Lights

The carnival lights suddenly felt very far away.

Behind the rows of games and food stands, hidden past the employee-only fences and humming machinery, the atmosphere changed completely. The smell of funnel cakes and popcorn gave way to hot oil, wet concrete, gasoline, and the constant mechanical drone of generators feeding power into the fairgrounds.

Massive trailers lined the narrow service road behind the carnival. Thick hoses and electrical cables snaked across the ground like sleeping serpents.

Joey’s pulse hammered in his ears as he guided Taylor behind one of the equipment trailers.

“Stay here,” he said, trying—and failing—to keep the fear out of his voice.

Taylor grabbed his arm immediately.

“Joey, we need to leave. Right now.”

“I know,” he whispered, peeking around the corner. “I’m trying.”

Three figures had followed them through the carnival crowds.

Now that they were away from civilians, the strangers were no longer pretending to browse games or food stands.

They moved with purpose.

Predatory.

Joey felt sick.

Cassandra had insisted he carry the silver rune-etched knife at all times after the hunter attacks weeks earlier. Normally it felt excessive.

Now?

Now he was gripping the weapon hard enough to make his hand ache.

The first man rounded the trailer slowly.

Tall.

Thin.

Dark hoodie.

Sharp eyes.

The guy looked human at first glance, but something about him felt deeply wrong.

His gaze slid right past Joey and locked onto Taylor.

“There you are,” he hissed.

Taylor visibly flinched.

Joey stepped in front of her instantly.

“Yeah, not happening.”

The stranger finally looked at Joey properly.

Annoyance crossed his face.

“You are irrelevant.”

“Cool,” Joey said nervously, adjusting his grip on the knife. “Still gonna need you to leave.”

The man sighed like Joey was inconveniencing him.

Then he lunged.

Fast.

Way too fast for a normal human.

Joey barely reacted in time, throwing himself sideways as claws tore through the side of the trailer behind him with a shower of sparks.

Claws.

Not hands.

Claws.

“What the HELL?!” Joey shouted.

The attacker snarled and came again.

Training kicked in.

Weeks of Cassandra drilling him mercilessly finally paid off.

Move.

Angle.

Don’t panic.

Joey ducked low and slashed upward with the silver blade.

The knife bit deep across the creature’s chest.

Instantly the illusion shattered.

The man’s human appearance flickered apart like broken glass.

Underneath—

scales.

Dark green reptilian skin.

Yellow eyes.

A mouth full of hooked teeth.

The thing looked like a komodo dragon if evolution had gotten drunk and decided to invent murder.

Taylor screamed.

“Oh good,” Joey panted, backing up quickly. “That’s SO much worse than a vampire.”

The creature hissed violently as smoke curled from the silver wound.

Silver hurt it.

Good.

Unfortunately—

two more figures emerged from the darkness behind it.

Joey’s stomach dropped.

“Right,” he muttered. “Naturally there’s more of you.”

The first creature attacked again.

Joey blocked awkwardly, nearly losing the knife as claws scraped across his forearm. Pain exploded through him.

He stumbled backward.

Another creature rushed from the side.

Joey barely twisted away before claws sliced across his ribs.

Hot pain.

Wetness.

Blood.

Fear surged hard enough to make his vision shake.

But behind him Taylor was trapped against the trailer, terrified and cornered.

So Joey planted his feet anyway.

“Nope,” he growled through gritted teeth. “Not touching her.”

The creatures circled him now.

Patient.

Cruel.

One smiled at him with too many teeth.

“You defend prey that is not yours.”

“I’m starting to really hate lizards,” Joey spat.

Then the shadows behind the creatures exploded.

Cassandra hit the first attacker like a missile.

One second she wasn’t there—

the next she tore through the darkness in a blur of black fabric and glowing crimson eyes.

The creature barely had time to scream before Cassandra drove a silver blade through its throat and hurled the body sideways hard enough to dent a trailer wall.

