There were many things I expected to wake up to. A shadowy figure dragging Cassie away from the bed was not one of them.

  As I blearily opened my eyes I quietly examined the room, noticing an eerie silence from both Cassie and the intruder despite the fact they were clearly talking. At least, Cassie was clearly talking. The intruder wore a pale mask that hid their mouth, so I couldn’t tell with them.

  Nonetheless, they weren’t paying attention to me at all. Slowly, I waved a tentacle at Cassie to try and get her attention and signal that I was coming. After a few seconds I saw her glance over for a second, a flash of a grin on her face.

  Now that I looked, she seemed pale and waxy. I assumed that the lights in the room were her doing, because the intruder didn’t seem the type to dwell in the light. It seemed to be taking a toll on her though, because she was bleeding from her nose and her hands were shaking.

  I hurried across the bed and dropped to the floor as quietly as I could. I didn’t know if the intruder could hear me or not under whatever spell they had going, so I didn’t want to risk it. I crept up behind the shadowy figure, who appeared to be actively threatening Cassie now, a knife held to her face.

  In that moment I didn’t feel concern for this person or question whether or not I could disable them non-lethally. All I saw was a masked stranger breaking into our room and threatening the person I was closest with.

  I focused and brought what little vitae I had to bear, slowly consuming the parts of my body that weren’t immediately essential for more resources. I didn’t have much to work with, but it was enough to make a jagged spear of chitin, bone and muscle.

  I worked quickly, attaching a few hooks and spines along the shaft to keep it in contact with my target and working in a rudimentary muscular mechanism to thrust what was essentially just a spike of biomass.

  With my weapon formed I hefted my new creation, lined up the shot and thrust. My spear of bone pierced cleanly through the intruder, dragging a startled gasp from them as I dragged at their vitae with my will.

  Now in contact with them I noticed something strange about their vitae. Rather than the concentrated ball that most people had or the vaguely spread about pattern of life enhancement, this person’s vitae was more like veins running through their whole body.

  More than that, for the first time I met a rival will fighting for control over its vitae. Normally there was little in terms of defence when I took from someone, besides the baseline desire to hold onto your life. Yet now I felt something actively pulling away from me, drawing more and more of its vitae away from the areas I could quickly reach.

  This will seemed spread out through the vein-like structures that riddled their body, almost puppeteering their body rather than simply supplying it. It was incredibly strange to witness, but I had more important things on my mind at the moment.

  Despite their home-field advantage, it was clear to me that the will behind the intruder’s vitae was inexperienced and rudimentary. It pulled large chunks of lifeforce away from my influence without dexterity or nuance, which allowed me to peal away at the retreating edges to regain my strength.

  The moment I got my first sip I knew something deeper was off. This vitae was to a human’s what a bear was to salmon. If regular, untampered vitae was the essence of preservation then this was predation, of subsistence at the cost of others. It seemed strangely satisfied as I continued this cycle, even at its detriment.

  This predatory vitae was revitalising in a way I had yet to experience. Even a drop had my head feeling clearer and limbs, what was left of them, feeling stronger. In a matter of moments I felt powerful enough to reassert my will over my form, assuming a more useful shape.

  I shifted into my bug-like form, the change taking moments as this new power flooded through me. I felt strangely hungry, but not quite for food. No, as I watched the intruder free themselves of my weapon and heal their wound I couldn’t help but grin internally.

  I wanted to fight them. I wanted to fight them and I wanted to win, to claim victory over a lesser predator and claim their nourishing essence for myself. I watched in silence as they straightened up and affected calm, even though I could read their surprise in the turbulent roiling of their vitae.

  “Ah, how convenient. The other one. Lovely to meet you. I am Dusk, and you are my prey. Excellent attempt so far, I hope you don’t disappoint.” Her voice was distinctly feminine and unsurprisingly confident.

  I paid no attention to her words, focusing on the slightly heavy breathing and fluid movements of my opponent. I let out a low hiss, instinctively layering it over itself and shifting my claws into place as I readied myself for combat.

  Dusk took a second gleaming dagger from her bandolier, which had narrowly avoided being cut by my strike. “Come at me then, if you think you can.”

  With further words I lunged at my foe, who moved backwards at speed to dodge my strike. The moment she was out of range her momentum seemed to disappear, allowing her to strike back faster than I expected and take a chunk of chitin from one of my arms.

  I twirled and struck out again, catching the side of her thigh with a single claw. The moment I made contact I siphoned a small bit of vitae away from her, surprisingly desperate for more of that tainted nectar.

  She didn’t slow at the pain, lashing out with a flurry of slashes and cuts to punish my overextension. I hissed again as my chitin took hit after hit, more and more being cleaved away as a surprise strike landed point first into my gut, puncturing my defences a sending flaring pain shooting through my abdomen.

  On instinct I grabbed for the dagger before Dusk could pull it free, reaching my hand around the blade and holding it there in an attempt to draw my opponent in closer. However she simply let go of the blade, not lacking for weapons.

