Made in Hell Chapter 7

The first thing we did after we’d travelled back from the cliff edge was return to my stash of troll loot. We needed more pieces to buy our clothes later on, and my stomach was starting to try and eat itself for sustenance. Plus, I still had to pay the man at the tavern for the stew he gave me yesterday.

“This is the place,” I said to Ashe as we approached the shack with the twisted latch.

“What is all this?” she asked and gestured to the rickety wood.

“My stash.” I grinned.

I made sure the coast was clear and then reached for the bent and deformed latch. I straightened out the latch without an issue, and when I opened the door, everything was as I’d left it.

“This is where I got the pieces from,” I explained.

Ashe stepped into the shack with a look of intrigue on her face, but her eyes widened when she saw what the interior was made of.

“Fuck, it’s coated in silver,” she gasped.

“It was owned by a group of trolls,” I explained. “They obviously had a few enemies who were after this stuff, so they set a trap for them.”

I searched the ground for any more of those cottons sacks I had used last time, and when I came across a small pile of them in the corner of the shack, I passed one to Ashe. I opened one of the cases, and then the two of us worked together to pour handfuls of pieces inside.

I hadn’t managed to count each coin as they were placed onto the sacks, but I guessed there had to be at least two hundred pieces altogether, based on the handfuls I’d scooped up. It would definitely keep us going until we felt the need to return, or at least until we could store the cases somewhere else.

I warped the latch once again when we closed the door behind us, and then we walked away like we hadn’t just been looting the stash of my slaughtered prey.

It was still too early to pick up our new clothing, so we headed down the road to begin scoping out the layout of the city.

The forest was a write off since it was where the demons would most likely be lurking, but the Shadow Quarters were ripe with the stench of all kinds of evil, and this would be the best means of blending in for us.

Especially with the Blessed lurking around.

Our evil stench would blend in well among some of these more violent mortals.

“I’d really rather not sleep anywhere that smells like half-orcs anymore,” Ashe sighed.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get better for ourselves,” I assured her. “A more permanent residence within the Shadow Quarters is what we need until we can work out how to escape Rengfri.”

“With a really, really soft bed?” the demon purred as she pressed up against my arm, and even through my jacket, her touch electrified my skin.

“Absolutely,” I growled, and Ashe shivered at my demonic tone. “We’ll have everything you could ever want soon enough.”

“I want you,” the beautiful fiend instantly replied.

Then her bright pink eyes met mine, and a wicked smirk curled on her lips. In an instant, she looked greedy and flushed, and I stooped to let her have a kiss to hold her over. The way the demon bit at my lips ignited the same insatiable hunger in me as I’d had last night, but since I wasn’t the fiend here, I focused on being the proper master instead.

Ravaging Ashe in the middle of the sunlit street would be the opposite of blending in.

The huntress moaned impatiently when I left her lips, but one stern look from me made her silver eye lashes flutter obediently.

“You’ll have more of me soon enough,” I whispered as I traced my thumb down her creamy throat. “Right now, we have work to do. We should get a feel for the lay of the land outside the Shadow Quarters as well as in. We need to know where threats are most likely to come in from.”

“When I came looking for you, I had to travel quite a ways from the forest,” Ashe replied as she calmed down a little. “Shouldn’t anywhere in the Shadow Quarters be relatively safe?”

“Not with the Blessed and the king’s guard around,” I muttered. “Come on, we’ll start on the outskirts of that area, and then work our way in.”

The Shadow Quarters were nestled deep in a thick of gnarled groves and dilapidated buildings, but they were surrounded on three sides by other quarters. The forest encroached on the furthest side of the quarters near the gorgons’ palace, but from where we were, just outside this darker quarter, I could see more clearly beyond the tops of the gnarled tree.

I had a better view of the grim, forested mountains that towered around Port of Rengfri, and I could also spot the spires and turrets of other buildings that showed this part of the city was just as developed as the others.

The residents were more varied, though.

We followed the shadows behind the backs of the buildings so we wouldn’t draw too much attention, and I kept an eye on the beings we glimpsed along the way.

