WHAT A QUAINT LITTLE town. Reverie. Even the name. I let out a chuckle. A town designed to ward off evil. There’s certainly an abundance of light—even down to its sickening trees. The white ash can be especially irritating. That’s why Yuki and I stay perched on top of an oak tree instead, scanning the odd little amusement park spread out before us. The whole town is flooded with the stench of righteousness.
I smell angels.
Everything is quiet. So unsuspecting. So unassuming. So ripe for harvest on this night. The air is crisp, leaves have changed colors and are falling off the trees, and the full moon is shining in all its glory without a single cloud in the sky to obscure it. Energy is thrumming through my veins, threatening to make my body explode. A full moon provides one of the purest and most uncontainable forms of ecstasy—even while being trapped in the mortal world.
More than usual, my beast begs to run free this night. I’ll give it some leeway, but not when it comes to my physical body. My logician will command my appearance. I wouldn’t be able to mask my darkness very well otherwise.
Yuki snuggles up close to me. “Is this place even worth bothering with? It’s so small.”
I press my lips to hers, impatient to taste her. I bite her bottom lip and she opens her mouth for me. I snake my tongue across hers. She plays along with my game, biting back, and kissing me just as intently. Moving her closer so there’s no space between us, I let my hands wander her elegant body as our kiss takes on a life of its own.
When I give her a chance to break away, she sucks in a much-needed breath of air and asks, “Are we going to play with each other, or are we going to play with this town?”
Abruptly, I let her go. I turn my eyes to the amusement park laid out before us. “The town,” I say.
I jump down from the oak tree and land effortlessly on the ground below. Like a cat, I always land on my feet. I start walking on one of the park’s red-rock trails, dusted in leaves, and take the opportunity to look at the rides up close. The ones around this area are dated, but the town seems to take special care in their upkeep. It looks like they should all still run.
I haven’t been to an amusement park in some time.
“Feel like going for a ride?” I ask, looking over my shoulder.
Yuki curls her red lips up seductively. “Why not?” she replies.
We find and turn on the power, bringing the amusement park to life in a burst of lights that snap on one by one in a row until the whole park is covered in them and each ride is humming with energy. I swear I can feel that energy prickling on the back of my neck, almost like it’s surging through me as well. I’ve always loved how humans use electricity.
“What about that one?” Yuki asks, pointing to the largest roller coaster here. It’s nothing compared to a Six Flags roller coaster. It’s not even made of metal. The tracks are old, made of wood, but I’m willing to give it a try.
“After you,” I say.
Yuki lets her slender fingers slide across my cheek as she walks past me, the natural swing of her hips enough to get any demon’s blood running hot. I smirk as I follow her to the ride, where she gets seated. I find the controls for the ride and get it started before seating myself next to her. Playing this kind of game is easy when you have speed like mine. The ride doesn’t even start to move until I’m seated.
“When’s the last time we’ve been to an amusement park?” Yuki asks as the roller coaster slowly starts making its climb to the top of the tracks.
I shrug. Time isn’t all that important to an immortal.
When our car reaches the top of the tracks, Yuki and I exchange amused looks. The odd weightless feeling comes first as our car careens down the tracks. Then there’s the jerking motion as the tracks change directions. Roller coasters have definitely come a long way since this one. There aren’t any loops and the ride is bumpy, but it’s good for a moment’s entertainment. When the momentary thrill has worn off, I notice Yuki’s long dark hair whipping wildly in the air behind her as the ride makes its last turn. She’s going to have a hell of a time sorting out all those snarls.
The ride stops, and I offer Yuki a hand out of the car. She accepts my offer. Then she starts smoothing down her hair. She’s always been a vain creature. It’s something that has never changed.
She’s still fixing her hair after we leave the ride and continue walking through the park. If the angels here were paying any attention, they should have confronted us by now. Even while the two of us wear the skin of our logicians, our darkness is great. We must seem like a blight upon this town of light, regardless of its human imperfection.
Darkness is creeping in from nearby.
“I should have pulled my hair back,” Yuki mumbles.
Abruptly, I take her hands and look into the glowing, dark night sky that is her eyes. “You look beautiful.” She’s about to add to that thought, but I put a finger to her lips. “Quiet, lovely. We’re not the only ones here.”
She puts aside her vanity and falls into step just behind me. I know she can hear them now, the voices.
“You really went all out for this,” a female’s voice carries on the wind. “After you had me buy all those herbs for the purifying ritual earlier, I didn’t think you’d spice things up like this. The park’s supposed to be closed, isn’t it? How did you get all the lights on?”
A male takes credit for something he didn’t do as he replies, “The best for you, babe.”
I walk forward, toward the voices, leaving behind the rides and entering an area of the park called Fairytale Forest. This section doesn’t have any rides. It’s filled with sculptures replicating animals native to the immortal world. Unicorns, dragons, hippogriffs, and more. It seems this place is meant for nothing more than its atmosphere and a place to walk. In short: it’s boring.
“You know how quiet this town is?” the man’s voice draws closer. “This place never has any accidents and it’s safe from evil. That’s what they say anyway.”
There’s a moment of silence before the female replies with heavy breaths, “That’s why we came here. To get away from all the bad things in your past, right?”
This girl must be an impressionable idiot. She’s probably young, a trophy the man decided to take along for a ride, another victim to add to his list.
“I’m almost eighteen now. Then we can finally get married. We won’t have to lie anymore.”
“Stop talking.”
“We’re going to do this here?”
“Nobody’s around.”
I grin just as I walk around a curve in the trail and into the humans’ sight. “Wrong,” I correct him.
