As I made my way down the street I was distracted by the pleasant odor of a bakery. It brought back many happy memories of my long-gone youth, so almost without thinking I turned and strode inside, giving a courteous nod to the feline assistant behind the counter.
He looked at me curiously, but I ignored this and scanned the rows of pies and puddings.
"Three blood pasties please," I said. There was no reply. Looking up I saw that his fur was standing on end. It was the bounty hunter.
"Oh my gods... please... please don't kill me..." he whimpered.
I stared back at him. "Well, well," I said. "That's quite a career move. Probably a good one too, if I'm any judge. Many Creatures have a soft spot for baked goods so you'll be in a quite a good position should there be any unrest. You'll certainly live longer than you would as an adventurer."
"Please, Mr. Cross... "
"I don't like to be called that. I'd like to think that my days of crime are behind me. Call me 'Mr. Pettersohn' if you must. Besides, if I wanted you dead you wouldn't have escaped in our last meeting I might add, so please stop grovelling or you'll attract attention. And that would make me angry. Now, how much for the pasties?"
"'Cubi don't eat... food..."
"Shhh!" I said. "You'll blow my cover. As it happens we don't need to eat, but most do continue to eat for pleasure at least on occasion, and it's often pastry."
After some effort I eventually managed to calm him down enough to actually serve me, and left relatively quickly before the baker himself could see me and learn from the hunter that I was really an incubus. Placing the food in a zero-tau field to keep it warm, I set off into the forest where I was due to meet up with Izak and Snell, an outlaw incubus whom we had arranged to interview.
The forest was safer so I reverted to my base form and made my way east. I was still about a mile away from my destination when I suddenly realised that the birds had gone silent. There was just a wisp of a stray thought so I became invisible and threw myself aside.
"F---," snarled a voice as a crossbow bolt thudded into the ground about a yard from where I had been standing. If I hadn't dodged it would have pierced my heart. The invisibility spell prevented me from seeing as well, but I have acute hearing and I quickly pinpointed the location of the voice.
In a nearby tree, a young wolf crouched upon a branch and began to reload his weapon, scanning the area for his target. Becoming partially visible, I could see him from below, and he hadn't noticed me yet. He didn't notice the faint flash of darkness as I teleported immediately behind him.
"Boo," I called and he fell out of the tree.
For a while I was afraid he'd broken something, so I hopped down from the tree myself, parachuting down with my wings and gave him a once-over. He looked dead, but closing my eyes I couldn't see his soul so he was evidently still alive. In any case I was in no mood to take chances so while he lay there stunned, I cut through the strings of his crossbow with my tentacles.
Probing mentally, I discovered that the fall had disrupted his mind-shield and I was able to get into his nervous system while he was still dazed, yanking him back to full consciousness and preventing him from escaping at the same time.
"And so it ends," he sighed, gazing up at the imposing figure looming over him as I stood there in my trenchcoat with my arms folded and a rather annoyed expression on my face.
"Nah," I said. "I want to talk to you first. Then we shall see what we shall see. So. Exactly why did you try to kill me?"
"Because you're an incubus," he replied instantly.
"And you're a Being. So what? That's a pretty feeble excuse for hiding in a tree and taking pot-shots at random passers-by."
The wolf looked at me strangely as I pulled him to his feet, and then with an air of defiant resignation he began to speak.
"It's quite simple," he said. "I was seven years old when they came. They burst into our house. There were two of them, a succubus and an incubus. I was playing under the table when they arrived, otherwise they would have killed me too. When I sleep I can still hear the screams of my parents."
Now he was grinning in a way eerily reminiscent of the twisted smile I used to use myself.
"I never found out who they were, but I swore to the Gods that I would avenge them in the only way I can."
"So you decided to declare a one-man war against an entire race?" I scoffed. "For all you know one of your parents could have been a 'Cubi too."
"No!" he yelped. "They were Beings! They were killed by 'Cubi, so I plan to take down as many of you monsters as I can before I finally go to join my parents in death."
"You might not get the chance," I replied doubtfully. "If you keep playing this silly little game of yours, it's only going to be a matter of time before you run into someone who doesn't balk at soul-eating. The True Death is probably not the fate your parents had in mind when they raised you."
He stiffened for a moment, but quickly recovered himself.
"So," I said. "Let's hear the bad news. How many have you killed, and were any of them grey canids like me?"
"Seven," he replied, "and no."
"Could have been worse. Especially if you had killed my kin - then I might, in my grief, have forgotten my preference for peace and you'd be spending the next few thousand years in a beer bottle." I paused, considering him.
"Are you sure your parents would be happy that you've wasted your life slaughtering 'Cubi who were probably innocent?" I asked.
"Innocent?" he laughed. "Don't give me that. No-one is innocent."
"I guess not. You aren't and I know for sure that I'm not, although the gods know I've tried to put that behind me. I like Beings, and I'd rather not fight you, even knowing you're a murderer.
"Perhaps you haven't realised that there is generally an inverse relationship between your ability to kill a given 'cubi and how much they deserve to die. The ones who do deserve it will be strong enough to kill you without batting an eyelid. Unless you get lucky, the only ones you'll actually be able to kill are the ones who choose not to fight back."
