She lets out a short giggle, but I can’t feel any real amusement in the connection between us.
I step closer to join her. “It does look different, though.”
With the afterburn of the glow lingering in my eyes, it’s hard to compare the patch of shadowy stuff in front of us to how it looked before. But it’s definitely not quite as muddy looking as I remember—as if it’s been watered down even more. A patch maybe fifty feet across and long has a much paler quality thanthe sludgy darkness farther out around it. Like the way she thinned the mess before, except on a somewhat larger scale.
Peri gives a more genuine laugh. “I brightened its day. I guess that’s a start. I think… Does it seem calmer to you too?”
I study the patch in front of us and then the thicker darkness I can make out beyond it. There is a sort of stillness to the nearby area that contrasts with the sense of drifting fog I get from the rest of the mess.
“Brightened it up and brought it peace,” I say, giving her shoulder an encouraging squeeze.
“It’s stillhere, though,” Rollick’s assistant mutters. She stalks up to the border and pokes a pen at the haze as if she thinks she can prod the filmy atmosphere. “I don’t think the humans are going to be satisfied with just having their home not quite so swallowed in shadows.”
Peri lifts her chin. “It was a start. Maybe I can settle the shadows down completely if I keep trying.”
I nod. “That’s right. It’s only her first attempt.”
At the same time, I can’t help taking in the immense sprawl of the city before us. How many attempts will Peri have to make if she’s going to clean up even one neighborhood? Will her peacemaking effect last or will the thicker shadows creep back in while she recovers her energy?
Why is this ridiculous rift so intent on melding with the mortal realm anyway? Maybe we can convince it that everything it’s heard was false advertising. Start up a smear campaign.The mortal realm sucks. Burning sun, chaotic plants—who needs all that? Shadows rule! Let’s stick to our own side.
Somehow I don’t think it’ll be that easy.
I give Peri a gentle tug as I turn away from the mass of shadows. “We should get back to Rollick and give our report. Maybe he’ll have other?—”
I stall in my tracks, my muscles going rigid.
Maybe a dozen humans are standing farther down the street behind us, pressed close together and watching with alternately wide or narrowed eyes. Several are holding splintered boards, baseball bats, or golf clubs.
It takes me a second to recognize that they’re not looking to play some strange game of sports merged with construction. They’re holding the objects like weapons.
My defensive instincts kick in with a jolt of adrenaline. I loom taller, my shoulders flexing.
The humans are pointing at Peri. One waves his golf club our way. “It’s one of those aliens! All glowing like she’s about to go nuclear. We’ve got to stop them before they fuck up our city even more.”
Aliens? Rollick’s assistant doesn’t look surprised. I guess we did start talking about the supposed terrorists being from outer space. But we didn’t meanus.
Maybe Rollick’s been encouraging the otherworldly part of the story among the humans who don’t already know what we are.
Does the demon really believe we can still contain the knowledge of our existence? What, is he going to wipe out the entire army regiment once they’ve finished relocating the refugees?
Actually, knowing him, I could almost believe he will.
But how is it better for the humans to think we’re aliens than to see us as monsters? Other than, I guess, they’re more used to the idea of aliens potentially coming and leaving in peace.
Peri holds up her no-longer-glowing hands. “Everything’s okay! I’m trying to fix the problem, not make it worse.”
“That’s just what an invading alien force would say,” another human snaps, wielding her baseball bat.
With those words, the humans surge toward us, eyes flashing, weapons raised. I can sense the violence in every angle of their bodies.
A rush of red blazes through my mind. No thoughts remain but the impulse to protect the woman I love at all costs.
With a snarl, I leap in front of her. My lips pull back to bare my teeth, where my reptilian fangs now jut from my gums. It’s only because of a faint twinge of shame and the distant knowledge that Peri would be upset if I massacred these people that I keep my shielding contacts in place over my deadly irises.
“Holy shit!” a man barks, drawing up short. “It’s a fucking invasion, all right. We can’t let them take what’s ours!”
My intent, as much as I had one, was to scare them off. Instead, they hurtle forward even more aggressively—just this time the aggression is directed at me rather than Peri.
