Page 34 of Death Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

“You didn’t see monsters,” she murmured. “You saw a stunt. You panicked. You ran. You’re safe.”

He nodded, docile, phone lowering as if it weighed too much to hold.

Delia moved on to the next witness.

I tried not to resent her composure. I failed.

Another undead slammed into my force field push like it had hit an invisible wall. It skidded, snarled, then lunged again, faster than the first time.

“That’s new,” I breathed.

Eve’s hellfire hit it mid-leap, incinerating it before it could land. The flame crackled hot enough to make the streetlights feel weak. The corpse dropped in a heap of ash and burning fabric.

Eve’s eyes were bright with fury. “They’re not stopping.”

Victor barked a command to his officers, voice cutting through the panic. “Move the line back. Now. Block the street. Get them behind the cruisers.”

His people obeyed, trying to corral the crowd into safer angles. It worked on the ones who wanted to be controlled.

The rest kept filming.

One teenager held her phone above her head, tears streaking down her cheeks, still narrating like she was doing a documentary for extra credit.

“It’s happening downtown. I’m not joking. If I don’t make it, tell everyone I loved them.”

Faith shot her a look that could have curdled milk.

The teenager, impressively, kept filming.

“Delia,” Victor called.

Delia glanced up, quick, efficient. “Too many.”

Victor’s mouth tightened. “Do what you can.”

Delia’s expression didn’t change, but her eyes calculated. “Then we need a story. Something that makes their brains accept a simpler answer. I can erase the sharp edges, but if their feeds keep feeding them horror, they’ll make new memories by morning.”

That sentence landed hard.

Erase the sharp edges.

That was exactly what this felt like. We weren’t saving truth. We were sanding down reality until it fit into a mundane mind.

Nishi appeared at my side, moving fast, face set. “We have hunters checking alley mouths. They keep appearing in clusters. Not just staggering in. It’s coordinated.”

“Anything on the source?” I asked.

Nishi’s jaw flexed. “Not yet.”

Eve’s phone buzzed again. She glanced down, then at Victor. “Hunter’s sending updates. He’s got containment tightening on the west side, but downtown is lighting up on social.”

Victor’s eyes narrowed. “How bad?”

Eve looked grim. “Bad enough that people outside Ravenholde are already commenting.”

My stomach sank. “Of course they are.”

The internet never missed an opportunity to be loud and wrong at the same time.