"What? Never seen a girl before?" Kyra said as she pulled out a bottle of liquor. She plopped down on the couch and took a large swig from the bottle. Shadow twitched in irritation at her vulgarity.
"No, but I have seen inconsiderate, vulgar, and snarky people!" He growled at her. Kyra raised a brow and grinned as she took another gulp from the bottle. She then propped her feet up on the coffee table.
"Better?" Kyra asked, her eyes narrowed, daring him. Shadow growled, Tails was still staring at her in shock, but then stuttered, breaking the silence.
"Y-y-you're a werewolf!"
"Really? I never would've guessed." Kyra said sarcastically between sips of liquor. Her charcoal tank top was a dark maroon, almost black color near her breasts and her teeth held a red hue. Sonic shuddered at the sight.
She noticed and looked his way. Her eyes seemed to burn holes into him and the vague scent of blood made her even more disdainful.
"Rule one around people like me: never let me sense your fear. It may just be your downfall." She said as she took another gulp from the bottle.
Sonic stared at her. "Excuse me?"
"Look, you hired me. I'm supposed to "help" you, yes? Yes. I just helped you by informing you on something that's best for you to do around people like myself. Deal with it." Kyra said. She looked over to Shadow and held out a hand.
"Now, you all are wondering what the hell is going on here. I shall explain. The book, please?"
Shadow handed her the book, glaring at her all the same. She set the bottle down and set her feet on the floor. Her eyes skimmed over the cover and the pages.
Tails looked over her shoulder curiously. "What are you look-"
"Oh, bollocks! This is written in the old text…" Kyra sighed. "I knew I should've paid Mum's lessons some attention when she actually was teaching me something useful…oh well." She shrugged, closing the book.
"So what? You can't read it?" Sonic inquired.
"Oh, I can read it. It's just a pain in the ass to do so. I'm dyslexic, so it's harder for me." She said, taking a gulp of liquor.
Shadow glared at her. "Well, if you can read why don't you tell us?"
Kyra glared back at him. "I am going to tell you if you'd at least let me get to it. After all, I just had to kill a bloody minotaur, a shenkaii, and also got nailed in the chest by a minotaur hoof. Do you realize how much that hurts? No, you don't. You aren't female. So stop being a complete ass and let me get to it. Alright?"
Shadow narrowed his eyes. "Fine. Just tell us about what the hell is going on."
Kyra rolled her eyes, but obliged. "First of all, I am well aware of who you all are. Shadow and Sonic Hedgehog and Miles Prower."
"Err…I prefer Tails." Tails said, still a bit unnerved about the whole werewolf thing. Kyra nodded.
"Note taken. Now, allow me introduce myself formally to you. My name's Kyra Blankley, as you are aware of, and yes I am a "werewolf". More commonly referred to as a loboko- by my kind at least. What is after you is this," She turned the book to a page with an ink sketch of an odd looking thing. "A krenaht- a demon of death."
It had a set of spiral horns protruding from its head and the skin was scaly. It had ears like that of a deer, but the face of a human and its nose was flat-ish. A ridge of horns went up from the bridge of its nose to its forehead and its eyes were slit like that of a cat's.
"Aurora must have hinted about this, right?" She directed the question to Sonic. He nodded.
"Are all loboko werewolves?" Tails asked as he looked at the picture. Kyra shook her head.
"No. Others of my kind have abilities to take the form of other animals. You mortals are just more aware of my specific race."
Shadow stared at the sketch before asking, "So what? Is it like the Devil or something?" Kyra eyed him with a confused expression.
"The what?" She asked, her eyebrows furrowed.
"You know…The Devil." He said simply. She cocked her head to the side.
"I have no clue what you're referring to. Most of my race aren't very big on mortal religion, let alone religion at all." She held up her hands in defense toward all of them. "I'm not offending any of you, am I?" Shadow shook his head, Tails and Sonic replied with "no".
"It's just surprising, you not knowing about those things. It's rather uncommon." Shadow reassured her. Kyra sighed in relief.
"Good. I was hoping that you weren't like my last client- the son of a priest. He tried the silver bullet thing and holy water…That boy was bloody mad!" She shook her head before taking another swig of the liquor.
Sonic raised a brow. "Those things don't work on you?"
Kyra let out a bark of laughter. "Ha! Are you kidding me? I could drink twenty buckets of "holy" water and be fine! As for silver, in my days as a child, we used silverware. My entire family would've been dead before supper if silver worked!"
Tails laughed. "That makes sense, though you still haven't fully explained everything."
"Perhaps if you would stop bombarding me with questions I'd be able to get to it." She said with a smirk.
Tails grinned nervously. "Eheh…sorry about that." Kyra held up a hand. "It's alright. I'm used to it. Anyway, the hooded creatures that were chasing you lot? Those are shenkaii- bounty hunters of sorts, much like myself, only they are regarded as minions to powerful demons. Those seemed to be under the control of the krenaht. They can summon other creatures- like the minotaur."
Sonic let this sink in. 'Looks like there's more to this whole thing than what I'm aware of…' He thought to himself.
"Okay," Shadow began, arms folded across his chest. "But what does this "krenaht" want exactly?"
Kyra pursed her lips, thinking. She shrugged. "I don't know yet. To find that out I- we will have to contact a few colleagues of mine." She stood from the couch and stretched.
Sonic raised a brow quizzically. "Colleagues? Like who?"
Kyra already had her cell phone in her hand and was flipping through contacts. She ignored the question. She then placed the phone up to her ears and waited as it rang.
Sonic was about to ask something else, until…
"Hullo? Yes, may I speak to Scourge Hedgehog, please?"