The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 336: Rain Watch - Part 1

Chapter 336: Rain Watch - Part 1

The moment her compulsion finally seized control of Rain, Cassiel realized the mistake she’d made.

But instead of going after him, she fled. Back to her room, shutting the door before she threw herself onto her bed, sobbing into her pillow.

She had no idea how much time passed between the breakup and when she fell asleep. All she knew was that she still felt worn and exhausted when someone rang her from the door.

"What is it?" she called out.

"Angel," Ozzy’s voice came through muffled, "It’s almost time for the morning brief."

Morning? Cassiel didn’t feel like she’d slept through the night.

Her knees felt a bit stiff and her hips a little sore from falling asleep in her uniform, but she dutifully went to her closet and pulled on a fresh blouse and pants, before checking her bathroom mirror to do some cursory work on her appearance.

Ozzy knocked again after she barely got to splash her face at the sink. "Angel it’s almost time."

"Give me a fucking minute, Oz," Cassiel snapped.

She settled for washing her face and re-tying her hair into a bun before grabbing her tablet and leaving the room.

As was usual for most briefs, she stood aside while Auric let everyone know the recent news from the Heavenswar, as a precursor to their assignments for the day.

Cassiel wasn’t in much of a mood to listen to war reports from the Heavenly Host as they fought in Hell. Or whatever was being said about the holdfasts where Aytherian soldiers were being sent to counter the demons ravaging Ayther. Or about how the Aytherians were, as usual, taking advantage of the chaos to settle grievances or expand or doing any number of evil things to each other whenever they had the chance.

She kept watching the doors, waiting for Rain to come in. Wondering if-

"Cassiel, is your Elevated alright?" Auric’s question snapped her out of her worries.

"I’m sure he’s fine," Cassie replied.

"We need him to take point again if we’re going to hit the titan dragon while it’s injured."

"What?"

Auric tucked his tongue into his lower lip, as he did when he was annoyed and didn’t want to say anything. Instead of elaborating he turned to the room.

"Everyone take ten, we’ll touch base again at the teleporter and I’ll finish the brief." Everyone stood and started to file out, but as soon as Cassiel took a step away, Auric placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

Once he had her alone, he stepped in front of her, bending to plant a light kiss on her lips that she returned in only a cursory sense.

"Is everything alright? You’ve been out of it the whole briefing. And Rainier-"

"I don’t want to talk about Rainier," Cassiel interrupted.

"Without him and his lightning aspect, we can’t take on the dragon. It’s already heading northeast, and it’ll reach the ocean soon. According to telemetry, several titans have challenged it to the point of exhaustion, and it can no longer defend its territory. If it starts crossing the ocean, that’ll make retrieving its heartstone tricky. So where is he?" When she remained silent, he lifted her chin, forcing her to look into his eyes. "Cass, where is he?"

"I don’t know!" Cassiel said.

"What do you mean you don’t know?"

"I mean I don’t- We had a... disagreement."

Auric raised an eyebrow. "How? He’s your Elevated, his opinions should be your opinions. Whatever his disagreements are, your word is final, even if he is a comrade in arms."

"I know... I just..." Cassiel thought quickly, guarding her words. "I wanted to treat him like a friend."

"Cass, you know how Elevated are," Auric rubbed his thumb along her jawline. "Give them a measure and they’ll take you for a thousand. If you haven’t read your history, Elevated forgetting their place is why we subject them to godflesh to begin with." He lowered the hand to her shoulder. "So tell me, what did he do?"

"He just... wanted to talk." Cassie didn’t know her history. She just thought godflesh helped the Elevated fighters keep up.

"And you wished to deny him that privilege?"

"No! It just... got out of hand. Some things came out... Old wounds, I guess... We both lost a friend, and-"

"Was this friend another Elevated?" Auric interrupted.

"No. She’s an angel."

"Then I don’t see why he has any right to complain about it. But it concerns me that he can get so close to our kind, even if he is a Loyal Wing. And the twins and their flaunting is affecting morale..."

"He’s not with the twins anymore," Cassie said, realizing Auric wasn’t going to give back control of the conversation. "At least I don’t think so."

"Oh good. Don’t lend him to anyone else then. Or if you didn’t, you should restrict his privileges to his fellow Elevated. I’ll help you get the word out once you let me know he’s been informed. The fact that he’s one of the Expedition’s greatest assets has clearly gone to his head a bit if he thinks he can skip out on morning briefings."

Cassie’s fist clenched. Her thoughts felt jumbled, and she regretted the absence of mind that put her in this conversation in the first place.

Auric tilted his head a bit, "You still with me, Cas?"

"Yes sir. Auric. Sorry."

"Don’t be sorry. Worrying over the people we command is good. It’s natural. But if you don’t want to deal with him, just send him to me and I’ll do it for you."

"I... don’t know where he is," Cassie replied.

"Just check for him on your tablet."

"I did. When the briefings first started... he’s not showing up on the base."

"What about the blind spot in the Akash server room?"

"He doesn’t know about that..."

"Everybody knows about the blind spot."

"Not Rain. He doesn’t participate in rumors."

"He’s the subject of a lot of them though, and I’d rather not have anything particularly salacious following you back to Heaven. Especially when we’re getting close to working with my uncle."

"You don’t