Sword & Dragon

The sound of her voice was haunting. Micah watched the slow movement of her lips, the way they breathed the words into the microphone. Black lipstick never looked quite like that. Pulling his eyes away, he looked at the glass on the table before him. The liquid sat untouched. The ice had melted while he sat through her set. The final notes drifted across the room to slip into ears and seduce or curl smoke-like against the mirror behind the bar. Then she was a shadow, the house lights dimming around her while the spotlight behind her brought up its glow. It sank her into silhouette and he slipped from his seat, leaving a tip next to his glass.

The tables were mostly empty. It was a mid-week night, still a bit early for the crowds. His footsteps sounded loud against the hardwood of the dance floor. Not the best way to sneak up on someone, but she was already gone.

Micah slipped through the door into the back hall, heading toward the dressing rooms. His mind went back to the rumor.

The girl with the dragon and the sword will have your answer.

Normally Micah didn't think much of rumors, but with the weird happenings around town, he was taking any lead he could get. One more body drained of blood turning up and he was going to turn in his badge and move somewhere very sunny.

A little bit of looking turned up that the 'girl' in question was actually a woman working as a singer in the kind of seedy bar where the hookers went only if work was really slow and the money going through it was more from mob connections than selling drinks. He didn't intend to hold her choice of employment against her though. As long as she had the answers he was looking for.

There was only one dressing room in the back, apparently the place was not packing in the talent, and he could hear her voice drifting out the door. She was singing in a wordless way, practically humming with her mouth open. Micah stopped to listen for a moment before rapping lightly on the door itself.

"Come in."

He pushed open the door and stepped inside.

"Good evening," he began.

"It's about time you got here," she interrupted him. "Did you really think I was going to be able to handle the invasion on my own?"

She was watching him in the mirror, her eyes narrowed and angry.

"I'm sorry, what?" he spluttered. This was not what he had expected.

"You don't remember?" Now she half turned in her chair to look at him directly, her hands furiously working to pull pins out of her hair. "Crap!"

Micah actually felt a little odd with her eyes trailing up and down him, leaving tracks and searching for something he was not sure what. He shifted from foot to foot, waiting for her to say something else.

She didn't. The door burst in instead, throwing him halfway across the room as she brought her hands up to protect her face. What was standing in the doorway looked like it might have been human, once upon a time. Now it looked like a humanoid rat, complete with laid back ears and front incisors hanging over its lip.

Rolling over, Micah stared with wide eyes.

"Stop being stupid and grab your sword," the singer snapped at him.

"Sword?"

"On my back." She leapt across the space between them and pulled her hair up off her neck. "Grab the hilt underneath the moon."

There was not time to think about the absurdity of grabbing a picture off a person's skin. Micah reacted on instinct, and managed to keep it going when his fingers slipped into her skin and he could feel the metal of the hilt pressing against his palm. When he pulled back it was there, a sword whole and entire in his hand.

The process must have only taken seconds because the creature was still standing in the doorway. Now it lunged for them. The singer rolled away from him, toward the creature, underneath its lunge. Micah just brought the sword up just in time to stick it through the monster reaching for him with thick yellow claws on the tips of its fingers.

It spewed blood in a growl as it continued to claw at him. It was still snarling and clawing as he tried to keep it away. Then with a thunk, it went silent. He looked up to see it had sprouted a handle out of the side of its neck. She was pulling the head back and off, a paper-like tearing sound accompanying the movement.

"What the hell just happened?"

"First we hide the body."