Lucas could not sleep.

It wasn’t the first time he’s had to deal with insomnia. It was his thoughts about his wife’s decision to officially adopt Inna after the case is over that was making him unable to sleep, for he was not sure if the authorities would allow it due to Inna being a moh shuvuu. Moh shuvuus are the rarest among the rare, given how they never leave Buryatia until Inna got herself stuck inside the cargo hold of a plane that eventually ended up arriving here in Singapore. He wondered how she must have felt, being the only one of her kind in a foreign land.

Immediately, he felt a strange, throbbing pain in his chest. Was he empathizing again? He had experienced it before, shortly after he and Xiaoye helped load a young orc injured in an accident into an ambulance. The cambion said it was a good sign, that it means he was starting to revert, starting to regain his human capability of empathy, but Lucas did wonder what he should do if he does revert.

Nobodies are among the most feared type of Accursed not because their ability to freeze anything they touch into ice or their supernatural lack of presence combined, but because most of them end up becoming psychopathic killers and rapists who are rarely caught. The infamous Jack the Ripper was one such example. Not long ago, Ajibade and Xiaoye admitted to Lucas that he had been treated with suspicion by several of his colleagues ever since he became a Nobody, but that the suspicion reduced after a neurologist who often works with the Shades claimed that Lucas was a new kind of psychopath, a ‘conscientious psychopath’ so to speak, due to retaining a certain level of conscience and genuine care for others despite becoming a Nobody, which the neurologist believes would help him revert back to a normal human faster than others.

Reversion. Lucas did not know if it was a good idea. It’s been three years since he became a Nobody, and he’s forgotten how emotions were meant to be felt. What was fear, anger and joy? What is annoyance, envy and sadness? He has seen others show those emotions, and he knew he once experienced them too, yet he’s forgotten which emotions are for which situations, leading to the only emotion he’s ever retained: Frustration.

Lucas did try to force an emotion of joy once, but Tom, who had no idea what he was doing, thought he was constipated and gave him some pills for bowel relief. He was supposed to feel amusement at Tom, yet he felt nothing, just a cold emptiness within himself.

“Once you revert back to a normal human, we’re gonna teach you how to laugh again,” Xiaoye had said to him a few months back, but Lucas wondered if he could ever even smile.

Before he knew it, the throbbing pain had already subsided.

He got up, pulled a t-shirt over his body and carefully got off the bed, not wanting to wake Ella and Inna up. Inna was asleep inside a cot that was meant for their unborn child, the child they lost three years ago. Because of his condition, Lucas was already numb to the tragic memories of that terrorist attack at Suntec City. The Shades were still feeling the effects of that incident, however, and refused to talk about it even as of today.

Lucas could hear Rendal and Tom snoring away in their room, and based on the additional sounds, the two have once again forgotten to switch off their television. Lucas didn’t really bother, though: Tom and Rendal had decide to handle the water and electricity bills in exchange for living with them.

As Lucas walked downstairs to the café area, however, he sensed something wrong. There was a strange smell in the air, like that of a wet dog. At first, he thought Kale, the werewolf gym owner from three shophouses down the road, had gotten drunk and broke into the café again, but then he remembered that Kale was currently on vacation back in California visiting his cousin’s pack.

Entering the café area, the first thing Lucas noticed was the front door ajar. Someone had picked the lock. Secondly, the sound of something shuffling around could be heard. Lucas looked around, and true enough, there was someone in the kitchen, with the wet dog smell emanating from him. Lucas did not like the fact that a burglar was in his home, especially with a witness living under his protection. Hopefully, it was just a normal burglar, but what if it was the killer Inna saw?

Might as well play it safe and slit his throat.

Lucas walked into the kitchen. One of the advantages of being a Nobody was that he doesn’t have to sneak around to avoid detection unless the other party is someone who has already establish a connection with him. Sight, smell, hearing, CCTVs and radars, he was immune to detection by all means until he’s physically interacted with the other party, and this applies even to animals. A problem for him when he tries to feed new stray cats at the back of the café, but useful when sneaking up behind bank robbers and hostage takers.

