"Can you help me?" she asked breathlessly after she strode through my door like she owned the place. I knew she wasn't human, not by a long shot but her act was almost believable so she'd been undercover for quite some time. Probably for longer than time had existed as a human concept.
It was her eyes that gave it away - solid blocks of deep green with pupils that didn't dilate when she stepped into my dimly lit office. She didn't even hesitate at the door like everyone else does when they're trying to decide if I'm in business tonight or not. Chances were she'd been casing me long enough to know my hours.
I'm becoming predictable and in my line of work that's enough to end you.
Most creatures tend to get antsy when they see me, knowing just how many of them I'd put down before but she was different. She was older and deadlier than anything I'd faced before and yet she wanted my help. Or she was setting me up for failure. It was hard to get any sense of her actual emotions behind the face she wore.
It was a familiar face too - the barista down the street has one just like it... or rather, she had one just like it. Creatures like this one don't like to share. I didn't doubt I'd find the poor original missing at best and read about her faceless corpse being found at worst.
I was curious enough to ask what help I could possibly give to someone so impossibly ancient and she at least had the nerve to freeze and look surprised like I hadn't seen others act like her before. Soon as she realised I wasn't fooled she dropped the act, and the face, entirely.
Teeth.
That was my first thought. Lots and lots, and I mean lots, of teeth. Not much else of her face was visible for the jagged fangs that stuck out all pincushiony and black. They matched the spines growing from her neck, arms and legs though. Most of her kind prefer mixing it up a little so it was nice to see someone with class.
I still don't know how she managed to talk with teeth like that. Even when she explained to me that she'd lost her brood and they were hiding from her in the city, I was too busy wondering where her voice was coming from. It sure as hell wasn't that gaping maw of a mouth.
In hindsight I should have paid more attention to what she was saying but I reckon she knew how distracted I was and took full advantage of that. Perhaps if I'd have focused a little better I might have caught the part where she stopped with her sob story and started reciting something in one of the demon tongues.
Next thing I knew I was dead, head ripped apart like a half-melted easter egg while she called her brood over to eat my brain. Nothing quite prepares you for the sight of your own body being devoured so messily. I thought it was bad when I died but they got my viscera everywhere.
Little bastards could have washed their hands at least.
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