Both of their clawed hands rested on their guns.
“Cambions huh, well this will be interesting.”Lanias thought to herself.
Cambions born from Hell’s fire, spent their time in the human world torturing humans with nightmares and addictions. During the time they weren’t bothering humans, they would often work for those who needed muscle in Veil City.
She quirked an eyebrow. “I’ve never made it a habit to be late. It must be something left over from my earlier days.Although, my timing shouldn’t change whether or not you have the information promised.”
He cleared his throat, shifting his glance to the corner on her left. “No need for carefully veiled threats, Witch. I only meant to say you might have run into my previous customer if you’d arrived a bit earlier.”
Lanias would have sighed but there really wasn’t any point in wasting breath on the greedy worm seated across from her. The room was dark, lit only by a few hanging candles. “You’re wasting my time, and I can’t help wondering why.” She narrowed her eyes. “I only asked you to find me the location of Stanthos. For you that should be easy.”
“It was easy,” Gaul proclaimed, never one to miss a chance to brag about himself. “Stanthos has become a crotchety old man, who spends his days drinking and selling used books in the human world.”
Frowning, she moved slightly so that she faced the corner to her right. “You talk like you know him.”
A grin filled with his yellowed cracked teeth answered her before he said, “Indeed.”
“Gaul, please tell me this isn’t a trap,” Lanias finally voiced, sounding annoyed.
The shadows on the walls fell, showing more than six Cambion demons. Their eyes were hot with violence.
“Sorry, my dear Madame Lanias. Stanthos paid me plenty to end your search for him, and he said himself by any means necessary.” He tilted his head. “I decided to take that command literally.”
“You know what’s funny about this?” she asked, gathering her hands behind her back. “I know why youreallywant to hurt me.”
She took a step forward as one of the demons lunged for her. His body stopped midair as a black spike shot up from the floor and slammed into his chest, he snarled as he clawed at it.
The other one attacked and she lifted her hand in response. A pure white light blasted out from it and wrapped around him, swallowing everything but bone. “It’s the same reason why you cover your crippled, broken body in luxury items.”
She didn’t flinch as the two who’d remained behind Gaul drew their weapons and fired.
A wall of black and white light shot up, forming a barrier between them.
Gaul screeched, “Kill her, kill her now.”
His voice grew in its shrillness as the sound of crunching bones, and screams of pain filled the small room.
Soon there was nothing but the barrier that moved and shifted forming into two spikes of separate colors that slammed into the throats of the two demons that had stood behind him. Pinning their now dead bodies to the wall.
“Where was I?” Lanias asked no one in particular, as she brushed the dust and blood from her clothes with her magic.
“Ah, yes. As I was saying,” her eyes focused back on Gaul who trembled in his gold enameled wheelchair.
“You’re a weak, pathetic being and you’ll never be more. And that is why you can’t stand anyone who obviously is your superior. Especially,” she lifted her hand, a black blade appeared in the center of it, spinning atop her flat palm. “a woman.”
The blade flew slicing through his neck, as if in slow motion his head slid from his shoulders. Gaul’s eyes remained wide in a ghastly form of terror.
Staring at the headless body, Lanias looked around at the mess she’d made.
“And here all I wanted was answers,” she muttered.
The beads rattled behind her as a familiar scent of jasmine filled her nose. She turned around to find Xi-wangmu standing there. Giving her a slight curtsy. Xi-wangmu held out a slim piece of paper to her. “I thank you for removing a pest from my garden.”
Reaching out, Lanias took it. “What is this?”
Xi-wangmu glanced at Gaul’s body in distaste. “He had a habit of writing down all the contact information for his clients. In case they sought to turn him in and report him to the Blue Jays, or worse the Jackals.”
Hearing that familiar name caused Lanias to smile. “Indeed, they would be a pain to deal with.”
