Of Ravens and Murder: OM&N Volume 2

2012 - Pembroke, Maine

Reyna watched the house burn, the rising embers quickly getting lost in the sun. She wasn't too concerned, she'd been the one to start the fire and now she was waiting for the resident vampires to either burn inside their nest or out in the sun with her.
She didn't much care which they chose.
Eventually, the screaming stopped and she turned away; she had one more nest to exterminate that day and had a long drive ahead of her.

#

Reyna double-checked the stakes strapped to her forearm and the blade of her kukri again before climbing off her motorcycle and approaching the nest's front door. She kicked it in, jolting the nest's inhabitants into a state of panic, fear, and fierce hunger. She toyed with them, letting a few try to escape before nailing them to the blood-splattered walls with deadly accuracy.
Only one made her pause; this one had a gun trained on her chest the moment she stepped through the door.
It went off, the bullet tearing through her leather jacket like paper, the silver burning as it ripped through her chest just shy of her heart.
The pain pissed her off; she could panic about the brutal reminder of her own mortality later, right now she wanted the asshole in front of her dead.
Her speed enhanced by magic, she closed the gap in a split second, her hand ripping his undead heart from his chest before he had the chance to react. She bit into the flesh, wolfing it down in a short moment.
Then she was watching this house burn as well.
Reyna walked through the outskirts of Pembroke sore and still splattered with blood, torn between talking her way into a hotel for the night and simply climbing a tree. Her masked shadow dogged her steps as he had for almost a week now and Reyna had let him. He knew better than to pass up a chance like this; she was tired and injured and waiting for her to heal would be foolish even if attacking now went against his moral code. She paused on the sidewalk before an old derelict building that might've housed shops once, leaning heavily against a window and leaving a bloody handprint behind on the already dirty pane. He readied his scythe and lunged forward, but she dodged swiftly out of the way, gripping the shaft of his scythe and using his own momentum to throw him to the ground.

"You're smarter than the others, I'll give you that," she wore a delighted grin as he shook off his surprise and rolled back to his feet, watching her with wariness in his raven eyes. "Still foolish though."

"You're ego will be the death of you."

"My ego is well earned, as I'm sure you've heard," Reyna pulled the kukri from her belt, its handle and blade already slick with blood, "but by all means, do try." They lunged at each other at almost the same time.

#

Reyna and the Reaper stood just outside each other's reach, both bleeding and breathing heavily, though she still wore that infernal smirk; this was all a game to her and she'd finally found a playmate she didn't have to treat like porcelain.

"What's your name, Reaper?" He glared at her question, but he was a bit too much of a mess to have his desired effect when he leaned heavily on his scythe and had to keep one hand pressed to his eye in an attempt to slow the flow of blood from where she'd split it and the flesh around it.

"I don't have one," he finally muttered an answer and Reyna grinned wider.

"I think I'll call you Michael. Michael O'Brien." She offered a hand to him like she was about to shake on a deal, "Stay with me Michael, be my partner." Michael visibly hesitated, the look in his exposed eye like he was contemplating a deal with the Devil.
Of course, he couldn't very well return to the Reapers empty-handed and from what he'd seen and heard, her territory would be the safest place for him if he didn't want to constantly be on the move.

"Alright, fine." He agreed rather unhappily, shaking the bloody hand she offered as she flashed a grin befitting of a Soul Broker.