Title: Belief
Series: Biblical
Author: Christina A
Fandom: Brimstone
Pairing: None
Characters: Ezekiel Stone, The Devil, Charlotte Rameses
Category: AU, Original Character, Angst, Drama, Action, UST
Warning: None
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don’t own Ezekiel, The Devil or the concept of Brimstone. I do, however, own Charlotte.
Author’s Notes: This is the second story in the ‘Biblical’ series.
Summary: This is the second story in the ‘Biblical’ series. Ezekiel learns that sometimes belief is the most important.
Belief
by Christina A
Stone slid down the wall and clutched at his chest. Sending a soul back to hell was a good thing, but it hurt when that soul’s mark was removed from his body. “No good deed goes unpunished,” he quoted.
“Zeke,” Charlotte called, racing down the alley to help him.
“It’s ok, Char. One down, only about 80 to go.”
Helping him up, she looked at him indignantly. “Do not call me Char, please.”
She turned to walk away and therefore didn’t see him smile. “Sure. I’ll try to remember that.”
“You’re an amoeba.”
He laughed at that. “It only took, what, a minute for you to go from concern to name calling. We’re getting better.”
She spun on him and glared. “I came out here to help you and you antagonize me.”
“Because I called you Char. Please.”
She ran her hand through her hair and sighed. “I’d just prefer to be called by my name… my given name. Ok?”
“Fine,” he shook his head. It seemed that the time they’d spent apart hadn’t thawed her any. He’d spent time with vampires, psychics, demons, and witches, even found a kindred soul in the vampire, Angel. But his work drew him back to his own part of L.A. and upon his return, he’d learned that Charlotte’s father had paid a visit. Whatever the Egyptian politician had said, Charlotte had regressed to the cast iron bitch she’d been before they met. It bothered him. She was his friend, and she was unhappy. The Devil’s warning of her being his temptation swept through him again.
She paused and turned to face him. As he’d been looking down and thinking, he didn’t see her. Instinctively, her hands went up to stop him from running into her. Looking up, their faces were less than an inch apart and the heat was immediate.
‘Temptation,’ he thought.
‘Commoner,’ she reminded herself.
Yet neither moved. His arm slid around her waist, and her hand reached up to his shoulder. Their eyes locked and held. He wanted her. He needed this. But the look in her eyes bespoke of not only need but fear. She wanted, but it wasn’t the time. Ever so slowly, he pulled away and smiled.
Her breathing was erratic as she’d never thought that she’d want him in *that* way. But as he moved away, she regretted that he hadn’t tried to kiss her. The disappointment was quickly masked. “Coffee?” she asked curtly and turned to head out of the alley.
*-*-*
“Interesting night,” the Devil said, appearing from his usual place… nowhere.
“I sent Havaras back. I’d call it a success.”
“Not what I’m talking about and you know it.”
“Don’t go there,” Stone said, very seriously.
“You refuse to pay any heed to my warning about her. Why?”
“Why do you care?”
The evil man smiled, somewhat insincerely. “You are important to me.”
“I’m sending your escaped souls back to Hell. Anything else I do is my business.”
The pile of papers he’d once offered Stone appeared again. “You still belong to me,” he reminded. “Read this.” With that, he disappeared.
Stone looked down at the stack of papers. Whatever was in them, he was sure he wouldn’t like. Still, he picked them up and read.
Four hours and three bottles of vodka later, Stone, in a very slurred voice, was shouting at the Devil. When he reappeared, Stone chucked the bottle at him. “You sick son of a bitch.”
“Didn’t like the report, huh?”
“I knew you were evil, but this,” he shook the file for emphasis, “this is sick even for you.”
The devil shrugged. “The Egyptians believe in reincarnation. They believe in pre-destination. That’s what the caste system is about. Whether you like it or not, your Charlotte is… was.. and always will be Egyptian.”
“I don’t care.”
“Not about her ethnicity, no. But about how she’s committed the same acts life after life… you do care about that.”
“She’s not going to commit it this time. Not this time.”
“You’re wrong. Besides, you have a job to do. This is a sidetrack. Don’t forget that.”
