She sat huddled in the dark alley, staring around her, seeing without seeing. She was cold, but that didn't matter. There was fire enough inside her to consume the world if she so chose.
Then the boy came.
He was what one might call a young tough. He was probably early twenties. He also seemed like he was far gone on the bottle. He saw her in the dead end alley and grinned. "Well, well, missy," he said. "Aren't you the one looking for a good time?" He staggered into the alley, leering at her.
She snarled quietly. She could see the stink of alchohol and sweat on him, hear the beating of his heart. She bared her teeth. He probably thought she was grinning at him. He chuckled.
"So we gonna do this here? Or do you wanna go somewhere more comfy-cozy?" He continued to leer at her, his eyes filled with a hunger far weaker than the one that filled her.
She did not like the way he looked at her. He was prey, not predator. She hissed at him.
"Now none of that," he said, pulling out a knife. "YOu wouldn't come out here looking like that if you didn't want it, too. Let's just do this easy, no one wants to get hurt."
He couldn't see all of her, then. Just enough to make him think she was something else. She decided to teach him a lesson.
Her tail flashed. His knife blade went flying, and he clutched his arm where a huge bleeding gash had opened along its length.
"GRAH! You bitch!" Then he looked at her, and his eyes were filled with fear and lust as she reared up.
Her eyes held his, like a serpent's eyes hold the wary fieldmouse. But her eyes were also focused on his bleeding arm. The scent of fresh blood...fresh meat...
Mouth open, baring full rows of fangs, she lunged.
Robin was examining the ruin of Raven's room closely, trying to find a clue as to what had happened to Raven. "Something is definately wrong here," he mumbled.
"Gee, ya think?" Cyborg commented acidly. "Someone's gone and kidnapped Raven, leaving a scorched and wrecked room, and you think something is wrong?"
"I don't think she was kidnapped," Robin said blandly.
"YOu think she smashed up her own room before busting out the wall?" Cyborg was clearly disdainful of the idea.
Starfire came out of Raven's bathroom. "THe room of bathing is also severly damaged, and it is clear Raven smashed the mirror herself. Also, there is a strange substance in the toilet."
Beast Boy said nothing as Cyborg went in to investigate the bathroom. He was busy using his nose, but wasn't making a big deal of it. Leaning against the wall, he breathed in. He smelled smoke from where the room was scorched, but that was expected. He was trying to investigate Raven's scent, though. It clung to everything, but it had changed. It still smelled of lavender, as always. But there had also always been an undercurrent of scent that his animal instincts had always associated with sulfur, even though it smelled nothing like sulfur. That undercurrent was much stronger now.
Cyborg came back out. "The stuff in the toilet is vomit, mostly. But it's heavily biological, and contains heavy amounts of blood and other substances I don't recognize."
"Raven's?" RObin asked intently.
"Matches her genetic code...mostly. Deeper down it was closer. It was almost as though, as she was throwing up...her genetic code started to rewrite itself somehow, like when BB shapechanges."
"Then while she was throwing up, she was changing into something else?"
Beast Boy, listening to all of this, came to his own conclusion. The sulfur-that-wasn't-sulfur...there was one thing that had always been associated with the smell of sulfur, one thing that would explain all of this. He had been smelling her demon blood, and it had become stronger.
Robin's communicator buzzed. He flipped it open. "RObin here."
"THis is the commisioner. You'd better get down here. We've got a report of a monster attack, and I think you'd better handle it."
Robin was silent for a time, then nodded. "We'll be right there." He flipped it closed. "COme on, Titans, let's go."
"But what about friend Raven?" Starfire asked, worried.
"If I'm right...and I hope I'm not...investigating this will put us on the right track to finding Raven. Titans, go!"
With that, they headed out. Beast Boy said nothing, but followed. He could see - as surely as if he could read minds like Raven did - what Robin was thinking, and Beast Boy did not want to let that happen. He needed a plan. One thing was certain to him, though.
Whatever it took, he would help Raven.