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caelum et infernum

Summary:

Kylo Ren is a hunter. You name it, he hunts it: demons, vampires, ghosts, werewolves, etc. His alpha designation makes him exceptionally good at it. Scarce in today’s mostly beta society, alphas are treated as outcasts, making his life on the road lonely.

That is until he meets Rey Johnson, a prophet who sees visions of the future. She also happens to be a rare omega. Once he saves her life, she must join him on the run as they are caught up in a battle between Heaven, Hell and their inexorable pull to each other.

Chapter 1

Notes:

Hello there! Welcome to my first ever a/b/o fic! Why did I write an a/b/o when there's so many other good ones out there in the Reylo fandom right now? Well, dear reader, because I wanted to. And to make it extra self-indulgent, it also happens to be an homage to the originator of the trope, the SPN fandom. But don't worry, you don't have to be an SPN fan to enjoy this. I am basically just lifting all my angels/demons/monsters lore from the show.

I'm about halfway into the story so I should be able to update every Thursday, though comments do help the process! Also, please do check out this lovely artwork (now also embeded below) by the multi-talented mrsvioletwrites, which serves as the cover art for this fic. She is amazing!

Many thanks to the lovely raven_maiden and reylo-convert for beta'ing this chapter!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

A ’67 Falcon revs its way down the dusty back road and pulls into a decrepit gas station. Before pumping gas, the driver heads to the bathroom on the outside of the convenience store. He furiously scrubs the blood off his pale hands and looks at himself in what passes for a mirror, long rusted over and cloudy from years of disuse. He grabs a handful of paper towels and scrubs at the smear of blood running across his forehead. Once he’s satisfied that the blood is all gone, he looks at himself again. Sees his mother’s eyes staring back at him, his father’s nose. The beauty marks and moles that dot his face stand out against his pale skin. At least his longer hair hides his ears, he thinks. He rubs the stubble that has cropped up along his jaw. “I need a fucking drink,” Kylo Ren says to his reflection. He pops up the collar on his faded black leather jacket and walks back to the car.

 

This town isn’t much for ambiance, and so he pulls into the first hole-in-the-wall bar he can find. It has a nondescript name like Joe’s or Moe’s… who even cares? He took out a whole nest of vampires today, single-handedly, and all he wants is some goddamn whiskey. And maybe a piece of ass. The latter takes the form of a blonde bartender who’s been undressing him with her eyes since he walked in. Usually the smart ones stay away from hunters, unless they’ve got that stubborn brave streak that glamorizes the life somehow. He thinks they must just not get a lot of hunters passing through.

 

After he knocks back a few drinks, and she is relieved by the second shift bartender, he follows her into the bathroom. No sooner has he covered her lips with his than she gasps and pulls away suddenly frightened. “You’re… you’re an alpha.”

 

“You couldn’t tell?” he growls, his erection making his pants unbearably tight and now he realizes he probably won’t get what he came in here for.

 

“The bar is always full of so many smells, and you have to be on some kind of suppressants, right?” She says it with an indignant tone, like she wouldn’t normally have made such a mistake.

 

He nods slowly, palms against the dirty bathroom tile on either side of her.

 

“I’m sorry, I can’t. You seem nice enough, but—”

 

He doesn’t let her finish. “Just go.”

 

She runs out of the bathroom, and he drags a shaky hand through his hair. Then punches the wall. Fuck .

 

A few miles down the road, he finds the cheapest, seediest motel and checks in. It’s only for one night so threadbare will do. He’s had worse. As he lets the hot water run over his body in the dingy shower, he considers rubbing one out. It’s been a little while, but in the end the mildew stains are enough to make him turn the shower to cold and finish up as quickly as possible. It doesn’t matter anyway. He’s gone without for so long now.

 

The only thing worse for your sex life than being a hunter, was being an alpha. Remnants of a dying age, there were hardly any left in the wild. One heard stories, but he’d never come across another alpha in his time on the road. People were scared, the rumors were wild, etc. It’s not like Kylo was born this way, but it was a curse he had come to live with. Not all beta women were as squeamish as the bartender. In fact, some of them were turned on by his designation. He even had one in particular who became fixated with his knot. She was a little unstable, but a fun lay. It wasn’t as if his job was conducive to relationships, so he was used to taking whatever he could get; these days it wasn’t much.

