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Victor slumps against the wall, by the body, and closes his eyes. When this is all over, he's taking a vacation. One massive, massive vacation that involves beaches or cabins or the dark side of the moon, whatever. Just as long as there are no demons, no angels, and no war between heaven and hell.
"Do angels take vacation?"
"No."
He opens his eyes, looking at the woman crouching beside him. The angel beside him. Her host might be beautiful, and so much his type it's not even funny--they met at Quantico. She'd told bad jokes in three different languages and jogged the campus every morning, ponytail bouncing between her shoulder blades with every step--but it's not Ellie Cho watching him now. He doesn't even know her name. It's name. Whatever. "No vacation time, huh? Just an unending war."
"It will end," she says, settling opposite him. She doesn't need to rest, not really, but that's one thing he'll give her. She's a pretty good guest that way. "All things of this world end."
This world. Right. Humans and their fucked up ways. He laughs and his ribs protest emphatically.
She must hear the catch in his breathing, her head turns to face him, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "You're injured?"
"Bruised ribs maybe," he says, trying to relax. "I've had worse." Like the night he almost died. The first night when Lilith had blown up the station and 'Ellie' had appeared a second before the blast, doing whatever she did that'd landed them three miles away, him bleeding and her watching him with impassive eyes. "Just another thing to forget about when I'm lying on a beach somewhere soaking up the sun."
Her fingers brush his side, gentle but probing, and she frowns. "You should be more careful."
He chuckles. "You sound concerned. Careful, I might think Ellie's having a bad influence on you."
She looks away at the wreckage around them. This was a small town once. The man beside him was the mayor. By morning, the news will be telling the tragic tale of a town lost to a forest fire's fury. No mentions made of the demon-inspired violence that had ripped it apart first.
Victor watches her watch the flames and, for a second, he sees sorrow in her eyes. "How many times have you seen this happen?"
"Too many."
He tries picturing that. He tries to picture thousands of years of watching your fallen siblings tease and cajole humans into brutalizing each other, giddy with glee as creation fell to ruin time and again. "You sure you don't need a vacation?"
"I need this to stop. I need them to leave your people in peace." She rises, helping him to his feet. "Until then, I can't rest."
"Okay, deal. When it does, however," he grins, "it's you, me, and a beach with no name, okay?"
She considers it and then nods. "Okay."