The door closed and the footsteps grew nearer; leisurely padding along the lush carpeting towards the great desk. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end; Hema bristled and quickly pulled Dahlia back. A set of rather large sandaled feet stopped just out of her reach, her fingers worked without a thought swiftly crawling down her thigh and grasping the hilt of a poisoned dagger.
Gaius stretched leisurely as he rounded the desk, looking over the sheaves of paper that littered the surface. Sextus had been an ambitious man, an intelligent man, but not an organized man. He detested such mandanities, but he couldn't have Decimus risk his position by doing everything. And aside from that...Decimus was an ambitious man as well, and couldn't be trusted with everything...
Her left hand slowly raised, she listened to the soft breath of the man and shuddered. Something was terribly wrong; she couldn't shake the sense of revulsion, the thick heated coil that had started low in her belly, she felt almost distracted. The sensations were coming from the man who had just entered; whoever he was, he was most assuredly not a servant of the Emperor. She struck with the speed of a cobra, her arm snapping out in an arc sweeping inwards, to hook the man's Achilles tendon.
To her shock and dismay, his foot lifted away and came down on her forearm, trapping it to the floor. "You found me sooner than I expected, Dahlia." He slipped his right hand under the edge of the desk and hurled the thing across the room effortlessly. "You should not have used the Arbites to send the Astropath message, girl. Too easily corrupted."
Her arm was crushed to the floor, though she still held the blade it trembled with her effort. Black eyes burned with hate through the mask, the desk hit the far wall with a great boom, splinters raining to the floor. She found herself staring up the muscled frame of a veritable bronzed Adonis. GAIUS?! The man was easily a foot taller than his file stat's but it was 'Old Stickyfingers' himself. She had not expected him to be hiding in the home of an official, but perhaps she should have. Shooting from the hip without thought, her finger squeezed the trigger to the Neuro Disruptor sending a ripple through the air directed at Gaius' head.
The blast of energy washed over him, and he staggered backwards, shaking his head. He righted himself after a couple steps, a grin slowly spreading across his face. His hand slipped down to the daemonic whip coiled at his waist and flicked it out. "Good, good. Nice reflexes. Though, you should have used the blade." The whip lashed out, striking her wrist and sending a jolt of pain through her arm, as though she had struck her funny bone. The weapon tumbled from paralyzed fingers. "You should have followed orders and waited for your backup."
She watched him stumble, but before she could take solace the whip was coiled round her arm, she sucked in a breath but the pain wasn't enough for her to stop, not by any means enough. He was right, why had she not reached for her C'tan first? "DREKIGER HUND!" She spat the guttural words at him as if they were poison themselves. Inside Hema gave Dahlia an almost panicked shove. Get back...hide. NOW. She piled her defenses as her working hand gathered a second then a third blade. Between her fingers she flung them quickly, the daggers fanning out as they headed for their target. The moment her hand was empty she struggled to slide her left hand into the holster of the C'tan, she had developed the skill of wielding it with both hands long ago.
Two of the daggers seemed like they would strike him, but somehow they seemed to slide around him...or pass through him. The third sank into his chest, between two of his lower ribs. He inclined his head slightly, a look of sensual enjoyment on his face. "Ahhh...yes. Mmmmmm." He reached down and grasped the handle of the weapon and twisted slightly, drawing in a shuddering breath as he locked eyes with the assassin. "Don't you understand, girl? This is just foreplay to me." He ripped the knife free and whipped it back at her with a flick of the wrist.
