His grin was harsh, cold. Luc knew exactly what he was doing. He looked down at his hapless prey and laughed to himself. Tonight, he would feast. From the shadows in the rooftops, he stalked the young man below. A woodworker, a man whose hands held the callouses and pains of hard labor. Just the hunter’s preferred meal. From the rooftops he waited, patiently, for his prey to be isolated. Patience, any hunter of any game will tell you, is a necessity to the hunt. And so, atop the roofs, keeping pace with his preferred game, he remained patient as ever.
From a window in another building, a mile away, Eva sat in tortured silence. The night called to her in a way she’d never imagined possible. It wasn’t the quiet beckoning that she’d been promised by her forbear. It was a vicious howling, a pull like nothing she’d ever felt. It had been near a month since she’d succumbed to the feeling, and she knew it. The night, the moon, made her well aware of that fact. The crawling on her skin every night for the past few days made her well aware of that fact. With a sigh, she gave into the pull, the urge, the beast, and leapt out from the window and her own skin.
Life was more simple before he realized what was happening to him. Isaac hadn’t wanted this, not really. He had once thought it a blessing, but now, now he just wanted to do his job. Tonight, however, something was wrong. He had felt someone watching him since he’d left his workshop. One thing he’d always known was his feelings didn’t lie. The shadows didn’t lie. They told him that someone was there. And as much as he hated what he knew, as hard as he wished it away oh so many times, nights like this he was grateful for their warnings. He knew he needed to remain vigilant.
Marie sat up at the bar. But it was not Marie, not anymore. Her passenger felt the tremor in the night. A great spark was about to erupt the world into war. He wanted to stop it, so she willingly gave over control to him. Any Knight was not one to be trifled with, even in someone as untrained as Marie. But, unlike other Knight and Mount combinations, this one was almost a true partnership. She’d never fought him, had talked to him almost always. The two of them were near inseparable now. She’d been this Knight’s Mount since she’d died as a child of eight. They’d saved the world countless times since, according to them. Not that any of their opponents were left alive to confirm their story. Together, then, they headed out in search of the disturbance.
She knew reality was a lie. Kahina’d seen it with her own eyes. The city was a place of happiness and light in the daytime, certainly. The lies of the daytime were benign, for the most part, and those that were not were still minor in comparison to the lies of the night. Had she not been a part of that secret nocturnal loose semblance of a society, even with all of her investigative skill, she would have no idea what truly went on at night. She was on the case, though. A case that her department could know nothing about. They wouldn’t understand. After all, who would believe her when she’d claim this most recent string of murders was the result of a treaty-breaking vampire. She’d be laughed out of the precinct, maybe even sent for psychiatric help. But it had been. And now, she followed the most recent target of the killer, a young woodworker. She’d catch the monster and keep it from ever doing this again.
Luc smelled that something was wrong. There was another watching his prey. He waited still, but the urge was becoming overwhelming. It was time. They were coming to the end of the road. The game which he stalked walked into an alleyway, filled with shadows. He was pleased. After all, the prey had walked right into his favorite terrain, had isolated himself from the wandering eye, and had provided the perfect cover for the kill. Leaping from the rooftop down into the alley, he unfurled his full, terrifying form for the foolish meal.
The shadows had told him that his watcher was going to attack. Isaac decided on his battlefield, the shadow-filled alley a block from his apartment. He did not hear the attacker land behind him but felt it as the shadows quivered with the impact. Slowly he turned, unfazed, towards the attacker. It was one of the things which go bump in the night. A vampire. Lovely, he thought, just when he figured he was out of the life.
“What do you want?” Isaac asked the monster, more mildly irritated than afraid.
Luc paused, confused. Normally, fully unfurled like this, humans were more terrified, too terrified to from complete sentences, much less the near boredom on his prey’s face. “Tonight, you serve the greater glory of the immortals!” Luc’s voice echoed quietly in preys’ heads. It generally also terrified prey. He was proud of that trick.
“Tried that, didn’t like it too much,” Isaac replied coldly as an icy stream of shadow erupted from the dark alley wall and lifted the vampire in the air.
The shadow took Luc by surprise. My senses must have been wrong, he thought, this is no mere mortal. What but another of his kind could do this? “I apologize,” he forced out through his tightening throat. He did not need to breathe to live, but it was useful for talking, “You smelled like human.”
Isaac laughed. “That’s because I am,” he said.
Just as Luc’s shock began registering across his face, a woman turned the corner. “Freeze, scum,” she said, before seeing that her target was held aloft by what appeared to be living shadows.
“Who are you?” Isaac asked the newcomer.
Shaking her head, Kahina answered, “Right, I’m Detective Qadir. I was tracking a murder suspect. Who are you?”
Isaac smiled and shrugged. “An innocent woodworker. I’m guessing by your complete lack of surprise at what he looks like, you know bloodsuckers are real.”
Kahina looked Isaac right in the eyes. Slowly, her thumbnail punctured into her other hand, and a small bubble of blood began to pool there. “I know many things. Now, what are you?” Her fingers grew warm as they clenched the gun.
Her gaze pierced into his very soul. But Isaac merely smiled. “I see. It’s been a while since I’d met a witch. Not going to work on me, though I like the choice of being a detective. Makes getting confessions easier, I’m sure.”
“I was a detective before I did this. Or, at least, an officer. Now, are you going to tell me who you are?”