  I pulled the dagger out as Dusk retreated and gathered a new weapon, considering my options. A lot of me wanted to just charge in recklessly and prove my dominance over my foe, but that hadn’t worked well. I knew when I was outclassed, so instead I needed a plan.

  Letting the dagger fall to the floor I decided not to heal my wound, although I did prevent the bleeding to take away the potential time limit. Dusk took her new dagger and twirled it casually, affecting confidence. Her posture read of alertness, however.

  I stalked towards the intruder, doing my best to display veiled weakness from my wounds. I lashed out again, my strike wild and barely accurate. Dusk ducked the blow and lodged a dagger into my shoulder, ending up behind me and following up with another blade to the torso.

  I staggered and hissed, swiping ineffectually at her as I moved towards the drapes. If I could just open them then maybe Cassie could focus on doing something else, which may turn the tables.

  Dusk continued to assault me, landing strike after strike as more of her attacks cracked or pierced my chitin. I began to let a few of the smaller ones bleed, especially the ones with dagger stuck in them. By the time I had meandered over to the window I was full of holes, locked in a battle with myself to stop my own healing. I needed Dusk to think I was weak, after all.

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  I had only managed a single other blow on dusk, a gouge into her stomach which had closed as quickly as it opened. Still, I had managed to siphon more vitae from her in the act, which helped to keep me going.

  I staggered one final time as I collapsed into the curtains, tearing them down as I fell. Dusk seemed strangely concerned by this, swiftly retreating from the light. I had only managed to take one of the drapes down with me, but nonetheless she was concerned. Cassie’s lights blinked out of existence as the room lit more naturally.

  Dusk straightened up in the dim side of the room, calmly wiping my blood from her blades. She only had three left, the rest lodged in my chitin or littering the floor. She made a gesture and her half of the room was blanketed in deeper shadows, the light ending at the border. “Well, well. You might be smarter than you look, prey.”

  I hissed again, stumbling towards Dusk and into the dark. I was starting to feel light-headed, but I still didn’t heal them. It wouldn’t be long now.

  Dusk paced in the darkness, refusing to leave its boundaries. “I did rather expect more, honestly. I saw what happened to old Matty. He wasn’t weak, you know. I suppose you must have had help. After all, I doubt you two could take him.”

  I tripped over my own feet, falling like a tree at Dusk’s feet. I rolled onto my back, but my swipe met nothing but air as she briefly danced out of the way.

  “Oh dear. I suppose we all have our limits. You were fun, at least.” Dusk leaned over and pressed a dagger to my neck, where my chitin armour was weakest.

  The moment before she pierced my skin I pushed upwards, forcing the blade into my own throat. Her surprise bought me a moment, and even as the blade sliced through me I unhinged my jaw, revealing my teeth for just a moment before my mouth snapped shut on her arm.

  With my vice-like grip secure, I began to drink deeply of her vitae. I used what I tore out of her grasp to heal my wounds even as I tore the dagger from her dead grip. Dusk tried to pull away, managing to drag me with her but not freeing herself from my grip.

  I pressed down harder and shook my head, part of me revelling in the bloodshed and the feeling of flesh tearing under my fangs. If I’d had lips I would have been grinning, but my mouth was otherwise occupied.

  Suddenly flush with vitae, I began to grow more teeth. Nothing meant to stay, simply there to make escape harder. I bulked up the muscle around my jaw too, biting down harder and harder as I reached out with one arm and grabbed her leg, tearing into it. I couldn’t help but relish the sensations, part of me feeling incredibly satisfied with the sudden turn of the fight.

  Dusk clearly saw how this was going as she brought her remaining dagger down on her own wrist, slicing it cleanly off. She hissed in pain as she did so but managed to free herself, stumbling back as she pulled free of my grip.

  Caught in the moment, I took her severed wrist and swallowed it whole, that deeper, instinctual part of me revelling in the act. It was only right to feast at the end of a hunt, wasn’t it?

  Dusk gathered her breath, once again standing with complete composure despite her narrow escape. Her matte black clothing was bloodstained and torn, and even as her arm writhed and reformed I could see her healing slowing down.

  In fact, I had managed to steal lots of her vitae. I hadn’t noticed when I had been busy, but she was definitely weaker than before. She looked it, too. Her flesh was getting paler by the moment, taking on a similar papery look to how Matthais had appeared, like it was desiccated and dead.

  Dusk stood perfectly still, clearly considering her options, so I spoke for the first time. “Leave. If I am prey, then you are no hunter.”

  She tilted her head. “So you do talk. Interesting. I wonder what you are, so close to my kind yet so far removed.”

  I hissed again as I stood. It just felt right in the moment. “And what is your kind, Dusk?”

  To my surprise, the intruder actually laughed. “Maybe not so intelligent after all. I give you all the pieces and you simply ask. No, you can figure that out for yourself.”

