no rest for the wicked.... NSFL

May shrieked and pulled her hands back, trying to get away from Jack's attacks on her. She didn't know what was going wrong-- even on a demon her magic would have at least done something to help. She didn't understand--

"Was it just a gunshot wound?! Can't you heal it yourself if I can't?!"

Jack panted for a moment before slowly pushing himself to sit up.
"Wr-wrap..."He mumbled pointing at the saddle back of his motorcycle. "Need to wrap.. And get out of h-here.."

He looked back up to her face, his expression not only pain but fear.

"D-demon hunters..."

May's face turned dark, and she hesitated for a moment, looking back in the general direction where she thought the bullet came.

"Like hell."

She tried to sit Jack up and did her best to apply pressure to the wound, even going to far as to pull a pair of dress pants out of her bag and wrap them tightly around the area of the bullet hole.

"Where do we go?"

"Anywhere.." Jack grunted as he tried to pull himself to a stand with May's help. He leaned against a lamp post.
"Can you drive?" He asked motioning to his bike, "I can t-try if you can't." Surprisingly he wasn't losing a ton of blood, but he was in a lot of pain. The bullet hole was just above his hip bone.

"I can drive. You'd be surprised at the sorts of things I've had to use to get away for one reason or another... but that's a story for another day," May said, assisting Jack onto the back of the motorcycle. She quickly hopped on and started the engine, revving it once before peeling out of the parking lot and heading in the general direction of "anywhere but there."

He basically had to lean against May's back as she drove, one hand over the bullet hole. As they left the street several more gun shot rang through the air and bullets sparked around them where they hit the ground.
Jack twisted around a little and held up and arm. Ice quickly shot out of his arm forming a shield around the back side of them. Just in time, bullets bounced off the ice and he cursed to himself.
He knew if they hung around they were dead.

Once they were a few streets away from her apartment the shooting died off. Shaking his arm the ice fell off and crashed to the ground behind him. He turned back around to lean onto her again.
"Just go until you run out of gas, head west..." He instructed.

May heads west.

It takes roughly four hours for the gas to finally run out of the motorcycle, but fortunately by then May has found a, albeit slightly run down, gas station sitting out in the rough desert outside the city. She comes to a gentle stop, still feeling like she's moving and her legs stiff and sore (she is grateful this time when the pain fades), and turns her attention to Jack.

Through the drive Jack was slowly leaning on May's back more and more, his grip around her waist failing as well. It was lucky that she didn't take any hard turns because he would have fallen off. He had been passed out for the last our or so. Blood soaked though his shirt and coat, leaving a stain on the back of her coat as well. The color of his blood was off. It was extremely dark, almost black. It seemed like he had only really bled after he passed out.
When she moved his body moved with her, his hands falling to his sides.
There was only one guy working at the little gas station and he came outside when he saw that something may bee up with his only customers. He was a simple looking man, maybe a little redneck.
"You alright?" He asked, hesitant to head over to the two at first.

May looked up at the man in a daze and panic; she hadn't seen anyone for hours and all that time focusing on the road had done a number on her focus.

"I need help getting a bullet out. Do you have any tools I can use? Needle-nose pliers? Something? Please," she said quickly, her breath running out. Beads of sweat traced line down the sides of her face. "I can be creative. But I need something to grab a hold of it." She held onto Jack in desperation.

The mans face was blank for a moment before he moved over next to him and became just as panicked when he saw Jack.
"Master!?" He shouted in panic, "Bring him inside! Quickly!" He ushered her before quickly running back to the minimart and opening the door for her.

Jack was pale and covered in sweat, as if he was sitting in a sauna.

May managed to carry/drag Jack into the minimart with some struggle, and she carefully propped him up against the front counter, panting from the effort. She looked over at the attendant, her eyes wide and filled with fear.

"Should I even ask? No-- nevermind, I don't care! Just please help me! Get me some tools or something! I can take care of the rest."

"No, no! In the back room so if someone comes in they don't see," the man insisted, helping May get the detective into the back room and lay him down onto a table. In his excitement his eyes turned red as it became hard to hide his own demonic features.
The whole back room was filled stock for the store and all sorts of tools. There was a very obvious tool box on the shelf to the right. As she got what she needed he went to work on taking Jack's coat, gun holster and shirt off for better access to the wound.

"Who shot him?" He asked and then noticed he was sweating. "He's on fire! This isn't good. No not good at all."

Upon seeing the attendant's demonic features, she understood, but didn't comment on it.

"I don't know, I didn't see!" May cried out at his question, "He said something about demon hunters but that was it. He just went down and I couldn't heal him at all."

