by Sonia Harper
With his back facing the room, Cain slowly turned around, glaring at the knife in Donovan's hand as he turned. "Put that down," he spat. "Before I lodge it in your neck."
Gideon smirked and put his gun down on the table next to him, still within arm's reach, but far enough away to make a point that he trusted Cain. Derion released his grip from the table lamp next to him, and Pytho dropped the beer bottle in his hand.
Adelyn released the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. Gently shaking out the muscles in her body and willing herself to relax, she released the grip she had on her measly plastic fork.
"They tried to take her away last night," Cain finally spoke, his voice strangling over the words as if he was becoming angrier with each word. "They told her they wanted to take her away, somewhere safe, because she was human. Obviously, they want to protect her because she's human, but they would be fools not to realize how valuable her information would be."
"But she doesn't have any information," Pytho stressed, throwing his hands out. "Once they find out she's useless to them-,"
"She will give them information," Cain cut him off angrily and glared at Pytho until the younger daemon slowly sat back down. "The information that we want them to have."
"I'm liking this plan already," Gideon smirked and leaned back into his armchair, eager to hear more.
"What if they don't believe her?" Donovan asked. "What if they've already anticipated this move?"
"Doesn't matter," Derion suddenly interjected, sighing and tilting over a take-out box to peer inside. "He wants to use Adelyn to find out where they convene and possibly get more information on how they operate."
"Are you a fucking mind reader, now?" Gideon scowled.
"Would that surprise you?" Derion asked, his eyebrow raised as he abandoned the take-out container.
"With the weird shit that you're into?" Gideon scoffed. "I wouldn't put it past you." He eyed Derion up and down suspiciously.
"Is that what you were planning, my lo-," Donovan caught himself in time. "Cain?"
"Yes," Cain snapped as he glanced down at one of his hands. Adelyn could see from across the room that it was shaking. "Fuck," he swore under his breath and turned around, ripping Donovan's knife out of his hand. Before the other man could protest, Cain clenched a fist around the blade, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as blood started to pool in his fist and drip onto the hardwood floor. He squeezed his fist harder and shuddered.
"Continue," he breathed, turning his back to the room and allowing his bleeding fist to fall to his side, the knife still loosely in his grip.
Donovan sighed and ran a hand over his hair. "If we give her a phone or any other communication device, they'll most likely take it away immediately."
"Wait," Adelyn interjected, throwing a hand up to stop the conversation. "Is this actually happening?" She pleaded, turning her gaze between Pytho and Derion. "Are you actually going to turn me over to those...things?" Her voice shook as she continued. "I know I said that I wanted to help you guys, but I don't think I can do this," she shuddered as the memory of the guardian that attacked her surfaced in her mind. "What if they just kill me? That guardian attacked me outright the other night!"
"Oh god," she sank back into the sofa, words spilling out of her mouth as soon as they crossed her mind. "I'm going to be alone, aren't I? They're going to take me somewhere where you can't find me."
"Calm down," Donovan began softly, but the condescension in his voice angered her immediately.
"I'm a lot calmer than most people would be in my position, so don't tell me to calm down!" She shouted, jamming an angry finger in his direction. A small part of her was delighted with the shocked expression on his face at her sudden outburst. "The only reason why I stayed here after I found out what you all were was because I knew that going home would expose me to the guardians; it would leave me vulnerable," she continued in a much lower tone. "I trusted you," she paused, her eyes glancing over at Gideon as she spoke. "Well, some of you anyway, to keep me safe while I was here."
"I'm completely innocent in all of this," she continued, words tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop to consider them. "I didn't ask to be a part of this. I didn't ask to be involved in this. Now here I am, being used as some disposable tool to be thrown to an enemy that you know nothing about?" She ended in a near shout as her anger started to boil over.
"I don't-," Adelyn felt her mouth shut immediately as soon as she saw Cain jerk around, knife still clenched in his fist. She swallowed once more as she watched his arm start to spasm, his fist clenching around the blade exactly as they had before. He was starting to get very angry again.
