An update on Lil Rems for the first time in like 4 and a half years? What is this?!

Well, actually, it's just a shout out to those of you who have this fic set on alerts but not me as an author and so may have no idea I've almost finished posting the next instalment of Butler growing up.

It's also something I should have done around about 7 weeks ago. I did a 'teaser trailer' for Just Reckoning on here before I started that one and I meant to for this one too, but I forgot.

If you've come over from Days of Reckoning: Part One - Hey! Sorry it's nothing new and thanks for helping me choose which chapter to post!

If you're seeing this, liking what you're reading and wondering what the hell DoR:P1 is, then you may be in for a treat. Because that fic is over 140K words and the last chapter will be posted in a few days, so you have a whole fic waiting for you!

Why yes, that is a bit *shameless-self-advertising-alert* but honestly I really just wanted to make sure anyone who read and liked Just Reckoning has managed to catch its sequel, since the gap between the two has been so long.

And speaking of JR, particularly for those of you stumbling across this with no previous idea of what I've written, this chapter and the previous one in the main fic DoR:P1 will probably make more sense if you've read 'Just Reckoning' - or at least Chapters 10, 11,12 and probably 15 if you CBA reading the whole fic and want to skip to the sequel, but remember when you're looking that my chapter titles are always one behind the automatic numbering system because I do prologues.

If you haven't a clue what's going on and this is the first time you've read anything from me - Welcome to Wolfy Fics! There will be Butlers and not much else, interspersed with massively long hiatuses between fics that push the 'T' boundary, with plenty of dark themes, dark humour and dark-suited, giant guys who coined the term gruff!fluff when it comes to their families - enjoy!

WARNINGS: Swearing, fighting, general badassery... the usual to be expected from a Wolfy!fic. Always read the label.

DISCLAIMER: Eoin Colfer owns the recognisable characters, I'm just telling the backstory.

DAYS OF RECKONING: PART ONE

CHAPTER THREE

Minor Damage

Marigold Manor, Ireland

"I'll have Junior call you when I'm ready to leave," Artemis said, popping the door himself for once and making as though to exit The Bentley as quickly as he demurely could.

"The invite stated guests were requested to leave by midnight."

"I am not Cinderella, Major," Artemis scoffed.

Don't you mean Cinder-fella? Dom thought, quoting his mischievous Academy mate, Charlie. Fortunately, in the presence of his uncle who would surely chastise him for cheek towards his charge, he kept the quip to himself.

"Just reminding you, sir," said the giant bodyguard. "Miss Devlin may be happy for you to stay longer, but I'll have to collect Junior when the rest of the guests leave."

"Yes, very well. If... Should Junior have to leave by then, I suppose that's fair..."

"I'll be at the gates whenever you're ready," his bodyguard said, evenly.

Artemis looked like he was going to make another comment, but he exited the car instead.

"Junior – a moment, please," the giant in the driver's seat said and the Fowl heir decided he wasn't going to wait around for the boy. He could jolly well catch up if he had to – Lord knows he was perfectly capable.

"Yes Uncle?" said Dom, checking his walkie-talkie was secure in his pocket.

"You remember the signals? Call me if there's any trouble."

"You mean more than Artemis's girlfriend throwing a hissy fit because he's brought me along?" Dom grinned.

"Yes, that," said The Major. "Now go on – he's doing his best to lose you already."

"He can dream on," Dom grinned, and leapt out of the car, leaving his uncle to what promised to be a long and boring wait for their return.

"Hey – Tim, wait up," he called, jogging across the gravel of the carpark.

Artemis sighed. "Look, could you just... keep a low profile for the night? Go find someone to talk to or something. And don't get drunk."

"I'm not going to drink," Dom snorted.

"I should think not. You're a minor."

"Not tonight I'm not."

"Physically, you still are. And in the eyes of the law."

"Physically my metabolism will deal with alcohol way better than yours ever will," Dom laughed. "And as for 'in the eyes of the law' - since when did you start caring about that?"

It was a rhetorical question. Dom could guess full well when Artemis decided to pay attention to the illegality of certain things. He also knew full well that Artemis' concern for following regulations did not extend to his own activities. Particularly not those which made him money...

