Here you are, the first chapter in the second installment of the Daughter of The Demon Series, a sequel to Home of Blood and Heart…

The red hooded figure stood tall, his stance wide and imposing, in an alley just outside of the Glades over the figure of a cowering man, arrow notched and ready he watched the man beg him to let him go. The damp and stench riddled surroundings did not affect the red leather clad figure in the slightest, the goon laying on the concrete below though shivered from the cold, his hands dirty and calloused from his life in the street gang he belonged to, his muscle t-shirt clinging to him from the dampness of the atmosphere, he gripped the leather of the man's pants begging for mercy. The covered eyes of the vigilante pitied him and his circumstances but not once sympathizing with his methods, he shook his head at the misfortune of the man laying on the concrete below as he pulled on his bowstring releasing an arrow towards the scared man.

The vigilante watched as the cables released from the arrow wound around the man binding and neutralizing him, his electronic voice echoed around the empty alleyway delivering his message, "You have failed this city."

"I never pegged you for a Re-use and Recycle kinda guy. Huh! Guess I didn't really know you all that well after all." A voice snickered from behind him.

He turned around as a petite woman stepped out of the shadows sauntering towards him. He watched in appreciation as her slim hips clad in tight black leather pants swayed while she walked and the knee length, black leather heeled boots she wore beat out a staccato against the cold concrete, the full sleeved bolero style leather maroon jacket zipped up to her neck over a black t-shirt complimenting her delicate figure beautifully.

"My eyes are up here Hood boy," the girl commented noticing his obvious appreciation of her body.

He moved his eyes up to her face, noticing her brunette hair bouncing around her maroon clad shoulders as she moved, her features indiscernible behind the red and black domino mask adorning her eyes and ending just below her ears. He listened to the sweet lilt of her voice as she left an anonymous tip on nine-one-one still advancing towards him with sure, powerful steps.

Shooting a zip line up towards the concrete column of the rooftop of a nearby building he waited for her to join him before banding his arms around her small waist. Standing over the ledge he released his hold on the woman, jumping over and walking to the middle of the roof he waited for her to join him before he spoke up, "So is there any reason you keep seeking me out or are you just here to play games again?"

"Aren't you impatient…" she said lazily checking her nails before looking up at him in a mock thoughtful expression, "wait I already did know that, in fact it was one of your many vices back when we…" her posture straightened instantaneously, her features turning serious as she continued, "you know, meant something to each other."

"Thea…"

"Roy…"

"What do you want?"
"To understand."

"To understand what?"

"Everything."

Sighing he pulled the mask off his eyes to rest at his throat as he watched the girl he loved with sad, defeated eyes, "I have told you everything I know…"

"Not everything, Roy," Thea suddenly thundered, her calm demeanor discarded completely, "you think I can't tell when you are hiding something?"

"I told you all I can but there are something's that are not mine to share. And I won't break someone's trust just to get you to understand…"

"But you didn't have any problems in breaking my trust."

"Thea…"

"Thea, Thea, Thea…all you do now is say my name. I used to like that once, loved it but now it's starting to grate on my nerves," Thea interrupted angrily, her voice a low growl.

"Thea you have to understand…"

"Isn't that what I have always done?!" she exclaimed. "I understood." She pointed to herself as she walked towards him, her steps wide and furious, her eyes wet with tears of anger, fury blazing in the brown depths, "I understood when my brother died and came back and refused to talk to me, to share with me, I understood my mother when she ended up in jail for mass murder…I listened to her, I stood by her, I understood even when she told us she had an affair, I understood and understood as people around me lied to me, kept secrets from me every single day about my life, I understood. But I am done understanding now, I am done listening. You need to understand that I won't back down now. I want the truth and this time I will do anything to get it. I will do anything to punish all those people who took my life away from me, and that includes you." she finished, her face now level with his, staring him in the eyes, she continued, "I'm stronger now. Just like I said I would be and I am back but I want what I deserve and I don't deserve treachery."

