VII

The blow lands, knocking the Demon on her ass, knocking the air out of her. Sauda watches her as she learns how to breathe.

“Magnificent, aren’t they?”

Sauda looks to the side at Adorna as she walks upon the sparring mat. Adorna is in her workout clothes though, in her human form.

When she wore street clothes or even her uniform, they were baggy and rolled up, just in case she needs to shift in public. Humans freaked out less when they saw a clothed Demon than a naked one. But when sparing, clothes needed to be tight on the body, less for people to grab onto. So Adorna either sparred in human form with tight clothes or naked in her succubus skin.

Sauda looks back to the two Demons in the center; their human form being their only form. One lies on the mat, panting as the other stands over her, gloating.

“Have you heard anything about Raum?” Sauda asks Adorna, not taking her eyes off of the two Demons.

“Yeah,” Adorna sighs. “Korea—the entire Demon realm is experiencing their own civil war. They have called almost all the Demons who pledged under the Prince to help fight. Raum is there too, and he’s become a very important leader for them.”

“And Kang Dae isn’t?”

“I guess not,” Adorna sighs, “Or the Prince’s blood treaty with Andras is important enough to send someone over but not important enough to send Raum. Even though Balaam is higher ranked, he’s not really a Demon, can’t fight, and isn’t Korean. Raum is more useful to them right now.”

Balaam, though he had the Korean name Kang Dae, wasn’t Korean. He had just lived there for over a millennium after working his way up the social ladder. Most ancient writings said he was a Canaanite, though no one really knew, but Kang Dae himself. The Middle Eastern man definitely wasn’t a fighter, so Sauda could understand why he was here instead of Raum, but she didn’t like it.

She sees Kang Dae move from the corner of her eye, but she doesn’t look at him. He has been ignoring her for the past five days because of their last conversation, and she was fine with that. She didn’t know what to say to him and hated how awkward it was between them.

The Demon who was lying on the ground popped up smiling and settled into a stance, fist near her face, ready to fight again.

Most of the Demons who joined wanted to escape their lives for a better opportunity, and they didn’t know how to fight. But these two and the other three on their new team knew how to handle business.

The two Demons in the middle, who’s last MMA-style spar lasted thirty minutes, were sent by her father. Two of his lowest ranking officers, who Sauda didn’t have an official relationship with. She’d only slept with the female a few times.

“All right, guys. That’s enough,” Sauda says, holding up her hand.

“Yes, Captain,” they both say.

Both Sauda and Adorna walk to the middle of the mat and the other three Demons, who were waiting on the side, walk up.

Dimitri and Dimitra, who just finished fighting, were the twins her father sent to enlist. Two fallen Angels. Natural born followers, but excellent fighters. They are Identical twins with deep mahogany skin and bright icy white irises in their eyes. Besides his short hair and her long hair, everything else matched. Including their work out gear and the bandages wrapped on their hands and feet.

Britain, who ironically was from Britain, is a siren. She is one Demon who had a hard time adjusting to clothes. She only wore her uniform when she absolutely had to. Every other time, she was naked, like now. Her skin is sea green, and her hair is multiple shades of seaweed and constantly damp. She has gills on her neck and on the slides of her body under her breast. They are closed at the moment, so she can breathe air. Sauda was also told that she had fins that could retract, but since Sauda never saw her in water, she’s never seen them.

Britain is strong to begin with. Strong enough to pull the biggest of men off of their boats and drown them, and she excelled when learning to fight. She has the deadliest of voices that she could focus on her targets.

Next to her is Jinn, which is what he was. He’s a jinn, also known as a genie. Specifically, he is a Ghūl: a treacherous spirit that had an animal form and a human form, who could possess anyone or inanimate objects.

He is handsome with dark olive skin, thick eyebrows, groomed beard, and hazel eyes. But the key reason he was on the team was the small female hiding halfway behind him. Jinn was adept at combat, but she was the power behind the throne.

She is about the same size as Adorna, but because she is always shrinking away and hiding, she looks even smaller. She has black Bambi eyes and a pout mouth. Her hair is a long pale white but always braided and artfully tucked in, so it was hard to grab. She looks like someone you’d want to protect, a small mouse, but she is probably the most dangerous thing in the room.

