The prey moves with blind confidence, their armour not uniform like the knights that stand over the royal castle’s walls, but instead varied to suit the powers that have granted them the privilege of a knight’s title.

“Knights come in two forms,” Orland, my advisor had described for me just before this hunt began. “There are those that think of themselves as closer to the common man, they’ll rub shoulders with mercenaries and generally be fairly open and honest.

“The other side are those who see themselves as lesser nobility, except that their whole estate is in their strength. They need to impress others with their abilities but keep some powers secret, their peers are more than willing to stab them in the back given a chance.”

“But those who share service to a house are united in their cause, no?”

“Some are, some aren’t. Sometimes your worst enemy is the man standing in the way of your promotion.”

Watching them move with this understanding I can see the separation between them. Some that move fluidly in pairs, watching the others in the group, others that move on their own, and a few that don’t seem to notice any of the subtle tensions between.

The group pauses as it comes across another monster in the street. The nearly human figure watches them approach and tries to retreat into the shadows, but a young knight dressed in dark colours stalks it from behind, swiftly cutting off any escape.

“Inhuman scum,” the lead Knight says, his thick heavy armour so perfectly white that it feels uncomfortable to look upon it even in the night. It’s not reflective, or even painted from what I can tell, but instead made of some white stone.

“This is what we get for letting the norkit run loose in this city. We should’ve done them in before it came to this,” he grabs the alien creature, tugging at its arms. The creature glares at him with its hollow eyes but that only aggravates him further. His gauntlets mould into a new shape, sinking into the joints as he pulls the arms free.

The hollow doesn’t even flinch glaring at him quietly even as it’s struck with its own arms. The other knights look away as the larger man takes his frustrations out on the poor monster. There’s no elegance to the way he tortures the thing, it’s a brutal act by a brutal man, but that isn’t to say that there are no calculations in it.

The younger knights following him look a little queasy as they look at their leader beating a creature that almost looks human to death with its own detached limbs. He smiles at his younger peers, finishing the violence with a savage stomp, crushing in the creature’s chest. The wet flesh of the slugs inside the shell, made to mimic the shape of a human, drips onto the cobblestone street.

“Curious,” whispers a young woman, a little too near to me for comfort. I’m not hiding, so much as keeping myself out of sight, so I’m not surprised that a talented knight would take notice of me.

“Come forward,” I whisper back, sure that she’ll hear. “I’m sure that you must look a fool hanging from the wall like that.”

Her face peers up over the edge of the roof, walking along the soft slope to my side. Her guarded expression doesn’t express the terror flooding her as she stands on the verge of reaching me, her hands on her weapons.

She has not called for her allies, which is a good thing.

“You wish to talk?” I ask, tracing her allies with my eyes as they take a wrong turn deeper into the slums. At this rate, it’ll be morning before they find the ‘bandits’ that they’re here for.

“What are you?”

“Ah, a good question,” I concede. “The city has been freshly flooded with things that imitated humans, it’s entirely sensible to assume that I’m just the same.”

I walk slightly ahead, picking the group apart with my eyes. The easiest prey is a young man that stands at the edge of the group, or perhaps the scout that’s keeping to the shadows. Though, the easiest is rarely ever the best.

The lead knight in his white armour is the head of their formation, and he’s eager to show himself off. There is respect for him from the older members of the group, and no direct friction that I can see.

It’ll have to be him.

“You’re stalking us. Why?” The woman knight asks, her leather armour tighter than I’d expect, and not something to be worn in polite company. She certainly could do with a few more layers.

“A question with so many potential answers,” I keep my voice low as I consider my words. She’s worried about me, but she’s not calling for the others. Perhaps she thinks that she can prove herself by attacking me, or perhaps there is something more to it?

“I will refrain from speaking at length about this city,” I say, shaking my head and staring down into knights. “Though it is all too easy to let my mind return to it. To put it succinctly, I am here to ensure that these knights haven’t the chance to make the city even worse of a place to be.”

She doesn’t move her eyes off of me.

She could kill me with relative ease, but the same should hold true in the other direction as well. I wouldn’t have come if I had no answer to someone of her abilities. Scouts, guards, and hunters with good sight and sense would of course notice that they’re being stalked, especially when their hunter is as unpractised as I am.

“You never said what you are,” she says, stalking closer, her grip on her knives growing tighter as she steps up to me. I gather my shadows closer, ready to flee the moment she strikes.

“Can you not tell?” I ask, tilting my head and smiling at her. “I’m a monster in the shape of a human.”

