Fireflies for the Demon: Prologue

He figured the library would be safe because it was on the edge of town.

He had arrived a few hours in the pre-dawn gloom, sneakers squelching on the wet grass, the air damp and misty on his skin. It was cold, but he hardly felt it. Overhead, grey clouds swirled in a blue-black soup hanging over the sky. Silence. A fox trotting on the street, glancing up at him. They stared at each other for a second. Its ear flickered. His hand twitched.

The fox sprang away.

Luckily there was no one in town. He wasn't around these parts, but it hardly needed to be said that it wasn't safe here. The pavement was cracked and worn. Monstrous shapes lunged out of the mists, revealing monolithic buildings, filled with gaping windows like torn wounds.

He was scared. Scared for his life, scared for what they'll do to him. Past victims, splayed in bloody angles, the wide eyes, the awful smell...it was all he could see, all his brain could conjure up. If he stopped moving he was afraid he would collapse. He'd hardly run a few miles but his heart was hammering in his chest like hoof-beats, his ears were ringing despite the silence.

"Over here!" The sound of an engine revving loudly.

A car? A girl stood behind a grey, tattered vehicle, something huge strapped onto the hood. She waved her arm, jumping. He turned his head away, blinked in surprise. Had he seen her before? She jumped again, shouting his name.

There wasn't any time to think. He took a step back, felt the Hunger rise up in a nauseating wave. He had to run, but where?

"Behind you! Ian!"

He frowned, pivoted. There was a man in black bandages running head on a few feet behind him. Not a sound. Those dark limbs a blur as his pursuer closed the distance. There wasn't any time to think.

Ian's hand twitched. Warmth coalesced in an orange hue over his arm. Little balls of light sprang from his aura and rotated like miniature planets. He could feel the heat for a millisecond, and then it left him. The man wrapped in bandages seemed to suddenly disappear. One second he was there, and then he was gone and half the street was a giant, smoking red crater.

The shock wave came next. Ian braced himself, but it was too fast. It always was. Air rolled in a blasting wave outwards, shattering glass, rocking cars, buckling the pavement. Ian felt like he'd been hit with a pillow swung by the incredible hulk. His organs felt like jelly, and then he was on his back, the ground hard, his head wet and the sky rioting with color.

And finally, the sound. A boom loud enough to shake the heavens. Following that, car sirens screaming, the distant cries of people, shocked and afraid. Ian pulled himself up. It wasn't like the first time. He had to be used to this. Get up. Come on. It was harder than it seemed; the ground felt like it was vertical, and gravity was doing all sorts of pranks to his intestines.

Get up. Get up!

He scrambled on all fours. Half his shirt was torn away, and his knee was ripped open and bleeding. Idiot. Should have aimed farther away. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Ian started to run, tried to stay conscious. The Hunger was roaring now with so much delight it was almost painful.

The girl grabbed his wrist. He caught a glimpse of ragged blonde hair, wind-blown over her face, and then she was dragging him away from the crater. He was coughing. She was coughing. The smoke made it hard to see.

"Let me go!" Ian rasped. "The Hunger, each time I use it."

"Not an issue. Don't worry, we have somewhere safe to get you to." She opened a door and threw him into the car. She slipped in shot-gun. The door slammed shut.

"Avelo." The spell bit the air with a crack. Something huge and hunched over materialized in the driver's seat.

"Where to, ma'am?"

"Away," the girl responded - the magician, Ian now realized. The familiar grunted, and then the old car shuddered to life, engine barking, and reversed. The driver stomped the gas, and they flew off.

"I know where I've seen you from," Ian said suddenly. She looked at him through the mirror, but said nothing. Ian said sadly, "Hannah Nieshtel, you were on the news. That was you wasn't it? You..." he faltered. "You killed all those people. In Rome."

She had blue eyes. Beautiful and cold as ice. "What of it? So are you now. They're going to be calling you a monster as well. Wanted posters, search parties, propaganda, the whole sha-bang."

"You know?!" Ian's mind whirled. "The orange lights, the men in black, the-the Hunger..."

Hannah laughed though there wasn't any humor in it. "Oh believe me, I know. You're hardly the only one of us out there. I know it sounds silly, but the government wants to hunt us down, to take away our powers. They've made a deal with some awful entity, maybe aliens - I don't know, and the deal is that those...things get sent after us and the white house covers it up. You're lucky your powers developed while you were at home. From what I hear, minimal damage. We all lose control the first time."

Lose control. Ian thought of what he did, what he'd just done a few minutes ago. The town had vanished now into the distance but thick pillars of smoke curled over the horizon. He could still smell the burning in the air. That and...

"Police sirens," Ian said, dread swelling in his chest.

"Yeah," Hannah grimaced, twisting over her seat. "I hope you've gotten some control over your powers by now. We're going to need it in a few seconds."

There they were. Like chrome beetles, the white and blue cars zipped in a tight formation behind them. They were gaining. And on each car, perched on top like some hideous gargoyle, was a man in black bandages, wrapped head to toe.