"Enough with the talking, Junior," the Fowl heir scowled. Biologically, it was probably true, after all. The boy was a freak of nature, like the rest of his family. Artemis curbed his thoughts, a little surprised they'd appeared in his head at all. Perhaps Angeline was having more of an effect on him than he thought. Of course she had never verbalised such an uncouth observation, but the suggestion was there. He made a mental note to also keep the thought to himself. He wouldn't want to offend the family when the very thing he would be accusing them of had been integral to his staying alive several times now.

They strode up the long drive together, the Fowl noting how many figures he could recognise in the dimming light, the Butler noting how accurate the geography of the land fitted the plans he had been memorising. He thought the ornamental pond should be slightly more to the west, but it could have changed shape in the dry weather they apparently been experiencing whilst he'd been away at The Academy.

As they approached the manor, Artemis spoke again.

"Do you think you could just..."

"...keep out of your way?" Dom finished the request for him.

"Well, essentially, yes."

"No problem. You going to introduce me or..."

"Just... say you're a friend of mine if anyone asks. Though I doubt they will if you keep a low profile."

"Which you would like me to. Yes, you've said."

"There's enough people here for you to... you know, blend in."

Dom snorted. Only if he tried. Nobody else looked as un-manicured here as him, even if he was wearing a suit and had gone to the effort cleaning the mud of a faraway land out from under his fingernails. He clearly did not 'fit in' to the general theme of refined elegance.

"Won't we have to have some excuse when they sign us in? What name do you want me to use?"

"Sign us in where?" frowned Artemis, wondering if the budding bodyguard had noticed something he hadn't.

"Well they've got to be ticking off a guest list. Did you get a plus one or are we bullshitting our way in here?"

"There isn't a guest-list - this is a word-of-mouth event," Artemis explained slowly. "Casual, you understand?"

Dom understood alright. The Devlins' security team were clearly a bunch of incompetent idiots. Who in their right mind let a whole herd of unidentified, unscreened people wander into the house they were charged to protect? He could possibly - possibly - let it slide that they weren't doing a pat-down at the entrance, given that the guests appeared to be made up primarily of people of Artemis's ilk. But they should have been an uncompromised list of attendees which had been thoroughly background checked before being allowed through the gates, let alone into the manor itself.

He cast his eyes up to the windows of the house, trying to see if there was at least a guard watching over the entrance. There was a light on upstairs - in the designated base for the security team, if he was not mistaken from the blueprints - and he watched as a figure appeared, opening the window. Fine smoke weaved a silvery thread into the pale, evening sky.

"This is bullshit," Dom said, bluntly. "I'm taking you into an insecure location here with countless unknown persons and a security team who have holed up on the first floor smoking joints. Does my uncle know how lax these guys are?"

"To paraphrase your earlier distain about my own view; your whole life working under the man and you believe for one moment that he is not aware of everything you see here?" Artemis said, testily. "And you are not taking me anywhere. If anything, I am taking you."

"It doesn't matter who took who where if we both end up shot," Dom muttered under his breath, trying to stay calm. His uncle wouldn't have sent him in here if he didn't believe it was mostly safe. "I mean, does anyone know who the hell all these people are?"

"Jesus Christ, Junior!" Artemis snapped. "Nobody is going to get shot at! It's a gathering of friends, not an arms dealer ambassadors conference! The worst case scenario is that someone overindulges on alcohol and vomits into the flowerbeds. Now will you please stop fussing! I can't understand why you are so concerned about who is attending. You won't know any of them anyway."

"I don't see how you can come out with that - you're bothered I'm here, let alone anyone else!"

"Look," said Artemis, coming to an abrupt halt. "I haven't warned Angeline you're coming, alright?"

"Shiiit," Dom drew out the word. "Bad move, Tim."

"Yes, well!" Artemis said waspishly. "I wasn't given very much warning, was I?"

"Neither was I," Dom muttered, hoping there would be something caffeinated to drink on offer. He had already had a long day. It didn't seem possible that barely twenty-four hours ago he had been running the perimeter of the camp, preparing to leave The Academy for the mid-term break.

