Charlie heard Angel's order and, despite her worry for him, obeyed and set her focus on the last sentry. She shifted into hybrid form and went invisible again, slipping into the room as Slater's walkie-talkie crackled to life.
Through the speaker, an excited voice proclaimed, "I caught an intruder, Slater! Got him secured, but he may have a partner!"
Her lip caught between her teeth, fear coiling in her stomach. If they hurt him… She forced the thought away. Angel could take care of himself—she knew this. Her focus needed to be on the children because they couldn't protect themselves.
Slater, the lead sentry, clicked the call button on his radio and barked back, "No shit, Giles! I'm alone in here! Find out who's with him, then tie up the loose ends! I gotta get these kids to the docks!"
The harsh urgency in his voice sent ice through Charlie's veins as she crept closer, invisible claws extending from her fingertips.
Giles's voice came back, "Got it!"
Securing his radio, Slater paused, working out the problem aloud. "Can't be the police; they wouldn't risk the kids by barging in. Maybe it's that fucking vigilante, again, mucking up the boss's works."
Her fangs bared in a demonic grin. Smart guy.
"Should have told Giles just to blow his head off," Slater groused, then turned and pointed his gun at the girls. "Stand back!"
As the girls obeyed and he unlocked the cages, he cursed to himself, "No sudden moves! We're getting out of here before anything else happens!"
Wanna bet?
Motioning with his gun, he commanded the girls out of the room. "Move! Out the door and to the back of the warehouse! NOW!"
Silently, Charlie followed as Slater herded the children out of the office and further into the shadows toward the dock exit. Silently approaching behind him, she reached for the last dart, intending to stealthily jab it into Slater's neck, and found it missing. It must have been knocked off her armband during her scuffle with the three men. With no way to knock him out without exposing herself to the girls, she bit her lip and tried to think of another plan.
But then her ears picked up the barge docking outside, and that meant even more men to contend with. Time had run out. Glancing up at the lights above, she concentrated and doused the ones directly overhead, casting Slater and the girls into the shadows. This would give her cover so the children didn't see her in her demonic form. She heard Slater curse under his breath, and she grinned wickedly.
Shedding her cloak, she shouted, "Hey, asshole!"
Startled, Slater spun around and fired wildly.
As she had done before, she anticipated his reaction, dropped to the floor, and avoided the gunfire, extending her arm, aiming at the gun, and unleashing a blast of hellfire. It absorbed into the weapon, heating it until it seared Slater's hand. He dropped it with a cry of pain.
The girls screamed but didn't move, frozen in fear, with no idea where to run even if they tried.
She bounded off the floor, charged at the man, and with a controlled swipe, grazed his cheek, slicing it open.
Yelping in pain, Slater slapped his hand over his cheek and turned to run, the girls all but forgotten. But Charlie wasn't having it; her rage needed to be sated. With a flick of her tail, she tripped him up, and he toppled onto the concrete.
Releasing her hold on the lights above, she quickly pulled in her demonic features and turned towards the children.
"RUN!" she shouted.
One of the girls cried out in fear, "Who are you?"
"A friend, I swear! But you need to get out of here, now!"
Another girl, smaller than all the others with freckles and a bruise on her face, shook her head furiously. "The evil man will kill us if we run! He has magic."
Evil man? Magic? I knew it. He had to be the one who killed the girl.
She ran to the girls, knelt before the one who appeared the oldest, and pointed to a window on their right that hadn't been boarded up, thankfully. "The bad man's gone, I promise you!" A small lie, but she had to get them moving. "See that window?"
The girls looked, and some nodded.
"Good! That's how you get out of here. There are some boxes you can use to climb up!" Her ears picked up the sound of sirens approaching from the side road to the warehouse, and she breathed a sigh of relief. "The police are coming! When you get out, run to the front of the warehouse!"
Thankfully, the thought of freedom broke the spectral hold over them, and, obeying her order, the group ran for the window.
Charlie sighed in relief. They'd be safe in a moment, and all that was left now was to chase down and secure the last sentry.
Turning to run after him, she suddenly stopped and gasped sharply. Slater was back on his feet, and in the chaos, the small freckle-faced girl must have tried to run, because he now held her around the waist, a pistol—probably tucked in his back pocket—pressed against the child's forehead. "I don't know what the fuck you are, but if you try anything, I'll spill this little bitch's brains!"
Sneering, she glared at him, though part of the anger was directed at herself. Had she let him run off, rather than trip him up, he'd be well gone and not have taken a hostage.
Then a second thought invaded her mind. You shouldn't have shown mercy. Killing him would have saved all the girls. The thought didn't feel quite her own, but it was true.
Shaking her head softly, she pushed those thoughts aside. She wasn't a monster. She did the right thing. Yet even now, her body ached to unleash her inner demon, to explode outward and put the fear of death into Slater. Only the fear etched on the little girl's face kept her restrained.
