3 - On the run again

Dean raised a brow. But he could understand the nervousness, so he just shrugged and threw Castiel an "Ok, I'll see you in the main room then", he simply answered with a smile. He did want to sneak in a kiss, but Castiel ran away too fast!

"I am worth more than those cockroaches because I am not a dirty, little bug like them", Selena observed candidly and coldly, finally shooting Alastair an annoyed glance. "Being the dog of an Archangel disgusts me. But it still means I am one of the best at what I do." She sighed, snobbishly snorting when she saw two demons arguing on where to knock like some kids at the zoo. "On the other hand, I'm afraid you, Sir, can count on no one but amateurs."

Alastair felt slightly annoyed to witness such incompetence from his own men, indeed. "Well. If you didn't mind, milady, I could use some help," he told her with faked politeness.
But he suddenly straightened, on edge, when he noticed a brief, blinding light emerging from the rock. The angel was getting out!

Selena got up quickly on her feet, recognizing that shining light right away. She didn't lose time - she immediately threw her gloves on the ground, and pressed her fingers against Raphael's mark. 'He's here - he is here!'

A stronger light suddenly appeared near, and it seemed like it was about to swallow the tinier point of light when a dark cloud shoved it away.
Raphael took form in front of Selena, a deep frown on his face as he looked at the blood he just wiped off his mouth. He glared at Alastair, then at Selena. "Did you corrupt my hunter to mock me, Sobek?"

"Archangel or not, I won't let you have my prize," Alastair replied with a cold grin. "See, our dear Michael said- what were his words again?" He pretended to think about it. "Oh, right. "If it comes to it, don't trust my incompetent brothers with it."
Now, that was news, even to Raphael. Michael was known to only trust his fellow archangels, right? ... Right?

Selena had to repress the instinct to vomit when she heard about a demon 'corrupting' her. She didn't even want to know what that meant. She really didn't. "Oh, for fuck's sake", she snapped, snarling irritatedly. "While you two are whipping off the rulers to see who got the biggest dick, your prize disappeared!" She was so frustrated. And cold, and pissed off. A month of work brought to NOTHING.

If Raphael did feel concerned about Selena's words, Alastair made a whole scene, forcing him to take his sword out, and use violence rather than words to force the demon and his army away from there. He did look fierce, and dangerous while fighting them off. But as soon as he was alone, with Selena possibly being still nearby, he suddenly seemed very exhausted. And he was. He hadn't eaten souls for months, and battling with an entire group of demons, and the Sobek included had exhausted him.

Selena had managed to fight off some lower demons on her own, on the other side. But when that battle had finally ended, and they were left with corpses around them and blood, she felt that same despair and frustration climb up her throat again. She turned to Raphael, a deep scowl on her face, noticing how he seemed worn out by that battle. "What do you intend to do about what the Sobek said?", she asked, coldly.

Raphael ran a hand on his face. "Investigate. You're on it, to." He sighed and walked towards Selena. "If my brother doesn't consider me as a... valuable asset, your own existence is endangered." He looked away. "I'll try to find where Castiel has run off to. In the meantime... The Sobek might come back after you with his men."

Selena stared at him blankly. She narrowed her eyes, and then, after some seconds of silence, she showed her mark to Raphael. The one he had made himself. "You know. You could just remove it", she observed. "The idea of being with stuck up to my neck in the mud because of you doesn't really thrill me at all." Well, she had to try.

"And lose a valuable hunter like you?" Raphael scoffed, but remained thoughtful. "I'll either hide you in Heaven, or in one of my residences. Your call." He looked right back at Selena, while he slowly extended his wings again. Maybe to remind her just how powerful he was.
It was absolutely not to show off like a peacock. Thankfully enough, no one aside angels knew that shameful habit they had.

Selena scoffed as well. "So what you are suggesting is that I hide like a sewer rat, waiting for you to collect some intel over something a demon said? Lovely." She followed with her eyes the movement of his wings extending, large and powerful. If she felt either intimidated or a bit struck by their beauty, she managed to hide it almost completely. Maybe she felt both. "If I have to be found and killed, I would rather for it not to be in Heaven. It would hurt my father like nothing else if I were to be murdered while I am having tea with him."

Raphael remained silent for a little while, pondering over what Selena had replied to him. "I'm not asking you to hide like a rat. You're nothing close to a rat, Panthera," he said, his voice almost soft. He offered her his hand. "But I have something to give you."

Selena visibly hesitated. She pondered over how much she disliked that situation, once again - but she took into consideration just how tired she was. And how Raphael, being that powerful, was clearly in advantage over her. In the end, she just sighed, and accepted his hand.

Raphael brought her instantly inside of a house with nice fourniture, in the middle of the woods, far away from where they came from. The house was cold, indicating that no one had come here in a while.
He held her hand a bit longer than necessary, intrigued to feel as if a part of his own grace was radiating in her arm. He finally let her hand go before he tucked his wings away. Had he just dreamt that? Or was it the first time he paid attention to it?
Without a word, he walked away from Selena, towards a wall, where a few angel blades were hung. He took one, weighed it, and handed it to her. "You'll need time to get used to it. It drains the energy of human users the first times, but it'll allow you a chance against a higher demon."