But Artemis had already strode off in the direction of the front of the small manor where a group of teenagers older than Dom were milling around. Not that they looked much older than Dom, of course. Part of his 'disguise' was that he could easily pass for someone a few years older than himself.

He traipsed after his uncle's charge, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible, and found himself an alcove to slouch, teenagerishly in. He remained 'out of the way' for almost the entire duration of the party with quite a lot of success, amusing himself by picking out all the security flaws of the building and improving them in his imagination. He caught sight of what was presumably the Head of Security, talking to a young man in his early twenties Dom presumed was a Devlin. He had the same fine features and blond hair as Angeline. He slipped from his 'hidey-hole' and sauntered towards them, straining his ears to listen, but only caught the gist that the security man was saying he was available if the blond man had any concerns, before he was dismissed. Dom followed his progress back up the stairs. The man didn't even look back. It would be so easily to take anyone out and slip away in the chaos that ensued...

He curbed his imagination and went back to milling around without talking to anyone.

It was, at least, good practice for blending into an environment he he didn't exactly suit.

Even when he had been spotted by the host of the party – to whom Artemis must have admitted his being there to – she had only acknowledged him with a prim nod but otherwise ignored his presence. Yes, it was all going rather well indeed. Until, that was, both of Angeline's brothers joined the gathering.

One was older than her by a few years; the young man Dom had clocked speaking to security, although did not have a name for until now, having not had time to be briefed on the family. The other brother was younger than her – only by a year or so, he would guess – and Dom felt a sudden jolt in his stomach when the teenager turned to a side profile and...

The name 'Devlin' clicked suddenly into place as he recognised him.

Shit, shit, shit...

Unbelievably, he had met both of the younger Devlin siblings on the same evening once before, at New Year two and a half years ago now. Both meetings had been under vastly different circumstances; Angeline at Fowl Manor and her brother...

He melted into the crowd instantly. This was bad. This was crossing over of separate paths of his life that he could really, really do without. This was one particular Venn Diagram he definitely didn't want to see intersect.

Kicking himself that he hadn't connected the name earlier, he carefully navigated the room to a location he could hear the conversation without being easily noticed.

" – is my brother Romeo," said Angeline. "Romeo, Artemis – Fowl, you know the family."

"Yeah, I've heard of them," the older brother, Romeo apparently, said without giving much of his opinion away in his tones.

He shook Artemis's hand firmly.

"How's business?" he asked.

"I have a few ventures in the pipeline," Artemis began, guardedly. Dom knew of these. In the past couple of years, the Fowl boy had moved on from playful inventions to serious business models and was currently, to his father's delight, theorising a way to use the country's own transport network as a way of moving contraband both in and out of Dublin docks under the guise of essential maintenance equipment and the likes.

"I mean your family's business, kid," said Romeo with a dry laugh.

He was perhaps half a decade older than the Fowl heir – a similar difference in age to Dom and Artemis. The Fowl did not take as lightly to being spoken to in such a manner as his bodyguard's nephew managed to.

"My father's business is his own," Artemis said, coolly.

If Angeline noticed the sudden iciness between the pair, she brushed over it, turning to her younger brother.

"And this is my little brother, Vinnie."

"I'm not that little anymore, Gee-gee," Vincent Devlin said with a grin.

"Well, maybe not to the rest of the world, but you're still my baby brother," Angeline continued, as though that was the end of it.

"Not in the cage, he isn't!" his older brother crowed raucously, grabbing him by the shoulder and ragging him back and forth suddenly. Vincent grinned a little embarrassedly.

"Ah come on, Rom, you know Angie doesn't like hearing about me doing that."

"Doesn't mean you're bad at it though, does it? One loss ever – how's that sound for a record?"

"Not as good as unbeaten..." Vince began to state but his brother ignored him.

"The cage?" Artemis asked.

"Cage-fighting," Romeo elaborated. "Or haven't you heard of it where you come from? It'll have been a fair few generations since your family saw anything other than the inside of those manor walls of yours, won't it?"