 

Still, there was a part of him that longed for a partner. Someone who wouldn’t be put off by what he did, who he was. He would dream about her sometimes: his omega, his other half. He knew she likely didn’t exist, this fantasy woman. Omegas were just as rare as alphas anymore. He met one once, a man that he had helped vanquish a poltergeist. Friendly enough, but Kylo didn’t swing that way. Besides, his scent had been all wrong. He was pretty sure from the extensive lore that he’s read that your true mate would smell amazing. Sounds like some fairytale bullshit, but he could dream. With that thought, he rolls over in the squeaky bed and turns off the light. As he sleeps, he sees her again. Chestnut hair, tan skin, freckles. She is perfect and made for him. They fit just right. He wakes up hard and groans as he shoves his hand down his pants to take care of his problem.

 


 

In a similar rundown town the next state over, a woman grabs a wad of bills off the edge of the pool table, raises her shot of Patron and says, “Thanks for a lovely evening, gents.” Then she downs the shot, tosses them a wink and starts to leave. The biggest of the group - was his name Dwayne or Wayne? - grabs her by the elbow.

 

“Not so fast, missy. You’re just gonna tease us all night, take all our money, and not leave us anything to show for it?”

 

“That was the general idea, yeah.”

 

He moves in closer and takes an exaggerated whiff. “I don’t think so… Omega .” Her eyes widen in surprise. “Yeah, I could tell. Haven’t seen one of your kind in ages, but I hear you lot like to bend over and take it real good.”

 

He’s leering now, eyes traveling to the hint of cleavage showing beneath her gray V-neck. She doesn’t like drawing attention to herself, but the bastard is asking for it. “We do,” she says. He draws in a quick breath, but before he realizes what’s happening, she brings the heel of her boot down hard on his foot. As he yelps in pain, she slams her right elbow into his face and finishes with a knee to his groin. His friends start like they’re going to help but she holds them off with an outstretched hand. She spits on the floor beside him, “But only for an alpha, not a piece of shit beta like you.”

 

Rey Johnson turns, wipes her mouth off with the back of her hand, and gets the hell out of dodge.

 

No sooner has she swiped her keycard in the hotel room door than a blinding pain rips through her head and sends her to her knees. She grabs her temple with one hand and just manages to close the door behind her with the other before curling into a fetal position on the floor. She’s so used to the visions by now that she knows she just has to ride it out. The flashes begin and she sees demons, at least five of them, their bodies human but their black eyes shining like an oil slick. They smile as they advance on her. The leader, a bulky blonde man, holds the others back and says, “Remember, the boss wants her alive .”

 

The scene changes and the demons have overpowered her, dragging her off to God knows where when she sees a flash of black leather and is released from their grip. A man has taken down one of the demons and starts in on the others. The vision ends and Rey opens her eyes, heaving gulps of air into her lungs. She never knew when her premonitions would come true, only that they would. She hadn’t been wrong once in the three years since she’d started having them. Who was this mystery man that was seemingly coming to her rescue?

 

It would happen sooner or later, of that she was sure, but she was too exhausted to pack up and run tonight. Besides, the surroundings in her vision look nothing like the hotel room she’s currently occupying. She quickly showers off the filth of the day and throws on an AC/DC t-shirt to sleep in. As she nestles into the covers, she thinks again about the man in black. There was something about him, something familiar. When she dreams, he comes to her again, and she can see him more clearly - he has dark hair, pale skin, and his arms are incredibly strong. She awakens to sunlight streaming through the blinds and a dull ache between her legs.

 


 

The bell over the glass door clangs as Kylo enters the small diner. He sits down at a booth with his laptop in tow and does some research while the waitress pours his coffee. He orders eggs, bacon, and toast as he reads over the latest news stories looking for his next job. There has been a rash of suicides in a town one state over, which in and of itself isn’t that unusual, but then he reads that the wife of one of the victims said it smelled like sulfur in the room where she found her husband. Sulfur usually equals demons. He will hunt anything paranormal, but some time has passed since he last dealt with demons. He’s always got revenge on his mind where they’re involved.

