3 A Meeting of Monsters

I wake long after the sun breaks into the sky. I slide away from the bed, careful not to wake the sleeping girl beside me. Today, I feel much better than I had the past few days. I leave a small bag of coins next to the bed and sneak out of the inn.

Astruwen is five hours out and the meeting is perhaps two. I take off immediately, if I were to be late, the rest of the demons would surely bite my head off and I wasn't in the mood to fend off each of their verbal attacks.

I watch the world below me quickly pass by, mostly trees and a few homes dotted here and there. Any towns and cities were scarce in this part of the continent but over the centuries, slowly, too slowly, humans have built their hovels and grew them to more elaborate buildings with gold and iron burnishing and grew them larger with shops and all manner of rabble. Though I likely shouldn't talk down on it as it keeps us demons fed and as the humans populate further the stories of demons are buried and remembered as silly tales and bedtime stories to be feared.

Truth be told humans also kept us entertained. I always preferred the company of humans rather than demons, though my loyalties will always lie with demons. It is wired to me in an odd way that humans could never understand. Never understand the cold touch of loneliness, the solitude of immortality or the substantial fear of death. For death is different for sinful creatures, surely.

I turn my mind away from such depressing subjects as the metropolis of Astruwen comes into view. Astruwen is truly the capital of the world. It is a sprawling expanse of steel buildings that pierce the skies. A competition of who can reach the stars first. A city unlike any other.

Once, it had been a small port town that got by on trade and now has flourished into a metropolis of business and manufacturing. It is the shift the world 'needed' or so humans said.

The cityscape is truly one to behold. A whole other universe compared to the rest of the world outside of it. Not to mention the unearthly amount of gold went into building this ridiculous but awestriking metropolis. The sheer size went on for miles, as far as the eye could see.

I swept down eyeing the building Silas had said the meeting would take place. It will be the tallest building in the city. It has a safe spot for landing for those with... wings. I knew he didn't mean me.

He didn't exactly say where in this building I should go but I went with it anyways. The building itself was indeed the highest point in the city and, like the other buildings, made of steel. Unlike the other buildings this building has many, many more windows.

I land swiftly on the rooftop and see what seems like a conservatory room on the rooftop. I admire the sheer beauty of such a place among all the grey buildings.

I debate glamouring myself to appear mostly human but decide against it in the end. Let them see me for who I truly am, after all, there was no need to hide myself from the other monsters. Horns, fangs, tail, wings, talons, and those red unsettling eyes of mine. I had ditched the pair of boots I'd been wearing at the inn earlier that day for my own bare feet and had changed into a red gown that flattered my figure with slits that exposed some of my legs.

As I walked towards the open room, I noticed the air shift, the amount of hostility in the room was nearly toxic to breathe in. I stood on the threshold debating whether or not it was too late to leave.

There were a total of thirteen bodies in the room, each vastly different. They were each seated in a chair spaced out around a large table that is hollow in the center.

The humans are easy to pick out, two men, one maybe a decade or two older than the other judging by the desolate look in his eyes. The younger one is visibly nervous; his knee bouncing up and down and hands slightly shaking as he taps them along said knees. Next to them on their right are two faeries, neither whom I know. A young girl of fuchsia coloring and an older gentleman of blueberry coloring. Then, there were the shifters. The man and woman purely human in appearance. Next to them were the Seraphim. All three seemingly self-important and made of pure corded muscle and white angelic wings of feathers. Oddly enough three vampires were seated beside them, steam almost visibly rising from all three's ears. I recognized them in one instantly tiresome glance; Silas, Roza and Zerophiel. And finally, was the serene witch. She appeared to be in complete tranquility; her eyes closed either waiting for the discussion to start or asleep. Perhaps both.

"Reyna," Silas' voice booms throughout the room, "please come join us." You're late. His voice bites through my bones, inside the walls of my mind. I threw him an unapologetic smile and cross the room.

I took a seat in the only spot that was available in the room, between the young human boy and the witch. The seat was perfectly comfortable and plush, but I kept my head up and back straight not wanting to appear weak among them.

Silas begins. "Now that we've all arrived. Let us discuss the cause as to why we are gathered here today. As a few of you have noticed demons have started to go missing as well as many have been found dead in various parts of the continents."

"While some of you may not be as worried, others have lost those close to them. Ciaran has lost many of his children as well as many friends within the last few years. Luna and Francis have also lost many shifters, some among their own pack. I, too, have seen some of my own come to such an unfortunate fate. That is why we must take initiative and ascertain what or who is killing off our peoples."

"What I don't understand is why those humans are here. Not only do they hunt down demons, but they also don't have any business being here." A Seraphim, Eros, if I remembered correctly, spoke.