It was a dig. The Fowls had their wealth and status by inheritance. The Devlins were fairly new to the 'game' of high status, having had a few successful business deals in the environmental sector which had put them on the map when it came to the upper class of Ireland. Clearly the heir to this estate thought that his opposite number hadn't earned the right. He would be proved wrong, in years to come, though it was true at the time that Artemis Fowl had been given quite the leg-up by his family history – and indeed fortune.

"My family home has been as such since the eighteenth century," Artemis said, curtly. "I assure you, we have ventured out many a time since then."

"Not without your pet brutes though, eh? Where's yours this evening? Given him the night off, have you?"

"Honestly, I thought I was among friends. Why bring security?" Artemis said, as though he had not practically had to beg The Major to stay beyond the boundaries of Marigold Manor.

"Shame – Angie tells me there's a baby one. We could've seen if he was any good at fighting, couldn't we Vince?"

Vincent shrugged, seemingly a bit embarrassed about his brother offering a show of his abilities.

Dom silently willed Artemis to keep his mouth shut.

"Romeo, please – I don't wish to discuss with Artemis or anybody else what activities Father encourages Vince to partake in..."

"You're getting a trip to the city of my namesake on the back of his activities, so stop whining," Romeo said dismissively. "You and Mother will adore the shopping, I'm quite sure."

Angeline's lips thinned to a stern line, but she said nothing. And, thankfully, as far as Dom was concerned, neither did Artemis.

"Anyway – we only came in to see if any of your kiddie mates want to come see what the big boys spend their money on. You know, once they actually start making some."

"My friends are more mature than the majority of yours, Romeo..." Angeline protested, and even from a distance Dom could she her cheeks were beginning to turn pink in annoyance.

He couldn't find it in him to feel sorry for her. Not with all the 'murderous beast' talk about his uncle. Not that he was denying it was true, but there were nicer ways to put it. Trained assassin, for example. Mercenary, perhaps. Hitman, if your skirted the edges of decency.

"And what would that be?" Artemis interrupted, touching her elbow discreetly. "Anything I'd be interested in?"

"I doubt it," Romeo scorned. "Cars, obviously. Probably outside your area of expertise, right Fowl?"

"I have been known to admire a vehicle," said Artemis – who to Dom's extensive knowledge of the Fowl, had not so much as glanced beyond whether or not a car had an inbuilt cool water dispenser before now – a little haughtily.

"Come on then – come see."

Dom groaned internally. Outside. Great. He'd have to follow them without being seen. How he was going to manage that, he had no idea.

Luckily for him, he didn't have to formulate a ninja-style method of egress, for shortly after inviting Artemis to follow him to the garages, Romeo Devlin loudly proclaimed to the rest of the world that they were welcome to follow. Dom slipped in amongst the crowd quietly, trying to keep Artemis in view as they poured out onto the gravel of the carpark.

Outside, several other young men – presumably Romeo's friends – were already gathered around the open door to one of the garages. In it was what Dom could just about make out to be, a state of the art rally car – complete with roll-cage, massive headlights and a paintjob that would manage to give even a dog a headache.

Romeo, bored with his tormenting of Artemis, swaggered over to his counterparts, slapping hands with the nearest in a complicated series of gestures that passed as a handshake.

"Wanna see some spins?" he offered, putting his hand through the windowless doorframe and turning the ignition.

The semi-inebriated crowd Dom was embroiled in in his efforts to remain unnoticed by the younger of the Devlin sons, cheered and whooped their encouragement, their cries soon almost drowned out by the roar of the engine as Romeo leapt in through the window and began to stomp his foot on and off the accelerator.

Well that won't escape the notice of Uncle, Dom thought to himself, sidling closer to Artemis in the hubbub.

"Move back then!" Romeo called, laughing as the crowd scurried away from the car as it lurched all the way out of the garage. One of his mates jumped in the passenger side, the other two looking on enviously as the eldest Devlin floored his motor around the carpark, spinning it in ever decreasing donuts.

The teenagers cheered and screamed as the wheels spat up gravel, tinkling off the metal doors of the other garages.

Tosser, Dom thought; every inch The Major in that moment.