Barely.
With his lip split and the taste of copper on his tongue, Angel shuffled his feet in a semicircle, mirroring Giles's movements.
Spitting out a glob of blood and mucus onto the floor, Giles wiped his broken nose and winced, glaring back at him.
With her gun trained on Giles, Amanda heard the roar of cars and helicopters closing in from a distance and scolded Angel, "Can you finish already? Why are you toying with him like this?"
"Shut up, bitch!" Giles growled. "This wimp's barely standing."
She smiled through her frustrated sigh. Oh, how naive you are, you poor bastard.
"And yet, I'm having so much fun," Angel quipped sarcastically, flipping Giles off.
Giles roared and threw a precise punch directly at his jaw. Angel twisted away, catching the sentry's arm with both hands, then forcefully brought it down across his knee. The loud crack of bone, followed by a cry of pain, indicated to Amanda that he was finally getting serious.
Angel felt feral and sadistic. Feeding on the flood of rage he'd been holding in for years, he drove an elbow into Giles's nose, further shattering the already broken bone. Twisting with a leg sweep, he sent Giles crashing onto his back with a loud thud, then brought his military-issued boot down full force into Giles's crotch. The resulting scream and vomiting from Giles was reward enough, and he skipped back three steps, taking up a ready stance just in case.
Dropping to secure Giles with her FBI-issued handcuffs, she swore, "Jesus, Angel, don't you think that was a bit much?"
He didn't answer.
Looking up as she locked the cuffs, she saw him running towards the back of the warehouse, only stopping long enough to pick up his dart gun. She assumed he was going for the girls. Calling out loudly, she warned him, "Hurry! Everyone's about here!"
"Move out of the way," Slater commanded.
Charlie obliged, raising her hands and sidestepping as the man dragged the crying girl along. She matched his steps as he passed so he wouldn't get too far away.
"Don't you fucking follow me!"
Her demon voice seeped through. "You're not taking the girl."
Slater lifted his gun toward her in fear. "I don't know how you took out everyone else or what the fuck you are, but you take one more step, and I'll shoot both of you!" he threatened. "You got me, bitch?"
The girl sobbed loudly in response. Placing the barrel of the gun against her forehead again, he shouted at her, "Shut up!"
"Don't you dare!" she growled. Unconsciously, she took a step toward them.
"God dammit, I warned you!" Slater cocked his gun.
That was it! The suppressed outrage and pain that had been building since she discovered the girl's mutilated body finally overwhelmed her. Whatever fragile control she'd been clinging to dissolved, and her demon form burst free in a violent explosion of power.
This will be fun!
Welling up from deep within her, she sensed something unfamiliar riding the wave of her transformation: not only did her claws, horns, tail, and teeth appear, but her body also grew and expanded. Her face twisted as her fangs extended past her lips, which sneered upwards. She unleashed a full-on banshee roar, though there was a faint tone just below the pitch of her voice that wasn't her own.
The little girl screamed in fright, burying her face into Slater's chest before he shoved her to the floor out of sheer terror. Jerking his gun upward at the nightmare exploding before him, Slater shouted and pulled the trigger. The loud, sharp snap of gunfire hit her not in the heart or head, but in her thoughts. In the heat of the moment, she'd forgotten she was mortal. If the shot was true, she was dead.
God, Angel, I'm so sorry!
But there was no pain. Instead, she saw a bead of blood form on Slater's forehead. A second later, his arm dropped, the gun spilled onto the floor, and his body followed.
She spun to see Angel kneeling, his arms outstretched, with a smoking pistol in his hand. He'd made the killing shot to save her.
Relief washed over her for only a split second. He stood, slipped the pistol into his holster, and walked right through the massive, flowing black hair of her demon form, ignoring her completely.
She followed him, startled, as he bent to scoop up the screaming girl. Pressing her face against his chest, he whispered calmly, "It's okay. You're safe now. I won't let the monster hurt you."
Those words stabbed at her soul.
Then he turned to face her, his eyes a mixture of anger and sadness, and hissed under his breath, "Get out of here. NOW!"
She remembered the first night with the Pry Brothers. This was the very same moment, repeated, but worse because he had told her to do whatever she had to. So why was he angry with her now?
Lips quivering, her heart split down the middle. She bellowed out a roar of rage, spun and fled down the hall, her hair weaving like trails of seaweed caught in the wake of a boat. Reaching the wall, she clawed up into a vent that should have been too small for her and slipped through, retreating into the darkness.
In the far corner, shrouded in shadow and magic, stood Samedi. Smiling with crooked teeth clamped together, his eyes sparkled with cruel desire.
So, this is what you are. I've never seen a demon such as you before. I must make you mine!
Rubbing his amulet, a wisp of smoke surrounded him as he moved through his secret exit, arranged solely for his escape.
