Chapter 19
“Well, this is a pretty town, isn’t it, if you like garden gnomes. Smells of magic.”
Mikano was strolling, one hand in the pocket of his dress pants, and looking around as if he were half-heartedly browsing a used car dealership. A cat approached him, but he glared at it and showed his teeth—teeth that were much sharper than they should be.
“What the fuck?”
Mikano turned to Kai, a tooth-free grin plastered over his face. “Oh, that? Cats like demons, but they shed. It’s the worst. My fiancé has a cat which at least had the decency to be black, but still, it’s just so annoying. And he loves the beast, can you imagine?”
Kai frowned. “A lot of people love cats.”
Mikano nodded. “That’s because they are lovable creatures. So cute. Did I give you the impression I feel differently, Kai?”
Kai stopped. “You are full of bullshit, anyone ever tell you that? Why was I supposed to go and get you of all the demons?”
“O-hoho! You’re like a—what is that sea urchin type animal? With the spikes?”
“A porcupine?”
“Yes!” Mikano grinned with his shark teeth out and pointed at them. “Get it? We’re alike.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You’re getting extra wedding cake, how’s that?”
“What wedding cake?”
Mikano shrugged. “I’m getting married. To that fiancé with the cat.
I wanted to see if Tickle had brought it up, but clearly he’s suckers over fins in love with you and hasn’t seen fit to mention it.
I’ll make sure you get an invite. Oh, we’ll send you off to Tom’s bachelor party too, you’ll have the best of fun. ”
“Fun? Fun? I want to fucking save Fian and maybe kick Nick in the teeth, okay? I’m not out here to have fun. I haven’t had fun in the last three years!”
Mikano’s face darkened, a light switch flipped off. “The human kept you under magic for three years?”
Those words hit. They took the wind right out of Kai’s sails. He stood there, the ocean noisy, the town quiet, and him just lost between the two, between a past that was gone and three years that had been taken from him.
“Oh, little Kai.” Mikano stroked Kai’s back. “It’s fine. I can smell Tickle, and I don’t think he’s hurt. Show me where you two got separated, please?”
Kai nodded, pointed. It was still a few streets away, and they passed a shocking amount of garden gnomes, so many that Kai was surprised he’d never really noticed them before.
At a crossroads, Mikano stopped briefly to look at a house that didn’t match, its garden wilted and its windows gray with dust and dirt.
“I guess that’s abandoned,” Kai said.
Mikano shook his head. “No. Someone undid the spell covering it.” He pointed. “All these houses are like that. They are make-believe, a bright world that is really quite dreary. Let’s keep going.”
Mikano was far more serious now, and Kai thought he detected some urgency in the demon’s demeanor. It made him hasten his steps, shove all his feelings about Salt Harbor all the way to the back of his mind.
“They got to us over there. See those tire marks on the sidewalk? I guess that’s the place. They, uh, made those cars move? By magic I guess.”
Mikano nodded. “A good guess. I can smell it. Not a strong spell, more like many rubber bands layered one atop the other to seal a plastic bag.”
He walked toward the black marks on the ground. Kai followed and peered through the front window of the café, but it was empty, and not just empty but lifeless. Now that he really looked, most of the town appeared to be abandoned.
When he came to a stop, Mikano sniffed the air. As he was standing there, Kai heard the engine of a car, a familiar one.
The mailman was driving down Main, stopping here and there to put letters in mailboxes, then getting back into his car and driving on. Mikano saw him too and walked toward him, waving.
“What do you want from the mailman?” Kai asked.
“Mmm. Stay behind me.”
Kai sighed. “Why? Just tell me what—”
Mikano shushed him just as the mailman stopped his car next to them.
Kai had seen him, maybe not every day, but he’d been to the store, had left the mail on the counter.
Kai was pretty sure they’d talked, just general stuff, nothing of importance, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember even a single conversation.
“Sharks have an excellent sense of smell, did you know that, Kai? Even here on land, I need no magic to smell Tickle. However, what I don’t smell is his specific magic.
That tells me his demon abilities were bound, and that requires some knowledge humans ought not possess.
It’s the same kind of thing that can do transformation magic.
Have a good look, Kai. I’ll show you how to unmake a transformation spell. ”
The mailman got out of his car, and as soon as his boots touched the ground, Mikano snapped his fingers.
The air around the mailman wavered in blues and yellows, and Kai saw him transform.