Carefully considering her options, she licked her lips nervously as her eyes darted from his face to the knife in his fist. "I don't," she began again, slowly. "I don't want to do this," she released the sentence in a single, rushed breath and sat back, awaiting a reaction.
Gideon shot forward in his chair, clearly intent on giving her a piece of his mind. He was cut off by a loud thump from the window behind Adelyn. She jumped and her hand flew over her chest.
She watched as everyone turned toward the sound and slowly stood, peering out of the window behind her.
Shaking, she slowly turned around and peered over the back of the couch, nearly sighing in relief at the pitch-black window.
"I think it was a bir-," Adelyn screamed before she could finish her sentence. A giant grey mass pressed itself against the window, claws raking the glass from the outside as it shrieked, throwing its mouth open and revealing sharp, pointy teeth.
"Damnit, they're here!" Derion shouted, reaching forward and clamping his hand around her arm. He tugged at her frozen body until she was standing, then dragged her along behind him as everyone spilt out of the room and into the hallway.
Adelyn nearly cried in relief when her view of the window had disappeared as she moved into the hallway. Unable to get the image of the grotesque monster out of her head, she felt tears burn behind her eyes as she thought of being anywhere near one of them.
Suddenly aware of Derion's hand on her arm as he dragged her down the hallway, she panicked and tried to pry his fingers off of her. "Where are you taking me?" She demanded, heart pounding. She was afraid he was going to try and throw her out the door and right into the guardians' arms.
"Oh pipe down, we're not going to throw you at them," Gideon's voice echoed from somewhere ahead of her, making her wonder if she had spoken her last thought out loud. "Yet," she barely heard him mutter the last word as she realized everyone was heading into the library.
Relieved at the sight of the open door that led to an arsenal of weapons, she grabbed Derion's arm. "You're going to give me a gun, yes?" She licked her lips. "I can stay in here again, right?" She tried to slow her heavy breathing as they approached the door.
Before he could answer, another voice broke into the conversation.
"No."
Adelyn jumped as a wet hand clamped down on her other arm. She barely moved away in time as an arm shot past her and shoved Derion hard, causing him to lose his grip on her arm.
She cried out as Cain painfully tightened his bloody grip on her arm and dragged her down the hallway, towards the kitchen and away from the library.
"Cain?" Derion's voice called after them.
"Get in there and grab a fucking gun before they find a way inside and outnumber us!" Cain snapped over his shoulder. She tried to jerk her head away from his shouting, but it was too late; her ear had already started ringing from the volume of his voice.
"You," he yelled in her ear as he took her underneath the staircase and shoved her up against the wall. He grabbed her arms just below her shoulders and pressed in hard, lifting her body at the same time so that she at eye level with him. Feet dangling in the air, she instinctively scrambled to find purchase on anything. Her shoes connected with his leg, and she pressed the soles of her shoes against his shins. The angle of her body and legs eased the press
ure of gravity and took a little of the discomfort away from her shoulders now that they weren't taking the brunt of her own body weight.
"Whether you do this or not, they're still going to come after you," he shook her once, pressing her into the wall behind her as he furiously whispered in her face. Her eyes widened at the sight of his muscles twitching in his cheek and eyelid. His face was quickly turning red, and she could see a bead of sweat start to trickle down his temple.
"They're still going to try and either take you with them or kill you on the spot," he continued, eyes stabbing into her. "Refusing to do anything about it is childish and stupid," he spat, grinding his teeth together as he paused, arms squeezing harder to the point where she felt as if she was about to cry out in pain.
"You showed me some of that warrior spirit when you stood up to me this morning," he leaned in closer until their noses bumped together. She barely felt the pain shoot up the bridge of her nose as she stared at him, processing his words as quickly as her brain would allow. Warrior spirit?
