Alexandria's Knight

Sanctuary of The Damned

Dria

"Did you really think we weren't watching?" Garrick gripes.

Garrick, Calcifer and Eric escort me to the sacellum. All stone columns, alcoves, and undercrofts, it's darker than the church but thankfully lit by candles and torches.

"Well I thought I'd at least be able to pray in peace for a few minutes before you showed up. I'm still allowed to do that, aren't I?" Again, I know I shouldn't have snuck out just to get Adriel's attention.

A whistle stops me and my guards in our tracks.

Two men step out of the darkness of an alcove in front of us. I scent the air.

Humans. I smell something along with that human scent that stings my nose. Something holy.

"You found a way to get into The Underworld." I give them a Get serious sort of look. "We paid your world a visit so you pay us one?" I shake my head. "The Church really needs to sort out its priorities."

"Demons belong in Hell or dead," one of the men says. He's dressed in a short sleeved button down and khaki pants. I wonder what he has on him that's giving him the same scent as the man beside him. I scent the air around them again and smell something new this time, faint but there all the same.

Demon's blood.

They really do have a lot of nerve coming here and I'm surprised no one's picked them off yet. Then again that might have something to do with the other man who is wearing red and black clergyman's cloth. I recognize him as a priest of some order. Demons in The Underworld's corridors must have either avoided him or gotten taken out by the both of them. I eye the slender sword sheathed at his side. I start with him.

"You are—" I lick my finger and stick it in the air "—Anthony." The priest look a little surprised that I know his name. I give him a closer look. Tall dark, and handsome. Nice.

Khaki Pants glares at me. "That demon knows your name!"

Oh the disrespect. I don't even want to know what that one's name is.

"Of course I do." My cerise dress is a little too tight for a curtsy but I do one anyway. "It's a little talent of mine. It's Alexandria, soon-to-be Queen of The Underworld. I would say it's a pleasure to meet you but I take it you are the ones who shot up the party I was at the other night."

"Seeing that you're still standing here means the guns were ineffective," Khaki says. "We decided on a more direct approach."

The priests draws his sword.

My eyes go red with bloodlust as anticipation thrills through me.

"Oooo, a sword fight. I haven't done one of those in awhile."

Eric walks into my line of sight.

"My man, we really can't let you do that," he says to the two men.

Garrick and Calcifer stand at Eric sides, blocking me from view. I smell the others before I see them standing around me. Damus. Therius. Kel. Wynferd. Fane.

"What're y'all doing here," I say, irritated, my gaze still on the priest just visible beyond Eric's arm. "I got this."

Eric pulls out two glinting knives from their sheaths at his waist.

"And we got you."

"This is exactly why we didn't want you taking any of the byways into the human world," Kel says, twirling his staff in one hand.

"We!?" I say. "You had meetings about restricting me?"

"Of course we did," Wynferd says shamelessly, "wayward woman."