“Right,” Isaac said. With a wave of his hand as he past, the shadow pulled the vampire against a wall. “Name’s Isaac Jacobs. And, as of four years ago, I got the thankless job of being Lord of Shadows.”
“That’s a myth,” Kahina said, almost instinctively. She’d heard tell of such a beast when she first joined her coven, but it wasn’t real. Such a creature, living in her city, could disrupt the already delicate balance of power in place. Shaking her head, she pointed her gun at him, “Now, you’re going to cause the city to destroy itself if you don’t stop.”
Isaac shook his head. “I tried. I was out of the game. Then this asshole comes and ruins my perfectly normal life.”
“There’s still time,” Kahina insisted.
This might have worked, except this was the moment that Eva arrived. She’d smelled the witch from the moment she’d transformed. She hungered for her liver. The witch Eva had smelt was powerful, so powerful that if she ate that mystic liver, she might last several months before the urges returned. As she drew nearer, she smelled a few masked smells as well. Two were dead, decaying. No real use as meat, save to quench a bloodlust. The other was human, but different, as though they had another soul intermixing with its own. Her fur told her it was dangerous, so from the rooftop she pounced upon the witch, taking care to avoid the man in the middle. The witch was taken by surprise, falling over and her mortal gun with immoral modifications scattered across the ground. Eva’s teeth ripped right through the skin tearing at the meat and bones, seeking out the liver that could quench her urges. The man behind her stopped cold, not out of fear, but curiosity. She felt the crunch as her bites finally broke ribs, and the liver would be within grasp.
Marie and her Knight approached the alley, coldly. He knew the untamed beast and the feral dead were both there, as well as the witch protégé of the coven’s leader. This would mean war if the woman died. They walked brandishing sword of thought. What neither expected to see was Marie’s old friend Isaac, standing in the middle, unfazed. The Knight slashed the air with the thought-blade, and the beast flew away, pinned beside the feral dead with shackles that had not existed moments prior. Then, the Knight paused to let Marie speak.
“Isaac?” asked Marie, genuinely confused, “What are you doing here?”
Isaac looked equally perplexed by Marie. “Marie? How the hell…?” he trialed off.
“Quickly,” Marie said, still confused, but now worried as well, “She needs to get to the hospital or the city end.”
“Why?” asked Isaac, looking at his old friend holding a sword and shield, as well as the Man-Leopard chained to the wall behind him, “Who even are you?”
“Marie,” she replied, “You know that. And she’s the second to the leader of the coven. Dying by a were-beast attack will cause war to break out, weakening both sides and allowing the dead to take over, killing most of the normal people in the city. So, call a damned ambulance.”
Isaac smirked. “I can do you one better,” he said. He closed his eyes briefly, and the shadows wrapped themselves around her, mending her broken ribs and pulling her muscles and skin back together. “Now, you’re going to tell me what’s happened since high school.”
“Nothing,” Marie said, “Remember that crash where my parents both died and I went to the hospital, kept on needing resuscitation. Well, I actually died, but Palamedes found me and saved me as his newest mount. I’ve been like this since then. Your turn.”
Kahina, confused at the appearance of a Knight who didn’t try to kill her, took this as a sign and headed over to kill the two monsters pinned against the wall. As she approached the enormous leopard, something pushed her away, some protection the beast had, she flicked her knife at it, but it fell helplessly to the ground feet away from the thing.
“Oh, the usual. I helped some weird chick as she was dying, and she cursed me with unending youth and complete mastery over shadows.” Isaac laughed.
“You are aware that Inez was killed by a knight, for being a shitty lord, aren’t you?”
“Why do you think I’ve spent my entire goddamned time being this trying to not participate?” countered Isaac.
“Will you both shut up!” shouted Kahina as she staked Luc to the wall. “And tell me why I can’t kill the beast that tried to kill me?”
Marie paused a moment, sharing a private conversation with Palamedes, then she said, “Because Palamedes says Percival said that the Leopard offspring of the Legendary Bear would help pave the way for eternal peace. She’s just young and hungry, no control yet, because someone killed her forbear before they could teach her control.”
Kahina spat indignantly. “Not my fault, he was hunting humans in my district.”
“I know. But that foolish move sparked the first conflict in centuries, and peace was only just reestablished. I’m not going to let you mess that up. Remember, I saved your life, but I can just as easily take it.”
Kahina shook her head and stormed off, ready to sleep for a week straight. She had never been attacked so savagely before, and it hurt.
Isaac looked at Marie. “Are you alright?” he asked.
“I’m fine. You best stop with the shadows,” Marie replied, “We like you, and would hate to have to kill you.”
“Right,” Isaac said, and took a breath. “To be clear, I can’t turn it off, but I only ever actively use it to defend against the things that go bump in the night.”
Marie nodded. “Keep it that way,” she said, as she approached the leopard. “And who might you be?”
Slowly, the leopard became human, still chained to the wall with the impossible chains. “I’m Eva. Why’d you save me?”
Marie laughed, and the Knight took over. “We saved you so that I could train you. You must learn to control it. To not lash out foolishly like this again.”
Isaac was lightly freaked out by the deep, booming voice coming out of his friend’s mouth. It most certainly wasn’t his friend’s voice. Shaking his head, he headed to his apartment to sleep and forget about this whole thing.
“So, what now?” asked Eva of the young woman whose voice had become a baritone in an instant.
“Now,” Palamedes said, “You come with me.”
“Or?” asked Eva.
Marie took back over, and in her tired but soft and almost sweet voice, she replied, “Or you die.”