When Stephan disappeared from his room, Soprana panicked. She was supposed to protect him until she got her part of the deal. However, not only she lost him, he was nowhere to be found, and even his aura ceased to exist. It was as if the ground opened and buried him deep inside.
When she opened her eyes in the morning, seeing a familiar ceiling, for a moment she thought she spent the whole night drinking that she forgot when she returned to her room in the tavern… But when she looked around, the familiar ceiling didn't belong to her room, it was the room of the elf she slept with. She turned her head to look at him; he was completely drained and dead.
"I overdid it yesterday," she held her head in complete disapproval. Her eyes widened at what kind of words Aurora would insult her with. Aurora could be scary when she wanted to but… it was an elf, not a human so no one would really say anything about it. She giggled happily at the thought. "Nothing is wrong. I didn't do anything wrong; he was the one who came to me or what seemed."
Her memories of last night were fuzzy and scrambled like eggs. She didn't know what truly happened but she got the feeling she was missing something. She tried to get up but her head sank deeper into the pillow. She didn't mind the corpse next to her but sleep seemed tastier at that moment. She pulled the blanket over her head, hiding from the sunlight and slept again.
When she opened her eyes again, it was almost evening. She rubbed her eyes and then looked around, this time she noticed the two other bodies on the ground. She screwed the three elves all at once and they were all dead. It seemed she truly overdid it; she ate them all and now she was short of attractive men.
What was stranger was the fact that the door was totally ripped apart yet no one came in when she was sleeping. She wondered what truly happened but no memory came to her mind. However, the naked corpses in the room felt like her doing. No, no doubt it was her doing. They were drained from their life energy and her power was replenished.
Soprana wasn't a mage so she couldn't forge spells that could be easy to use, like scanning or something like that. She had to go down herself to check on others. Her smile grew abnormally as she moved the bodies and threw them outside. However, when she realized they were on their third day in the tavern and she didn't want to share her blood, she let the third body in the room. With her clothes on her, she checked all the other rooms they rented but the others weren't there. No Stephan. No Aurora. Their rooms looked clean and untouched.
"Did they leave me behind? If he knows his master better, he wouldn't follow her. Something is wrong."
After checking downstairs, she returned to their rooms. Aurora was careful in leaving no hint of where they were but strangely, there was the tankard he used last night. It was sufficient to know where he was. Soprana's powers were based on demonic energy and on incantations and circles. Without them, her magic was nought.
She picked the tankard and smelled it. The smell of beer was strong but not enough to speculate it was recent. They left last night when everyone was drunk and lost in dizziness. Could it be she took him away for some reason? Aurora was always the type that ruined plans just for fun. With clenched fists, Soprana punched the empty air imagining the mage standing before her.
"If I learn you are ruining my chances to find what belongs to me, I will make sure to get my revenge."
Soon enough, anger submerged her whole being but she did her best to keep calm. She refused to let the mage tap on her nerves. It would be another win for her and she already had enough winning streaks. However, it wasn't easy to control accumulated buried feelings, especially for a witch. Witches had stronger feelings, especially the ones that led to something a normal person would regret later. She still remembered how her first anger against a human ended up, he was dead before she knew it and then the others followed. Before knowing it, a whole village was full of corpses, children included.
Soon she remembered she forgot how she threw important ingredients. Her demonic energy emerged from her body and then instead of a wand like usual, she materialized a dagger. It wasn't good to let an opportunity like this slip; she would end up finding Stephan sooner or later. Even if she found him dead, she would take the thing she wanted from him. It was better to deal with him dead than alive.
With eyes lost in thoughts, she returned to her room and with the corpse still being there, she plunged the point of her dagger right at the heart contour. With a great display of manual skills, she pulled out the heart perfectly cut. It was still bloody and fresh. Then next, she gouged his eyes, cut his tongue, removed his hair, and snatched his ears… It was the case with every corpse, they were good ingredients. Nothing could be wasted; even the flesh could be good for something.
The room was full of blood and the smell was strong enough to make anyone puke over it. However, she was used to that. In fact, she wished she could gather the blood as well. It would be good to do it with a spoon but it would take too much time and she didn't have the time for that. After taking whatever she needed from Casper's body, she jumped outside the window and landed next to the spot where the two corpses lay.
She pulled up her sleeves and started her work with the other two corpses. When she raised her head after finishing, there was a child staring at her in disbelief. It was so chaotic and the expression showed disgust and fear. Soprana giggled at it; she was starting her day with fear. She sniffed the air as if inhaling the air full of fear.
"Do you want to take part in this? I promise it's so enjoyable," the child ran away calling her a monster. It was a natural reaction to what she was doing. "I don't understand how you can't find this enjoyable. You learn a lot by cutting a body into pieces."