Demon of DelMane 1

It was a lovely day in the bustling desert city of DelMane, a shining utopia in a sea of sand and rubble of times past. Humans and Hybrids alike live their lives normally, with no memory of the past demons that brought this world to where it is now, and some people would like to keep it this way. One of these people is a human male named Sable Crosshairs, a detective of the DelMane Police Department, sworn to keep the peace and make sure those times never return. Little does he know, there's evil growing in on these peaceful streets he calls home that will threaten to undo the progress many have made, and will cause Sable to take on something greater than him. He will have to do this to save himself and the people of this city, and this is were our story begins.

Standing in a local convenience store, Sable was staring at the drink section trying to figure out what he wanted,

"Oh Sable..." A voice came from behind, the human turning around to see that it was his partner, Kimba Shortmain, a lioness hybrid whom he had been partnered with for quite sometime now and has grown quite fond of. Kimba stood there before him in her standard issue uniform with her tail swishing back and forth while she held something behind her back with a smile on her face,

"Yes Kimba?" Sable asked in reply to the hybrid who then brought the thing she had been hiding, a bag with a label reading 'Uncle Sam's Human Jerky'. Sable looked at the bag then back up to her smirk,

"You know how I feel about you eating that stuff around me, right?"

"Doesn't take away how delicious it is." Kimba replied, biting down on the top of the bag in the cutest of manner. Sable just chuckled and turned to open up one of the frig doors, pulling out a soda, then went to walk past her,

"Oh fine, now come on, we're still on duty." Kimba celebrated a little as she followed behind up to the counter, placing her item beside Sable's and waited for him to pay,

"You know you love spoiling me; you did offer to buy anyways." She rubbed his hip with hers and Sable just chuckled as he handed money to the clerk and handed Kimba her jerky,

"Yeah yeah..." Was all he said as he picked his drink up and made his way to the front door, stepping out onto the side walk. It was true he cared for Kimba, but not in the way she thought, it was more of a brother/sister type thing with him being the older of the two. He's told her that on multiple occasions, but she was very persistent on the matter.

The two walked down the walkway together, Sable keeping a lookout for anything out of the ordinary while the lion girl bit into a hunk of dried meat she just pulled out of the newly obtained pouch. The human cracked up his soda and took a swig when all the sudden, a scream rang out from nearby, the two quickly looking in the direction it came from. Just a little piece down on the other side of the road they saw a small crowd starting to form. Sable glanced over at Kimba,

"Let's go." The cat nodding and they both rushed across the street, running down towards the commotion. When they got there, the crowd looked like it was forming at the entrance to what looked like a narrow alleyway and from what the duo heard, human and hybrid alike were gasping in fright at whatever they were looking at. The two officers walked up behind them all, trying to find a way through,

"What do you think it could be, Sable?" Kimba asking, looking over at her partner who looked agitated,

"Don't know, but we're gonna find out." He then lounged forward, pushing his way through the densely packed crowd,

"Alright, spread out, police coming through!" Kimba followed closely behind, not wanting to be stuck on this side.

Pushing through to the other side, the two officers stood in front to the crowd and right there on the ground being lit up by the morning sun was what looked to be the bloody severed head of a human male. The lioness gasped at the sight but Sable was unfazed as he reached into the pocket of his dark grey trench coat pulling out a flashlight to illuminate the rest of the alleyway that was obscured by shadows. When he turned it on, the mass of people behind them erupted in gasps and muttering, the beam hit on the rest of the body, at least what was left of it, it was mangled beyond recognition; blood was everywhere on the ground and splattered against the walls.

"Get these people out of here." Sable told his partner as he walked forward to inspect the corpse. Kimba nodded, turning around to the crowd,

"Everyone, this is a crime scene, you're going to have to leave." While she was busy trying to disperse the gathering, Sable walked up to the grizzly scene, his nose curled up with the smell of blood becoming almost unbearable, which was a telltale sign that this was fresh, most liking killed last night. He reached up to the bandanna he wore around his neck and pulled it over his nose and mouth so he could bear the fumes.

