Page 50 of Bizarre Bonds
I haven’t met many beings, mortal or shadowkind, who take pure enjoyment out of doing harm. Even the students who’ve been cruel to me at the academy always had tender spots underneath, fear or anger they were covering with their hostility.
Wafts of more peaceful emotions reach me as I navigate around a series of apartment buildings and through a sprawling residential neighborhood. The sensations of sleep taste like warm custard, other than a few spikes of spicy arousal or the metallic panic of a nightmare.
Fainter tendrils of feeling touch my awareness in the midst of that blend. A couple of cats spar over their territory, hissing and arching their backs to claim an alley that doesn’t seem worth the fight. A man behind a lit window emanates a trickle of stress as he types on his computer.
Maybe he should turn off its artificial glow and go to sleep like his neighbors.
Then, as I veer back into streets of storefronts and office buildings, a surge of something sharp and hot as roasted jalapeños brushes against my awareness.
I pause and turn toward the impression.
As I venture closer, my sense of the being grows. Along with the sharp flavor comes more of that sadistic satisfaction shot through with a speckling of impatience like bits of orange rind.
It has to be her—the crocodile-tailed woman. She’s somewhere nearby.
But I can’t tell exactly where yet.
I slink onward more cautiously. The jumble of emotions gradually comes into clearer focus.
She’s drifting through the shadows at the end of an alley across the street, between a dry cleaner and a pho restaurant. Her restlessness wriggles through my essence.
I don’t know how long she’s going to stay there.
I pull into the thicker shadow in a shoe-shop doorway on the other side of the road. If I move far enough away to materialize out of view and send the text, she might leave without me realizing.
But what’s the point in having found her if I don’t let the others know?
Apparently my talent for stealth is a little lacking. I haven’t made up my mind about how to handle the situation when the strange being steps out of the shadows, taking on her physical form at the mouth of the alley.
“Hey,” she calls in a crackly voice that brings to mind all that glass she’s smashed. “I can tell someone’s there. Don’t just hang around staring. Let’s see you.”
I could flee, but I don’t see how that’ll help anything. The emotions she’s giving off now taste more of curiosity and a hope of escaping boredom than aggression.
If I run off, she’ll definitely never trust me when I get close again.
I ease forward and into the physical realm, my leather jacket and sundress forming around my curvy body with a ripple of fabric that’s vaguely comforting. I’ve decided I like this combination of tough and soft more than an outfit that’s all one or the other.
Lifting one hand, I offer the shadowkind woman my sunniest smile. “Hi! I’m Periwinkle. I haven’t seen you around the city before. Are you new here?”
It seems smartest to pretend I have no idea who she is. Her impassive expression suggests she didn’t notice me during her first rampage.
She lets out a scoffing sound and swishes her tail across the pavement with a rasp of scales. “You could say that. But when I’m done with this place, there won’t be much of a ‘here’ left.”
I knit my brow in confusion I don’t have to feign. “Are you going to wreck the city? Why would you do that?”
As I speak, I exude calm and warmth as well as I can. If I could settle down the lesser beings from the rift, maybe I can get this one to chill out too.
She gives another swish of her tail. “Why not? These mortal beings stacking up their bricks and bolts, trying to shut us out—it looks much better when it all comes crashing down.”
Her body twitches, and all at once her arms jut a little longer from her shoulders. Her hair shrinks into her head until it’s only a spiky bob.
The curiosity I sensed from her morphs too, with a jolt of brussel-sprout-bitter agitation. I can’t tell if my attempt at soothing her affected her at all before her emotions jerked around.
“I actually like the buildings and everything,” I say brightly. “They make lots of shadowy spots to move through. And the people can be pretty entertaining when they’re going about their business. Seeing them scared all the time gets boring fast.”
The woman’s eyes narrow. “I don’t think so. It should all be the same. When this place gives off so much shaky shuddery energy, everything feels likeme.”
She stomps her foot with that last word. With a spark of supernatural energy, a broad crack opens all the way through the road between us. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
