VIII

"Incoming!"

"Lookout," Sauda responds.

Adorna jumps out, standing at attention, watching a van the same as theirs make its way towards them.

Quickly, Sauda pulls a SIG Sauer P320 out of the bag. Not her favorite gun, but it will get the job done. She ejects the empty magazine, pulls back the rack to check the chamber. She reaches for a full magazine out of the bag, checks the stamp on the bottom of the first round, and slams it home.

A click sounds behind her and she gives a quick turn as Malik snaps a rifle to his shoulder and points it at the ground. Sauda turns, looks at Ashleigh, and nods. Without hesitation, Ashleigh climbs further back into the van and takes cover on the floor behind the middle seat.

The van pulls into the lot across from them and backups into a spot. Even if she had poor eyesight, she could see Jordan and Maddox in the front seat looking back at her, but she still kept her gun in her hand pointed to the ground. She knew her eyes were still red but since it took an effort to push the demon down; she left it alone. Sauda cocks her gun and steps away from their transport to avoid Malik's crossfire.

Their window rolls down and Jordan slowly extends a hand out with his middle and thumb tucked in.

"I can't wait for the orgy tonight," Jordan smiles wide.

Sauda lets her hand fall, relaxing out of her pose but not letting go of her gun and smiles back. "The most pleasure you've ever had."

Jordan's door opens wide, and he steps out as the rest follow suit. They hustle over to the rest of her team, as Sauda walks backward to the trunk of the car. Adorna still says as a lookout, while Sauda looks through the trunk again. Malik takes the rifle off his shoulder but keeps both hands on it, ready to snap back up.

"Orgy? I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that," Dix says pulling up the rear. Dix stops when he comes face to face with Sauda and his eyes widen.

"Unfortunately, my sexually confused man," Jordan smiles, slapping his arm around Dix's shoulders, "There will be no orgies. No clit and dicks for you." He steps away from Dix and smiles.

"I told you that in confidence," he mumbles and sniffs uncomfortably.

Maddox stops beside Sauda, looking at her as well with his furrow back in its place on his brow. "Your eyes are red."

"Demon Eyes."

Maddox nods along like that was understandable to him. "Kettlewell ate all the snacks. All of them. Let's unpack, eat, and go over the mission details."

"Roger."

Sauda turns to Dix to explain. "Orgies... It's the all-clear."

"Then why not say 'All-clear'?" Dix asks standing there watching them all.

"They press your head against the business end of a gun, what do you think they will tell you to tell your team? 'All-clear'. And then you're dead and your team along with it."

"You ever hear us say 'all-clear', then we're all fucked," Adorna says.

"Major... I'm supposed to trust this team with my life, but your men act as if they've never been trained for this."

Sauda knew it was a little too late to be worried about how they would do in a gunfight, but seeing Dix a little green at a huge puppy pile, she wonders how useful they would be at the assignment.

"Incoming," Adorna says.

Everyone looks towards the street, and far enough for Sauda's eyes to just make out. White vans were swerving in and out of traffic, heading their way fast.

"Shit! They were following us," Jordan curses.

"You had a tail? And you couldn't shake them?"

"Four vans, four people, minimum. I never got close to smell," Jordan says, watching the street still, "and something else is going on. It was hard to spot them, to tell they were following us."

Sauda looks at Adorna and nods. "Those who need guns, strap up. Ashleigh, move those fingers. Dragon, Sugar, get ready to shift."

"Roger."

"Disregard." Maddox steps up. "Too many civilians. They'll be used to the guns, because of the war, but no magic. We don't need this on the news."

Fair point, but it made Sauda frustrated.

"Roger," is all she says. She need not look at the rest of her team; she knows they'll follow orders.

Her eyes are already red and her vision sharper, but just in case they will fight, she calls her demon an inch closer to the surface. Any further and she'd have to give it blood before she went back down to the cell Sauda kept her in. And if they don't get to kill whoever was coming for them, there really would be blood to pay.

