Eurynome poked at the raw slab of meat on his plate. Taking a bite, he almost gagged. It tasted dull, holding no hint of flavor. He craved something fresher, something sweeter, with smoky floral notes. He craved Keshiema. He salivated as he imagined taking a bite of her soft skin. Staring at his hand, he remembered the warmth of her touch. 'It had to be a fluke, right?' he thought. 'But then, why is Dásos taking such an interest in her? Maybe it's -'

  "Eury!" Asmoday pounded on Eurynome's door. "Are you in there? Open up!"

  Sighing, Eurynome opened his door to find Asmoday's panicked face. "K ran away!"

  "When? Why?" Eurynome gripped his doorframe. His hunger suddenly grew tenfold. He craved her presence as much as he desired her flesh. The predator in him furious for letting her escape; the man fearful she might get hurt.

  "To find her friend, the Impure. A rebel group caught him. Phoradendron attempted a recovery, but failed. Meer, Perry, and Phoradedron have all been knocked out. We don't know what happened, but more than likely her aura surged." Unless stressed, Asmoday rarely used words that caused him to hiss. He had to be truly concerned about the situation.

  "Is anyone going to search for her?" Eurynome had half a mind to go himself. But what would he do if he found her? Alone, away from prying eyes?

  "Uvall called a meeting a bit ago. He will tell me where to find her only at the right time." Eurynome understood now why Asmoday was the one who came to tell him. He was one of the few beings immune to his touch of death. His mother, being both a Primordial Temple Priestess and a Goddess of Healing, had passed on the unique ability to her only child. If Eurynome attacked the Serpent-Daemon out of misdirected anger, he would assuredly lose.

  "I'm going out." Eurynome shoved past Asmoday and started down the hall. He needed to find something to eat. Something fresher than hours-old beef. He needed to hunt.

  He started for the Forest on the eastern edge of the campus. Plenty of large game wandered the undeveloped land. On his way, however, he caught an intriguing scent; Fresh blood. Moving quickly and silently, like the well-practiced predator he was, he glided through the near-empty campus. The enticing aroma grew stronger towards the auditorium. When he entered the building, careful not to let the door make any noise to echo, he overheard a conversation.

  "NO, She never figured it out!" A sweet, honeyed voice echoed through the empty auditorium.

  'Students,' Eurynome thought. He wondered what the bloody scent was, but figured he would leave it to the faculty to figure out. He was in no mood to deal with students.

  "those drugs were so intense though, I'm sure Marthim doesn't even remember it fully." With his hand on the door, Eurynome paused, his curiosity piqued.

  "And you made sure there wasn't any doubt?" another woman's voice asked earnestly.

  "Of course. He was all over me, kissing, grinding, groping."

  'Aphrodisiacs?' he thought, enraged. A few things crossed the line for him, but manipulation of that sort was something almost every demon agreed to be unacceptable.

  "There's no way keshiema could have thought anything else!"

  'Kesh?' Another layer added to his rage. He waited, trying to decide on his next move.

  "So then what? did Tommy reward you like you planned?"

  "Of course. I got him all to myself for a while. But he got distracted again. His stupid father had another affair child with a human." She pouted, obviously only upset that it cost her Tommy's attention. "I did a few other things over the years that had him coming back to me, but he left last year, so I really had to up my game. If it wasn't big, he wasn't gonna hear about it, you know?"

  Eurynome's pale green aura gave his eyes a haunting glow. He took a deep breath, trying to convince himself to let it go. 'Keshiema is no longer going to attend regular classes. She's protected now.'

  "So anyways, you heard about the whole thing with Nabarius's exam, right? I ran into her a week later, and the bitch looked fine! So I had the boys try to kill her. They failed, of course, so-"

  Eurynome stopped listening. A week after her collapse meant she was already under their care when another student not only attacked her, but tried to kill her? On campus, in front of the library, even. And now she was bragging about it! He charged forward, unthinking. Before he knew it, he held the Satyress by the throat, letting her hooves dangle over the ground, searching desperately for footing, her companion frozen in place over a mutilated body.

  "L-L-Lord Eur-Eur-Eurynome?" Azazel choked. He recognized her now as one of Pan's illegitimates. Satyr-Daemons always found joy in picking on others they perceived as weak, but their motivation over anything else was always lust.

  He slammed Azazel into the ground, causing her to cough up blood. The pungent, acrid stench burned his nose. "Who else has hurt her?" He demanded

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "Who," she tried, but he was crushing her windpipe. He eased up just enough to let her speak. "Who hasn't?" Azazel finally coughed out. With a guttural scream, Eurynome broke Azazel's neck. The other demon tried to run, but slipped on the corpse's blood. Grabbing her by the collar, Eurynome lifted the frightened woman to look her in the eyes. "You have one chance to save your life. Who are "the boys" she mentioned?"

  ***

  Opening the creaking gate, Keshiema remembered leaving the orphanage for the last time. Her hurtful words to Tobias and Mia. She never wanted to hurt them, and handled leaving the best she could as a traumatized eight-year-old. Maybe if they thought she was heartless, they would not be as saddened by her absence.

  Walking through the front door, she noticed footprints on the dust-covered floor. As she followed them to her old room, she thought of Cresil. He had attended a training operation a few months back. When he returned, he handed her a piece of paper with an old picture. Mia had drawn it shortly before Keshiema's recruitment into the Academy. The picture filled her with happiness, but it came with a side of regret and sorrow.

