Only Human by Candace Blevins

followed the car to the backside of the battlefield and parked in a residential neighborhood. The officer motioned us out of Aaron’s SUV and into a squad car, and drove us past the fire trucks and barricades. He rolled his window down and spoke to a few people on his way through, and my throat and eyes burned as the acrid smoke smell grew stronger. I figured I could use it as an excuse for my facemask when I put it on later, if someone asked.
    We pulled to a stop with a close-up view of Chief Edward Denton ordering people around, totally in his element.
    Denny has aged well. I frequently see him on television in short news clips, but seeing him in person was different. He’s six foot four inches tall, and the touch of grey in his black hair makes him look distinguished, not old. His sharp features and thin, wiry muscles exude strength and power.
    However, despite the authority he wears like a perfectly tailored suit, I’m no longer the least bit attracted to him.
    The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference.
    Denny nodded to Aaron as we neared, and he motioned the driver to get out as he stepped towards the car. Aaron was in the front passenger seat, and I sat directly behind the driver’s seat, with Panda in the middle and Nathan on his other side. I was certain Denny hadn’t noticed me, and wasn’t looking forward to his realizing I was working with Aaron.
    He turned the car and drove away from the battlefield, but only a few blocks before he pointed to an unlit field and said, “I believe they came this direction.”
    We got out and Aaron took to the air to look around. I took the bull by horns and introduced Denny to Panda as if it hadn’t been more than a decade since Denny and I had seen each other.
    “Denny, this is Panda. Panda, this is Chief Denton.” I faced Denny and worked my gloves on as I told him, “Panda’s in charge of making sure you stay alive tonight.”
    “And who’ll make sure you stay alive?” Denny asked, his eyes full of surprise, concern, and something else I didn’t want to define.
    I ignored the question and headed into the field with Nathan.
    Twenty feet into the field, my shields literally vibrated with evil. Damn . At least a half dozen, off to our right somewhere in the woods. I very quietly told Nathan, and we adjusted our trajectory almost in step with each other. I may not like Nathan much to hang out with him, but he’s great to have by my side in a fight. Though, he almost got both of us killed a few times before he started admitting that maybe he should listen to me when we’re up against evil beings from another realm.
    I still wasn’t sure what we were walking towards. I don’t like calling them demons because, while it’s probably as good a word for them as anything else, I think it gives them more power than they deserve.
    Various things that can be called to our world from another, and several of them have the ability to make explosions. Unfortunately, one of those things was an actual full-sized demon, as in the opposite of an angel. We don’t see them very often, usually it’s a lesser something or other that gets called up, and I was really hoping these were just the little three feet tall green and orange annoying beasties who threw fire and some sort of poison. We could handle six plus of them, I wasn’t so sure about six full-sized demons.
    And then they stepped out of the woods and I forced my fear into the background as I looked at seven large, evil, ugly, and scary-as-fuck demons.
    I focused on the job, ignored my emotional reactions, and took stock of what I knew. The demons were powerful, but judging from the energy of the two closest, they weren’t the upper echelon, thank goodness. However, they were powerful enough I needed to take the offensive now .
    I took a breath of the cool night air and prepared to fire up my laser. I didn’t think Denny could see from here and I wanted to kill these bastards. I pointed at the biggest demon