 

“More coffee?” The waitress is back with the pot and his food.

 

“Yes, thank you.” Kylo pushes his cup towards her. As he digs into his food, his decision is already made. He’ll head over there and check it out.

 

After finishing up and leaving a generous tip for the waitress, he jumps in the Falcon and hits the open road. It’s about a three hour drive so he’s glad he had that second cup of coffee. He rummages through the box of old cassette tapes he keeps in the car and picks Led Zeppelin for the ride. He keeps telling himself he needs to update the sound system, get satellite radio or something installed, but the tapes were his dad’s, and he can’t seem to part with them. Just like the car, and his jacket. For a man who changed his name to forget, he sure has kept a lot of things that only make him remember. He pushes his morbid thoughts away as merges onto the interstate. Hopefully, he has a job to do.

 

He pulls up to the widow’s house and turns off the engine. It’s a nice old victorian style with a wrap around porch and a tire swing tied to the tree out front. He tucks a flask of holy water into the interior pocket of his jacket just to be safe and approaches with caution. After a couple knocks, a small woman with gray hair answers. She looks frail and it plays on Kylo’s emotions. He’s always tough on the outside, but the job wears on him like it would any sane person. “Mrs. Stevens?”

 

“Yes, are you with the police? I already answered all their questions. It seemed to be a closed case to them.”

 

“No, no. My name is Kylo, I’m a grief counselor. I’m here to check up on you, see how you’re doing.”

 

“Pretty shitty, my husband just killed himself.” She pulls no punches. He likes her. “But come on in.”

 

After chatting with the widow a bit, Kylo learns a few things. Mr. Stevens was not suffering from depression, and they were planning a trip to Aruba next spring for their 50th wedding anniversary. His taking his own life did not make a bit of sense. He inspected the room where she found her husband and found a bit of sulfuric residue on the window ledge. Definitely a demon. But why was the bastard making people off themselves?

 

He leaves Mrs. Stevens, who claimed she was feeling better after his visit, and finds a nearby hotel to check into. This one is a little nicer than the last place, but after so many, they all start to blur together. He logs onto his computer to try to figure out what the other victims had in common. Turns out, it’s the school. Mr. Stevens was a professor, Susan was a student, and Gerry was the janitor. There were five others as well. He decides to order a pizza and tackle the school in the morning.

 


 

She knows it’s time. Rey has stayed too long in this town already and has started to attract unwanted attention. It’s only been recently that she’s had to take up the nomadic life. She was perfectly happy in Jakku prior to all this vision shit. She had a steady job as a mechanic, access to parts for her motorcycle, and her own studio apartment. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. Until that damned angel showed up.

 

“Rey,” his voice was mellifluous and soothing. Still, it was disconcerting to wake up with a stranger standing over your bed, even if he was quite handsome. She rose and tried to knock him out with the bat she kept by her bed. He just held up his arm and it broke in half.

 

“Who- who are you?” she managed to eek out.

 

“I am an angel of the Lord.” He spoke so self-assuredly, his dark skin illuminated by the moonlight filtering in through her chevron curtains.

 

“Right, and I’m the queen of-” but her words were cut short because it was then he chose to unfurl his black wings, which took up the entire width of the room.

 

“You have been chosen for an important mission. Do you accept?”

 

This was ridiculous. Things like this did not happen in real life. Had she been drinking? She stared at him for a minute before answering, “What’s the mission?”

 

“All will be revealed in time. You have been chosen because you are pure of heart. What you will receive is a gift, but it is also a burden and comes with a price. If you accept, you will become a prophet and save many from peril, but it will also be a lonely life. For if you take up the mantle of prophet, you must also bear the burden of an omega.”

 

An omega ? She thought those were just a myth. “I thought omegas were extinct, but even so, wouldn’t it be a little late for me to present now? I’m eighteen.”

 

“Nothing is impossible with God.”