“Oh THANK GOD,” Joey gasped.

Cassandra moved beside him instantly.

“You’re bleeding.”

“You’re late.”

“I was dramatic.”

Another creature lunged at her.

Cassandra caught it by the face and slammed it into the concrete with horrifying force.

The ground cracked.

Joey stared.

“…I am never winning an argument against you again.”

“Correct,” she answered calmly while snapping the creature’s neck.

The remaining attackers hesitated now.

Not afraid.

Calculating.

Then all three attacked together.

Chaos erupted.

Joey fought beside Cassandra as best he could. He was faster now—stronger than he had been weeks ago—but compared to Cassandra these things were monsters.

Still—

he held the line.

Knife flashing.

Adrenaline screaming through him.

One creature tackled him into a stack of plastic barriers.

Joey drove the silver blade into its shoulder and kicked it away hard enough to stagger it backward.

Another slammed into Cassandra.

Claws.

Fangs.

Blood sprayed across the concrete.

Taylor screamed again behind them.

Joey turned instinctively toward the sound—

And saw another creature emerge from the darkness directly behind him.

Too close.

Too fast.

Its claws shot toward his throat.

Joey knew instantly—

he wasn’t going to dodge in time.

Then Taylor shrieked.

Not human.

Not even remotely human.

The sound ripped through the air like a hawk’s cry mixed with the roar of a wildfire.

Joey spun just in time to see Taylor’s arms change.

Bones shifted violently beneath her skin.

Feathers of blazing crimson erupted from her flesh in a burst of burning light.

Her hands vanished completely as both arms transformed into enormous scarlet wings with metallic-looking feathers that gleamed like sharpened steel.

Not angelic.

Not delicate.

Predatory.

Ancient.

The massive wings spread wide instinctively, shielding Joey from the incoming strike.

CLANG.

The creature’s claws slammed into the crimson feathers and screeched across them harmlessly like metal scraping against armor plating.

Taylor’s eyes blazed molten gold.

For one impossible second, the terrified college girl Joey had been dating vanished completely.

Something old stared back instead.

Then she moved.

One wing swept outward in a savage horizontal arc.

The feathered edge sliced through the attacker’s neck cleanly.

Its head separated from its shoulders instantly.

The body collapsed twitching onto the concrete.

Silence.

Joey stared at Taylor.

Taylor stared back at Joey in horror.

Cassandra stared with open shock for perhaps the first time since Joey had met her.

“…Okay,” Joey breathed finally. “That is officially the craziest thing I’ve seen this month.”

Taylor made a strangled sound somewhere between panic and disbelief.

“My arms—”

“YES,” Joey said quickly. “I noticed.”

Cassandra recovered first.

“Later,” she snapped sharply. “Kill them NOW.”

The remaining creatures attacked in a frenzy after that.

But momentum had shifted.

Joey and Cassandra fought together while Taylor—terrified but furious—used her crimson wings like weapons.

One creature tried to flee.

Cassandra caught it.

Pinned it against a generator trailer with one hand around its throat.

The creature hissed violently, scales twitching beneath failing glamour magic.

Cassandra’s eyes glowed red.

“Who sent you?”

The creature snarled.

“You cannot protect her from Leviathan.”

Joey frowned.

“…Leviathan?”

The creature’s grin widened despite the silver blade pressed into its chest.

“She belongs to him.”

Then it bit down hard.

Blood poured from its mouth.

Poison.

Dead before Cassandra could stop it.

Silence settled over the service road.

Generators hummed softly.

Somewhere far away carnival music still played like nothing had happened.

Joey slowly turned toward Taylor.

Her crimson wings folded tightly around her body now like a shield.

She looked terrified.

Ashamed.

And very, very inhuman.

Joey blinked at her for several long seconds.

Then finally:

“…So,” he said weakly, “I’m apparently dating a bird goddess now.”

Taylor made a strangled noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob.

Cassandra pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I miss when my problems were only vampire hunters.”