Shadow Demon

Sarah stared down at the burning corpse of the man, his soul consumed by Endogrev. She remembered vomiting the first time she witnessed Endogrev take a soul. Even though the demon described it to her before he did it, she never imagined the smell that went along with the act.

Endogrev inhaled with pleasure upon finishing the soul, as he always did. He then reached for his chest, casually pulling open his sternum. With two fingers he plucked some of the oozing black liquid from within and closed his chest. He then held the liquid up to his eye, upon being satisfied by its size, held it out for Sarah to take.

Sarah put her finger to the liquid, opening her senses and willing to soul towards her. The liquid rolled down her finger and up her arm to her elbow. It shaped itself to outline the venation in her arm. Sarah focused on the soul fragment, willing it to become one with her own. The liquid changed to mist and ran down her arm towards her heart, vanishing.

Sarah inhaled sharply and staggered back. Binding souls to her own was always a bit of a shock, you always get flooded with the last emotion it hung on to. In this case, as with most consumed by Endogrev, the one she absorbed was filled with terror.

Sarah cleared her throat and collected herself, bringing herself back to her previously non-terrified state of mind.

Endogrev nodded in approval. "You didn't scream this time. You're getting better."

"Ha. You seem to like giving me the scared ones." Said Sarah.

"Perhaps." said Endogrev with his devilish grin. "The night is still young. I take it you want to pay this Crackle a visit?" He asked.

Sarah nodded. Her contact got an open $150,000 contract for a discreet hit on someone named Crackle a few weeks ago. She didn't know his real name, and the pay on the contract was relatively low, so she has ignored it. She was on a mission to destroy the organized crime in the cesspool of a city she called home. She didn't always like it but accepting assassination contracts helped her meet that goal. Organized crime was so cutthroat in the city that crime bosses would pay for hitmen and assassins to kill other faction leaders. So, Sarah used the contracts to make extra money while she worked on her overall goal. The contracts also allowed her to gather information on how the factions were operating, when they were expanding, when new ones surfaced, and how to eventually destroy them.

Endogrev turned to smoke, along with the entire study around them. The smoke from the study dissipated into the darkness revealing the warehouse once again. Endogrev moved towards Sarah and entered inside her through her heart.

Sarah looked at her hand that was once again made of swirling smoke, then out around the warehouse. Sarah extended her senses into the darkness. She could hear and feel every insect and rat moving in the shadows.

In the dark, Sarah could feel, hear, and be anywhere untouched by light. It was her power now, with each soul she absorbed she grew stronger, able to extend herself further into the darkness. All the traits of a shadow demon.

It was all part of their pact. Endogrev turns her soul into a shadow demon, while he uses her as his "vessel".

To Endogrev, a "vessel" is a person of his choosing to be his envoy and protect him during the day. Otherwise in the light, a shadow demon without a place to reside will lose their power and eventually die.

To an outsider they would say she was possessed by a demon, which technically wasn't completely wrong, but Endo doesn't take over her mind and make her do anything she didn't want to. Endo even taught her how to fight, use her new power, and acquire her gear, granted it was for his own interests of making sure she would be harder to kill during the day, but she still appreciated it.

Sarah extended her senses and found the truck with drugs she trashed before coming to the warehouse. She willed herself to it. The bodies of the two thugs were still smoldering next to the dated pickup truck. Sarah Jumped onto the back and investigated the ornate chest on the flatbed. She opened it, the tar-like black liquid in ten plastic bags still inside.

"Why would someone sell souls as drugs" Sarah asked Endo.

"Perhaps like most humans they don't know the soul's true value." Responded Endogrev from inside Sarah's head. "Regardless of what they were for, I'm taking them as my own. Per our agreement you receive one."

Sarah extended her hand towards the plastic bags. With the metal claw on her finger she slashed holes in the bags, then kept her hand outstretched. She could feel Endogrev's presence in her hand, watching as the liquid moved out of the bags and up her arms. The liquid shuttered then turned to mist. The mist raced towards her heart and disappeared. A second later, Endo's misty arm materialized from her forearm, dropping one of the souls he collected into her hand.

Sarah willed the soul to her own, like before, but regretted it immediately. Sarah let out a blood curdling scream and wrapped her arms and tail around her legs. Curled into a fetal position, she started whimpering and shaking.

It took a good minute before Sarah could collect her thoughts and think through the invasive emotion.

"What the fuck Endo!" Sarah yelled angrily. She slowly stood up, still a bit shaken.

"The emotion in that soul was more... intense than what your used too. It belonged to a demon" Said Endo.

"How would Crackle gain possession of demon souls?" Asked Sarah still angered by how the soul's emotion made her lose control.

After a long pause Endo finally said: "That information is not for a mortal to know."

"That bad, huh?" asked Sarah.

Endo said nothing.

