I was looking down at a grisly murder scene. The remains of a stark naked man, bones peeking through split skin, languished on the floor. Blood covered the floor in wide, messy splashes, like a drunk mutant clown and several gallons of red paint had had a reunion. How could so much of the damn stuff be in such a small body?!? It's a good thing I'm not sensitive to that kind of thing any more - a few short years ago this much blood would have sent me into a frenzy. Being a supernatural has it's perks, but for most of us being around blood is like a recovering addict finding a stash of their favorite drug.
"Oh great, looks like it's amateur night all over again" mumbled a low, whiskey-stained voice. Ah, Venelli. Such a card, such a putz.
I looked at the scene in front of me and started calculating. Not a vampire - they wouldn't waste that much blood for all the money in the world. Not a ghoul... they would've eaten the body. Wait... where's the...?
"Venelli, have you been playing with the corpse?" I asked.
"No. Those organs were missing before we got here. We reckon our old pal Party Boy is back in town". Party Boy... hah. That's extremely unlikely, not least because Party Boy was a ghoul, my first case as an Inquisitor. I say was, because I'm the one that ended his miserable existence, and made damn sure I burned his bones to prevent resurrection. He wasn't in the picture. Guaranteed.
I leaned down and hovered my hand over the body to get what reading I could. Caught something I didn't recognize immediately, but the unmistakable buzz was definitely there - if I was right about what that killed this poor sod, we were going to have trouble on our hands... not least of which when he raises himself from the grave as a Blood Revenant himself.
What was a Blood Revenant you say? I’m glad you asked…
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Just a teaser folks. If there’s interest I’ll follow with the rest of this chapter.