Chapter 29

 

The Lights Go Out

 

Yip snarls again and bares his teeth. He pulls the Trixie close, until their faces are almost touching. He roars, watching its eyes flare wide.

“Run to the shadows, Trixie. Run fast and don’t stop,” Yip orders. “Find every Trixie on the other side and warn them to stay away from the human world.”

Yip lets go of its throat with one hand and digs a claw into the flesh of its shoulder. He draws his clawed hand down and a strip of skin coils away from her arm.

She screams.

“If I ever see you again, I will peel every inch of skin off your body. You will die so hard you will never come back.”

The Trixie closes her eyes tightly, making a whimpering noise from deep in her throat.”

“Understood?”

It nods once and Yip flings it across the room toward the door. The Trixie runs out into the night and disappears.

Yip trips the alarm. At least the humans will come and find the damage. It’s the best he can do.

If they’re doing this to the generators, Yip is certain there’ll be others at the power plant. He leaps skyward and flies as fast as he can.

~~~

 

There are six of them sneaking around at the power station, way too many Trixies to fight with teeth and claws. He looks for a weapon and finds a large spanner left out on the upper landing. If he darts in fast and hard, making as much noise as he possibly can, maybe the security guards will come in time to stop the Trixies blacking out the entire city.

Yip bellows a challenge, swooping down, clanging the spanner against every metal surface on the way. He hits one of the Trixies and it screeches in pain. The others swarm him. He stands his ground wailing at the top of his lungs, spinning and lashing about him with the heavy metal tool.

He feels it bite into flesh and hears a Trixie’s satisfying grunt right before a searing pain explodes in the middle of his own back. He lurches forward—right into a clawed fist. His head snaps back and the spanner spins out of his hand.

His cry of challenge turns into yelps. The Trixies attack en masse, driving him onto the ground. He bites into something fleshy and hears another screech of pain. Through the tangle of arms and legs, Yip sees the flash of torch lights play on the wall and ceiling.

The guards are coming.

Yip hears the sizzling noise and tastes the ozone smell of an electrical storm.

All the lights flicker out.

“No,” Yip yells.

The Trixies scatter, leaving him curled on the hard floor.

He can’t stay here. He has to get away before the security guards arrive.

Yip crawls under one of the machines and slinks out of the building into an utterly black night.

The only lights in Haven come from the boats in the harbour and the thin trails of cars beetling through the dark, dark streets.

He has failed again. He can’t go back to the school. He has to find someplace safe before dawn.

~~~

 

When Yip arrives at Olivia’s house he sees the shattered glass on the concrete. His heart sinks in despair.

Not Olivia.

He can’t see in through the boarded up window but he is relieved to hear her quiet sobs coming from inside.

“Your father has taken Rum-Tum to the vet. They will do everything they can to save him,” Mum soothes.

Olivia sobs even harder.

At least she’s all right, Yip thinks. He traces strange shapes around the window frame of Olivia’s room laying a protection on it. He does the same for each window of the house and the front and back doors. Nothing with evil intent should be able to breach the ward, unless it is very powerful.

Yip wedges himself out of sight in the crook of the chimney on Olivia’s roof. He will guard the house until the dawn, at least.

There are thousands of rooftops in Haven. He just hopes the Trixie leader doesn’t find him unprotected in the daylight.