“I swiped the pathology reports straight from the database,” Titus said. “Of course it was legit.” Titus had hacked into the official reports of the Metropolitan Police Department. There had been three deaths in The Bricks over the last month, and each one was described as an ‘unexplained gruesome homicide.’ The notes suspected a shifter attack due to the nature of the deceased, but they had no evidence to back up the comment other than a few claw and teeth marks.
Shadow-Veyn were known to feast on flesh, predatorial animals with only the most basic instincts. Veyn generally kept themselves invisible to the majority of the public, coming out from their glamour to feed. The only warning you had before they struck were their shadows, which was where they received their name.
The glyphs the Guardians had tattooed helped them see Shadow-Veyn despite their glamour, giving them the advantage. Druids in general wore glyphs in their skin to help balance their arcane, the designs a specialised syphon to concentrate the magic without ripping the caster apart. However, the Guardians took the markings to the extreme, their bodies more powerful, designed to withstand more.
Without another word they all headed behind the residential area, the roads narrowing and splitting into tight alleys. Many of the businesses were already closed, the metal shutters locked tight to protect from theft, or some even abandoned outright. A heavy beat vibrated beneath his boots, a club he guessed from the multi-coloured lights that brightened one of the darkened passageways.
Kace whipped his head to the side, his instincts pushing him down one of the many alleys that formed an interconnected maze behind the tall buildings. He pulled on the strength of his beast, reactions sharpening.
“For fuck’s sake,” Jax cursed as he skidded to a halt, lip lifted in a disgusted snarl. “We got to call in the cleaners.”
Kace barely gave the half-eaten corpse his attention. Tension thrummed beneath his skin, the need to kill overpowering everything until it was an almost singular thought. Pulling out a perfectly balanced blade he began to spin and catch, the movement practised and precise as he fought past the haze to finally drop his gaze to the floor.
The body had been torn almost in half, the person’s chest split from his left shoulder to his right hip, his organs eaten. His arm was missing, as was part of his foot.
From the flowers that sprung from some of the droplets a few feet away he guessed they were Fae. Strong blooded Fae folk did weird things when they died, and this one was apparently becoming the earth. The blood was fresh, the scent thick amongst the large overflowing skip bins and pile of vomit only a short distance away. Silver cannisters glinted on the pavement, over a dozen all marked with a black ‘X.’
Titus gestured to the red flashing light high on the wall, the camera pointed directly at the body. “Don’t bother calling the twins,” he grunted. “Someone is watching so it’s likely already been reported.” Just as he finished speaking the camera moved, seeming to zoom in on the knife Kace flipped.
None of them were worried about being caught on camera, even when they had over ten pieces of illegal weaponry between them. Titus would be able to wipe the recording and any evidence they were even there, his brother being a genius when it came to computers.
Jax reached up and snapped the camera clean off the wall, crushing it in his large palm. “Fucking...”
The blade left Kace’s hand before the thought even processed, the silver soaring through the darkness to land directly in an eye. The Shadow-Veyn screeched, its trajectory altered as Titus rolled out of the way of a large claw, the nails long and serrated. The creature landed, shaking its head violently to dislodge the knife. The remaining eye rolled freely inside the too-large socket, the iris a bright red compared to the dark green that leaked from its wound.
“What the fuck is that?” Titus asked, but Kace had already pulled out three more knives, the blades soaring with a high-pitched whine. All three hit their targets, but they were nothing compared to the sheer size of the Shadow-Veyn. It stood well over a head above them all, its shoulders wide enough to brush both sides of the alley.
Jax unsheathed his sword, the metal gleaming beneath the streetlights. “Classification E.”
“No shit,” Titus said as he pulled out his gun. “I meant that’s not a fucking hellhound!” Its body was similar to a hound, with a sleek canine form built from pure muscle. Its ears were short, spiked with a barb, while its powerful paws cracked the pavement.
The creature hissed, mouth opening to reveal two rows of razor-sharp teeth. Its face was flatter, more humanoid than the hounds with only a short snout. Bones were exposed beside jet black scales, the hole where its nose was supposed to be a hollow void.
Kace gripped his last knife, his beast pushing for them to shift into their stronger, larger form. He gritted his teeth, the creature turning its attention to him. It was getting easier to remain the man while letting his beast be forefront in his mind. He needed to find a happy medium, one where he wouldn’t risk his sanity.
A tongue shot out, split like a snake’s as it licked at the blade that stuck out of its shoulder, ignoring the one still in its eye. Dark vapours floated out from its nose, the smoke curling around to flow between each of the exposed ribs at its side, pale in contrast to its dark scales. Sharp bones pricked up like thorns along its spine. It was the main feature that classed it as a Classification E, as well as its sheer fucking size.
Kace felt his tattoos blaze, arcane burning at his fingertips as voices drifted from behind, reminding him how close they were to innocents. A ball of arcane seared through the air, the concentrated magic hitting the creature dead in the face. The Shadow-Veyn roared, breath full of dead carrion, sewage and rot as the spinal bones flexed, clicking down its back. A split second of tension before it leapt forward, twisting at an impossible angle mid-air to catch itself against the brick wall. The Veyn flipped, landing further down the alley as it slinked away into the darkness.
‘Split and catch it at the other side,’Jax snarled inside his mind, the mental connection spread to include Titus.‘Push it towards an opening.’
Kace moved before Jax had even finished, his long legs eating the distance in a matter of seconds while Titus shot in another direction. He could feel the Veyn through the shadows, trying to conceal itself. Arcane continued to burn from his palms, the power sparking down his blade as he raced after it.
Tall buildings speared into the darkened sky, the brick walls closing in. The moon was obscured by clouds when he finally broke out into the open, the Veyn twisting to snarl in the centre square. He was thankful the area was empty, the curtains drawn on the majority of the windows that overlooked the area. It wouldn’t matter if they were watched, his job was to destroy them regardless of an audience.
The existence of Shadow-Veyn wasn’t a secret, not since one had destroyed tower bridge, the fight live streamed across the world. The Council had decided that if they didn’t acknowledge it, it didn’t happen which seemed to be pretty common response amongst governing bodies.
The footage had been quickly corrupted, but the city remembered, forums popping up with rumours and speculation. Before the Shadow-Veyn had broken out from The Nether they had a sighting once a month, but since they were able to travel freely between the realms the activity had increased to weekly, along with possessions and general Daemonic fuckery that was the bane of their existence.
Titus appeared opposite, stepping out from beside a closed betting shop with his pistol held forward. Kace didn’t need to turn to know Jax exited to his right, circling the Veyn on all sides. It was what they had trained to do, why they were forced to share their souls with individual beasts not too different from the fucking Shadow-Veyns they hunted.
Click. Click. Click.
Bones breaking echoed into the night, the Veyn’s ribs opening up at the sides, exposing its vulnerable organs until the scales slithered across in a thin layer. The ribs continued to contort, lifting up in a dramatic curve as the dark vapour flowed between each bone. The vapour seemed to thicken until it coated the entirety of every rib, spreading like a fan until they almost resembled…
“What the fuck!”
A single shot rang out, the bullet hitting the Veyn directly in its newly formed wing. The vapour hadn’t solidified, despite how it looked, the bullet soaring through and imbedding itself into the opposite wall.
