I don't have access to side story, so I'll be sharing the side story of the previous chapter here.
Side story of Chapter 9: Magistrate office.
Lucas hadn't gone far.
The carriage was only halfway down the lane when he paused, his copper eyes narrowing. Something in the air shifted. A pressure. A pulse. Like the slow tightening of a cord around his ribs.
He raised a hand. "Stop."
The coachman obeyed without question, the horses huffing as they came to a halt. Lucas stepped down, boots crunching against gravel. He turned his gaze back toward the magistrate's office, that crumbling building now dark and still.
A lesser man might have dismissed it. A passing feeling. But Lucas had learned long ago never to ignore that whisper in the blood.
He moved like smoke, silent and quick, back through the narrow alley and toward the door he'd already broken. A single lantern flickered inside.
And then he heard it.
A low, inhuman growl—wet and gurgling, like breath forced through torn flesh.
Lucas stepped into the office and froze.
The magistrate was still inside—but no longer entirely himself.
He stood in the center of the room, hunched and twitching. His limbs spasmed unnaturally, veins bulging, jaw distended far too wide. His skin rippled as if something beneath it was writhing to get out. His eyes, once a dull brown, now glowed faintly green. Slits in place of pupils.
"Ah," Lucas said softly. "So that's what you really are."
The creature turned its head toward him, its spine cracking loudly with the motion. It let out a hiss that might have once been a word.
Then it lunged.
Lucas didn't flinch. He sidestepped easily, one hand grabbing the creature's twisted arm and spinning it into the desk. The wood splintered under the impact.
The creature snarled and swiped at him again—claws now tearing through the remains of its sleeves. But Lucas was faster. Always faster. He ducked, pivoted, and struck with a swift kick that sent the creature crashing into the wall. Plaster crumbled. A lantern tipped and shattered, flame licking up the corner of a curtain.
"You're not very clever, are you?" Lucas said, brushing a bit of dust off his coat. "Attacking without disguise. In your own den, no less."
The creature rose, wheezing. Its face rippled again now caught somewhere between man and monster. It let out a shriek and charged once more.
Lucas caught it by the throat mid-leap.
He slammed it down with bone-snapping force, pinning it to the floor. The creature thrashed, but Lucas barely blinked. With a flick of his wrist, he twisted one of its arms until it gave a sickening pop, the limb going limp.
"Stop playing," Lucas muttered.
The creature's body spasmed violently—shimmered—and then slowly began to morph back. Skin smoothed, eyes dulled, claws retracted. In seconds, it looked human again. Pale. Sweating. Pitiful.
The magistrate wheezed beneath him, blood running from his nose.
"You'll regret this," he spat. "You think you know what's out there, what we are—"
Then he did it.
He reared his head back and spat directly in Lucas's face.
It wasn't just saliva. It burned. A venom, acidic and reeking of iron and ash. Lucas recoiled slightly, wiping it from his cheek with the back of his hand.
A beat of silence passed.
Then something in him shifted.
He looked down at the man beneath him—not a creature, not a monster. Just a man again. Weak. Defiant. Drenched in filth.
Lucas's voice was ice. "You dared."
He seized the magistrate's arm—and tore it from the socket with a savage, effortless pull.
The scream that followed was inhuman.
Lucas didn't stop.
The second arm came off with a wet snap. Then a leg. Then another. Until what lay on the floor was no longer a man, no longer a threat just broken parts in a pool of their own blood.
The burning in his skin began to fade.
Lucas stood over the ruin of the man, chest rising and falling evenly. Not with rage. Not anymore.
It was just… done.
He turned away, walking toward the shattered doorway. A sliver of moonlight poured in, silvering the blood on his gloves.
He paused, looking down at the scorch the venom had left on his cheek in the cracked mirror by the door.
A reminder.
They weren't just hiding behind human skin anymore. They were becoming them. Bolder. Sloppier. Dangerous in ways even he hadn't expected.