Whoever this intruder was, he was really dressed like a stereotypical burglar: Balaclava, gloves, scarf wrapped around his mouth. Fuck, he was even wearing a black hoodie to boot. The intruder did not hear Lucas remove a kitchen knife as he slowly approached.

“Lucas, what’s happening?”

Surprise was one of the few emotions Lucas could still experience. He spun around, stunned to see Inna lazily floating down the stairs with a sleepy look that was immediately replaced by one of horror as she saw the intruder and began backing away.

Turning back to the intruder, Lucas watched as the balaclava expanded and got ripped apart, revealing a grotesque hybrid head of a wolf and a human. Black fur could be seen all over his head, but his facial features remain mostly human, although they were so twisted that it could barely be seen as human: Bright yellow eyes like those of vampires, a nose that bends upwards to resemble that of a bat’s and a lack of lips. The intruder’s sleeves had also been ripped as the muscle mass around his arms expanded while his fingers elongated into claws.

Without warning, the intruder lunged at Inna, and without hesitation, Lucas stabbed him right in the side, finally getting the intruder to realize his presence. Every time someone finally realizes Lucas’s presence, the first reaction was to be startled, and that was what happened to the intruder who stared at Lucas with surprise before both of them tumbled to the ground. Not wanting to give the intruder a chance to catch his breath, Lucas pulls the knife out and stabs at him again, but the intruder quickly got used to the fact that he’s shown himself and grabbed his wrist before trying to bite him.

“Inna! What’s happe- Son of a bitch, get off him!”

Lucas dodged just in time for Tom to stomp down on the intruder’s face, while Ella and a crowbar-wielding Rendal appeared as well. Immediately, the three men went to work on the intruder, punching, kicking and smacking him with whatever they could find until the intruder caught Tom by his neck and threw him against Rendal, sending both men crashing through the café’s glass panels and out the building before finally kicking Lucas over the counter.

Refusing to stay down despite the pain he felt in his chest, Lucas was quickly back on his feet as the intruder advanced on Ella, who was now holding Inna but cornered near the entrance. The knife he used was knocked out of his hand somewhere, so he resorted to his other weapon: Jumping on the back of the intruder, he grabbed the latter’s head and began channelling his power to freeze. Ice began to encase the intruder’s head as he struggled to knock the Nobody off of his back, but Lucas refused to let go even as he was violently smashed against the wall even as his wife screamed for him until finally, the intruder managed to seize him by the head and slammed him on the ground hard.

Lucas felt a jolt course through his entire back, and he hissed in pain and rolled to a side as the intruder lets out a roar before stomping down on his head. He could sense that the bastard was trying to crush his head, but then a familiar voice rang out, and the pressure was removed.

It was Xiaoye, wearing a Celtics F.C. jersey and sandals, swinging a fire extinguisher as she engaged the intruder, and she was not alone: Her aswang house-mate Felipe was also joining in, having assumed his true form and violently grappling with the intruder. One of his attacks left three deep gashes across the intruder’s right shoulders right before he gets thrown three metres into the air and landing painfully on his head, and then Xiaoye gets seized by her throat and lifted of her feet right before a blast of blue flames slammed into the intruder and throwing him out into the road.

“Insane fool! To attack my neighbourhood in such a brazen manner, you must wish for a painful death!” Xiaoye’s landlord, the centuries-old kitsune Tokimaru, declared in a monstrous voice as he walked towards the intruder, his true form in full display: Seven-feet-tall with white fur and red eyes that stared at the enemy with righteous rage, his nine tails, each measuring two metres in length, flowing behind him like gentle waves of a calm ocean, balls of blue and green flames floating around him.

“Shit, Tokimaru-san! You’re supposed to be retired!” Xiaoye exclaimed as she crawled over to where Felipe was slowly getting back to his feet.

By now, all sixty shophouses that makes up the newly established Old Upper Thomson Road neighbourhood had their lights on, and every neighbour, from humans, elves and orcs to vampires, therianthropes and fae, were emerging from their residences armed with whatever they could improvise. Even the undead beings that haunted the forested area behind the neighbourhood were joining in on the fray.

