XI

Slowly the door swings open.

His hair is different, is the first thought Sauda has. The Korean Demon has long wavy silver hair in an off-center part with a darker gray undercut. She likes it. He ducks slightly as he enters the room, a habit from being six foot three. He looks up and walks further into the room, ignoring everyone but her and smiles.

“Annyeong.”

“Don’t speak casually to me,” She sneers.

“Sauda,” he says.

She feels like he whispered it so sweetly and it steals the breath from her. She tries to ignore the beating of her heart in her ears that she knew he could hear.

“Raum... I don’t want you here,” she points to the door, “you can leave.”

He stands smiling down at her, and she tries to ignore the dimple in his cheek. She hates how at that moment as mad as she was; she loves the way his rose beige skin looks soft even with a touch of acne, or how his plump bottom lip was readily kissable.

“There’s no other person who your father trusts more,” Samuel Dean says, “Do you think he’d defy Andras just because you don’t want him here?”

“Hyungnim,” Raum bows deeply to Samuel Dean, “annyeonghaseyo.”

Samuel Dean slightly nods his back and then tries to shake Jordan off.

“Fuck it.” Sauda turns to Maddox but moves to keep Raum insight.

“We need a plan, we’re not going in blind. We need eyes on the location,” Maddox says. He looks confused about the tension in the room but continues. “I know nothing about the preternatural, so we need to know the strengths and weaknesses of his blood magick.” Maddox looks to Raum, eyeing him.

“Don’t worry about me. This is my normal skin. I can change into a crow if you need eyes in the sky, but I’m good with just ripping throats out.”

“No unnecessary deaths.”

“Kol.”

Sauda looks to Jordan who seems to smile at her and then looks at Adorna who is definitely smiling at her. “Ugh!” Sauda looks to Maddox again, ignoring the rest of the team. “We need eyes on the place and inside. We can get Raum and Jordan to fly over and report back. We can also get Jordan on the inside as a rat or fly, but who knows how strong their magick is. We might have to go in blind. We could hit all the sides of the building at once to prevent escape. But even that is going to be tough.”

Jordan grunts and everyone looks at him.

“He can’t talk like Samuel Dean?” Malik asks.

“He can,” Adorna says, “But it’s harder to understand. He's agreeing or grumbling about being hungry.”

“Is that the best we can do? And you still want to go in guns blazing?” Maddox asks Sauda.

“What would you prefer, trying to negotiate a prisoner release? I don’t think they treat virgin sacrifices as POWs. What do you tell all little girls when it’s time to warn them about this fucked up world? If someone attacks you, don’t let them take you to a second location because they will kill you. How long do you think Shaw and Ashleigh will last?”

“This is going against how we were trained. This is not the Army way!”

“I know that!” Sauda yells, “I went through boot camp, I paid my dues! I know my training. But the Army did not assemble this team for us to be a typical soldier. We are grunts with superhuman powers who kill who were told to kill.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“No!” She could feel both Raum and Adorna flank her. Samuel Dean’s hair rises on his back. “I did not ask to be born this way!”

She can feel the strain as she keeps her wings from sprouting. She could feel her eyes melt to silver, and her horns grow, but that she didn’t mind. “I was born half-human, half not. With a she-demon inside of me with a taste for blood and flesh and destruction. I detest killing, but the longer I suppress the urge, the harder it is to fight. The longer I wait, the easier it is to lose control and massacre anyone in sight. So if the Army is allowing me to kill wicked men, I’ll do it if it means saving more people from myself. I hate what I am, but I can’t change it, and I sure as hell will use it to get my friend back.”

The Major looks at her, sees all of her, and nods.

“Okay then,” she says. She tries to shake off the vulnerability of speaking how she felt out loud, but it clings to her like a second skin. “Sugar, I need your eagle eyes. You and Raum flyover, as close as you can, and then report back. If you can get inside, go for it.”

Bones pop as Jordan turns over. Maddox, Dix, and Malik cringe, but Sauda is used to the sound of breaking bones. Fur slides off of his body and disappears, revealing his brown skin. The slight pink of new skin.

He stood straight, bones painfully shifting in place.

“Where do we go?” He asks, voice rough.

“Adorna?”

“Andras gave me the coordinates…” She pulls out her phone and begins typing. Everyone looks at her as they wait for where to go. “Bad news,” She says looking up at Sauda, “Al-Qahira Castle.”

“Cairo Castle?!” Sauda nearly shouts.

“Mm.”

Sauda slumps down on a low couch. “I thought they destroyed it.”

“Ashleigh told me they opened it back up to the public. Under the control of the Yemeni government,” Adorna nods, “but how much of it is constructed?”

“And Báthory has it as his playhouse? Why couldn’t Andras just say that in the first place?” Sauda’s crown horns sink back into its home as she sees the problem in their plan.

“Is this a bad thing?” Malik says sitting next to a quiet Samuel Dean.

“It’s the most historic spot in all of Taiz,” Sauda explains, “it sits on the northern slope of a mountain basically in the center of the town.”

“So it’s hard to get to?”

“There’s no way to get up there unnoticed without our resident Castor, and if by some reason they don’t escape by the time we get there, they’ll have plenty of places to hide. Two separate parts of the castle with loads of secret passages.” Sauda sits up and rubs the back of her neck.

“They destroyed a lot of the Castle in air raids, so we don’t know how operational they are and Báthory knew we were here the second we arrived,” Adorna adds.

“How do you have so much intel?” Malik asks.

Raum smiles, “We’ve had a couple of dates there, right Jagiya?”

Sauda ignores him.

“Nothing better than two demons playing strip hide and seek in a dark castle,” Raum winks at her.

“Shut. Up.”

“Oh... okay,” Malik says. You can see the blush all over Dix’s face.

“First, we get eyes on the castle and then we make plans,” Maddox says. Jordan nods and walks off, Raum following him out of the room. “Any way we can get a physical map of the Castle and make a war plan like the good old days?”

“Done.” Adorna leaves the room and Sauda sighs, putting her head in her hands.

“This is going to be a long day.”