She jabbed a sharp pair of pliers through his shirt and used the hole to rip open Jack's shirt, not bothering to waste time delicately unbuttoning it. The shirt was soaked with blood and was unsalvagable, anyway.

Immediately she dug her fingers into the wound, making a face of concentration. She had seen surgeons do this operation on tv (as well as on the street, one time, but that was a little different), so she had the general idea of what to do. Jack was fortunate to not be mortal, or his life would have been long over.

Once she felt the bullet, she began the laborous process of sticking the sharp pliers into the wound. She felt around, and snagged the bullet just on the tips of the pliers' reach. Slowly, carefully, she began teasing it out, moving the pliers to get a better grip. Then, she tossed the tools aside and tore the bullet out with her nails, looking at it in between her blood-soaked fingers.

The bullet was strange looking and really hot to the touch. There were engravings on the side, it seemed to be a spell.
The man quickly went to work cleaning up the wound area with a cloth.
"We need to cool him down," he said before suddenly moving over to a box and pulling it open. He revealed a tank of liquid nitrogen with a spray nozzle. When he returned to Jack he stuck the end of the nozzle deeply into his wound, not being nearly as careful as May had been. When he felt like it was jammed in there the best it could be he turned the nob on the tank and the pressure gauge went up and it released into his body.

He relaxed a bit, "Master will be okay now Ma'am. He needs time to cool and then he will wake up."

May looked at the demon like he was roughly, fucking insane, but made no indication that she would try to stop him. She was tired and confused and just wanted the ordeal to be over with.

"If you say so," she replied, getting to her feet. "Are there bathrooms here? I need to wash the blood off my... everything."

She looked down at Jack, her expression falling. She didn't realize she could grow to care for a demon so much, especially after what was supposed to be a one night stand.

The man pointed her in the direction of the bathroom and then left the room as well. He went and hid the motorcycle behind the gas station just in case anyone came looking for them. And then he returned to his post at the front counter.

Several hours passed and there was no sign of life from Jack other then his breathing. But his color slowly started to return and his wound closed up with ice.

The man had spent that time talking with May. He told the story about how he had gotten into trouble with a mafia in another state and Jack had saved him and put him to work at the gas station. Jack taught him to control his urges to hurt people and gave his life meaning again. He even admitted that he knew Jack didn't like being called master, but that was all he knew how to do. He was a very simple, very low and weak demon who was made just to serve the stronger demons. He asked May all sorts of questions about being an angel. What it was like, if there was a god, ect. He seemed to be in awe by her and told her she was beautiful several times. And he was always very polite and called her miss or ma'am. He also told her that if she was a friend of Jack's that she could help herself to anything in the store.

Jack emerged from the room, shirtless, his hand resting over the frozen bullet wound.
"I could really use a beer," he mumbled, wincing at the light of the store.

"Master!" Darwin shouted happily, jumping up to get a beer from the cold case.

"Are you seriously going to drink after all that?" May asked, unable to hide a relieved smile. "You went through quite a... thing."

She stood leaning against the front counter, an arm propping her up, and made a slightly concerned face at Darwin. She would be the first to admit it was a little disturbing at how quickly the little demon jumped up to fetch anything Jack even half-requested. Didn't he have a job to do there or was it a cover?

"Hell yeah, it still hurts a lot..." Jack groaned as he walked over to lean against the counter as well.
Darwin brought the cold beer over to him and popped it open before happily handing it to Jack. He waited fro praise.

"Darwin I told you not to call me that, you don't owe me anything," Jack said firmly. But he took the beer anyway and took a long drink. The little demon just sort of scurried back behind the counter.

Jack sighed lightly and looked back at May, "I'm glad you were able to find this place."

"Me too, surprisingly," May replied with a smile. "Although this is now officially the second time I've come across a demon who wasn't causing some sort of chaos somewhere. I've been having a strange couple days."

She stretched her arms behind her head, then to both sides, wincing a little at the tugs in her human muscle.

"So you think you'd be okay to get some angelic healing now, or is that gonna be a strict no-no? I could always try to bless you, but I honestly have no idea if that would even turn out remotely okay... I'd just like to reverse the effects of that bullet if I can. There was some strong magic in it, from what I could feel."

"Yeahhh.." Jack sighed, "there are actually a lot more demons who don't want to be bad. They just have to have someone show them how." He took another drink of the beer and leaned against his elbow on the counter, wincing a little.

