Grimoire - Vol 1. Revelation of Rakshas

Epilogue (Because Every Good Story Needs a Teaser for Sequels)

Manda loved the night.

It offered him everything that he wished for—the silence, the calm, the vulnerability humans offered in their sleep.

But most of all, he loved the cold night air grazing past his skin. Not because he liked the chill itself but rather quite the opposite.

It made him truly feel the warmth of fresh blood on his hands spreading throughout his body.

He loved the sticky sensation of it on his fingers, the rustic smell permeating his nose, burying all his other senses smells under it.

Oh, how long he had waited to experience this!

The sharp cawing of a crow broke his state of meditation, the knife he twirled almost slipped through his long fingers.

The white feathered creature with beady eyes and sharp beak was perched on the water tank on the rooftop. It didn't behave like other birds, didn't move its neck around constantly in search of food.

This one knew its purpose.

Then again, this was no ordinary crow.

'Figures he would come to rain on my parade,' Manda thought, as he got up with a sign. Even Rakshas like him deserved to have some fun in peace.

Gripping the blade with his thumb and index finger, Manda threw the knife right back into the cold dead body of his fresh kill—a young man in his early 20s with early signs of baldness and late signs of height growth—creating another stab wound in the chest.

"Dammit! So close," Manda muttered. He had intended to get the blade lodged in the same spot as the one that got the human dead but mistakes happen. Nobody was perfect, afterall. Even superior beings like Rakshas.

The crow croaked once again.

"Yes, yes, I bloody heard you the first time, mate! I'm coming," Manda said walking leisurely towards the white crow who refused to fly down to a lower level of height, to stand at the same level as him. "How may this lowly servant of yours help you, your highness?" He asked the crow with as much bite as he could muster without actually hurting the creature.

Prideful as he may be, Manda wasn't stupid.

Knowing this might probably take some time, Manda sat down on the rooftop wall, his legs dangling in the wind with no fear of heights.

Why should he fear anything anyways? He was a Rakshas, that too, a strong one.

The white glassy eyes of the crow turned towards him and when it opened its mouth, instead of a croak, a human voice came out from its beak. "Were you busy?" It asked.

"Busy? Oh no no, mate, I was simply sitting on the lawn chair with a nice cold beer in my hand gazing at the stars wondering who's the fucked up idiot who thinks this is fun?"

"Be serious, Danav," said the voice from the crow with a coldness that managed to make even Manda's spine shiver. He liked to believe the cause for that was the cold air. "Give me a progress report."

Manda sighed. There went his peace of the night. It was short-lived but it had a good run nonetheless.

"The plan's moving just fine, albeit a bit sluggish. The schedule is a little tight sometimes but I manage to make it work," he said, licking his fingers, "the success rate is getting higher on each try so there's that, too."

"Good. And you? Has there been any complications with your identity?"

"None that I know of," Manda said, his thumb in his mouth, trying to piece the memory of his host together. There's not a lot he remembers from when Manda lets his host take over the control.