Chapter 158

Tanith's POV

It was cold, wherever she was. She gritted her teeth, mad at herself for getting into this situation. She was a trained assassin, she was an ally of the Dead Men, she should be able to take down three stupid people without a problem. But no, now she was in a cold room with thin clothes and no idea where she was. God knew where Nadia was.

She was in luck though, and she sensed it before it struck. She lay down on the floor where she'd woken up and stayed still. The door to her black room opened and a dull yellow light came in. She kept her eyes only slightly cracked open. In the distance, she could hear gunfire.

"Oh gosh," a woman fretted, her voice shaking. She came shuffling into the room. "Oh gosh, oh gosh. Miss? Oh, no no no."

It was tough to stay still, but she did. The woman, obviously quite elderly, came close enough to shake her shoulder, and that's when Tanith jumped up, grabbing the lady by the mouth, forcing her jaw shut. Her eyes widened in fear, but it only took a moment for Tanith to choke her of oxygen and she took Tanith's place as the unconscious female on the floor.

Standing too quickly, Tanith suddenly swayed and she felt nausea build quickly. She threw up in the corner, breathed deeply, thought about her daughter and stood back up. She had to get back to her daughter. Thank god she'd had Myra to leave her with, she'd have hated it if Laila were with her.

She glanced out of the dungeon door and looked around. There were only six cell rooms, and a quick tug on the doors found that she was the only one held prisoner. The light came from a bare bulb in the ceiling that hung over a lush, expansive office cross small library, which was held in a round room in between the stairs going up to the fighting and the corridor that led to the cells and whatever else was down that hall. A quick hop up to the ceiling proved she had her magic and that her body was even more bruised than she had thought. In fact, she was pretty sure she had a broken rib, but it didn't hurt too badly.

She decided to go down to the end of the hall. Most likely chance was her friends had found she and Nadia were missing, probably finding Myra and Laila and getting her story, and now Valkyrie had used her detective prowess to find them. So, instead of going up with her broken rib, she'd find what was down the hall on the other side of the cells and give them the heads up or clear it if she could.

Nodding to herself, she crouched and ran. The more she shuffled along the ceiling, the dizzier she felt, but it was progress and she wasn't getting shot at least. Through a door and–

It was a room of chains, blood and semen covered sofas, leather straps, metal cages, electric dog collars, a couple of coffins. Everything had blood on it. And there were people too. There was someone in a coffin, dead, naked and used – Tanith almost threw up when she thought of the word. There were five others. Someone very elderly was tied up and chained to a wall, although he seemed to be a willing participant. The middle-aged looking woman in a box with a dog collar on so tight she was red in the face and one tug on the lead from passing out didn't have the same look of pleasure on her face. The other three were enjoying themselves. Two men and a woman. The woman was beating the chained up old man. The other two men were naked, legs splayed and talking in low voiced. Tanith was fairly sure they were high.

Three people. Only one armed, that being the woman. Could she take them even when she was nauseous, dizzy and had a broken rib?

Of course she could, she was Tanith Low. She dropped on the man with the lead, making him drop it, and another kick to the second man head and he was out. She turned back around as the first tried to lunge at her but she easily kicked him to the floor before hissing in pain and holding her side. The woman threw a knife at her and it burnt like hell to drop and roll. The woman obviously wasn't a real fighter because she had small, unmuscular arms and even when she whipped Tanith it barely hurt. Tanith moved through the pain and punched the woman in the face. She fell straight to the floor.

"Hey!" The old naked man said. He was still erect and Tanith made the mistake of looking up from the woman, meaning her poor eyes had to look at his penis. She was a woman who had been around, seen the block, tried out a few rides on her way. But she didn't want the merchandise to be so close to her god damned face. "You can't just do that you know."

"Sure I can. What is this place?" She asked with a hard voice. She went over to the struggling woman and used the heel of her shoe to bust the lock open. The woman threw herself out and into Tanith's arms. That was much nicer. She undid the buckle around her neck.

"I don't have to tell you anything, slut! This is a private affair! Who let you in?"

"I was brought here," Tanith told him, standing up and letting the woman cry and suck in some oxygen in peace. "You'll tell me where we are or I really will cause you some damage. Want a shattered kneecap?"

It was a risk saying that to a man who enjoyed being chained and beaten, but a shattered knee appealed to him as much as her, as to be expected. He grimaced. "I can't tell you that. You're a prisoner."

"Right now, my friends are arresting every person in here. If you comply, they'll make sure you have a fair trial with everyone else. Even if you're working with the enemy."

The man paled significantly. He was going flaccid now, thankfully. "Oh god. You have to get me down lady! They– they can't know I was here!"

"Who are you?"

"If you don't know, that's only a good thing! Let me down, I don't want anyone to know I was here!"

"I might, if you tell me who this woman is and how she got here," Tanith bargained, crossing her arms.

"Arr, for Christs – she's a mortal from Mexico or something. Please, lady, I can't be seen here!" He begged.

"Hey, hey, slow down champ." She smiled without humour. "You and your friends were holding a moral captive and sexually abusing her. I think I'd better leave you there considering your crimes."

"What?! I wasn't involved, I swear! She's just a mortal, they can make her forget everything and send her home, it'll be fine! My kids will find out about this!"

"I guess that's just too bad," Tanith rolled her eyes and helped the woman stand. She had shaky knees but looked at Tanith with gratitude. "Can you speak English?"

"Err, a little," she said in a thick accent.

"Oh good," Tanith nodded. She took her fleece off and wrapped it around the woman's shoulders. She pointed up. "Upstairs are my friends. They're arresting the people who kidnapped you."

The woman nodded, hold the jacket tightly. "Okay."

"I'm going to check on them, you need to stay here until then."

