Blood in The Air. Katherine Wood

      When Kari woke up, her brain switched on first, shortly followed by the tingling on the side of her face. The tingling proved to be just the prequel to a pain that started as a dull throb deep in her skull. It radiated though the bone into the muscles and eventually ended in the skin covering her right cheek. Next to wake up were her ears. She heard many interesting things whilst her eyes, hands and legs were still taking their time to rouse. Among them were:

      “I will not work with her, she is unstable! Did you see her eyes? They were red!” Kari was sure that was Elathir the elf. No one else she knew could sound so full of shit.

      “You were the cause of that little hiccup, elf.” That was definitely Bill and he sounded as pissed off as she had ever heard before, even worse than the time she had accidently been using his tooth brush to scrape baby sick off her work shirt a few years ago. In her defence, it was his baby.

      “Little hiccup! She injured three people, including you. If that corporal had not struck her with a chair, then I do not doubt lives would have been lost!” The elf again. Kari realised it was probably a good thing she couldn’t move her mouth yet, or she would already have sunk her teeth into his throat.

      “Baxter’s actions were unnecessary, Kari had already come back.” Bill, ever her champion.

      “Come back? You sound like it is a scenic trip into the country, not a violent spree of homicidal anger,” the elf sneered. What a cock.

      “The injuries suffered by the team were unintentional, they got themselves in the way.”

      “Got in the way? She broke Hills’ arm because she was in the way? That young constable, Pond? He has a skull fracture. If they were in the way, what was she aiming to do?” Elathir was agitated, very agitated. I am going to have to do some serious baking to make it up to the guys.

      “Rip you apart, that’s what she was aiming to do. You pushed her to the point of demon anger, you incited her rage. If she had reached you, you would not be standing there now, prodigious demon mage or not,” Bill paused, took a deep breath, then continued in a way Kari was not expecting. “She may be a bit volatile sometimes, but I trust her with my life and more importantly, with the lives of my wife and children. Once you know her you will understand. She hates demons with an exceptional vehemence. She feels this need to hunt them down. Since the day she stepped into this office, she has managed to work nearly every case involving demons.”

      Their voices started to drift away, so she stopped pretending to be still unconscious. She had been lying on the same table the dead demon had decorated only hours earlier in the elf’s office. That probably wasn’t a good sign.

      She checked the time and realised she had only been out for about an hour. She had never needed much sleep and had always been a fast healer, so head wounds rarely bothered her. As Kari walked through the bull pit and noticed the smashed furniture and filthy looks thrown her way, she changed direction away from the chiefs’ office and headed to the exit instead.

      *

      Over the years, Kari had had a few times when she had hurt people she hadn’t meant to. This, fortunately, was becoming less frequent but she was left with the dilemma of how to make it up to someone who you had accidently caused severe harm to. As it turned out, most people needed a couple of months distance and several favours if they were going to at all. Coppers, however, needed a few pastries, which was the reason she was walking down one of the better parts of town at a sociable time of the day. In affluent areas, people generally thought they were better than Kari. Kari disliked them in return, but it was worth it for the Crusty Cream Bakery.

      She could smell it before she could see it. In fact, she could almost see the smell wafting down the street. This bakery had a cloud of pure happiness surrounding it, which you could watch on the faces of the people who walked past. When you smelt the delicious, bready waft, you couldn’t help but smile. That scent held the promise of impending happiness in the form of soft gooey things. When the smell left you, it left a hole in your life so big you had no choice but to turn around and enter the shop so that the fragrance could remain with you for a few more hours. Kari liked it because it smelled like her mother, one of the only good memories of growing up in hell.

      “Hello sweetheart, it’s not a Saturday, so I must assume you are here because you miss my wonderful presence in your life,” Enrico purred to her over the counter. Enrico was the best baker in the city. His cakes had the royals visiting his shop. They had offered him a position in the palace countless times but he had always refused. He claimed it was because he could not deprive the common populace of his divine cakes, buns and doughnuts. Everyone knew, though, that it was because he had now opened three bakeries and was raking it in. He was also a dream to look at, so much so that ladies wandered into his shop and left an hour later holding six times more cake-based goods than they went to buy. Kari, along with most of the female population of the city, was a little bit in love with him.

      “Wait, what is that on your shirt? Did someone hit you in the head with a chair?” he inquired.

      “Actually yes, which means I have to make it up to the guys.” She replied. He raised his eyebrows in response. This was Enrico for “you’re not leaving this shop without telling me all about it”.