XI

The desk receptionist screams as they walk through the lobby. She hides behind the desk, just peeking her head up to see. Sauda looks at herself, covered in blood with horns atop her head. She doesn’t need to look at the others to wonder why the lady screams.

“Damn,” Sauda thinks. They hired some civilians for a private security company cover, including the desk receptionist, and they didn’t think twice about walking into the lobby and who might see them. Now they’ll have to sit as Colonel Jackson yells at them about using more government funds to pay the woman off. At that moment, she was beyond caring. She needs to get down to see her people.

They all climb in the elevator. Dimitri and Dimitra first, then Sauda, and then the rest of their group. They turn around and try to flank Sauda as best as they can. Kang Dae, Raum, and his date stay in the back.

Sauda sheds her long dress coat, letting it fall to the floor. She takes the fashion tape off of her thighs and is glad she wore Spanx-type underwear. Sauda takes her talons and cuts down her sleeve from shoulder to wrist, so she can fight freely. Finally, she pulled out her collapsed staff from the little pocket on her knife harness. Quickly it expands, and the beautiful chime of steel rubbing against steel brings a smile to her face. All over her fighting staff are ancient Ethiopian carvings, marking her as a warrior. Sauda is more than ready to kick ass.

The elevator opens to find Specialist Smith bloody with his fist up. Even when Dimitri and Dimitra step out, he is still in a fighting stance.

Sauda peeks between the Twin’s shoulders.

“Smith?”

“Ah, Captain,” He stands up from his stance but doesn’t put his fit down, looking unsure of them.

“Why are you at your post alone, and why are you bleeding?” Sauda asks.

“Me and Kettlewell, both reported for our shift, but all hell broke loose. We went to help, but since I’m only human, I came back to make sure someone covered the post.” He looks down at his crimson hands and starts shaking. “I forgot about the blood,” He says, “I slipped in… there’s blood all over the floor.”

They walk closer to him, slowly as not to spook him. He is in shock. He puts his fist down as he grabs his access card to let them in. As soon as the doors open, bodies lay all over the floor, blood coating everything in sight.

“What happened here?”

Smith clears his throat. “Um… First Lieutenant Kettlewell… right before my shift, he was complaining about something being off, and one of the newest recruits, the special Castor, was doing something to him. When my partner and I got down here, the screaming started. Lieutenant Kettlewell tore them all to shreds.”

“Jordan did this?” Adorna asks.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And Specialist Wright?” She asks.

“Injured ma’am, the last time I knew,” Smith answers. He looks back at the bodies. “Some of these soldiers were human, most human-passing Demons. They were coming to work as security details for the company upstairs. I delegated different soldiers to work the shift, if that’s okay, ma’am.”

“Of course,” Sauda says, patting on the shoulder. “You’re a good man. I appreciate you.”

Sauda realizes she is still wearing her heels, so she steps out of them and carefully steps over the bodies, blood squishing on the bottom of her feet.

They were mostly littered by the door, but the blood marks the floor like a path to the second elevator. When they get to the base’s elevators, there are more bodies inside. Not all of them would fit in one trip, but Sauda didn’t want to haul their bodies into the hallway like they were tossing them aside.

“Twins, and Adorna with me. The rest can take the second trip,” She says.

Sauda steps in first, feeling the blood rise to her ankles. She wishes she can say this is unusual to her, to be riding in an elevator full of bodies, but it isn’t. The unnerving part is that these bodies are people she swore to protect, but she also swore to protect Jordan. He is family. And she didn’t know if she could kill him if he had to be.

“Don’t worry,” Adorna says, reading her mind. “If Jordan is the traitor that La Muerte has planted, I’ll kill him.”

Sauda looks at Adorna through the reflection in the elevator. She knows Adorna isn’t bluffing. They were all family: Ashleigh, Jordan, herself, and the little Demon. They both knew though that if one of them needed killing, Adona would be the one who would do it without second thoughts. Only Ashleigh is a small exception to that rule.

“Let’s get upstairs and figure out what’s really going on before we kill anyone else today,” Sauda says.

“Okay.”

The elevator stops and opens up to more blood.

They hear screams, and for the second time today, Sauda walks down a hall following them. As they get closer to the doors of the canteen, the group of people becomes clear. They have to steer through an immense crowd to see what is going on. As they break through, they see a very feral shapeshifter being held to the wall by vines and two other bodies helping to hold him and stay away from his fangs.

Three bloody Castors stand in front of them, casting runes as fast as they can. Earth, their Earth-Castor, cast spells to wrap new vines around Jordan as the old ones snap. Katya is sweating buckets as she casts her spells. Ashleigh has a cut on her head, as blood swims down her face. Adorna races to her.

“I’m okay,” Ashleigh says before Adorna can say anything.

“What spells are you casting?” Adorna asks instead.

“Using the surrounding air to hold him back.”

Even with the Castors, and Jordan’s cousin and a Demon named Dennis, holding him back, they are all struggling against the Alpha.

Sauda walks up behind Katya, her staff ready to swing if it needs to. “What are you casting?”

“Exorcism.”

“You trying to get something out of him… not trying to keep something in, huh?” Sauda eyes her suspiciously, but the Death-Castor doesn’t stop her spells.

“I get this looks damning, but I need to concentrate to save your friend. Or would you like me to stop?”

Sauda can’t risk it. She doesn’t want to think that Jordan would willingly be the mole planted to destroy them. If a Demon is possessing him, then she’ll be relieved just a little. That La Muerte could send a Demon to possess her soldiers canceled relief out and left her being scared and infuriated.

Katya and Sauda didn’t end up on good terms after their last mission together, but she never gave Sauda a reason not to trust her.

“Sorry,” Sauda says.

Katya nods and continues casting. “I can’t do this as I’d like. I can’t pray to help cast the Demon out. I tried, and it affected all the Demons here.”

“Fuck.”

As a half-human, Sauda can pray, and even be around those praying as long as they didn’t direct it at her. That feels like getting paper cuts over and over. Full Demons are different. They can’t even be around someone blessing their food.

“Any other shapeshifters here?” Sauda asks.

“Here!”

A woman in her PTs comes through the crowd. “Captain,” she salutes.

“At ease,” Sauda says. “You’ll take over for Dennis.”

“Yes, Captain.”

The soldier goes up to them with soldiers squared. She gets onto the balls of her feet, and she puts her hand on the Demon’s shoulder. “On the count of three.”

“Sorry, Alpha,” she says to Jordan.