"No!" The old man screeched, shaking his restraints.

"Okay," the woman said nervously.

Tanith left her and jogged back the way she came, taking out a guy on the stairs as she went. Bingo! She had her sword and a gun. She took both, jumped onto the ceiling and kept on with new vigour.

She chose to again go away from the main fighting grounds so she could pick enemies off, and there were certainly enough of them. She sliced from above, rolling away from bullets and having to use the gun once to take out three guys that were on their way to the main fighting area in massive protective suits with built-in ammo holders and gigantic guns. She threw it away after that, out of bullets.

Swords suited her better anyway. She went up the stairs again, taking out a few more along the way, noticing the very male heavy population. Up on the landing, she picked off the remaining people quickly, hearing a bang from downstairs but keeping focus. She ended up on the floor grappling, choking people out, punching and kicking. None of them were a real challenge in terms of skill but her rib was starting to cause her real issues.

Of course, she knew it when she found the boss. She could hear his voice furiously screaming from his room, two guards stationed outside. They were hiding. But the high ceilings covered her well – they never suspected her. She was done flipping to the floor before they could make a sound, and she killed them swiftly.

And inside that room was Samael Grievers.

She knew his face.

Fury bubbled inside. She took a step forward.

He levelled a gun at her. "Got to go," he said into the phone and put it down. "Tanith Low. I'm disappointed but not surprised."

"Your men are almost finished, Griever's," she told him, holding the sword ready. "It's just me and you up here. Drop the gun and we'll possibly not allow you to be abused in prison."

"Slightly better than shitty? I'm not enjoying this bargain, sweetheart. And I'm guessing no one's told you yet. You're going to help me out or I'll kill your kid."

Tanith's heart stuttered in her chest. "What do you mean?"

"Your baby, you left it with the spy, the bitch dating the teleporter. She called ahead and said she got it already. She'll be walking through those doors any moment now and unless you help me, I'll make sure my people kill you, the Dead Men and your kid. Understand me a little better now?"

Tanith considered if it was a hoax, and then dropped the sword, a glare fixed on his face.

"That's better. Oh, I do like that type of fury in a woman, so fiery. Come now," he said, shaking the gun. "Lead the way."

.*****.

Dexter's POV

The stream of men stopped. The floor was slick with blood and bullet shells, but they had won. They must have all been shot. Fletcher was pale, baring keeping himself sitting up, two bullet holes in his shoulders and one on his thigh. He'd tried telling him to teleport away, but he hadn't been lucid enough to hear.

They all stopped shooting and looked around together. No more enemies. Bodies everywhere, but none of them fighting, possible none of them alive.

There was a sound and their guns pointed at the far door, about to shoot, when Tanith came through, pale and angry. They lowered the guns, frowning.

Grievers came through after her, gun at her back. Their guns went back up. Both of them were standing on the bodies him and his brothers had shot down.

"Let her go," Dexter commanded immediately.

"Now now, let's not get hasty," Grievers grinned, pulling a cigar from his pocket. "Lower those guns or I'll shoot the bitch."

Dexter glanced at Saracen. He nodded, so they lowered their guns. "What do you want?"

"Oh, just the usual. To leave, free, and not be pursued," Grievers smiled, lighting the cigar from a lighter. "The Spiders spy, the mortal, has this bitches child. Let us two leave and I won't kill her, you or the kid. I'll even let you get the mortal, though The Torment won't be happy with me."

"You're not getting anything," Ghastly growled.

"Oh yeah, you're the daddy, aren't you? Forgot about that," Grievers nodded sucking on the cigar. "Well, you can have the kid. I just want the momma. Sound good?"

"You're not. Getting. Anything," Ghastly said again, raising the gun.

"Ghastly!" Dexter snapped.

"Oh-ho!" Grievers laughed. "I'll shoot before you can, Scarface. Be a good boy and lower that gun."

Ghastly's phone rang then. Grievers told him to answer it.

Slowly, Ghastly lowered his gun and pulled out his phone. He pressed the answer button and Dexter tried not to look over at him as he could hear Valkyrie's voice but not hear her words. He just said, "Good."

Tanith threw herself left – Anton shot at the same time as Grievers, and then Tanith had fallen out of the way and the rest of them opened fire.

"Stop!" Dexter demanded, running over and looking down at the man. Crouching, he pushed Grievers onto his back and held a finger to his neck. "He's alive. Let's keep him for questioning."

"Is she okay?!" Tanith gasped, holding her side as her shoulder bled. Saracen and Ghastly were already on her and trying to stem the flow.

"They both are," Ghastly said gruffly. "Valkyrie said she's fine."

"Thank God," Tanith breathed, sagging to the floor.

Oh it has been a while. This was such a crap place to stop posting for that little while but I have a good reason - I've been reading the story myself and making a plot list, like each chapter has a line on what happens so that I know who is relevant, who is dead. I basically forgot my own plot is what I'm saying. So I've now just finished writing it down tonight so now I can post and actually know what the heck I'm doing. If any of you ever want to write a story, do the one line per chapter plot planning at the start! Or at least every couple of chapters if you do it in hindsight like me. Because I legitimately spent a week and a bit going through this story every day to get that done.

Lord Duck: Good work on not forgetting Laila! After a month of not posting though I wouldn't be mad if you forgot again, it's been a bit. I shall not abandon this fic, I might take my time but I will finish it. You are right that most SP fics aren't complete. I'm glad my rating is staying up ;)

DemiseRim: That's okay, exams come first! I hope this fight lived up to your dreams and hopes, I really hate writing them and tried not to skip out but feel like maybe I did. They truly are not my thing to write and describe though, that's more of Landy's thing. I did enjoy writing the first half of this chapter though, that was funny to me!

Jagster99: I will keep posting, no worries!