At her questions of healing he shook his head a little. "I will heal, and it wasn't the magic on the bullet that was making your healing hurt me." He looked down at his abdomen where the bullet hole was still cleanly covered with ice.
"The magic in the bullet was heat, fire and burning. It would have killed me if it wasn't taken out. Where normally I would just heal around the bullet."
He explained the magic that he seemed to have experience with but he seemed like he was hiding something more then that.
"Just for future reference demon hunters hate angels too and have things to kill you too."

"Fantastic," May said, her tone dripping with sarcasm, "just what I wanted to hear. I generally don't like having anyone trying to kill me. My mom would be pissed."

She sighed, running a hand through her messy, dusty hair. She had cleaned up as best she could, but without outright shapeshifting, there wouldn't be any real cleanliness for her. And she didn't particularly want to use the energy to do so.

"Well... I was thinking of scouting out the area. If you think it's a bad idea though I won't bother."

"You can if you like, just be careful." Jack shrugged lightly.
"Least if they find us out here we can fight with out hurting any humans," he glanced at Darwin and finished off his beer.

They were a good two hours away from any civilization, surrounded by desert and hills as far as the eye could see.

"I'd also like an excuse to get out of this skin, you know?" May made a sheepish expression. "As much as I like the constant looming threat of pulling a muscle or being stuck on the ground all the time, it's nice to get out once in a while."

In a burst of light, May's body was instantly replaced by her true form, which unrolled from a tight curl and stretched out, tiny wings fluffing up. Her eyes, like massive, pupilless crystalline spheres, glanced in between the two demons. She bolted down an aisle of the mart, snatched a candy bar in between her small jaws (knocking a few onto the floor in the process) and flew up, phasing through the roof and disappearing from sight.

Jack just smiled as he watched May change and then leave. He wished it were so easy for him to take on his true form. But not only was it extremely hard on his body, it was dangerous for everyone around him. He couldn't hide from his demon nature in that form.

Darwin squealed in delight when May changed into her true form. His eyes wide with wonder. He ran outside after her to watch her fly. Jack shook his head lightly and headed outside as well to find his motorcycle and find another shirt.

May spent the next... however long (hours? maybe, she lost count) flying around the perimeter of the gas station, using her sense of the two demons as her compass. Fortunately, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary, and the desert and roads around them seemed entirely empty save for the wildlife (she swooped down and startled a coyote at one point just to see if she could).

Satisfied that the group wasn't in any immediate danger, May made a pointed blessing in five points around the minimart in the shape of a star, which at the very least would provide some divine protection for those inside, though only the supernatural would be able to see the pentagram's glowing lines through the soil.

May flew back in a spiraling motion, singing a song of prayer that sounded not unlike a distant whistle. She wanted another candy.

In the time that May was gone flying around like a crazy person, Jack spent preparing for them to leave again. He filled his bike up with gas, bought some food and other small supplies and such.
Then he took the time to talk deeply to Darwin about what he had been up to and how it was going for him. He wanted to make sure that the little demon he put faith in hadn't lost his way. And he was pleasantly surprised. Darwin wasn't the first demon he had helped, and they always wanted to follow him. It may have been because thats all the lesser demons knew how to do. Or it may have been because Jack was somewhat of a natural leader, like his father.

When May returned Jack was standing outside smoking another cigarette. He had lost count at how many he had since he was shot. He starred forward into the darkness of the night, seemingly lost in deep thought.

May came shooting down from the sky, her form mostly obscured by darkness save for her bright-colored fur and wings. She twirled around mid-flight as she approached Jack.

"I didn't find anything worth mentioning," she said, voice like a gentle echo in the back of Jack's mind. She flew small, slow circles around him. "How have you been holding up? Good? Not good?"

Jack yanked out his thought to look up at May. "I'm fine, healing up nicely." He puffed hard on the cigarette and exhaled all the smoke out his nose. It bellowed around him before dissipating into the air.
"I smoke because it reminds me of home.." He said quietly, looking at the tobacco stick in his fingers. "The earth may seem so polluted and nasty to you angels, but to me it's too fresh to stand." He looked up at May again and held out another candy bar for her.
"Everyone has their addiction."

May snatched the candy bar in her small, sharp teeth and devoured it in a second, wrapper and all.

"Sugar is a blessing, in my opinion," May explained, "Humans don't know how fortunate they have it, to be able to splurge on something so sweet whenever they have a few dollars."

She glided over and rested on Jack's shoulder, wrapping around the back of his neck. Her limbs were still too underedeveloped to use, so she flapped her wings when she felt herself scrambling for purchase. There, she relaxed her head and made an audible sigh.

"I don't mind the smoke. Work always smelled like it."

