The Shadow Siren

The city glowed under the cover of the night, its artificial lights casting illusions of safety across its streets. The moon shone brightly from the sky as if something exciting is going to happen. Seraphina knew better; the only exciting thing that was about to happen was more demon blood that was going to splutter tonight. Blood had always been Seraphina's companion since the age of nine when her life ended and began in one breathe.

It's been twelve years since that night, but the memory was etched into her soul with a cruelty that time couldn't dull. She could still remember the frightening expression on her mother's face as she said her last words. She could still remember the thick scent of burning flesh, the searing heat and the malicious laughter of the demon who looked at her in the eyes, his eyes saying, "You are next!"

Seraphina had been nine - Now, she was twenty-two, and the world knew her by a different name:

The Shadow Siren.

No one saw her face. No one knew where she came from. Only that she arrived like a shadow, killed like a shadow and left like she was never there. She was always cloaked in black and gold, her voice was rarely heard and her methods swift and merciless. In this world where demons wore human faces and walked among men— The Shadow Siren was a legend and a nightmare all in one.

She was no ordinary agent. She worked off the grid, under a silent branch of the Division. No records. Just the name— The Order. Only the mark she carved onto her prey. A scythe, etched in blood always found on the corpses of the damned.

Her face was never seen. Her name never spoken. Only one thing was known: if you saw the Shadow Siren, you were already dead.

Seraphina paused in front of the assignment vault. It hissed open at her biometric scan, revealing a slim black folder marked with the crimson sigil of The Order. A serpent swallowing its tail. The folder was thin and thin files meant powerful targets. Dangerous demons that could slip through the cracks of society. They could kill in silence, and vanish without a trace. She opened it.

The content of the folder was short and precise:

Four demons. Human disguises. All confirmed kills.

"The blend too well these days." Her handler code name Dante said through the comm link in her ear.

"We are sending you in Shadow Siren. Standard elimination. Clean. Quiet."

"Coordinates?" she asked, her voice clipped and cold.

"Club Dune, Lux District, high end clientele. Get in, wipe them out, disappear.”

Seraphina said nothing more. She didn't need to. She was a shadow, trained from the age of nine by the Order after they found her wandering the ruins of her childhood home. 

Dante was the one who trained her. He said he saw great potential in her. Potential that was needed to restore order in the human world.

In this world where humans are known not to be alone anymore, there were rumors of the werewolves, vampires, witches and even faes not being a myth. Only that they were real and the worst of them all were the rumors of demons being in existence.

Every scary story humans told their children at night and they all believed it wasn't true, that it was just a fantasy. Now, they didn't know what to believe. Only the higher ups knew the true tale.

The Agency Seraphina worked for "The Order" were amongst the higher up who knew about these supernaturals whose world has started to bleed into theirs.

In order for the supernatural world not to bleed too much into the human world, The Order was created over a hundred years ago. The agency created a system for peace maintained by a group of humans and some supernaturals, and it has been peaceful for decades except recently.

Dangerous demons from hell were always seen trying to disturb these peace and not just them, some witches, vampires and werewolves. Most of these dangerous supernaturals sole aim was to take over the human world and none of them flowed together as one.

They were always constantly at war with each other.

The demons started coming out in groups of twos, sometimes in three, but now, they were all over the place and their existence was dangerous to mankind. War is coming and not just the war between the supernaturals. The war between both mortal and immortal beings who lived in the world and those underworld.

And there was someone ordering the way this war should go. Someone who has the power to bring these demons out of this world and equally leading and compelling most of the supernatural who didn't like this peace. That, according to them, made them weak and powerless. They love the smell of blood. The smell of war.

Seraphina is so close to finding out who the person leading the war is. She put on her custom suit woven with tech-silk that absorbed light and equally repelled minor enchantments. Her dual daggers rested on her hips, poisoned with demonbane, and a retractable katana sheathed across her back. Her katana. Her face remained hidden beneath a sleek obsidian mask.

She crouched atop the rooftop, watching the street below. Her eyes were locked on a club nestled in the heart of the city's darkest district. The slums.This place disgusted Seraphina a lot.The club was luxurious on the outside rotting within. It was a favourite haunt for demons who craved human indulgence.

