Valerius whirled on his heel and headed back the direction he'd come from.
He drifted through the darkness until he found an ajar gate that led to a courtyard.
There in the back were six Daimons fighting a tall human woman.
Valerius was mesmerized by the macabre beauty of the battle. One Daimon came at the woman's back. She flipped him over her shoulder and in one graceful motion stabbed him in the chest with a long, black dagger. The Daimon burst into a golden dust.
She twirled as she rose up to face another one. She tossed the dagger from one hand to the other and held it like a woman well used to defending herself from the undead.
Two Daimons rushed her. She actually did a cartwheel away from them, but the other Daimon had anticipated her action. He grabbed her.
Without panicking, the woman surrendered her weight by picking both of her legs up to her chest. It brought the Daimon to his knees. The woman sprang to her feet and whirled to stab the Daimon in his back.
He evaporated.
Normally the remaining Daimons would flee. The last four didn't. Instead they spoke to each other in a language he hadn't heard in a long time: ancient Greek.
"Little chickie la la, isn't dumb enough to fall for that, guys," the woman answered back in flawless Greek.
Valerius was so stunned he couldn't move. In over two thousand years, he'd never seen or heard of anything like this. Not even the Amazons had ever produced a better fighter than the woman who now confronted the Daimons.
Suddenly a light appeared behind the woman. It flashed bright and swirling. A chill, cold wind swept through the courtyard before six more Daimons stepped out.
Valerius went rigid at something even rarer than the warrior-woman fighting the Daimons.
Tabitha turned slowly to see the group of new Daimons. Holy shit. She'd only seen this one other time.
The new batch of Daimons looked at her and laughed. "Pitiful human."
"Pitiful this," she said as tossed her dagger at his chest.
He moved his hand and deflected the dagger before it reached him. Then he slung his arm toward her. Something invisible and painful slashed through her chest as she went flying head over heels.
Dazed and scared, Tabitha lay on the ground.
Horrible memories ripped through her of the night when her friends had died. The way the warrior Spathi Daimons had torn through them...
No, no, no.
They were dead. Kyrian had killed them all.
Her panic tripled as she struggled to right herself.
She was dizzy, her vision blurry as she pushed herself to her feet.
Valerius was across the alley in microseconds as he saw the woman fall.
The tallest Daimon, who stood even in height to Valerius, laughed. "How nice of Acheron to send us a playmate."
Valerius pulled his two retractable swords from his coat and extended the blades. "Play is for children and dogs. Now that you have identified which category you fall into, I'll show you what Romans do to rabid dogs."
One of the Daimons smiled. "Romans? My father always told me that all Romans die squealing like pigs."
The Daimon attacked.
Valerius sidestepped and brought his sword down. The Daimon pulled a sword out of nothing and parried his attack with a skill that bespoke a man with years of training.
The other Daimons struck at once.