I DON’T KNOW WHY it took this long for me to catch a whiff of bloodlust. Yuki and I have been searching for signs of who covered up my murder since last night, and it’s only now, a day later, that it seems we’ve found them. The town is muddy tonight, but this kind of darkness must belong to one of my own kind. How have they stayed hidden from me for as long as they have? Even in the skin of their logician, their darkness is a huge blot on an otherwise clean town. It’s like they came and went, in and out, careful to hide themselves from outside of my range until it suited them to draw me in. This is some sort of trap.
As I stand on the roof of one of Reverie’s houses, I look at the barren road. Two figures are looming down there, obscured in darkness. To anyone else watching, they’d be undetectable, but I can see them perfectly. Unfortunately, their backs are to me since they are walking in the direction opposite of me. I know one is male and that the other is female, but I don’t bother confirming anything else about their identities aside from the fact that they are natural demons like myself.
Almost all of the houses around here are empty. Everyone is probably at that Halloween party I keep hearing whispers about. That means my attack will go unnoticed. This couldn’t be any simpler.
I glance at Yuki as she zips up her jacket a little higher in reaction to the cold breeze that drifts by us.
“Take the one on the right and I’ll take the one on the left,” I tell her.
“As you wish.”
I leap out onto the empty road and tackle my target to the hard asphalt without missing a beat. I hear Yuki land beside me, but her target manages to dodge. Yuki follows the female demon down the road in hot pursuit as the male demon underneath me bursts into a hysterical fit of laughter. That voice. It’s too high-pitched to be what most would consider masculine, but I recognize it. He… feels familiar. I roll him over so I can see his face. His lanky form, stringy brown hair, and almost dimmed-to-gray blood-red eyes haven’t changed a bit. His skin looks paler than what I remember, but it’s definitely him.
“Drake,” I say. “Imagine running into you here.”
When his laughing subsides enough for him to speak, he replies, “Arsen. Being awfully forward, don’t you think? We haven’t seen each other in what… eighty years?”
I sneer. “Eighty-one. But who’s counting? You didn’t call.”
“Trust me, you wouldn’t have answered.”
I bring my face close to his, taunting, teasing. “I’m answering now, aren’t I?”
I let my lips brush across his thin ones, pursed tight. He’s shaking with pent-up energy. He’s trying to resist me, though his beast feels differently.
“You’re breaking my heart,” I tell him. “Surely you’ve forgiven me by now.”
“God, how much life essence do you have?” Drake gasps as he stares into my eyes, mesmerized and lusting after more than one thing he wants from me.
“Much more than you’ve ever seen, I’d wager. You could have had this, too.” I let my lips brush his left ear and whisper, “Why didn’t you escape when I gave you the chance?”
Drake laughs again, but he’s quivering underneath my weight. His beast is begging for one thing, but his logician is pleading for another.
“You’re still the angels’ toy,” I growl. “Life out here isn’t as bad as you think. Natural demons aren’t as prominent as you might think either. It’s the made demons that crawl on Terra’s surface like maggots eating the planet’s rotting flesh. It’s easy to rule, it’s easy to go unnoticed, and it’s easy to be unattached. The angels just have too much to take care of in Ilenima to really bother with us here. It’s fucking paradise.”
I bury my fingers into Drake’s shoulders and allow my beast to manifest partway. Sharp obsidian claws pierce through his hooded jacket and into his flesh. He tries not to whimper or writhe underneath me, but he can’t completely control his reaction. It hurts too much.
I peel away from him, but I keep my weight on top of him, keeping him pinned to the middle of the empty road. I shouldn’t have to inflict any more pain on him. He knows I’m not messing around. I hope it will be enough to get him talking because I don’t want to expend the effort to do whatever it takes to make him submit to me, and then rip the answers out of his soul.
“You think I’d believe your lies? Unlike some demons, I want to keep living,” he says with a grin.
I reply, “If you answer my questions, then maybe I’ll grant you that.”
“I’m here because the Oracle, Cassius, personally asked me to come.”
“Is that right? And I thought the Servant Program was ruined.”
“Oh, it is. It doesn’t exist anymore. Ilenima now is nothing like you’d remember. I think they’re getting ready to exterminate us. At the very least, they want to exterminate all of you living in Terra.”
“Then what the hell, Drake? Why did Cassius send you here? Are you and your little accomplice who ran off with Yuki the ones who covered up my murder? Why would you do something like that?”
“It’s over, Arsen. The angels have what they’ve been waiting for: the key to destroying us, the key to destroying you. If I live through this assignment, I’ll be spared whatever fate is in store for the rest of you. Angels never lie.”
“Yes, they do. I can’t believe what an idiot you are.”
“No, you’re the idiot.”
I feel a sharp pain in my stomach as Drake’s beast takes over his arms, shooting vine-like ropes of flesh into my own flesh, ripping open my skin and tearing through organs. Damn it.
I keep my voice perfectly level when I say, “Bad move.”
My beast rips through, taking control of my actions and hands as I slash at Drake’s piercing vines with my sharp claws. Drake screams as the severed bits of his flesh fall out of my stomach and land in a gory mess right on top of him. My wound heals almost instantly, and then I dig my claws into his chest. I can tear through and steal his heart at any moment.
“I wasn’t going to kill you, Drake. But I can’t let a demon full of angel shit continue living. You don’t even have enough life essence to recover from what I just did to you. Yet, here you are, still serving the angels, the ones responsible for doing this to you in the first place. Where is your pride? Where is your anger?”
He chokes. “Fine. Kill me if you want to, but don’t you want to see her?”
I plunge my claws into his chest, and he gasps. I nearly have my hand wrapped around his beating heart when he screams, “Don’t you want to see the angels’ weapon?!”
“What do you take me for, exactly?” I give his pumping heart a little squeeze. I relish the feeling of warm blood coating my hand.
“A-Arsen,” he gasps, “I’m not playing. The angels really do have something, someone. She’s going to ruin you. That has to be her now! Just down that road!” He points frantically, hand shaking, at a white car that gets lost not too far in the distance.
He’s only trying to save his skin. He’s still trying to carry out some mission Cassius put him on.
“We’re done talking,” I say. Then I tear out his pumping heart and consume it as he watches.
His already dull eyes lose all color and luster as he dies. I pound my chest as I force myself to swallow the last chunk of his heart. Hearts are much easier to swallow when my beast is in full control of my appearance. It can swallow a heart in one gulp. It’s not so easy for my logician. The last chunk of his heart burns my throat as it slides down into my stomach. It’s a wicked sensation. A wickedly delicious sensation.
I didn’t have to do that.
It’s not like he had even a week’s worth of life essence to give me, but it’s become a habit. I’ve devoured more hearts than I care to count.
I hold Drake’s limp body up by the collar of his jacket. His body is starting to fade as it gives off a weak glow. Soon he will be nothing more than a distant memory.
As glittering particles take pieces of his body and drift into the air, I drop him unceremoniously back onto the asphalt. I don’t care to see him off.
“Just down the road!” His voice echoes in my ears.
My eyes flicker to where Drake pointed. He was probably lying. He would have said anything if it meant saving his skin. Then again, if he was lying, taking a look can’t hurt.