The War of Elevens| Book 1 of the Space Thief Chronicles

Chapter 17| Night Monsters

The Shifter World

Northern Bria Hungary

Northern Bria Hungary bristled with monsters that danced in the dark, the sort that used swordplay and arson to slaughter their threats. The region was also dominated by mountains, kings that ate the star-stuffed sky up with their vast crooked peaks. Melissa was not used to monsters and mountains, and she suddenly felt stifled because, if the monsters weren't watching her, the mountains most certainly were. 

Night monsters prowled through Bria Hungary like a plague or an invasive species. They had the bodies of deformed animals—curled horns on green-furred rabbits, serpentine creatures with the talons of vicious birds, scales that covered squirrel-like beasts—and the spirits of demons. They hated light, loved blood, and only came out of the forest-dense region when it was nighttime.

The gate behind Melissa and Nathan closed; the small rectangle of silver light swirling out from it went out. Darkness plunged in, and the air settled down from its shocking electrical charge. Nathan lifted his index finger, twirled it, and flame burst to life on his skin. He reached into a lantern Melissa had gotten from her attic and touched the wick of the candle inside. They started on the quarter-mile-long driveway leading to Lydia's trailer in silence. The drive wound around corners like a black basilisk. 

As they rounded the first corner, Nathan said, "Are you sure about this?" 

"Yeah," Melissa replied, knots tightening in her stomach. "I am. I promised Lilly before she left that I'd figure out a way to deal with Lydia. Lydia ruined Lilly's life." 

"I wouldn't go as far as saying it's ruined," said Nathan diplomatically. "I mean, she's training for a world war, sure, but knowing how creative she is, she'd love the...um, the colors." 

"The colors?" 

Nathan lifted a shoulder. "Anyway. Do you think Lydia blackmailed her to get revenge on you?" 

"Yes." There was no doubt in Melissa's mind—but she wanted to hear it from Lydia herself. 

They walked for a few more moments shrouded by the imperfect quiet of the night. The crickets, the beetles, the night-monsters, and the hum of a tiny town hidden by shadows ten miles behind them, made the night feel impossibly close and suffocating and dangerous. 

Eventually, Nathan held up the lantern to illuminate a petite blue trailer not thirty feet away. The trailer sat lopsided atop a perch of rocks that looked like the sharp hulls of beached ships: Sharp, monstrous, damaging triangles. Things of nights and blackness. Foliage tumbled down the walls from a roof with an unmistakable hole in its center. Behind the trailer, the sky was a many-shaded backdrop of reds and deep, deep purples. A band of condensed stars smeared the sky like a streak of paint made with a rugged brush.

"What made you two hate each other so much?" Nathan asked. "Best friends don't just stop talking to each other overnight without a good reason. Ex-best friends also don't threaten to kill you if your little cousin doesn't go to Elliott Way." 

Ah, fair question, Melissa thought. They had stopped walking when the trailer had come into view; Melissa took this time to put her hands on her hips and stare up at the sky. Ordinarily, she would have wished for star-stuff to explode into giant clouds of color for the whole of Bria Hungary to see. 

Now she simply wished for courage. 

"Things just didn't work out." 

"Like us?" 

"Exactly like us."

By the time she and Nathan had reached the front door of the trailer, Melissa could feel the monsters of Northern Bria Hungary on her back; small demonic creatures spying, salivating, curling their spiked tails and long tongues around their bodies. She shuddered.