That’s a small step up, but it triggers the animalistic side of my brain even harder.
One human is hurling his broken board at my head. Another swings his bat at my ribs. My limbs lash out, my elbow sending an attacker flying across a nearby lawn, my clenched hand pummeling another in the gut so he doubles over.
“Raze!” Peri cries out. “Let’s just go!”
Her anxiety swirls into my panicked rage, sending my own emotions spiking higher. More of the humans are aiming their makeshift weapons at me, looking to batter me as if I’m a birthday pinata and they’ve forgotten how to take turns.
My claws slash across one woman’s face before she can break my nose with her golf club. Another figure flings himself onto my back, and my nerves go completely haywire.
With a snarl, I hurl him onto the ground and gouge straight through his throat. I whirl around, my contacts disintegrating, ready to sear all the rest of them.
A voice breaks through my rage. “No! They’re going to stop now, Raze. You can stop too.”
Peri’s plea and the gush of blood starkly scarlet against the asphalt jolt me back to the present. The meaty iron scent saturates the air, but there’s nothing appealing about it even to my carnivorous appetites.
That man wasn’t a meal. He was just a scared, misinformed mortal trying to protect his home.
Shrieks and yelps are reverberating from the few humans in the bunch still standing. They’re stumbling backward, a couple of them ducking to help their injured companions scramble away.
“He killed Wayne! Tore him right open.”
I sway on my feet, guilt and fury colliding inside me like I’ve been walloped over the head with a frying pan. A small hand slips around my arm.
Peri tugs me away. “You can’t help him now. Let’s move into the shadows.”
Yes. That’s what I should have done to begin with. Why did I go on the attack instead of just escaping?
I dive with Peri into the nearest patch of darkness. As we rush around the edge of the city, Rollick’s assistant keeps up a persistent muttering behind us. “He’s not going to like this. Oh, no, not at all.”
My shame burns hotter. Peri’s presence sidles close to me, exuding reassurance even though I can detect some distress underneath.
“They attacked you first. You were defending yourself. Anyone would have reacted like that.”
But she didn’t. She hates even upsetting people. Killing them?
The only reason she’ll forgive me is because she hates feeling my pain over it.
How many more humans would I have killed if she hadn’t been here to break through my furious stupor? Did I even really protectherwhen I’ve probably just made human-monster relations a thousand times worse?
If she’s the only thing stopping me from going off the rails… can I really say I’m anything more than a monster?
9
Periwinkle
Colonel Hueber gazes around the table in the trailer, radiating so much disdain I think even a human could taste the burnt-broccoli flavor. “These are the… thethingsyou have helping you run the show? No wonder it’s all going to hell.”
I clasp my hands in front of me, trying to look ever so responsible and ready to solve all our problems. Next to me, Raze shifts his weight, his head drooping low.
Where he’s standing between us and the several other beings who’ve gathered for this conference, Rollick’s eyes narrow just a smidge. If the military figures on the other side of the table could pick up on his demonic energy right now, they’d be ducking. It crackles through my senses.
He manages to speak in a deceptively even voice. “We’ve kept the situation much more under control than it would have beenwithout our intervention. I don’t think you’d want to see what would happen if we leave.”
Hueber huffs. “Is that a threat?”
Rollick looks as if he’s exerting immense effort not to roll his eyes. Interestingly, I get a similar impression from the slim, black-haired man standing next to the colonel. Major Yin’s lips give a slight twitch like he’s bitten his tongue, possibly literally.
All right, I think I like that one.
