountered. The only caveat is that the animal will only be provided once I am free to return home. This is unavoidable, you understand, as the beast is currently at my home, and so I must return to retrieve it."

"That seems fair." Honestly Atyr didn't really need two dogs. He'd just been trying to get as much as he thought he could get away with. It may have been a bit greedy, under sober consideration.

Helliot continued. "The coin, of course is acceptable to me. you shall have it immediately at the satisfactory completion of your obligations under this potential agreement. Although it is a paltry sum for such a boon as you offer."

Atyr blinked, wiping rain from his eyes. Two dozen banners? A paltry sum? Was it possible that Helliot was surprised at his restraint, rather than his greed?

"Lastly, Mr. Bracken, I feel that I would be still too much in your debt. My daughter's freedom, not to mention my own, is worth much more to me than a bit of metal and a dog. However excellent the beast's breeding may be." At the mention of the hound, he smiled at Atyr with a look in his eye that said, 'you're in for a treat'.

"I would like to add to your offer the following: once you have completed your obligations under this agreement, I will be in your debt for a single favor. If, in the future, you should desire my assistance, you need but ask, and I will consider your half of whatever agreement we then forge to be fulfilled in advance. I realize that I am placing myself to some degree at the mercy of your whims here, Mr. Bracken. Know that I do not do so lightly."

Atyr nodded slowly. "Alright, two dozen banners, one of your hounds, once you get back home, and... a favor?"

"Indeed. And from you, I receive your aid in securing a resolution to my outstanding agreement with Abarabirdadellet."

"Right. Fair."

"Do you agree, in this, Mr. Bracken?"

Atyr breathed deeply, feeling that this was somehow more momentous than it seemed it really should be. Likely, it was all the secrecy, the formality, the odd, business-like-yet-fae quality of the thing. A flicker of lightning lit the distant hills, casting a dim light over Atyr's soaked form, and Helliot's still-immaculate attire.

"I do. I agree."

He stuck out his hand. Helliot took it, and they shook briskly.

"Mr. Bracken, may I commend your restraint in this negotiation. I am not certain I have ever had my services engaged for as little as a few months expenses and a dog, in my long existence." He looked up at the rain-dark sky, contemplatively. "I suppose this is an unusual situation."

Then Helliot's gaze snapped down from the sky to focus on something behind Atyr. His expression went from its well-pleased state, to curious, to concerned, to a look of what Atyr was fairly certain was fear, carefully masked. A white light was growing steadily amongst the trees, sending long shadows stretching starkly across the soaked detritus on the ground.

Helliot took a step back, then two more.

Atyr looked behind him and saw... an angel? From every story he'd ever heard of angels, that's what she must be. Moving swiftly through the trees, glowing soft white and silver, as though formed from uncountable points of starlight, the angel was as tall as a man and half again. Great wings were folded on her back.

She looked angry. Very angry. And, despite Atyr's sudden fear, he couldn't help but notice that she was also very, very naked, rain streaming down her shining body. He took several steps back as well.

The angel seemed not to notice Atyr, passing a hands-breadth from him. His head came only to her chest. She stomped past and came to a stop immediately in front of Helliot, who was standing his ground with a mostly convincing air of polite confidence. He tilted his head back to look up at the starlit face of the angel. She flicked water from her wings. It was a gesture of annoyance. And of threat.

Helliot's composure failed briefly, but he recovered. "Ah, I was wondering if we might have the pleasu--"

"I will speak and you will listen. You will speak when I ask you to." The voice of the angel was as if a chorus of flutes and bells had formed music into words. It washed across Atyr, like being physically doused with something inexplicable; like falling asleep, and like a delicious flavor, and like memory. And sex. His fear dissolved into a heady affect somehow made of both extreme desire, and of ultimate satisfaction.

He was aware that the angel continued to speak, but the words ceased to be anything but waves and sparks of that overwhelming mix of sensations. Helliot seemed to be in debate with her, but his voice cut through only as a few tones here and there, equally meaningless, though they yet soothed Atyr's mind with brief flashes of an eager calmness; a sense of trust, and of opportunity.

The two figures were gesturing: the immense, glowing angel with sharp, angry movements, the smaller red and black clad gentleman with smooth, refined motions.