As well as the humans who strolled around these less busy streets, I noticed some other creatures who seemed to live in peace with the simpler mortals. High elves, sylphs, and even the occasional banshee were all seen living among the humans, and there didn’t appear to be any animosity between these beings. They all acted as though it was completely normal, but then I caught sight of one sylph with the symbol of the church around her neck.

This happened a few more times with high elves as well, and I concluded that there was some sort of elite cast of magical beings who were permitted within the Church here.

They didn’t reside so close to the Church, and they never seemed to cross into the borders of the Shadow Quarters, either. These beings dressed in fine gowns and garments like the humans, and exchanged words in passing with them, too, and Ashe curled her lip when a rich-looking high elf scoffed in disgust at my blood-stained shirt.

“Well, I’ve seen enough out here,” Ashe growled.

“Yeah, we should keep our heads down around this area,” I said as I gestured for her to turn back toward the Shadow Quarters. “I’m not sure how the divide works, but I have a feeling any of these elves or sylphs would turn us over to the Church.”

The two of us both sighed with relief as the sinister smells of the Shadow Quarters grew stronger, and when we arrived back beneath the rusted iron sign, the dilapidated streets were a welcome sight.

We strolled right beneath the rusted iron gate, and no one sneered or shrieked at the sight of us.

“So, where should we begin with these lovely miscreants?” Ashe murmured and sent me a smirk.

“Let’s ask around and see how this area operates,” I replied. “Every place I’ve ever been on the surface world has its secrets.”

“Mmm… I love to sniff them out,” the huntress sighed.

“I’m sure you do,” I chuckled.

The two of us continued along the street, past the half-elf’s weapon shop, and past the first inn I’d stayed at. There was a group of half-orcs who were arguing outside today, and a troll had slumped his large body down in the shade of a tree not far away. He held a piece of dark purple meat in his hand, and he snorted and devoured his feast with the tusks that curled over his lips.

Then a shrieking noise came from an alleyway as we passed by. It sounded like a manic laugh, and I knew of only one being who had a laugh as high-pitched as that.

Ashe caught the sound as well, and we gave each other a look before we turned for the alley.

From the shadows flew a dainty female no taller than the length of my forearm, and she was decadently dressed in a pink dress with tufts of satin falling over her tiny shoulders. Her light blue eyes looked too large for her tiny face, and her deep brown hair draped over her shoulder with the fringe tucked behind her pointed ears. As she came further into the light, I could see her incredible white wings that sprung from her back.

She was a tinsel fairy.

The white wings, like her eyes, were in disproportion to her tiny body. They were covered in intricate, gossamer details, and the thin lines were intertwined like a spider’s web. The fairy had an angelic look on her face, and she didn’t have an evil scent to her, but I knew better than to underestimate a tinsel fairy.

They enjoyed causing mischief more than most winged beings, and I’d always found them amusing during my trips to the surface world.

Even if their delirious smiles made me cringe.

“Well! It’s not often we see ones like you around here,” the tinsel fairy said in a delicate, high-pitched tone. “Shouldn’t you have gone back… down below by now?”

The fairy lowered her voice to a whisper at the end, and I clenched my jaw.

Apparently, some surface beings did know a demon when they saw one.

“That’s none of your business,” Ashe snarled.

“So angry!” The fairy blinked her large eyes a few times, but the same angelic smile was still on her lips. “I never said you should leave. Just wondering what you are doing here.”

“Did you not hear me when I said--” Ashe seethed, but I decided to take over before Ashe could end up tearing this fairy wing from wing.

“We’re visiting for a short while,” I explained. “We need to find out where the best place for us to be is, and the quarters near the Church are definitely off that list.”

The cherubic look on the fairy’s face was swapped with one of disgust, and she seemed to shiver at the words.

“Fuck the Church,” she spat in a high-pitched voice.

“You’re not a fan, either?” I asked.

“It’s exhausting putting up their nasty shit,” she snarled, but it sounded more like a squeak. “They frequently tear this place apart and haul some of us away with them, but I don’t know what for.”

“They did it the other day with a bunch of dark elves,” I replied.

“I know, I saw them,” the fairy’s lips pursed in anger.

“Is that sort of thing common around here?” I asked.