“You can talk.”

“All the most dangerous monsters can,” I reply easily, turning back to my prey. They will soon enough start to come upon the traps that the young criminal lord has set, and I must be prepared to make use of the opportunities presented.

“Why aren’t you attacking me?” She finally asks, her voice suddenly coming from the other side of me. I stiffen, failing to hide my panic.

She’s fast. Dangerously fast.

“Kill you? A beautiful young woman, talented enough to gain the title of a knight?” I shake my head. “I rather hope that you don’t force my hand. What house do you serve?”

She blinks, leaning in close to me, her dagger already drawn and pointing at me. I give no indication of worry, though inside I’m roiling with concerns.

Please don’t be fire enchantments.

Anything but fire.

“The goldfield family,” she whispers, her blade ready to stab into me.

“Please, do you know how difficult it is to have clothes repaired now that most tailors have fled?” I ask, using a single finger to redirect the blade up until it sits higher up at my collarbone. “How is Pansy?”

She hesitates, the name giving her pause.

“Who are you?”

I sniff at the air around her, tasting the strange flavours again and something in my mind lights up. The thick perfumes remind me of a barn, but not any barn. What’s more, it’s blended with the scents of passion, the salty scent of sweat and something more alongside it.

Gazing over the woman again, I check to be sure, but she’s definitely human.

“Did she give you permission to visit her pets?”

My head smacks into the hard roof and the blade digs into my neck before I even have time to think. She’s standing over me, her eyes wild with fury, and a flickering fear as well. I open my mouth but her shivering grip on me is warning me against saying anything.

“How did you know that?” She pronounces each word slowly, each one a threat.

I can still escape, or maybe even turn this to my advantage, but this needn’t even be a fight.

“I’ve been impolite, I apologise,” I say slowly, meeting her gaze. I can feel my expression turning dark as I consider the possibilities. “It was by your consent, wasn’t it? If she had you… No, Pansy wouldn’t but one of the others perhaps.”

“It… they don’t know anything. So, how do you?” She is insistent, her knife pressing into my flesh, though I’m not sure that she can tell.

“I can smell him on you,” I say. “You should consider cleaning yourself after such… activities. It was the tall man with the horns was it not? Pansy calls him Grude.”

Her expression twists into all sorts of strange expressions as she looks down at me, considering the problems that I cause her simply by existing with this knowledge. Lifting a hand, I gently run a finger down her cheek and she returns her focus on me.

“So it is only affection, or something more?” I ask.

“I wouldn’t… who would… he’s not human,” she hisses, shaking her head fiercely. She has none of the same control that a noble would have, and it’s simple to see through her.

“How can I assist?” I ask. “I could see him freed if that’s your wish.”

“Demon,” she hisses.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re a demon. The aura around you, the way you’re not afraid of anything, and now you’re promising me things that you can’t possibly do.”

“I can assure you that I’m not,” I reply. “I’m well acquainted with a demon, flirted with her over drinks one time as well. I should take her out again, matter of fact.”

“Can you do it?” the knight asks me, kneeling over me and keeping her knife digging into me.

“There is a good chance that I could,” I nod. “It would be easier if I could finish my hunt, tonight.”

She lifts me and pushes me along the rooves, keeping us in pace with the other knights on the ground. They’re just about to set off the trap.

“How?” She asks, keeping me held close to keep me from escaping. “He’d be killed just walking the streets of this kingdom, even if you can take off his collar…”

She is quite the bother, but I suppose this is more interesting than the fight that I was expecting. I may even be able to draw her to my side. A true knight in my service. My first knight.

“There is a group that intends to travel through the mountains to the east,” I explain slowly. “If you were to travel with them, he could either return to his old home or find a new one somewhere out that way. Alternatively, the noble would happily accept him as a servant and keep him safe.”

She growls at the mention of a noble, the same moment as the trap finally opens up. The cobblestone street collapses, and half the knights in the street fall into the massive hole. Most land heavily but perfectly healthy, and only one young woman gets injured, twisting an ankle.

The swarm of monsters that swarm upon them, however, provide a brilliant distraction. They’re even frightened enough by the sudden fall and attack that I can feel my powers growing. I reach down with shadows and illusions to keep the atmosphere alive while they fight.

One knight even takes a blow to the side, attacking a goblin made by my illusions.

“If you would allow me?” I ask, waving to the knights.

“No,” she replies, her knife pressing tighter to my neck. “Andrew is a good man. Promise you won’t hurt him. The others… I don’t care.”

“Which is Andrew?”

