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Zane walked into the briefing room and sat down. He felt like a new fish in a big pond, and eager to discover the mysteries of his new placement. For now there were few clues if any: the office was grey and plain, except for the table (two chairs on this side, one on that), a few filing cabinets and a whiteboard to his left with a spider graph drawn on ('Bodies,' written and circled at the center, with lines leading to 'concentrated blood,' 'bite marks,' 'signs of infection', and 'angina/heart failure'. Hmm, wondered Zane). Shadows barred the wall - the blinds on the windows opposite were down and half-opened, only letting in sporadic light.What had Captain Blumesbury said? He'd seemed proud of Zane when he'd announced the tiger shark's success in his application for this transfer. "Congratulations," his superior had said. Zane remembered those words of warning again, which had sounded less of a warning for being delivered in Captain Blumesbury's plummy voice. "You've got the job! But be warned, Sharp, you'll meet some uncanny characters, and you'll have to learn that what drives you is not the same as what drives a paranormal beast."Zane wondered what that could possibly mean, and settled to wait for his new colleague and superior to join him.The door opened and in came somefur who immediately struck Zane as tall. Probably because of the horns and wings. At a glance he was a dragon but also looked undeniably canine, and Zane recognised in the next moment that he was both. How on earth-? he thought. Mammals and reptiles couldn't interbreed! How'd this guy even managed to come into existence?The canine dragon gave him a confident smile - tinged with menace - and sat down beside him. The newcomer kept his eyes on Zane for a moment and the tiger shark wondered if he was being judged, weighed up. They way they did with new boys at the barracks. He kept his eyes locked with the half-reptile's and tried not to be unnerved by their slight red glow."Kymara," the hybrid said and extended a paw for Zane to shake - without having seemed to have come any kind of conclusion. Either that or the guy was inscrutable as all fuck."Zane. Sharp," he answered and gave the paw a firm shake.Kymara smiled again. The gesture made him look predatory. And complacent. Zane figured that he was either going to end up loving this guy like a brother for his confidence, or hating his guts for his arrogance. "So you're the new boy. You worked with monsters before?"Zane thought about the dangerous furs he'd met during his career to date. Traffickers, gun merchants, drug barons. Yeah, he'd met a few monsters before, but..."Nothing supernatural," he answered."Heh," Kymara said. "Well, I guess we gotta get our newbies from somewhere." Then he twisted a little to face Zane and rested his arm on the chair back. "Okay blood. The one piece of advice I can give you is-"The door opened again. In

came a small, nondescript chipmunk with a quiet demeanour and Zane wondered how the sergeant of a paranormal division could look so civil before he realized that he was looking at somefur who probably had the mental defences of Fort Knox.Yep, he did. Zane could sense it. You probably couldn't work your way up the ladder in the Paranormal Division and still think life was all sunshine and daisies.The chipmunk - sergeant Mallow, his new superior - put a sheaf of papers quietly on the desk and sat down opposite the two grunts. He linked his fingers and addressed Zane. "First of all, Sharp, thank you for joining us. I understand you don't have any previous experience of paranormal affairs, so I decided to start you off with this case. It should ease you in relatively gently."Zane eyed the papers under sergeant Mallow's paws."We've just begun to investigate reports of dead furs found just outside Cairo. They all have the same feature in common: drastically concentrated blood."Zane's head swivelled toward the whiteboard before he could stop himself, and then looked back at Mallow.By which time Mallow had already followed his gaze. "That's the same case," he said, nodding at the spider graph." He paused and watched Zane carefully for a moment before continuing, his words slow and deliberate. "They all had bite marks consistent with those of vampires."Vampires exist? Zane tried to figure out whether he felt scornful disbelief, horror or fascination, all the while aware the sergeant was watching him carefully. The shark glanced at Kymara for some clue as to how to react.Kymara was watching him too with that look of amusement again. Was this some kind of wind-up? If so, the job application was an elaborate set up just to watch him wrestle with his disbelief of a hallowe'en story."So you think there's vampires there?" he asked Mallow, to move things along a bit. Either they'd point and piss themselves laughing or they'd show him some evidence.The chipmunk shifted his shoulders and Zane understood that he'd passed the test. "We know evidence of vampires when we see it, and this isn't normal for vampires. We don't know what else this could be so for now our best working guess is that this is new vampire behaviour. That's what you and Kymara are going to investigate."Zane nodded with all the confidence he could manage and glanced at Kymara again, who was re-folding his wings and grinning."Looks like you and me are going to Egypt," he said. He and Mallow stood up and Zane took his cue to do the same. "I hope you got enough light-coloured clothes," the dragon hybrid said as he opened the door to the brightly-lit corridor beyond."Why?" Zane asked. "Does that give some kind of protection from vampires?"Kymara paused. So did Sergeant Mallow. Then Kymara chuckled darkly and said, "No, rookie. Egypt's hot."