“You won’t let me.”
“True.”
*-*-*
Two days later…
“Do you love her?” the vampire asked.
Sitting on the roof of the hotel, the condemned man shrugged. He’d turned to Angel, needing to talk to someone. He figured the vampire would understand. “I could. I don’t know. If you met her, you’d really not like her. She’s arrogant, haughty, crass, and bold. Her family is wealthy and aristocratic. She was raised to be the way she is, but there’s more to her than that.” He shrugged.
“And your wife?”
Stone’s eyes turned sad. “I went to hell for her. But it’s been 15 years since that happened. She’s moved on. If I ever actually get what’s promised to me, I could move on myself.”
Angel smirked. “You can’t trust the devil.” He turned introspective for a long moment before asking, “Regardless of feelings, what would happen if you started something with her and the Devil reneged on your deal?”
“She’s strong,” Zeke replied, though the question had hit a mark. “But I’m not that selfish.”
Angel clapped the man on the back and said, “The true Hell lies in doing what you think is right even when it hurts more than you think you can bear.”
*-*-*
Standing outside her door, Ezekiel let his forehead rest against it. He had thought that Hell was torturous for him. The endless physical and mental pain was nothing compared to the torture he was enduring right now.
He wasn’t surprised that the Devil had taken such pleasure in revealing the secret of Charlotte’s past lives. And it shouldn’t matter to him what she’d done in those lives. It shouldn’t be held against her in this one anyway. The entire point of reincarnation was to learn from the mistakes of past lives and move on. But she’d made the same mistake life after life. The cycle had to stop somewhere.
Slowly, he turned and slid down the door until he was sitting on the floor. From inside his pocket, he pulled out a piece of paper. His eyes scanned over the words again. “Khensa, daughter of Khentimentiu, ruled her family after the murder of her father. She had been promised to Peyes, but refused to complete the bonding after the death of her father. The man was enraged and appealed to the Pharoah for intervention. He sided with Khensa stating that the murder of her father voided all contracts.
“Many years later, Khensa, known for her callousness and ferocity, took into her bed a man named Enezib. He was a commoner, his caste one of service. Therefore, bonding between them was unacceptable.”
Zeke couldn’t read the rest. What happened to that poor man was horrific even to a homicide detective. And it wasn’t just Khensa who this happened to. It was lifetime after lifetime. It had been repeated for ages and the ending never changed. Running both hands through his hair, he finally stood and walked away. He had to put distance between himself and the temptation. It was the role he seemed destined to play over and over again. He was Enezib.
That was why the Devil had chosen him. By getting killed, he’d not been able to fulfill his role in the lifecycle. Well, this time it would be different. It had to be.
*-*-*
From her office, Charlotte watched Stone as he approached her door. Her father had insisted on this new security system after Meskhenet had tried to kill her. She wasn’t spying on the detective. He had approached her home, and she was perfectly justified in watching him.
His actions puzzled her. He was generally very direct and very in control. But he was not this time. She leaned forward in her chair and watched. As he sat, she zoomed the camera in on him. What was that look on his face? Sadness. Longing. Pain.
It took a great deal of restraint for her not to go out to him. But whatever he was wrestling with, he’d have to work through it on his own.
It was then that she saw him take out the paper. Switching cameras, she was able to zoom in and read some of the writing.
Shock was her immediate reaction. Turning from the TV monitors, she gazed at her computer screen. It never ceased to amaze her what she could find. Between her FBI status and her father’s connections, she was able to find all kinds of interesting information.
Upon remembering that she was Khenza, she’d had several other relapses into past lives and she had the names for each incarnation. All Egyptian. All aristocratic. But those were the only important consistencies.
When she looked back to the monitors, Stone was gone.
“This is ridiculous.” Ever the pragmatist, she printed up the information and grabbed her jacket. He could worry and fret and find her guilty if he wanted, but she wasn’t the kind to wallow in self pity. It was a waste of energy.
*-*-*
To add pain to pain, another damned soul reared his ugly head. Stone had his first confrontation with him on the way back from Charlotte’s apartment. The encounter was accidental, but the detective now had a new lead he had to follow.