“Of course,” the tiny woman squeaked.

“Then how are all of you still here?” Ashe asked. “Is it because there are just so many of you?”

“Maybe, but we also have far stronger beings around here, too,” the fairy giggled her high-pitched laugh. “A few guards and even the Blessed couldn’t take us all down.”

“Strong beings like who?” I asked. We had come across a few of the residents, like the half-orcs, half-elves, and the gorgons, but I knew there was more than that. I’d smelled vampires in the area the second I arrived.

“The entire place is basically owned by incubi, somewhat like yourselves,” she informed us. “They rarely show their filthy faces, so they use others to do all of their dirty work. Most of us get along alright without needing to work for any of them, but they’re the main reason the Shadow Quarters aren’t constantly being raided.”

It sounded like the Shadow Quarters had a similar hierarchy of sorts to the Hellscape, where the incubi called the shots, but others completed the tasks.

“Have you seen the Blessed fight with the incubi before?” I asked out of curiosity.

“No, whenever the Blessed come around, it’s usually to take care of vampires and the like.” The fairy shrugged her tiny shoulders. “Or demons like you, but it’s been ages since I saw your kind here! This is exciting! You stick out quite a lot, you know. Those pretty eyes…”

“Exactly, which is why we need to figure out a better spot around here,” Ashe sighed as she crossed her arms, but I could tell she was warming up to the fairy a bit.

“Do you know of anywhere?” I asked.

The fairy thought for a moment and tapped one finger against her tiny lips. “Well, you definitely don’t want to be this close to the entrance, but you could check out the area behind Medusa’s Palace.”

Ashe coughed back a laugh, and I grinned. This was the same area we’d killed the gorgons last night.

“We’ve seen the place,” I replied nonchalantly. “It’s not really the kind of set up we’re looking for.”

“I need a bed,” Ashe added, and another hint of her demon voice slipped out.

The tinsel fairy’s huge eyes got even bigger, and her white wings fluttered so fast, they let off a buzzing sound.

“Well…” she folded her arms under her chest as she thought. “Have you gone down the hill?”

“Down the hill?” I repeated with a frown.

“Yes, there’s a lovely area deeper into the Shadow Quarters, but it’s hidden out of sight for a reason.” She winked.

“And what does that mean?” Ashe asked impatiently.

“You’ll find out when you get there,” the tinsel fairy giggled. The high-pitched laugh grated in my ears, and I tried not to cringe at the delightful sound.

“What should we expect to find there?” I queried.

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise for you, but you’ll soon see what I mean.” The tinsel fairy shrugged.

“This better not be a trap,” I warned her. “You’ve been helpful so far, but we don’t appreciate being double-crossed.”

“And we loooove to punish,” Ashe purred in a deadly tone.

“Ooo, me too!” The fairy smirked as her big eyes suddenly flashed with malice. “Punishing is soooo much fun, but I’m afraid you won’t have the need to punish me. Follow the string of lights, and you’ll soon see where you’re going. Honestly, it’s safer for you to be down there than it is up here.”

The fairy gave us another manic smile and then turned to leave, and her large wings flapped gently in the wind that whipped through the alley.

I appreciated the information she gave us, especially the stuff to do with the entrance area. I hadn’t had great luck in the inns or the outer avenues of the Shadow Quarters, and I just hoped the place the tinsel fairy directed us to was better than where we stood right now.

We left the alley cautiously and kept a close eye on everyone we passed as we tried to find the string of lights the fairy had directed us to. A long line of trees had been planted toward the end of the marketplace, and at first, I thought it was another entrance to the forest surrounding the city, but as we got closer, I noticed a faint twinkling of lights sparkled through the leaves.

I couldn’t tell how these lights were igniting, since the strings appeared to be nothing more than thin, silvery thread, and the twinkling lights floated in the air along the string.

Ashe and I shared a look of intrigue and crossed into the shadowy, gnarled grove. Then we came out on the other side, and Ashe snickered.

“Okay, maybe she wasn’t lying,” the demon woman allowed.