“Hey, man, what’re you doing here? The park’s closed,” the fool of a man says, trying to act like he holds some sort of authority here.
The young woman with him is currently shirtless. Obviously frightened, she grabs for her shirt and holds it lamely out in front of her, trying to conceal her partially naked form from my sight; she’s still wearing her bra. And to think, they were about to do this in front of an angel statue of all things. I can’t help but smile at that, and that smile grows when I feel the energy coming off that statue. It’s not just a beacon of light. It’s a portal into Ilenima, the immortal world I left behind so long ago.
The man pulls a knife out from his boot and points it at me. “Leave and you won’t get hurt.”
I’m trying so hard not to laugh, but the urge starts as a low rumble in my chest. It sounds like more of a growl than a laugh until the sound bursts from my lips. “Humans are such plucky creatures, don’t you think?”
Yuki steps out from the shadows behind me. She wraps her arms around my left arm and leans into me as she stares the humans down. Her expression is blank, completely vacant as she studies them.
“Leave us alone!” the girl shouts.
“I suggest you leave,” I tell her. “Unless you want to end up dead.”
I can see the weight of my words register in her wide eyes. She takes a step back.
“No!” the man threatens. “It’s the full moon just before your eighteenth birthday. I have to do it tonight.”
“Do what?” The girl clutches her shirt to her chest as she trembles and backs away. “We already did the ritual. I thou—”
“Shut up!”
I look up into the night sky. What a beautiful full moon it is.
The man leaps suddenly, shouting as he pins the girl to him and brings his knife to her throat. “Your blood is going to taste so sweet on my lips.”
Tears run down the girl’s face as she panics. Her eyes dart back and forth and her mouth works like she wants to say something, or maybe scream, but no sound comes out.
I suppose if I’m planning on stopping him, now’s the time to do it. I take a step forward, and then I dash. It’s obvious he doesn’t see me coming, because when I barrel into him, he drops his hold on the girl and the knife without any resistance. I loop my arm around the girl before she flies back with her would-be killer. Then I push her in the opposite direction, back toward the park’s entrance.
She doesn’t say anything as she glances at me for only a moment before running as fast as she can, away from all of this. Good choice.
The man lies wheezing on the ground, where he landed after I plowed into him. He’s a good few feet away from me now; I even made sure not to hit him too hard. Yuki folds her arms and continues observing as I reach down for the man’s knife and walk over to him. He tries to get off the ground, but his body can’t function properly when it can’t get enough air.
I slip behind him and pull him up into the same hold he had the girl in. “So tell me about this ritual of yours,” I say. “You take young women and kill them on the last full moon before they turn eighteen and drink their blood? That sound right?”
The man manages a slight nod.
“Do you think of yourself as some kind of demon?”
The man laughs. That isn’t the answer I want. I twine my fingers around his left wrist and break it with a mere flick of my own wrist. He lets out a howl of pain, but it only lasts a few seconds. He stops when I press the knife against his throat, drawing blood.
“Do you think of yourself as a demon?” I ask, annoyed that I have to repeat my question.
“Yes,” he hisses.
I move my head closer to his and whisper in his ear, “Even with all your darkness, you’re nothing compared to a real demon. You don’t have nearly enough power.”
“Who are you?” he whispers as he quivers.
I move my mouth to his neck and lick the blood trickling down his skin from the knife. The taste of his blood burns like fire on my tongue, the taste of the life essence his blood carries. “A demon,” I tell him.
Dropping the knife, I sink my teeth into his neck and drink. The man gurgles and struggles against me, but it’s useless. A human can’t hope to overpower me with their physical strength alone. I drink his blood until he’s completely sucked dry of every ounce of his life. It’s easy to suck mortals dry. Damn, does it taste good. The feeling of added years coursing through my veins, making me stronger. Admittedly, the meager 20 years or so of life essence he had left in his body is a snack compared to what I could get from an immortal, but immortals are more difficult to drain. It’s easier to go for the heart in that case. But when you’re trapped in the mortal world, you don’t have the luxury of being picky. I shove the mere husk of a human away from me. The body hits the hard ground with a crunch and all the lifeless blood left inside of it seeps out onto the ground around the corpse.
“You made quick work of him,” Yuki comments. “Are we just going to leave his body here?”
“Why not?” I ask. I wipe the blood from my mouth with the back of my hand, and then I proceed to lick my hand clean. “What do I care?”
“I thought we were keeping a low profile,” she notes.
I point accusingly at the angel statue that stood witness to this entire scene. “We’re here because of this town’s angelic presence, but do you see any angels other than that statue? Angels even forsake towns like these that so obviously worship all that is holy?” I bare my teeth. “I know you’re out there, cowards! Bastards! You’re doing a terrible job of protecting this beloved town of yours!”
Dipping my hand in the blood pooling around the dead man’s body, I walk to the statue and see that it is aptly named the Guardian Angel. I move carefully, so I don’t end up going through the portal. I wouldn’t be welcomed back to the immortal world. That’s for sure. But that doesn’t mean I can’t leave the angels a message. I write my message in blood across the flowing robes draped over the angel statue’s chest: Hypocrites.
Then, for good measure, I snap off his stone wings, leaving them on the ground at his sides. If angels were like demons, desecration like this would ebb at their vanity, but seeing as angels tend not to fret over such things, I can’t be sure my message will be answered. But they’ll have to see it. This town is full of their sickening scent, like they favor this town. There’s no doubt that they were here, but it’s starting to look like they fled as soon as Yuki and I arrived.
I want to know why.