Page 1 of His Human Believer

Chapter One

Margaret

Ido not travel anymore. Which isn’t as sad as it sounds. Believe me, I used to travel all the time, all over the Four Sectors for my prior job with the Intergalactic Business Bureau. Nowadays I’m happy to remain settled in a comfy apartment on Salo, living amongst the Gravians who are a very nice species, and also lovers of scary stories.

Which is perfect, considering I love scary stories too.

My best friend, Avery Hellstone, has a darling four-year-old daughter who requested my attendance at the very first human-style Halloween celebration on Tarvos.

How can I refuse this invitation?

I adore Mitry and her baby sister Sela, who I’ve only ever met via a vid screen. And I also adore Avery’s fourteen-year-old stepson Dagr.

So here I am, dissolving.

Remain calm. Calm.

The fancy transporter disk hums to life. My atoms break apart, dart across the universe and reassemble in the right order on a similar disk in Tarvos. Of course this is going to work seamlessly, considering the perfect safety record of these machines…which never once stops me from thinking what if this time it doesn’t work right?

My vision clears.

The Tarvos transport room is enormous and quiet at this hour. The Hyrrokin staff are exactly what I prepared myself for—terrifying red beings with shiny black horns, deadly fangs, and barbed tails that flick gently behind them as they work. Smoke wisps from a worker’s nostrils as he bends over a console. All of them are barefoot because the Hyrrokin don’t wear shoes. They consider the foot coverings humans need to wear very, very odd. Males are shirtless, as usual, and the females all wear the traditional, brightly colored tube tops of their species.

A staff member glances up, catches my eye, and nods politely.

I nod back and swallow a small, undignified squeak. These beings look like my darkest nightmares, but I am not going to scream.

I’ve interrogated bloody Surrelian assassins and Hurlian war criminals about financial crimes. Therefore, I am not going to freak out in a transporter station because a customer service worker has a tail.

No matter how many times I visit, stifling my fear of the Hyrrokin’s dreadful features remains difficult because this species is well known for their nightmare characteristics. Beings across the Four Sectors are routinely frightened at the sight of the Hyrrokin. These beings—with their red skin, bald heads, flashing fangs, black horns, barbed tails and flame throwing—literally look like creatures from the darkest pits of hell.

It still astonishes me that Avery fell in love with and married one of these satanic-looking beings and lives here on purpose. Not that I’d say that out loud to her, but her relationship with Hannibal Hellstone remains one of the greatest mysteries of my life.

“Aunt Margaret.”

I look up and smile with delight as a small body rushes across the transport room. Mitry is a blur of pumping legs and bouncing barbed tail. I barely get my purse down before she crashes into my legs. I drop to my knees and scoop her up. At four years old, her two tiny black horns push up through her dark hair. She grins so wide it takes up her entire face. Her teeth are blunt and human, no fangs at all. Her claws are blunt too, where her father’s are silver-tipped. Mitry Hellstone is a perfect blend of human and Hyrrokin. Which means she’s darling instead of terrifying.

“You’re here.” She beams.

“Of course I am. I would never miss your first trick or treat. You know how I go crazy for Halloween.”

She bounces up and down. “It’s going to be so much fun.”

“Right?”

Mitry pulls back to look at me with total seriousness. “And I have a really good costume.”

A chuckle escapes my lips. “I’ve heard rumors about this amazing costume.”

“Margaret.”

I stand and see Avery, who looks gorgeous, as usual, in a skirt, heels and a lovely tube top blouse. She’s got a baby on one hip, which explains why Mitry beat her across the room by a full ten seconds.

“Oh my gods,” I breathe. “Is that baby Sela?”

“Yep. This is our precious Sela.” Avery grins. She gets one bare arm around me anyway and Mitry is suddenly squashed between the three of us, laughing. My best friend of fifteen years hugs me hard enough to bruise a rib while managing to keep her giggling one-year-old daughter perfectly safe.

Sela regards me with enormous dark eyes. Two horn buds. No fangs, same as her sister. She has Avery’s exact expression, which on a baby is deeply unsettling.