Born in the breeding pits of the slave arena of Ancient Persia under the old Prince, she wasn’t even given a name. The rumor is that her mother was a succubus who was raped at a party of the Royals. Her mother conceived taking a bit of each royal who raped her to father her child, hoping her child would live a better life. Regardless of the truth of her birth, she inherited powerful magics that seemed to come from a lot of the royal families. But instead of living in a palace, they trained her as a gladiator and forced her to fight and kill for the entertainment of her kin. As well as enjoying a fight to the death, the Royals of the old regime could also pay to spend the night with a fighter, whether or not that gladiator wanted to… whether they were family or not. The abuse she endured was extensive.

But even Demons weren’t as moral-less than they are deemed to be. Most Kingdoms in Hell had outlawed slavery and the people of Persia wanted to live a better life, for all of their people. Along with a neighboring Prince, the Old Prince was overthrown, but the five years it took were bloody. Near the end, the Ghūl army occupied the palace, the slave arena, and the breeding pits, releasing millions of slaves.

Jinn personally saved her, and she stuck with him ever since. He gave her a home, and a name: Elaheh. And in return, she fought for whatever cause he did. He convinced her to enlist in the Army, hoping that she could live her own life, but he couldn’t leave her side.

In the first week that they were here, a Demon picked a fight with Jinn and Elaheh ripped his body apart from across the room. No one would spar with her besides Jinn, Jordan, Adorna, and Sauda, but she was fine with that.

Sauda was glad to have them on her team.

“That’s enough for tonight,” Sauda says to everyone. “We fly out at 0400 and it’ll take about twenty hours to get there. The ball is the night after. Though we won’t be wearing too many weapons to the party, I still want you to pack as many as you want. Just in case we get into any trouble. Don’t pack any uniforms. Just clothes to wear to the ball and lounge clothes for before and after. Understood?”

“Sir, yes, sir!” They all barked. Elaheh’s was more of a whisper.

“Dismissed,” Sauda says.

The Five Demons walk off the mat, grabbing towels, water bottles, and clothes on their way out. Adorna stays by her side until everyone is gone but her, Sauda and Kang Dae.

“Kang Dae wants to talk to you,” Adorna tells her, “Do you want me to stay?”

Sauda knew this was coming, and yet her heart still did flips while she cringes.

“No, that’s okay, thanks,” Sauda answers.

Adorna nods and walks away. Kang Dae comes to walk up to Sauda, but Adorna puts a hand on his arm, stopping him.

“You’re older than Raum and smarter, so I shouldn’t have to tell you not to get in the way if we have to fight, right?”

“Right,” is all he says.

Adorna walks away and Kang Dae walks towards Sauda. She tries to only look in his eyes. When he was sparring, he had taken his shirt off and never put it back on.

She fails and her eyes look him over. Every muscle stands out, covered in sweat. She looks at the words tattooed across his right peck, the tattoo on his left peck, and then the one on the inside of his left forearm as he wipes the sweat from the back of his neck.

“So… you didn’t change your mind about me coming to Romania?” Kang Dae asks.

“Ne,” Sauda says yes in Korean. “You might talk us out of some trouble instead of us having to fight. Except for killing the new master.”

“Yeah…”

“Is this what you wanted to talk to me about? Because I need to go pack—”

“Dada!”

The anger wafting off of him is palpable as he stares at her, fire lighting up his brown eyes.

“Look, he sighs,” I will not ask you if you miss me again or even if you love me—I just want you to know that I still care about you and I would respect your decision if he didn’t trick you—”

“He had his reasons.” Sauda walks away, but Kang Dae steps in front of her and growls. Sauda stares at the gym doors.

“How could you say that? Even you left him because you thought the same thing? Why are you defending him?”

Raum is a Demon. An offspring of two fallen angels who were simply on the wrong side of a war. One of his powers was the ability to invoke love, and he kept it a secret from her. She wondered if he used it on her since they fell so madly in love so quickly. They fought about it repeatedly until they broke up four years ago.

“All I want to say is... Don’t cut me out anymore,” Kang Dae begs. “Bogo shipeo. I miss you. Even just as friends.”

“Okay,” Sauda whispers, “Okay.”

He steps out of her way, and she watches as he walks out of the gym without looking back.