III

Sauda stands with her back against the wall, darkness all around her and her gun pulled tight to her chest as she weighs the pros and cons of peeking around the corner. The only thing she hates more than bubble gum flavored anything, was trying to shoot around a blind corner. She crouches all the way down, hoping that she was low enough that any enemy fire would be over her head. Even half-demons die from headshots.

As she’s about to fling her body around, a sound rips through her ear.

“What’s the plan again?”

“Ugh,” She flinches and pulls the earpiece out of her ear. The demon blood coursing through her body lets her hear even the lowest whispers close to her. But drunk shouting was still drunk shouting as Dix asks what the plan is for the fourth time.

“Holy SHIT!” Jordan cackles back, “clit-and-dicks can’t hold his liquor!”

“It’s Clinton Dix. Clinton!”

“Hey! Can we eat yet?”

Sauda closes her eyes. She knows that their enemy can hear them and they are all going to die. “Sugar! Can you guys please shut up—”

“Ha!”

Sauda doesn’t need her earpiece to hear the loud shout from her teammate. She can hear him just around that blind corner. She can smell the stench of his anger and sadness. She lays down on her stomach, pulls her piece out and peaks around the corner. Adio Shaw, another one of Maddox’s men, stands in the middle of a huge clearing.

“Come on Dixie Cup,” he says loudly, “I like that so much better. Clit and dicks. Ha!”

Sauda rolls her eyes. She wants to leave him there, but she knows she has to save him. She scans his surroundings, not smelling or sensing anything lurking, and she crawls low to him.

“Dixie Cup?”

Sauda can hear Jordan getting closer to them. No doubt that he is leading their enemy straight to them so she tries to use her speed to get to Shaw quickly but the alcohol is wearing down on her. She can hold her liquor better than most since her metabolism was better than average. But she passed her limit twelve Jägerbombs ago.

“Oh shut it!,” Dix says, “Your name is Sugar.”

“How is that worse than Clit-And-Dicks?” Jordan asks. “Is there really no food here?”

The room spins as she tries to crawl closer to Shaw. She pauses and looks at him until there is only one of him. “This is what I get for challenging Mendoza to a shots contest,” she curses herself.

“No…” Shaw whispers, “that was fun.”

Sauda looks at Shaw and watches as his body leans to the side, defying gravity. His chestnut skin glistens with sweat as he closes his eyes and breathes deeper.

“Come here... now!” Sauda tries her best to get his attention before he falls flat on his face on the hard ground. There’d be no point in the enemy killing him then, he’d done it himself.

“Shaw... SHAW!”

“Pops?”

Shaw jumps up and stumbles onto his feet with wide eyes as he searches around him. “Grandpa? Is that you?”

Sauda squeezes down on her bladder and chokes off her laugh. The last thing she wants is that damn Demon on their tails to smell or hear her. Shaw must have been so drunk he forgot that he has an earpiece on.

“No Shaw. It’s Cap, get your ass down and out of an open field.”

“Cap?! You’re with Pops? In Heaven? I knew he wouldn’t let you lead the team without some male wisdom. Is Aunt Bell with you?”

Sauda feels her demon rising and wanting to shred him apart for that comment. She fights to suppress it. The alcohol in her system hits the wave of power and soothes the beast.

“Shaw... Pops told me to tell you to duck and get behind the wall before you get hit--”

“Oh shit. They got me!” Jordan’s voice bellows close by and Shaw jumps.

“Damn, they got me too.” Clinton’s voice is a calm lake compared to Jordan’s.

Sauda gives up. Her team was a goner. She decides that she can still survive and win all on her own. In her mind, there is no need to save Shaw anymore.

She stands up faster than she should have while drunk. She wills her limbs to carry her faster away from the death her team is bringing her. She gets right in front of Shaw, preparing to pass him as he looks at her. She is close enough to see the flecks of brown and gold inside his hazel eyes. Close enough to see Adorna reflected in them.

A burst of red explodes on Shaw’s head. His head swings back, a grunt falls from his lips, and then he falls to the ground. Sauda tries to get her gun up, kneel and turn, but a sharp pain hits her between the shoulders.

