Chapter Text
It was three months since Etho had last seen Bdubs in his stupid, fancy sorcerer’s tower apartment in Philadelphia when he found himself all alone, trapped in the back of a sketchy dive bar in the middle of nowhere, USA.
And dammit if Beef hadn’t been right: it turned out that it was indeed a terrible idea for him to have gone off hunting alone.
It’s just that this wasn’t supposed to have been the dangerous part of this case. He’d only been tailing a suspected tiefling to see if she might possibly be connected to the unusual livestock deaths happening around town.
It couldn’t have been more simple.
He’d followed her to a bar at the far outskirts of town. And maybe he should have been paying more attention, maybe he should have let Beef and Pause know where he was, but it was too late now—he was in the bar, and there was nothing he could do about it.
What he’d failed to account for was that the tiefling was very much aware of his (apparently) not-so-clandestine surveillance efforts, and she’d led him here on purpose.
The magnitude of his mistake became all too clear the moment he realized the bar was teeming with an unfortunate array of demons and imps.
He stood absolutely no chance whatsoever of fighting them all. Running was his only viable option. He turned to leave immediately upon noticing the precariousness of his situation.
“And just where do you think you’re going, darling?” a female voice crooned from across the bar. Before he had a chance to think about it, Etho found himself sitting at a barstool, face to face with the bartender.
She was stunningly gorgeous, a tall red haired woman looking down on him with what appeared to be a well-practiced smolder.
His thoughts grew cloudier the longer he was in her presence, and he had to lean against the bar top for support.
Not good.
Bdubs had tried to teach him about magic. Three months ago Etho had been in the sorcerer’s apartment, learning things about himself he would have rather not known. He dug up those memories now, grasping for any possible way out of this bind.
What was it Bdubs had said? Notice your thoughts. Imagine placing them one by one onto clouds floating overhead, and let them drift past you.
The meditation briefly cleared his mind, and he was able to break eye contact with the bartender.
“Hmm,” she studied him with a cutting gaze, leaning over the bar seductively. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the ghost image of horns protruding from her hair.
Demon.
She picked up his hand in her fiery hot grasp. “What’s a pretty thing like you doing here all alone?”
She was scantily clad in tight leather, which wasn’t the kind of thing that’d usually catch his eye, and he was surprised to find himself drawn to her.
Not a demon. Succubus. A specific kind of demon that targeted single men, bending them to their will for their own devious purposes, and well… Etho fit that bill, painfully single as ever.
He was supposed to hunt things like this. It was his job, cleansing the world of dangerous monsters, he couldn't let her win so easily.
He glanced around the bar for someone he might be able to fool her into thinking he was here on a date with—it would be his best chance at shaking her attentions.
Looking around, he wasn’t so sure anyone in this bar was human. And from the way they were all very pointedly avoiding him, it seemed like she was the one in charge around here.
Great. Just his luck.
“Can I get you something to drink, sweetness?” she asked. “On the house.”
Her words were smooth, slipping right past his defenses and into his mind, but it couldn’t have been magic. If it was, he’d have been resistant to it—just as he was impervious to the mind-control of vex and vampires alike.
This was something darker. Something deeper. A primal force that dug its claws in at the base of his skull, into that tender spot a partner might have otherwise occupied, punching the air out from his lungs and leaving him breathless.
He wasn’t going to let her make him her thrall.
Absolutely not.
And so when she stepped away to make him a drink, he bolted, breaking free of her compulsion just long enough to scramble to the bar’s back hallway.
There was a commotion out in the bar as demons shuffled from their seats to pursue him.
“Leave him,” his succubus said nonchalantly. “He won’t escape me.”
Etho bit back a growl. She was right. He was unable to put enough distance between them to even make it all the way to the back door.
He leaned against the wall, gasping with effort. Maybe—just maybe—he’d be able to make it out to the parking lot, but what then?
On habit, he thumbed over the pocket watch hidden away in his jacket, wondering over his options. Bdubs had insisted he take the watch that night he’d told him about magic—the watch he’d used to learn how to focus his own abilities when he’d been a young sorcerer.
Not that it’d done Etho any good.
Bdubs might have claimed that the potions Etho had learnt to make required handling magic, but Etho was doubtful. He’d yet to see a single tangible result from the crash course Bdubs offered him that night on casting spells.
He’d need a better plan to get free of this succubus.
And fast.
Fuck, Beef and Pause were gonna be so mad when they found out he’d been killed by a succubus. He hated imagining his fellow hunters’ reaction when they discovered his fate—Pause’s blind rage and Beef’s desperate despair.
Bdubs was gonna be so mad when he found out.
If he ever found out.
Etho would never get the chance to return his pocket watch like he’d promised. The thought panged through his chest, leaving him feeling hollowed out. No, not like this.
This couldn’t be the end.
Danger lurked just around the corner, and all he could think was that he really should have stayed that last night at Bdub’s apartment. Leaving right when Bdubs had suggested he'd been open to doing something more had felt like the right thing to do at the time, but now it was impossible to recall why exactly he hadn’t stayed, why he’d fled with nothing more than an awkward handshake.
