Chapter 28
Periwinkle
“How can they be bombing the city anyway?” I demand as I dash with Mirage through the shadows toward the military part of camp. “Haven’t they seen how angry everyone is about the idea? Do they want all of human society pissed off at them?”
Mirage lets out a bemused sound. “Lots of big men making lots of big talk. I think the biggest of them is mad that everyone else is mad, and he thinks he’s going to prove them wrong.”
I guess that doesn’t totally surprise me. I can way-too-easily picture Colonel Hueber ranting about how no one else is willing to be tough enough to “do what’s necessary.”
Well, I’m willing to be tough. In my own way, which looks nothing at all like his, but is obviously now more necessary than ever.
I propel myself out of the shadows at the edge of the military area, picking my clothes with particular emphasis on the sturdiness of the leather jacket. My sundress ripples with a flame pattern rather than flowers.
I’m a force to be reckoned with. They have to listen to me.
If only it was that easy.
As I set my hands on my hips, several of the soldiers hustling around the vehicles glance over and pause.
“You can’t go through with this!” I declare in the most commanding tone I can summon. “You’ll spread the shadows all over the place—over this camp, maybe all the way to your homes. I thought you wanted to get rid of the darkness, not blast it all over the place.”
I catch a few snickers and plenty of narrowed eyes.
“Piss off!” one of the soldiers hollers at me, and goes back to tossing equipment into the back of a truck.
They’re packing up, I realize. Evacuating the evacuation site—so they won’t be in range of the aftershock.
Jonah jogs up behind me, slower for having needed to stick to the physical world.
“Peri,” he starts, but at the same moment, three grim men with hunter whips slung on their belts march between the soldiers toward us.
One lets out a derisive grunt. “Time to deal with the vermin.”
I’d point out that he looks much more like a rat than I do, but I don’t think that will help my cause.
I aim my best glower at him, which I know is probably not particularly intimidating, but at least I’ve given it my all. “We’re trying to save you.”
“Right.” He motions to his companions. “Don’t bother with capture. This one’s made enough trouble already.”
“I’ve made trouble?”
I don’t have much time to sputter at their slander, because they all unholster their whips and unleash the condensed beams of light. The guy who seems to be in charge also pulls a device from the other side of his belt that looks like a combination of a pistol and a fire extinguisher.
Does he think my dress is literally on fire?
I channel all the girl-boss attitude I’ve picked up from TV shows and movies. “We are not having this conversation.”
And then I vanish into the shadows, because they can’t follow me there anyway, neener-neener.
Okay, maybe that last bit wasn’t very girl-boss-like. I’m a work in progress.
As I dash past the hunters, deeper into the military zone, Mirage flits after me. I pick up on my other mates’ presences zooming over to join us: Raze resonating with urgent protectiveness, Hail all caustic frustration.
The winter fae is already muttering when he gets close enough for me to hear him. “Fucking humans. Always have to fuck everything up. They can’t even resist fucking up what’s already the most fucked-up thing that’s ever happened here!”
I’ll agree that there’s a very high degree of fuckery going on at the moment, but I can’t let my annoyance interfere with my goals. I veer in one direction and then another, peering around the tanks for a glimpse of one particularly tank-like human.
There.
Colonel Hueber stands near one of the cabins that’s being hastily disassembled, glaring down his pointed nose at his underlings and barking out orders. Even with the protective badge shielding his emotions from me, the bullyish vibe he gives off makes my essence cringe.
I force myself to dart toward him anyway.
Because I don’t want to put myself in easy range of those blocky arms, I materialize perched on the hood of a nearby tank. Maybe that’ll catch me a little more attention too.
I spread my arms so there’s as much of me to draw attention as possible. “You have to call off the bombs! No one wants what’s going to happen. It’ll be an even bigger disaster.”
The colonel spins toward me with a sneering curl of his lip.
“Or maybe you’re only protesting this much because you know how much of a disaster it’ll be for you and the other monsters.
We’re going ahead. Everyone’s going to see that it took humans to solve this problem, not freakish things like you. ”
His expression is so flinty I think I’d get farther arguing with a mountain. My heart sinks, but I hold on to my resolve.
If we can’t talk him out of the operation, we’ll just have to gum up the works.
Where are these bombs they’re going to be dropping anyway? Even from my new, higher vantage point, I don’t see any sign of massive explosives. Not that I’m totally sure what bombs big enough to level a city look like, but I don’t spot anything here that wasn’t in the camp yesterday.