She waited.

The air shifted as they emerged.

Four of them. All in sleek tailored suits, laughing like drunk businessmen after a night of excess to any human eye, they looked charming, even desirable. But Seraphina saw them as they were. Their horns coiled tight to their skulls, black veins crawling up their throats, claws twitching at their fingertips.

She chuckled "Losers".

She pressed the button of her mask which was just close to her ears. to scan the vital signs of her targets. Those vital signs were the weakness of the demons when they were in their human forms. One of them seemed to have a weak heart. The man with the lightest grey suit. A smile appeared on her beautiful pink lips.

"You all will die at my hands today." She smiled dangerously as her hidden eyes flashed silver and sapphire and then back to their normal colour of brown. They killed the only family she had and will ever have and she will kill each and everyone of them till they vanish and are extinct from the human world.

Seraphina started doing a mental calculation on how fast she has to be to have enough time to stab at her targets straight in the heart or a delicate part of their bodies, without them noticing she was coming.

One mistake could cost her life. A single mistake could ruin her identity and reputation of being the top ranked agent assassin who has never had any record of making mistakes. She was the best and her name The Shadow Siren is feared by many. Not just humans but supernaturals as well.

Seeing the demons leaving the club with some human girls clinging to them. Seraphina felt disgusted. She smiled coldly. 

"Well, these girls are in to see some blood shed that they will never forget in their life," She smirked. She leapt silently from the rooftop to the ground, slipping into the shadows until they passed. Then she struck. One blade drove cleanly into the first demon's back. He jerked, his face contorted in pain as the demonbane acted quickly, lethally. The girl he held screamed. A high pitched sound and the other three demons were immediately alerted.

They let go of the girls they were holding as they stood ready to fight.

Seraphina smirked, "Don't worry, you all are already dead." She could see fear in their eyes. "Cowards!"

"You — you are a girl?" The one with the weak heart asked, finally finding words to speak.

"No, it can't be possible," Another said, shaking his head.

The demons had just heard tales about the Shadows Siren. All of them thought the so-called legend was a man. They couldn't believe a woman—no scratch that— a girl could make such a terrifying reputation for herself and that made Seraphina angry. A girl or a woman can become anything she wants to be.

She looked into the grey misty eyes of the second demon nearest to her. Her dagger sank into his spine, slicing through his bone. He collapsed to the ground as blood spluttered out from the back, the girls just stood there, shocked and terrified, too shocked to do anything—to even run. The remaining two drew out their weapons— enchanted blades made from fallen angel bone. She welcomed the challenge.

Steels clashed as sparks lit the air. Serephina ducked a wide swing, kicking one demon’s back into the wall. Her movements were violent and very silent. The third demon lunged, but she slashed his wrist, spun, and sliced his throat. The fourth demon – the one with the weak heart literally pissed in his pants. He got down on his knees pleading for mercy from the Shadow Siren. He already knew he had no chance of surviving from her.

"Don't kill me," he pleaded, his knees on the ground. The girls had run away, and the streets were already empty.

Seraphina felt disgusted by his cowardice, but she had a plan.

"Maybe this demon has the answer on who is bringing all these demons out from hell. Maybe he might know who’s leading this war. I must take this opportunity. I’ve got to question him." 

Seraphina thought of this plan as the demon was practically begging her. "He must really like the freedom of living as a human." She thought.

She doubted if this demon would have any reasonable information on what she needed to hear.

"Who is leading this war?" Seraphina asked as her voice sounded dangerous. "I will only spare your life if you tell me... If you don’t..." She smirked, bringing her dagger close to his neck, piercing it lightly as his blood stained the dagger.

The demon was shaking and that reminded Seraphina of the same incident that happened to her 12 years ago, when she was at the mercy of this same kind. 

Before she became the woman she is now. A beautiful and fierce woman that could make both a man, demon or any other creature fall to his knees. A woman that may be the key to solve Kael's misery. Or, the one that would make his life torment with unfulfilled desire.