I’d been kept in the basement of an abandoned building not far from Xico’s. The Warren: perfect for all your kidnapping needs. On the way back to Xico’s, I got some funny looks, but no one said anything. That was the nice thing about the Warren: no one ever said anything.

I flung open the door to Xico’s and walked upstairs. I laid Red on the table and unwrapped her neck. It was healing, but the wound was still open. I washed it out, applied some medicinal herbs, and wrapped it back up with proper bandages. It didn’t bleed through immediately, which was a good sign. I wasn’t a doctor, but to me, that signaled she was going to recover. Or she ran out of blood. Either way, I’d done all I could.

I picked her up just as Xico came home, carrying bags of groceries. She came upstairs and nearly dropped them when she saw me, covered in blood and ash, carrying an injured Hunter over my shoulder.

“Hi,” I said. I went into my room and laid Red down on my bed. I came back out to see Xico still standing there.

“Get Char over here,” I said. “Tell her to bring Lavin, if she’s still alive.” I told her the address where Lavin and I had stayed, and I went to the bathroom.

I heard Xico leave the apartment in a hurry. Funny to think that not long ago, she was poisoning my meals. Any regular person, no, regular Hunter would’ve died a dozen times over. I briefly wondered how I survived. Then, I realized that my survival was probably yet another sign of abnormal demonic powers manifesting. Great.

I drew a bath and scrubbed myself until I felt clean. My body was covered in burn scars, as well as the usual scars, but they were all a bit fainter than I remembered. The burn scars themselves were definitely fading, seemingly rubbing off with the dirt and blood. I sighed and sunk into the hot water, letting it warm me all the way to my aching bones.

I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, Char shook me awake. I sat up in the now cold water, shivering. I muttered a heating hex, and the water grew warm again. I sank back down into the bath, letting the warmth flow back into me.

Char just stood there, staring at me.

“What?” I asked.

That was clearly a mistake, because she started yelling.

“Where have you been?!” and “Where did you go!?!” and “I was so worried!” and “I thought you’d died!” and all that. I tuned it out and tried to enjoy the warm water. It wasn’t that hard, honestly. My muscles didn’t ache quite so badly anymore and my bones weren’t so sore. It felt nice.

Finally, Char stopped yelling and I noticed she was crying. I stood up and grabbed a towel. I stepped out of the bath and drained the water. Char began to sob.

I dried myself off and wrapped Char in a hug. She continued to cry.

“I’ve got good news and bad news,” I whispered.

She kept crying.

I led her by the hand to my room. She took one look at Red, who was sleeping on my bed, and stopped crying.

Sniffling, she asked, “Is that a fixer?”

“Yep.”

“Are they who took you?”

“Yep.”

She turned to me, and her eyes narrowed.

“Did you learn anything that relates to our case? Or is this all just, I don’t know, a side mission?”

I laughed and pulled on a shirt.

“It doesn’t help the case,” I said, “but it’s important nonetheless.”

A part of me didn’t want to tell her. I knew what she’d do, because I knew her. But she deserved to know.

So, I told her. I spared no detail.

When it was all over, she sat down and just stared at the wall for a good fifteen minutes. I didn’t say anything; I knew what she was thinking. I was thinking about it too.

Her situation was a bit worse than mine. If there can be a worse situation for finding out you’re actually a devil.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Unlike me, Char had a family. Mine had all died when I was a boy, which is why I’d joined the Hunter’s Guild. She was from a burgher family: new wealth and not too much of it. She’d become a Hunter as a way of rebellion, and it had just stuck.

“Let me guess,” I said, breaking the silence. “In your head, you’re saying, ‘I killed Elaine Char.’”

Char nodded.

“You’re saying to yourself, ‘My family, I killed their daughter. Hells, they’re not even my family.’ You’re doubting everything you’ve thought, felt, and believed since you got the Mark. You’re thinking you’re a demon.”

Char began to cry again. I wrapped my arm around her and held her close. After a while, she stopped and took a deep breath.

“You’re remarkably composed,” she said.

I smiled slightly and shrugged.

