Prologue

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTIN ME!" Rachel started, followed by a torrent of fluent swearing. She silently cursed herself for not maintaning the gun.

The demon hissed as it paced uneasily. It's green-scaled body or what passed for it, swayed back and forth-grinding it's serrated shark-like teeth.

"Come on," Rachel muttered in frustration, and shook the gun violently but to no avail. "Stupid-mother -fu -" swearing before each shake. With a determined click, the jammed pistol locked in place. Rachel took this as a blessing, and hastily dropped on her knee and fired. With deadly accuracy, the bullet hit home, and the demon staggered to its feet. A bullet lodged in its exposed joint. It's green horned head hung low.

Rachel plucked the pendant that hung on her neck and exploded into action.

None sooner as the demon raised its head, a quick flash of silver illuminated the dark alley. There was a shriek and the demon's head rolled on the bricked road, before shattering into a silvery sort of dust.

Rachel shook her head at the remains, a messy pile of dust and tilted her head upwards, her black hair soak with sweat and dust. She heard something pierce the wind behind her. She whirled back and caught the dagger, and flung it back from where it came from.

There was a grunt, and from the shadow stood a boy, not very far from her age. His golden hair hung just above his forehead. His eyes were a hard set of sapphires, a red line scarred his right cheek.

"You cut me." He says, as he approached Rachel and handed her the silver dagger that she flung moments ago.

"Gabriel." Rachel muttered. "What is it this time?"

"You could've at least avoided it." Gabe snorted. He wasn't angry, Rachel would know. But there's some sort of amusement in his tone, though his face doesn't betray anything. It's as if he's playing cards, or any other card games with his poker face. Whatever his deal is, Rachel could not guess.

"The reports told me that this was all about a rogue witch." Gabe rolled his eyes, "Nobody mentioned anything about demons crawling around the place."

"Well, there's a witch involved, so there's that."

"Even so. Those demons -those weren't the killing kind." Gabriel went on, "They're-"

"Scouts." Rachel tied her hair up in a ponytail as she spoke. "Maybe it was just the garbage."

"Or a dead body." Gabriel says, gloomily.

"Please." Rachel threw her hands in the air. "Must there always be a dead body?" She glanced at Gabriel, who just stood still.

"No, look.." Gabe insisted, and pointed at the heap of garbages near the corner of the alley. The lamp post above is broken, so it's kind of in the dark part of the alley.

Rachel stood still, and looked at the direction Gabriel pointed. She could make some sort of garbage bins, lots of trash and a shadow of something that looked very human indeed.

Shiny, not a common find in a dump. She thought.

Gabriel strode towards the dump, and leaned forward. Sensing Rachel's approach, he held up a hand to stop her.

"It's a nasty sight."