The Hunt

"Spectacular way o' mee'in' people, ya've go'."

The strong smell of whiskey and the putrid smell of filth nearly suffocated Lina as she struggled against the man holding her. He had one arm wrapped tightly around her waist, pressing her ever closer, and the other blackened, dirty hand was caressing her face. She cringed at the thought of the filth being left behind on her cheek and pushed harder against the man.

"Leave me alone!"

"Wha's a prime lass li'e you doin' in a place like 'is?" He chuckled darkly as his catch struggled against him. She wanted him and he knew it. He turned to his two friends who were still warming themselves by the fire in the trash bin. " 'Ey boys lookit wha' I've go' for us tonigh'. Seems to me li'e 'is prime lass wants her fill o' a real ha'd workin' man. Mayhap when I'm through wi' her you can ha'e a go too."

"Leave me alone."

"Wha' you fin' ya goin' do if I don'?"

As his hand came up to caress her face, Lina bit him with all the strength she could muster.

"Fuck!" The man hastily released Lina, dropped his whiskey bottle, and retreated back a few paces. He looked at the blood dripping from his dirt covered hand and chuckled menacingly. "Ya goin' pay fo' that, trollop." He ripped off a piece of his filthy, tattered shirt and wrapped it around his wounded hand. He straightened his back and smiled, revealing brown, rotting teeth.

Lina held her ground as he heatedly advanced. "I suggest you leave me alone."

The man faltered and then stopped, confused at the gall of the small woman before him. "Ya sca'ed of me, poppet?" He laughed loudly. "Ya ain' go' nothin' to be sca'ed o' yet." He took another step forward. "When I'm through wi' ya, then mayhap you'll ha'e somethin' ta be sca'ed o'."

"This is your last warning. One more step and it'll be the end of you."

He took a step. "Wha' –"

Before the word ended, before the sound was finished coming out of his throat, before his mind could finish mapping out the sentence, he was hers. Time had slowed so much that she could have left that spot and lived for centuries before the word was out of his mouth. She could have counted every visible hair on his body ten times over and then some before the word had finished.

Lina smiled at the unaware man before her. "You wanted to know what I was doing here? I'm on a hunt for bad blood, for dark hearts, for black souls. And you, dear sir, are exactly what I need. Granted, you don't even know that I'm speaking to you right now and you won't know what happened when I'm through.. but that doesn't too much matter. I actually quite enjoy the look of utter confusion and sheer horror when my victims see what I've stolen from them."

With inherent ease, she thrust her hand forward, sending out her Aich, her soul, and stole from the man the thing he needed most to be alive. He needed it to live, but she needed it to survive. Without it, she would be nothing more than a quasi-mage at best, an outright fraud at worst. His evil was her sustenance. His blood was her wine. She chuckled, and as the sound reverberated through the dimly lit alley, time rushed upon the world once more.

The word never finished. The sound never left his throat. The thought never completed. His eyes angled ever so slightly downward at what Lina was holding in her bloody, gore-covered hand.

It was his heart.

And she was eating it.