  Realizing there was nothing there to help her find Tobias, she left the orphanage with a heavy heart. After climbing to the top of a nearby cathedral, she rested next to a gargoyle. A flood of memories consumed her as she sat in silence: Cresil trying to help her with picking locks and dragging her out of her room to attend parties. Tobias sitting up with her on restless nights or sneaking food from the pantry after Chu and May passed out from drinking. If she had to choose between them, she would fall apart.

  With a soft breeze, a cacophony of noise interrupted her thoughts. Hoping for a better listen, she cleared her thoughts, cocked her head, and paused her breathing. She listened carefully, and as the next breeze passed, she heard it again. She headed upwind to find the source of the noise, moving cautiously to avoid detection.

  As Keshiema drew closer to the source, she could make out voices. Realizing she must have discovered a settlement, she clung to the shadows. Until she knew whether the settlement was demon or human, she had to remain hidden. Slowly, the voices gained substance. Snippets of conversations made their way to her.

  "Three grams of platinum..."

  "Then he drew his dagger..."

  "Stupid no good cheater..."

  "The rebels caught an Impure..." She tried to concentrate on the young man's voice, but it was lost among the crowd.

  "Human...Human...Devil!" Children laughing mixed with the sound of pattering feet on old cement.

  She remembered the Academy children would play 'Demon, Demon, Man.' All but one would sit in a circle, and the one would walk around them. He would be the Hunter, and he would tap each one on the head and name them a demon or a human. The "human" would have to get up and race to tag the Hunter. If she could not catch him before he ran around the circle three times and sat in her seat, she would be the new Hunter. Keshiema had wanted to play, but one of the other children told her that since she was both, she wasn't allowed. That was the day she met Cresil.

  Tears threatened her vision, so she cleared her thoughts. 'If the roles are switched I guess they must be human.' She reached into her sleeve pocket and took out the bracelet Dásos had given her. After struggling with the small clasp, she pinched the small sparrow charm. A shimmer of light rained around her. Pulling her hair over her shoulder, she found it to be a soft, golden brown. She reached up, feeling the top of her head; her horns were absent.

  After double-checking her surroundings, Keshiema returned to ground level and searched for the entrance to the settlement. In the back of a dark alleyway, she found a pair of human guards. "Halt!" One of the guards held his spear out in a fighting stance. What is your business?" The guard on her right held up his spear.

  "I seek protection, there are whispers among the nomads of a settlement nearby."

  "What band do you hail from?" The guard on her left asked, clutching the hilt of his sword.

  "I was a lone traveler, but in my journeys I joined with a group. Shadow and Dire spoke of a safe haven away from the prying eyes of devils and monsters."

  The guards looked at each other for a moment. She thought about running, knowing she could easily escape anything they had to throw at her. Her heart raced as they measured her up. "Test her." Righty finally spoke.

  Lefty carefully reached for a pouch on his belt. From it, he took a small vial. The chalky white liquid inside it changed to a bright vermilion as he shook it vigorously. "Catch." As she caught the vial, she was surprised by how cold it felt. Her fingers stung as she held it up with a questioning gaze. "Drink it," the guard demanded.

  She stared the guards down, letting her mind connect with the one on her left. She pried for information about the vial but could find nothing. She looked to the guard on the right and found he knew nothing more than the other. Without further hesitation, Keshiema took off the lid and poured the contents on the ground. She watched in amazement as the red liquid started to boil before turning into sand. "No, thank you." She would need to sneak in if she could not enter the village legitimately.

  She turned to leave, but Righty held up his hand. "You don't think we can just let you leave?" He asked sharply.

  "Look, I'm not going to drink anything some random stranger orders me to. I haven't survived this long on my own by trusting others." As she spoke, she continued to search their minds for anything she could use. A blind spot in the sentry lineup, a hole in the fence no one had the time to fix, a resupply schedule. She found nothing. 'These guys don't seem to know much about anything.'

  "I guess your luck ends here, kid." Lefty drew his sword. Keshiema took a step back. The glamour took her weapons, leaving her defenseless in her current body. Using her speed to escape would blow her cover. Her choices were wearing thin.

  'What did I get myself into?' She took a step backward, putting more distance between herself and the human guards. A sound behind her caught her attention. She whipped around to face someone who almost looked familiar.

  "Lucius, Reggie...are you hassling this young woman?" As the man spoke, Keshiema felt sure she recognized his voice.

  "Sir Paga! She failed the test..." Righty started but trailed off.

  "Well more or less...really she just refused to drink..." Lefty clarified, his eyes falling on the small pile of red sand.

  "Well, I can't say I blame her. Come here young lady, I wont let these guards hurt you." he offered his hand to her. Hesitantly, she stepped forward and took Paga's hand. For a swift moment, his eyes changed from a muddy brown to a bright yellow. He smiled as her eyes widened in disbelief as she realized who he was. "That's quite a beautiful charm bracelet you have. Is it special?"

  "It was given to me by my friend Dásos."

  "Yes, I have a similar story behind my charm." He let go of her hand and took a necklace out from under his shirt. A noble dragon hung on a golden chain. "Why don't we continue our conversation over a cup of tea. You seem a little weary. Guards, our young friend will be entering the settlement as my guest."

  "Yes, Sir!" the guards said in unison as they saluted Paga.