From Embers

3 - Kiss of Death

Sen's father arrived home as Sen threw the last body onto the pile. Madin's footsteps were light; Sen almost didn't hear him enter the rose garden.

"You're late to the party, Father. All the fun's over." Sen picked up one of the missing fingers, throwing it up in the air and catching it.

Madin's eyes were inky black, his nails extended. "Was anyone hurt?"

Sen shook his head. "Everyone is safe - this time."

"Why did you kill them all? You should have left one alive to question." Madin's claws contracted. The black slowly fading from the corners of his eyes as they returned to their original colour.

Seeing that his father had visibly calmed, Sen wanted to test him. A sarcastic chuckle escaped his mouth. "I had no hand in this. Your gardener killed them all," as he spoke, he watched his father for any signs of emotion about Jai-Jai. "You're aging father, your hand twitched. Who is she?"

"No one you need to be concerned about."

"She killed the hunters in mere minutes. With the increasing attacks from humans, everyone is someone I need to know. Especially a human employee. Now is not the time for foolish misplaced trust in people we don't know." His father's nonchalance about the girl irked Sen. Madin was too smart to hire someone he didn't thoroughly investigate. And if the older man wouldn't willingly spill her secrets, Sen would have to find them out himself.

"I know that look. Son." Madin looked at his child, pleadingly. "Please, drop this."

Crunching gravel under many boots signaled the arrival of servants from the main house. Fangs extended, pupils constricted, and tense body stature showed signs of bloodthirst. Sen held his hand up and quickly warned them against feeding off the bodies.

Seeing his employees' confused faces, Sen explained, "Hunters drink poison to taint their blood to ensure if any of us feed on them, we too will die."

"How is this possible?" Someone spoke up, "How could humans have the power to create something that lethal?"

"It came into existence soon after the Old World fell. Human populations were fast dwindling due to illness, war, and our kind's overfeeding on an already weakened race." He started, "Angered by their lack of power over being herded like sheep and fed on, humans turned to magic for help. All supernaturals turned them away, of course, except for one coven. They created this poison, Hunter's Kiss."

The group shuddered.

As his father instructed the workers on how to appropriately dispose of the bodies, Sen took this opportunity to collect his thoughts. Understanding that his father was a dead-end in this investigation, the cogs in Sen's head started to turn. His father always told him as a child that curiosity killed the cat, but Sen hadn't died yet. He watched the bodies burn, smoke blowing in his face. No one felt remorse for the murdered humans.

This time no one got hurt, but next time would everyone be so lucky?

Deep in thought, he turned to leave the garden, but several glinting shards under a nearby bush caught his eye. Curious, he picked up the shiny pieces. Each jagged-edged piece of metal felt warm against his cold hands, pocketing them before anyone saw. The servants' alliances lay with Madin, not him. Sen felt like a child again. Here he was, sneaking around his father, hiding goodies to look at in his room.

While Sen himself was born after the New World had cemented itself as what was, his father was still needed around the globe. Unwilling to leave his two motherless children on their own, he brought them on his adventures. Sen thought back to the small trinkets and souvenirs he would take from Old World ruins. His father thought them useless and often threw them out.

"Don't hold onto the past," his father scolded every time he found Sen's secret stash of junk. "There is nothing there for you."

The back door creaked as he headed straight to the west wing and towards his room. He turned the handle to his door and had only cracked it open when a call from his niece stopped him. Mara sped down the hall and jumped into his arms, giving him her best squeeze.

Her eyes were red from crying. "Is the hobo alright?"

Nodding, Sen tried to give her his most reassuring smile. "You did amazing today. How long have you two been friends?" He questioned.

"A few hours." Her stomach gurgled.

Setting her down, he led Mara to the kitchen. Still unnerved, she refused to let go of his hand for several hours. The day's events had spent all of her seemingly unlimited energy, and Mara needed to rest. Even as she fell asleep, Mara insisted that he stay beside her. He'd forgotten all about his find from the garden until he changed clothes in the early hours of the morning. The metal fell out of his pocket, clinking on the marble floor. Picking the pieces up, he studied them carefully. The arrow didn't break inside its victim, he realized. It had shattered against something or someone.