He strapped on his silver pistol and dagger, then slid a black leather coat over his shoulders to hide the weapons. He looked out the window at the black sky and the rolling mist, almost feeling the evil that lurked outside the walls of his house. At least the moon wasn’t full. He wouldn’t have to deal with the werewolves.

“I’m going out, Evie,” he called into the next room.

“Please don’t,” her voice came back. “I hate it when you go out. You might get killed.”

“I’ve practiced too long for that,” said Bander, gritting his teeth. He hated Evie’s lack of confidence in him. “There is a scourge in this city, Evie, and someone has to take care of it.”

She emerged from the bathroom, her long black hair wrapped up in a yellow towel. “There are others to take care of it. Please, let’s just be together tonight, okay?”

“I can’t,” said Bander, and before she could protest further he strode out the door into the cold waiting night. The city lay spread out before him, the lighted buildings looking like pulsing alien objects in the shifting fog. A group of the foul creatures he was hunting were flying over the city, no doubt looking for hapless innocents who’d had the misfortune of starting for home too late in the day. He gave the creatures a smile. They would find much more in him than a helpless victim.

A soft meow next to him made him turn. “Hello, Maniatis. Are you hunting tonight, too?” He grinned at the cat.

Maniatis seemed to grin back before jumping away into the mist. Bander wished the cat luck. He hoped the same luck for himself. A few months ago he had killed four of the soul-sucking creatures in one night. Tonight he was going for five. He looked toward the city again, and, nodding to himself, set off down the hill.

He came to his first victim not long after the last rays of the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon. The creature had killed someone, and was crouching over the body, leathery wings bathed in blood, seeming to gloat over the kill. Fortunately, Bander was able to put a bullet through its head before the creature even realized he was there.

The second he found in an alleyway, approaching another innocent, and Bander shot it easily, too.

“Thank you!” cried the man he had saved. “Thank you for all that you’re doing!”

Bander tipped his head toward the man. This was why he went out hunting every night, why he left his wife alone. Their house was safe and he wasn’t worried about her, but there were others in the city that were not so lucky.

The third creature was able to put up a short fight, because at the last moment Bander’s pistol had faltered and shot it in the shoulder. The creature howled and ran for Bander, unsheathing claws that would have skewered the man alive had his second bullet not been dead on the mark.

Bander smiled. Three down, two to go.

He found the fourth threatening yet another innocent, this time a woman. She had backed into a brick wall and slid down until she was sitting on the ground, and she was softly moaning as the creature came closer. Bander raised his pistol, but the woman saw him and began to scream, alerting the creature.

“Please help me!” the woman shrieked. The creature turned and growled low.

“I am tired of your kind,” it said in its gravelly voice. “All you do is kill.”

“I did nothing!” the woman cried. Both Bander and the creature ignored her.

“I kill your kind,” said Bander, aiming the pistol.

The creature grinned. “You kill us, but we will keep coming, and someday we will win. There are those who would gladly see your kind dead, and we are happy to oblige.”

“Save the speeches,” said Bander, delivering a bullet into its head. “I have a short attention span.”

The woman thanked him and then tried to seduce him, but he moved on, oblivious. Evie was all he ever needed or wanted. He wandered the streets, looking for more targets, but they weren’t easy to come by. The sky was brightening toward dawn, and Bander was beginning to feel hungry, when he finally found his last victim.

This one seemed to be waiting for him. It turned as he approached, and hissed, “Hello. I suppose you want to kill me now. It would not be in your best interests.”

Bander smiled. He liked it when they tried to convince him not to kill them. “Perhaps, perhaps not. Either way, you’re not going to see the sun rise.”

The creature twisted its mouth in a way that Bander thought might be considered a grin in some warped universe. “Yes, the sun. You will live to see it rise, but not much longer.”

“Do you think that?” said Bander, checking his pistol to make sure it was full. This one was cocky and bigger than the others he’d killed. He might need more than one shot. “I guess that just means I’d better hurry up and shoot you.”

“We are here for a noble cause,” the creature continued. “Your kind will terrorize our allies no more.”

Bander sighed. “Your words are no different from what every other creature I’ve killed has said before it died. Honestly, they’re boring. Don’t you have something new to say?”

“If it is repeated, perhaps you should listen,” said the creature.

“You came into my city, killed my people, and tried to take away our food source.” Bander raised the pistol. “I don’t take kindly to that.”

“The sun rises,” said the creature. “Soon you will be dead.”

“You’re ignorant, too,” said Bander, shaking his head. He stepped closer to the creature until he was nearly nose-to-nose with it. Its foul breath enveloped him like smog. The sun was beginning to peak over the horizon. Bander’s stomach growled. “Perhaps I won’t shoot you, after all.”

“No?” said the creature.