The first thing I noticed was the muddy, grassy hill that rolled down and into another grove of oaks, and this area hidden by more of the same oaken trees on both sides. The same magical lights had been hung up in the trees lining the hillside, and a white light lit up the green grass in the shadows far below.

“I’ll feel safer when we get down there, though,” I replied. I could smell a few more interesting beings in the area, I knew that for certain, so I wasn’t going to celebrate anything until I confirmed we weren’t being led into a trap.

Ashe and I followed the hill and the delicate lights, and as we trekked further down the grassy mound, the path twisted a few times to bring us closer to the trees. Then we neared the white light at the bottom, and it turned out to be two beacons, both with large flames that crackled and popped from inside their iron cages. The beacons sat on either side of a path, like it marked the entrance to this new place. The grassy path instantly changed into cobblestones as soon as it passed beyond the beacons, and while the trees encroached on this area, I could tell this wasn’t the same forest that surrounded Rengfri.

The trees were a different species, and they grew more sparsely, although they cast dense shadows beneath their gnarled boughs like they tended to do around the Shadow Quarters.

I then heard some strange, wavering music up ahead, and I caught the intoxicating smell of meat on the breeze. My stomach began to rumble at the thought of devouring more of that bread and stew, and I knew Ashe must have been starving, too, now that she’d been in a human form for a little while. Once we surveyed the area, we would have to focus on getting some sustenance.

The entrance path led us toward an area where there consisted of several rings of wooden houses and covered wagons. Some of the wagons had the faint remnants of paint down the wooden sides, like they had been used for something else in the past, but had been abandoned for ages after that.

Now, they appeared to be used as homes, and a dark elf was sitting on the steps of one of the wagons with is black hair pushed back over his shoulders. He wore a pair of black pants, a worn out top hat, and a red velvet jacket, and a thin pipe was held delicately between two of his slender fingers. Every time he took a draw from the pipe, perfect circles of green smoke would puff from his mouth, and his thin lips curled into sneer as we passed.

The string of delicate lights continued to trace themselves all above the entire circumference of the area. It wasn’t a huge, vast part of town, like the other places we had witnessed in Rengfri, but it was big enough to hold the many creatures that resided here. I couldn’t see the edges of the farthest circles of houses and wagons, but I spotted some more tinsel fairies drifting around the open area, and another flew in and out of the string of lights and giggled to herself like a maniac.

A large fire was started in the pit at the center of the closest ring of wagons, and a trio of banshees skipped around the fire as they ordered it to continue growing. The banshees’ black dresses blew around them in the air, and their long gray hair bounced around to the movements of their dance, but none of them wore the symbol of the Church on their necks like the last banshee we’d seen.

As well as the rings of houses and wagons, there was also a broad marketplace to the left. A stone well stood in the middle, just like all the other areas I’d seen, and some sturdier stalls had been set up in the space around it. These stalls were mostly made of old stones and bricks, and looked like they’d been here for a while.

There were more shops than I could count, and some well-dressed, female dark elves seemed to own some of the nearest stalls. A half-goblin ran another, and an orc was seen slumped against the side of a third. He sold rotten-looking shrunken heads of all breeds and had some bready food in his hands that he shoved into his large mouth while crumbs trickled all down his clothes.

I then spotted a lady as she swiftly made her way through the crowded marketplace. Her hair was long and white-blonde, and she wore a skin-tight, jade-green dress that stopped at her thigh. Two thin straps looped over her shoulders to hold the thin garment in place, but her feet were bare, and the dress had a subtle shine to it that reflected off her legs. Then I noticed the same shine appeared to continue all over her skin, almost like scales.

This lady was a mermaid, but she had changed into her human form to walk the land.

There were other, not so beautiful, beings who mingled around the mermaid woman. A group of angry dwarves kept to the side, but they stared around the open area with an angry expression etched onto their faces. Two of them had wild, curly beards that covered half of their wrinkled faces, yet they all wore similar clothing. It looked like they were about to go into battle with their leather outfits and steel armor, but I had a feeling this was what they wore on a daily basis, since food and wine stained their cuirasses.

