Chapter 21
Periwinkle
Islip out of the car through the shadows and materialize by our current base near the city rift, only to find Riva and a couple of the shadowbloods waiting for me.
Riva’s voice comes out wry. “The famous Periwinkle is finally back.”
Famous? Finally?
I’ve only been gone for a day and a half, and I don’t see how I could be anything like famous.
A chilling thought occurs to me. My gaze veers to the city skyline, the streaks of clouds turning ruddy in the late afternoon sunlight around the Diamond Victory Tower and its shorter companions.
“Did I end up getting video-recorded while we were trying to stop Viscera—did someone put me on the news or—”
Riva holds up her hand to stop me before I can spiral into panic. The vibe I’m getting off her isn’t irritation or fear but mostly caramel-corn amusement. Well, layered across some frustration she’s suppressing beneath the tastier emotions.
“Nothing like that,” she says. “Sorry, bad joke. It’s just—we’re still trying to hunt Viscera down.
So far we haven’t managed to do more than shout at her from a distance a few times, she’s so slippery.
But the times we did shout at her, she asked us where you are.
It seems like she found you… interesting. ”
Based on the way the crocodile-tailed woman spoke to me, I wouldn’t have thought she considered me interesting so much as pathetic or na?ve.
Based on how she bashes up whatever she’s paying attention to, I’m not sure I want her finding me interesting.
“She ran away from me,” I point out. “She laughed at me. It didn’t seem like she wanted to talk to me at all.”
Drey shrugs where he’s standing next to Riva, his mouth slanting into a crooked grin. “Maybe she likes you now that she’s gotten to compare you to the other supernatural people who’re trying to talk to her. She definitely doesn’t want us anywhere nearby.”
“She can tell you’d have a much better chance of catching her.”
“And that might be true,” Riva says. “But the fact that she’s asking about you might give us a different sort of edge. Now that you’re back, maybe she’ll stick around a little longer in one spot if it means you two can have a chat. That gives us opportunities.”
The men I marked have materialized around me, other than Jonah who had to step out of the car the human way. Raze lets out a soft growl. “You’re talking about using Peri as bait.”
Riva raises her hands. “Only if she’s up for it! And we’d be very careful. It just seems like a strategy that might work… and we’re in pretty short supply at this point.”
Jonah’s expression darkens. “You haven’t made any progress toward containing Viscera since we left?”
At Riva’s other side, Zian shakes his head. “She’s fast, and she never hits the same area twice. We haven’t seen any pattern to where she pops up and starts smashing things. No matter how thoroughly we patrol, there are always some places none of us can get to fast.”
Drey grimaces. “She jumps out of the shadows, does as much damage as possible in ten minutes or less, and vanishes before any of us can reach her. Rollick’s shadowkind employees have been patrolling too, trying to keep tabs on her, but she moves faster than any of them can.”
Nausea pools in the base of my stomach. “How much has she destroyed since we’ve been gone?”
Riva sighs. “A bunch of storefronts, one whole row of houses, several dozen cars, and more telephone poles than I can count. We’ve been able to keep the humans talking about marauding gangs and electric blitzes for now, but I don’t know how much longer we can avoid them drawing the conclusion that there’s a monster rampaging through their city. ”
“Just the tail, not the whole Godzilla,” Mirage pipes up. He offers a tight smile. “It could be worse?”
Hail looks abruptly concerned. “Those monster movies—Godzilla and King Kong and all—aren’t based on real shadowkind, are they?”
Jonah manages a rough laugh. “Not as far as any of us know. I suppose the fact that this Viscera being isn’t as bad as a skyscraper-tall lizard is a small comfort.”
“She’s still wrecking too much stuff,” I say. “The people must be so scared.” Little eddies of uneasiness drift from the city like trickles of pickle juice. How much stronger must the flavor be up close?
It took a lot of digging in the academy library to find out much about the incidents Rollick mentioned between shadowkind and humans.
What Fen and I did scrounge up showed a whole lot of bad behavior on both sides—sorcerers using shadowkind and shadowkind eating sorcerers to compel each other, researchers experimenting on us while one of our own toyed with them for malicious ends.
But even in the most horrifying accounts, there were sprinkles of hope I couldn’t miss. Mentions of humans who pitched in and risked their lives alongside the shadowkind.