The irony wasn’t lost on him that staying that night might have been the one thing that would have allowed him to circumvent this particular predicament—maybe he wouldn't have been so vulnerable to a monster who preyed on single men.
Sorry, Bdubs, he thought to himself, pinching his eyes shut against the flood of emotion that threatened to overwhelm him.
It was late enough by now that the sorcerer would be home in his apartment high above the Philadelphia skyline, probably settling in for bedtime with a cup of tea in hand, practicing his spellcasting or reading a book.
If only Etho could be there.
If only he hadn’t left.
And now he was going to die here to a demon, and he'd never get to know what would've happened if he'd stayed that night.
He squeezed the pocket watch, pushing down the bitter self-pity crawling up his throat.
Without warning, the sorcerer came crashing into existence right in front of him, pajamas and all, as if plucked straight from his vision.
“Whaa?!?” Bdubs shouted, and he threw a steaming mug of tea into the air as he stumbled to get his footing in the dingy back hallway of the middle-of-nowhere bar.
Maybe it wasn’t the real Bdubs. But he didn’t think. There wasn’t time.
Etho cut him off by yanking his mask down and planting an over-exaggerated kiss over his mouth. Any doubt he might have had about him being real vanished in an instant. He’d have to wait till later to process the implications of this being their first kiss.
Or maybe the demon would get them both, and it’d be their only kiss. At least then he'd never have to think about it ever again.
“Etho, what is this??” Bdubs demanded, pushing himself free. “How’d you do that??”
His eyes were wide, darting over Etho’s maskless face. But if the sorcerer didn’t know how he’d suddenly appeared here, then Etho certainly didn’t know.
“Just— There’s a demon after me,” Etho explained. He nodded out into the bar.
Bdubs peeked around the corner, frowned. “That’s not a nice thing to call her.”
“She’s a succubus, Bdubs.”
“Oh,” Bdubs glanced back out into the bar. “You should do that again.”
Etho did as instructed, leaning in to kiss Bdubs, this time making sure to really sell it that they were together, unleashing all the doubt and confusion he’d been keeping boxed up during these months apart, making it clear: he was not available to be taken as anyone’s thrall.
Etho paused, hand curled around the back of Bdub’s neck, and he asked under his breath, “Is she gone?”
There was the hint of a smile in Bdub’s voice, “Oh, she been gone for a while.”
Etho jerked back. “Then why—?”
“Has anyone ever told you you're a good kisser?” Bdubs chuckled, striding coolly away towards the back door. “C’mon.”
Numbly, Etho wandered after Bdubs—in his pajamas and all—as he slipped out the door to the parking lot outside. He could hardly believe his luck that he was getting away this easy.
Bdubs gawked at the tall pacific northwest trees surrounding them, piercing up into the clear summer night sky, “Where—?”
His question was cut short by a demon lunging for him out of the darkness, tackling Bdubs to the ground with a hard thud. Sparks flew off him as the demon’s sharpened claws were stopped dead by some kind of invisible shield Bdubs had cast around himself.
Etho leapt towards them, pulling the silver knife from the sheath in his jacket. It wasn’t a great weapon to use against a demon, but the handgun concealed on his hip would only be worse.
Before he could make it to Bdubs, a hand latched around his arm, pulling him off balance.
Etho wheeled, spinning to sink his knife into the demon’s shoulder. It hissed loudly, eyes flashing red as its grip loosened enough for him to slip free.
Bdubs was on his feet now, casting something which rippled past him in a cool breeze, and any demons within the perimeter slowed their approach.
“Duck!” Bdubs yelled.
Etho dropped to a crouch as a wave of sunlight burst forth from Bdub’s palms. It sailed over Etho’s head to land squarely on another demon who’d nearly snuck within reach of him, sending the demon tumbling away.
But more demons were streaming out of the bar—they were about to be severely outnumbered.
Among them was the succubus in her provocative attire ordering her demons after them. Etho didn’t notice until it was too late that she’d locked eyes with him from across the parking lot.
You didn’t really think I’d let you get away? her voice echoed in his head, and Etho was once again drawn to her against his will.
A sickening tug of something other pulsed through air in a shockwave, and he turned to find Bdubs pouring an immense amount of magic into a growing ball of light. He shielded his eyes from the tiny sun blazing throughout the parking lot like daylight.
Come to me, the succubus demanded, sinking her claws painfully into his thoughts.
Demons rushed towards them now, and he ground his teeth, railing against her command with all his might. But she held sway over him that he could not shake.
“Etho, get back!” Bdubs shouted as Etho walked mindlessly into danger.
The supernova expanded in his hands, and when it looked on the brink of fracturing reality itself, Bdubs lobbed it towards the demons crowding around them.
“Come to me!!” she snarled at the last second, and Etho willingly joined her in the explosion’s path.
The light consumed him, roaring over him, leaving his vision whited out and his ears ringing.