I studied him curiously. "Anyway. You were ambushing me, so whatever you were up to it means that someone else tipped you off that I'd be coming. I want to know who and why."
"One of our agents saw you enter the forest. We don't want demon scum roaming around as if they owned the place, and I happened to be patrolling the area so they radioed me the instructions to take you down."
"...and who's 'we'?"
"We call ourselves the Burning Feather."
"Oh, I see. Some local anti-wing group. Now we're getting somewhere."
"Our mission to to keep our town free from predators. That means Creatures. Perhaps our methods are a little harsh and uncompromising, but the law alone isn't working and if it keeps the rest of us safe from monsters like you, I'm all for it."
As he spoke, his fingers drifted unconsciously to a locket which he wore upon a chain around his neck. Suddenly I grabbed for it, tugging it over his head. There was a brief swooshing sound, and the canid stood there with a shocked expression of sheer horror as though I had suddenly stripped him naked in the middle of a busy street. His wings were topped red, with green primaries.
"I think I'll keep this," I said, stuffing the locket into my shirt.
"Give it back!" he shrieked, a shrill note of panic in his voice.
"Say 'please...'"
"Give it back, you bastard!"
"No. You will never get it back if you're going to be like that. Then you can go back to your precious anti-wing group. That should be fun to watch!"
"They'll kill me!" he whimpered.
"Of course they will. I figure it might help you see the error of your ways. Mind you it would be a bit too late by then because you'll be dead, but perhaps if you tell me what I want to know, I might change my mind and let you keep your little trinket."
He whimpered again. For a moment I felt sorry for him, but I quickly remembered that I was dealing with a murderer.
"Start with the wings," I prompted, dangling the locket in front of him and then snatching it away. "Aren't you supposed to be a Being?"
"I am a Being," he said. "Both my parents were Beings. Winged Beings, but Beings nonetheless."
"Very well. So tell me about their murderers. What were they like? Any distinguishing marks or features?"
"They had marks on their shoulders... not tattoos, actually cut into them. Sort of hard and angular..."
"Like this?" I asked gravely, passing my hand over a patch of exposed earth. It shifted until it formed an angular clan marking. He nodded, unable to speak.
"Jyraneth clan," I said. "Believed to be almost extinct. They were an extremely brutal clan, even for 'Cubi and their leader was insane."
"Criminally insane," I added, remembering that my own clan leader was a bit nutty.
"But why would they kill just two people amongst a whole town of Beings? It must have been a hit, surely. But that would only make sense if they were targetting Creatures..."
"Stop saying that! My parents were Beings!" he cried.
"Apparently Jyraneth clan didn't think so. If they were mistaken it was a better fate than your parents would otherwise have suffered. They were well-known for their habits of almost compulsive soul-stealing."
He moaned. "They were going to but they decided against it and they said that e-eating them would taint themselves and then... then... Aaaahhh!"
He screamed, and fell down clutching his head. I knelt by the writhing figure, gently turning him over.
"H-hurtsss..." he croaked. "Feels like... my head... gonna burst.."
He was eerily close to the truth. It happened a few moments later.
"I'm dying... aren't I?" he added feebly, as he saw the lines of sorrow and pity written across my face.
"I'm sorry," I said, pulling him unsteadily into a sitting position. "I thought you knew."
He wobbled slightly, and steadying him, I guided his hand to the back of his head. A heart-rending scream rang through the woodland as his hand touched the feathers. It was the cry of someone whose life had just been cruelly destroyed. The sound of a hunter who realises that he's been preying on his own kind.
Oh Hell, I thought. SAIA are going to have another mental case on their hands.
"It'll be okay," I murmured, "Come on... don't go crazy on me."
"I killed them," he wept. "I killed them all. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know they were my brethren..."
"You wouldn't be the first," I said, sitting next to him. "You know, one of my students summed it up rather poignantly... what was it? 'Whoever you were died when your 'Cubi heritage asserted itself'. You may find it helps you come to terms with it.
"Now, what would Jyraneth want with your parents?" I mused. "From the sound of it they were after revenge." I glanced at the locket. Opening it up it contained two photos, one for each of the young incubus' parents. His father had a pale green tattoo on his cheek. Oho, I thought.
"Kamei'sin clan. Definitely revenge."
"What?"
"Your father was an incubus at the very least. I can't tell about your mother. It's not like a Kamei'sin member to marry a Being, so my guess is they were both clan members who eloped."
The young wolf looked up at me, blinking. This was all going over his head, but I couldn't really blame him. Sometimes the headwings emerged painfully like mine, and it was obviously the case for him as well. It didn't matter that much - he had plenty of time to come to terms with it.
"Have you decided... what you are going to do with me?" he quavered.
"Yes," I said, snapping the locket shut and handing it back to him. "But first, tell me your name."
"Simeon," he replied.
"Right then, kid. I'm going to take you to Fa'Lina's Academy. SAIA, it's called. They have people who deal with this sort of thing as part of their job, and right now I don't have time for this. I'm late for a filming job in the forest."
Helping him stand, I took the young wolf firmly by the hand.
"What do I have to do?" he said.
"Do Nothing," I answered, and we both vanished.