Nina kept in pursuit of the man, he was pretty fast though she expected that. He was a demon after all. She could feel her heart beating in her chest as adrenaline surged through her body urging her on, or was it the serum she had taken the day before? Damien had explained to her before the initiation ceremony that it would boost her strength and speed and she could definitely do with the boost right now.
As she ran she heard the panicked cries of people as the man pushed passed them. She slowed down slightly to ease her way passed people without shoving them, yelling out sincere apologies as she made her way through. This guy really wasn't making it easy and she made a mental note to punch him in the face when she caught him. She could pull her gun out to shoot him but she didn't want to risk it when there were civilians nearby. She was a fairly good shot but she wasn't willing to take the risk so she just kept following and avoiding any obstacles he threw at her as best she could.
She saw her chance and sped up when she saw him turn around and make some strange gestures with his hands. It wasn't until they started glowing red that she realised that he was conjuring magic. She gasped and skidded to a stop right as thrust his hands forwards, throwing a fireball in her direction.
Nina quickly ducked as the fireball flew overhead just narrowly missing her. She could feel the heat emanating from it as it whizzed passed and smashed into the wall exploding on impact. Great, he was a pyromancer of all things, this could be tricky if she wasn't careful she could get hurt or worse someone else.
She looked up breathing deeply to see that he was on the move again. It was just a distraction tactic and she fell for it. She quickly stood up and took off after him pulling out her gun, he had now tried to attack her. All bets were off now, she took some regular bullets out of her pouch and started to load them in as she ran. She knew that they wouldn't kill him but she wasn't aiming for fatal shots. She just wanted to slow him down enough to catch him. She aimed the gun low at his leg and after taking a deep breath she fired.
Nina grunted in frustration as her shot missed his leg by a few inches. He turned his head to look back at her in shock. "Hey! You attacked me first!" She called out to him. "Stop running so we can talk about this!"
"You think I'm dumb enough to think that you just want to talk?!" He retorted a slight nervous laugh escaping him. "Yeah right! I know what you are! I know what you people do to my kind!"
"We only go after the bad ones!" Nina yelled back, growing more and more frustrated with this man but she kept going, he had to run out of energy sooner or later. "You're a prime suspect in a murder! Also, running makes you look guilty dumbass!"
The man growled at her, then he seemed to have an idea as his mouth curled up into a smirk, his fangs showing slightly. "You really think you can catch me little girl!" He shouted as he fast approached a corner. "Because that's the only way you'll stop me!" He challenged as he quickly turned and flipped her the double bird before darting around the corner.
Nina groaned in disgust, she wasn't sure which offended her more, the little girl remark or being flipped off like that. If he wanted to play that game she was more than happy to oblige. She followed him round the corner and found herself in an alleyway. However he was nowhere to be found. "Come on you foul demon...I know you're around here somewhere…" she muttered to herself as she held her gun close ready to shoot him should he show himself. She wouldn't kill him but she was going to give him a world of hurt. She looked down at the ground and saw what looked like beige coloured hairs which on closer inspect was actually fur. Probably fell from his tail. They just lay scattered about but there wasn't enough for a trail.
Nina wasn't about to give up so easily though, he needed to be held responsible for what he did and she gave him the chance to do so willingly. Now she would drag him back to the compound by his tail if she had to. She stepped further into the alley and saw several large boxes outside that were big enough for storage as well as a large dumpster. He couldn't have gotten that far away from her so quickly. He was hiding, possibly in one of those boxes.
She approached the one closest to her and carefully opened the box quickly pointing her gun at it only for there to be nothing but old clothing inside. She sighed relieved that she wasn't the victim of a surprise attack but also disappointed that she didn't find him. Nina shook her head, "don't be discouraged, it's just one little set back. He's around here I'm sure of it."
She made her way to the next box and was about to open it when her phone rang. Damn it, of all the times for it to be ringing. She quickly grabbed it and swiped the screen to answer it. "Hello?" She questioned, turning her back to the boxes.
"Nina?" Damien's voice called out through the phone. "Are you doing OK? I just finished with the business park's car park and just thought I'd check in."
Nina sighed with relief, she must've been taking longer than expected. "Yeah I'm fine." She answered as she paced round running a hand through her hair occasionally looking back towards the boxes and dumpster hoping for a sign of movement. Except there was nothing.