I also spotted a couple of slimy green goblins, and a being I hadn’t seen in at least a few hundred years: a satyr. She had the torso of a human, with a scrap of red leather that covered her chest, but her lower half was that of an animal. Her legs were long and covered in thick brown fur, and she walked elegantly on two hooves. Two thick horns curled around the side of her head, and her hair was shaggy, brown, and braided at both sides. She looked around the marketplace as if she was taking in her surroundings, but she stood proud and mighty, like she wasn’t scared to put up a fight if one arose.

Most of the carts and stalls here held even more interesting items than the ones near the outer edges of the Shadow Quarters. As well as food and material, I also noticed some jewelry and brightly colored gems on display. Some stalls sold every size of vial imaginable with swirling liquids inside, while others sold goods in discrete leather satchels or crates. I noticed a few of the crates were jumping and shaking on their own, but I didn’t bother to ask the stall owners what was inside of them.

Ashe and I checked out some stalls briefly as we passed them, but we didn’t stand there for long enough to get a good look since we were still getting our bearings among the locals.

“Have you noticed anything strange about the humans here?” Ashe whispered to me.

I furrowed my brow and glanced around, but it took me a moment to spot any humans among the winged creatures, or mottled gray flesh of the hulking orcs. Then I spotted one older woman who appeared human, and she was sitting near the central well with her purple cloak pulled up over her scraggly white hair.

I shook my head at Ashe. “Look normal to me, why?”

“Look at her hands,” the demon woman whispered.

I did as she said, and that’s when I realized the old woman was slowly and methodically turning her fingers around and around. Her gaze wasn’t set on anything in particular, but while she twirled her gnarled fingers, the dirt in front of her legs churned in tiny spirals.

“She’s a witch,” I realized.

“That’s right,” Ashe snickered. “I saw another one with vibrant green eyes, too, so there’s all kinds of witches here. That one over there is a White Witch.”

“How can you tell?” I asked as I watched the old witch stir up the dirt.

“Her nails look pearly,” the demon woman explained. “I’ve killed White Witches before. They seem so innocent at first, but those fingers could blind any being within ten yards of that woman. She could suffocate us all with a turn of her hand, too.”

“Not bad,” I said with a grin. “I think I prefer these humans to the others we’ve met so far.”

“I do as well,” Ashe purred. “Witches at least have the decency of showing their true colors. Plus, if they’re living down here, this place must be much safer from Church raids.”

“True,” I agreed. “Witches are burned up by the Church faster than half these other beings.”

I watched the old White Witch for another moment, and she looked entirely harmless while she sat idly stirring up the dirt. Her sunken cheeks and frail shoulders almost made me feel sorry for her, but then her eyes drifted in my direction.

They were stark white in the irises, with jet black pupils, and the old woman smiled wide as she looked me directly in the eye.

Then she nodded with respect and turned away.

“I might like it down here,” I chuckled.

The farther we strolled through the winding marketplace, the more I started to feel this area could be just what we were looking for. There were plenty of halflings around, and even more full-fledged elves, orcs, and goblins, but the beings were better dressed down here than they were in the outer edges of the Shadow Quarters.

They wore corseted dresses, velvet jackets, satin shawls, and laced up leather boots. Some of their clothes were shoddily made, but layered in a way that made the creatures seem oddly decadent, and there was a very mystical atmosphere to the entire area. The air buzzed with the intermingling magical energies of the creatures, and the various scents of greed, lust, cunning, and thievery of all kinds drifted around me nonstop. The wavering music and dancing banshees gave me the impression these beings lived in comfort here, too, and I was relieved to see it.

Apparently, there were many different layers to the Shadow Quarters, from the entrance, to Medusa’s Palace, to this new mystical place in the grove of oaks, and as we passed beyond the eccentric marketplace, the area only continued to expand.

More shack-like homes and a few more covered wagons stretched ahead of us, but there were also stone houses tucked along the pathways between the trees. We would soon need a new place to sleep, and it looked like there could be a spare room somewhere here for us. From the outside, given the state of the brick and wood that had been used to make the buildings, I could tell they were in a far better condition than the inn I had stayed in.

This place held money as well as forbidden magic.

Once we had done a full lap, and we had witnessed more dancing, more fire beacons, and even more creatures, we decided to head back in the direction of the outer quarters to deal with a couple things there.