"Geez, someone had a night last night." He said to himself, shinning his light down at the torn up body. At first glance, it looked like an animal had gotten a hold of him with how the man was ripped apart, there were stray dogs that roamed the city at night, but they'd usually only eat scraps they found in the trash and have never gone after a person before, human or hybrid. Then Sable spotted something out of the ordinary on the body and reaching into his other pocket the detective pulled out a glove, he put his light in his mouth for a second as he slipped the glove on his right hand, and then knelt down to pick up a small, flat object. Bringing it up, Sable shown his light on object as he held it in the palm of his gloved hand; it kind of looked like an arrow head and about the size of one too, but at closer inspection it was actually a scale, a reptile one at that and wiping it some his thumb he show that was a dark shade of crimson. Before he could think of the possibilities of this though, Sable's thought process was interrupted by the sound of sirens and he turned to see Kimba talking with some other cops at the entrance of the alley.

Pulling his bandanna back down, Sable back out of the alley where Kimba walked up to him,

"Did you find anything?"

"Nothing much to come to any conclusions, we'll have to wait for an autopsy report." He replied holding up the scale to her,

"We'll need this tested as well." The cat looked at it in curiosity,

"What is it?" She asked and Sable was about to answer when he was interrupted by a loud yell,

"Sable!" The two looked to see the police chief William getting out of a cruiser and walking up to them,

"Hey chief, what brings you here?" Sable asked in a chuckle, knowing the chief, who was a big German Shepard, didn't usually come out on calls,

"I was in the area when the call went out and decided to come." The canine straightened up his shirt before looking the human in the eye,

"The hell is going on here, precinct's saying calls have coming in left and right about a body being found?"

"Have a look for yourself." Sable replied before shining his light back down the alley and the chief got a look of disgust at the sight he saw,

"Gods, the hell could have done that?"

"Don't know, from the looks of it, an animal, but I did find this one the body." Sable held up the scale, William looking at it with a hand on his chin,

"Doesn't look to be from any animal I've ever seen, looks like it's from a reptile." William then looked at Sable,

"But those don't exactly run wild on the streets."

"It could be a hybrid." Kimba chimed in, the two looking at her before Sable poked the top of her head with his finger,

"Why good work, Kimmy, there's a brain inside that head after all." He said in a joking manner,

"But she is right, though." Sable continued, looking back at the chief,

"It could very much be a hybrid, though I've never seen one able to make the kind of marks I saw on that body, also looked like there was some of it missing, but we have to consider every possibility."

William thought about it for a moment, looking down the alley as he did then looked back at them,

"Alright, you two are in charge of this, and matter how small; you bring any evidence or information to me." He then pointed at the scale,

"And get that to the lab to get it tested, got it, if anything will prove what did this, that will."

"Will do, chief." Sable said as he was about to turn and leave but then William grabbed his shoulder,

"And Sable, I know you're an experienced detective and all, but you are a human, and I would hate for you to ask the wrong question to the wrong hybrid if you catch my drift." Sable just chuckled, knowing William was only looking out for him,

"I think I can manage, come on Kimba." The two walked off and the canine just smirked, knowing the human could indeed handle himself, but still, he hasn't worked on too many cases involving hybrid, he just hopes Sable's up for the challenge. The chief then turned around to the other cops at the scene,

"Alright, I want this place taped off and this body gotten out of here, now!"

As the two walked down the sidewalk, Sable reached into his back pocket, pulling out a plastic baggy and dropped the scale in, putting it in his inside coat pocket. He then reached up and adjusted the brim of his hat that he always wore,

"Well, this'll certainly be an interesting one, wouldn't you say?" He glanced over at Kimba, who turned her nose up with a huff,

"Oh, what's your problem?"

"You didn't have to insult me in front of the chief like that." She replied in an irritated tone and Sable just laughed as he put his arm over her shoulder, bringing her in for a hug,

"Oh, you know I was just joking, you're a very smart kitty." The feline smiled, not being able to stay mad at the human, Sable was a very serious individual, but he was also a very kind one, that's why she loved him so much, she just wished he would have to same feeling for her,

"Fine, I'll forgive you this time, but next time you won't be so lucky."

"That's more like it." Sable replied with smile, letting her go as they continued to walk, then Kimba looked at him,

"So what are we gonna do now, we got this new case and we got no leads?"

"Well that's easy, we put our boots to the ground and find them, which means..." Sable looked over to her with a smirk,

"We got work to do."