Demon's Daughter (Completed)

1

Blood soaks into her Army regulation boots, darkening the desert tan to a muddy, brick, clay color. Each step toward the Colonel's office causes the blood to suck at her feet, and she tries not to care about the footprints she's leaving behind.

She stalks down the hall, feeling her soaked uniform peel off and stick to her with each step. Normally, she wouldn't be self-conscious of being covered in blood—she'd revel in it—but she can hear the whispers beating at her ears.

"Freak."

"She's a glorified monster."

Sauda turns to look at the tall blond human, who shrinks away from her gaze. The man beside the woman undresses her with his eyes and she sneers and looks away. Apparently, the woman is more disgusted by her than the man who enjoys a woman covered in another human's blood. Not that Sauda could judge. Sometimes even she found it sexy, in the right situation.

She rounds the corner to the Colonel's door to find it wide open with the sound of masculine laughter falling out. It instantly stops as soon as she walks in.

"Jesus Johnson!" The Colonel jumps up, finger-pointing, and face puffing up. "You couldn't have cleaned up before you came in here? Look at the carpet!"

She doesn't.

The Colonel, graying with age, still looks sharp in his ACU's. Tall and well built without being too bulky and not an ounce of fat on him. But like all long term G-men, his gray eyes were dark and dead. The complete opposite of how they looked right out of basic.

She took a second to canvas the room, spotting all exits and windows.

Four other men stand in the office, facing her, mouths gaping. They smell human and all look like the same man in different colors. The Army had a way of doing that: taking men from different walks of life and then shaping them into the same mold.

Out of the four of them, one stands in front, the Alpha. His brown hair looks almost black except where the sun hits it through the Colonel's window. His skin is tan. He can't be plain lily white, she'd bet on it. His hooded black eyes look her over.

"You sent word that you wanted to see me right away," She tells him, giving him all the attitude she could muster while exhausted, "last time I ignored an order we had... issues."

"Last time you took two weeks to report!" The Colonel says, his face getting red. "No one wanted you and your little death squad. You don't respect authority! I may have got this project as a punishment, but by God, I will teach you to heel!"

Sauda can see the Colonel's face swelling with each word, and she tries not to smile. She couldn't help how amused she got at the poor man's agitation. Getting a rise out of him was like a sport.

"Teach me to heel? Like a bitch?"

"That's it!" The Colonel slams his fist on the desk.

"Sir," the Alpha soldier says. The Colonel looks at him. "May I?"

The Colonel's chest heaves up and down, close to hyperventilating. Sauda smiles, imagining his face getting so red that steam comes out of his ears like a teakettle.

"Major Maddox." He introduces himself, stretching his hand out to her.

She raises her hands to show the drying crimson. "Blood," she says, "Captain Johnson."

His eyes widen as he sees the caking blood, and he pulls back two steps.

"I assigned your team to the Major. These men will join the unit," the Colonel says.

Sauda looks away from the Major to the Colonel. His face is pale, but the smug look on his face makes her pause. His smile reaches up to his dead eyes. She looks back at Maddox, studying him. He smells human. But there were a lot of things that bumped in the night that could pass as mundane.