Himry's nearly headless body lay on the stone floor of the living room with Joan curled into a ball sobbing at his feet. "I didn't mean it…" She said as she rocked herself back and forth. "I didn't mean it. That wasn't me…"

Abruptly the corpse sat up sending Joan scrambling back against the wall in a blind panic. "What the fuck!?" She shouted. "You're dead!"

The drekan slowly cracked his neck from side to side before turning to face her. His half gone face didn't move but words still forced their way into her mind like icicles being shoved directly into her brain.

"Congratulations…" Rasped Himry. His voice now completely devoid of warmth,"You failed the simplest of tests. You murdered me."

"Fuck you!" Joan shouted. "That wasn't me!"

"Oh?" The corpse began to stand in a gross parody of a marionette, its arms spread wide and head ducked down low, knees bent at odd angles. It mimed putting a hand to what remained of its forehead as if searching. "Then who did this to me? I don't see anybody else here."

In a blind rage Joan kicked off from the wall and sliced at him with her vampirzahn, forcing it into the shape of a straight double edged sword with no guard. The corpse danced and ducked away from her cuts with unnatural grace. Then it began to laugh.

"You! Are! Not! Real!" Joan screamed as she slashed at the laughing corpse, trying to get out the words between the swings, trying to fight this demon in her head. She forced herself to look down at the floor, Himry's dead body still lay there undisturbed.

A lance of ice cold pain and weakness went up the inside of Joan's left thigh and arterial spray began to shower down over her dead lover.

"I'm a little real." Gershwin whispered in her ear as he reversed his blade and went for the other leg, cutting to the bone.

Joan collapsed forward like a puppet with her strings cut. She tried to slash at him but she had no mobility. Gershwin simply danced out of range.

She ripped a heal-stick from her plate carrier and stabbed it once into each wound. The cigar tube sized silver device delivered a mix of clotting agents and fresh uncorrupted nanomachines that stopped the bleeding instantly.

"Wow…" Gershwin said in mock shock from where he leaned against the concrete wall, his hand over his mouth. "You had that the whole time and you still let Himry kill himself? You really are a monster."

With a snarl Joan threw her vampirzahn at Gershwin, spearing him though the eye. He went limp, pinned to the wall. His body let out a few twitches and a thin stream of urine began to trickle down his leg.

Joan tried to call her weapon but it wouldn't return to her. It just stuck there in the wall. Cautiously she approached, her legs were healed enough that she could walk but every step was like being eaten alive by fire ants. Her muscles were still knitting back together.

When she was only a few feet away Gershwin's body disappeared. Joan lunged to grab her weapon, hoping that it wasn't an illusion too. For a brief moment as her fingers touched the cold black metal of the vampirzahn she felt hope. Then hope turned to fear as she realized that it no longer accepted her control. The blade would not budge from the wall.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Fine…" Joan turned around slowly. "If you're going to kill me, kill me. But please stop fu-"

Gershwin watched as Joan's head fell from her shoulders and hit the ground. He knew she could still hear him. Her wetware would keep her alive for a few seconds at least.

"I am putting you down because you are a fucking curse." Gershwin said, his voice raw with hatred though it was unclear if he hated her or himself more. "The hunds say that anyone can be redeemed. It's a core philosophy of theirs. But if they really believed that they would have stopped me. So instead I hold their lack of resistance as a sign of approval."

He glanced back at Himry's corpse. "I was going to let you live, let you keep on repeating the cycle of forgetting and remembering, killing then hiding. But then you went and murdered Himry." He picked Joan's head up by the hair and locked his poisonous yellow eyes on hers. "Blink if you understand why that was a bridge too far."

Slowly Joan blinked, tears welling in the corners of her iridescent green eyes.

Gershwin sighed as he prepared himself for what came next. "Once again I find myself being a sin eater for this family of ours. Doing the things nobody else will. Joan, I am sorry. But it has to be this way." Then he stabbed the black metal of his vampirzahn into the side of her head and killed Joan forever.

There was a sputtering cough as Himry lurched back to life. Gershwin slowly turned around, a look of annoyance on his face. "Your timing sucks." He growled.

The drekan was still worse for wear and his skull was clearly visible through the fur on the back of his head. One of his eyes was gone and the other was unfocused. "Technically correct." He muttered, still damaged and dazed.

Gershwin wondered if by some miracle the bullet had managed to avoid the one brain cell Himry needed to function. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"The Gravekeeper said I was technically correct. Which is the best kind of correct." Himry chuckled, drool and blood running down the corner of his mouth. "So I got to come back!"

He looked around, still not seeing. "Where's Joan?"

Gershwin considered his options and decided to gently set Joan's severed head in Himry's lap and walk away. The dazed drekan petted her hair softly. "It's all good." He said. "I'm all better."

Eventually Himry's higher brain functions would return and he would realize she was dead. But Gershwin would be long gone by then.

As the katzen known as Gershwin boarded his shuttle up on the roof a familiar warhund with gold rimmed eyes was waiting inside. It was Shiva and she was not happy with him.

"You have to rip the bandage off sometime." Gershwin said as he got into his seat and strapped in next to Shiva.

"She was family…" Shiva admonished. "More importantly she was a grandchild of Matriarch Oz."

"Yes. And she was also a monster. The universe is a better place without her in it. I'm tired of Grandfather Death's rules binding us to old sorrows." Gershwin looked down at the blood caking the fur on the backs of his hands. It was hard to tell what belonged to Joan and what was Kivu's.

"Eden's lineage is no longer exempt from justice. If one of them steps out of line they'll suffer the consequences the same as any other person." He declared. "They will no longer get special treatment."

Shiva considered his words. "You know that this will lead to war. It is inevitable. Unpreventable."

"Then strike first." Gershwin hissed. "That's what the humans would do."

Shiva nodded slowly. "I suppose they would. But that would be short sighted and not in the best interests of the hund collective. Besides, we have already voted against taking such actions against the humans. To do so would be to act against one of our core beliefs."

"You still think that the humans can be saved?" Gershwin laughed bitterly. "Where is the logic in that? Why should they be given a free pass to commit genocide after genocide? What of the rights of the dozens of species they have killed off completely?"

"You make a good point." Shiva said as she stabbed Gershwin in the heart with her vampirzahn. "But we have our reasons."

He looked down in surprise at the cold black metal knife sticking out of his chest. He tried to speak but could only gasp and gurgle. The blow had been brutal and efficient.

"We will revisit this conversation in a hundred years. But for now Matriarch Oz will have to accept your death as punishment for killing one of her grandchildren. War will be averted." Shiva pulled the blade out of Gershwin's chest and shoved it up through the underside of his chin into his brain.

"Sorry Gershwin." She said as the light left his evil yellow eyes and the vampirzahn ate his wetware. "You aren't going to drag us into a war with the humans that easily."'