Soul Of A Demon

The woman brought her head back to the center and stood up. could imagine the pain she was in, but her unwillingness to show weakness was admirable. He waited as she gathered her thoughts, and was embarrassed when he realized he was holding his breath.

"I am assuming you are here because The General", she said such venom smiled in spite of himself, "is working with , which makes you a high commander of the front line demon army. Knowing The General" she practically growled as she said it, "he pays you with visits to the women he holds here and has grown tired of, and you hate it. I can smell your disdain for him, even through the reek this building has. Yet demon code forbids you from acting negatively toward him until deems his usefulness expired. This means if you don't kill me, there will be massive repercussions. o, what now?"

realized he was staring in surprise. "How do you know so much about demons?"

Her eyes flashed with a wave of unexpected anger. She closed her eyes, murmuring under her breath. He felt a shift in the air, an electricity almost, and stared the lacerations seemed to heal before his eyes. Perspiration beads began to form on her forehead as the energy filled the room. Now he understood why every chain had been inscribed with an anti-magic charm. She wasn't a magic worker, she was an all-out , and a powerful one at that. had never felt an energy like this, from a human. There was far more to this woman than meets the eye. The electricity she shakily sat back onto the bed. She was not healed, but the wounds looked a week old rather than fresh. Her chest heaved as she struggled to catch her breath. knew magic was physically trying, but he had never truly seen it in action.

"You are avoiding the inevitable" she accused. Her practicality served to excite him more. "Then again, I suppose we will have some time before anyone comes this way. In the days of my magic studies, I invoked a spirit to aid with a protection spell; at least I thought I did. Who I invoked was , a minor demon in the service of . Let's say, got a little hectic, but we came out of it with mutual respect for each other. She taught me a lot that I would not have learned from the traditional teachings. She filled me in on a lot of the demon politics and societal rules."

was staring again, he knew he was staring, but he could not pull his eyes away from her. He wanted to ask her so more questions, but he also knew her patience was wearing thin, and he needed to figure out what he was going to do. She was right, he didn't want to kill her, and technically it sounded like they were allies. But he couldn't walk out of here with her either, The General would never allow it. He was scared of this woman and desperately wanted her to die. Then again, if she truly knew the workings of the demon world and the human world, she was a far greater ally than The General. Hopefully, would see it that way too.

A decision reached, he moved toward her. As she vaulted into a fight position, he realized his mistake. Throwing his hands in the air, he backed away, then tossed the keys to her. She caught them with ease and for the first time showed surprise. He got a bit of satisfaction out that. As she searched for which key fit the final lock he strode over and put his ear to the door, heightened demon senses straining to see if anyone was in the vicinity. He picked up a soldier walking in the area. If he played his cards right he could get her a weapon as well as come up with a plan to get her out of here. He heard the chain hit the ground and turned back to face her.

For the first time, he took in the sight of her . Even by human standards she was far too skinny. Her back was to him, and he could see the damage. From the top of her shoulders to mid-calf was a crisscross of scars. What was once a full back piece was now the perceptible shattered tree of life. Her spine was , but she still stood straight. At 5 foot 7 she was a full foot and a half shorter than and lighter. As she turned back toward him, he gauged she couldn't weigh more than a 100 pounds, yet she still radiated inner strength.

"Where are we in the compound?", she inquired.

"5 stories down from the roof, I've never entered at the ground level but I would gauge 20 stories in total. I've never been lower than this level... the stench below assaults me. Typically, I meet The General on the floor above this we can conclude our business."

She contemplated that with a furrowed brow. going up would be a quicker escape, but where to from there? She didn't have a plethora of weapons or a helicopter at her disposal. She could potentially fight her way to the top, and even make it off the roof, but how long before her strength left? wasn't in peak physical or mental condition. Regardless, she had to try.

Sensing her thoughts, expressed his agreement with her thought process.

"Down is almost surely suicide, but it does give us the higher ground if we move fast."

She stared at him. "Us?"

"You don't expect to get out of here on your own do you?"

"Are you willing to ruin a tactical partnership for a woman you met?"

a fair question. One he couldn't answer; he didn't try.

"What were you thinking?"

She contemplated him for a moment before answering.

"Knocking you out, releasing you from any association and figuring it out from there." He wondered how she had planned on that one. "The roof would be a quicker escape of the building, but even if there was a helicopter up there, it would explode before I got far. I'm going to take me chances going down."