"Fuck it, I'm tired. Let's just get this contract out of the way and kill Crackle tonight." Said Sarah.

"Id expect nothing less" said Endo.

Sarah extended her senses to the downtown area where the Wolf's Den was located, then rapidly materialized in the alley adjacent from the entrance.

The club still had a lineup of people waiting to get in over a block long. A bright neon sign of a cartoon wolf in a top hat and blazer was on the side of the building along with the name of the club. Along the entire perimeter of the building pot lights lit the stone exterior of the building. Two bouncers the size of refrigerators stood on opposite sides of the door. A skinny kid in an oversized shirt attempted to dive between the two bouncers to get in the club. One of the bouncers quickly brought his foot down on the kid's back as he was half way through, smashing the kid against the stone steps of the entrance. The bouncer grabbed the kid by his baggy shirt and threw him away from the door. The kid's mouth was covered in blood, likely from smashing his face into the steps of the club.

Sarah extended her senses to the club looking for a way in. She could sense the colored lights randomly shining across the dance floor and bar on the main floor, leaving little options for solid shadows in which she could appear. As for the second floor of the club, she couldn't sense any shadows at all. Sarah could cut the power to the building, but that would likely put Crackle on guard, not to mention raise panic in the club's patrons. The contract was labeled as discrete, so the employer obviously didn't want this to look like another attack from a rival gang, likely to prevent retaliation. Sarah also didn't want anyone to see her and live to tell about it. She had no intentions of killing civilians or letting them talk to the press and making her the top news story. Even her employers haven't met her. She hires agents to go to the meetings for her. All the employers need to do is pay her, they don't need to know who she is or how she gets the job done.

Sarah decided on entering from the building's roof top entrance.

She willed herself next to the door on the rooftop and tried the handle to the door. Locked. She wasn't strong enough to just go ripping doors off their hinges, but she had an idea. Placing her hand on the handle, smoke from her hand began to incase it. Sarah then willed the handle to be next to her. With a clang, the handle fell next to her, leaving a hole in the door.

Sarah grinned, pulled open the door and descended the stairs of the entrance. The throbbing sounds of the club could faintly be heard in the top level of the club, but otherwise it was relatively quiet. Sarah continued down the stairs, staying alert, and careful to not make much noise. It was well lit inside, with shadows not large enough or connected for her to move in or extend her senses into. In the light she was just as human as anyone else.

Sarah wasn't too worried. Endogrev taught her how to fight outside shadows and her suit was designed to protect her in these situations. The suit's material was made from a leather and polymer mix that had Kevlar and steel threading woven into it, creating the suit's barely visible hexagonal patterns. The suit was impenetrable to knifes and bullets, but bullets would still leave bruises from impact. As for Sarah's gloves, they were her weapons. Each finger was tipped with a half inch steel claw, the knuckles were plated with steel, while the hand was reinforced with carbon fiber allowing Sarah to hit a brick wall and feel nothing. On the upper forearms of the gloves two-foot telescopic retractable blades were mounted onto the leather and ready at the flick of her wrist if she ever needed more reach in a fight. The only thing less practical about her costume was her thigh-high heeled leather boots, Sarah just liked how they completed the look.

Peering around the wall at the bottom of the stairs, Sarah realized why it was so well lit on the second floor.

The entire second floor was converted into a grow-op. Multiple rows of Marijuana plants were basking in overhead fluorescent lighting. The sound of trickling water echoed through the room as it passed over the roots of the plants in large aluminum channels. At the other end of the room, two casually dressed men stood over a more academically dressed man tied to a chair. One of them was a large Russian that wore a black t-shirt while carrying an automatic rifle, while the other man was of a smaller build and Irish, wearing a white tank top while holding the man tied to a chair by his tie.

"It's been two months and your saying you still don't even know what it is, let alone have any clue how to make more?" said the Irish man.

"It's like nothing I've ever seen, it doesn't react to any chemical it encounters, it doesn't freeze, boil, or even have a polarity. It's unearthly. For all I know this stuff must have come from another planet!" Stammered that man in the chair with an English accent.

"That's your answer? We generously promised to pay for your services and your sister's medical treatments and you're going to tell me that in two months your exactly where you started?" Asked the Irish man.

"I need more time, better equipment, and a team to figure out how to create the substance. You people won't event tell me where it comes from." Hastily said the man in the chair.

"I think your some over privileged pretty boy that wasted enough of Crackle's time and money." Said the man in the tank top as he started to pull out his side arm.

Sarah wasn't going to watch these thugs murder a civilian, but at this distance she couldn't close in on them in time before they opened fire on her as well. Her suit was bullet proof, but she wasn't going to risk them getting a head shot on her, not to mention the amount of pain she would be in by taking that many bullets in the suit.

Sarah sighed while grabbing the zipper of her catsuit.