He frowned his way through the airport as his mind worked the problem. Unless he got lucky and there was a hijacking or a bomb threat, Mal wouldn’t be able to fuel up enough to be safe. He’d have to do something drastic, like draw an unhealthyamount of attention to himself, to get a safe reserve of essence to tide him over.
As he pondered the problem, a group of nuns passed him, and he perked up. Members of the clergy always spooked easily, and Mal was a huge fan of netting a huge payoff with minimal effort.
Time to go scare some nuns.
Chapter
Ten
MAL
Mal trailed behind the nuns as inconspicuously as someone like him could until they congregated around something Mal couldn’t see.
“It’s disgusting what children get up to these days,” one of the nuns said loudly, nose up in the air like she smelled something disgusting.
“Honestly, I can’t tell if it’s a boy or a girl underneath all that hair,” another one said.
The whole group of nuns was giving off major shitbag vibes, but Mal could tell the two who’d just spoken were the assholes in charge of their gaggle.
His intuition had paid off. Church folk weren’t all bad, but in Mal’s experience, they had a high ratio of bullies in their numbers.
Bullies tasted delicious.
They had so much more fear in them than everyone else, which was probably why they were so awful. Living in a permanent state of fear would make anyone go insane.
It made them tasty, too.
Mal got a glimpse of their target, and it turned out to be a brown-haired teenager huddled near an outlet with an assortment of battered, second-hand devices spread out before them. The teen was hunched over and staring down through long, messy bangs at their phone, trying to ignore the shitbag humans harassing them.
“One must wonder if this one even has parents. I think only the castaways of society can fall to this state.” Shitty nun number one sniffed haughtily and poked a bag next to the teen disdainfully with her toe. “It even carries its possessions around in a ratty bag like a hobo.”
The teen scowled but refused to engage. Mal rolled his eyes. If it were him, he’d be having nun brisket by now. Kids today had all the fight beaten out of them.
Pity. Once the kid grew up, they wouldn’t be worth eating. You couldn’t feed off the fears of someone who didn’t give a fuck about anything anymore.
“Where are your parents, child?” Nun number one asked nastily. When the teen didn’t respond, she reached out and plucked the headphones off the kid’s head and hissed, “I said, where are your parents, you filthy little thing? Or did you just sneak in here to get warm?”
“It’s probably homeless, Clara,” the second nun said. “We should probably bring it back with us.”
The teen had ignored the harassment well up until that point, but those words had them scrambling up in alarm. “I’m not homeless! I’ll… I’ll go. Just don’t call anyone.”
The teen tried to leave, but the nun gaggle closed in, keeping them from escaping.
Clara the Shitty Nun had a saccharine sweet smile as she said, “Oh no, dear. It wouldn’t be godly to leave you like this. Don’t worry. We’ll take care of you.”
Mal snorted. The kid would likely be safer with Mal, and he ate people for a living. Maybe he should start addingacts godlyto his resume. It could get him even more food if he was lucky.
The kid struggled to gather their devices and stuff them into the tattered gym bag Clara the Shitty Nun had poked, but a shiny black shoe stepped on their hand. “You won’t be needing any of these. They aren’t allowed in our church.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m not going to your church,” the kid said through gritted teeth.
“Don’t touch it, Clara. It needs a bath first,” a random nun said with a simpering tone as she held out a handkerchief. “Let me get that clean for you.”
Suck-ups. There were always suck-ups in every organization. Barf.
The kid was beginning to churn out fear at an impressive rate. Apparently, teens could still feel emotions. Good for them. Too bad it was the wrong kind of fear. The kid’s mind and heart had a soft, flowery flavor to their fear, and Mal couldn’t digest it. It was like sucking on a dryer sheet.
Just… No, thank you.
