Chapter 3

20 Years Earlier

Fayne opened the door with a look of curiosity on his face. The wind was howling with the voice of a blizzard, but another sound was cutting through. A cry that blended with the scream of the storm in a harmony of fear, rising and falling as if an aria.

He poked his horned head out further and crept forward on two clawed wings, tasting the air with his forked tongue. Yes, something was definitely out there, but he couldn't tell what. He'd never smelled anything like that before. With a hint of...human? In a blizzard in the Valley of the Shadow of Death? That couldn't be right.

Fayne looked back into the shelter to see a little demon with matching leathery wings, playing with some blocks carved from the ash stones near the falls. "Stay here Tavor." The little boy looked up at him with wide bright eyes and nodded.

The wind bit into Fayne's hide as he stepped out into the storm, but that same wind guided him to the strange smell. Another piercing cry coming from his right. He looked down to see a rotted out stump, and there she was. A child demon with 2 arms and legs, a squashed nose that looked vaguely human, and skin as white as parchment.

Half breed. Definitely a half breed.

What else could it have been? Fayne had never seen one before, but he'd heard of them in stories, found abandoned in areas where it seemed only death bred.

But he knew of the potential in those little fingertips that grasped at his outstretched claws. He'd bet his seat at the agency council that this little one would grow up to be a powerful extractor. The human side of her would assure that. She would struggle, but if she could learn to properly channel her talents, she would be unstoppable.

A valuable weapon.

He picked up the small delicate body and headed back to the shelter, covering her delicate form with his wing, knowing the importance of getting her human weakness out of the storm. He closed the door to the shelter behind him and looked at the boy still tinkering with his blocks.

"What is it papa?" the child asked, dropping his toy and rushing over to see what had caught the attention of his father on this relentless night.

"Tavor, say hello to your new sister."