"It is our duty to hunt your kind down when they recklessly kill humans." The older human responds. He was a picture of calm while his associate was just a mess of nerves.

"Quiet, Eros." Haniel, another Seraphim. "What my brother so rudely meant was why must we involve the humans in our affairs?"

"Thank you, Haniel. These humans, Hunters, as they are called, are excellent at tracking down demons who mindlessly kill humans. I believe it would be beneficial to us if we asked them to help us in this 'affair' of ours. They have graciously agreed to help us uncover what is behind the deaths of our people."

A shifter girl turns to look at the humans accusingly, "What's in it for you, humans? Maybe it is you who are killing off our people."

"If it truly are humans who are killing demons then we will have them rightly dealt with, I promise you." The old man told her.

"Promises mean nothing coming from you." The shifter harrumphs.

Zerophiel turns to me from the seat next to the witch who still has her eyes closed, the first time he's looked at me since I arrived. "Reyna, I hear your kind is near extinction."

"That is what I hear."

"Why not take care of the problem then?"

"I do not understand the words coming out of your mouth." Wanting him to say it. The words coming out of his mouth fully.

Silas mutters something that sounds like "oh gods" under his breath.

Zero has a smug look on his face. "I mean make a few demons, reproduce some more of your kind."

From across the room I hear, "Gods know we need more of their kind."

I am there one instead and gone the next, halfway across the room a hand around Eros' neck. I lean in close to his ear, my nails digging into his throat. "Say it loud and clear, boy. I will rip out your throat and eat it whole. Do not test me." I squeezed his throat once, hard before I am back in my seat again.

Eros was clutching his throat, beautiful red markings where my fingers had been.

Haniel closed her lovely mildew-colored eyes as if ready to give up any second. "I apologize for my brother's, once again, rude behavior. He doesn't have any manners and will be severely punished when we return home."

"He clearly has not spent a night with a succubus. If he had, he'd not wish them extinct. They're truly magnificent creatures. Isn't that right, Reyna?"

It was my turn to be irritated. But it was truly my own fault for having lent any shred of attention to Zero in the past. I sighed, "It is not fully known whether my kind have truly gone extinct, we are solitary creatures for the most part and dislike being found by others." I wished I hadn't been found. If only to spare me from having to converse with these heathens.

I caught a glimpse of something glimmering coming from the center of the table. I leaned forward slightly to see a kind of reflection pool at the center sloshing from side to side but narrowly missing from spilling over. The water itself is an assortment of hues of blue seemingly swirling playfully around each other.

Then, something unexpected occurs; images start forming, one after another they begin changing. Some I recognize from past events in my life others are unknown. A little girl chasing a boy through a field of wildgrass. The same girl slightly older alongside humans battling other humans covered in gore and blood. The girl crowned queen. The queen running from her responsibilities. The runaway queen, now only a woman, living in a cottage in a different country, a beautiful raven-haired woman in her bed tangled in each other's limbs. The woman years or centuries later, alone wandering the planet. The woman chatting with the man she does not trust. Then the woman with the same raven-haired woman only this time; they are arguing the woman is trying hard to not to cry but ultimately ends up losing, just as she ends up losing the raven-haired woman who she has loved deeply all these years. The woman battling once again only this time against dark creatures, and with her demons. Then, the woman lying upon a stone-cold room, blood pooling around her. The woman is alive but not much longer, she is dying, she is will be dead. The woman is me. Most of these events have already transpired.

I look to my right where the human boy has stilled and is looking directly at the reflection pool. He does not turn from it.

To my left, the witch has opened her eyes and is staring at me. I look around to see if anyone else has seen the stream of images in the reflecting pool but everyone else is caught in a heated argument or discussion, I cannot be certain.

I turned back to the witch and narrow my eyes at her. She has a celestial aura to her that I can't quite place. She is beautiful, as all demons are made of the same dark and dwelling thoughts as they are meant to be. But witches are not demons to be exact. Witches are more closely related to the devils that created demons. Sisters of the devils. That does not however mean that I would go calling every witch I see my aunt. They would burn me into a crisp corpse before they would associate their kind with a demon. Witches associate with the earth which they feed on or any other number of elements.

Despite this, everything about her appearance seems to defy nature. Her hair is of bone white and her skin of dark mahogany and her eyes are of lilac. Even so, the ancient woman appeared not so ancient. Youthful as all that are immortal appear.

"Then we are settled then." I heared Silas' voice rumble through the room.

I completely ignored the whole discussion. In all earnest, I didn't particularly care in these matters as long as I get to leave sometime soon. Home, or somewhere new.

Somewhere far away from everyone and everything.

Alone.