He dropped to his knees in the parking lot.
“Etho!” he heard Bdubs shouting distantly, and then he was there, patting over Etho’s shoulders and head. “Hey. Hey, you’re okay. You’re okay.”
Bdubs pulled him to his chest, wrapping him up in an embrace.
“They’re gone,” he said. “They're gone.”
Slowly, Etho's vision returned, and eventually he was able to make out oily smears on the cracked pavement where the demons had been. He recoiled at the thought of the power it must have taken from Bdubs to pull off such a feat.
“I thought you might be full fae,” Bdubs said. He looked down at Etho, exhausted—his dark hair askew, sweat lining his brow.
The words prickled at his sluggish mind. “What’s that mean?” he asked numbly. Of course he wasn't fully fae.
“They’ll be back,” Bdubs said, helping him to his feet. “That banishment won’t last long.”
“Banishment?”
“Sends ‘em back to their home plane.”
He had to replay the information several times over before it started to make sense.
So if everything within Bdub’s blast radius had been sent back to its home plane… and Etho had been caught in the spell… then Etho was already in his home plane.
“Oh snap.” He hadn’t ever considered that anything else was a possibility.
Etho was still learning what exactly it meant for him to be fae-touched. He knew now it'd happened when he'd gone to the End long ago in his youth. He knew it made him resistant to some kinds of magic, and he knew it made vampires extra, weirdly interested in him. Allegedly it even gave him access to his own magic, but there was still so much he had no idea about.
Bdubs took a moment to fix his slippers and do up the tie on his sweatpants. “So where are we anyway?”
Etho’s thoughts finally began to kick back into gear. “Oh… uh, Boise.”
“Boise!? Oregon??” Bdubs squawked. “Oh brother, you’ve gotta be kidding me!”
“Boise’s actually in Idaho,” Etho corrected.
“Oh, sorry, it’s only Idaho,” Bdubs complained loudly. “Oregon, Idaho, who freakin’ cares when I’m ten million miles away from my bed?? You better got a place for me to stay till I can get back home! Do you have any idea how far Philly is from here??”
“Bdubs…” Etho asked tentatively. “How did you do that?”
He was incredibly glad Bdubs was here, of course. And he was even more glad that he wasn’t dead. But he was still confused how any of this was possible—Bdubs had told him that sorcerers couldn’t teleport.
“What? This?” Bdubs moved in to kiss him again with a cheeky grin.
Etho dodged, yanking his mask back up over his face to hide whatever embarrassing expression he was undoubtedly making. “No, I mean, you… teleported?”
Bdubs scoffed. “Oh, well, I could ask you the same question.”
Etho had no idea what that might mean, but now at Beef’s Jeep at the back of the parking lot, Bdubs promptly shoved his way into the driver’s seat, insisting that he was so much better of a driver than Etho, even if it was this far past his bedtime.
His head was still ringing, and it was easier to let him win, so Etho climbed into the passenger seat and proceeded to direct him back to the motel he’d been staying at with Beef and Pause.
He wasn’t looking forward to explaining any of this to his fellow hunters, but at least he wasn’t dead, so really, they should be happy for him, if anything.
After several minutes of missed turns and doubling back on darkened country highways, the car rolled to a stop in the motel parking lot.
He shut off the engine, and an unusual seriousness came over Bdubs as they sat there listening to the car’s engine ticking in the warm summer night.
“I, umm… My magic’s been different…” he admitted quietly, staring down at the steering wheel, “ever since I got back from the End.”
“Different?”
“This,” Bdubs ran fingers over the patch of white that’d appeared in his hair after coming back from the End and their whole misadventure several months ago. “Lizzie and I cast magic together, you know, in the End. And I dunno how, cause her fae magic ain’t at all like sorcerer magic. But we did.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t tell Cleo,” Bdubs said furtively. “Or Joe, or any of them… but I’ve been working on a few things.”
“Like teleportation?” Etho asked, finally catching on to where he was going with all this—he was practicing a different kind of magic than was approved for use in the sorcerer’s tower.
Bdubs nodded. His eyes reflected the motel’s gaudy neon lights as he studied Etho pensively from the driver’s seat.
“That’s useful,” Etho remarked, but his mind was already racing ahead to a rosy future where he’d be able to see Bdubs, where he could keep traveling around the country hunting monsters, and Bdubs would be able to teleport to him from time to time. And maybe they could even go on hunts together and—
“Yes, it is… But Etho…” Bdubs said carefully, breaking through his reverie, “That wasn’t me. I wasn’t casting any magic tonight.”
Etho’s thoughts stopped dead in their tracks, coming to a screeching halt. “You’re not saying…?”
“C’mon,” Bdubs said, gesturing to the motel room door. “I’ll help you finish your case of… whatever it is you’re doing here in Idaho. And then I got some things I need to teach you.”
“Like… what?” His hand drifted to his mask, wondering if Bdubs might try to kiss him again now that they were alone and free of danger.
“You're gonna need to know how not to get caught illegally handling magic.”