Anne Bishop: Sebastian

One foot slid over something just under the surface, breaking her stride. She flung her arms out to keep her balance, but that brief hesitation cost her. She felt the slashing bite on her left calf, felt blood flowing down her leg as fear gave her speed.

The calf muscles in her left leg seized up. She lost her balance. Fell on her hands and one knee. Up again in a heartbeat, but it was still enough time for another one to reach her, to slash at the back of her right thigh.

Running again. Running and running, trying to ignore the wounds, the blood, the muscles that were getting too stiff to obey the mind’s frantic commands.

Then she caught a glimpse of white and veered toward the mounds, not wondering what they were or why she hadn’t noticed them before. If she could reach the top of one, maybe she could keep the creatures away long enough to get back to her garden at the school.

But as she got closer, fighting for every stride, she saw black, chitinous, segmented bodies pouring out of the top of the mounds, running toward her.

She tried to veer again, but the calf muscles in her left leg stopped working. She staggered. Barely kept herself from falling. In a scream of terror and defiance, she turned and grabbed the creature that was almost on top of her, lifting it up in both hands.

For a second she looked at the head, the jaws, the legs. Her mind supplied a word: ant. But this thing was as long as her arm from elbow to fingers. Screaming, she hurled it at the others rushing toward her.

She tried to run, but her legs didn’t work anymore. She fell full-length on the sand.

And they were on her, the ones that had chased her, the ones from the mounds. She screamed as their jaws ripped out pieces of flesh, as her blood drenched the sand. She kept bucking, trying to throw them off, but there were so many now, her movements produced no more than another ripple under the mound of glistening black bodies.

Then she stopped moving. Stopped screaming.

When they finally left, the workers returning to the mounds, the scouts returning to the endless landscape, all that was left was a darker patch of wet sand, scraps of cloth, and clean bones.

Present

Clutching the penny, Lynnea crept toward the wish well. There was no one around at this time of night. No one would see her here and mention it to Mam, who said tossing coins into the wish well was a waste of good money. And Mam would be very angry if she even suspected Lynnea wished for something beyond what Mam thought she deserved to have—food, serviceable clothes, and a place to sleep.

Besides, if Mam found out she’d gone to the wish well, she’d have to explain where she’d gotten the coin, since she wasn’t allowed to have money. And since Mam searched her tiny, barren room several times a week to make sure she wasn’t hiding anything she was forbidden to have, she wouldn’t keep the penny for long.

So she had to come tonight, had to sneak out of the farmhouse after Mam, Pa, and Ewan had fallen asleep. You needed a coin in order to make a wish at the well, and there was no telling how long it might be before Mam bobbled the egg-money jar again, spilling a few coins on the kitchen floor. Mam’s sharp eyes hadn’t noticed the penny next to a leg of the kitchen table. But Lynnea had seen it—and had convinced herself that the sunlight coming through the windows at just that moment, casting the shadow that had hidden the coin, meant she was supposed to have the penny in order to have this one chance to make a wish.

Holding her hand over the wish well, Lynnea whispered, “I wish…” But there were so many wishes crowding up inside her, she didn’t know which one to choose. And all she had was a penny. Maybe you could get only a small wish granted if you dropped a penny in the well. But a small wish wasn’t what she wanted. What she really wanted…

I wish I lived in a different place. I wish I could have friends. I wish I could do things right instead of always doing the wrong thing, no matter how hard I try. I wish I could find someone special to love. I wish someone loved me.

Something strange and powerful washed through her, startling her so much her hand snapped open.

The penny dropped into the well, and the feeling faded.

Lynnea stepped away from the well, wiping her hands on her much-mended skirt. Then she glanced at the sky and felt fear—such a familiar sensation—ripple through her. The farmhouse was beyond the other side of the village. If she didn’t hurry, she wouldn’t get back before the others got up and discovered she’d been out.

Wondering if anything good would come from the risk she’d taken tonight, Lynnea lifted her skirt above her knees and ran back to the farmhouse.

Sebastian stood at the end of the alley. The colored pole-lights that gave the Den’s main street a festively decadent appearance barely touched the entrance, as if even created light didn’t want to enter that dark space.

He was a demon. This was his landscape. But he didn’t want to walk into that dark, didn’t want to see whatever was at the other end of the alley.

Didn’t matter what he wanted. The crowd that had huddled at the edge of the alley, waiting for Teaser to fetch him, simply watched him now. Humans and demons alike, they watched him.

Beside him, Teaser extended a hand and took the torch someone passed to him.

“I’ll go with you,” Teaser said, looking pale and sick.

“I too,” a voice growled. “Go with you.”

The crowd parted for the bull demon. Big, mean, and not too bright, they came to the Den to drink in the taverns and bellow at the dancing girls. The wickedly curved horns could gore a man, and despite the bovine cast to their features, it was said they ate raw meat…of any kind.

This one held a thick wooden club that ended in a ball filled with metal spikes.

Walking into a confined space with a bull demon that was carrying a vicious-looking weapon wasn’t something any sane person would do, so feeling relief at the offer told Sebastian better than anything else could how deeply he feared what had been found in the alley.

“Thank you,” Sebastian said. He closed his eyes for a moment, gathered his courage…and walked into the alley.

Something wrong here. The ground felt soft, fluid…as if it might ripple under his feet at any moment.

No. Hard-packed ground didn’t shift, didn’t ripple. He just felt sick, a little dizzy. Which was understandable considering what he expected to find.

As they walked forward, the torchlight finally unveiled the other end of the alley.

The three of them froze. The bull demon’s breathing suddenly changed, sounding harsh and wet.

The body of the succubus they’d found a week earlier had been bad. This one was worse. Much worse.

Female. So mutilated he couldn’t say if he’d ever seen her in the Den before, could barely say with any certainty that the thing spilled over the alley was female.

“Human,” Teaser whispered.

Sebastian jerked, breaking the awful hold the corpse had on him that had kept him staring at it. He looked at Teaser. “You recognize her?”

Teaser shuddered. “The bracelet. She always wears that wide gold bracelet. Has a rich husband. She’s a mean bitch who likes to play rough games in bed. Husband likes meat-and-potato sex, so she comes here to roll in the muck and do it naughty.”

She’s not going to do anything anymore, Sebastian thought, worried about the way Teaser talked as if the woman were going to sit up at any moment and laugh at them for being taken in by her hideous joke.

“Let’s—” Fear suddenly clamped icy hands around his spine. “Did you hear that?”