Of Humans and Monsters

by Candace Blevins

  “But they didn’t tell you they came to you because we’re cousins?”

  He shook his head.

  “If they withheld that important piece of information,” I asked, “do you really think you can trust them?”

  He didn’t respond, and I said, “Their kind hide out in Hell to create more of them, because the supernatural leadership on Earth has decided the Celrau can’t make new vampires. They can’t get along with the supernaturals who are good, Josh.”

  “Celrau?”

  “Vampires. There are several kind — at least three. The two I’m friendly with don’t have to kill to feed. However, the Celrau must take one life every month in order to stay animated. If they don’t kill on the new moon, they die. Some of the older vampires have taken thousands of lives. Aquila has taken over fifteen thousand human lives.”

  “You know Aquila?”

  I took three steps closer to him as I talked. I was still a good distance away, but I hoped to move in without threatening him. “Aquila kidnapped me, took me to Hell, and kept me in a cage.”

  “How’d you escape?”

  “My friends bargained with a Demon Lord to get me back. Can I come closer? I have pictures, if you’d like to look through them.”

  “I do want to see them, but not right now. I need... I need it to be just us, when we do that. I know we aren’t alone.”

  Grown up Joshua was no dummy. I moved the conversation to things we needed to know. “Do the Celrau have a way to track you?”

  “Not that I know of, but I don’t know if they’d have told me.”

  “Have you ever drank their blood, or have they ever drank yours?”

  “I don’t think so. They took some of my blood once, but with a needle, like they do at the doctor’s office. They said they needed it for testing.”

  “Do you want my friends to come out and talk to us, or do you want it to just be the two of us talking?”

  “I’d rather have everyone where I can see them.”

  “Can I come closer to you?” I asked again. “Within a dozen steps, so it’ll be easier to talk?”

  He nodded, and I walked slowly, and sat on the sand when I was about ten steps from him.

  “The two men with me are Aaron Drake and Nathan Pierce.” I didn’t bother raising my voice to tell them to come out. They had excellent hearing. I also didn’t turn around to see if they stepped into view — Josh’s face told me when they did.

  “You have some pretty powerful friends,” he finally said, his eyes not meeting mine.

  “Which means we can keep you safe, if you’ll trust us to do so.”

  “How’d you discover your powers?”

  Why did everyone ask this? I kept my voice even and tried to explain in a few sentences, instead of the days and days it would take to give a proper answer. “Mostly by accident. I spent a lot of time meditating, and some things just kind of manifested. My martial arts training brought on more stuff. It all just sort of happened — until the past few months I never tried to gain powers.”

  “And the last few months?”

  “A teacher has helped me refine my skills. How’d you discover yours?”

  “I was approached by someone who said they thought I had abilities. I didn’t take them seriously. They offered me a thousand dollars if I’d spend five hours with them. They said if I didn’t have the abilities they thought I did that we’d go our separate ways, but if I did then they could help me learn to control them.” He looked around, then met my gaze. “It’s hard to beat an offer for two hundred dollars an hour. When we started, they asked if I’d ever seen Star Wars. When they found out how big of a fan I am, they said we could go at it from that point of view. At the end of the five hours I’d been able to get the light to show on the end of the saber handle — not enough to actually use it, but enough to realize there was something there.”

  He looked around again, nervous, but returned his focus to me when he talked. “When I went home and they weren’t around, I couldn’t do it. Now, I wonder if they just let me think I was doing it in the beginning, when I wasn’t.” He gave a long sigh. “If so, it worked, because now I can use the light saber even when they aren’t around.”

  “Is that all they’ve taught you?”

  He nodded. “Can you do more?”

  “Yeah, but I’ve been doing this for more than a decade.”

  “Can I see yours?”

  I manifested a light-sword — at an angle so he wouldn’t see it as a threat, and held it still while he looked. When his gaze met mine again, I absorbed the light back into me.

  “You don’t need a handle?”

  “I did at first.”