Cradling the crying girl gently in his arms, Angel rushed back toward the front of the warehouse, fully aware he was about to be swarmed by agents and likely taken into custody, but there was no way he would leave the girl alone in the dark.
Amanda emerged from the shadows before he had gotten more than twenty yards, her expression one of controlled panic, "Angel! Stefon is here! They're surrounding the warehouse! You have to go!"
He gently placed the trembling girl into her arms, then pointed in the direction the kids had run. "Thanks! The rest of the girls escaped through the side window over there! Make sure to gather them up before any other creeps we haven't secured find them."
"I will!" she affirmed hastily. "And the suspects?"
"All down and out. Most are by the offices where the girls were held, but a couple are scattered around the perimeter. The serum in my darts should keep them knocked out for at least another ten minutes, but make sure your people are aware and on guard." He grabbed a breath, released it, and continued, "I'm sorry it's such a mess, but I thought we'd have more time."
Amanda caught the 'we' again, and it nagged at her. She was determined to get answers, but that would have to wait! She pushed him with one hand, encouraging him to run. "I'll deal with it! Get the hell out of here, now!"
But he didn't move. Rather, his expression darkened, a mix of anger and regret. "One more thing. I was forced to kill one of the sentries. They're going to match the bullet to my gun."
She frowned, not from disappointment, but from a sense of shared grief. She knew just how adamantly he was about not taking lives anymore.
She held out her hand, "Give me your gun."
He didn't argue, but he looked perplexed.
"I'm already going to get reamed for this, so I'll cover for you and get the license changed to my name."
A look of surprise shone in his eyes, "You can do that?"
"Go!" Grabbing his shoulder, she spun him around and pushed harder than she intended. "You're out of time!"
The symphony of sirens from the approaching units echoed through the warehouse, reinforcing her words. With one final nod of thanks, he sprinted as fast as he could and headed straight for the exit point Charlie had used to get into the warehouse. Having memorized the layout, he knew the exact distance and time it would take to escape, and he was cutting it oh-so-damn close.
Reaching the window, he saw that she had made a sizable hole for him, slid out, and dropped behind some long-forgotten wooden pallets. Pressing himself against the wall, he hunched down to avoid the probing eyes of the spotlights pouring down from the three helicopters maneuvering above.
At the corner of the warehouse, he dropped to one knee and forced himself to pause and take a breath. He had made the first leg of the escape undetected, and thankfully, the arriving authorities and FBI were moving in standard formation, giving him maybe thirty seconds of leeway. Tensing his muscles, he waited for the closest helicopter's beam to finish its trace along the open road before him. He noted the multiple shipping containers close to the property's fence line. When the light completed its search and moved up the road, he counted to five and burst out of the shadows, sprinting across the broken concrete of the old road.
Angel moved so fast he might have broken a record or two. Finally, he reached the containers and flew out of sight around the corner and slammed his back against the cold metal to become as one with it as he could. Holding his breath, he listened as a second helicopter made a pass along the same route. It was definitely flying a wider circle, expanding the search.
If the third helicopter came by at the same rate of time and distance, the light would wash right over him.
Time was running out, and it was then that he realized Charlie was missing. Where could she be? He'd reached the prearranged spot, but she wasn't there, and fear gripped him. Had she abandoned him in her anger? The way she looked was vastly different from the forms she had usually taken, almost like a distorted, twisted version of her full demon form. Maybe he'd pushed her too far, and now she was out there, somewhere, possibly out of control.
Catching his breath, he reached up to tap his earpiece to call for her before remembering that Giles had ripped it off him.
"Shit!" He licked his lips.
The task force was spreading out, the copters were getting closer, and Charlie was M.I.A.! Worse, he had put all his trust in her being here at the end of the mission, so he hadn't built in a plan B. Something he'd always done every single time. The reliance on her alone had become a liability to his usually critical thinking. Fuck. I'm losing control.
Suddenly, he sensed a tense presence and looked up. What he saw stole his breath away, and he gasped and stumbled back against the chain-link fence. Instinctively, he reached for his gun, which was no longer in its holster.
Charlie had shimmered into existence above him. How long had she been there? She had reverted to her hybrid form, gripping the container with her claws, digging deep into the metal housing, crouched like a lioness poised to pounce. Her eyes blazed with scarlet rage, and her tail swished behind her, whipping about menacingly. There was no sense of familiarity in her eyes, only the savage desire to kill.
"Charlie?" he whispered pleadingly. "Are you there, princess? Have I lost you?"
In response, she let out a low, throaty growl and launched herself, swooping down on him. Instinctively, he raised his arms in front of him for protection. Not that it would matter; it was just as he had feared could happen. The demon Princess of Hell had snapped, and dread filled his soul, knowing he was about to become her first victim. Worse, he likely wouldn't be the last.