that right now.”
“Sorry,” I said. “That’s what happens when you expel so much power; what’s left tries to seek out more.” I closed my hand into a fist, digging my nails into the skin until it hurt. The pain cleared the fog in my mind, and I was able to pull my eyes away from Daniel’s face and sit up. I pushed Daniel away when he tried to help me, afraid too much contact with him would overwhelm me, and I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from ripping his clothing off to raise the magic my body was now craving. For his part, Daniel didn’t take offense.
We peeked over the edge of the table again and saw that the bonfire was well lit now. Though the beasts had made some progress tearing it apart, the damn thing was well over eight feet tall and ten feet around, so there was still a massive structure when I threw my power at it. The flames danced and bowed in the breeze, reaching higher and higher to the sky. The black smoke billowed and swept out around it. When I followed its progression to the ground, I saw the first body. It was no longer a beast; the bones of its face had slid back into place, the claws and abnormal limbs retracted to a normal, mundane human body.
Slowly, I stood up, moving around the table while trying to keep an eye out for any movement. The smoke rolled over and through me, and I breathed it in gratefully. Daniel was right behind me as I walked around the table and crept forward, stopping just a few feet away from the nearest body that had so recently been the stuff of nightmares. Now it was just a simple human girl with chestnut brown hair and a freckled face. Her glassy eyes stared up at the night sky, unblinking and lifeless. I sighed sadly, shaking my head at the pointless loss of such a young life.
“Do you think they’re all dead?” Daniel asked softly, as if afraid to disturb the girl at our feet.
“Maybe, probably,” I said, tearing my eyes away from the girl, looking around the clearing. Through the shifting smoke, I could see the other bodies of the moon-stricken, still on the ground and all looking tragically human.
“I saw humans running away; hell, I’m human,” Daniel said as we moved around the bonfire, checking for anyone still alive. “Why didn’t everyone flip out?”
“Why do some people survive werewolf attacks and others die?” I proposed. “No one knows.”
Daniel made a noise of agreement and didn’t press the subject. I could still hear distant howls and screams, far outside the park, but now they were mingled with the sounds of sirens and echoing gunshots. We would need to get the other moon-stricken back to the park and into the smoke before they tore through the whole city.
“That brownie fellow,” Daniel said, bringing me out of my thoughts. “He knew what this was.”
“Yeah. And?” I prompted.
“So this must’ve happened before.”
“You’re probably right.”
“But there aren’t any of these beasties still running around,” he continued. “I mean, if there were, we’d all know about them, right?”
“Right.”
“So I imagine there’s another way to stop them.”
“Well, he called it the ‘moon-madness,’” I said, looking up to the sky, finding the full moon easily.
“Maybe when the sun rises, that’ll stop them too.”
“Could be,” I agreed again, turning towards the midway and leading the way through the abandoned stalls and tents. I didn’t really care about finding all of the beasts or what would get rid of them; I only cared about finding Roxy and finding her alive.
“Where are you going?” Daniel asked, keeping pace with me. My body was so in tuned with his at the moment, craving some much needed power, I would’ve known where he was even if I couldn’t see him.
“To find Roxy, I told you that,” I said just as I spotted a pay phone and ran for it. Times like these, I wished elves didn’t have such an aversion to human technology because neither of us had cell phones. At least we had