I was munching on the heart of one failed mugger, reading about harpy queens, who could supposedly perform magical feats with their horns, throwing bolts of lightning around. That was surprising; despite my ability to fly, I hadn't been expecting to see outright fantastical magic. Then again, the supposed first-hand accounts of encounters with harpy queens seemed suspect at best, so maybe the tales were exaggerated. If they weren't, Lily would likely want to reevaluate which of the monster origin stories she believed in.

As a mere regular harpy, I apparently didn't have anything like that. There was the strength, durability, regeneration and gluttony inherent to all monsters, but the only unique feature I had was the ability to pretty much ignore mass during flight. To be fair, that was pretty physics breaking on its own, but still, why can't I shoot lightning bolts? I want flashy magic! Could a harpy grow into a harpy queen? That was something the internet failed to answer.

The other mugger was cowering in a corner, staring at me in abject terror. He'd somehow managed to cling to life till we got here, holding his wound shut with his bare hands, and managing not to drown in his own blood. Once we'd arrived, he'd torn off some clothing from one of the old occupants and made himself a bandage. He was still gurgling unhealthily, but was very much alive. I was impressed.

Of course, then he'd tried to escape, so I'd had to amputate his legs. Again, he'd manufactured himself a pair of tourniquets, but this time I wasn't so impressed. He should have tried to make a deal with me, or talk his way out. I wasn't sure what he could have offered, but it would have had a far greater chance of success than escaping. As if I was going to allow my precious food to run away.

I'd found a list of previous hunt participants and done some research on their current locations and status. There was actually one here, in this very city, albeit one who had scored a big fat zero kills. Maximilian, the CEO of some medical corporation by the ostentatious name of Ascendant Technologies, mostly doing medicinal drug research, testing and manufacture. Or at least, that was what their public website said. I couldn't help but wonder where the technology to turn humans into monsters had come from, and who might be involved. He might be worth a visit.

I copied all the information onto paper, happy to find my dexterity more than sufficient to do so. I knew better than to continue using one phone; phones could be tracked. Fortunately, I had lots. Everyone had phones, after all, so there was quite a collection around this house now going unused. Really, I'd only gone out to buy one out of curiosity for what would happen. Despite my success, I doubted my approach of brazenly walking into stores would work too many times; I'd make the news eventually, and then people would be on the lookout.

With information on hunt participants copied down, I started researching Maximilian. Where would he likely be at which times? When and where would it be best to target him? Obviously the internet didn't exactly have personal timetables, but it was surprising how much information you could glean about a high-profile figure. Not that I put any of it to use; after reading for a bit, I decided to just go after him at his home, an isolated mansion in a rich suburb, surrounded by private grounds. With security I could fly over and no neighbours to grow curious about the noise, it was like it was made for me to invade.

I continued munching and reading while waiting for night to come when the doorbell rang. Well, that's a pain... I hadn't seen any phones go off, given that I'd removed all the batteries, but it shouldn't be a surprise that some drug lord would send someone to check after they all went unresponsive. Shouldn't be too hard to take care of, but then I'd need to get out of here before a more serious response arrived and spoilt my privacy.

I opened the front door to a pair of police officers. Not quite what I was expecting, but the same thing still applied. They didn't even have guns drawn; I could kill them both before they moved, but then I'd end up with SWAT here or something. I'd have to flee after dealing with them, no matter how things went down.

"Can I help you?" I asked, in the most normal sounding voice I could manage.

The two didn't respond, staring at my wing. No, wait, at the second mugger's half eaten leg that I was holding in that wing. Ah... I forgot about that. Now they're drawing guns.

"Drop the... the leg and put your hands in the air," stammered one of them.

"You know I'm a harpy, right?" I asked. "Kinda known for being bullet proof, unless those pistols are far higher powered than they look. Also, I have no hands."

"Don't be stupid. Monsters can't speak."

I took another bite of leg, curious as to where the conversation was going to go from here. Monsters can't speak, therefore, despite literally standing in front of them in all my harpy glory, eating someone's leg, I can't be a monster. That's even worse than the phone store.

"Look," said the other one, lowering his gun, "this is a dangerous prank you're playing. You could get hurt."

By this point, I couldn't help but feel sorry for them, the poor clueless little things. Rather than believe that I was real, this guy had convinced himself that the leg wasn't. "I really am, though. Used to be a human girl called Lily, but some creepy government dudes over in Kholakel kidnapped me and did this to me. I escaped, ate a few of them, then fled over the border." Also got shot a bit, but no need to mention that part. Thank goodness Lily was there to warn me.

The first cop lowered his gun too. "I don't know what game you're playing, but we just have to investigate some stupid report about... a large bird... flying into a window... with two corpses."

Oh? Seems like something finally twigged. And damn, I was seen. My camouflage doesn't mean much when I'm carrying my dinner with me... One point of order, though. "If it helps, they weren't corpses at that point? One of them still isn't, even. Also, they tried to mug me, so I claim self defence."

The guns came back up, just as mugger number two finished crawling to the doorway, eyes pleading for help, making muffled noises through the scarf I'd gagged him with when he wouldn't stop screaming about his legs. The police both stared.

"See, alive," I said. "Told you." At least they were actually taking me seriously now. I could have killed them a hundred times over already, the idiots.

"You... You're insane!"

"Yeah... Can't really deny that one, but I doubt you could do any better in my position. Anyway, Lily would be sad if I killed you, and I want to track down the people who did this to me, so how about I fly off, you pretend you never saw me, and you can blame everything on the crack-heads who used to live here?"

"People who did this to you?" said one. "On this side of the border? Maximilian?"

The name had been whispered, but it was still enough for the other cop to glare, hard. "Shut up," he muttered under his breath.

"Oh?" I said, grinning a grin at them with far too many teeth in it. "This has suddenly got a lot more interesting. Would you care to come in for a cup of tea? I mean, it's not my house, and I doubt you'd be interested in what I consider to be snack food, but it sounds like we have a lot to talk about."

"We need to get that man medical aid, and you're..."

I interrupted his sentence by kicking backwards, ensuring that the second mugger would never need medical aid again. I'd wanted to keep him fresh, given that I was mostly full right now, but it was a small price to pay if I could get information out of these two.

"I'm what?" I asked. Neither cop looked pleased at that turn of events, apparently finding it harder to ignore murder that happened right in front of their faces. "Look, you seem to have... issues with a certain CEO. Issues that I might be able to solve. Either you come in and tell me what you know, you start shooting, or you run away. Two of those three options let you survive, the other doesn't. I think it should be obvious which is which. Now hurry up and pick one, before I get hungry again."

"He really tried to mug you?"

"Yes, really. Came at me with a knife. There's still a bit of empathy buried deep inside of me somewhere; the final act of Lily. I don't kill innocents."

And at that, the cops, who must have been every bit as insane as I was, stepped into the house with the bloodthirsty monster, closing the door behind them.