THE LAST SHADOWBEAST

CH 5: Bleeding Wound

NEITH
MY SHADOW DIED, AND IT FEELS LIKE A LIMB HAS BEEN TORN FROM MY BODY.
Several limbs have been torn from my body before, so I follow down the pain, moderating its bitterness with the satisfaction of imagining the faces they pulled when the body rotted in front of them. Delicious.
I can't get myself to think of Rodd now, he was naive and ambitious, a combination that shouldn't exist in anyone, It eventually led to his demise, it's his loss, he shouldn't have trusted the MPDG.
He tortured people for the sake of science, and he justified it when he knew what his research was used for.
I tortured him for the sake of security as my employers like to label it.
I just destroyed one of the two faces the same head I intend to cut off.
It shouldn't matter, it wouldn't if he didn't say that.
"They know... "
Who are they? What do they know?
I stop my derailing thoughts.
"They just caught up with my trick, Tell me what was all this for. Now."
I demand without even turning around, my legs swinging off the ridge of a building, cars slithering fifty feet under me like phosphorous little ants I would crush in a heartbeat, I grin at the thought.
The darkness whispers his name into my ears before my senses can pick up his presence.
He lands behind me in silence.
"We can't have them figure out who The Claw is on their own, We will direct their search for you wherever we want that way we can remain ten steps ahead of them, In the meantime you'll need to find out who they put on your truck."
The Sealord's vessel closes up to me, and his dark silhouette becomes visible at the corner of my right eye.
"Interesting, the way you emphasize that "we", didn't know you'd become the new council's little errand boy after Rai took off."
-"Why? Are you jealous? or did you think you'd get the traitor bitch's post just because she was your sponsor?"
There is nothing that gratifies and outrages me more than Rainon being called a bitch.
Because a bitch is what she is just as my best friend, too.
my only friend. Was.
"I may have shitty life standards, but I will still choose this over greeting those fuckers every morning anytime."
"That's why they are keeping you in check, Nothing better than putting the hound in the lion's cage to make it know its place."
I tilt my head toward him, licking my fangs slowly, the sight makes him shudder. I laugh.
"Careful now, Ki, you don't want the dog's teeth halfway through your throat for saying shit you shouldn't. "
He gags.
"Besides, I doubt that's the only reason you're risking my neck on this mission... I'm after all the best weapon in your arsenal, ain't I? "
I take the first good look at him in almost a year.
Maki has grown taller and uglier in my absence.
His straight purple hair falls upon his bony face, carefully set to hide his oversized jaw and the jutting blue veins visible through his reddish skin and ice-blue eyes. He's wearing a long black coat with a high collar, only his combat boots are visible under it.
"We have intel about tensions in the Bardhylas household that could be crucial for the success of our plans. We need someone on the inside, You're our only Hunter vessel and you are...somewhat normal, at least you do look so. You know."
He scratches his head with his sharp bluish claws.
"... And let's not forget that I happen to be the reincarnation of their perpetual enemy."
I retort.
He rolls his eyes.
"I know you're not scared, Neith, you just love to complain-"
A buzzing sound cuts him off, but it isn't coming from my device
His fingers press his earphones, creases forming between his thin eyebrows.
The smell of moisture spreads in the dawn fresh breeze as his arms fall back to his sides.
"Something's wrong?"
"Some deviants escaped one of our UMCD facilities in zone north 18. They didn't find them."
I tense, us vessels might be dangerous, yet we can be controlled. But deviants... the MPDG's experiments have wrecked them beyond recognition, They might have been humans before, but now they aren't much smarter than E-ranking beasts, but much more powerful and fierce, people you knew turned into mindless monsters, and the only way to save them is by killing them.
The MPDG cruelty extends beyond ruining their lives to ruining their death; they are keeping them as study subjects in UMCDs; Undisposable Mutant Confinement Department.
He starts to evaporate.
"You've been called for backup? "
He nodded an almost invisible head.
I bury my hands in my jacket's pockets. "Looks like we're both off with shitty jobs."
All I get is a ghostly grumble from thousands of water drops carried away by a waft of air as the sky bled red with the first stabbing sun rays. Pemos stirrers.
But as I get up to leave, the wind freezes, and the echo of the birds chirping ceases on the horizon.
Everything went still, I suck in a breath, waiting.
It comes, rumbling and fearsome.
Blue threads appear in the sky, strained and overlapped, then they snap with an astonishing screech shaking the roof under my feet, and the space in between turns pitch black.
The wind rises and storms, cold against my sweating skin.
But no human noise comes to my ear, the city drowns in the eerie silence, and the dreadful realization of the familiar threat that came upon them.
The eye-shaped Breach cut through the fibers of this world, a torn open wound in the thriving heart of a perfectly drilled modernity, glaring down at us insignificant humans.
******
I slipped into the sticky outfit while pouring colorful curses upon the DG group from the CEO down to the costume designer. The bodyguard's uniform was composed of tight-fit pants along with a branded jacket that barely reached where its high waistband was, inches under my ribs, over an undershirt with a Beast scale sheet covering my chest and shoulders, the whole of it of a neutral shade of gray. Whatever shit they wore under their dresses three centuries ago must have felt easier to breathe in, how I ache to tell them that taking a bullet to the heart won't kill me anyway.
I walk out of the changing room and put in my earpiece, pulling my hair in a high ponytail.
I glimpse Asin's imposing frame in the mirror.
