Chapter four isn't filler!
Yay, not filler!
But it is here, so woohoo!
Mia-Teresa-Davenport: "You just have a problem with Sam because of Anna."
AllAmericanSlurp: She can hear magic. Demons just happen to use it.
ShyMusic: Here that, Adam?
"Yay! Thank you. :3"
DarkestKing: "I might be a demon, but I'm not going to hit a girl."
So let's do this! Leo?
"Zara doesn't own Lab Rats or anything you recognize. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers."
"Arrogance is a creature. It does not have senses. It has only a sharp tongue and the pointing finger."
Toba Beta
"War always reaches the depths of horror because of idiots who perpetuate terror from generation to generation under the pretext of vengeance."
Guy Sajer, The Forgotten Soldier
Leo
Demon councils were quite a bit more entertaining than the Summoner's Council. The problem was that there was nothing keeping order. They were demons, after all. Around forty, to be specific. And their summoners weren't present to make them pay attention. In fact, Leo was the only one there even remotely qualified to summon or control anything.
It was a fact that was visibly annoying Chase.
"Okay, let's try this again," Chase huffed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "We're obviously being hunted."
A random voice rose from the crowd. "No shit, Sherlock!"
Chase hissed loudly while he waited for the immature giggling to stop. "As I was saying-"
"You're not telling us anything we don't already know, Half-Breed," someone else interrupted.
Chase gestured broadly. "I'm just trying to find a solution here!"
"You already shot down killing and eating the hunters," someone piped up.
"Yeah," came an agreement from an imp Leo could actually see this time. "What do you want from us? A fucking peace treaty?" She made a peace sign and spat between the two fingers, something that Leo guessed was akin to a highly offensive demon gesture. He would have to ask about it later.
Chase's tail was starting to lash a bit. "I want us to -"
A loud roar interrupted him. "I want you to shut up, Half-Breed!"
Judging by Chase's reaction - he adopted a slightly fearful, submissive position for a second - the speaker had been stronger than him.
Ysthry shifted her weight on his shoulder a bit, keeping her head low. Leo didn't blame her. He hadn't seen any demons besides the group that ran loose through the house since Soad died, so he had forgotten just how big they could be. A few of them were an easy nine feet tall, for Christ's sake!
Leo fought the urge to step closer to Sam - that brave bitch just looked bored out of her mind as she leaned on a baseball bat - and Chase, who would be the more powerful of the two demons protecting Leo if everything went to hell.
Leo had to force himself not to think about how Chase was actually far weaker than the massive afrits in the crowd instead of the strongest demon in the household. Among his immortal peers, he was only moderately powerful.
A large sea monster thing climbed up on the car Chase had perched on, rose to his full height - a solid foot taller than Chase - and glared at Chase until he fearfully climbed off the car like a scared puppy. Then, satisfied, he turned to the crowd, his strange tentacle mouth moving disconcertingly with his words. "This stupid djinni is just wasting our time. If someone is stupid enough to attack, eat it!"
Loud cheering erupted through the demon crowd as Chase raised a finger. "But-"
The afrit whirled on him. "Silence!"
Chase ducked a bit behind Sam, who rolled her eyes. The display gave rise to the demons chattering taunts in various languages. Leo could only understand the English ones, but he got an idea of what was going on.
Stupid Half-Breed, worthless Half-Breed, disgusting Half-Breed. So weak and cowardly, he would need help lifting a pebble.
Mild as they seemed to be, the insults had successfully struck Chase hard. His whole demeanor fell in defeat as he finally realized that he wouldn't get anywhere with the group.
Apparently, half-demons didn't warrant respect.
The afrit that had successfully forced Chase off of his "stage" pointed at Chase. "Know your place and stay there." After a chorus of agreements - even Ysthry was nodding - the afrit stretched a bit, its tentacles shifting a bit grotesquely. "Now, I don't care what you do, but I'm going to tear up that couch over there."
The cheering that followed said it all: The meeting was over. Chase had failed, and they were going to tear up the junkyard now. Leo patted Chase's shoulder. "You tried."
Chase opened his mouth to say something, but he was stopped by a piercing scream. The afrit on the car wasn't standing tall anymore. Instead, he had collapsed, clawing at a growing bloodstain on his chest. "Get it out, get it out, get it out!"
His screams were drowned out in seconds by the panicked roars and screams of others as whatever had injured the afrit turned on them. Demons fell left and right, climbing over one another and trampling the injured or dead in their fleeing. It was surreal. Demons didn't run from anything.
What the hell was going on?!
Ysthry was nudging Leo with her nose. "We need to run, Master!"
"Right!" Leo acknowledged, shoving Chase hard into Sam to snap them out of their panicked freezes. Ironically, the toughest two couldn't handle actual danger without locking up.
Wait...Chase never froze. He knew how to handle terror.
Worry about it later! Leo scolded himself as Sam instinctively took off running with Chase on her heels. Leo stayed behind them in case they froze again and he had to push them along.
That was the whole reason. It wasn't that he was hyperventilating from fear and having trouble running. He could have easily outrun them.
As they skirted the main throng of demons to actually make it to the gate, Leo began to hear a new sound over the panic: Very quiet popping. The hairs on the back of his neck rose. He knew exactly what it was. He had heard it the time Douglas shot crows out of the sky to keep them away from Tasha's garden after she complained about it.
Someone was shooting guns with silencers to keep anyone who happened to be around from hearing them.
This gave rise to another realization: In order to hear the gun fire, they had to be very, very close to the ones shooting.
