Senses alert, invisible, and in her hybrid form, Charlie slid along the outer wall of the warehouse. She listened to the sounds of the men inside moving about on sentry, and with effort, she could hear the girls' voices from someplace deep inside. Reaching a boarded-up window, Charlie used her claws to slowly pry one of the boards away so she could peer inside. Whichever area she'd reached seemed to be empty, and ripping the wood as quietly as she could, she created enough space for her lithe demon form to slip inside. Practice and experimentation had awarded her even more abilities, including altering her body's mass and changing her voice pitch, as well as being able to scale walls and structures with ease. If they saw her now, she knew they'd freak out, and it made her smile. Darting her eyes to inventory the various equipment, stairways, and exits, Charlie attuned her ears towards each one of the doors to determine which way she'd go next. Clicking the button on her earpiece, Charlie updated Angel, following his request to skip protocol. "I'm inside. Entered from the south side, away from the bay doors the van had dropped the girls off at. No one in sight." she whispered.

Angel's soft voice replied, "Understood. I'm thirty yards out, waiting on a sentry to finish his rounds. Any lead on the girls?"

"I hear them. They're on the Northwest side. From the plans you showed me, I think they're in one of the offices. I'll have to pass through five sections at least, depending on sentry movement. I'm picking up at least eleven moving in patterns."

"Your ears will never cease to amaze me, Charlie. Even with my night vision goggles, I'm limited to my line of sight. If you can take out one sentry at a time and clear the first half of the rooms, I'll clear the outside and then head in from the north point."

"If they're spread the way I think and they're easily spooked, I'll have no issue with at least the first two. They sound far enough apart that they won't be in line of sight of each other."

"Good. Remember, these men are professionals. Most of them are likely ex-military. They will know how to handle pressure, and skilled with their guns, so don't hold back on scaring the shit out of them. Stay safe!"

"I promise, Angel. I won't take any risks that could bring harm to the girls."

Clicking the button off, Charlie cast her eyes upwards. Licking her lips, she slithered up and took to the rafters, gripping the steel girders with her claws, leaving impressions from her strong grip as she swung and floated between each one till she reached the first door. Taking a moment to close her eyes, Charlie let her demon side flow out, changing her blond hair to black, her eyes enlarging and her body's mass appearing more fluid. Crawling down like a lizard on a tree, her blackish hair floating around her from her power, she sunk her forefinger claw into the door's metal to secure enough grip to pull it open slowly. Peering into the next room, she saw the first sentry turn at the creaking sound. Charlie moved her head up out of sight but pulled the door just a bit more as bait to lure the man into the room with her. As she heard him move her way, she let go of the wall and landed softly, thanks to the soft canvas shoes hugging her cloven feet. Silently, she slid backward and down under the nook of the staircase. Concentrating, she shifted her demon mass under the flowing waves of her blackish hair to appear much smaller than her normal 6'2 frame should have allowed.

Let him think one of the girls had somehow gotten free, Charlotte thought, and come to me. She watched through the strands of her hair as the man pushed the door open and peered inside. Charlie whimpered through her lips, imitating the sound of a scared child, and she heard the man swear quietly. She took note of the click of the safety going off on his semi-automatic. Whimpering a little louder, Charlie modulated her voice into a mix of a scared little girl and something unnatural and frightening: "Please, Mister. Don't hurt me."

Coming to a stop, the man shifted his body in a defensive stance, "How did you get in here, kid? And what's wrong with your voice?"

Moving her body in a way that wasn't human, she slithered slightly out from under the staircase, the shadows joining in on the performance, twisting her waist and head in opposite directions "Don't hurt me. Please."

Swallowing, the man backed away, "What the fuck are you?"

"Help me…" Charlie cried in a high-pitched whining whisper, "It hurrrrrtttttts."

Remembering his gun, the man started to lift it when he heard a low, guttural screech. His eyes turned to white saucers as the 'girl' lunged. Claws grabbed him by the shoulders, piercing his flack jacket, and a foot kicked his arm aside, causing the gun to slip from his grip and go clacking to the concrete floor. Stunned, he saw a flash of sharp white teeth come down on his throat. He tried to scream, but another hand clamped on his mouth, and sharp white pain exploded in his neck. Thinking the girl thing was ripping out his throat, he choked in terror and fell on his back, barely registering his head smacking the concrete before his vision and consciousness faded away.

Strewn on the floor, out like a light from the tranquilizer dart that Charlie had plunged into his neck, the man convulsed once and then went still. She knew that her feigned bite would scare the hell out of him. Breathing hard from the thrill of the 'kill', Charlie pulled the spent dart out, dropped it into an empty pouch on her waist, and dragged the drugged man effortlessly under the staircase. Moving some nearby boxes in front to hide him from sight, Charlie checked her left arm, where a Velcro wrap holding five more darts was stored in individual pockets, each with a rubber stopper protecting the sharp tip. She grinned at the gift Angel had given her in the apartment, granting her this new advantage. Pulling a stopper off, she prepped the next dart for use and added the stopper to the same pouch that stored the used darts. With a tensing of her leg muscles, Charlie jumped hard and up, catching a rafter girder and scurrying back to the same door, now wide open.

Moving down and through the frame of the door, Charlie crawled along the rafters and crouched on one long beam, holding onto another and scanning the area. Focusing her senses on the next door, she heard the another sentry moving in her direction. Licking her lips, Charlie let out an eerie moan, pitching her voice to mimic the man she'd just taken out, just loud enough to reach the sentry's position.

