Page 12 of Malcolm

Phen grimaced as he looked at the redhead. “I don’t know what his lordship sees in you, but I would appreciate it if you didn’t eat the enemy before me, Beliel.”

Beleil laughed as he shook his head. “Sorry, Doc. No, I can’t do that. The fresher, the better.”

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled a handkerchief and pressed it to his nose. “Well, for now, we’ll return to the base.” He turned away from the truck. Lugh cast those prototypes to my lab. I will program them to hunt her down. I should have never trusted that idiot Nathan to keep her safe.”

Lugh lifted his scythe, and with a wave, the standing prototypes disappeared along with the truck and jeep. The humans' bodies remained strewn like broken figurines on the highway.

Beleil and Phen's forms wavered before they, too, disappeared.

Lanias

Standing before the large Nerium, she watched the largeearthen-made snakes circle it. Her arms crossed as she considered her next choice for finding Eliza.

“How long have you been down here?”

She didn’t turn around at her sisters’ questions. “An hour at most. I needed to think,” she said, turning to face Sabina. “What brings a pregnant witch here?”

Her sister frowned at her, placing a hand on her stomach. Not that she was showing, but the glow and slight plumpness to her features were enough for Lanias to know that her sister was going to carry this child just as easily as she’d carried her niece. “I came because you weren’t answering your phone.”

Hearing this made Lanias blink, dropping her right hand to her pocket. “Ah, I must have left it in the office.”

“You did,” Sabina said, walking to her side. The purple light filled the large chamber, “I figured you’d be down here anyway; after all, we still haven’t found Eliza.”

Hearing this, Lanias turned away from her sister. Sabina firmly believed Lanias's search for Eliza was to protect her and because she was Sabina’s friend. If she knew the truth about why Lanias was desperate to find her, she wasn’t sure Sabina wouldn’t curse her out for it.

Some things were better left in the past. Lanias had done a number of things to become one of the four demons of Veil City. Some of those things would haunt her till she died.

“I should have tried harder to protect the others. I should never have given them the choice to be continually tracked or not,” she complained.

“You were trying to give them privacy,” her sister said, reaching out and placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Not too many of us had that before. Stop blaming yourself for something you can’t control.”

Lanias sighed. “Sabina, I can’t not blame myself. If I don’t protect them, who will?” She met her sister's worried stare. “Itried hard to walk away once before, and what happened?” Her sister averted her eyes. “Three young and talented girls were taken and torn apart. Not one of them had a family member; every time I think back to that day we found them, I—” She looked away from her Sabina and sighed.

“I don’t want to ever think to myself, ‘I failed’ again. I told you then I didn’t care about the reputation I garnered, or if the whole world turned against me; I would protect you all…With or without the Nerium.” She looked at the glowing purple-secreted magic up above.

She shook her head and straightened her back, placing her hands on her hips. “I can’t mope anymore, it’s time I got more serious. I will find Eliza, and once I do, I will gather the others. We can’t keep this half-existence anymore.”

Sabina dropped her hand. “You’re going to call them back?”

“Yes, it’s time,” Lanias said as she turned away from the Nerium and headed for the steps. “The peace for our kind is over.”

All good things come to an end someday.

Tiller

Tiller looked over Malcolm and Alek; he’d left Castian and Raijin out as he didn’t want to be bothered by the lovesick warlock or the annoying Ogre, who’d shoot him down at any mention of leaving his fiancé.

He tapped his fingers along the edge of the meeting table as he walked to the front. “As you two may already know, you’re two other members are building lives outside of the Jackals.” He pursed his lips at this. He had held back on countless occasions his urge to throw those two assholes into the dark, but his very tiny moral code kept him back from such petty actions.“Unfortunately, I’ve been requested to send someone to the Wolf Reservations.”

“What?”

He didn’t bother looking at Malcolm; he knew the little pup would perk up at this news. “It would seem that several of their kind have been going missing over the last few years. The current Alpha has requested that the council send someone to investigate.” He frowned. “And they, of course, tossed the request our way.”

He glanced over at the werewolf, only to find the male wearing a complicated expression. He knew Malcolm didn’t have fond memories of his people. Tiller couldn’t blame him, though he wouldn’t feel sympathy for the man he’d found covered in blood. The werewolves weren’t completely accepted as a part of the Veil; they were more like honorary immigrants who’d been given access to the veil protection as long as they followed certain laws, aside from the occasional interference from the dead weight of the council, who enjoyed discriminating against them, they were mostly left alone.

Tiller, himself, hadn’t a view either way of the beasts. He’d only been interested in Malcolm when his file had come across his desk all those years ago. A man who hid his strength well, he needed that quality. As too many had grown threatened by his acquiring Raijin and Alek, both were seen to be two very powerful chess pieces, so he searched for another sword and found one being dirtied by those who lacked foresight for what they had in their hands.

“So, which one of you would like to go to manage these wild beasts?” he asked, ignoring the annoyed look Malcolm sent his way.

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