Romeo spun the car away speeding up to the gate in the distance. They initially thought he was taking the car for a drive out on the roads, but before the shouting could die down to excited chatter, the headlights began bearing down on them once more. Quickly. Almost too quickly.

"We need to move," Dom said automatically, calculating the stopping distance on this surface of a vehicle with the rally-car's approximate brake-horsepower. "Everybody move - now!"

"Whoa alright, grandad," one teenager laughed at him. "Who died and made you the fun police?"

Dom was tempted to reveal he was the youngest there by some years, but there was little time to avoid the impending disaster, let alone trade snide comments.

"Hey, aren't you Tim's friend?" said another.

Artemis, hearing his nickname, and perhaps the Butler boy's previous warning turned to shoot him a look of scathing disapproval, but Dom didn't care. The car wasn't slowing nearly soon enough for his liking. He elbowed his way through the crowd, shoving them clear and shouting until even the most enthusiastic of fans for Romeo's antics began to scatter. He reached Artemis, pulling him, protesting over the low wall surrounding the carpark. Almost as an afterthought, he grabbed Angeline Devlin by the elbow and hauled her along with them, too.

Dom heard the brakes engage on the rally car and, predictably, fail on the gravel, tiny chunks of rock ricocheting off the housing protecting the sump on its underbelly. Romeo was apparently attempting a handbrake turn, for the car pulled sharply to the left, sliding almost out of control as it went along sideways, throwing up a cloud of dust. As predicted, it did not stop where the driver had planned.

There was a dull 'crack' as the car collided with one from a pair of enormous clay pots housing miniature trees either side of the steps leading to the path up to the manor. Soil spilled out and the tree slumped drunkenly to one side.

There was a moment of quiet and then Romeo, slung himself out of the window and up onto the car's roof, standing with his arms raised.

"It'll buff out!" he called, to much returned laughter.

For some of the crowd, the display had been less impressive and they dispersed slowly back to the light and warmth of the house. Those that stayed shouted praise and requests for him to continue.

"I don't know," Romeo said with a smirk. "I think that could be enough excitement for you lot."

The crowd booed their disapproval at the comment.

Artemis was highly disapproving too – though for a different reason. He looked at where the car had stopped and where he and Angeline had been standing before Junior's intervention.

"I think it could be enough foolish posturing for one evening, too," he said, not quietly.

Romeo honed in on his voice in an instant, raising his hand to quiet the rest of the people present.

"What's that Fowl? Shit your pants a little there, did you?"

"Doubtlessly not as much as you did when you failed to pull off that driving manoeuvre."

"Artemis, please don't..." Angeline said quietly.

But Artemis was filled with the haughty rage of a near-miss and continued regardless.

"It would have been much more impressive had you not smashed what I believe to be a valuable ornamental pot, the side of your vehicle and, of course, almost crashed at speed into a crowd of onlookers."

Romeo raised an eyebrow, jumping down off the roof of the car and landing with what he supposed would be an intimidating thud, in front of Artemis. The Fowl heir didn't flinch. Walking around with six score plus kilo of muscle at your side at any given time tended to do that to one's confidence. Of course on this occasion, Artemis's bodyguard was not within arm's reach. But that was not to say he was entirely Butler-less.

"You want to say that again to me, Fowl?" Romeo began.

"Romeo, please," Angeline said, stepping between them. "Artemis is right – you did come up rather fast and Mother is not going to be pleased when she..."

"Mother won't need to find out, will see?" he snapped at his sister, pushing her to one side by the arm. "My conversation isn't with you."

"Don't push her! She's merely showing concern..."

"Going to defend her honour are you? And how are you going to do that? They teach you to box at that posh-boy school of yours, Fowl?"

He pushed Artemis with much more power than he had pushed his sister, the Fowl boy stumbling backwards in shock. But before Romeo could take so much as another step into the newfound space between them, he found it filled by someone who spread one hand across his chest in warning. It was not quite like hitting a brick wall, but it was like hitting a rather sturdy fence.

"Alright, that's enough," Dom said, gruffening his voice in his best impression of his uncle, wishing he had the physical size to go with it.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Romeo scoffed, trying to keep the surprise from his tones at being stopped like that, making an attempt to push past and finding himself instantly blocked again.

