Survival (#Wattys2015)

37. plans

Edited

Cole's POV

Hunter arrives a couple of minutes late, along with Carlos. Apparently he's had difficulties to get up today, his joints seem to overwhelm him in pain and he's barely able to support his own weight; id it wasn't for Carlos he'd have fallen on the floor. Anger swells up from inside, the witch who did that should have suffered worse punishment than death.

"He won't be of much use" George whispers in my ear, low enough so that no one hears. I nod, signalling that I've heard and step forwards. My brother's room, where we're holding the meeting, is identical to mine. When I left this morning after breakfast Anastasia was having a shower, so I left a few magazines for her to enjoy in my absence if she gets bored of watching TV.

"Ceitho has conceded in letting us attack demons" George starts and his words bring a pang of delight to the pack. "There are certain rules though, no Liliths and no generals, if you have to kill an Archeri do it discretely, although I don't think there'll be any. The point here is to scare them off, demonstrate that we're above them and that they must apply our rules, okay?"

"Why are generals out of question?" Armel asks, leaning against the wardrobe, hair perfectly sleeked back, face cleaned-shaved and costume perfectly fitting. Of course there isn't much adrenaline pumping or honour in killing henchmen. Generals on the other hand...

"They would take too much time and energy, two things that we need plenty of to take down as many soldiers as possible." I explain.

"And what happens if they step in? I say that, if we attack their men they will answer back" Monique asks in her still to be perfected English. Along with Samantha and Eve they are the only three women in the pack. Whilst Eve is still at home with her father and brother, Samantha and Monique have been working with George in Onyx.

"They won't. We have to be quick, quick and effective so that it's all over before they have time to come back to their senses." My brother elaborates.

A knock at the door which opens before the sound has left the room leaves Monique with her mouth hanging open, desperate to be answered another question. Liam steps in, quickly closing the door behind him.

"Well?" George asks. "Liam went on a little expedition earlier this morning in the district demons are staying so that we know what to expect" he turns towards the rest of the group.

"They're all concentrated together, generals are staying farther apart, two streets down. There's no sign of a Lilith though, so I don't know if they're even here."

"So it's going to be fucking easy then" Sean grins.

"The only problem is that they share the street with humans, so the plan of luring them outside and..." he trails off, looking at George.

"They aren't so stupid apparently" I curse under my breath. Human witnesses are indeed going to complicate things.

"Lots of them?" my brother asks.

"Don't really know, I'd say a hundred, maybe a bit less?" Liam shrugs. Fucking humans.

"And how many demons?"

"From what I've seen more or less seventy, they seem to be living in houses of ten." 70 demons and 19 of us, counting George and I. That's approximately three demons for each of us. If we take them by surprise we could easily kill one immediately which would leave us two to one, fair enough.

"Rafael and Eve will be joining us too, they arrived last night along with their father and are staying with Ceitho for the moment. They'll be on the team too. Liam, you'll contact them and repeat everything we're saying here now, oh and remind them to bring Brandon along." He refers our pack mate who stayed at the witch Margaret's house. We're 22 counting Hunter, which, seeing the state he's in, I sincerely doubt he'll be able to come.