Maybe a super-powerful demon wouldn’t think much of them, but I know better than to dismiss how much impact even a trace of sweetness can make. No matter what Hail thinks, humans aren’t all bad. Whatever happens here, we have to give them a chance.
And they won’t get much of one if Viscera buries them in rubble.
I square my shoulders. “If she’ll come out for me, we have to use that. Maybe she’s getting bored, and she’s thinking about what I said. She might start to settle down if she realizes we really will help her!”
Hail snorts. “Always so optimistic, Cream Puff.”
There isn’t much rancor in his voice, though. I catch a strange twinge of uncomfortable affection, like chocolate laced with the bitterest of ground coffee.
Raze shoots me a sharp look. “You shouldn’t do anything that’d give Viscera a chance to hurt you.”
“The shadowbloods and Rollick’s assistants are putting themselves in danger every time they go out to track her down. I’ve got to do something. If she attacks me, I’ll bounce back easier than any mortal being would. I’ll be fine.”
A pang of distress hits me through my connection with Mirage. “We can’t let her break our Rainbow.”
I can’t remember the last time the fox shifter has called me theirs.
The fondness woven into the nickname only solidifies my resolve.
“She won’t. Maybe I’ll break through all her messed-up thinking instead!
And we can use our bond. You can find me through it if you try, and I’ll intensify what I’m feeling so you know when I’ve run into her. ”
Riva rubs her mouth. “If this works the way we were thinking, we’d stick close by so we’ll be right there to jump in.”
I turn to her. “But Viscera’s been able to sense you before. She might not come talk to me if she knows you’re around.”
The shadowblood woman folds her arms over her chest. “I’m not saying we’ll be right on your ass, but we’ll make sure we’re not miles away. If even that’s a problem, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. We’re not tossing you into the deep end immediately.”
To my surprise, Jonah touches my arm. A tingling jolt races through my nerves that I know he can feel too, but he doesn’t jerk his fingers away like he has before.
“Before we left the academy, I talked with Rollick about your reports,” he says to the shadowbloods. “He has some ideas about how I might factor into a trap. For now, why don’t we give Peri a moment to think through what’s being asked of her and how far she’s willing to go?”
Raze nods reluctantly, and the shadowbloods follow suit.
I glance up at Jonah, the mix of assurance and protectiveness in his stance making my pulse wobble like Jello. And who doesn’t like Jello? “Should you fill me in on your part of the plan while I’m doing my thinking?”
“I’m happy to if it’ll help you decide.”
Despite his agreement, a waft of reluctance and discomfort passes from him into me. There’s something he and Rollick talked about that he doesn’t actually like.
Mirage steps forward. “We can all get a lecture from our former teacher.” He grins to show he’s being playful rather than criticizing.
Another twinge of tension reaches me from Jonah. He likes the idea of discussing Rollick’s ideas in front of a larger group even less.
I give Mirage an apologetic smile that I turn toward Raze as well. “It’ll be easier for me to sort out what I’m okay with when I don’t have a bunch of other opinions to distract me. When I have a clearer idea of what danger I’ll be dashing off into, I’ll give you all a chance to argue about it.”
Raze’s expression turns grim and Hail’s eyes narrow as if he doesn’t totally like the idea of me rushing into danger either, but Mirage beams at me. “As long as we all get the chance to dash in too.”
I have to laugh. “I guess we’ll see about that.”
“Here.” Jonah leads me toward one of the trailers set up along the side of the road.
Rollick’s assistants have ramped up the film-set details for extra authenticity, with folding chairs and camera equipment strewn around.
We dodge those pieces in silence and step into the portable room that’s like a miniature house.
I flop down on the tiny sofa and look at Jonah. “What did Rollick say and why does it bother you?”
Jonah winces, but I don’t taste any real surprise from him. He must be getting used to me picking up on his emotions that quickly.
“You don’t need to worry about that part,” he says.
Because Jonah always protects all of us as much as he can.
I study the angles of his light brown face, the pensive features that draw a flutter into my pulse so easily even if he’d rather I didn’t admit it out loud.
I want him to feel the swell of friendly affection that rises up inside me alongside the glaze of attraction.
“I do worry, because it’s worrying you. Maybe you didn’t really want this bond, but I think… I think it’s a good thing I can tell how you’re feeling if it means I can stop you from trying to handle everything alone.”
Jonah gazes back at me for long enough that my pulse outright stutters and then rakes his fingers back through his dark hair.