"No one has ever dared provoke me while I was in such a state," his voice choked over the words, each one coming out in a choppy mess as he struggled to drag air into his lungs. His eyes flashed as his hands started to shake around her arms. He grunted as some invisible force seemed to come down on his head and shoulders, and he closed his eyes against the onslaught.
She suddenly felt the air leave her lungs as her body started heating up as it did before, the first time she met him. It never increased to the level of pain, though, and she gasped as it settled over her body, blanketing over her and choking the air out of her lungs once more.
"Where are you hiding that warrior now, hm?" His eyes finally opened after the onslaught seemed to end, and she shuddered as one of his hands let go of her arm. Pressing her feet harder into his legs to stay upright at the level he had her at, she watched as his arm seemed to move on its own accord, wrapping his long fingers around her neck.
She glanced up at his eyes and saw that they were out of focus. She knew he was about to lose himself completely, and his hand would no longer be under his complete control.
Acting instinctively, she reached up with her free arm and balled her hand into a fist. She punched him as hard as she could directly in the throat.
Gasping as his grip fell from her neck, she looked up. He was barely fazed by the punch, but she could see now that his eyes were clear and focused once again. Her eyes fell to his lips as they began to spread and lift, a slow grin forming on his face.
"There it is," he breathed, eyes raking over her face appreciatively. "Why is it you're the only one that's ever been able to lay a hand on me and walk away from it?" he mumbled distractedly as he shifted her body up so that she was once more at eye level.
"Where the fuck are my grenades?" Gideon's voice roared from inside the library.
Cain ignored the shouting and continued to stare at her fiercely, his grip tightening on her arms. "Tell me," he demanded. "Tell me you're going to fight the bastards."
Her mind raced faster than she had ever thought possible. Something in his words awakened a part of her that made her crave the risk, the danger. It was the same feeling she had to push away when her bosses passed her over for the more pressing and slightly hazardous reporting jobs. It was the same feeling she had to ignore while she tried to convince herself that she was happy writing fluff pieces and waiting for her big break.
That's all this was, wasn't it? Her brain seemed to make the connection finally. This was investigative journalism at its best. She would be right there in the middle of it, collecting data and synthesizing it for the eventual presentation to her audience.
Except there was a lot more at stake here. She was gambling with her life. Hell, she was gambling with it anyway. Cain was right. They knew where she was. They were going to come after her eventually. If she did this, she might be able to find a way to keep them at bay, to save her own life.
Possibly to save a few more lives as well, she thought as she was reminded of the fact that the guardians were trying to exterminate the daemon race. If they made it past these five and somehow made it into their world...
She wasn't sure what the outcome would be, and she had no idea of how daemons lived, but for some reason, the idea of those grey monsters hurting possible innocents...
"Tell me," Cain's voice fought through her thoughts as he shook her once more.
...of hurting daemon children?
"Tell me you're going to do this for me," a hint of desperation in his deep voice caught her attention, and she looked up to his face, watching as his eyes slid back and forth between her eyes, searching for her answer.
Oh, gods help her...
“Yes,” she breathed.
Chapter Twelve
Cain's body clenched up, and his hands tightened around her arms briefly before he finally let her drop to the floor. "Donovan!" He called out to the daemon that had sped past them seconds earlier, heading in the direction of the kitchen.
"My lord?" he called down the hallway.
Cain snarled but didn't correct him. "Pytho. Library. Get her ready to go. Now!" He shouted when Donovan hadn't immediately jumped into action. "I'll hold them off and make sure they don't make their way in here." He leaned over and grabbed Adelyn's arm, pulling her into the hallway and handing her off to Donovan, who held onto her proffered arm in confusion.
"Don't fuck this up!" Cain raged over his shoulder as he started running toward the front door, catching up to Gideon as the other daemon shot out of the library, his hands full of small, dark objects.
Adelyn did a double-take. "Were those grenades?" She asked as Donovan quickly led her into the library. "And..was he smiling?"
