◁━━━━◈✙◈━━━━▷

While Zed and John went about interrogating the former priest, Jeremy conducted his own investigation. He waited until they'd left, making up some lame excuse about questioning some others at the bar. (Though, he doubted either of them believed it since it was a terrible lie.)

Once they were out of the way, he went back to the motel and gathered up his things again; he dumped a spoonful of salt on the floor before preforming a quick demon summoning spell, (a very dangerous feet that probably should have been left to the likes of John, but Jeremy didn't have time to explain his hunch to his friend) focusing on the woman he'd spotted at the bar. She was probably somewhere still in town, and Jeremy could have simply tracked her down. But this was much easier.

Fortunately, the woman appeared almost immediately. Her brown hair was placed over the side of one shoulder, a coy smile tugging at the edges of her mouth; her dress was much more low cut than Jeremy had thought. It was kind of annoying how noticeable and distracting it was. (He assumed she must have done that on purpose.) She eyed him up and down as soon as she spotted him. "So, I did get your attention."

"Apparently," Jeremy said shortly. He stood back, watching her every move, lest she try to something. "Who are you supposed to be?" He squinted at her suspiciously.

The woman merely shrugged, moving to sit on top of the computer desk across the room; she made a point of crossing her legs in such a way that she nearly left herself exposed. She didn't seem to mind, but Jeremy made sure his eyes never drifted below her neck. Letting ones self be seduced by a demon never lead to anything but trouble, another lesson Jeremy had learned the hard way in college.

"I have lots of names," she snickered, leaning forward, her breasts pressing together as she did so. "Death, Lust, Famine, War, Conquest, Greed, Seven Deadly Sins, Four Horseman. But recently I've taken quite the shine to Groves..."

Jeremy groaned inwardly, averting his gaze for a just a moment. She was all seven on of the deadly sins and four horseman at once? That seemed like too much of a stretch, even if his luck was particularly shitty. She was probably lying. At least, he hoped she was lying. "Why are you here?"

"Well I didn't kill that miner if that's what you're thinking." Groves jumped off the desk and started prancing around the room, making a big show of it. "I just came to watch the fire works."

Jeremy stared at her for a moment, taking care not to let his eyes fall too low. Something was off. Sure, demons liked causing chaos just for the fun of it, and they liked to watch the mayhem unfold, but that was usually only when they'd set their own destruction into motion. (Demons were egotistical that way.) "Why would you want to do that?"

Groves' smirk widened the slightest bit at this, as if he had just asked about something she was dying to talk about. She came as close to him as she dared with the line of salt separating the pair of them. "She's coming out to play. So, the game's about to be much more fun." Her eyes twinkled with an almost child like wonder, false innocence radiating from her person.

Jeremy took an abrupt step backwards, nearly tripping over the dresser in the process. He glared at her as her little grin widened the slightest bit at his reaction. Like she was the cat and he was the mouse even though he could just send her back to Hell whenever he felt like it (and he would when he was done with her). "Who's 'she?'" he demanded.

"Can't tell you that," Groves shrugged. Jeremy rolled his eyes. Demons were almost as stubborn and annoying as John was.

"Let me guess," he sighed. "It has something to do with this alleged Rising Darkness?"

She didn't say anything, but from the way her widened still Jeremy guessed he was probably in the ball park. A minute ticked by before she actually said anything. "She'll reign and bring chaos in her wake. No one, not you, not John Constantine, not even those stupid meta humans who think they're gods, will be able to stop her." Her eyes sparkled with that childlike light again, and Jeremy could see how glorious she thought it would all be. Very disturbing.

Jeremy shook the thought away. He'd heard demons talk this way before, usually with different pronoun usage, but the message was the same, nonetheless. It never happened, but Groves seemed absolutely set on how the future of the world would play out. "Yeah," Jeremy said slowly, keeping his voice as steady as he could manage. "Sounds very vague and cryptic."

"Good. That's what I was going for." Groves smiled cheekily, and Jeremy would have been a fool not to notice how stunning it was. But she was a demon, he reminded himself. And doing anything with her would only mean bad news for him.

"She's coming soon," Groves went on, still holding that smile over her lips, her form seemingly glowing in an ironically angelic glow. "She's on the way."

Jeremy hummed in response to that. "Maybe you should give me her name so my friends and I can greet her properly when she comes." He shrugged. "Just saying. It would be the polite thing to do."

Groves scoffed and rolled her eyes at him, circling the room once more. "I don't do the whole polite thing. Besides, I really want to see your faces when you figure it out." She let out a soft laugh which sort of resembled the chimes of a bell. "You're going to kick yourselves when you figure it out."

Jeremy sighed, rolling his eyes once again. Demons were a pain in the ass. She'd told him almost nothing, but at least he knew she didn't have anything to do with the miners. "Okay. Bye bye!" Jeremy started the chant that would send her back to where she belonged; a swirling, fire-y yellow portal opened below the demon's feet. Once she fell through, Jeremy let the portal disappear and stood there in the center of the room, contemplating her words before going to find John and Zed.

✧ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ's ɴᴏᴛᴇ✧

Short chapter. Sorry, I've been tired but I wanted to get this up so here we go! Groves and Jeremy have their first meeting! (Mostly because I didn't feel like looking up dialogue and stuff tonight).

Next chapter we'll finish up The Darkness Beneath and get into the next episode! Hopefully you enjoyed this!

✧ᴛʜᴀᴛ's ᴀʟʟ ғᴏʀ ɴᴏᴡ, ᴛᴏᴏᴅʟᴇs!✧

∽ ᴇʟsɪᴇ