At times, Helliot would seem to take a step back, the angel moving forward to fill the space. Something was being debated, and the angel seemed to have the upper hand.

And then, Helliot was gone. Atyr had missed the exact moment the man had left, but he found himself now alone among the rain-soaked trees with the angel. The tall, sexy, incredibly angry angel.

She turned and walked slowly towards him. As she advanced, Atyr felt that she was becoming less, both smaller, but also just... less of everything she had been. He became aware that she was speaking as she came, and that the ringing words held meaning to him once more, though still dripping with her weird eroticism.

"One day. I leave you for One. Day. And I find you here. With Him." The angel shook her head furiously, and flicked her wings open in anger, a white halo of water flying up behind her, lit by the glow of her naked form.

She reached him, and he found that her head was now just slightly lower than his own. She jabbed him in the chest with a starry finger. "I assumed you were off to have a nice visit with your little lady Kella, but instead, you're here making deals with.... with that!"

Atyr squeezed his eyes and reopened them. Twice. Her voice was starting to sound... but surely not...

"You. Are such. A Dummy!"

"... Pesky?"

"Why. Why, did you feel the need to ask him for anything? And then to ask me to leave you alone so you could do it? Do you really think he can offer you something I can't?"

This was a lot. Atyr wasn't sure where to begin. He still wasn't entirely certainly that this could possibly be Pesky, this star-born angel of anger and fear and sex. Well, the sex part shouldn't be that surprising, but still...

"Look, he came to me for something. I just agreed to help him."

The angel... (sprite?) spun around, stomping a few paces from him, arms crossed. The aura of sensuality she exuded must still be affecting him, because even with the overwhelming tension of the situation, Atyr couldn't help but let his eyes drop briefly down her slender back, to the round, sparkling ass in front of him, wet and glistening in the rain. It was certainly quite a nice butt. He considered telling her so as payback, but pushed the idea firmly away. Now was not the time.

"Fine," she said. "So he came to you. What did he offer you that I couldn't have?"

Atyr shook the water from his hair once more and sighed. "Answers, Pesky. Explanations. All the questions I keep asking you and keep getting only riddles and evasion in return. He actually answered them."

Pesky was quiet and still. She didn't turn around. An uncomfortable moment passed, and Atyr, still slightly addled, decided to go for it. "Hey Pesky. You have a cute butt."

She whirled on him, drops flying from her form, every bit the terrible angel once more, and took two swift stomps directly towards him. He stumbled backward into a tree trunk. Fear rose in his throat, but she stopped, and shook her head at him, a smirk spreading across her translucent features. "You do not understand how much trouble you are in."

"Um.... with you?"

"No, you dummy, this has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with me. This is about you."

"Look, you never said I couldn't talk to other fae. Make agreements with other fae."

She was still shaking her head as she walked up to him where he stood, back against the tree.

"Atyr. Atyr, Atyr Atyr." She was close now, right in front of him. "That man, that lovely, polite, refined gentleman of a man, is not of the fae."

She looped her arms around his neck, leaning in until her bare breasts grazed his chest. She looked up at him, so close her breath brushed hot across his lips.

"That man, my lovely, dumb idiot, is a fiend."

He was having trouble thinking with this naked, heavenly woman pressed against him, and the rain streaming down both of their bodies. 'Fiend' sounded bad though. "Um... Mr. Helliot isn't a fae? What, ahhh, what exactly is a fiend?"

"Atyr. My sweet little boy." Her lips were almost touching his own as she whispered to him. "No, your new friend, Belzekeziol T'zaigog Mazlazeth Helliot, Second Scion of the First House of the Inferno, is not of the fae."

Her white eyes stared straight into his own. Lightning crashed overhead, as though she had summoned it for dramatic impact.

"You've just made a deal with a very important Devil."

----------------------- End Part One ------------------------

Thank you so much if you made it all the way through Reluctantly Rogue, Part One. This is my first attempt writing anything, but I think I've learned a lot. Part Two is, I think, much better that Part One. And, I'm halfway done writing Part Three, which is my favorite part yet!

Thanks again, it means a lot to me that anyone wants to read all this. :)

-ScryBells