Opening the door, shot his arm into the hallway, pulling the wandering soldier into the room and connecting his fist with the mans face before the door could fully latch closed. As the soldier slumped against the wall, removed the man's gun from his, followed by his vest that was riddled with extra weapons and magazines. As she inspected the weaponry, removed the mans shirt, handing it to the woman; there was no way the pants would fit her, but the shirt hung down to mid thigh at least gave her skin a buffer as she put on the too big vest. It would slightly impede her, but at least she had a better chance of surviving. His demon skin was far more resilient than humans and practically bulletproof.

Placing his ear against the door again, sensed they could get down 2 floors before needing to fight. still a long shot, but they had to take it. Turning to regard the woman, she gave him a nod to show she was ready; her icy blue eyes shining with anticipation.

They made it down one flight of stairs before a spray of bullets started descending on them. cursed himself, he was certain they had more time, but he couldn't dwell on it now. Pulling his knives from the main sheathes on his belt, he began taking out assailants even as she expertly took them out with the stolen gun. Head after head snapped back as more soldiers poured onto the stairs above them, and she took them out with ease as they continued to creep down toward floor level. Looking over the railing and directing his blades to the soldiers coming up the stairs, began to doubt their chances. He looked over his shoulder at the angry growl behind him. The rifle ammo was , and the 9 mm wouldn't last too much longer. He needed to get her in front of him, so he could protect her back and continue moving, cursing himself for not doing that from the beginning. He knew The General had been alerted and would be getting the big guns to make sure they both died.

he was blind and warm. Assuming a grenade, he was confused he had not heard an explosion. Turning around, he saw why. The woman was glowing, spinning purple and red flames engulfing her body yet not burning her. , her make shift clothes were no match against the heat, the fabric burned to ash and the metal of the guns becoming nothing more than a melted puddle. Looking around him, he realized he too, was engulfed by the flames, but they were not touching him.

Demons were resilient, but not fire proof, and he stared in amazement as he realized she was protecting him from her as well as their enemies. A sudden roll of the floor brought to his attention the fact that the building could not withstand her fire either. Unsure what to do, he dropped into a defensive stance, tail growing to it's full length, twitching expectantly and wings unfurling with a snap. The floor underneath them pitched again and tightened his crouch, prepared for anything. The woman's eyes burned bright purple as she strained, then with a fierce cry she released the spinning energy.

A 9-foot wide column of fire shot straight up from where the woman stood, extending down through the floors below and blasting clean through the roof of the building. The floor underneath the woman was gone, but she maintained suspension in the column. The heat from the energy blast was intense inside Baharsh's protected bubble but nothing compared to it's true power. Humans disintegrated from the mere touch and all the soldiers in the area dived to the floor, rolling as their clothes caught on fire. As he wondered how much longer she could this, her scream stopped and the fire began to diminish. As he looked at her in awe and a bit of fear, he noticed the sweat dripping off her face as her eyes rolled back into her head, her body went she started to fall.

In one fluid movement, he jumped, catching her and bringing her into his arms as he worked his wings to gain elevation. The building was beginning to collapse where they had been, the sounds of soldiers running and shouting in the lower levels reaching Baharsh's ears as he shot up into the air. Clearing the crumbling building but not bothering to look back, resisted the urge to fly straight to the cave where is company was camped. Keeping his eyes open for spotlights from below, he flew in erratic circles, flying off due east until he was certain he was out of eye shot, but careful not to fly too high and harming the human. Certain they were safe, he turned again, heading as fast as he could.

Landing into the cave he was relieved to see a fire burning and meat rotating on the . Without a word, and avoiding any eye contact, he took the woman to his area of the cave, setting her down and covering her in the thin furs from his travel pack. He wished he had brought better ones. Looking up, he called upon the soldier nearest him, telling him to bring his fur as well, cover the woman and keep watch over her. As he walked back to the fire he turned back to the watcher and told him, "No matter what, do not touch her, or let anyone else touch her."

The watcher nodded confused understanding as he covered the woman with the extra blanket. was not one to act or be all gloom and doom, but the watcher sensed something akin to fear in his leaders voice, and that puzzled him. "What could this little human do?" he wondered as he took a seat at her feet and looked at how small she seemed under blankets designed to cover demon soldiers. And if she was truly dangerous, why had his commander bought her here? The watcher felt an odd sensation that he couldn't describe as he studied the woman's face.