Slither

Slither
by KC_Bailey

Notes: Easter is over. No more cooking, wonderful. Although I did manage to break my little toe, so here's a little more Balthazar, as much for me as whoever reads. The reviews are wonderful, by the way, thanks. ^^

Chapter 3, In which an unwelcome visitor appears.

Upon opening the door with a little more force than he needed to use, Constantine found himself face to face with one person he very much didn't want to see at that particular moment.

“John.” Angela greeted, smiling her sweetest smile up at him and not noticing the shirtless demon inside the apartment, who was rolling his red eyes and using his tail to mime yawning.

“Angela.” Constantine replied, voice flat and dark eyes bored. “What do you need?”

“I-” The policewoman began, before cutting herself off in shock. Balthazar had stood up and wandered over to the refrigerator to rifle around for something to drink, catching her attention. “What in the hell is HE doing here?!” She demanded, glaring accusingly at John, who pinched the bridge of his nose. He really should have seen this coming. Or at least told Balthazar to wait in the bedroom while he answered the door.

“He's just here until I figure out what to do with him. It's complicated.” John claimed, ushering Angela inside with a resigned sigh before he got the urge to slam the door on her and get himself shot.

“No, it's easy. Just shoot him in the head and deport him right back where he belongs!” Angela growled angrily.

“I don't belong to Hell any more. I decided to go freelance.” Balthazar mentioned, sipping at a bottle of iced tea and watching the quarrel going on before him with amused eyes.

“What, you expect us to just believe you've turned over a new leaf? You're all pure and just now?” She growled, whirling to face him, where he was leaning casually against the large table with his tail tossing the bottle cap up and down in the air, bare chest marred by a few healing scratches but otherwise a perfect expanse of golden skin.

“No.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “I'm still utterly wicked. I just don't have a leash any more.” He purred, pushing away from the table to stalk closer, circling around her once like a predator. “Aren't you happy for me, detective?”

“Get away from me.” She hissed at him, turning to John and noticing with a surge of annoyance that his dark eyes were firmly fixed on Balthazar. The demon chuckled deviously and slinked over to perch on the edge of the table, enjoying himself.

“Like I said, he's just here until I figure out what to do with him.” John reiterated.

“Oh, I have some ideas for things you can do with me, Johnny.” Balthazar said in his most velvet tones, still sipping at his drink. John sent him a weak glare and attempted to focus back on Angela, who he suspected was counting to ten in her head to avoid murdering the demon.

“Listen, if you want to keep that murderous filth in your home, fine.” She growled, folding her arms angrily. “Right now I don't have time to try and make you see sense. I have a job for you. Exorcism, but the kid's being guarded by a few halfbreeds.” She spat the word, sending Balthazar a sideways glare. He licked at the condensation on the neck of his iced tea bottle with his forked tongue, watching her with half-lidded eyes and smirking devilishly.

“Address?” Constantine questioned on autopilot, wishing fervently that the plastic bottle in Balthazar's hands wasn't the only one getting attention from that wicked snake tongue. He had to mentally slap himself just to keep from getting so turned on that Angela noticed. She probably knew anyway, judging from how annoyed she looked as she thrust her hand into her jacket pocket and yanked out a piece of folded paper with an address on, all but throwing it at him.

“Here. I'll meet you there after I take care of a few things back at the station. Be careful, John.” She said, voice softening slightly on the last few words.

“Don't worry.” John reassured, holding the door open for her as she gave Balthazar a last acid glance and slipped out. On the threshold she turned and repeated her warning to be careful, this time referring to the halfbreed lounging inside John's apartment like he belonged there. Constantine said nothing and watched her walk away, wondering himself if he knew what he was doing.

“An exorcism, sounds delicious.” Balthazar's voice was a demonic purr from behind him. “I'm going to need a shirt.”

Turning back to the demon, Constantine closed the door and brushed past him, heading for the bedroom.

“And if I say you're not coming?” The exorcist demanded, digging through his drawers for a shirt that would fit Balthazar even as he said it.

“You'd leave me here all alone, Johnny?” The halfbreed raised his eyebrows, trying to look innocent and mostly succeeding.

“Don't pretend you wouldn't destroy my fucking house if I left you here.” John muttered, finding a white shirt that would have to do, still much too big for the smug-looking demon.

“Mmmh, I might.” Balthazar admitted with a little smirk, taking the shirt and doing up half of the buttons, leaving the top few open to expose his flawless throat and his collarbones, which John found it hard to resist staring at. He could imagine running his fingers along them, just lightly enough to send a shiver through the demon. He wanted it, but resisted with a mental slap. He had work to do.

“Come on.” He grunted, stalking out of the bedroom to the main room, where his equipment lived in one of the cupboards above the counter, a few other odds and ends spread out below it that Balthazar had been studiously avoiding. The job being a basic exorcism and a few halfbreeds, John grabbed a couple of little round, glass bottles of holy water, his crucifix gun, a handful of spare bullets and a couple of charms. Shoving them into his jacket pockets next to the ever-present battered bible, he headed for the door with Balthazar in tow.

XxXxX

“Constantine.” Was the greeting he always got. The voices were always growled and angry or shocked and frightened. Today was a little bit of both as he strode into the warehouse with his gun drawn. The four halfbreeds, three stocky men and a woman with long, bleached hair, were surrounding a filthy mattress on the floor. Upon it lay a boy of about eight, eyes closed. He wasn't moving, and Constantine hoped he wasn't too late.