 xXxSharks weren't meant to live under a hot sun.A very uncomfortable Zane squinted up at the sky and wondered if he could get into the shade soon. And buy enough sunblock to protect his shark-leather until he left the country - he could already feel himself starting to burn. It was almost as painful on his leather as it was on his eyes. He blinked in protest and pressed on after his companion, his white pants sweeping lightly across his legs, his tail fin practically singeing.They were making a beeline for a blocky, white-washed building and it was with some relief that he passed into its shadow and through the front doors.Kymara, despite his mostly black colouring, seemed comfortable enough with the weather.Probably just likes the sun more than me, Zane decided. You could hardly get much more of a solarphobe than an oceanic shark, after all.The dragon-dog headed for the reception desk and spoke to a matronly-looking jackal. She handed him a folder which he took before sweeping away and down a corridor. "C'mon, rookie," he said, already opening the folder. "We've got a meeting."Zane had already learned to think before opening his mouth when it came to his new colleague. But this one had him stumped. "Meeting?""With the victims," said the distracted hybrid, frowning slightly in concentration at the report.Zane couldn't see anything wry in Kymara's expression - he seemed to be serious. But the hybrid could be so deadpan..."Sounds like a one-sided meeting." It was a question, a probe, but he tried not to make it sound like one. As far as he'd heard, all of the victims had died either before the Egyptian arm of the paranormal division had seen them or very soon after - and those who were still alive had been in no state to talk.Kymara flashed a grin at him but said nothing, and led them into a room.A morgue, in fact - so said the sign by the door. Zane paused, shrugged, and went inside. He'd seen dead bodies before so it wasn't that much of a big deal."Let's see," rumbled the hybrid, his usual wry demeanor still missing for the moment, replaced with that businesslike briskness. He searched for a particular drawer and found it. His shoulder and back muscles strained a little as he pulled it out. A plume of dry ice billowed around the body and he came around to its side.The cloud cleared and Zane came in closer for a look.The victim had been a hare. He looked well-preserved but it was clear that he'd been in a terrible state when he'd died. His fur clung a little too close to his skeleton, his flesh plainly much thinner than it should have been. His nose, lips, eyes and ears were the real giveaways - he really looked like he'd been sucked dry.Used to seeing the dead though Zane was, it still made him squirm a little as he imagined the discomfort of death by draining. "So are we looking for anything in particular?" he asked, bending down a

little to look closer at the body."Bite marks," the canine dragon said without looking at him, scanning the body and still clearly in business mode. "It's the normal sign of a vampire." He brushed at the hare's neck. After slowly ruffling most of the fur there and squinting at it for a few moments, he checked the hare's temples in the same manner, his mouth set in a skeptical line. Then he came over to Zane's side and checked that side of the neck and temple too. Clearly dissatisfied, he straightened up and checked the body's elbows and wrists. Then the tops of his feet, his ankles, and with professional indifference, the body's groin.Then he stood up straight again and rumbled slowly, his hands on his hips and a crease on his forehead. "Help me roll him over. Might as well check his popliteal arteries."Zane supported the body and learned where the popliteal arteries were as Kymara checked the backs of the hare's knees. He tried not to enjoy the coolness of the carcass too much - but it was a blessed relief after the heat of the mid-day sun.After a careful check of the area the hybrid stood up and exhaled again.The shark paused for a moment. "Still nothing?" he prompted.Kymara shook his head. "I don't see where they're biting.""Hmm," said Zane as he laid the hare back on his resting place. He wanted to ask, 'What next?', but the answer would come soon enough. Kymara was still deep in thought, his wings slightly open as if shielding the body from something.Finally the hybrid came to a conclusion. "I'm going to have this body looked at more closely," he said, turned to the desk at the edge of the room, opened the folder and wrote something in it. "I don't think we're going to see any bite marks when his skin's shrink-wrapped to his body like that."Zane gave the hare a sympathetic look and then made himself useful by pushing the drawer back into place."In the meantime," Kymara added, "I've got another potential lead to chase up. What do you want to do for dinner?"Eh? The shark paused as he tried to work out how they'd got from talking about leads to discussing dinner. But he went with it anyway. "What's good?""There's some great seafood places along the waterfront.""There then," Zane said, pleased at the concept of fish but slightly guarded at the idea that Kymara was up to something. But he didn't know the hybrid well enough to read him yet.Kymara snapped the report shut and walked briskly out of the door. "C'mon then."