  I wanted to tell him how to work without a prop, but until I was sure he was on our side, I wouldn’t. For now, if he didn’t have something to use as a handle, we might be safe from his forming a weapon. I was wishing I could be sure of his intentions when I remembered I had two human lie detectors standing behind me.

  I kept looking at Josh as I said, “Nathan, can you come to us, please? Maybe stay just a little behind me?”

  I heard his footsteps, and then, “I’m here.”

  “Just so we’re clear,” I told Josh, “you sided with the Celrau because you thought they were doing good. You didn’t think they were evil. You fought us because they convinced you we were the bad guys?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you say that, all together for me? Please?”

  Josh met Nathan’s gaze and steadily said, “The men who trained me told me you were the bad guys. They made me think they’re the underdogs, fighting the powerful people — fighting the people in control who’re taking advantage of those under them.”

  “He speaks truth,” said Nathan.

  Aaron spoke from his spot farther from us. “It might be more accurate to say he believes that what he says is true.”

  Now, I turned to look at Aaron and told him, “I believe we’re going to find large holes in his memory if we question him about things chronologically.” Because Josh was likely right about the vampires making him think he could put the light sword on the handle after only a few hours, which meant they’d fucked with his head from here to Sunday.

  I turned back to Josh. “Do you have any missing time episodes?”

  “Am I your prisoner?”

  I shook my head. “Not mine, and if you’re on our side, you won’t be Aaron’s either. I hope you’ll let us keep you safe from the Celrau until we can figure everything out.”

  He looked at Aaron, who told him, “I didn’t know if I was on a rescue operation or would be capturing an enemy, and figured it’d take some time before we knew for sure. I now believe we rescued you, and I think you’re beginning to lean that way as well. You refused food earlier, I’d like to make the offer again.”

  Josh nodded, and Aaron flew away without changing to dragon. Josh’s eyes followed him, and didn’t focus back on me until Aaron dropped out of sight.

  “When did they offer you the original thousand dollars?” Nathan asked as he stepped forward so he was no longer behind me, and the three of us formed a triangle.

  “The weekend before Halloween.”

  Nathan’s face tensed as he looked at me. “A few days after you fought Surtr. They went looking for your relatives — ones who weren’t likely to know you. They must know more about your history than we’ve been able to find out.”

  My heart fell into my feet at the idea they may have taken other of my relatives I might not know were missing. I have hundreds of second and third cousins in West Tennessee. Some I’ve only briefly met at reunions when I was young, others I knew as a child but have lost contact with as an adult.

  I looked back to Josh. “Did they tell you why they thought you might have these abilities?”

  “They said I was descended from someone who could do these things.”

  Darkness fell over the landscape and dread filled my heart, and I looked around for the threat. I saw nothing, but Nathan�
��s stance changed and I knew he felt it too.

  The sandy beach and scrub forest didn’t look any different, and yet they felt darker.

  “Could someone have opened a portal to Hell?” I asked him.

  “I’d like to say no because it isn’t supposed to be possible from here, but I have no idea what just happened. We need to get the two of you to safety.”

  “Josh has a light sword, and I can fight too. We need to make sure Aaron’s okay. He’s by himself.”

  No sooner were the words out of my mouth than something indescribable came into our vision. It was as if it were made of shadows, but was in the shape of a man in a top hat and overcoat, his face shaded so you couldn’t see it. A top hat shouldn’t have put his face into shadows, so I looked closer and saw a hood under the hat.

  Nathan’s voice came from my side, strong and commanding. “You can’t be here, Siabhra.”

  “I’ve been given the boy, Amakhosi. Move out of my way.” Its voice was wavy and indefinite, but the command was powerful. Strong, male, but not of this world. Ethereal. Wraithlike.

  Wraith. Yes. Tolkien’s Nazgul had nothing on this guy. I wanted to pull my gun and put a bullet in my brain — no amount of shielding could protect me from the grief, hopelessness, and sheer terror I felt in the dark shadow’s malevolent presence.

