Chapter-41 Cleaning The Scene

The scent of blood lingered. It clung thick in the air, the copper taste sharp on her tongue, coating her lips, seeping into her skin. The last cultist's body lay slumped at her feet, pale and lifeless, the floor beneath them painted in dark crimson streaks.

Frederique exhaled shakily, trying to steady her heartbeat.

The rush was still there, a sickening pulse thrumming through her veins. Her hands wouldn't stop trembling... whether from the adrenaline or the twisted satisfaction of the hunt, she couldn't tell anymore.

It felt too easy. Too... natural.

'Why does it feel so good?'

The sound of footsteps echoed in the hollow silence.

She turned.

Eirlys was already there. Standing just beyond the shattered remnants of the stage, arms crossed loosely, her icy gaze fixed on Frederique.

She had been watching.

"You did well," Eirlys said, voice calm but flat.

Frederique blinked. Her breath caught.

' That's it? '

She opened her mouth to speak... to question... but Eirlys raised a gloved hand, stopping her.

"I'm not finished."

There was something heavier in her voice now. The air grew colder.

Frederique swallowed.

"The mission," Eirlys continued, stepping closer. Her boots clicked softly against the blood-soaked floor.

"It isn't done yet."

Frederique's brow furrowed. She gestured vaguely to the carnage around them.

"What else could there be? They're dead. I... I killed them all. I did what you asked..."

"No."

The sharpness in her voice made Frederique flinch.

Eirlys' face was stone, pale and unyielding as frost.

"Killing them was only the first step," she said quietly.

"What you just did? Any fool with a knife can spill blood. That was nothing. Cleaning up afterward... that is the mark of a true Redcap."

Frederique felt her stomach twist.

The blood in her veins turned cold.

' She couldn't mean...'

"You have to eat them."

* Silence. *

The words hung there like an open wound.

Frederique stared. She felt her heart drop into the pit of her stomach.

"...what?"

"You heard me." Eirlys' voice was softer now but no less relentless.

"Erase the evidence. The corpses, the blood, every trace of what happened here. No authorities. No remains for the Hunters to find. This place must be clean."

Her pale eyes lingered meaningfully on the altar.

On the Changeling's body.

Frederique staggered back a step, head shaking.

"You... you can't be serious. The Changeling... "

"Is dead."

The words were a slap.

Eirlys continued, voice as icy as her gaze.

"The mission is what matters. If you don't do it, someone else will. I spared you this truth at the start because I thought you weren't ready to stomach it."

Frederique's stomach churned.

"This... this is wrong. I can't... I won't..."

"You can."

Eirlys' lips curled into something that wasn't quite a smile.

"You just haven't let her do it yet."

' Her.'

The voice inside twisted.

A low, rumbling hum of delight stirred in the pit of her mind.

' Eat. '

Frideria shifted.

Stirred.

Awakened.

Frederique could feel her beneath her skin, coiling like a beast unchained.

' Let me. '

Her legs felt weak.

"No," she whispered.

Eirlys tilted her head, studying her, calm but cold.

"I don't care how you feel about it," she said, voice hard as iron.

"It's the task. This is what the Night Court expects of its monsters. You're not human anymore, Frederique. Prove it."

Frederique felt the tremble in her body spread, ice crawling up her spine, bile rising in her throat.

Frideria's voice was a whisper now.

" Please... let me eat."

"Shut up!" Frederique hissed, pressing her hands to her temples.

Eirlys watched. Silent.

But waiting.

Frederique's knees buckled. She sagged, pressing her back against the bloodstained wall, chest heaving.

' She was right there.'

It would be so easy to give in.

To feed.

To feel.

Frideria's hunger was no longer whispering.

It was screaming.

And this time, Frederique wasn't sure she could stop her.

The trembling ceased.

The hunger bloomed.

It wasn't pain. Not anymore.

It was bliss.

Frederique's vision blurred, the edges of the world growing hazy as Frideria's presence expanded... gently, at first, like warm fingers trailing down her spine, coaxing rather than forcing. Then, all at once, it was as if her body no longer belonged to her.

