PARKER
NINETEEN
Seeing the look of determination on Lailah's face, fighting against the fear she was feeling, astounded me.
The woman I met at the beginning of the school year had turned into a warrior.
Like the rest of us, she had scars and wounds that were seen and unseen, but she used them to fuel her as we headed into a situation that we most likely would be outnumbered.
I was torn, wanting to hold back until we could meet up with the others, but I knew we didn't have much time before the power turned back on, making it harder to get out. Lailah was trusting me to make the best call, but I agreed with her that Phoebe didn’t have much time left.
The tug on my heart, thinking about her having to go through what Lailah did, worried me a bit. I’d been working hard at figuring out my feelings about this whole matter, and it’s just gotten all muddled in my brain.
Shaking myself out of this funk, I peered into the skylight.
I found it was in the same room as the altar, with ten feet between them.
It seemed to be a workroom, with tiled floors, and computers set up in units for people to work at.
They'd all been shoved up against the wall haphazardly having no use for them apparently, but explained how they could access more power in this room.
Feeling along the outside of the frame, I found the seam for where the Plexiglas fit into the window.
It was brittle from being exposed to the sun and harsh weather, so I decided the best thing to do was create the biggest distraction I could by kicking it in, sending it crashing to the ground below.
"What the fuck?!" A woman screeched. "We're under attack, call the guards!"
Seems like now is as good a time as any.
I dropped in from the roof, landing in a superhero crouch.
I took a moment to look around the room, gauging how many people were there, before I made my next move.
Like any good demonic ritual, all five of them were in black cloaks looking the part, with Phoebe passed out on the floor.
"You guys know the robes don't actually make a difference in your demon voodoo, right?" I pointed out as I stood, letting my six foot staff, with a two foot blade on the end, materialize.
"Elementi Warrior," a man hissed from under his hood.
I gave them a bright smile, like I wasn't at all bothered by the fact that I was extremely outnumbered. "I'm flattered you've heard of us."
The man tossed back his hood exposing a face that looked like it could be Voldemort's brother, but much more snake-like.
He was Brutus, the voice we heard in the generator room when we first got here then again on the radio.
He'd admitted that he housed one of the Higher-level demons, which I'd encountered a few times, but had never seen them possess a person before.
"You are foolish to come alone but I will end you before you can bother our master. "
Brutus lunged forward, his hands growing claws like Higher level demons had, that oozed with what I knew to be poison.
Lailah had been scratched by one before and she still carried those scars, along with the others.
Swinging my staff out, I blocked his attack, moving back to get a better look at the room trying to find the leader Mozog.
Brutus seemed to notice he didn't have my full attention, so he sped up his attack, letting his demon take more control over his body.
It was only the years of training I had that kept me from getting sliced by his claws in the gut as I kicked out, hitting him in the leg and dropping him to his knees.
Higher demon he might be, but this time he was trapped in a human body and couldn't dematerialize to avoid my counterattack.
Tired of being on the defensive, I struck while he was down, trying to cut off his head.
As much as I wanted to save the human he was inhabiting, I knew it was too late for Martin when Lailah killed Ubel.
The host, no longer having a demon to keep them alive, would wither and die after having something so evil eating them from the inside out.
Brutus might be trapped in the human body but he was still able to move faster and force the body to be bent and break in ways it shouldn't have been able to.
Doing a move that could only happen in the Matrix, he avoided my attack and sprang to his feet, flipping backwards.
"You'll have to do better than that, warrior," Brutus said with a hissing laugh. "Don't tell me this is the best the Elementi have to offer."
Catching movement out of the corner of my eye, one of the other robed figures was trying to sneak up behind me with a dagger in his hand.
Whirling, I used the butt of my staff to hit him right in the cheek, knocking the wind out of him and sending him sprawling backwards.
Brutus used this to his advantage, making his next move, keeping me on my toes slashing and cutting away at me, until all I could do was keep him off me.
Two more of the group came at me and I knew I needed to take some of these people out or I was going to lose this battle before Lailah even had the chance to get to the altar.
The hasty plan we made was to listen in until I had their attention, and she would make her way through the skylight over the altar.
Well, I had their attention alright, but Lailah still hadn't made it down into the room yet.
Could she be dealing with another panic attack?
I knew it, we should have waited for the others, but the need to get to Phoebe fast was still riding me.
Pain burst through my brain as I felt something get jammed into my thigh, looking down it was the dagger that one bastard had been holding.
"Okay, that's fucking it!" I yelled, shoving Brutus away with all my strength and turned to face the other minions. "I didn't want to do this, but you guys left me no choice."
Moving as fast as I could, I whipped my staff around, jabbing it right into the heart of one of the cloaked men then yanking it out and going after the woman who was leaping at me like a pissed off cat.
Whatever she was, turning her hands into claws was also one of her tricks but I slashed upwards, slicing open her chest, causing her to drop to the floor in a heap.
"Ah, so the gallant knight has a taste for blood," a voice purred behind me.
The chills that ran down my spine and the demonic energy that came off him told me before I even turned, this was Mozog.
Turning on my heel, staff at the ready, I came face to face with a man dressed in a suit but what really threw me off were his eyes.
They looked like that of a lizard, bright yellow with a black slit running down the middle that seemed to dilate when he was looking at me.
He grinned at me and his teeth were sharp and pointed, like that of a shark, or something equally terrifying.
"I can sense your fear," he said, sniffing the air. "It's delicious."
He slowly walked around me, his hands clasped behind his back. Unwilling to give him my back, I turned with him, knowing the others wouldn't move unless he told them too. I was banking on the fact Mozog would want to get some information out of me before I was killed.
"You've come for this woman, haven't you," Mozog asked as he stopped behind Phoebe caressing her face.
"She is very lovely and perfectly suited to being used as a conduit for our plans.
You know about those, I assume, from your Lady Synergy.
" At that, the door to the room burst open and another black robed person walked in, holding Lailah to his chest with a knife to her throat.
"It would seem your plan isn't working out as well as you planned, but you see, mine is going perfectly. "
I frowned after hearing that. "Wait, you wanted us to come here?"
"But of course, did you really think the Dark Lord would let Synergy out of his grasp once he had a taste of her?
She is bound to him by blood and ritual as much as she is to you knights," Mozog explained.
"The serum wasn't strong enough to overpower her angelic blessing, but we have been working on that and testing it on many subjects all over the world.
Imagine my surprise when it was discovered that you were here in my section.
That barrier you put up sent out a signal across quite a distance, alerting us to your presence. "
"That means the barrier is too strong for you to get through, so you needed to lure us out of our safety zone," Lailah interjected, once she was set on her feet.
Looking at the pair of them, I knew she put up a good fight, the man had a black eye and a fat lip to show for his efforts. Lailah also had a black eye that bloomed out closer to her temple, making me guess that's how he got her so unbalanced or knocked her out even.
"That, dear lady, was something of dumb luck," Mozog answered.
"We were making plans to do that exact thing, but you decided to come to us, allowing me to collect both of you.
This is a good day for us indeed. Oh, and as for the others that are lurking around the building, they will be dealt with shortly, can't have more of them for you to feed off of, Lady Synergy. "
Lailah's face became a mask of rage at that statement, elbowing the cloaked man in the gut, giving her enough room to spin and knee him in the balls.
The man dropped like a rock but then Brutus was on her, wrapping a hand around her neck and picking her up until her feet could just barely touch.
"Come on Synergy, show me what you've got, I love a woman who fights back. "
Now it was my turn to rage at what was happening to Lailah. "Get your fucking hands off her."