  “What is it?” I asked, my voice soft.

  “More devastating than your worst childhood nightmare, when you were helpless to pull out of them.” Nathan answered in a low, deep, rumbling voice that told me the lion was close to the surface. “It lives in Faerie and shouldn’t be here.”

  “It’s here for me?” Josh asked, his voice quiet but I could hear the edge of terror. “No one owns me, who could’ve given me to this thing?”

  “It makes deals,” said Nathan. “You were apparently part of a deal, but we’ll figure that out later. You were against us without understanding the situation so we won’t just give you away.” He sighed. “We need to put our heads together and figure out how to fight it, because I have no idea where to start.”

  I heard the beating of wings seconds before I saw Aaron swooping toward us in dragon form. Josh’s sharp inhale had me assuring him the dragon was a friend, and the Siabhra stopped floating in the air and landed on the ground at the edge of the scrub forest, avoiding the dragon’s fire with several seconds to spare.

  The sense of dread I’d felt when he arrived on the island grew as the Siabhra got closer. I reinforced my shields and thought happy thoughts to keep from walking out into the ocean and drowning myself in despair. Every time I fought off a specific way of killing myself, I was tempted with another. My heart was heavy and I wanted to cry, but I set my jaw and refused to acknowledge the overwhelming misery.

  “I’ll fight you and win, Amakhosi. Give me the boy and save yourself the anguish.”

  The Siabhra’s voice struck more dread into my heart, and I reinforced my shields yet again in hopes of keeping him from affecting me so. Nothing worked, but it couldn’t hurt to have strong shields.

  Nathan rapidly morphed into his fighting form — an eight foot tall half-lion and half-man — and all monster. I felt for Josh and wished I had time to reassure him, but needed to concentrate on the Siabhra.

  “Who promised him to you, and under what authority?!” Nathan asked, his voice gravelly.

  “Aquila gave me a slice of the boy’s essence and a vial of his blood. Anyone with these things in their possession owns the human.”

  I wished I could block his voice out because it felt as if the wraithlike vibrations radiated dread and despair. I couldn’t run away or bury my head in the sand though, so I stood taller and forced myself to sound assertive and confident. “He’s my cousin. This gives me a stronger claim in our world! Leave! Your beef is with Aquila, not us.”

  He turned from Nathan to look at me, and the fact he turned away from the Amakhosi — less than twenty yards away in fighting form — gave me an idea of how powerful this asshole was. He was either stupid or scary-powerful, and I was betting on the latter.

  “You’re a human, and you want to challenge my ownership based on a familial relationship? If I own him, I can place a claim on you as well.”

  The fog of despair and wretchedness grew exponentially with his focus on me, but I shook my head, lifted my hand, and shot my laser in a series of short bursts. I used to send a steady stream, but Mordecai had taught me how to send something more akin to machine gun fire, which used less than a third of my reserves with a similar affect. Also, it made it harder for a powerful enemy to take control of the stream and drain me.

  It should’ve been a kill shot, but under the circumstances I was happy when it merely seemed to weaken him. He gave no sign the laser hitting his chest and abdomen hurt, but the sense of dread lessened, so I did it again. And again.

  He’d cleverly situated himself between us and the trees so Aaron couldn’t get to him without his wings hitting us, but the dragon circled over us, waiting for an opportunity.

  “Swim into the water, Josh,” Nathan told him without turning to look. “I don’t believe the Siabhra can handle salt water. He’s weaker here than he’s been when I’ve seen him in our realm in the past, and I think it’s the salt air.”

  I heard splashing, and I looked to the Siabhra. “Is that true? Is he out of your reach now?”

  The Siabhra’s shadowed face turned to Nathan, then me, and flew towards me.

  No, flying isn’t the right word. He streaked towards me, nearly as fast as the vampires, but it was as if the Siabhra wasn’t as solid as us and he left pieces of himself as he moved, so he blurred across the landscape towards me. I quickly made a staff of light in time to swipe it through him as he reached me. I still couldn’t see his face, and I didn’t try. I didn’t want to look into the face of every child’s worst nightmare.