Her pulse slowed. Her thoughts quieted.

And that terrible, all-consuming hunger sang.

Frideria was awake.

Her lips curled into a smile.

"I'll handle it."

She took a step forward, boots squelching in the blood-soaked floor. The scent was intoxicating... metallic, thick, rich with lingering heat despite the cooling bodies.

The first corpse, the one she'd bitten into during the fight, was closest. Its neck was torn, the skin ragged where her teeth had punctured. Frideria knelt beside it, hands pressing into the crimson pool beneath.

The first bite was slow.

Teeth... indestructible teeth... sank effortlessly into the flesh of the man's throat, tearing free a mouthful of sinew and meat. Warm blood coated her tongue, thick and copper-sweet, but there was more than taste... there was life.

Faint. Dying.

But still there.

The essence of what had once been.

Frideria devoured it.

The next bite was faster. Deeper. Ripping through cartilage, cracking bone. Her jaws snapped through the windpipe with a wet crunch, and the heat spread... down her throat, seeping into every nerve like fire, like energy.

She was no longer just eating.

She was consuming.

The body withered under her hands, flesh sloughing away as if it were dissolving. The color bled from the corpse, the skin paling into something gray and paper-thin before it crumbled.

Gone.

The hunger surged stronger.

Frideria's gaze snapped to the next body.

The cultist who had tried to stab them... still warm, eyes glassy in death.

She licked the blood from her lips and lunged.

This time, she didn't savor it.

The teeth cut deep, the muscles flexing, tearing through the chest cavity with raw strength. Ribs cracked like brittle twigs. The heart, still swollen with blood, burst between her teeth as she bit down, the copper flooding her senses.

Flesh peeled away. Bone snapped. Organs ruptured, releasing their contents as Frideria fed... gorged.

The skin shriveled. The bones blackened.

Another corpse reduced to nothing.

She moved on.

They were all just food.

The third... screaming when she'd bitten his leg... was missing half a face. His broken jaw hung slack, but there was still enough flesh. Enough for her to feast.

Bite. Tear. Swallow.

The room was a symphony of wet sounds... meat splitting, marrow crunching, the steady pulse of consumption.

And Frideria reveled in it.

Her stomach, vast and endless, churned with each morsel, stretching to hold the impossible.

No nausea. No pain.

Just endless satisfaction.

Until...

The Changeling's body.

Frideria froze.

The hunger faltered.

For a moment, Frederique stirred... faint, barely conscious... but the grief bled through.

They were one of us.

Frideria hesitated.

The scent was different. Sweeter. Fey blood didn't smell like human blood... thicker, richer, laced with something ancient and bright.

It smelled like power.

The hunger returned.

Frideria knelt over the body.

She started with the chest.

The first bite shattered the ribcage, spraying fragments of pale bone. The second carved deep into the heart... bright red and too full, bursting with the last remnants of fey energy.

It tasted... better.

More than flesh.

The power dissolved into her being, surging, crackling through every vein.

Frederique's mind stirred again... ' Stop...'

But Frideria didn't stop.

She finished.

The corpse, like the others, shriveled and fell away.

Silence followed.

The hunger finally dimmed.

She stood slowly, the blood still hot on her lips, staining her hands.

No bodies. No bloodstains.

Not a trace remained.

Friderique was silent in her mind. Shocked.

But sated.

Eirlys stepped forward at last, her face unreadable.

Frideria turned, licking the last traces of blood from her teeth, still half-feral, still trembling with the afterglow of the feast.

Eirlys met her gaze... unfazed.

"Good."

But there was no praise in her voice.

Just cold calculation.

"You feel it now, don't you? How easy it is to lose yourself?"

Frideria's grin faded.

Eirlys tilted her head, speaking softer.

"Control is important, yes... but too much control?"

Her lips thinned.

"That can be a weakness too. The Night Court doesn't need mindless beasts, but it doesn't want chained dogs either. Remember that next time."

Frideria followed Eirlys back to the car.

Happy with her hunger satisfied... for now.