 

Right. An angel would give a Sunday school answer. “Can I have some time to think about this?”

 

“You will have three days. At that point, if you have not said yes, another worthy soul will be chosen and you will lose the opportunity forever.”

And just like that, he had disappeared with the noise of his wings flapping, though she couldn’t see them anymore. It wound up not taking three whole days. She was up to her elbows in an engine when it hit her, and she called out to the angel to say, “yes.” She had always known she was meant for something more. The omega thing, though, that was different. Rey found suppressants right away and had never been off them in the three years since. She had never even had her first real heat. She planned to keep it that way.

 

These are the things on her mind and she packs her meager belongings into her duffel bag and takes off on her motorcycle. She doesn’t always know where she’s going when she packs up and leaves, but her prophetic inner compass always tells her when to stop. She knows she’s likely heading into a trap because she’s foreseen it, but she goes just the same.

 

She has just arrived in the next town when she feels the pain at the base of her skull. She pulls off to the side of the road and holds her helmeted head in her hands as a vision sweeps through. The pain varies according to the length and strength of the vision. Now she sees flashes of a naked woman, older with auburn hair, she is getting into a bathtub with a straight razor. What Rey sees next causes her to retch into the dirt. The water in the tub turns red. She has to find the woman before it’s too late.

 


 

Kylo walks around the school. It is eerily quiet with the kids in class, and no one seems to care that there’s a mysterious stranger in a black leather jacket stalking the halls. Maybe that’s part of the problem. He rounds the corner towards the cafeteria when he notices a weasley little man with a thin face watching him. His spine tingles so he heads towards the man. It doesn’t help suspicions any when the man starts to run.

 

As Kylo takes off after him, he is glad he had the forethought to tag every exit with a devil’s trap beneath the dust mats. He finds the man trapped just outside the side entrance of the school. He is wriggling and trying to move off the mat, but an invisible force keeps him tethered to that spot.

 

“Comfortable?” Kylo asks, moving to face him.

 

“Alpha scum,” he spits.

 

“You should be nicer to me, or I might just send you back to hell now.” He takes the flask out of his jacket, unscrews it, and splashes just a little holy water into the man’s face.

 

The demon growls as the water burns his skin and turns to steam on contact. His demeanor changes as his eyes flash black and then back to the dull brown they were a moment before. He looks scared. “Please, I’ll do whatever you want. Don’t send me back.”

 

Kylo smirks. “First, tell me why you’ve been making people kill themselves.”

 

“It- it wasn’t me. I just find the right people, then another takes over. He stays with them until he deems whether they are worthy or not. If not, they die. They have seen too much.”

 

“Worthy for what?”

 

“To join his army.”

 

“Who is this other demon?”

 

“I- I can’t say. He’ll kill me.”

 

“It’s not him you should be worried about.” Kylo pauses then begins the exorcism rites he’s long since memorized. “Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus-”

 

“Wait!” The demon croaks. “I can tell you this. He already has several in his service and they are in town looking for a girl.”

 

What girl?” He stops the rites, eyeing the man warily.

 

“I don’t know. All I know is she is said to be important.” He blinks rapidly, fear apparent in his wide eyes. “Please don’t send me back.”

 

“Thanks for the info.” Kylo winks, then continues, “omnis satanica potestas…” he finishes the rites and watches as a column of black smoke leaves through the man’s mouth and is violently pulled down beneath the ground. The man collapses in a heap against the door. He checks for a pulse and satisfied the human host will be just fine, leaves without a sound.

 


 

This is it. The house from her vision. Rey is nearly shaking as she ascends the steps. She knocks on the door, but in doing so pushes it ajar. It was already open - not a good sign. She slides inside the house on cautious feet, but she can already tell the change in the atmosphere. It is heavier. It feels like death.

 

“You’re too late,” an ominous voice warns her. It is the blonde man from her vision. She doesn’t need him to flash his black eyes for her to know what he is. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

 

“I know,” she replies resolutely.

 

“Remember, the boss wants her alive .” He says when the others get too excited.

