Page 44 of Sinful Pride
“Hopefully in a non-literal sense,” Raphael said under his nose. “Alright, give me the deets.”
“Our second stage: we actually need to get to know him.”
“That seems like a good idea.”
“Don’t look so surprised. I have good ideas all the time! So, let’s do this. Get all the information we can to have an easier time connecting with him. I can put four… no, six demons on this… hmm, maybe four demons and two angels…” I pulled out the phone to look at the list of my contacts and only then noticed that Raphael was staring at me as if I was insane.
“No, bad idea. Bad Beelzebub! Maybe you have some good ideas, but this is definitely not one!”
“Why not? I have tools at my disposal and I am not afraid to use them.”
“’Why not’ he asks…” Raphael pinched the bridge of his nose as if I was giving him a headache. “Because it’s immoral. It’s an invasion of privacy. We don’t know if Tirael will even forgive us and grant us another chance, and you want to give him a solid reason to reject us for being stalkers?!”
I crossed my arms, displeased with being denied the thrilling possibility of misusing my power and my web of spies.
“If you’re so clever, what’s your idea?”
“Talking to him. We need to convince him to spend some time with us. I don’t know if he will be willing to meet with us alone at first, but maybe we could show up at one of the events he attends and just strike up a conversation. We should make him used to seeing us again first, and we can observe how he interacts with people, what he wears, what he likes to eat. Small things. Oh, oh! I know!” Raphael was getting into the idea now. “Surely, between the two of us, we already know some details. Let’s make a list. For example, we know he prefers strawberries to any other fruit. That’s a good start.”
“And he prefers hemp to other kinds of rope.”
“You couldn’t have come up with something more useful in everyday life?”
“Well, it tells me a lot about him. Creating a psychological profile is important.” I gave him my patented smirk.
“Ah, get your mind out of the gutter.” Raphael rolled his eyes, unimpressed with me.
That’s all right, I was impressed with myself enough. I didn’t need external validation.
That’s how part two of our plan came to life. We still stalked Tirael, no matter what Raphael wanted to call it, but we did it in person, using no one else. First, we showed up to an open discussion between angels and demons organized by the Embassy. It was a new monthly event where the two sides had a moderated discussion about different topics. Today’s discussion was about fashion. Predictably, Aurelius was the instigator but thanks to his status as a newly made Ascended, he was not the chief authority in the room.
It was quite a lively event as two different cultures tried to talk about thousands of years of different fashions at once. My tastes definitely skewed more to the demonic side, what with the dark corruption on my body, the skull face, the leather sleeveless coat and my wardrobe consisting solely of different shades of black, so I was a bit bored at times. Raphael turned out to be actually interested in the topic; maybe not as a creator of fashion, but definitely as its avid consumer. While I studied Tirael, who acted as a moderator when things got too heated and had a list of topics to move things along, I could study Raphael as well. The way he perked up at the mention of certain topics made me note those fashion references down in my mind to research them later.
As for Tirael, I noticed he liked to have something in his hands. A pen, a page, even his sleeve to fiddle with. But every time he caught himself doing it, he forced himself back into stillness. It worked for a while, but then he got distracted or focused too much, and both of those instances resulted in him getting back to his fidgeting. It was driving me crazy. Why was he denying himself such a simple little thing? Was he worried that someone would judge him for twirling his pen? It was more likely than I wanted to admit.
It may be that he was actually more nervous than usual because he was up close with his ex-lovers for the first time in three months. We pretty much avoided each other, keeping our distance from Tirael, just like our deal demanded, but now here we were, back in his sights.
By the end of the two-hour discussion, Raphael seemed pretty happy. He even opened his mouth a few times, adding his two cents to the debate. I wondered if he still remembered why we were here, but when people filed out, I could see his eyes were laser-focused on Tirael as the little angel gathered his notes and spoke quietly with Aurelius. Good. A neutral party would help balance things.
And make it harder for Tirael to run.
I let Raphael take the point on this one, and the angel didn’t disappoint. He greeted Tirael politely with a small smile and skillfully trapped Aurelius in a conversation, expounding on the topics of the discussion with finesse. Tirael looked like he wanted to escape, so I stepped to the other side of the table he was sitting at, keeping him in our little group. Raphael had vetoed many of my underhanded methods, but he couldn’t forbid them all, so I leaned against the desk. Though, considerately, I had dampened my usual intimidating aura a bit. Sometimes you had to be careful with your prey.
I had a feeling that Tirael was at a point where he would just pass out if you stared at him too much, like one of those weird fainting goats from the supposed mind control experiment. So instead of using my aura of terror, I nodded at Tirael when I caught his gaze.
“You handled those angels and demons well.”
Tirael looked at me like a deer in headlights. He didn’t know what to do with me praising him, especially when no mocking commentary followed. I didn’t turn the praise into a joke or use it to make the next words hurt even more, which would be something Tirael had experienced before in the middle of our play. Now, the praise was just hanging in the air, ready to be admired.
“Thank you?” Tirael said, and the way his voice lifted at the end made it sound like a question.
“You’re welcome.”
I stepped away, Raphael staying just a while more to wrap up his conversation and attack Tirael with his own praise.
“This was a pretty good idea. I’m excited to see what you will come up with next.”
“Oh, it wasn’t me! It was all Aurelius’ idea,” the poor angel stuttered.