  I huffed and started towards her, prompting her to raise her hands, both of which were now whole again. The new one was ashen and dead, its nails sharp. “Now, now. I have some new information, thanks to you. It would be a shame if I didn’t get to report it. I do believe I’ll be seeing you later though. I was right, you were fun.”

  With that Dusk stepped backwards into a dim corner, simply twisting in on herself as her form turned shadowy and incorporeal. In an instant she vanished into shadow, the unnatural darkness of the room lifting and being replaced with early afternoon sunlight. A few moments later each of her daggers dissolved into wispy darkness, vanishing just like their wielder.

  I stopped in my tracks and turned to Cassie, seeing her lying unconscious against the wall. In an instant my head cleared and I rushed over, thoughts of predation and victory banished from my mind and replaced by concern.

  I placed a hand against her forehead, claws gone as I swept my vitae through her body. I couldn’t really see much wrong with her, aside from severe exhaustion and a couple of burst blood vessels. I flooded her body with vitae, now with plenty to spare from Dusk. Still, there wasn’t much I could do about the exhaustion but let her rest.

  I pushed a bit more vitae into her, just to be safe, then sat heavily against the wall next to her. I looked over the room, which was in a less than ideal state after our fight. The floor was covered in a mix of red and green blood, the drapes were torn and clawed, there were even a few claw marks in the floorboards and bed that I would need to claim responsibility for.

  As I thought over the fight, I considered the way that I had felt during it. Almost as soon as I had taken Dusk’s vitae I had been… feral, almost. The part of me that revelled in primal violence had felt so much closer the entire time. I still felt it in the back of my mind, howling in anguish that my chosen prey had escaped.

  I realised that when I’d had my jaws clamped onto Dusk, blood flowing down my throat as flesh was torn beneath my fangs, I had truly enjoyed it. Not the academic joy of learning more about biology or pride that came from improving with my sword. No, this was a more visceral kind of satisfaction, like a wolf catching up to an elk and dragging it to the ground after a long chase.

  It came from the same place that delighted in the feel of material parting beneath my many sharp edges and relished crushing things with powerful muscle. It was an antediluvian pleasure, instinctive and primal.

  Yet for as much as it was new, it was also mine. Perhaps it had been enhanced by Dusk’s vitae somehow, but it didn’t feel like the emotions the Observers had planted in me, surface level things loosely veiled over my mind. This welled up from somewhere deep, which was only now being put into practice.

  Is this a fey thing? I don’t remember many stories about them being bestial or savage, but I don’t really remember too many stories about them in general. I really need to find an expert or something.

  I put the memory of eating Dusk’s hand out of my mind and pressed on to the intruder herself. I assumed that Dusk was also ‘The One That Kills’, who the Revenant was supposed to be targeting next. The fact that it was Cassie and I that had been attacked told me that whoever was behind whatever the Revenant was involved in had noticed us, which was bad news.

  Our assailant was also an issue. Clearly, Dusk wasn’t human. Even putting aside the strange puppetry going on with her vitae, the unnatural healing, strength and speed all displayed that pretty prominently.

  Adding in the context of how her healing and strength had been affected by her vitae, as well as how she had recoiled from the light and what we had found in Matthais’ crypt, I was lead to a single highly likely conclusion.

  Dusk was a vampire.

  It explained the strange healing, the less-than-mortal resilience and strength and the weird vitae. I was glad that she had never been put in a position to use her shadow magic offensively, because I had a feeling my body wouldn’t react well to having vitae forcefully drained from it.

  I was a little frustrated that I hadn’t managed to kill her, but I was also a bit relieved. Unless she was significantly more powerful when she had her shadow magic, I didn’t see the Revenant losing to her in a one-on-one fight.

  Technically I hadn’t seen the Revenant in combat yet, but with the kind of magic they liked to casually throw about I had to imagine they knew some powerful combat magic too.

  As though thinking of it triggered some kind of alarm, none other than the Revenant themselves suddenly appeared in our room, bringing with them a brief wave of magic that had my whole body tingling for a few seconds.

  I huffed the moment I saw them. “I’m sorry, where exactly were you?”

  The Revenant said nothing, simply staring silently at the spot that Dusk had vanished from. Eventually they turned to me. “You Have Encountered The One That Kills. You Are Still Alive.”

  I wasn’t exactly happy with the Revenant, since Dusk was meant to be targeting them instead, but I didn’t want to risk annoying the undead revenge-monster with an unknown degree of power, so I just sighed and remained silent.

  “We Will Continue The Search. Congratulations On Your Continued Existence.” With that the Revenant gestured and vanished, having been here for less than a minute.

  “Yeah, thanks. Maybe don’t show up late next time,” I muttered. With a final sigh I stood up. I had a lot of cleaning up to do if I wanted to make nice with the owner of the Warg’s Fang, and probably not too long to do it in.

  remotely favourable position, rather than stuck in the light facing an unknown opponent.

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