Jack was a little shocked when the little angel-being landed on him and then relaxed. She trusted him that much? He felt the urge to pet her like a cat but decided against it.
"Humans really don't realize how lucky they have it," he agreed before looking up at the stars in the sky.
He was silent for a moment... "Do you have any weaknesses?" He asked more in a thoughtful way then in a way that he wanted to hurt her. He could never bring himself to really harm her.

"Why, what a loaded a question to ask." May laughed, "Take me out to dinner first."

She wiggled a little to get more comfortable.

"In this form, I'm both at my most powerful and weakest. I have access to all my abilities, but it's also the only form which I can actually die in. If I'm mortally wounded in any of my human or half-forms, I'll reincarnate entirely. But my healing abilities in those forms are also extremely great, so it would be hard to get me to that point. This form is the real me, so if I can't get away or heal my injuries... I'll disappear from existence."

"That's kinda scary..." Jack mumbled a little.
"If I 'die' then I just get sent back to hell... But every time you get sent back you go a little crazy and lose a piece of you. So that's not something I want to happen... Plus it's hard getting back to earth." He finished off his cigarette.
"You're lucky you aren't cursed or anything." He added, "all demons have a curse, some more then others. Because of something I did in the past I can't be healed." He gently tapped his stomach where the bullet hole was. "I can heal myself to some degree, but I can't get healed by any sort of magic and human medicines can hurt me as well."
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, "I am also most powerful in my true form, but most helpless out of it. But, I am a demon, and I can't always control myself in my true form..."

"That's scary, too," May replied, "always being afraid of losing control. No matter what form I'm in... even if I reincarnate... I'm always me. I take comfort in that."

Her small wings folded as she found a positon that would keep her steady without needing them flapping to balance her. The two wings at her cheeks seemed to move with her emotions and speech-- the only sort of facial expression she had in that form.

"Well, now you have me to help pull you back if something happens. I have faith in you."

Jack smiled just a little, "thanks.."
He had never had a friend before. Not a real one anyway. Just once that felt like they owed him something like Darwin. It was a strange but good feeling. But it also made a little bit more fear creep into his chest. Now he had something to lose.
"We should probably get going before the hunters find us."

Another sigh. "Yeah, probably. I'm guessing it's not safe to stay sitting for this long with people after us. It wasn't like this place was particularly hard to find..."

She slid off Jack's shoulders and flew a little to the side, shapeshifting back into her female, human form. Her flat shoes tapped the asphalt lightly as she landed, and she looked over at Jack with a slightly sad smile.

"Feeling up for another drive, then?"

"Yeah," Jack nodded. He noticed her sad smile but didn't know what to say about it. He wasn't good at things like that.
He went over to motorcycle that was sitting up front again and clipped the saddle bags shut.
Darwin came rushing out of the little store when he saw that they were getting ready to go.
"You are leaving already??" he asked in a voice almost like a child.
"Yeah we have somewhere to be and can't sit still..."
"But-"
"You will be fine." Jack said firmly, offering him a short smile before getting onto the bike and starting it.

May took her place on the back of the motocycle, feeling relieved that she wouldn't be the one driving. Maybe if she was lucky, she could manage getting some shut-eye to waste a couple hours without falling off the vehicle entirely...

She looked over at the little demon (briefly wondering if it was appropriate to even call him little since he took the form of a grown man) and nodded slightly. It was urgent they left as soon as possible. To where, she didn't have a clue, however.

Jack waved shortly to Darwin before driving away from the little mini mart. As they drove to their next destination and the cold night air whipped though their hair he thought about how he loved having May's arms around his waist. And confusion grew inside of him. He didn't understand what these feelings were or what to do about them. He was used to feeling things like lust, like when he first met May, but it was different now. It felt safe.

They were on the bike for a few hours again before reaching another city. This one was smaller then the last but seemed to be just as busy. The streets were filling with cars as all humans drove to work. The sun was peeking over the horizon, forcing Jack to dawn sunglasses. He drove to the police station in the center of town and finally pulled to stop and turned the bike off.

"I have to check in, get my transfer papers in order and all that," He explained as he got off the bike to go inside.
"Would be best if you stay here."

The ride was uneventful to the point of May nearly falling asleep sitting behind Jack, but thankfully her grip around his waist was an anchor that kept her from falling off the vehicle.

Once they had arrived at their destination, she yawned and rubbed at the corners of her eyes to rid them of gathered dirt and dust.

"Alright," she said simply, reaching her arms out to both sides of her and puffing up her chest in a long stretch. "If you get into anymore nonsense feel free to let me know. I'll put my fantastic charms to good use."