Surely something powerful enough to blow up skyscrapers would be at least a little noticeable?
Hueber starts to stride toward me, and I decide I’m not getting anything useful out of him one way or another. I dive back into the shadows and zip away in pursuit of a likelier helper.
I just need to find one soldier who’s not totally on board with this plan. One little quiver of doubt I can speak to.
My first thought is of Major Yin, but his cabin is already in pieces. I don’t see his smooth, slim form anywhere nearby.
I don’t stop weaving through the shadows until I stumble on a woman in soldier gear near the edge of camp.
Her emotions reach me in a waft of sauerkraut-sour uncertainty. Not my most favorite meal, but exactly what hits the spot right now.
And she’s not wearing a badge. That’s a good sign.
So I won’t give her a heart attack, I step back into the physical world on the far side of a truck and ease around it. “Excuse me? I could use your help.”
The soldier blinks at me. Recognition dawns in her eyes, and her stance stiffens, but she doesn’t call out in alarm. Her voice stays quiet. “What?”
I hug myself, giving up my attempt at toughness to show the real nerves underneath. “I heard there are bombs coming. Are they already here in the camp? What if they explode before we can get out?”
The woman’s gaze twitches. “They won’t be on the ground here. They’re coming from the base up north—”
Her mouth snaps shut around those words, but she’s said enough.
I bob my head. “Thank you for letting me know.”
I slip into the shadows once more, just as a much more forceful presence looms on me.
“So,” Rollick says in a terse voice that still manages to be a little wry. “You’re already chasing bombs. I should have figured.”
My defiance surges back to the surface. “We have to stop them.”
“I agree. And you’ve conveniently determined where we need to stop them. I’ve heard enough myself to know which base she means. It’s a two-hour drive from here, so we’d better get going.”
While Rollick calls for one of his assistants to bring the largest van around, I hustle around our trailers, popping back into physical form. I nearly crash right into Gracie, who’s just coming around the corner.
She blinks at me, wide-eyed. “I heard—the army is going ahead with bombing the city?”
The acidic flavor of her fear mingles with my own queasiness. We’ve been keeping my old friend up to date on what’s happening around the city—the last news I passed on was about our public appeal on TV.
So much for that.
The current development defies even my immense ability for finding a positive spin. I swallow hard. “Yeah. We’re going out to the base where they’re prepping the bombs to see if we can stop them.”
Gracie’s posture firms with a lift of her chin. “I want to come with you.”
A different sort of fear flashes through my nerves. “It won’t be safe—the soldiers will have guns—they’re not going to be happy to see us.”
“That doesn’t matter. I came out here to help, and I haven’t managed to do that yet. Maybe they’ll listen more if you’ve got a few humans there agreeing with you.”
That’s why Jonah will come too, even though he’s just as vulnerable to bullets as Gracie is. I’d never say no to him… so it wouldn’t be fair for me to try to leave her out either, would it?
The van roars into view with several shadowkind emerging around it. Rollick appears and waves his arm toward the vehicle. “Let’s go! We don’t have time to waste.”
I glance at Gracie. “All right. Come on.”
Other than me and Gracie, “we” turns out to be my mates, Sorsha and her men, the shadowbloods, and a couple of dozen shadowkind associates. We all cram into the back of the van, those of us who can stay in the shadows doing so or we’d be pressed in tighter than sardines.
I find myself next to Vim’s bristly presence. When we were fellow students at the academy, she seemed to take offense to anything I said, no matter how well-meaning, so I ignore her and peer out the back window instead.
Cars are starting to pull Rollick’s trailers farther away from the city. My heart flipflops, and I pull myself out of the shadows to speak. “We’re leaving the camp too—I mean, permanently?”
Rollick takes a dismissive tone. “Better safe than sorry.” Then he turns to the assistant who’s driving the van. “Pedal to the floor. Fast as the engine can handle. If we get cops on our tail, Ruse can charm them friendly again.”
In tandem with the incubus’s chuckle, the engine roars and the van hurtles forward.
Sorsha leans back on one of the van’s benches and stretches out her legs. “Shouldn’t we come up with a plan of attack? I don’t think marching up to the base and asking them nicely not to bomb anyone is going to work.”
No? That’s a real shame. People don’t put enough value in politeness these days.