  Nathan’s lethal, razor sharp claws swiped at him from behind, and I changed angles so I wouldn’t accidentally hit Nathan with my laser should the Siabhra move. The two of us inefficiently fought the agile nightmare wraith as we moved him into a wider open space. We stayed out of his grasp and I could tell we were weakening him, but I had a feeling he knew we’d tire before him and the top hatted Siabhra was biding his time.

  Finally, I heard wings and saw a huge dragon approaching behind the Siabhra. I hit the ground seconds before Aaron’s claws grabbed the otherworldly monster and flew off with him. The portal somehow grew to accommodate Aaron in dragon form, and I breathed easier when I felt the sense of dread leave the island, but immediately worried for Aaron. The Siabhra would be a lot stronger in his home realm.

  “Aaron will be fine,” Nathan assured me as he morphed back to human. “We need to get Josh from the ocean though. He’s drifted a good ways out.”

  I wasn’t good enough to levitate that far over water, and I knew Nathan could get to him faster. “Go. I’ll watch your back.”

  He nodded and swam away from shore while I stood at the water’s edge, watched the skies and water, worried about Aaron, and wondered what else the Celrau would throw at us.

  Chapter 5

  “You need to eat,” I told Nathan when he returned with my cousin. Unlike most shifters, he’s capable of functioning without food after every change, but I knew he needed it after two changes.

  “I do, but I can wait until I’m sure the two of you are okay.”

  “What the fuck was that thing?” asked Josh.

  “Do either of you have any nicks or scratches?” Nathan asked.

  I looked my arms over and shook my head as Josh said, “I don’t think so. What the fuck was that thing?”

  “A Siabhra, from Faerie,” Nathan answered as he looked my arms and face over. “Aaron has the island shielded so no one can open a portal from the Hell Realm, but there are nightmares in Faerie too.”

  “Why did it come after us?” asked Josh.

  I held his gaze. “It was after you.”

  He looked to the sky as he said, “It’s dayl
ight. The vampires are sleeping.”

  “It’s daylight here, but they can go through the portals to Hell and come out on the other side of the world where it’s nighttime. Or they can just stay in Hell, where they can apparently stay awake indefinitely.” I looked at Nathan. “The Celrau can’t go to Faerie, right?”

  “Correct, but they have deals with species who can, and I’m willing to bet Aaron will have a conversation with Mab and Titania while he’s in Faerie.”

  “Would that... thing have taken me back to the vampires, or taken me to Faerie?” Josh asked.

  Nathan looked at him a few seconds before answering, “I’ve never known the Siabhra to act as an agent for others. If it was set on you, it’s because the Celrau would rather you be abducted by the thing children’s nightmares are made of than be taken by us.” He glanced around a few seconds before looking back to Josh. “The Siabhra is the most frightening thing in Faerie, and life in his lair is guaranteed to be one of continuous torment without the luxury of death. The dread you felt here is nothing compared to being within two miles of its home, and I can’t imagine being inside while subjected to horrible tortures. I’d rather spend time in Mab’s dungeon than be given to the Siabhra.”

  “How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Josh asked.

  “You don’t, but I am.”

  Josh looked at me and I told him, “When I first met Nathan, we didn’t get along. I hated being in the same room with him. That’s changed over time, and I trust him with not only my life, but my daughter’s life, and there are only a few people on the planet I trust to keep her safe when I can’t be there.”

  “You’re saying I should believe him?”

  “I’m telling you I trust him. You’re going to have to make up your own mind about whether we’re trustworthy.”

  “What did he turn into?”

  I looked to Nathan, who told him, “I’m a lion shifter. Like a werewolf, only I’m a lion, and I don’t change on the full moon. You saw my half-form.”

  Josh didn’t ask Nathan his questions, but kept asking me. “What happens if he doesn’t eat?”