He clicks his tongue.
"Black suits you better." He says matter-of-factly.
Of course, it does, and for a very non-fashionable reason, it can blend in with the shadows I wield and absorb blood stains without being ruined by a visible trace.
I turn around to face him. Asin was wearing a dark green shirt that tightly rims his toned trunk, its buttons keen to pop at any second, his pants, boots, gloves, and the straps circling his shoulders and crossing over his chest were all of polished brown leather, probably not that of an animal but a Beast.
"You know what would suit me even better? weapons, and enough space in this fucking costume for hiding them along with breathing. My Gift is not a combative one if you did forget, I need them to protect you. "
He chuckles.
"Come on now, you're too smart to believe that you're here to protect me. "
I lift an eyebrow. He certainly doesn't need protection, he's one of the most powerful Hunters of the century and his physical profile is enough to keep most haters at bay. He's dangerous, if anything.
"I'm protecting you by protecting others from you, along with a bonus duty that involves some reports to your superiors, I'm guessing? "
"That's about right." A cigarette lit with a pure white flame materializes in his hand, and he puts it to his smirking lips, regarding me as if I were a peculiarly interesting discovery. Goddess, I hate him.
" Seems that you did some research."
"I did some research."I turn back to fixing my hair in front of the mirror.
" And it turns out you are trouble, aside from being a custom rich brat with a driving license, too much pocket money, and the fooling around that entails. You are a thorn in the Deans side, with too much power and little respect for the Hunter Code, you ended up in a scandal three years ago that involved breaking the bones of two Ordinary men and blowing up a nightclub, that's how you ended with a suspension ."
He closes up in a few steps, his head towering almost feet over mine.
" You should also know that offending me is not the best way to avoid said trouble," he deadpans.
I dust his shirt.
"Oh big boy, don't you know? "
I pull him down by his straps.
"I'm always in for trouble. Didn't you do your homework too? Surely you did a little digging around. "
"I couldn't get too far with that since most of your records are labeled "State Secret", I thought maybe you'd enlighten me on that. " His gaze follows me as I stroll past him and to the door. I can feel the intensity of his Flow curling around my body.
"I was on the front long enough to know that they don't want you people figuring out anything happening there. "
"You're one of ours too, so why are you an exception to the Reconciliation law? "
He catches up with my fast pace in a couple of strides.
"I was there as a human killing machine, not as a Hunter, and I don't adhere to any Guild nor am I affiliated with your tower, so no, I'm not one of yours. " The words roll off my tongue almost too emotionally, cutting like poisonous daggers. It was a lie, well, a deflected truth more precisely, I was out there to put Sifaros's powers to use.
He scoffs at that tone.
"Oh that was a little personal, doesn't sound like you ever wanted to, there are maybe twenty freelance Hunters in the whole country and you're probably the only one who doesn't make a living using your Gift, you never wanted to be one of ours, you're not just pissed at me but at the whole Hunter
committee. "
There's no point in denying it, it will only make him inquire more.
"Touché, maybe you have more brain in there than I gave you credit for."
He snorts.
"I'll take that as a compliment. Why though? "
We leave the building , and a lack of car awaits just down the fley of stairs I AAsam a cam of feet ahead of me, his legs are too long for his good.
Asin contemplates me as he holds the car's passenger seat's door open for me.
"You're gonna have to live up to that compliment and figure it out yourself, big boy. "
I nudge his shoulder as I circle the vehicle to reach for the driver seat's door. I hear him laugh.
" You don't like to be told what to do, I see. I guess that makes me like you even more. "
Please don't. I sigh.
I slip inside and he settles in the seat meant for me.
The monitor is turned on and the car chimes.
***
The Savior Guild is the greatest in Pemos and possibly in the Republic, and so is their headquarters. The brands of the cars in the parking lot confirm what the Guild's name already suggested, most of the Hunters here are, unlike me, heirs of ancient and wealthy bloodlines that started during the war against Sifaros with the Saviors; the first generation of Hunters who were bestowed with Gifts directly from Ziell.
The dom that covers the integrity of the building stretches about thirteen feet above my head, I was inspecting the crowd stationed under it in the large hall connected to the entry when I felt a chill run down my spine, someone was looking at me. At us.
"Asin Bardhylas!"

"She's dead. "

My blood drains from my veins. Impossible.
A large figure approaches on my right I can't even turn to look at him.
I can't fucking move.
"So you're back, pretty boy."
I taste the blood on my tongue as my fangs jab into it, slowly growing longer.

"Crazy girl! "

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I can feel the tears weighing against the dam.
"Please. " she cried and clutched his legs.
Fuck.
I level my gaze to his. He hadn't changed. Same shit colored eyes, same square face. But the scar was new. An arc of different-sized points on his neck, paler than his brown skin.
The last time I saw it, it was still a bleeding wound.

I was gaping at him with his blood on my lips as they took me away. He stumbled to the floor.
Dad was held down by a couple of knights.
Mom cried as she ran towards me.
Everyone else had backed off.

I remember how his blood tasted.
His eyes skim from Asin's face to mine.
He lifts an eyebrow.
"Who's this? "
He asks.

I hear Liori scream, her arms halfway across the Gate, I reach for them. The Breash narrows.

I smile at the man who destroyed my life. My gaze on the thick neck I wish I could slice open.
"Where did you get that scar? Hunter Arenyas. "