“Dammit!” Sauda drops her gun. “Whose idea was it to play paintball after drinking so much, anyway?”

Ashleigh strolls past her, smiling. The top of her dirty blonde hair only reaching Sauda’s shoulders. “Yours, Cap.”

Ashleigh gives one more smile and walks away. She wears the spotless paintball equipment over her baggy shirt and shorts, but Sauda knows that she didn’t pull her weapon. She always stays right behind Adorna.

Adorna, the little demon only an inch taller than Ashleigh, runs up to her and swings her arm over Ashleigh’s shoulder as they leave the paintball section together.

Maddox and Specialist Malik Watson, another one of his men, walk over to Sauda. Maddox sporting a shit-eating grin, and a grim-faced Malik staring down at Shaw.

Malik Watson is tall, over six feet tall with a lean body. His skin's a caramel color with small curls in his army cut hair. He looks serious as he walks up, despite having played a game.

“I don’t think this counts,” Sauda says rolling her shoulders, “Wright is allergic to alcohol, and you two didn’t drink.”

Maddox grins even wider at her and Sauda turns away. “Mendoza drank,” he laughs.

“Eh, vodka is water to hellions like her.”

Malik kicks Shaw’s boot, hard enough to wake the dead, but Shaw stays cold on the ground. “See Di-Di,” Malik says shaking his head, “This is why we don’t drink.”

A snore rattles from Shaw in answer.

“Brothers, right?” Sauda asks.

“Sometimes.”

Sauda’s face scrunches and Malik walks away without another look or glances down at his sometimes-brother.

“It’s a… sore spot,” Maddox says while sizing up the snoring Shaw, “You grab his feet, I grab the top?”

Sauda smiles just a little and measures Shaw up just as Maddox does. She appreciates that he doesn’t try to just pick up his soldier by himself. It’s a lot to entrust one of your own to someone else. She doesn’t know if he forgot that she is half-demon and stronger than him, or if he is choosing to ignore that to show partnership. She appreciates it either way.

She takes a second to decide what is best: both of them teetering to carry Shaw’s uneven weight while the rest of their crew has no supervision, or to carry the sleeping soldier by herself and risk Maddox’s ego. A reckless drunk Kettlewell or a man’s hurt feelings.

“May I? It’ll be easier if I do it.”

Maddox moves out of the way and nods.

She grabs Shaw and hauls him into a fireman’s carry, only swaying slightly from the quickly absorbing alcohol in her system.

Maddox’s eyes widen, but his face quickly changes from shocked to something else. His lip pokes out, an approving “humph” sounding from him.

“I don’t think ‘God bless demon genes’ would be an awfully christianly thing to say,” Maddox says. He sweeps his arm in front of him for Sauda to lead the way and she smiles as she carries Shaw to the exit.

“They are brothers, Shaw and Watson, but raised separately. I’m not sure if it's exactly my story to tell,” Maddox says walking one step behind to catch Shaw should she drop him.

Shaw wiggles around, waking a little. He lifts his head, making Sauda have to change how she holds him. “Different mothers,” Shaw says in a drunken slur, “My mom raised me, and our father raised him after his mom died.” He flops around, trying to look at Sauda in her eyes.

“Stay still” Maddox says, knocking him on the back of his head.

Shaw lays still, bringing his mouth near Sauda’s ear to stage whisper to her. She rolls her eyes.

“I get upset that our dad was only there for him, and he gets mad because even without the sperm donor, I had a better childhood. We didn’t even know about each other until middle school. Our dad... is an ass. My mom took care of both of us during high school. It’s a love-hate kind of thing.” Shaw’s monologue ends with him passing out and dropping all his weight on Sauda.

“They have a lot of issues, but it never interferes with missions,” Maddox smiles.

Maddox jogs to open the door to let Sauda through and she ignores the thump of Shaw’s head hitting the door frame.

“There’s nothing wrong with having issues,” Sauda says as she adjusts her hold on the drunk man, “It makes you human, just like the rest of us.”