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I was right. Chike was beyond pissed at our vampire. He made it look like it was because he hated being left out or underestimated because of his species, his stature, and his almost feminine looks. He griped about how he knew how to fight and how he had more magic in him than half the people going on this stupid mission.
But I knew the truth.
Chike had been my best friend for years. I saw the truth in the tense set of his shoulders and the way his eyes followed Rhys when the vampire wasn’t looking. He just didn’t want to sit at home while Rhys went gallivanting off to maybe get hurt or killed. Before this, I hadn’t been too concerned about our vampire running off to fight the good fight or whatever—because he was a vampire. Aside from the demon, apparently, he was the strongest being in this county. But that was before I knew that it was worse out there than anyone was letting on. As I watched Chike being all defensive, I realized that the siren-cross had been worried about Rhys every single day since this crap began.
And I was right there with him. No way was I letting the vampire out of my sight. I knew Chike would like to tell me I should stay home where it was safe, but he somehow managed to keep himself from asking for an ass kicking, which was what would happen if he started treating me like some precious weakling all of a sudden. So, he just took his worry out on everyone else unfortunate enough to get too close instead.
I grinned to myself in silent laughter as I overheard the pretty half-mer lecturing one of White’s poor flunkies about the proper handling of any water-dwelling supes we may encounter.
I turned and took in the convoy that was preparing to leave. I might not trust White, but I had to admit, the guy got stuff done. He and his sneaky incubus assistant had managed to procure two buses, and the back of each one had been modified to accommodate astounding amounts of life-sustaining medical equipment, as well as a bunch of spell components and magical thing-a-ma-jigs used by the handful of supe healers who accompanied us.
The buses were accompanied by a couple of crazy-looking, black armored transport vehicles. I hauled myself into the back of the front one, squeezing my big butt in between Chike and Orion. Rhys somehow managed to earn himself the honor of driving, while Derek took shotgun, his dark eyes scanning our surroundings like a hawk.
I had expected White to travel in one of the buses or something, surrounded by his guards like the self-important rich guy he was. But apparently, he wanted to be right in the thick of things. The millionaire psycho had been strangely quiet this morning, aside from answering the occasional question while everyone loaded up. I had really expected more bossing and gruff orders. Instead, he stepped back and let the medical personnel do their thing, and the small escort of guards do theirs.
“So...who’s in charge around here while King White is away?” I asked my fellow passengers.
Chike snorted. White continued to stare out the window as if he was really concentrating on something no one else could see. His energy was weird today too—closer to the surface, if my own odd powers were to be trusted.
Orion answered my question, his silky voice even and unconcerned. “Miss Lionheart and her pride have been tasked with protecting the city until our return.” He rested an arm along the open window on his side, darting a glance at his distant employer before continuing. “It’s rare for a demon noble to leave his territory. But...circumstances are such that it is necessary.” He smiled faintly at the back of his employer’s head. “Don’t worry, Sir. I’m sure Miss Lionheart and her pride will do an excellent job protecting your interests.”
White was so concerned about this mission that he deigned to leave his precious town. And now he was worried about Gesa not being able to handle security? That didn’t sound very encouraging.
They had filled me in last night, but I felt like there was still vital information missing on the part of the demons. Apparently, one of the residents of Ontonagon had a family member who was away on business when the big reveal happened. The sylph’s husband was injured and hospitalized in Detroit. But while he was there, things had been deteriorating and he had sent word that he feared for all the supes in the hospital, since political tensions were rising and it looked like the humans were just looking for an excuse to purge themselves of the wounded supes.
Apparently, White felt obligated to assist his townsperson, or...subject, or whatever. And since he was going to save one supe patient, he couldn’t in good conscience leave all the others there to fend for themselves. So, in keeping with the White-is-a-hero-saint story everyone seemed to be spouting these days, the demon was leading a rescue mission into one of the most hard-hit cities in Michigan—hell maybe even in the whole country.
I hadn’t been a fan of Detroit back when I thought it was just full of humans. I doubted the sprawling lower peninsula city had improved with recent events. Maybe that alone was good enough reason to warrant the mob boss king doing his own dirty work. But somehow, I doubted it. There was something else going on here, I just knew it.
White’s head guard, a compact, military-brusque man named Granite—who I’d been told was a gargoyle, of all the weird crap—approached White’s side of the transport. He gave a short nod to his employer. “All set to go, boss,” he reported.
White seemed to come back to himself. “Thank you, Granite. Keep in communication as planned.”
The gargoyle bowed and hurried off to climb into the transport that would travel behind the buses. There were a few guards on each bus with the medical personnel, as well as five in the last transport, including Granite. I knew there had been a lot of fighting—aggression from both sides when supes were suddenly outed to the humans—but the guards still seemed like overkill. My brain just couldn’t be convinced that there was basically a civil war going on out there. It was just that...well, here in Ontonagon, things had pretty much gotten back to normal.
As the convoy headed out of Ontonagon, it really hit home that this was the first time in weeks that I had left the town. At first, nothing seemed different. But when we passed the city limits, a pair of men in dark clothes with vials and charms strapped to their belts waved at us from each side of the road.
I glanced behind them. “Were those...?”
“Mages,” Rhys confirmed, meeting my eyes in the rearview. “Halstad’s students. They guard all the roads in and out of town. They scan for foreign magic or anything that might trigger the ward.”