“I think…I think a part of me is relieved.”

Char didn’t say anything.

I held her a bit tighter and continued, “I…I’ve seen and…and done so many things. And not just in the Last War…but my entire life. I’ve fought and I’ve killed and, I don’t know. I’d always wondered how I’d done it, so it’s a bit comforting to know I’m not human. Makes sense, in a way. But on the other hand, I know that’s wrong.”

Char glanced at Red, who was as still as a corpse, then back at me.

“Do you remember the first time you killed someone?” she asked.

“Yeah. I was thirteen.”

“Oh.”

“Can’t blame the demon for that,” I said.

“No,” Char muttered.

I shrugged.

“During the Last War, I killed a lot. And I woke up one day and realized that I could kill another soldier, and another, and another, and I could kill soldiers until my gun broke, and it wouldn’t make a difference. I’d just have more blood on my hands.”

Char didn’t say anything. She just grabbed my hand and held it in hers. Her hand shook slightly as she clenched my fingers between hers.

“I’d probably be dead by now if you hadn’t recalled me,” I said.

“I know.”

I stood up.

“Let’s talk to Lavin.”

“About us?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head, “just, you know… About the case. She doesn’t need to know about…the other stuff.”

“Fair enough.”

I patted Char on the back and walked out of the room. Char followed me out and we found Lavin talking to Xico. They were chatting away, getting along famously. A twince of envy ran through my stomach.

“Right, we’ve got some breaks in the case. But also more problems,” I said, sitting down next to Lavin.

Lavin looked at me, a bit nervous.

“Char had to fight off some of Barkley’s men as we were leaving,” she said. “What happened?”

“It’s alright, it’s alright,” I said, dismissively. Char joined us at the table. “Let’s go over the situation. What we know.

“First, there’s someone supplying people with monsters. Even a noble like Barkley shouldn’t have had access to a minotaur and a hellhound.”

“What about my brother?” Lavin said.

“I’m getting to that,” I said. I tapped the table for a second, thinking. “Best guess, the military used their Kurtadams to kill your brother, to intimidate you. But the Guild is also in on this, as is Lord Barkley, who seems like he’s operating independently. So is your brother, who was doing something for Trieste-Vellan.”

“Trieste-Vellan?” Lavin said.

“Yeah, a big bank, they have a branch uptown.”

“No, I know who they are,” she said, a grimace spreading across her face. “It makes sense they’d be a part of this. They’re deeply involved in lobbying against the Pacifist Constitution.”

“Do they have any military connections?”

Lavin shook her head.

“None that I know of. They have a sort of…rivalry.”

“Trieste-Vellan has a lot of money in mercenary companies,” Char explained, “the military doesn’t like private armies.”

I leaned back in my chair and began to think. Gerry Teralt had been killed, likely to try and intimidate Lavin. The military had done that. And at the same time, they’d stopped a plot by Gerry and Trieste-Vellan. Had they known? Or had they just unwittingly stopped their designs?

I needed to figure out a lot. In no particular order:

I had to figure out what Gerry and Trieste-Vellan were planning. It had to be a way of sabotaging the Pacifist Constitution, but how?

I had to find where the military was getting the magic to turn their soldiers into Kurtadams. That was some serious arcane power, not common hedge magic. If I had to bet, there would be collaborators in one of the universities or even the Mages Guild.

I had to make sure that they didn’t have any more plans to take out Lavin. The military didn’t react well to failure and they weren’t afraid to just throw body after body at a problem until it was resolved. I should know, I was one of those bodies in the Last War.

I had to do all of that while avoiding Guild capture, as well as find out what the Guild was planning.

Finally, and simultaneously least and most important, I had to figure out this me-being-a-demon business.

Great. So much for a relaxing slip into retirement.

I stood up. All eyes in the room immediately darted to me.

“Right,” I said. “Someone make sure the fixer I brought in is chained up. I’ve got to see a man about a Constitution.”

“Anything we can do?” Char asked. Lavin and Xico nodded along in agreement.

I rubbed my chin and smiled. I knew just how they could help.