Looking into her eyes, he felt unsettled to see a stranger staring back at him, it wasn't the same girl he had fallen in love with he saw now. He noticed how different the two were. Where the Thea he had loved was warm, fun and loving the shell of her standing before him now was anything but. This woman held nothing but cold reason in her eyes, and a darkness unlike anything he had seen firsthand.

"Thea," a low voice sounded behind them an angry tint to it, grabbing his attention and breaking his perusal of the brunette. The two occupants broke their standoff to look at the man standing over the ledge of the roof. Roy turned to watch as Thea's eyes widened, not in fear but in realization that she had been caught. She stepped away from Roy her eyes locked on the man standing on the ledge.

"It's time to go," he commanded the girl before him in an electronically distorted voice.

Arsenal watched unmoving as Thea left, somersaulting off to the nearby roof, his mouth dropping in awe as he saw the girl running across it effortlessly, using the pipeline of the structure to descend to the street below. He closed his eyes after he watched her disappear into the darkness of the night, willing for calm to set back in his bones. He sighed knowing calm would be far out of his reach now, after all, he realized, he had work to do, news to deliver.

The sound of metal hitting flesh reverberated around in the silent night. The bo staff glinting in the moonlight as its owner twirled it after it met her opponents' jaw knocking him off his feet, the sound of the staff swishing and stopping attracting the attention of the fallen man to the leather clad blond woman standing in front of him. Her staff perched over her shoulder she looked down at him admonishing him with her eyes as he stared back disbelievingly, not having expected her to ever come back after her mysterious disappearance a few months back.

But there she stood, her shapely body clad in black leather and her beautiful features hidden behind a domino mask. The woman he had cornered long gone, all that remained on that street were him and the vigilante in front of him, leaving the silence and isolation of his surroundings to feel constricting where it had seemed like an opportunity before.

"Don't look so surprised," the woman smiled haughtily, "I haven't been gone that long."

"I…I.."

"How many times do I have to bust you before you get the message?" She talked walking towards him, her hips swaying as she spun the silver staff lazily, "You don't touch people without their consent, or you will spend the next few years in detention learning the exact same lesson…"

"I..I'm…mm"

"You're what?" she asks leaning over him threateningly, her voice dropping an octave, her eyes blazing in silent anger.

"I am…am s…so..sorry."

"It's cute that that you think that's going to solve anything," she smiled leaning back smacking the end of her staff against the man's temple, knocking him out.

So about that date that you promised me…" A sweet voice sounded from behind him making his heart soar, instantly warding off the chill that had set in his bones from the cold night and warming him up. Oliver turned, his green hood zipped halfway down, the enclosures on his arms now open, his gloves off at the end of a grueling night, to look at the woman he loved standing before him.

Her dark skinny jeans and form fitting pink tank top under a camel colored leather jacket did little to calm his adrenaline fueled nerves. A smile unwittingly stretched across his lips as his legs carried him across the room before he had even registered the movement. Encircling her in his arms he breathed her scent in, absorbing her, revering in the presence of her, the silence of the lair only disturbed by the whirring of the systems behind them and their shallow breathing engulfing them.

"I missed you," he whispered after few moments, unwilling to break the calm settled around them.

"I missed you too," she replied back in a teary whisper.

He disentangled himself from her after a moment moving instead to cup her cheeks, resting his forehead on hers, enjoying the rare peace the moment was offering them to cup her cheeks, he looked into the eyes of the woman he hadn't stopped thinking about the past three months, whose voice reigned his dreams replacing the nightmares that had once plagued his nights, her lips moving against his, her smile bringing warmth to him during cold nights, the memory of her touch grounding him night and day.

He had counted down the minutes until he would see her again, until he could feel her around him, had waited to hear her voice, for it to bring peace to the chaotic corners of his mind and heart, to chase away the dark that his life had become tangled in before he had met her and whenever he was away from her, only her memory and the promise of her return keeping the light inside him ablaze. And here she was, finally back, just as light and beautiful as ever.

