I scrambled over boxes that Tom leapt up easily, trying to lose the guys, when my conscience seized me by the balls.  So I turned.  And shoved my fist right into Thing Two's face.  He crumpled like a cheap suit as the first guy jumped me, grabbed me and hauling my arms back behind me and running with me into the wall, slamming my body into the hard brick, knocking the air out of me.  I couldn't even say "Ouch" before he slammed me again, and I felt one of my canines come loose, blood starting to fill my mouth.

He pulled me back for another hit when I heard him yelp by my ear and we both stumbled backwards, him a lot faster than me.  There was a whoosh of air and then a muffled scream, and I turned to see Zel the bouncer looking down at me, a smile on his face.

He's got horns.  The mother fucker has horns! I was screaming in my mind, and I knew that I was about to lose whatever pitiful control I had over my piss.  Zel was holding the guy by the head, the poor bastard was flailing and clawing at the mountain that held him, the mountain that didn't bleed.  Zel shrugged, and punched the nearest wall, denting it.  A sickening crunch, a splatter of blood, and there was one dead thug.  So I ran before Zel could do the same to me, though granted he'd just saved my life.  Give me a break, right?  He had fucking horns!!

Running back out onto the pier brought me into view of Needle Boy again, who launched into me like a cannonball.  He was a skinny motherfucker, but he was fast, faster than me.  I felt a prick on my hand, then a withdrawal, and a splash on my skin.  I tried to get up, hanging onto him, but my reactions were just a little too slow, just a bit too fuzzy.  He brought the syringe around again, and my world was starting to swim.

Zel  tackled the man and me with him, tossing me off to the side with a brush.  Needle Boy squirted the syringe at the big man's face, causing the mountain to yell in fury.  I backpedaled on all fours away as Zel started growing claws, his clothes ripping, the horns growing.  It was like the darkness was called to him, coiling around him, and he drove into the skinny little guy like, well, a demon.  Blood was erupting up in arches, raining down onto the ground in thick sticky drops.  I was crying, because no one should die that way, whimpering and crying.  Bones starting falling next, bits of brain, all ripped up and cracked.  I turned over and the world swam again, and I remembered what Uriel had said, that it'd been LSD in that syringe.  I tried to crawl away, hearing a mewling to my right.  I crawled towards that.

My world exploded in pain, and the world was crystal clear for a few precious seconds as I was picked up and rolled over, long claws puncturing a lung, maybe my heart.  I felt like I was drowning.  All I knew was pain, and then a deep sucking hole in my body, stars dancing in my eyes.  There was a white light in front of me, and the sound of fluttering wings.

"Am I dead?" I gasped out, but no one answered.  I was in too much pain to be dead, anyway.  I curled up and looked down between my wet legs, seeing Zel the demon in all his hellish glory, and another...presence in front of him, a glowing white scythe in its hands.  I knew the name, I just couldn't think...

Something was licking my mouth, something else was tugging at my arm, but I couldn't move, I was too hurt, and too afraid.  Thunder was crashing in front of me, lightning flashing from pinpoints, the sound of wings beating against the air.  It sounds like heavy paper, angel wings.  Heavy paper falling.

The scythe whipped around and Zel held up his arm, but it was too late to stop the wickedly sharp blade, the white plunging into his thick chest.  He roared and struck out, the claws finding purchase in the haze of blue and white and gold that held the scythe.  There was a soft moan as Zel fell growling to the ground, and the mist settled to the earth.  The demon started to change again back to the mountain man, without a scratch on him.  I gave out a little sob.  He had saved my life.  And now he was just dead Zel.

"He is not a simple...man," the deep familiar voice said.  My mind was starting to clear, and there was a warmth at my arm and my side, where the girl had her hands.  Uriel swam into focus, and Tom purred.  I looked down and saw my side was healed, and the girl was smiling.  Uriel touched my face, blocking my sight from her.

"He was the demon Azazel.  You know the term scapegoat?  It came from him.  But never mind, Thomas.  Rest.  You nearly died."

"Who's th-"