Selena was busy critically admiring her surroundings - she had felt glad when Raphael had left her hand, the strange connection between them making itself known even to her human senses. Being so close to a being like him wrecked her nerves. And his hands were weirdly warm, as if there was actually someone in there. Someone, while it was something that could end her if he just woke up feeling like it. She turned to him when she heard him talk, and glanced at the blade, suspicion in her eyes. She reluctantly accepted it, flipping it a bit around. "Thank you", she said, out of habit. "Nice place. Is this where you bring your victims before eating them?" She knew that part of legends on Archangels wasn't true. She was just joking. It would have been ridiculous if it had been true! Right?

Raphael paused for a moment, trying to understand whether or not Selena actually knew about that secret habit he, Michael, and Lucifer - did Gabriel even do it? He hadn't seen him ever since he had found himself a vessel - hid from the world. They needed to be loved and admired, not feared from the flock of humans they ruled over.
He chose not to answer that question directly. "This is where I go with my most trusted soldiers to rest. You'll be on your own here until things settle down. There is a training ground, wood for the fireplace. Were you to need food, there are a lot of deers nearby."

Selena failed to hide her irritation. "I have to hunt and chop down trees myself? Do I look like that kind of person, to you?" She turned around with a scoff, not looking at Raphael anymore. She had never done any of those things. How could she survive like that? Alright, she knew she was being a bit snobbish, but hell. "Just confront your stupid brother quickly, so I can get back to the civil word", she said, throwing him a glance. "Or is that not allowed?"

"Would you rather have me go out and fetch you wood, and food?" Raphael asked her, slightly offended by her insinuation. Yet, if he were offended just the right way, he would do it, if his own pride depended on it.

Selena turned completely to face Raphael once again. She blinked. "Oh. You're right", she said, her voice forcibly sweet as she crossed her arms on her chest. "Of course I can't ask that to you. I mean, that's not possibly something you can do, right? It would be just too much. I should just learn that from scratch - it would require less time." She was clearly challenging him, and she had no intention to back off.

Raphael's eye twitched. He had no idea he had just been played, and took a deep breath, glaring at her. "Fine. Stay here. I'll get you that wood and meat myself." He disappeared from the room. In fact, he didn't show up for the next fifteen minutes. When he appeared again, he threw wood in the fireplace, and laid a plate filled with raw meat on the kitchen table, as well as a few loaves of bread. And glared at her again. Now, it wasn't bright of him ; he had already been exhausted by his fight with the Sobek. In fact, his breathing was shallow, and he had used the physical strength of his vessel to hunt, skin the deer, and cut down the wood.

Selena noticed that Raphael wasn't exactly at his best - and that did filled her with a secret glee, on one side. On the other, however, for some reason, she felt a sting of pity for him. AFter all, he had just been told by a big shot of Hell that his older brother didn't think much of him, he had fought an entire army on his own, brought her in a place he deemed secure. He had tried to bring her to safety, even if in his own way. She stared at him for a while, then sighed. "You should sit down and rest." She paused. "Does your kind get any benefit from eating?"

Raphael frowned slightly. "I don't feel hunger. My vessel will recover if I simply rest. Good night, Panthera-" He tried to extend his wings, but tucked them away just as quickly, tiptoeing a bit. He laid his hands on the kitchen table for a bit of stability, trying hard not to show just that fear was slowly rising in him.
Demons mocking him, Michael viewing him as a mere tool, and now, the painful realization that he should have consumed angel souls weeks ago to prevent his vessel from growing tired, all of that was a lot to take. And yet, he didn't know how to feel about the unknown feeling of an empty stomach. Of a need to sleep. He hadn't slept for centuries.

"What are you doing? Can't you see you're burned out?", Selena snapped at Raphael, seeing him stumble and rest against the table. She hesitated for a brief moment, but walked up to him in the end, and forced him to move. "I said SIT DOWN. You can't allow yourself to try and look almighty all the time - look at yourself! Rest down. I will make some food, whether you want to eat it or not." She grabbed the raw meat and walked to grab pots and pans, frowning deeply. Why was she even doing that for an Archangel? Well. Marginally, maybe, she felt kind of bad because she had forced him to get her food and firewood.

Raphael did sit down in the end, and shot a bewildered glance at Selena. Didn't that human hate him, last time he checked? Maybe was he too tired for anything right now. Then again, given how abandoned he felt in that instant, it felt sort of reassuring, to know that he could still count on his personal hunter. So he said nothing, and patiently waited.

Meanwhile, far away from there and a little prior to those events by Raphael's house, Castiel had lured the demons away just enough to allow himself to reappear in the dwarve's cave, in the bathroom where he had supposedly been for a little while. He hid any trace of his grace right away, and winced a bit when he remembered he had forgotten to heal the wound he had gotten on his abdomen when Raphael had almost caught him. He sighed, quickly wrapped a bandage around it, and went to find the others.

Selena prepared a simple meal with the meat she had and the last vegetables she had in her travelling back. Thankfully it was enough for her too. She pushed the filled dish in front of Raphael, with an irritated scowl. "Eat." She sat a bit distanced, on her own chair, to eat as well.

"Oh, there you are!", Dean exclaimed when he saw Castiel reemerging from the corridors. "You sure took a lot of time. We were starting to get worried!" Ok, he was. But still. Horknath asked his friend if he was feeling alright, a bit worried himself.