Dom clocked Vincent noticing him with an honest-to-god gasp, and hoped he'd keep his mouth shut.

"Oh wait - this is too cute..." Romeo said, as it began to dawn on him. "You're with Fowl aren't you? I didn't know you came in pocket size!"

"Just back off," Dom said firmly.

Romeo laughed in his face. "Aww, listen to the puppy dog - do you bite too?"

"I'm serious," he warned, ignoring the taunting. "Let's not get into anything here."

But Romeo wasn't finished.

"Look guys!" he called. "It's a baby bodyguard – a mini-brute! What is it your guard's called again, Fowl? He's a Butler, isn't he?"

"Oh it's The Major, isn't it? Some military sounding bullshit," one of Romeo's buddies scoffed.

Dom began to clock Romeo's biggest supporters in case things turned ugly. That guy would be first to rush the Devlin heir's defence, he reckoned, planning how he'd take him out with a stomp kick to the knee if necessary.

In actual fact, Myles Butler had never been officially enrolled into any military forces (except on paper for various aliases of course) and his 'work name' had been mostly picked out for him. The name 'Butler' in Fowl Manor tended to skip a generation to avoid confusion amongst the staff and their charges. When the time came, Domovoi knew that, if all went as it should with his Blue Diamond training and, of course, he did not meet his end beforehand, he would inherit the infamous title from his grandfather. He strived every day to make sure he would earn it by right, rather than ritual.

The fact that Alexandr Butler had sired two sons, meant that there had been three male Butlers in the manor long before the next generation came along in the form of his illegitimate grandson. The twins had grown up with the monikers 'Senior' and 'Junior'; Beckett, being the eldest had thus been the former, Myles the latter. Although if the staff saddled with sharing the staff accommodation with the Butler twins in their youth were asked, they would have been referred to as 'Cain and Abel' as a unit, for they were never often seen apart unless they were pulling some trick rooted in the ability to seemingly be in two places at once.

Upon reaching adulthood, and soon after that becoming qualified Blue Diamond Bodyguards, Beckett and Myles were bestowed with their new, lifelong working names of 'The Captain' and 'The Major' respectively. Dom knew this much, but what he didn't know was that upon being offered the choice of the titles between them, the brothers had arm-wrestled for the higher rank of name. And what Myles didn't know was that Beckett had let him win because he thought 'Captain' sounded much cooler and besides that, he knew it would mean more to his brother, over whom he lorded his seniority of four minutes and twelve seconds their entire lives.

"Major?" said Romeo with a smirk. "So who's this then – Minor?"

The crowd guffawed around him.

"Ha – fuck you, Fowl – I knew you wouldn't go anywhere without protection!"

Artemis's ears turned scarlet and Dom knew he would be in for a lot of apologising later for the amount of embarrassment he had just caused.

"I'm right, aren't I Angie? This is the baby Butler you saw at Fowl's place at that New Year's thing the other year."

Angeline nodded, which only confused Vincent further. He had fought Flex in a cage a few New Year's ago. Could it really be the same boy? And a Butler at that? He suddenly didn't feel quite so bad about losing against him, but why a member of a prestigiously renowned bodyguarding family would be hanging around back streets of Dublin fighting for drunken gamblers, he didn't know... Then again, he supposed his own family background didn't explain his cage-fighting habits much either.

"Well pipe-down, baby blockhead – this conversation is for the higher mammals," he continued.

"You shouldn't talk to people like that unless you can back it up with your fists," said Dom, staring his opponent down.

"Who says I can't?" Romeo said, squaring up to him. "You gonna stop me?"

"I'm not fighting with you," he said, calmly.

"Why? You scared? You think you're not major enough, Minor?"

Dom snorted lowly, which almost had the Devlin heir swinging for him on the spot.

"I don't fight with people who aren't trained," he said. "It's not sporting."

"What do you mean sporting?"

"I mean it doesn't normally end well for them," he continued. "It isn't fair to fight that far below your grade."

"Why you cocky little..."

"Junior, that's enough," Artemis interjected.

"Hah. So it's Junior, is it? I was close enough. Come on then! Let's see what you've got, baby Butler."