 xXxKymara had a passable meal with the rookie shark, who alternated between acting disinterested in the hope that the canine dragon would throw him a titbit of information, prodding him for details until he realised Kymara wasn't going to tell him anything juicy, and then rinsing and repeating. Kymara had enough experience to know that new team-mates had to see things for

themselves, not be told them. They usually didn't respond well to hearing things like, "I'm a demon." And experience told him that if he told them that then they usually didn't believe, "Technically yes, I am evil, but evil's a more complex concept than you think," "actually, I have to stop you there. Angels aren't real. At least not the classic Christian ones," or "I think you've misunderstood. Being a demon doesn't mean being a spirit. I'm corporeal. See?"After he'd dropped Zane off at the hotel to learn the answers to his questions another day, Kymara set out again into the night. He had a lead to follow up and needed to leave the rookie in the safety of their room to go and check it out himself.The local succubi knew about all the things that went bump in the night locally. But they always wanted something in return for the information, and if Zane gave them that something then they'd suck away his life force and he'd die.A demon, however, could survive.He knew where to find them so he took a direct route. He flew over the blocky white buildings, beating the air with great wing-strokes as he searched for the red light district. He found it soon enough and angled down."Good evening, ladies!" He boomed as he landed among them. Eyes widened and teeth were bared with a particular hunger and excitement that only a paranorm understood. These succubi were hungry and he became aware that they subtly moved to surround him, to cut off his escape - despite the fact that he'd come in from above and could get away any time he wanted. But succubi were ever more instinctive than rational."Hi there, handsome." said a crocodile who grinned just a little wider than a norm could. "Here for a good time?"Kymara was just about to say yes but he wanted a word first, when another one of their number piped up:"Natsi, stand down!" said a feline succubus with vaguely tabby stripes and a body that moved with a promise of seduction, even while warning off a rival. Again, she had an extra suppleness that belied her demonic roots.He recognised this one. Her name was Dessel and they'd done business before. She was a successful huntress, so tended usually to be satiated and therefore able to conduct a sensible conversation better than most. Nevertheless, he kept quiet while the succubi bickered - he'd need his strength for his part of their deal.Natsi hissed back in defiance and warning, apparently hungry enough to fight with - and over - a fellow demon. Kymara noted this. He suspected he might need to know this later.Dessel responded with a throaty growl of her own but seemed to be reserving most of her anger. They both fell silent and stared daggers at each other.Kymara spotted the stalemate and broke it up himself. "Why don't you both join me?" It was a risk: two succubi could continue to fight even during congress but if he could channel them both, play one off against the other,

he might get more information than interviewing just one.He'd need to rely on his training and experience, though.Both turned towards him and stalked closer. Their bodies again shifted in ways that weren't quite possible for a norm, but which most of their customers thought were irresistibly provocative. Each ignored the other for now but it was only a matter of time before they started fighting again.He went to Natsi and embraced her. Better to send a message to Dessel that he could handle the more unhinged of them. That he was still strong.She kissed him and he felt her try to draw out his life force. As a demon he had a life force but it was different from a norm's. It tasted different. Like the difference between settling down to a nice steak and plucking some gritty, slimy undersea mollusc with ugly and unidentifiable anatomy from its shell to eat.Demon soul was unpalatable to a succubus. After all, how could one demon be nourished by the soul of another? He leaned into the kiss and held her close with his paw on her back. Thinking she'd won she pressed closer, sucked harder for his soul. She got nothing; he kept a firm hold of it.She snarled with rage and scratched at his scaly skin, and he let her go. "Where is it?" she demanded.To remind her that she knew he was a demon and that his soul was too hard for her to get hold of would be useless. Instead he let her believe. "Do you want it? You want it, don't you?"She widened her eyes and chomped. She readied herself to pounce. She waved her tail in an effort at seduction.He opened his arms to receive her and she leapt at him. They locked lips again and she pulled as hard as she could. Her strength was brutal but she directed it badly, and Kymara wondered again about which succubus was the more dangerous: the one on the verge of starvation and savage with desperation, or the one replete with norm souls and able to direct her power more at her leisure?And where was Dessel, anyway?Suddenly, he smelled norm soul. Carnivorous, fishy norm soul.Zane? he thought with alarm. Zane's here? TO BE CONTINUED...