Upon arriving at his room, he found Charlotte standing outside his door. He wasn’t ready for this.
“I thought turnabout was fairplay,” she said.
Unlocking his door, he looked at her and sighed. “What do you mean by that, Charlotte?”
She followed him inside and looked around.
He couldn’t help but laugh at her. “It’s not up to your high standards, I know. But I call it home. Should I clean off a chair for you? Do you need a pair of latex gloves?”
“I’m not going to let you antagonize me into demeaning myself into another shouting match with you.”
“Of course not. You don’t need me to antagonize you to shout at me.”
Making no reply to that, she handed him the file. “I saw you outside my apartment.”
Taking the file, all he could ask was, “How?”
“Father upgraded my security. But that’s really none of your business. Of course, neither is what is in that file; but since you already know, I’ll share.”
“How big of you.”
“Just look at it, Zeke.”
Sitting on the end of his bed, he opened the file. He wasn’t surprised to find information on Khensa or even the others. “You do a little research after reading over my shoulder?”
“I had already done it.”
“And…”
She crossed the room slowly. Her heels clicked on the floor as she closed the distance between them. “I think,” her accent thickened just a bit, “you put far too much import on yourself. You cannot honestly believe you were Enezib? The events unfolded in each of the lifetimes in that file are unfolding differently than what is happening in this lifetime.”
She tossed another file to him. “Take a look at this one. Whoever gave you the information didn’t give you all of it.”
He stared at her dumbfounded.
Leaning in, she said, “I saw you outside my apartement. This,” she pointed at the Khensa file, “you believed without question. You assumed it was all there. But you were wrong. So very wrong, Detective Stone. And it was poor judgment on your part not to investigate further. You should have believed in me. You should have asked me before assuming you had all the information.” She sighed, and for the first time, the pain showed in her eyes. “I believed in you.” That said, she pulled away from him and left.
Stone stared after her, not moving for several moments. When he finally did, he opened up the other file and read. After five minutes, he felt like the biggest jackass ever.
“Find out something new?”
“I think I was just reminded of something actually.”
“Wait! Let me guess. You can’t trust the Devil?” Looking proud, Stone’s new visitor said, “And I guess that would be me.”
“Why?” the detective asked softly. “Why did you only tell me half the story?”
The Dark Lord shrugged. “You were getting too involved. Becoming unfocused. I guess I was jealous.”
“Bullshit. If anything, you thought you’d get a kick out of jerking me around.”
“Not just you,” the Devil sing-songed.
“Get out of here,” Stone hissed.
“I hear you ran into another or your brethren tonight. This little torture with the FBI agent… It’s nothing compared to what awaits you if you fail me. Get focused and return my escaped children. Understand?”
Zeke’s only answer was to glare. When the Devil disappeared, he continued to stare ahead. The evil man had been right, but what had struck the hardest was what Charlotte had said. He hadn’t believed in her, not completely. He’d taken the information and accepted it as truth. He hadn’t gone to Charlotte. If roles had been reversed, she sure as hell would have come to him. It was her nature. It was what she expected in return.
She never got it from anyone. It just wasn’t in the nature of most people to be so open and self-confident.
Falling back on the bed, he sighed. Of course, she’d hoped she’d found something different in him. He had been open and honest with her… up until now that was.
He’d disappointed her.
She didn’t rebound from that.
Rolling over, he dropped the file on the floor. As the papers scattered, he stared at them again. Khensa and the other lives, they were fact. What happened was real. But the other lives, the ones where she’d gone against her caste and worked to solve crimes and help others. The Devil had left those out. He’d also left out that when Khensa lost her lover, it was she who’d caught the real killer. The file that Satan had given him also failed to show that the last reincarnation with the murdered lover had been a millennia ago. She’d moved on and her past few lives had been difficult but successful in love.
He hadn’t believed in her. But maybe it was for the best. She was gone and definitely not going to let him back in her life. Angel was right too. He needed to let her go and though it hurt, perhaps it was for the best.
Finis
Tags: alternate universe, angst, charlotte rameses, drama, ezekiel stone, original character, rating: pg-13, the devil, ust