I frowned. “Sounds paranoid.”
After all, it wasn’t like there was a stream of cars trying to get in or anything, my denial told me smugly. In fact...there were no other vehicles on the road as we left town and got on US-41.
“Where are all the cars?” I said, a sudden unease crawling over my skin.
White shifted in his seat, reaching for his cell phone in the console and checking it before answering. “My protections repel anyone without a good reason to enter the city.”
I gaped at him. “You can do that?”
That was way more power than I wanted him to have.
He shrugged. “For now. I probably can’t keep it up forever.”
I shook my head. “Still sounds paranoid.”
No one said anything.
I let my thoughts wander as the hum of the big tires under us lulled me into a sort of meditative state. It wasn’t until we left Ontonagon county completely that I slowly started to see a change.
There were lots of little unincorporated communities and blip farming villages along US-38. Many of them, like Nisula and Alton, weren’t much more than rolling farmland with the occasional house scattered here or there. At first glance everything seemed fine. Until we passed the first few burned out husks of houses and outbuildings. In my obliviousness, I thought the first one was just a random house fire. It happened. But after the third one, which included a house, a garage, several distant outbuildings, and a few cars...it finally started to sink in.
“What happened here?” I breathed, knowing I didn’t really want the answer. I already knew the answer. I just refused to acknowledge what my mind was telling me.
Chike took my hand and squeezed. Orion hesitated, but he eventually grasped my other hand, the soft leather of his glove warm and supple against my skin. “Witch hunts, Miss Troya,” the incubus whispered.
Rhys sighed. “That’s what always happens, when humans get a glimpse of the supernatural world.”
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. “So, what...a bunch of humans burned that farm down because...it was owned by a supe?”
Rhys’s clear green eyes met mine briefly in the rearview. “Maybe.”
White scoffed. “More likely, they got themselves worked up and started burning anyone they never really cared for just to take the edge off their fear.”
I didn’t want to hear this. I didn’t want to face the cruelty that I knew lurked in the hearts of terrified humans. I was human myself. Or at least mostly. I didn’t want to admit that my own people would kill someone just because they were different. But I knew better. History bore constant testimony to our knack for doing just that.
And I knew White was right—they wouldn’t have stopped to really even be sure the people they accused were actually guilty of the “crime” they were suspected of committing—of actually being a supe.
Witch hunt indeed.
As we traveled further from Ontonagon and closer to bigger towns, the evidence of violence got more and more obvious. As we drove through one town, a mob of protestors were gathered in front of a church, waving signs and flinging rocks through the stained-glass windows while a small group of police officers struggled to keep them contained. One of the protestors turned toward us as the convoy rolled by, and I saw the red letters splashed across her sign in angry strokes. Heaven for humans. Monsters to hell.
I freed my hand from Orion’s grip to rub the aching spot over my heart. In another town, the people pushed, and shoved, and argued in the streets as they attempted to get in and out of public buildings like banks and post offices. It seemed even trying to get groceries was a harrowing endeavor. I watched in horror as a shopping cart flew through the air and smashed through a store window in a little shopping plaza as we passed.
No way had that been thrown by a human. I was just about to say that it was amazing the supes were being so passive about all this anti-supe sentiment—after all, they could probably do way worse things than fling shopping carts. But that’s when something exploded. I felt it in the seat beneath me long before I heard or saw anything, the impact rippling up through the ground and into the vehicle.
“There!” Rhys pointed out the front window. I watched in shock as a tall office building...rippled. Hundreds of glass panes shattered, and dust and glass rained everywhere as the building tilted then began sliding sideways in horrifying slow-motion before falling to the ground in a mushroom cloud of debris.
It was a couple of blocks away, but I felt the ripple of discharged magic as we passed.
“Holy fuck,” I breathed.
Orion let out a sigh. “They’re only fueling the cycle,” he said in a tired voice.
White tapped his perfectly manicured fingers on the console. “Stupid and pointless,” he said darkly. “They should know better.” He pressed his lips together, glaring out the window, deep in thought.
It only got worse as we went. Some places were like ghost towns. Some seemed relatively normal, except for a few protestors. And others...full-on riots raged in the bigger cities, smoke trailing in the air as we passed, and complete chaos erupting. I tried not to look at the fights that broke out, tried not to see people being injured, maybe even killed. It was going on everywhere. We couldn’t pause to try and stop it. Not if we wanted to reach the hospitalized supes we were on our way to save.
I curled into myself inside the armored vehicle as a rattling ping rang out—bullets bouncing off the side of the vehicle, fired by people who didn’t even know if we were human or supe, friend or foe.
“What is wrong with them?” I whispered, my eyes wide and my breath coming in short gasps as a sort of...darkness...brushed against my soul.
All the supes in the vehicle with me went tense. Orion did something to push soothing vibes at me, while White growled something in another language.
“What?” I demanded. “What is it? What did you say?”
“Chaos,” Orion said, his blue eyes glowing faintly. “What’s wrong with them is chaos. Someone is...stirring the pot.”
Rhys glanced at his irate navigator. “Okay there, boss man? Should we pull over?”
But White just waved him on. “No. I will deal with this when the time comes. For now, our priority is to retrieve my people and get them back home to safety.”