Chapter Fourteen: Occurrence

The journey to their assignment destination was silent the entire way. Dante drove with Raven in the front passenger seat while Garfield, Cleaver, and Trent sat in the back of the vehicle. He was given his usual assignment, find the demon, escort it outside, and have the others take care of it. He closed his eyes and leaned against the window. The residual smell of lavender infiltrated his nose and he smiled brightly inside. Promptly, the car came to a stop and Garfield opened his eyes. He straightened himself up and made sure he had his weapons.

"You know what to do." Raven said with a soft tone. He looked over to the woman and her amethyst eyes kindled in the darkness. He nodded and exited the car.

Garfield entered the bar and scanned for his targets. There were three targets he was pursuing, all of them demon males. Once he found the demons, he cleverly convinced them to leave the bar. However, things seemed to be too easy. As they followed the men into the back of the building, the rest of the team instantly surrounded them. The demons looked around frantically looking for a way to escape. They were outnumbered three to five. However, that did not phase one of the demons. The demon's bellowed laugh echoed in the air. He looked over to the woman.

"My my, what do we have here? A half-demon hunting demons." the demon smiled revealing his white sharp canines. It appeared that he was the leader of the group. "Never thought I'd see the day demons would be hunting their own kind. Tell me miss, what is your name?"

"Oh you lived to see the day, but too bad that has to be the day of your demise." she spat.

"Excuse me miss, but I did ask you a question." The demon said.

"What's it to you?"

"Out of plain respect miss. You already know my name, I presume, shouldn't I know my capture's name?"

"Sorry, but you don't get the privilege of knowing my name." she calmly said holding her gun in front of her.

"Guess that must be so," the demon said coldly and wore a smirk on his face. "Empress Raven."

Raven's eyes grew wide and she clenched her gun. "Since you already knew my name, why ask?"

"It doesn't hurt to ask a pretty woman her name." He said winking and licked his lips seductively. She merely delivered the man a disgusting expression on her face.

The operations team proceeded closer to the demons and Garfield held back. A few shots were fired and painful screams echoed in the wind. However, these weren't demonic cries of pain. Instead of the demons collapsing to the ground, Garfield found Trent, Dante, and Cleaver lying on the ground in agony. Cleaver held his arm, Dante held his right leg, while Trent held his chest lying on the ground. Raven stood motionless with her gun in front of her. A scrape of blood trickled down her cheek. Fortunately, two of the demons were trembling. However, to their dismay, they slowly regained their composure. Garfield ran towards Raven but she pointed the gun towards him. He stopped mid in his tracks with a confused expression on his face.

"Garfield, step back." she ordered. "This is a powerful demon. We underestimated him. Go, and get the others." She returned her glare to the demon in front of her. The woman pointed the gun to the demon and the male merely smirked.

"I guess it is to your advantage that you are partial demon after all." the demon chuckled. "However, I am very surprised you did not bring along humans that can match a demon's speed. Pity. At least one of your subordinates seems to get the memo of stepping back from demon business."

Suddenly, she fired her gun and the front-runner demon dodged each bullet. The other demons kept their ground and watched Raven and their leader fight. She advanced towards the demon and continued to shoot. To her surprise, the demon appeared behind her and grabbed her gun. He crushed it within seconds and Raven turned around. Before she could react, the demon grabbed her hair and forced her to the ground. Once she was on the ground, the demon dug his foot above her back. He removed his foot within seconds and then quickly lay on top of her. Raven tried to get the demon off of her, but his weigh was immense. She screamed but was silenced when the demon covered his hand over her mouth.

"Now be a good girl," he whispered in her ear. She attempted to bit down, but it failed. She struggled underneath the demon. The satisfied demon smiled exposing his sharp canines and licked the side of the woman's ear. A frigid shiver traveled down her spine and she cursed in her frantic thoughts. She continued to struggle for was seemed like forever.

Garfield struggled between following Raven's demands or saving her. Either he would get someone else to help her, or he would have to. Suddenly, a scream escaped her lips and the feeling of rage consumed his body. It was the same feeling he had months ago, but this time, it felt stronger. He heard a low growl echo in his mind. After what happened the previously when he gave into these feelings, things didn't turn out the way they were supposed to. He debated within himself fearing the consequences, but the sound of Raven's cry for help concluded his thoughts.

Raven lay on the ground crying for help hoping that, for the first time as a commander, Garfield would disobey her orders and help her. However, she thought that he needed to save himself instead of her. She continued to struggle, but she felt a new presence. Within a second, an immense force pulled the demon off of Raven and dragged him away from her.

Still in shock, Raven looked around to find what mysterious presence knocked the demon. To her surprise, she saw a green creature fighting off the demon leader. The creature looked beast-like and was hunched over like a primal animal. The creature's face was elongated and its eyes where pure black. Raven's eyes widened as her own realization dawned on her. She could sense that the creature was Garfield. His aura was present, but it was nearly overcome by the creature's dominance.

The creature snapped its teeth at the demon and the demon tried to defend himself. Suddenly, the creature grabbed the demon by his throat. The mysterious creature howled to the sky and threw the man upwards. Before the demon fell to the ground, the primal animal dragged his claws through the man's torso. The claws pierced through the demon's stomach and escaped its way through its spine. It grabbed the demon by the back and clawed what remained of the demon. The creature's claws where seeped with blood and pools of crimson soaked the tainted ground. With one last swipe, the brute dropped the remnants of the demon he slaughtered.

Suddenly, the large wild animal directed his attention over to the two terrified demons. Before they could flee, the animal appeared in front of them. Swiftly, he did the same thing he did to their leader within a few moments. After the mutilation, the beast panted and howled to the open sky. The fiend lifted up his right paw and licked the blood that covered his long nails. Suddenly, the creature jerked around when he heard a faint cracking noise. The entity discovered a woman cautiously taking steps towards him.

The brute kept his ground as the woman approached closer. When she was a few feet away from him the creature snarled and growled at her. She instantly stopped her approach. He could sense her fear, and to his surprise, her bravery. The primal creature regained his defensive stance and stared down the woman. There was certain smell about her that the animal truly loathed but at the same time, found intoxicating.

"Garfield?" Raven asked cautiously taking a few steps towards him. The wild being continued his growling. "It's me Garfield, Raven." she spoke softly.

The creature flinched but kept his composure. He watched as the woman approached closer and closer to him. Before he knew it, she was only a few inches away from his face. Timidly, she looked into the creature's dark eyes.

"Garfield" she whispered and lifted her hands to cup the sides of his face gently. "Come back." She pleaded. The primal fiend continued his stance and looked into Raven's eyes.

"Come back" she simply whispered and begged for her teammate to return. Suddenly, the man could feel his rage escape his body. The creature relaxed and retracted his bared teeth. Suddenly, the wild animal transformed back into a man. Before Garfield fell to the ground, Raven caught him. His body lay limp in her arms, but he was still breathing.

"Garfield?" she asked. He opened his eyes slightly, and fell out of consciousness.