"As you humans say...like a little boy on Christmas morning," his lips pressed together into a thin line as he pulled out a chair from the long table that served as their weapons repository. "Sit," he instructed before moving back into the hallway and shouting Pytho's name.
"I have no idea how we're going to do this," Donovan confessed as he cleared the table in front of her, pocketing two guns and grabbing ammunition. "This is unprecedented."
"I'm here," Pytho grunted as he ran into the room, a cardboard box in his arms. He dropped the box on the table and turned around to kick the library door shut. "Okay, what's the plan?" He asked distractedly, reaching into the box and rummaging through it, his red hair slapping him across the face as he quickly worked through it.
"The plan is whatever we can come up within the next three minutes," Donovan replied, throwing a hand through his hair in agitation. "This is a bad idea," he mumbled before closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath. "Okay," he breathed, eyes open once more. "We need some sort of tracking device. What do we have?"
"First up," Pytho found what he was looking for, and pulled out what looked like a small black chip. "GPS tracking device," he explained as he leaned over and pulled Adelyn's shirt down her shoulder and pulled up her bra strap.
"Hey!" She protested as he pulled the strap closer to him and attached the black clip to the back of the strap, guiding it as far down and under her bra cup as it would go. It was barely visible under her bra but hidden well enough that a glance wouldn't raise any suspicion.
"Sorry," he grinned, clearly not, as he traced his finger back up her bra strap before releasing it and letting it snap back onto her shoulder. He tugged her shirt back up. "It's a GPS tracking device that I tinkered around with. The battery should last three days. We'll be able to track you with this," he held up a small device with a large screen.
"Excellent," Donovan nodded approvingly. "What else have you got in there? Any sort of listening device?"
"I think I can do better," Pytho pulled out a wristwatch from the box and reached for Adelyn's arm, wrapping it around her wrist. "This has a video camera inside of it. You need to press this button to turn it on," he pressed the button for her. "Do not press it again," he stressed heavily. "It should be good for at least twelve
hours of video recording. Just let it run. It'll turn itself off. The camera is on the face, so keep that in mind."
"Only twelve hours?" Donovan asked quickly, leaning over to look at the watch. "What do we do after that?"
"We can try this," Pytho pulled a pen out of his box of spy toys. "It also has a video camera, but I have a feeling they might take it away. It's worth a shot though," he added, leaning over and showing Adelyn how to turn the camera on and off. "Only use this one once the watch runs out."
"Do you have anything that will allow her to communicate with us?" Donovan asked, peering down into the cardboard box.
"I don't think we should risk it," Pytho shook his head. "Besides, I don't have anything that won't immediately be recognized as a hands-free listening device."
"Where do you get all of this stuff?" Adelyn asked, examining the face of the watch. It was too large for her wrist and looked like it was a men's watch, but hopefully, the guardians wouldn't notice.
"The internet," Pytho replied as if it were obvious. "Spy equipment websites. You should see all of the goodies they have available on there," he closed up the box and slid it under the table.
"Okay, I guess the better question is why?" She looked up at him. "Why do you have all of this?"
"Why not?" He grinned, leaning over the table and picking up a clip, stuffing it into his back pocket. "It's mad fun trying to take these things apart and improve them. It also pisses Gideon off when he realizes that I've set several cameras outside of his room."
"Listen to me," Donovan interrupted, turning Adelyn's chair to face him. "We don't have much time. You must stress to them that you were being held here against your will," he said firmly, glancing at her nose. "Your nose still hasn't healed. It might help make it believable. You must not give any indication that you were here under voluntary terms. Say that we kept you here and forced you to work for us."
"What happened to your arms?" Pytho asked, leaning over Donovan's shoulder.
Surprised by the sudden question, Adelyn glanced down at her arms and saw the bloody mess that Cain had left behind from his self-inflicted knife wounds on his hands.