"Skeet? Are you okay in there?" The second sentry came through the door, gun at the ready, with a bright LED light illuminating the distance in front of him. Carefully surveying the area at eye level, he called out, "Skeet, where the fuck are you, man? You know you can't leave your post."

Cursing, the sentry took a walkie-talkie off his belt, "Skeet, this is Parker; come in. What's your twenty? Over?"

Silence greeted him, and he stepped further into the room. From above, Charlie moved through the rafters towards the sentry's location, purposely clicking her claws on the steel beams, and she watched the man's head whip up and follow the sounds as they moved from the far door to just above him. She stopped quickly, though. As the sentry's radio squelched, taking his attention from her position, she heard a new voice over the radio: "Parker, report. Over?"

"This is Parker. Skeet's off his post. I'm canvassing his section now. Over."

"Well, forget that lazy prick. Samedi wants everyone in the main office, stat. The barge is arriving in twenty to move the girls."

"Roger. On my way." Patrick clicked off the talkie and turned around when the shuffling above recaptured his attention. What the Hell is up there? Raccoons?

Panning his gun up, the LED light tracing along the wall and into the rafters above, Parker gasped as two bright red eyes, shaped like slits, glared back at him in the beam of his light before disappearing completely. Finger on the trigger, Parker darted his eyes all over, trying to re-track what he just saw. Raccoons do not have eyes like that, so what the hell's up there?

Clicking sounds came from behind him and above. Patrick spun, focusing the light on the sound, and saw a shadow scurry just out of the beam's focused glare. Nerves on edge, Parker again tried to track the mysterious animal, intent on identifying it and eliminating it out of spite. Shock raced through his senses when a long tail dropped right in front of his face, with a spade-like tip that poked him, seemingly playfully, in the nose. His eyes darted up to see a nightmare of teeth, red eyes, and a growl that no living thing could produce falling towards him. The tail wrapped around his gun and ripped it away before the creature dropped on his shoulders, knocking him to the ground. A single cry escaped his mouth before he felt a hot clawed hand wrap around his face. Breath, hot and sulfurous, blew across his cheek, and an unholy voice reverberated against his ear, "See you in Hell, asshole!" followed by a sharp piercing pain in his neck, and instant darkness took him.

Letting her weight press on the man's back, uncaring if it left him bruised or with broken bones, Charlie used him as a perch and clicked her radio, "Angel. I could only clear the two outer sentries. The rest are moving to the girl's location to prepare them for a ship that's about to dock outback. We're running out of time!"

"I took out two patrolling sentries. If they've been called to congregate in preparation of shipping the girls out, our downed guys are going to create suspicion."

"What's Amanda's ETA?" Charlie asked as she effortlessly pulled the man's body under a machine and out of sight.

"Ten minutes, tops. Once she's on sight, she's radioing the rest, so we have twenty-five, thirty minutes at most to clear out."

"I understand. What should I do? If the sentries are all in the rooms with the girls?"

"How many darts do you have left?" Angel asked.

"Used two; have four left."

"We each took out two; that leaves seven thugs in one spot and possibly on alert when the others don't arrive in short order," Angel paused, "and they're heavily armed."

She waited, knowing his mind was organizing options quickly and concisely.

"Charlie. I'm going to try to lure as many people out of the room as I can. When I do, go in, take out the stragglers with the darts, and get the girls out through the north window."

"You'll be outnumbered!"

"I know, but we don't have time for anything intricate. This is a divide and conquer. I have enough darts to take out whomever I can lure out, but I'll be pinned down. Once you get the girls out, go full demon and save my ass!"

"Angel?"

"That's an order, Charlie. Now, move!"

"Be safe!" Charlie understood the command and snapped to it. No longer worried about being sneaky, she ran through the door and through two more large areas, cutting the distance between her and the area where the girls and sentries would be. As she turned a sharp corner, Charlie came to an abrupt stop. Her eyes widened, and she covered her mouth, gasping. On the floor next to a few dirty mattresses lay the burned, charred body of what appeared to be a teenage girl. Approaching with soft steps, Charlie dropped to one knee and reached out, stopping short, and she let out another sharp cry. Taking breaths to steady herself, she examined the body, noticing the ravaged throat, and an angry guttural growl rumbled from her own. No mere sentry was the cause of this torture. Whoever did this was sadistic and enjoyed their work. Rising to her feet, Charlie felt a cold shiver run through her spine, and her shoulders shook. Rage bubbled up from her core, and she felt her full demon wash over her. Embers of fire sparked between her horns as her eyes pulsed bright in the darkness. Her black hair flowed around her, as if a living being all its own, dancing like embers of a raging fire. Mercy drained from her, replaced by a feeling she'd not felt before as the option to kill presented itself to her, whispering promises of revenge. Those bastards are going to pay! Stepping far around the girl's body to show her respect, Charlie moved through the far door, continuing on.

—

Interesting. Samedi thought to himself as he stepped out of the shadows in the corner of the room. He caressed the amulet around his neck that he had used to mask his presence from the demon's senses. When it had first crossed the magical boundary around the warehouse that he'd cast days before, he knew it wise to hide and survey from the darkness. A spell that only worked because the demon was not seeking him out, specifically. Bible's merchandise no longer interested him. This was no ordinary demon, certainly nothing like the ones he'd summoned in the past, and Samedi found himself singularly intrigued by its presence. Who called it here and why? Why did it look sad when it found the dead girl's body? Demons seek and kill humans; it's what they're made for, after all. At least the ones he called certainly had endless blood lust. Following quietly, Samedi now hunted the demon that had invaded the warehouse, eager to see what it would do next.