"Are you sure? You sound tense, did something happen?"
"Well...I asked around a couple of places…" she answered her back was towards the boxes and dumpster once again. "There was a guy in there who was acting pretty sketchy, he had the latest victim's purse on him and he's a demon, a Hellhound to be exact."
She heard a sigh on the other end of the phone. "Makes sense considering the injuries on the victims and Dr Monroe's suspicions. But a Hellhound, no one has seen one of those in a while. Be careful they can be dangerous when provoked or cornered."
"Yeah...I nearly got singed as I was chasing him. Lost track of him in an alley, but I'll find him." Nina stated failing to notice the lid of the dumpster opening slightly and red eyes peering at her watching and waiting.
"Where are you? I can come and help you." Damien offered.
"Well I followed him through the North of "Drunken Alley" and out into Rose Way, then we ran into an alley off there."
"Hang in there Nina, I'm on my wa…" The rest of Damien's words were cut off as something jumped on Nina knocking the phone out of her hand and sending it flying into the corner. Nina grunted as she was thrown to the ground just about catching the dog man on top of her growling before he leapt off her a second later and bolted down the alley. "Nina...Nina…" Damien could be heard faintly calling her name from the phone but she ignored it and pulled herself to her feet.
Nina took off after him following him down the alley and pulled her gun out opening fire on him again. He just about managed to duck as the bullets ricochet off the walls in the fairly narrow alley, the last bullet whizzing passed his ear loudly causing him to yelp and grasp his ear as it started to ring. Of course, he was a dog type demon. He had sensitive ears, which meant that bullet whizzing by was pretty deafening to him by comparison. She ran to catch him up as she saw him shaking his ear trying to get the ringing to stop, his face twisted in pain as he turned to stare at her a little disorientated.
As she was inches away the ringing began to lessen and soon stopped allowing him to come to his senses. Though he was feeling desperate now, he flicked his fingers in a motion similar to flicking on a lighter and held a small flame between his fingers. As Nina ran towards him he flicked it towards her though he was actually aiming at the ground in front of her. She skidded to a stop as the small flame hit the ground and busting on impact much like a firecracker. Once it fizzled out she advanced only to be stopped in her tracks again by another flame "firecracker."
This song and dance kept going until he reached a gate at the end of the alley and began to open it. Visibly annoyed at these little games she shot at him again this time hitting him in his right upper arm. He yelped in pain but he just about managed to open the gate far enough for him to slip through.
Nina grunted clearly annoyed now, she was tired of him giving her the run around. However she was glad that she was able to get at least one hit on him. It wasn't fatal to his kind and he'd heal from the injury fairly shortly. But the pain would be brutal, a price demons pay for their higher regeneration rate. Hopefully it would be enough to slow him down a little, maybe he even stopped to lick his wounds.
She checked her gun and loaded more bullets in to fully load it before she opened the gate and ran through. Nina looked around, she didn't see him but she saw some beige coloured fur and small spots of blood on the ground. Perfect, he was leaving her a trail, she began to follow it further down the street. As she went further down the blood drops were smaller and less frequent, the healing probably kicked in by this point and that thought was confirmed when she saw the shell casing covered in blood lying on the ground. His body must've pushed it out so the injury could heal. She found herself wincing, that had to hurt, but she had little sympathy for a demon who felt the need to brutally murder humans. She would find him and catch him before he completely recovered from the pain and ran off again.
Nina turned the corner and down another alley where she saw him at the other end of the alley. He stood with his back to her and didn't seem to be moving. Nina saw her chance and crept up behind him reaching into her pouch and pulling out some hand restraints. However, as she got closer something felt wrong. He didn't react to her presence at all, his entire body was tense. His tail and his ears were stood on end and as she peered round to look at his face she saw that his eyes were wide with shock and his mouth showed fangs and was twisted into a look of fear and disgust.
Nina was about to pull his arms back to restrain him only to pause when she heard a strange sound. Her face twisted in disgust as she heard soft squelching from straight ahead. She slowly turned and gasped finally understanding why the man had suddenly frozen like that.
In the square before them was what looked like a human female feasting on another human body. Large chunks of flesh were missing but she could tell that the body was female. Low growls escaped from the feasting woman as she slowly lifted her head up to reveal blood stains all around her mouth and her red eyes narrowing at the two.