Adamayurka's Hunt

Chapter Six

I was determined to do everything in my power before turning to Tokar for help, so I decided to expend some of my aggression hunting for the creature. I hadn't made it very far though, when I caught a whiff of the scent that had occupied center stage in my life for the last five years. He was here now, somewhere in the street surrounding me, and even though I now knew what he looked like, I still couldn't pick him out from amongst those around me.

I strained my eyes to see into the shadows cast by the buildings and stared hard into the mouths of the alleys. I couldn't see anything.

"Adamayurka,"said a husky voice from the mouth of the alley right beside me.

I jumped, and a second later my sword was unsheathed and I was doing my best to hide my embarrassment over the fact that he'd made me jump like a frightened school girl. I was pretty sure I wasn't fooling him though -- he would have smelled the spike of fear.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed, hoping a show of bravado would make him forget my initial reaction.

"I have some information for you," he said.

I was surprised by how soft his voice was, and by the fact that there wasn't a trace of either mockery or condescension in it.

"It couldn't wait until I came to you?" I asked, dropping the bravado act and just talking, the same way he was.

A soft chuckle drifted out of the dark alley. "From the look of things, you have no intention of coming to me unless there is absolutely no other option," he said, stepping out of the shadows so that I could see him.

I sheathed my sword. "And you seem intent on following me, no matter how clear I make it that I find the habit distasteful," I replied, unable to help the edge that crept into my voice.

To my surprise, he winced. "There is a reason for that," he said. "It is one of the things that I was hoping to talk to you about tonight."

He took a step forward and I shot my arm out to stop him from moving any further.

"Do you smell it?" I asked, without moving my hand from in front of him.

The pressure of Tokar trying to move forward vanished and I dropped my arm as he began ostentatiously sniffing the air. Within seconds he was growling low in his throat.

"It's everywhere," he said, his words still full of the low, throaty growl that had begun as soon as he'd caught scent of the creature.

I shook my head and pointed toward the very poorest section of the city.

"It's strongest in that direction," I said.

Tokar turned to look at me and raised an eyebrow.

I looked steadily back at him. "I do this for a living," I said. "If you don't want to believe me, that's your problem. I'm going this way." I jerked my head in the direction I had pointed. "You can go wherever you'd like."

I unsheathed my sword and started pushing my way through the crowd, following the creature's odd scent as I went. Mere seconds later, I could both hear and smell Tokar following close behind me.

As the crowds thinned, we were able to detect stronger areas of scent where the creature had spent some time. Working in unspoken accord, one of us would remain behind to investigate such an area, while the other continued on, so as not to lose the trail.

At each place where the creature spent any length of time, we found the same thing – a person, seemingly drained of blood, with two puncture marks somewhere on their body, tossed into an alley and clumsily covered in refuse.