The intruder who had attacked the Heng Heng Waffle Café must have realized that he was going to die if he stayed longer, for he swiftly made his escape as bricks, bottles, stones and magical spells were hurled at his direction, with some finding their mark. One particularly nasty fireball from a local mage threw the intruder to the ground, but within seconds, he was up and running, disappearing into the night with the few pursuing him stopping at the edge of the neighbourhood to shout vulgarities at him.

Lucas did not care, though. His first thought was of his wife and the moh shuvuu. Thankfully, both were unhurt, but Inna was clearly in shock and Ella could not stop trembling. Next, he checked on his brother-in-law and the latter’s cousin. Tom was completely out, eyes rolled to the back of his head while bleeding profusely from two head wounds. As for Rendal, his left wrist appeared to be fractured or at least sprained.

“What was that motherfucker? He doesn’t look like a werewolf at all,” Rendal cursed as Tokimaru, having reverted to his human form, began using his own brand of kitsune magic to close the wounds on Tom’s head.

“Never mind that. Tom here needs an ambulance urgently. I believe there is a chance he may have had a skull fracture or two. You need to go to the hospital too, Rendal.”

“Yeah, I can already feel- God damn it! Fuck!”

“Shit, Felipe, don’t touch his wrist,” Xiaoye said to the aswang, who quickly apologized.

“Sorry, but I wanted to make sure that thing didn’t bite you. I’ve heard of it, but this was the first time I see one for myself,” Felipe replied.

“See what? You recognized that creature?”

“Yes. When I was in Romania, I heard from the local morois and strigois about a very rare type of vampire known as the pricolici. They’re said to be vampire-werewolf hybrids, and there’s so little information about them that even other vampires think the pricolici is just a ghost story meant to scare little vampires to sleep.”

“And you’re sure that’s a prico-whatever?”

“Regeneration speed twice as fast as normal vampires, high resistance to spells, looks like a wolf, I think it might really be a pricolici. Still, the poison from my claws should give him hell for a while.”

“Enough talk. Ambulance is arriving soon. Xiaoye, Felipe, help me stabilize Tom in the meantime,” Tokimaru said to his tenants as the rest of the neighbourhood stood watch in case the intruder makes a return.

Something about Felipe’s words had created a thought in Lucas’s mind. Although he should be concerned about Tom’s well-being, Lucas could not help but feel the need to ask Inna about her reaction to the intruder, for it was as though she recognized him. He walked over to where Ella and Inna were seated on the floor and asked, “Inna, was that him? The killer you witnessed?”

“How can you be asking this kind of questions when my brother’s bleeding out in front of our house? Tokimaru said he fractured his skull!” Ella protested.

“Tokimaru is a powerful healer. Tom will survive his injuries. Inna, this is important. Was it him that you saw?”

The moh shuvuu, still frightened about the whole incident, struggled to calm herself before finally giving a single nod as Xiaoye joined them.

“Ella, Inna, you two all right?” she asked.

“We’ll be fine. My brother-”

“Will recover. Tokimaru managed to fix his skull, but we can’t tell if his brain is injured or not. Best to get it tested in a hospital. I’ll go with him and Rendal. Damn it, that furry cunt sure wrecked the place up…”

“It was the killer Inna saw.”

“Wait, what? You serious, Lucas?”

“Inna just confirmed it.”

“Oh, hell’s bells, Inna, you poor thing…”

“She’s no longer safe here. We have to bring her somewhere else,” Lucas said as Xiaoye held Inna’s head against her chest to help Ella calm her down.

“Where? Our office?”

“It’s the only logical place. Only an exceptional idiot will dare to attack the Singapore Police’s main headquarters.”

“Aye, I guess you’re right. We’ll bring her to the office tomorrow morning.”

Although Xiaoye agreed to it, Lucas admittedly did not like the idea. But if Ronald Peterson’s murder, this pricolici as Felipe claimed he was, could track down Inna and even dare to attempt murder in a neighbourhood full of monster residents, allowing the moh shuvuu to stay in a public place was simply too dangerous, and this killer might even chance an attack on the police headquarters itself. But the main objective was to keep Inna alive, for the Shades still needed her to identify the killer, if they ever catch him…

Catch him. Sounds like a bad idea. Ronald Peterson’s murderer is simply too dangerous, and for Lucas, the only logical solution is to kill that bastard the moment he shows up again...