Stephanie had been mildly annoyed when she heard Liam’s yell, until she noticed the panic in the tone as he charged towards her from the other end of the block. It was in that moment, that her hairs rose on end. That was the only warning she received before she felt a strong grip on her neck, almost cutting off her breathing. At first, Stephanie was unable to comprehend her situation, but then she saw the monster before her. She recognized the bird on the beast’s shoulder. This was Kaylie Summer’s murderer. The man wasn’t a man and the bird wasn’t a bird. Stephanie recalled Brent’s garbled description of the murderer at the college party.

“What’s this? I seem to have found a rare treat,” the murder’s voice was strange, inhuman, evil. She managed to reach her service weapon but had only barely managed to draw it before the monster’s other hand snaked around her wrist and crushed the bones under its grip. Stephanie whimpered, holding back the scream that threatened to tear out of her throat. She was going to die, Stephanie realized. This monster was going to kill her and then probably Liam. Then it would move on to kill whoever else gathered its attention. It would never end.

She forced her other arm down, ignoring the choking sensation as she reached for the gun in her hand. The monster dropped her abruptly and she managed to steady her broken wrist and pull the trigger, twice. The monster only grinned, darkness appearing in its clawed hands. The darkness stopped the bullets in midair. With a flick of the monster’s wrist, the bullets changed course and shot towards her prone body. “Stephanie!” she barely heard Liam’s roar over the blood pumping in her ears. Suddenly, he was between her and the monster, her and the bullets. She saw the bullets tear into his body, but he didn’t fall. As blood dripped down his body, she saw that his hands, his skin, even his ears looked slightly different from what she had seen since she walked into the station the morning before. She almost didn’t believe her eyes, but the monster had looked almost human in the video surveillance footage. Liam wasn’t human. The thought didn’t frighten her as much as she thought it should. Stephanie frowned. She felt deathly terrified when that monster had attacked, could somehow feel the evil radiating off of the beast, but with Liam, it was different. She was afraid, terrified that he would be disappointed and toss her aside without getting to know the new her, but not frightened for her life. She felt safe around him, or at least as safe as she could feel around anybody.

She could barely follow the movement through the pain radiating from her arm and the burning in her throat. Liam pulled a dagger from his waist and lunged at the monster, driving it away from her. The pain was getting worse. Stephanie moaned and pulled her knees up to her chest. She was probably going into shock from the pain in her arm. Suddenly, she saw the raven with red eyes staring at her from only a few feet away. Its body contorted, and in the blink of an eye, the slightly humanoid, feathered mass was walking towards her with lazy steps. Stephanie felt a shiver run down her spine. She tried to scramble away from the raven but cried out in pain as her arm protested the movement. Suddenly, she was being lifted up again, but this time by the raven. She tried to kick out at the beast, but her blows did nothing to stop the monster before her from reaching for her face. Its hands were like black talons, Stephanie realized as she felt them dig into her neck to steady her and again at the flesh next to her left eye. Stephanie felt her throat close up in terror.

Suddenly, the other monster was back. Stephanie worried that Liam had been killed as well as the monster growled, “No, this one is mine, Nachtkrapp.” The monster wrenched the raven creature off of her, ripping her flesh away from her throat. Stephanie could feel the blood gushing from the now gaping wounds as her body crumpled. She gasped for air like a fish out of water as she watched the monster vanish as if it never existed, leaving behind only a few of the raven’s feathers.

Darkness started to embrace her as she heard another noise, “No, no, no, no, no. Don’t die on me Stephanie. Please, you can’t die.” She felt a hint of warmth before the darkness claimed her.