Diggle sighed tiredly as he descended the steps to their team's sanctuary. He had just spent a day talking Lyla down from charging head first into the ARGUS headquarters determined to get her position back. How she would have done it with a full term baby bump is beyond him but he didn't doubt that she could have. He worried about her, her eagerness to step into danger while carrying their child scared him more though. He understood her restlessness, having been beside her in the middle of action for the majority of their relationship but he couldn't accept her need for the same now.

He remembered her ecstasy at being appointed the interim head of ARGUS and her despair at being replaced because of her current condition. He sympathized and stood by her side but he couldn't watch while she put herself and their child in danger. He knew she loved him and their child and that it was just difficult for her to accept and be inactive while her comrades rushed into battle.

Reaching the landing he was startled out of his inner thoughts with the sounds of sparring reverberating around the lair. Turning, his eyes widened in surprise as they landed on the two warring women on the training mats. He watched suddenly delighted as his closest friend squared off with their other returning teammate, never breaking a sweat as she took her opponents breath away with a single jab to the ribs with her staff.

He saw Felicity step back once before quickly jabbing the end of her staff once again this time into Sara's shoulder catching her off guard, turning into a pivot rotating her staff with her, she noticed Sara, now recovered, catch onto the end of her staff ready to pull her in, detaching the two ends of her staff Felicity effectively freed herself and used Sara's momentum to unbalance her. Grabbing the detached end in Sara's hand with her free one she spun the other woman in using one arm and leg to lock her in as she banded another arm around Sara's throat to choke her.

Flipping Felicity off her back with just two pumps of her body Sara proceeded to try to slam the small girl onto the mats, but before her back hit the ground Felicity had pushed her legs out and onto the ground using the force generated to break out of Sara's grasp. Spinning out she grabbed Roy's abandoned practice bow from nearby and spun in half a circle to drive the end of it into Sara's jaw. As Sara bent backwards to avoid being hit by the bow, Felicity swung her left leg out locking it inside Sara's bent knee and tripped the woman.

Falling onto her back but quickly recovering Sara grabbed her fallen staff from nearby as she jumped back onto her feet swishing her staff at a dodging Felicity's stomach and chest. Seeing her chance when Felicity locked both her feet onto the ground ready to retaliate, Sara crouched low in an effort to sweep her blond opponent's feet from under her. Felicity, predicting Sara's move, in turn took this opportunity to step onto Sara's back with her right foot jumping over her head and onto her upper back, swiftly sidestepping onto a nearby table on her left, pushing up on her left foot and reaching up to grab onto a low beam in the ceiling.

"How do you not have abs?" Sara commented seeing Felicity easily pull her legs up to her chest.

Using Sara's distraction against her she twisted her hips sideways and hit the woman against her temple lightly with her left foot disorienting her before she reached down to wound her thighs around the Canary's neck choking her once again. Exasperated by the question Felicity rolled her eyes as she answered her red faced friend, "How many times are we going to have the same conversation, Sara?"

"However long it takes me to understand the baffling biology of your body," Sara choked out.

"I have defined arms and a flat evenly toned stomach…" Felicity stated matter of factly.

"But not abs," Sara interjected in a strained voice, running out of air, her face now a crimson red.

"I guess I got lucky," Felicity shrugged as much as she could with her arms holding her up against the beam. Noticing Sara wasn't about to tap out any time soon, Felicity twisted her thighs around a little more tightly as she let go of the beam above her and used her body weight to flip onto her back taking Sara down with her. She stuck her palms out as the ground closed in on her landing on them and pushing out as she let go of Sara's throat and quickly pulled her legs up in the air before pushing them backwards onto the mat, her body twisted in a semi circle before pulling herself upright in one quick move.