The eldest Devlin sibling, drew up his hands in what he thought was a fighting stance. Dom didn't even move his feet. If the young man leapt at him, he'd be ready without preparing so visibly.

"Wait, Rom – I know him," Vince spoke up, suddenly. "It is you – Flex, right? We fought two Christmases back. Dad thought you were awesome."

Dom nodded, not taking his eyes off the older Devlin brother. He was assured of his own ability, but he knew better than to be arrogant. Even against such a mild threat as a pissed off rich boy. "Good to see you, Vinco."

"What you doing here?"

"Long story," Dom shrugged. "I came with Artemis. I didn't know this was your family. Sorry."

Vince looked as though he wanted to ask more, but his brother interjected suddenly.

"Looks like my whole family's met you but me," Romeo said, jutting his jaw. "You fight well in a cage, then?"

Dom nodded, without arrogance. He could back up his claim, after all. Artemis, despite his embarrassment, still managed to look surprised. As far as he was concerned, Junior resided with his mother when he wasn't at the manor and The Academy when he wasn't there. He wasn't aware he undertook any further activities – certainly nothing as uncouth as cage-fighting.

Romeo, on the other hand, looked delighted.

"Well if Fowl won't fight and you won't fight me, how about you and my brother have a scuffle? It could be like choosing champions back in the medieval times – that'd please you, wouldn't it, Fowl? Stuck in the fucking past like you are."

Artemis thought that if there was going to be a fight of any sort, his best bet was indeed to choose a champion and out of the current company that best option was indeed Junior. But before he could speak, the youngest Butler shook his head firmly.

"Nope. I'm not fighting him either."

"Why, worried about losing?" Romeo sneered. "You just said you only fight trained guys – well he's trained to fuck! He's above your fucking grade, half-pint!"

Dom raised an eyebrow at that comment. Romeo was quite tall, but nowhere near tall enough to choose size as a baiting point for the brushing-six-foot-one teenager.

"Considering the result of our last match," the young bodyguard said calmly, silently apologising to Vince for the embarrassment he would cause him with the end of his statement. "My answer is still no."

"What?" Romeo scowled. "The fuck you talking about? The fuck's he talking about, Vincent?"

"That's my one loss stood there, bro," Vinco said, with a cringing grin. "He's not lying when he says he's pretty damn good."

Romeo looked disgusted for a moment, then shrugged.

"Fine."

Then without further ado, he quite ill-advisedly attempted to punch the young Butler straight in the face.

Domovoi was on him like lightening.

He blocked the punch, simultaneously pushing Artemis further behind him with his other hand. He then caught Romeo's wild attempt a second blow and delivered a strong two-handed push that had his opponent colliding calf-first with the low wall and falling almost into his own car. He flailed his arms, catching himself on the windowsill with a bang of hollow metal that pulled the wandering crowd's attention back to the epicentre of the argument like iron filings to a magnet.

"What the fuck?" he spat. "Who pushes like that in a fight? What are you, a girl?"

Ironic, given it was exactly what he had just done to Artemis, Dom thought. And also the number of females he knew personally who could absolutely wipe the floor with almost any male you put before them.

"I don't want to hurt you," said the young bodyguard, mind racing through his options. "Let's just leave this here before we get into something we're going to regret."

The rest of Romeo's group, predictably riled by his actions, began to circle him, some even pulled up their hands in 'Queensbury Rules' style boxing stances. Dom's own were held in front him in a modified martial arts position; both placatingly and as a defensive pre-emptive block, his dark eyes flitting back and forth between the faces, ready to fend off whichever direction the next attack came in first. Things were getting more serious now. This was no longer a threat to be shrugged off. Multiple attackers, armed or not, entered a sort of 'mob-mentality' which removed all usual inhibitions about inflicting mortal blows. If he was knocked to the ground, he could be stomped and kicked to death by individuals who would not, in normal circumstances, have the means nor the inclination to kill him.

"Yeah? Well regret this!" Romeo said and lunged at him.