She points at a man at the back of the group, his armour is plain and his spear simple, but solid. He was one of the few that I thought an easy target at first.

“The rest are mine?” I ask, twisting around to look at her, though her knife sinks deeper into my neck for the motion.

“Fine,” she accepts, letting me move free.

I must be quick, confident, and powerful beyond compare. The moment he thinks of it as a fight, it’s over. If he forces me to run then the woman holding me down is going to turn on me, and with her speed and ability to notice me in the dark, she’s a very real threat.

I step from the wall and fall to the ground, amidst the knights. My illusion magics conceal the sight of my bone-covered dress while creating a few other figures that rush after me as if trying to catch up to me.

“Sir knights, what’s happening? What’s that sound? Are they monsters?!” I call out in feigned panic, rushing amidst the figures and people. Some shiver, turning pale, putting down the last of the goblins, the hollows, and the other creatures released beside them.

I stumble down the road, blindly stepping into the hole that the knights have fallen into. As I slam into the ground, snapping my ankle, I cry out in pain clutching at my leg and covering the injury with my hands.

The people I crafted out of illusions, all cry out in horror, staring down at me as a few of the surviving monsters take notice of me. A goblin rushes at me with his club, though it’s more like he’s running from the knight chasing him.

The white stone armour of the knight is briefly painted red before a ripple passes through, shedding the blood in an instant.

“Young lady, you must be careful,” he says smiling down at me as he rushes to my side. His expression is fearless, but his heart is pounding in anxiety as he stands over me, still affected by the talismans that I’ve sewn into my dress even if he can’t see them.

“I… I think my leg is broken,” I whimper, clutching it tight.

“Let me take a look,” he says, and though he moves casually, it’s all to appear confident to the knights at his back. He’s not an idiot, and he’s more than prepared to kill me, but it shouldn’t be enough. He’s not a fire mage.

As he leans over me, his stone armour rippling over his skin, I reach up for him as an innocent maiden would. He smiles at me, his stone armour sinking into my arms and legs to hold me in place as he lifts me up.

I push a chill frost through my arms, concentrating it into my shoulders as I pull myself up to his neck. A punch of telekinesis shatters my flesh and bone, separating me from my restrained hands. Before he has a chance to react I sink my fangs into his neck and drink.

He grabs at me again, wasting time unravelling my limbs as he tries to push me away. I drink as much as I can before he finally pushes me away, I send a magical glare into his eyes.

“Stop fighting,” I whisper, pressing all my strength into him as I heal my shattered arms and draw my dagger on him. The blade sinks into his throat while he’s still frozen by my magic, a momentary thing.

His blood rains down and I drink all that I can catch, his fear now much more powerful, fuelling my magics as I wrap him in clinging shadows and tear at all his exposed flesh. Tendrils of shadow seep in through the impossible gap between his stone armour and his flesh, others sinking into his flesh itself, like the roots of a tree digging into the earth.

My veins burn with the stress of using so much power in the shadow magic, but the response is well worth it.

The man stops fighting me, screaming as he clutches at the shadow tendrils, trying to pull them free. Yet, all the while I draw more blood from him, my fangs pulling the blood out faster than should be possible.

His allies, finally noticing that something is wrong, move to attack but it’s already too late for him. My shadows gather around me, hiding me in darkness a moment before I move through space, standing behind the friendly knight on the rooftop.

“Let us speak details, then,” I say, licking the blood from my hand as I step beside her. She shivers and pales, staring at the desiccated corpse of her ally. “I can offer you a new noble house to serve, or I can offer you freedom beyond these walls.”

“We can leave at any time?” She asks, glaring at me. No doubt she expects duplicity.

I pout, crossing my arms.

“A good servant must choose to play their role in a household,” I reply. “To set it aside a moment, simply removing you from my enemy’s hands is enough of a reward for my efforts in helping you. The offer to join my noble house is entirely separate, though it does influence the details of this matter.”

“You’re noble house?” She asks.

“Countess Christina Greystone,” I introduce myself, holding out my hand and waiting for her to take it as a proper knight should. “It is a pleasure to be of your acquaintance.”

She blinks moving only on instincts as she bows to kiss the back of my hand. Afterwards, she touches her lips where a small hint of blood has stained her.

 

//Author Note: Apologies for the atrocious release schedule lately, I've been struggling with concerns about the quality of my writing and real-life issues that have been slowing me down. I'd love to write properly full time, but I can't eat off of this yet. If anyone has any advice on marketing myself, I'd be happy to listen.