“What do you think?” I asked as we walked back through the eccentric marketplace.

“I like the environment.” Ashe grinned. “It smells like debauchery around here, and it seems richer and safer, too.”

“It does,” I agreed, and we turned around the side of another covered wagon.

A cauldron, large enough to boil a body inside of, was set up beside it, and it was smoking from the top. A female half-elf with braided blue hair and a short, scrappy skirt was stirring the contents, and whatever liquid she had in there was bubbling manically like the pits of lava in the Hellscape.

“Not bad at all,” I snickered to myself.

“I feel like my stomach is boiling, though,” Ashe added with a fuming sigh as we passed it. “Are you hot? Or tense? I’m glad to have found this place, but more and more, I feel like I should kill someone just to keep my stomach quiet.”

“Oh, we should eat,” I realized. “I forgot to mention, our human forms are not very resilient. I just ate yesterday, and I’m already starving.”

“What?” she scoffed and arched a silver brow. “Already?”

“I know,” I snorted. “But come on, I smelled something pretty good back the other direction. We have to get our clothes now, anyways, and it’d probably be best if you don’t kill our future neighbors over your appetite.”

We followed my nose and the strings of magical lights to the hillside, and then we headed up to the outer areas of the Shadow Quarters and over to where a delicious smell was wafting from a small stall. Just nearing the stand made my mouth salivate with a vengeance, and for once, the excitement of eating something overpowered the excitement of devouring evil.

This stall had large pieces of meat hanging from iron hooks. Each one looked like the leg of an animal, and the meat glistened in the afternoon sunlight while small droplets of grease dripped from the legs and onto the slate slab below.

A half-goblin stood behind the stall, and he wore a beige tunic with a white garment tied around his middle. The thin piece of clothing had dirty stains rubbed into the front, and it reminded me of the aprons some of our flesh peelers wore in the Hellscape.

“How many?” the half-goblin asked us as he pointed toward the hanging meat, but he paled to a sickly shade of green while he met my eyes. He was able to hold my gaze, but it was obvious he didn’t want to.

“Two,” I replied.

“Six pieces,” he said automatically.

I counted out six coins from my sack, and once I paid the half-goblin, he unhooked two of the legs and handed them over to us without saying another word.

The leg of meat had been carved down to the bone at the bottom which gave me a handle to hold, and I gratefully snatched my portion as my hunger piqued just at the sight of it.

Ashe grabbed her share of the food, too, and she wasted no time in devouring it. Her teeth made light work of shredding the pink meat, and her cheeks bulged with the amount of food she had in her mouth.

I copied Ashe’s movements and pulled away at the food with my teeth. It was slightly salty, but also rich and tender, and the juices dripped onto my hand, but I was too interested in finishing off the feast to bother wiping it away. The mix of flavors in my mouth were like an explosion, and every time I took a bite, a new bout of pleasure washed through my veins.

It amazed me how quickly the hunger subsided with only this large hunk of meat in my gullet. I worried I’d have to buy four more just to satisfy my desire for food, but I was relieved to find one large leg sufficed.

Ashe, however, continued to pick away at the tiny scraps of meat that stuck to the bone in the middle. She made sure she ate every last piece before she threw the leg bone to the ground, and then the beautiful silver fiend focused on licking her fingers clean of the juices.

“I’d have ten more of those,” she murmured. “I didn’t know beings on the surface world ate such good food.”

“I’ll tell you one thing, don’t try and hunt,” I replied. “I made that mistake with a dead rabbit on my first day here, and these human bodies cannot face raw meat as well as we used to in the Hellscape.”

“I’d take this leg meat over a dead rabbit any day,” Ashe said with a dreamy look in her eyes.

“Stew and bread is good, too,” I added.

“What’s that?” She frowned and stopped licking her fingers for a moment.

“Some type of liquid with meat in it.” I shrugged. “The bread is soft, though, and I’d like to find more of it.”

“How about we find some more when we find a new place to stay?” Ashe suggested.

“Deal.” I grinned. “But that reminds me, I do have to pay a guy for some stew I ate yesterday. We’ll stop there on the way to our clothes.”