Sam had accidentally led them right to the assailants.
Leo grabbed her shoulder, earning a reflex-born elbow in the stomach from Sam and stopping both her and Chase, who had completely fuzzed what little fur he had out like a scared kitten. Seriously, his ears and tail looked like puff balls.
Great. Just great. Leo was now the best prepared to handle the situation, and he could barely fight. All those self-defense lessons from Bree hadn't had enough time to really make him effective in a situation like this. Especially when a bionic hero and his badass friend were seized up by terror. But Chase's strategy lessons?
Long story short, Leo was becoming quite good at chess. It meant that outsmarting the gunmen was their best move.
"Quick," Leo hissed, make yourself look human! You look inconspicuous, too, Ysthry!"
Chase jumped a bit at the command - he was miles away - but managed to look human in seconds. Ysthry went from covering her face with her wings to clinging on Leo's shirt as a spider.
Perfect. The people were obviously focused on the demons. So, if all went well, at least they might be able to walk out of this alive.
"I smell silver," Chase whimpered, his first words since the chaos started.
"Who cares?" Sam responded, her voice a bit higher than normal and laced with panic. "Run!"
At that, Chase nodded and took the lead at a dead run, jolted out of his own panic by hers. Managing his fear when others were afraid was what he knew. That was something he could do well. Maybe the initial shock of the assault had made him forget his training or something. Either way, it didn't matter now.
The mission leader was back in control.
However, among all the chaotic noises and sights - probably scents, too, since Chase's nose twitched occasionally - everyone had forgotten one thing: The gate to the junkyard was probably being guarded.
Or, in this case, it was being guarded by two guys who shot any demon that got near them and a third one who had a knife on his belt and was just looking around, obviously searching.
"Great," Sam muttered, crouching behind a car between Chase and Leo. "Fucking guard dogs. Fantastic."
Leo shot her a look. "Well, if you hadn't left your bat behind, we would at least have a weapon."
"Yes," Sam huffed, "allow me to bring a bat to a gun fight." She nudged Chase with her elbow. "Is he always this annoying?"
Chase rolled his eyes. "Guys, stop. I'm thinking."
"This ought to be good," Sam muttered.
"This isn't the time to crack jokes," Leo hissed, becoming steadily more irritated. Didn't she see how serious the situation was?
"Guys-" Chase started, but he was cut off by one of the guards pointing in their direction and shouting that he heard something.
Great. Wonderful. This was how Leo died.
In seconds, the barrels of two guns were in their faces. All three of them threw their hands up, Chase even shrinking back a bit like his previous terror had returned. Hell, even Ysthry crawled into Leo's shirt. Leo was glad to see that he wasn't the only one who was going to die terrified.
"Don't think looking human will trick us, hell spawn," one of the men snapped as the third man walked up, his hand on the knife.
Knife man's eyes got dark for a moment before he frowned, obviously conflicted. Leo could have sworn he saw recognition cross his features in the time between the gunman's challenge and the knife guy's statement. He brushed some of the sandy blond hair away from the side of his face before touching the guns. "These are just kids. Wrong place at the wrong time."
The gunmen immediately lowered the weapons. The one who had spoken first gestured at the gate. "Go. Now."
They didn't need to be told twice. With the screams and cries of dying demons following, Leo, Sam and Chase bolted out the gate and safely away before the guards changed their minds.
"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."
Abraham Lincoln
"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime."
Ernest Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway: A Literary Reference
Chase
It was a bit over thirty minutes after we escaped that the survivors showed up.
Honestly, I hadn't expected any of them to track us down after that massacre. I expected them to do what I had wanted to when the hunters arrived: Flee for miles. I had no clue how, but they had managed to whip up blinding fear in every demon in the junkyard. It was unnerving. Hell, even though it was over, my hands were still shaking. Sam had been jumpy when we left her at her home. Even Ysthry, who had thousands of years of experience on our entire group, was pressed right up against Leo, her wings pulled in tight and her head low.
I didn't know what went wrong. It was too organized to be a mistake, but no one outside demons - and the various family members I had informed - should have even known the meeting was happening. So...who told?
More importantly, the guard that let us go could see planes. His eyes had darkened when he looked at us. He had known exactly what I was. But he still let us go. What kind of demon slayer let demons go? It didn't make sense!
It was while I was trying to figure this out that an imp hopped the fence into our backyard and joined Leo and I on the porch. She curled up at my feet, but didn't say anything. In a few more minutes, another couple of imps showed up, all quietly curling up on the porch and waiting. In the next hour, the setting sun saw seven more imps, four djinnis and an afrit arrive, all quiet, all curled up in the yard, either watching the house and me, each other, or licking at silver wounds. Douglas had walked outside and sat beside me curiously once everyone noticed that there were demons in the yard. Adam had eagerly sat on the porch, ending up with a few imps in his lap. Mr. Davenport was shooing demons away from trees and flowers to save the landscape. Bree and Tasha had taken one look at the group and just disappeared in the house, wanting nothing to do with whatever was happening here.
The sun had set completely when I finally cleared my throat. When everyone looked at me, I pinned my ears and flatly asked, "Do you believe me now?"
This time, instead of laughter and disrespectful jibes, everyone nodded. I hadn't meant to, but I proved my point far better than I had intended.
Demons were being hunted. By who, though, we didn't know.
Holy crap, dead demons everywhere!
What the fuck just happened?
Why did that guy let them go?
Guess we'll have to wait and see.
So, until them, feel free to review. Or not. Meh.
And enjoy.
*Bows and exits*