 

She doesn’t fight them. She knows from experience they are strong, and there are too many for her to fight off single-handedly. She also had known this was coming. Rey ignores the flutter of excitement in her abdomen, even as they are pushing her inside their car and driving off. If the demons have her, it means the man in black is not far behind.

 


 

Water beads on Kylo’s bare chest as he steps out of the shower. He had to get out some of his frustration over his lack of progress, so he hit up the hotel’s gym room. It wasn’t much: a treadmill, an elliptical, and a worn punching bag in the corner. A punching bag that is now even more worn, thanks to him. He finishes dressing and throws on his jacket, exiting the room. He is about to go off in search of dinner when he sees a car pull into the parking lot. There are too many people crammed into this vehicle for it to be comfortable, and he notices a shock of chestnut hair from a woman wedged in the backseat.

 

Something inside tells him to wait in the shadows. So he does. When they get out of the car, he sees that two of the people, a man and a woman are holding the girl with the chestnut hair by her arms. She’s not struggling much, but she doesn’t look happy either. Then he sees the burly leader - surely a reject from an unmade Die Hard sequel - flash his black eyes. He knows what he has to do.

 

He doesn’t have time to trap and exorcise them all, so he opts for plan B. He pulls out a large knife that he keeps in a sheath at his belt. It is serrated on one edge and comes to a very sharp point. It also has markings in a long dead language on the hilt and down the length of the blade. It had once belonged to his grandfather, a man who died before he was born.

 

He slips out of the shadows and follows the group, sneaking up behind the one at the back and slicing his neck open in one fluid motion. A flicker of bright light flashes in the man’s eyes before he slumps to the ground, dead. Next, he tackles the ones holding the girl. The woman goes first, her eyes wide before he sinks the blade into her chest, crackling light flashing around the wound before she falls. The man is more difficult. He doesn’t want to let go of his prisoner. Kylo gets him with kick to the groin and an elbow to the spleen before he releases his charge. “Get behind me,” he says to the girl as he goes in with the blade and ends the demon with a slash to the throat.

 

By now, the hulking leader has noticed Kylo picking off his army one by one. He is several paces ahead and as he turns around, his face is enraged. Knowing when to cut his losses, Kylo grabs the girl’s hand and runs for the Falcon. She doesn’t protest, falling in line with his quick strides. He lets go of her as he makes for the driver’s side and gets in, leaning over to unlock the passenger side for her. She hops in without a word and they speed off, leaving the beefy demon yelling at them in their wake.

 

“What’s your name?” he asks her.

 

“Rey,” she pauses, eyeing him quizzically. “Y-you can kill them? I didn’t think they could die.”

 

“Everything can die. My trusty knife has proven that time and again.” He smirks. “I’m Kylo, by the way.” It is only now that he’s turned onto the interstate and can breathe deeply that he notices. Her scent is intoxicating . It’s citrus and sunshine and a hint of exhaust fumes. He takes another breath and feels his blood rush downward, desire tugging at his insides with ferocity. He risks a glance at her from the corner of his eye. She is gorgeous - chestnut hair, hazel eyes, defiant chin which is still raised, tanned and freckled skin that he imagines would be so soft to touch. Eyes on the road, asshole, he chides himself.

 

“Well, thank you for saving my life, Kylo.” Fuck, even her accent is beautiful.

 

“No problem,” he mumbles. He keeps sneaking glances her direction, though. His eyes roam over her graceful neck and suddenly he has the distinct urge to find her scent gland, bury his nose in it, and never let go. Then it washes over him, and it takes all his power to keep his hands on the wheel: she is an omega. And not just any omega, but the one he’s been dreaming about. She looks over at him and he catches a hint of green in her eyes as the sunlight catches them. He’s never been more sure of anything. “It is you.”

Notes:

Did you know the Ford Falcon was a real car? This is what I imagine Kylo's looks like (a passing resemblance to another old muscle car, no?).

Songs for this chapter:
Highway to Hell - AC/DC
Rock and Roll - Led Zeppelin
Black Smoke Rising - Greta Van Fleet
Won't Back Down - Johnnyswim, Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors

Follow the Spotify playlist here. Will update with the chapters.

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