The door led to yet another long hallway. Keera lagged slightly behind her companions. She didn’t feel like listen to either man’s prattle. She was… unsettled. Worse, she couldn’t figure out why. The last thug was not the first person she’d ever seen die. Keera had seen more corpses than she could count and she had killed more people than she cared to remember. Killing wasn’t comfortable, but at least she usually felt numb. So, why did this one bother her so much?
“Keera!” Royal called in a loud whisper as he beckoned her nearer. She quickened her pace to join them in a quasi-huddle. Royal continued, “There’s another door up ahead and there’s something really powerful behind it, not the doped up thugs we’ve faced up until now. Also, I think we’ve activated some sort of silent alarm; whatever’s there will know that we’re coming.”
“Then I suggest,” Tibias responded dryly, “that we be ready for them.” He pulled the brass knuckles out of his pocket and slid them onto his fingers. He turned to Royal, who nodded to indicate his readiness for serious combat, then to Keera. She met his gaze, but she seemed oddly distant. “Ms. Trean?” After a moment of hesitation, she drew two long, thin daggers and nodded her assent, her focus restored.
As soon as Tibias kicked the door open, a blast of magic knocked him to the floor. The room beyond seemed fairly large for an office, but the crowd within made it seem smaller. Five lesser demons surrounded the source of the blast, a middle aged human male, undoubtedly their master. He spoke, “What is your business here?”
“We are here to see Mr. Cathburn” Tibias replied coolly, already back on his feet. “The Council of Draelin has a few questions they would like to ask him.”
“I’m afraid that you cannot see Mr. Cathburn without an appointment.” The man’s voice was full of arrogant threat. He gestured subtly to the demons, which began to crawl towards the trio.
“I’m afraid, Mr. Cathburn,” Tibias closed his fist and settled into a fighting stance. “That you don’t have a choice.” He stepped towards Cathburn, but the demons closed in faster. “Amen,” he muttered before blasting the closest one with a right hook. Keera darted out from behind the older man, tearing into another demon with her daggers. Blood squirted out of the wound, creating a slippery surface on the cold floor.
As Tibias snapped the neck of his first opponent, a red impish beast, a maroon demon with large wings jumped on him from behind, wrapping its wiry arms around his neck and head. Losing his balance, he slipped on the slick floor. Murmuring a spell, Royal blasted it off with a ball of energy. Quickly helping Tibias to his feet, he hurried off to finish the beast. He unleashed another ball of magic, burning a hole in its flesh.
Tibias turned to the next demon, catching a view of Keera out of the corner of his eye just as she decapitated her foe. Kole had always told him that the squeamish girl was fully capable of brutality. Tibias was starting to understand why Kole chose his underlings; they could certainly hold their own in a fight. This line of thought ended as he laid into another demon.
Watching in shock as his demon bodyguards fell quickly to the Council forces, Reginald Cathburn Jr snuck out the back exit.
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