I led us back toward the rusted entrance of the Shadow Quarters while the sun began to set, and then we headed along the backstreets to reach the courtyard near the tavern. I managed to locate the tavern without any issue, and I opened the door and allowed Ashe to walk in first. It looked the same as it had the other day, and even though it was almost evening, it was still just as deserted as it had been the day before.

The man behind the bar looked up at us when we entered, but then he quickly shied away when he recognized me. He had a terrified expression on his face, like he feared for his life, but that changed to confusion when I dropped four pieces onto the bar.

“For the stew,” I muttered.

“O-Oh, thank you,” he stammered in response.

“I’ll be devouring your stew sometime soon,” Ashe assured the man with a playful smile.

The confusion stayed put on the man’s face as he stiffly stared at the countertop, and I imagined it stayed there long after the door had closed behind us.

Then we made our way to the shop of the woman who had made our clothes for us. I stayed outside in the shadows of an alleyway, and Ashe went inside with the correct amount of pieces in her hand. She returned a few minutes later with a bundle of black and blue material rolled up in her arms.

“It’s no fun having to buy the stuff,” Ashe said and handed me my black shirt. “I don’t understand why we can’t just steal it, if only for a bit of fun.”

“Because we’re trying to blend in, remember?” I replied, even though the idea of stealing it did sound so much more fun than paying for it.

I slipped off my jacket and then tore the old, bloody shirt from my body. The seamstress had done a good job, and the new black shirt fitted me perfectly. The long sleeves were cuffed around the wrists, and black buttons ran from the collared neck all the way down the middle. It wasn’t as ordinary as some of the humans I’d seen around here, but I appreciated the higher quality. It looked more like something the richer locals of the Shadow Quarters would wear, and it would probably hide the blood of my next victims pretty nicely.

Ashe’s sapphire dress was somewhat like her old one, apart from the fact that it flowed right down to her feet instead of sitting around her thighs. It came with a corset, too, that was a darker blue than the main body of the dress, and I found myself staring at the fantastic display of silvery cleavage in front of me.

“How am I supposed to do anything with this thing?” Ashe grumbled with her long skirts clutched in her hands.

“You’ll have to get used to it,” I snickered.

Ashe squinted her eyes as she thought for a minute, and then she grabbed the right side of the dress and tied it into a large knot. Now, the dress revealed the knee of her right leather boot.

“That does look much better to me,” I said with a grin. “Maybe a little higher, though. I like seeing your thighs.”

Ashe smiled with pride as she obediently tied the dress another two inches up, and when just a sliver of her silver skin was exposed above her boot, I nodded my approval.

“We’ll see if I can even fight in it,” Ashe sighed.

Now that we had sorted out the clothing situation, it was time to continue our study of the Shadow Quarters and find a place to sleep for the night.

The sky was darkening as the sun sank toward the ocean in the distance, and the buildings and spires glowed bright orange in the last light of the day. The two of us strolled along with fewer strange looks from the humans now that our clothes weren’t tattered or blood-stained, but as we neared the glowing light of the Shadow Quarters’ lanterns, I noticed a familiar smell.

“Ooh, look,” Ashe whispered excitedly. “I haven’t seen any of those yet.”

“Me neither.”

I grinned as I inhaled the stench of the vampire strolling along the dim avenue, and my mouth began to water. He smelled like carnal appetites and ice, and I could even smell the frenzy taking place in his senses as he passed the humans in the evening streets.

The vampire had neat, pitch black hair that stopped below his ears, and he wore a very well-to-do outfit that consisted of a black, velvet robe, a white, ruffled shirt, black pants, and shiny black shoes. I would have confused him for a human if it wasn’t for the deathly pale skin and the bright red eyes he kept glancing over his shoulder, and his movements were swift and delicate like he weighed nothing at all.

I had encountered only one vampire before, but that was long ago, and I could still remember the musical tone of his voice as he begged me not to kill him. I’d hunted for days to find that vampire since their kind were known to keep to themselves deep in the wildest forests, so it was strange to see a vampire out in the Port of Rengfri.

