Chapter Text
He would have been lying if he said he didn't like Mr. Johnson, even if he was a crotchety old codger that lived way on the opposite side of town. The guy had been forgetting who Raven was these days and that made it harder to visit him but, if he didn't argue and let Mr. Johnson treat him as whoever he wanted, usually a grandson, then things were a lot easier, if not a lot more heartbreaking. Guy had a mean streak and a tendency to get easily frustrated, but he also had a soft side that would come out for his relatives and for anyone who would play cards with him. Raven hadn't been great at cards in the first place but now he was getting the hang of it and even won every once in a while.
The worst thing about Mr. Johnson was the fact that he lived way on the opposite side of Redgrave. There was a stretch of nothing between the main part of town and where Mr. Johnson's suburb and there were ruins and snagging bushes and things that sometimes dashed out into the road to play chicken with his truck. It wasn't a bad truck, it could survive whatever it hit but sometimes, when he wasn't quick enough to swerve around whatever had decided it wanted to get hit, he'd see it scramble off the road after, as if it hadn't been hit at all. Some of them looked like animals, lizards and insects, but others he knew were demons. Something had happened out here, down Paradise Road, that attracted demons to it.
He shivered. He hated demons. It didn't matter how big they were, how much of a threat they posed, he couldn't stand them. It wasn't so bad that he had to make his weekly runs to Mr. Johnson's house in his full armor, but he did keep a devil arm in his passenger seat. Her name was Nevan and the weirdo that had sold her to him had been adamant that he treat her with respect and keep her tuned, treat her like a lady. Raven thought the guy was nuts but he was desperate. Sometimes, he could swear the weapon, something between a multitoothed ax and a guitar, was hitting on him but that didn't make any sense.
He was on his way back from having dropped off Mr. Johnson's allotment of books for the week, wondering how much damage had happened to the shop in his absence, when he saw something on the usually abandoned road. It wasn't something trying to cross or get hit. It wasn't something small. He did know, without a doubt, that it was a demon though.
The bird had a three pronged beak and was flapping a few feet off the ground, diving down and landing, grabbing, attacking a larger shape. From where Raven was, he couldn't tell what the shape was, it was just dark and not moving. The demon though, wasn't letting up, kept swooping down and trying to get a hold of the shape, getting a talon full of dark ragged fabric and pulling it up enough for Raven to get a glimpse of a pale thin hand as he drove past.
A human hand.
He slammed on the breaks, letting the tires burns as he skidded. That was a person! Down there, being attacked by some demon. He couldn't just let that slide. He grabbed Nevan and hopped out of the truck, barely remembering to put it into park before rushing over.
He was a big guy, looking all the bigger by the amount of leather that he wore. The tattoos and wild red hair helped to make him look even more intimidating. It worked on people, regardless of if he wanted it to but demons didn't care much about how big and scary he was. They saw a human and decided that he had to be lunch. This one though, it didn't seem to care about him really.
Gripping Nevan he raced forward, almost missing the way the demon was frantically calling to the figure it was attacking. It sounded like English but Raven was too busy swiping at it with Nevan, letting the neck extend and the ax turn into a lengthened scythe.
"Woah woah woah!" The bird demon squawked as it dodged the swipe, careening to the side. It's voice was shrill in the way that would only grow irritating within a span of five minutes. "What's the big deal here?"
So there was some level of intelligence in this thing, that was a surprise. Maybe he could talk it out its supper.
"Get off it!" he growled, strumming the strings of Nevan and she started to play, electricity shuddering down her purple body.
"Oh you think you're so cool don'tcha? With your little sparks?" The demon chortled at him. "Wanna see what I can do?" Its body started to pulse, static sparking through its feathers. The lightning became cloud-like, shifting to be sphere-like around it, lightning bouncing off the edges.
He lifted Nevan, hoping to shield himself with her. She wasn't the right size for that but he wasn't wearing anything that would protect him from whatever this demon was up to.
"Just leave 'em alone, that's all I ask!" He pressed through grit teeth. "There's not even a full meal of 'em."
The lightning dispersed. The demon lowered itself down to the ground, between Raven and the body, and cocked a head. "Wait, you thought I was attacking him?"
"You're a demon and you were swooping down at, what I can only guess, is an unconscious body, so yeah!" Raven didn't put Nevan down, staying at the ready. He didn't trust this weird bird thing, not one bit.
"So you want to protect him?" the demon asked, hopping a little bit closer to Raven much like a crow would. "From demons?"
"Duh?"
"From things like that?" The bird pointed to the side with one wing, from whatever direction they must have come from. There was something growing, something large and white and pulsing, the thorns around it making it look like a fat and heavy forbidden fruit. Coming towards them was something else though, footsteps heavy and lumbering, skin a deep blue, and muscles and teeth growing over one another, the demon growing in stature as it left the vines and the ruined house behind.
"What the Hell is that?"
"Hell's right! And it's coming for the kid. Look at me, I'm a bird and I'm not even a bird at full strength; I can't get him away from that. But you! You have a truck! You can get him out of here!"
The lightening flickered and faded and he tossed Nevan, a little less respectfully than he should have, into the back of the truck. Whatever that thing was, it was getting closer. He could smell it, what he imagined space to smell like and the hairs on the back of his arms lifted. He dashed past the bird demon and scooped up the limp body and the tattered gray cloak that he was wrapped in.
He carried him bridal style as he ran back to the truck, set him down in the passenger seat and, as an afterthought, buckled him in. The cloak fell from his face and Raven saw that he wasn't really a kid, was close to Raven's own age, but was thin and pretty and far too soft to be dealing with demons. Raven wasn't soft in a lot of ways, physically, and he still couldn't actually kill anything worse than a Mannequin.
The bird hopped into the truck as he was closing the door, settled in the man's lap as Raven started the old truck up, and they were speeding out of there. Raven didn't like going too fast on this road, there were too many potholes, but this time, he went 70. There was no way that thing back there could catch up to them.
He looked in his rear view mirror. The demon had stopped, standing in the middle of the road, at least eight feet tall. There was a red crystal spinning around it but with a wave of its hand the crystals split apart and a flash of blue, followed by another, formed a cross. A portal split from those cuts and the demon stepped through.