Blood in The Air. Katherine Wood

      The man ran down an alley, clutching a knife in his hand. Kari dodged a night soil cart and ran after him, trying to gain some speed. The man stopped suddenly and turned to look at her. His smile revealed pointed canines and red-tinted ears. Why did they always find the teeth and ears hardest to imitate? Kari thought as she watched him jump up the side of a three-storey building with little effort and land perfectly on the roof, only to carry on running towards the Palace. She could have chosen to let him run on, could have chosen to let the assassin go; even though she was a corporal in the Watch there were no laws about holding a knife and looking at the palace. But it was the way he had smelt, the way his eyes had an eerie glow that had caught her attention on the walk home at the end of a long day. No human smelt like that. That smell was pure underworld, pure demon.

      She checked the alley to see if anyone had witnessed the impossible sight of a human leaping three storeys with apparent ease. Though the alley seemed clear, Kari still didn’t feel safe enough to leap after him, so she climbed the heights using the windows as easy footholds. Humans with some demon blood from one of their ancestors were known as demokins, and had to be careful at the best of times. Showing you were so similar to the true demons did not help to ease the suspicions of the common people.

      The view from the roof was stunning. The City’s roofs were closely packed, with chimneys breaking into the sea of slate leading up to the Palace on the hill, with its shining dome dancing with moonlight in the darkness surrounding it. The demon was far ahead but Kari was faster; she ran, jumped and leapt over the wood and slate. The Palace loomed larger in the distance and Kari feared that she wouldn’t make it in time to stop him before he entered the grounds. The demon stood before the walls of the palace, shed his clothes and disappeared to the human eye. The bastard, Kari thought as she caught up to him. There was no choice now. This guy wasn’t just a Vasca, the most common demon to be found skulking around the seedier side of the City, but was a full blooded Azri, part of the ruling elite in the underworld and a dangerous assassin.

      Kari climbed the wall easily. She would have to drop a few hints to the Palace guards about their patrols, this was not the first time she had followed a demon over the walls. She could sense the demon ahead, feel his presence. This time it was too close. She pulled the knife sheathed in her boot and followed him around the south wall, still no guards, where the fuck were they? She knew she was gaining on him now, even though she was restricted by her apparent normality. She rounded the corner and saw his claws gleam as they flashed before her face. Kari dived under them and kicked his leg out from beneath him on her way past. The Azri had changed to his stronger form whilst she had been catching up, thinking it would give him the advantage against a human. He was wrong about that. Faster than any human could move, Kari plunged the knife into the back of his neck, severing his spinal cord, but not quite killing him. She was no human.

      He flopped to the ground, his body limp. Kari studied him, noticing the red hue of his skin, the black stripes coming down over his left shoulder, the long black tail that ended in a red tuft. He was more than the average assassin. She rolled him over, and watched his eyes swirling and his mouth spewing mewling, hissing noises; the demon equivalent of screams of anguish.

      “Who sent you?” Kari asked in demon, their language a collection of grunts, growls and hisses.

      “Drac-Shemal,” He choked out, flecking her with blood and spittle.

      Shit. He was dying too quickly. “Why? Why did he send you?”

      “Vendetta on family,” he spluttered a bit more and took a rasping shallow breath. “Broken oath... Prince betrayed....”

      “Which prince? Tell me.” No use, the demon was dead. Just more questions, never any answers. And now one of the princes was dealing with demons.

       Earlier That Morning

      “It says in here that the signs of a human murderer who takes more than one victim are ‘constant fantasists, often involving a sexual element, with a gradual escalation in the degree of severity in the offending acts,’” Constable Bailey quoted from the book in his hand. “Bailey, you just repeated what I already knew,” Corporal Kari True said, as she perused the left-over paperwork from her last case. She glanced at the cover of the book Bailey was reading: ‘The New Watch Officers Handbook.’ “Go on then, surprise me with a fact” she said sarcastically. The handbook was a useless standard textbook, in Kari’s opinion. The best bit of advice Kari was ever given was: “if they look like they are up to no good, or you just plain don’t like their face, take ‘em down, Constable True”. If only all constables could learn the ropes from Sergeant Bill Dawkins.

      Bailey looked down at the book again. “It says that ‘another common indicator of an unstable and homicidally inclined mind is excessive masturbation’. How much do you think is classed as excessive?”

      “How much do you masturbate?” she asked back.

      “A few times a day, why?” He looked worried now.

      “Well I would definitely class that as excessive, what do you think, Plond?” Plond, the constable at the next desk, nodded his head solemnly. “What about you, Longtooth? Hills?” They both looked up. Longtooth with his shaggy mane of hair tied back was ruggedly handsome, in an unshaven way that Kari had once had some very disturbing dreams about. Hills observed with her penetratingly green eyes and a permanently cheery expression that was probably because she worked with Longtooth. Longtooth shook his head in an amused way and Hills suppressed a giggle.

      Bailey’s