It was even stranger to see one outside the bounds of the Shadow Quarters.

“Do you think he’s hunting?” Ashe whispered.

“He shouldn’t be.” I furrowed my brow and looked around. “I’ve always heard vampires stalk their prey from the shadows. This guy’s just walking around like he’s a human, or something.”

The vampire stopped suddenly, almost like he’d heard us talking, but then an ordinary human man walked out of an alleyway and came up to the vampire. They exchanged something briskly, and then the man walked away and into the house across the street without a word.

“What the hell was that?” I muttered as I watched the vampire walk on.

“Can we stalk him?” Ashe eagerly hissed.

“Yeah, sure,” I replied. “I’m curious.”

“Yes!” she growled, and her eyes glowed brighter at the prospect of a hunt.

It was easy to trail the vampire from a distance since his scent was so distinct, but the metallic hint of mortal blood that drifted with him caused my adrenaline to bubble in my veins. We used our noses to follow him through an alley and down a side street, and ended up following the vampire far from the Shadow Quarters, and far from the forest surrounding the city, too.

Ashe and I both exchanged a glance as we entered the outskirts of another village not far from the Church, but we made sure to stay quiet as the scent became stronger the more we walked. Thanks to her time as an Infernal Huntress, Ashe’s nose was far more fine tuned than mine, so I followed her as she slipped behind a building and through another alley before she came to a halt.

From the other side of the wall, I heard the tuneful voice of the vampire.

“Sixty pieces,” he said barely above a murmur.

“Sixty?” another voice responded. “It was forty last time.”

“This is of the highest quality,” the vampire responded with a hint of a threat in the melodic voice.

“Where is it from?”

“Only the richest of veins that this city has to offer,” the vampire replied. I could almost hear the evil smile that would have been on his face.

“Fine, here’s sixty,” the man sighed. I heard the jingle as pieces were handed over, and then the two made their leave.

Before I could ask the questions that were in my head, Ashe continued to follow the vampire. We ended up following him for quite some time, and we even watched from a distance as the vampire walked straight past the dwelling of the Church, greeted the armored guards who stood outside, and continued on without any trouble. He made another sale a few hundred yards from the Church entrance, and then another further down the street.

“What is he doing?” Ashe asked in astonishment.

“He’s selling mortal blood,” I replied while I considered the delicious metallic scent the vampire trailed with him.

“So, the Port of Rengfri is full of necromaniacs and other undead as well,” she snorted. “It’s happening right under the nose of the Church.”

We had witnessed much worse during our eons in the Hellscape, so selling blood wasn’t anything off putting, but I was interested in how easily the vampire managed to do it all. He sold the blood in the open, clearly in view of the king’s guard, and they barely battered an eyelid. It was as if this vampire had no fear of the Church, and seemed to walk right under the noses of society without any issue.

Then again, he needed to get his supply of mortal blood from somewhere, and perhaps, these guards were his chosen subjects. He could siphon just enough blood to make a selling, but also keep the men alive in order to return for more.

I mulled over the strangeness of all this while the vampire headed back toward the Shadow Quarters, and Ashe and I snuck behind him all the way there. When the vampire entered the darker side of town, he walked as if he owned the place, with his back straight, his head held high, and his shiny shoes glinting in the lantern light.

Then the Vampire walked straight down the grassy hill that led to the new oaken area we had discovered.

I couldn’t recall having seen any vampires there earlier, but their kind did tend to prowl around at night, so he could have had a coffin in one of the wagons we passed. I was about to voice this opinion to Ashe when the Vampire turned an entirely different direction from the marketplace. We both came to a stop as he slipped between several stone homes and whistled his way into the darkness, and I narrowed my eyes.

All around us, goblins, banshees, dwarves, and orcs snarled and drank around fires and from the stoops of their homes. None of them spared the vampire a second glance, and just like with the rest of the city, it seemed he could go anywhere he pleased, regardless of his potent scent of evil.

“What do you think is over in that direction?” Ashe murmured as she crossed her arms and watched the vampire disappear.

“I’m not sure,” I muttered. “But whatever arrangement this guy’s worked out for himself is exactly the one we need.”