by Joshua Laack
Chapter 40
Tabitha waited in the same sitting room with Gregorr and Elizabet. The three were talking heatedly, but stopped as Johari and Andrew entered.
“Thank the Lord!” Tabitha stood up from were she was sitting and motioned them over. The others stood as well. “Lazarus probably had no idea, but his attack here was supposed to fail. It was simply a distraction so that they could all gather without us knowing. That's why so many of them just ran at the end. They were rushing to meet up with the others where they knew they had a real chance of destroying us.” She paused for a moment, “and they do have a real chance of that. There are thousands of them outside the city, preparing to march this way as we speak. You are both powerful, and we need every hand we can get to await them here.”
That sounded like a terrible idea to Andrew, but he didn't want to disagree with Tabitha. She had years of experience, while he was so young. He wasn't able to keep the frown from his face though and Johari noticed it.
“What's the problem,” she asked? Andrew looked at her and was relieved that he could address her instead of Tabitha. She frightened him a little bit. It didn't help that he remembered her as looking like she was at least middle aged, and now she didn't look a day over twenty.
“If we fight here, we have no chance.” That got everyone's attention in a hurry.
“What do you mean,” Gregorr and Elizabet asked at the same time? Andrew turned from Johari to face the other three in the room.
“If we wait for them here, they will gather up any humans they find along the way and march them in front to block us. No matter how strong or fast we are, many of them will be killed. Isn't it our job to protect them? It will be impossible to do that within the confines of the city.” Three sets of eyes widened.
“How in the world did we not see that?”
“What do we do now?” Tabitha turned to Andrew.
“Lazarus was always intended to be our leader in major war and has served in that capacity before. Now we find ourselves without one so inclined. What would you recommend that we do?”
“The only chance you have is to take the fight to them before they can use the people of this city against you.” The three nodded in agreement. “You are facing a larger group, so you need to use small attacks and try to separate the demons so you can attack them in smaller numbers.” There was more nodding.
The next hour found Andrew planning a battle. He wanted to go home with Johari and leave this fight to someone else, but he wasn't about to abandon his new duty as a Blood. It also occurred to him that if the Blood lost here, it wouldn't be long before he and Johari were fighting demons anyway and with much less help. So he stayed and they prepared to fight.