It wasn’t pretty. One moment, it was the mailman, then he looked like a human-shaped piece of dough that was being kneaded, and in the next moment he was just…
an old guy who was too small for his uniform to fit him properly.
Kai gasped. He was beyond words.
The old man’s face turned to a grimace, and as his eyes lit up with fury, Kai thought he recognized him. Howard something? The full memory wouldn’t come, but whatever there was, it made him shake all over again.
“You vapid fool, bringing demons to our doorstep! I shouldn’t have let him keep you.” The mailman’s angry gaze shifted to Mikano. “Filthy demon!”
“Yes, I am a demon. Kai, I see why Fian had you call me. What is going on here falls squarely in my line of work. I’m with the Human Liaisons Unit.
” He looked back over his shoulder. “The Unit only employs the most powerful demons to make sure the misuse of magic that has happened here doesn’t go unpunished. ”
The older guy meanwhile was mumbling something and wiggling his fingers. There was color there just like Kai had seen when Nick and James had taken Fian.
A whirlwind of black manifested from the inside of the mail truck. Kai shouted a warning, but it couldn’t be heard over the noise.
Mikano clapped his hands, but the noise of that wasn’t smothered. Neither was the old man’s chanting.
“Kai, duck!” Mikano said, his voice crisp and clear.
Kai only just managed to get to the ground when he heard it; wings, thousands and thousands of wings, and the insects they belonged to.
“A carnivorous butterfly swarm! Lovely! We rarely get those back home.”
When Kai peered up, he saw Mikano eagerly open his maw.
Which was a shark maw again, something that didn’t belong to the human body he was currently shifted into.
I mean, that’s like when Fian turned into a real kraken.
I haven’t even processed that yet, but he turned into a kraken. And I don’t mind that about him.
Kai didn’t see much of the butterflies, just a host of wings that sparkled in pinks and blues, greens and orange hues.
They were pretty. One dropped to the ground next to Kai, a large creature with a pulsing body and purple and blue wings one of which was torn.
Kai couldn’t help himself; he reached out to touch the butterfly.
The thing turned fast and bit his finger. Kai yelped and pulled his hand back to stare at the butterfly in shock.
In the next moment, Mikano lifted a foot and brought it down on the butterfly, crushing it. He wiggled a finger at Kai as if to say, No, you shouldn’t touch that. He couldn’t talk though, because he was still in the process of eating all those butterflies, it looked like.
As Kai watched, Mikano closed his mouth to chew, then opened it again to get to some stragglers, then crunched down on those. He sounded for all intents and purposes as if he were eating a bag of chips.
“Stay here, Kai, head down and eyes closed,” Mikano said and walked out into the street.
“You succubus!” the old mailman said.
Mikano chuckled. “Oh, please. You wish.”
“Infernal demon spawn!”
There was a thunking noise, like a fight, maybe a fistfight, but Kai wasn’t sure. I’m fucking glad I have no experiences with fistfights, but this is what they sound like in games, someone being whacked.
“That will not help you. You have done vile things here, human. The vilest. Kai, eyes closed, close them tight, and cover your ears.”
Kai got it. He understood what Mikano wanted. He didn’t look, didn’t want to. He looked at the ground though, not able to close his eyes. He couldn’t, didn’t know why, just couldn’t. But he chose not to look there.
His ears, he kept open though, because he wanted the sounds, wanted to know there was an end to this. He remembered the old man, remembered discomfort and the feeling of being used. He wanted to know there was an end. He wanted to know that none of what had happened was going to happen again.
Wet noises, crunch. Chewing again, but not like chips this time.
Then, delayed, a scream. Did I scream? Did they let me?
Or did they take that from me too? Kai waited, and there was another scream, louder than the first, more noises, tearing and breaking, painful sounds.
In that moment, for Kai, necessary sounds.
After however long it took, the street was silent yet again, and the mail truck which had still been running, had its engine switched off.
“Kai? Are you shaking?”
He saw only Mikano’s shoes but managed to nod.
“That’s okay. You can wait for me here. You don’t have to come.”
Kai looked up. He had expected blood, guts, butterfly wings dangling from Mikano’s mouth, but there was nothing of the kind. Mikano looked just as put-together as he had walking out of the ocean.
“I’m coming.”
Mikano nodded. “That’s what a landbride would say. You stay behind me though, is that clear?”
Kai looked at the truck, and there was blood spatter there all right. “Crystal.”
“Then let’s move.”