Page 48 of Misfit Monsters
Jonah
Ican’t say I’ve ever been a fan of camping. My enjoyment drops considerably when I’m also wrangling a team of belligerent shadowkind.
As I heat my canned pasta over the kerosene stove, missing the much more appealing dinner everyone will be having back at the academy, Raze comes striding out of the woods by the short lane where we parked. He’s empty-handed, his light brown skin unmarked, but there’s a feral quality to his gaze even with the green contacts covering his supernaturally dark irises.
Hail apparently picks up on his vibe too. The lanky fae pushes himself off the birch he’s been leaning against and makes a face.
“You stink of death. If you have to go hunt, can’t you clean yourself up properly afterward?”
The basilisk shifter glowers at him. “I have toeat, unlike some.”
Mirage springs between them, leaping and diving through the shadows with flashes of one or another of his bushy tails. “Track them down. Pounce so hard. They don’t stand a chance!”
As he continues his pantomime of the imagined hunt, the other shadowkind men take a step back. Hail rolls his eyes. “You’re just insane.”
“There’s nothing wrong with a little madness,” Mirage says cheerfully, and rolls to sprawl on his back with his arms folded behind his head.
The winter fae returns his attention to Raze. “Isn’t there a stream around you could douse yourself in? If dipping into the shadows isn’t enough to clean you off, maybe mortal substances will.”
I suspect he’s making up his entire complaint. Even if fae noses are stronger than human, thereshouldn’tbe any trace left of physical material after Raze moves through the shadows. From what I know of the basilisk shifter, that’s the first thing he’d have done after tearing into his prey.
Restraining a sigh, I open my mouth. “Hail, we have?—”
Raze beats me to the punch, bristling with annoyance. “If you’re so concerned about killing, you shouldn’t have frozen that creature we were following today.”
The twitch of Hail’s expression confirms how much the accidental murder bothers him. His lips draw back in a sneer. “At least I’m not a savage, rending beasts limb from limb. How you think you’re going to integrate with humans when you’re exactly the monster they think shadowkind are?—”
I scramble to my feet. “Enough. All of you. It’s been a long day, and we’re doing what we each need to get by.”
Hail aims his sneer at me. “Oh, fabulous advice from ourincredible leader. What have you contributed to this mission so far? I don’t remember receiving any expert guidance.”
I’d like to take some guidance and shove it up the arrogant prick’s ass, but that definitely isn’t what Rollick sent me along for. “I’m offering you it right now. Simmer down, or the mission won’t go anywhere.”
Raze shoots me a wounded look. “I wasn’t going to hurt him. He shouldn’t be lashing out at people if he can’t take a little criticism.”
You can criticize him all you want when we’re not in the middle of the woods trying to track down the source of the wackiest shadowkind I’ve ever seen, I want to say, but I can only imagine how Hail would react to my seemingly taking the other guy’s side.
Mirage simply kicks his legs in the air and laughs with delight, as if we’re putting on a show for his entertainment.
I hold out my hands placatingly, cursing Rollick for giving me this assignment—and myself for not having a better idea how to handle these clashing personalities. The demon expected more from me than this.
“I’m not accusing anyone of anything,” I say evenly. “I’d just like to see tempers reined in rather than unleashed. You don’t have to sing ‘Kumbaya,’ but you need to at least tolerate each other’s presence.”
Peri emerges from the back of the van. She sets her hands on her hips, which draws my gaze to the same area. Her impressive curves are accentuated by the tight jeans and fitted leather jacket she’s traded her usual outfit for.
“Hail was protecting us,” she tells Raze in a brightly insistent voice. “That’s what matters the most.”
She aims her gaze at Hail next. “If you don’t like how someone smells after they’re making sure they don’t starve, give them a little more space, and problem solved!”
She walks over to Mirage and peers down at him. “Andit’s better to have fun when everyone else is in on the joke instead of upset. Just so you know.”
Despite her cheery approach, the men all look stunned. At least it shuts them up.
Peri has some kind of magic to her, even if most of her fellow students haven’t recognized that yet.
In the abrupt quiet, I motion to the van. “I’m the only one who needs to sleep, so I’m taking one of the two benches. I think you should all give yourself some distance wherever you go in the shadows overnight. Hail, stick to the east side of the road. Raze, stick to the west.”
Hail’s lip curls. “You trust us not to abandon you, captain?”
