The demon’s essence nudges mine. “I’ve reminded you before how humans typically react to the knowledge of ourexistence. Along with everyone you hoped to win over, your demonstration reached the ones who already have it in for us.”
What sense of a stomach I have in this state sinks. I ease closer to the cluster of humans, staying hidden in the darkness.
“This is a bigger bunch than we’ve seen all together before,” says the man who’s talking as much with his hands as his voice. “But the same techniques should work. We can fill you in on all their weaknesses and the best ways to protect yourselves. For starters, you’ll all want to be wearing one of these. They won’t protect you from a physical attack, but they block most mind-altering powers from affecting you.”
He hands out a couple of circular metal patches that look like silver brooches. The colonel frowns at the one he accepts but pins it to his chest.
The moment he does, the mild awareness I had of his mingled interest and consternation vanishes.
My heart lurches. I stare at Hueber, just in case he’s somehow kicked the bucket without me noticing and that’s why he’s not experiencing any more emotions. He’s standing steadily on his feet, tugging his shirt straight and blinking before he opens his mouth to respond to the brooch-gifting man.
I’m pretty sure no corpse is capable of all those things.
“Of course we’ll be happy to consider any tips you might have from your experiences,” he says, but I’m too distracted to keep following their conversation.
“Whatarethose things?” I ask Rollick.
“Badges made of combined silver and iron. He’s right that they don’t protect the humans physically—I could still punch him or disintegrate him just fine—and they can’t ward off hybrid powers, but they cut off any talents that involve the wearer’s mental state.”
I squirm uneasily. The man who offered that badge said it was for blocking powers thatalteredminds. I usually just readminds—and only the squishy feelings-y parts of them, not actual thoughts.
Why would people need to protect themselves from that? How can I figure out how to make our new neighbors trust us if I can’t pick up on their emotions?
I suspect Rollick doesn’t have the answers to those questions, and that’s exactly why he brought me here: so I could see the new problems my performance created.
I ball my essence tighter and ask the next most obvious question. “Who are those people?”
“Most likely, hunters.” Rollick’s tone has turned resigned. “They have a pretty cohesive network. It’d only have taken a few of them catching your stunt for word to spread to all of them. Now they’re offering their shadowkind-wrangling skills to the humans on the front lines of what they no doubt consider a war.”
A chill ripples through my being. “Butwe’renot trying to hurt them. We’ve been helping them!”
“That’s not how they’ll see it, and it’s not how the soldiers wanted to see it when they showed up. Now they’ve got confirmation of their natural inclinations.” Rollick turns away. “I’d imagine hunters are speaking to people in power all across the world now, filling in governments and corporations on how to deal with this new shadowkind ‘threat’.”
I’m struck by a deeper shiver. “Does that mean—are they going to bring out those nets, and the whips Gnash talked about?”
“And anything else they’ve invented more recently.”
As Rollick drifts away, I hurry after him. For all my nerves are jittering, I can’t give in to despair. “But they’re just a small group of humans.Lotsof humans will have seen us on their TVs. Mirage worked his powers to make them feel friendly to us. They won’t all want to attack us.”
“It doesn’t take very many on the hunt to create a catastrophe,” Rollick mutters, but he pauses when we’re close to the trailer that serves as our base of operations. “But we can’t put the cat back in the bag, so you and your team need to be on your best behavior today. I want you going out there and working on cleaning up this city again, withoutanyaggression whatsoever. Not that you’re so inclined, but you can keep your mates in check, can’t you?”
I have the sense of him raising an eyebrow.
I give him my most emphatically chipper voice. “Yes! Yes, I’m sure we can manage that.”
“Good. Jonah’s been working out strategies with that new sorcerer I called in—it’s time for them to put those into practice. Let’s see if between the bunch of you and our other associates we can’t put a real dent in this problem before we’ve got dozens more hunters and sorcerers with less cooperative intentions on our doorstep. If you don’t want me seeing your actions as a catastrophe, prove they weren’t.”
At his last words, Jonah and the woman I’ve gathered is the new sorcerer step out of the trailer.
Lilah only looks a little older than Jonah, maybe in her early 30s, as well as I can judge human age. She’s half a foot taller than me, with dips and curves in all the places humans seem to think are best and ripples of auburn hair streaming down her shoulders.
I might be a little jealous of her intruding on my mate to work so closely with him if the too-garlicky-pickle flavor of discomfort didn’t waft off Jonah so strongly. He shoots her a tight smile, his stance equally tense. “Well, I guess it’s time to see how that theory works in real life.”
He’s always been uneasy about using his powers even when it’s absolutely necessary, worrying about the effects on the shadowkind he has to manipulate for their own good. Whichis just one of the many reasons this particular sorcerer is so loveable.
I slip out of the shadows right next to him and grab his hand. “You managed to turn away a few of the strange creatures before. I’m sure you can do even more now that you have help!”
His brighter smile for me lights me up in turn. “We’ll do our best. Why don’t we see if we can expand one of the patches you worked on before?”