Diggle watched fascinated as Felicity rushed back in with a knife and one detached end of her staff as Sara fell on her back, the fall knocking her breath out of her, and landed on the woman's stomach, straddling her and using her knees to lock her arms on either side of her before Sara even had a chance to move. She placed her right hand against Sara's upper thigh with the knife held in it resting it where Diggle knew lay the femoral triangle and her staff at the blonds throat. "Tap out Sara, you know you can't get out now…"

"Lucky? Smoak, this," Sara said ignoring Felicity's warning and pointing to her abs still panting, "is hot."

Felicity sighed at her friend, shaking her head at her friends' antics, a smile threatening to break out she patiently waited. Finally admitting defeat and seeing no way out Sara nodded her surrender. Smiling in victory Felicity got up and held her hand out to help her friend up, "Tell me again exactly why do we keep having this pointless conversation?"

"It's baffling isn't it?" Diggle heard a voice speak from beside him where he stood just outside the borders of the training mats. He looked to see Oliver standing by his side his mouth turned up in a content smile, his posture relaxed as he crossed his arms to watch, mesmerized with the dance between the two women on the mats. His eyes obsessively tracked the figure of the bottle blonde that just gave new meaning to the art of fighting with her agile moves, fast arms and smart dodges and her flexible maneuvering and handling of weapons.

"It really is."

"You know I still can't believe that's Felicity sometimes."

"Neither can I, man…neither can I. But there is something I know for sure…"

"What?"

"We'll have to watch out for yours and Felicity's kids. You never know they may come out of the womb already learned and skilled in the art of war..."

Oliver looked at his laughing friend horrified, the thought of children unnerving him. "So how's everything at home," Oliver choked out with difficulty, effectively changing the subject and bringing a stop to Diggle's chuckles. He should have known that Oliver would have noticed his drawn and tired expression, his sensitivity towards others emotions having increased since last year.

"Everything's…normal," Diggle finished lamely.

Oliver raised his eyebrows at him in defiance to his answer, getting a half hearted shrug in return.

"What do you want me to say man? It's how life is, disagreements are a part of being together. I can't always go whining around every time Lyla and I have an argument."

"Ok…I get that. But if you ever need to talk, I'm here."

"Thanks man, I appreciate it."

Oliver nods in return allowing a small smile to cross his face.

The sounds around the foundry suddenly halted as the sound of the metal door upstairs slamming shut exploded around them. Everyone instantly falling into fight mode, expecting danger until the red clad figure of an angry Roy stomping his way down into their home registered with them. The relaxing slouch at seeing their teammate's appearance not lasting long as each of them made a note of his furious expression.

They waited for the young man to acknowledge their presence, giving him time to gather his thoughts. As Roy turned around now devoid of his mask and hood, the anguish radiating off of him in waves startles the team. His eyes roaming around the interior of the lair, he notices for the first time since his return, the presence of the previously missing teammates and nods to them in greeting.

The first words out of Roy's mouth confuses them, "Can I talk to you alone?" he directs towards Oliver, his eyes nervously bouncing between the rest of the team.

Looking around at everyone's faces Oliver responds, "You can speak in front of all of us Roy. We are all a team here."

"Believe me for what I am about to tell you, it's better to be alone."

"It's never better to be alone Roy. It's ok…you know everyone here can be trusted."

Roy sighed. He didn't believe he could trust any of his teammates. It was a lone road he was walking he knew that but he couldn't bring himself to trust the people around him. At one point he had started to consider them family but his lone forays into the night had given him reasons not to. He knew they were hiding something important from him, lying to him. 'Ironic,' he thought, 'how Thea wants the truth from me and I can't even get the truth for myself.' He shook his head in an attempt to clear it this wasn't the time for that he knew. He knew he would, when the time was right, get the truth out of them. Now, remembering the matter at hand he decided to trust the people he believed cared about the woman he just met more than him. Decision taken, he set his jaw as he blurted out the reason for his anger, "Its Thea. She's back."

For those who don't know the femoral triangle is an anatomical region of the upper inner human thigh. It's important as a number of vital structures pass through it, right under the skin including the femoral artery and several of its branches, which is a large artery in the thigh that provides blood to it.

The next chapter will be out soon, until then…tata =)