#2

"KYSEREAN!"

The cave was dark, but moonlight filtering through a few open skylights allowed a dim perception of the objects strewn about. A large desk shoved against one wall; an old fashioned typewriter perched upon it; a large boulder- almost chair sized- sat in front; a leather jacket lay across it; books piled everywhere; a few candles and battery powered lanterns mingled amongst the books. A solitary stainless steel frame was braced against a wall, clothes on hangers draping down.

This was not a damp, moldy explorers cave but a home.

HER home.

In the back, where no light would enter, where the darkest shadows lie, she slept.
Until that piercing scream broke the still air.

An eye opened, glinting even in the dark, catlike pupils dilating. It moved. She moved. Hunkering up and stretching her limbs, her wings reached out touching each side of the cave simultaneously, the dragon was awake.

It. . . She shook her head. As it - she- awoke, remembering the prying cry of that scream that had disturbed her dreams, the scales flashed, not a blinding light but a dim, bluish glow, not even bright enough to scare away the shadows. The claws began to shrink, their color changed from a dark black blue to light, pale fingers. The nails, however, were still black. And sharp. The body, already thin and lithe, flattened and shortened, the legs coming closer to the arms and formed fingers. The back claws already becoming toes with black nails. The touch, strong ankles became soft and delicate looking, nonetheless they hid a superior strength. The wings pulled in, lost some of their expansive width, and closed in tight to the newly pink and fresh back. The crest on the dragons head became long, rich red hair- one of only two remaining signs of her true heritage. The blue light surrounding her face pulsed and faded away, leaving a stubby nose, high cheek bones, and arcing eyebrows. Her eyes were the last to change- they retained their catlike pupils for several minutes. The surrounding iris was green, a vivid emerald shade. It changed with her mood, sometimes a lighter green apple when she was in a jovial mood, and a dark hunter green when she was angry, or on the prowl. As now.

She looked around herself, listening for the scream again. She gathered her implements. Her sword, her coat, and her boots. She jabbed the extra knife she carried in to it's hidden sheath in her right boot. She checked to be sure that she was indeed fully clothed. She'd forgotten to check one night and had rushed out, eager for a fight, only to find that her clothes had not morphed back with her after her slumber. Despite her open vulnerability, she'd dispatched several of her prey that night with ruthless glee. Or perhaps it was because of her mistake.

Either way, they were dead and she'd gone home satisfied.

She ran out of the cave and jumped, holding her jacket in her arms, and spread her wings and flew quickly towards the city.

"KYSEREAN!"

The scream blasted her hard in her mind. It distracted her from her flight, and she fell, her wings wrapping around her from the pain. It took a second to recover. She breathed in and out quickly, letting the pain go, and spread her wings again. None too soon, as the rocks below were becoming dangerously easy to see.

She flew hard towards the city, the picture the scream left in her mind bright before her eyes. The roof of a skyscraper, flashing neons signs leaving reflections on the victim's face. Terror captured on her face as though in a picture.

Dammit, she cursed herself. I don't have much time. She pushed herself harder, siphoning each bit of speed she could out of her wings. Harder, faster, have to get there NOW!

Seven and a half minutes later, surely a new record for her semi-human form, she reached the building. She landed on the roof, scanning the area for the woman. She ran as she spotted a lump of some kind on the ground.

"Oh, God, oh God no, no." She cried as she reached the body.

The body was on it's side, it's hair hiding it's face, the arm bent backwards in a horrific angle.

She gentle pulled it over, careful to bend the arm back to the front. The sound of the broken bones rubbing against each other tortured her ears. The hair fell away, showing a blood streaked face, half ripped away. It's thrown was gone. The eye left in it's socket stared up at her, accusing her, branding her with it's death.

"No, no, no. Tabitha, no. Oh, Tabitha. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." She kept murmuring over and over to the corpse as she ran her fingers through it's hair.

She'd lost all thought of the hunt, Tabitha's killer gone from her mind for a moment in her grief. Tabitha had been her only real mortal friend. She'd actually spent time with Tabitha, and had even gone to see a movie with her. The only sense of normalcy she'd ever experienced in her life. And it had been thanks to this woman, who was lying dead in her arms.

The grief ripped through her in waves, each seeming to batter her a little less. Quickly, the wave of grief was replaced with anger, with seething rage that threatened to boil out of her in flame.

She couldn't calm it down, the fire would come this time regardless of her will, so she turned her face towards the sky, and screamed agonizingly, the fire singing her hair as it always did, and evaporating the tears that seeped from her eyes.

Once it had been released, the fire was tranquil; it'd lost it's strength for the moment. She looked back at her dead friend's face. She leaned down and kissed her forehead, and shut her remaining eye. She paused for a moment and concentrated, holding a hand over her friend's shattered skull and face. Slowly the pieces came together again, skin pulled up and seemed to be sewn back together, the eye that had been dangling by it's nerve clumsily jerked back to it's natural place.

She could not bring her friend back, but she could at least let her be remembered for her beauty, and not let the ravages wrought by that beast torture her in her death.

She placed her head on the tarred roof's floor, carefully to not disturb the work she'd just finished. It wouldn't hold forever, but it didn't have to. It'd hold long enough, and then it would be undone by decay despite her greatest efforts.

She reached down and closed the corpse's eyes, and then stood up. She took one last look at her friend, and then turned away. She picked up her coat from where she'd dropped it, and took a deep, deep breath.

She could smell the creature. It left a scent trail that stunk in her nose, that no amount of cheap toilet cologne it wore could cover.

She yanked the door to the stairwell open, ripping the locks off the inner wall and the door off the hinges. She looked at the door she held in her hand, and threw it to the side. It bounced and clattered.

The stairwell was dark. It almost reminded her of her cave, with it's homey shadows and lightless corners. But that smell taunted her. She stepped in but stopped. Her hand on the doorjamb, her head tilted to the side as though she wanted to look back over her shoulder one last time. She didn't. She gritted her teeth, and grinned maliciously in the last glint of the light.

She walked across the landing, and stepped down into the dark.


*****

Okay, that stretched on a little longer than I intended. Hope it's okay. Tell me what you think.