The vans get closer to them, and the people on the street hide. Sauda's team takes cover, heads peeking out, guns at the ready.

"Cap!"

Before Sauda can even look towards where Ashleigh is calling from, it hits. Magick.

Shaw is first. His knees hit the ground, cracking loud as his upper body sways backward. His head snaps forward as obsidian bile spews from his mouth. Dix pales and stumbles from the back edge of the car, but he stays upright.

Two of the vans, with blacked-out windows, swerve in kicking up red dirt and blocking their vision. Sauda can't see through it and still opens fire where the vans should be and sprays them with bullets.

"Civilians!" Maddox screams as Jordan and Adorna join the Cap with their own fire. Sauda's gun clicks as her slip empties. She reaches to reload, but the dust clears and the vans stand untouched with all the bullets floating in the air.

Both van doors slam open and the bullets rain down to the ground, sounding like Christmas bells. Men pour out, red hands flying quickly in sharp patterns.

"Demon-Castors!" Jordan yells.

It was too late. Jordan can't even try to rip through his skin or Sauda calls her familiar when a wave slams into them and they are all blown off their feet.

Sauda has a clear view of the sky as she's thrown and hits the ground. She struggles as she tries to draw in a breath that won't come. Even half Demons can get the wind knocked out of them. As she tries to remember how to breathe, she can feel the sharp biting pain of broken bones. She wills herself to shift to heal, but white light shoots across her eyes and her body burns. So painful that she cries aloud. Trying to shift feels like her insides were trying to rip themselves apart.

She can hear the other vans pull up, and men scurry from them. "Grab the virgins," came a dark voice, "We need not kill the rest, it would be rude to our boss's Demon friend."

Adorna screams. Sauda can't even turn her head, the fall must have damaged her spine. She needs to shift.

"When I get up from this, I will kill you!"

Adorna's voice, when she changes, sounds like something from a nightmare. A sound that can never be named in this domain, something that even monsters fear. A sound so hellish that even in the daytime it makes you fear the dark.

Sauda tries to turn towards where Ashleigh is hiding, but without her spine, not a single body part can move. She tries to shift again, only to be met with agony. She clenches her teeth together and screams into the air as she shifts her spine to heal. She breathes through the pain and tries to move, but still her limbs are wielded to the ground. She can only move her head to look towards the van.

"If you touch her, I will drain every spark of life from your body! When this magic leaves my body, I will rip your spines from yours!" Adorna's voice gets deeper as she shifts little by little through the pain. If anyone can withstand pain to save Ashleigh, it would be her. The horns slowly rise from her slightly black-red head as the foreign men stalk to the van.

The door of their van opens violently and the men dive in.

"Adorna!" Ashleigh screams being pulled out. "Sauda!"

A roar smashes out of Adorna and she bucks against whatever is holding her down.

"Ah!" a man yells, "The bitched kicked me."

A slap sound throughout the air and Ashleigh cries out. "Adorna!" is the last thing she screams until another hit sounds.

"This one is a Demon too," Came the thick accent of a man standing over Adorna.

"Leave them."

Two more men pass over Sauda carrying an unconscious Shaw. Doors open and close, engines rev, and the vans peel out, kicking up more dirt.

"AH!" Adorna screams.

"Adorna..." Sauda still can't move, and she assumes whatever magic they're using will dissipate when they're gone.

"'Don't use magic,' he said," Adorna mocks Maddox. "When I get up, I will kill you first, Major!"

"Adorna! We will get her back!"

"I can't move Cap," Jordan shouts, "Can't shift either."

A shadow crosses over Sauda's face, and when her eyes adjust, a head full of black curls covered in a type of shea butter to look salt and pepper appears, followed by thick arched eyebrows and a devilish smile spreads across an ebony canvas.

"Do you need help?"

Only one man she knew wore a dayta hairstyle and had silver eyes.

Sauda rolls her eyes, "Hello, Dad."