Dom had seen his hand disappear inside the door, but he did not exactly expect the spanner that came towards him at speed. Following his training and hoping that the Devlin did not loose his missile into the air and that if he did, Artemis would be smart enough to get out of the way of his own accord; Dom closed the gap between him and his attacker. Although seemingly counter-productive to the average observer, physics dictated that the fastest moving point of an object swung from a pivot, was the end furthest away. Keeping himself away from the point of the whirling bar of metal, Dom slammed a firm shoulder into Romeo's own and wrapped his arm in tight against his chest. Within a second, he had disarmed him and cast the heavy wrench aside. Taking a couple of hits to the ribs from his free hand, Dom managed to roll Devlin straight onto the bonnet of the car and pin him with what he was relieved to find out was surprising ease. His little brother, Romeo was not.

People were shouting, but Dom was in the curious bubble of the fight and ignored anyone who wasn't likely to hit him in the next few seconds.

"Get back! And stay back or I'll break his fucking arm," he warned the cronies who rushed in to assist their boss. His proposed stomp-kick victim had actually held back, which Dom felt a little disappointed about. He was normally good at guessing who was going to try to beat the shit out of him first.

He pinned the writhing Devlin more firmly, talking quietly to him.

"I'll let you up when you stop struggling," he informed him, through gritted teeth.

Romeo half-screamed something semi-coherently threatening and Dom pushed down harder.

"Stop it, for fuck's sake; you're embarrassing yourself."

Romeo of course, didn't heed his request and struggled and slipped so much that Dom was forced to take him to the floor – not ideal when he had little in the way of back-up and the Devlin heir had plenty. He landed heavily on the radio in his pocket, but in the absence of a free hand with which to use it, he had to hope his uncle was watching and already on the way. The Devlins' security team were nowhere to be seen, though he'd take being forcibly removed from the premises if it meant Artemis was too. He was glad that the Fowl boy was far too used to standing back and letting his Butlers deal with things that he didn't even attempt to add himself as a variable to the fight, although Dom would have appreciated him at least calling for some back-up in the form of his actual bodyguard.

"Flex! On your three!"

He barely recognised the voice, but he was surprised to find that apparently he had someone of some use on his side.

He expected the kick to the head as soon as one of the goons leapt over the wall to join them, but he had to admit, given the situation, he didn't quite predict that one of them would have the guts to snatch up the spanner and swing it into his back. He blocked the kick and took another hit from the tool before he managed to launch a viciously accurate side-kick into the wielder's knee. Man and weapon dropped to the gravel with a scream and suddenly the two other kickers didn't seem quite so keen. Keeping one boot on the struggling Romeo, Dom leapt to his feet and used the hand offered up in the form of a punch to pull the attached human into his knee and thrust him to the floor after the first. Vince was shouting at the crowd, warning them back in case any would-be street-fighters decided to join in. That left two down, two to go. Or at least momentarily, until Romeo re-entered the fray. He managed to take advantage of the Butler boy's preoccupation of not getting punched in the head and roll out from under him and to his feet, kicking and punching like a drunk at a bar fight. He had very little finesse, Dom thought, as he dropped him without remorse with a roundhouse punch that wouldn't have looked out of place in a professional boxing ring. He hadn't had any opportunity to warm up and the movement jarred his shoulder a little. He'd have preferred to have removed the problem with a swift right hook, but sometimes showy attacks had their place; Romeo had had his warning.

But that was no excuse to fight entirely like 'an enraged heathen', as his grandfather would accuse.

He took a breath and resolved to refine his technique for the remainder of this fight, lest he injure himself more than any of these goons would manage to. One of the two remaining attackers rushed him and he slipped through the poor guard the young man threw up and jabbed two rigid fingers into his sternal notch, spinning to take out the final member of Devlin's gang with a reverse elbow – because, well, spinning elbows weren't that showy, right?

They are actually very effective, he justified, gauging mid-turn whether the distance between them would mean the elbow needed extending into a reverse, spinning hammer instead...

Only to find himself most unexpectedly face to face with the muzzle of a gun.

Well, if you enjoyed this and haven't already read it - head over to have a look at Days of Reckoning: Part One from the start, because there's a whole lot more!

Thanks for reading!

Wolfy
ooo
O

21/06/2020