Before he had a chance to do anything but take a single step towards the boy, Balthazar caught up to him and strode in, giving the four other halfbreeds a bored look. They seemed shocked to see him, hissing his name. Constantine took advantage of their surprise and dug in his pocket for one of his holy water ampoules, rocketing it into the male in the middle of the group. The glass smashed on the demon's square jaw, splashing droplets of acidic pain onto all but one of the halfbreeds. Three screeched and clawed at their melting faces in pain, the smell of sulphur and burning flesh rising in the air.

“Was that child important?” Balthazar asked, not particularly caring either way. John, back to the demon, grunted an affirmative and shot one of the suffering halfbreeds through the cheek. The creature tumbled backwards from the force of the bullet, disintegrated by the time it hit the ground.

“Why don't you take care of him, then? I'll deal with these, you can't have all the fun.” Balthazar suggested, not waiting for an answer before leaping at the largest of the three remaining halfbreed guards, who had a hunting knife in his hand.

The halfbreeds seemed more concerned with killing Balthazar than with him, so Constantine let his companion deal with them, darting towards the unconscious child and digging out his bible and charms, all the time keeping an eye on the fight.

XxXxX

“Traitor!” The halfbreed Balthazar had just knocked flat with a punch to the jaw snarled, picking himself up. Balthazar snaked his tail out like a viper and wrapped around the knife the halfbreed had, yanking it out of his hands and then sweeping it in an arc to jam it straight between the eyes of the female. She dropped with the knife firmly stuck in place, crumbling, while Balthazar delivered a spinning kick to the man next to her. He hit the ground and Balthazar was over him lightening fast, punching him in the face and kneeling on his throat.

XxXxX

John found the charm that worked on the demon possessing the boy, holding him down and reciting the passages from his bible that would send it back where it came from. The boy was thrashing about, awake now, his eyes huge and black. It was nothing new to Constantine though, and he glanced over to see how Balthazar was doing mid-passage. He almost lost his place in the verse when he caught sight of his halfbreed house guest finishing off the prone demon and standing up, brushing himself off and heading for the last one, tail swinging behind his hips with each step. His eyes were glowing brightly and he was licking blood from the fingers of one hand, the other demon backing away after what he'd done to its companions.

“Where are you going?” Balthazar cocked his head to the side, licking blood from his lips. “I thought you wanted to play with me.”

XxXxX

The demon inside the boy roared in its final resistance and Constantine reluctantly turned back to his exorcism, hissing the end of the verse quickly. The boy arched upwards with a shriek that went higher than any human vocal chords should allow before sinking limply back to the bed, his eyes clearing and closing. It couldn't happen fast enough for Constantine, who jumped up once the child was cleansed, turning towards Balthazar to watch what he was doing.

Angela chose that moment to rush in, gun drawn, but neither she nor John were needed for the disposal of the final halfbreed and they both watched Balthazar take care of it, glued to the spectacle.

“You fucking traitor, working with THEM? You call yourself a demon?” The last stocky, redheaded halfbreed snarled, coming up against an upturned desk as he tried to back away further. Balthazar smiled innocently, slinking closer.

“Of course I'm still a demon. You wouldn't believe how wicked I can be.” Balthazar said quietly, darting forward in a blur. An instant later the larger halfbreed was snarling in surprise, tripped by a flick of Balthazar's tail. Catching himself on the desk, the demon ended up in a sitting position against it, never getting the chance to raise himself back to his feet. Balthazar slid down to straddle his thighs, a little smile of amusement on his lips. “Am I cruel enough yet?” He asked, using one sharp nail to draw a bloody crucifix deep into the skin of the halfbreed's forehead. It shrieked in pain and tried to buck him off but he leant over almost casually, snapping the end of one of the wooden legs from the desk and slamming it down through the writhing halfbreed's stomach.

“Fuck you!” It snarled, blood pouring out of its mouth and down its chin. Balthazar smirked.

“I have my sights set a little higher.” He said in a snake-like hiss, glowing eyes flickering over to Constantine for a moment, who was watching in barely-disguised lust. Balthazar could feel it radiating from him in waves, along with the hatred and anger coming from the lady detective. It was delicious and he let his smirk widen, snaking his tongue out to lick a drop of blood from the corner of the suffering halfbreed's mouth before reaching out both hands to run through its fiery hair.

“Lucifer will hear of this...” The halfbreed growled, as Balthazar's elegant fingers threaded through his hair again.

“Not from you,” the stronger demon purred, before tightening his grip and jerking the wounded halfbreed's head to the side, breaking his neck with a loud, wet crack. After a moment of mindless twitching and spasming beneath Balthazar, the dead demon began to disintegrate. Balthazar stood and brushed himself off, raising his eyes to Constantine's and finding the human's pupils dilated with lust.

“Did you have to toy with it?” Angela growled, accusing.

“Not at all.” Balthazar replied, his back to her. All his attention was on Constantine, who shoved his bible back into his pocket and tried to pretend he didn't want to bend Balthazar over that damn desk and fuck him senseless.

“Is the boy ok?” The detective asked, glaring at Balthazar's back and heading over to the mattress to check the child's breathing and heart beat.

“He's fine.” Constantine muttered, “I'm done, get him back to his parents. I'm going home.”

Angela nodded, lifting the small boy in her arms and cradling him protectively, pausing to send John a thankful smile when the child mumbled in his sleep.

“Thanks, John.” She said honestly, ignoring Balthazar on her way out. The halfbreed didn't care, he'd found a coin and was walking it back and forth across his knuckles, tossing it away once the woman had departed and Constantine was ready to go. With a dark smile he followed the exorcist back to the car, hoping Johnny would let him come on exorcisms more often.

He could get used to the thrill of fighting followed by the thick scent of lust coming from John afterwards. He wondered how long it would take before Constantine snapped.

Judging from the way his hands shook slightly on the wheel as he drove them home, not very long.

TBC