Read Swift (Strangetown Magic Book 1) for Free Online Page B

bedroom.
    "No, no, I didn't mean that. I mean are you sure you don't want to sleep in the living room? It looks cozy with the fire."
    "I prefer the large spaces. Did you know that in my own world I was an important man and I slept in—"
    "Spare it, mister, I've heard it all before. You aren't important here, and you don't get a palace. You get a cold church and sleep with a demon. Can you imagine what he sounds like when he's snoring." I wasn't even sure if Mack slept, what with him being immortal. But then, if elves slept maybe demons did too?
    Back out in the church I suddenly realized something, it was really rather warm. Of course! Mack, many degrees warmer than me, was heating the room up nicely. A portable heater, result!
    "Okay, I guess this is home now. Can you two deal with setting it up, getting the furniture and everything? We can make a nice big living room out here once the pews are moved, and, er, Mack, are you sure you feel all right?"
    "I feel most content, thank you. Why wouldn't I be?"
    "Because it's a church. A church of God, and of Jesus, where people come to pray and they go to heaven."
    "Oh, I've heard about all that, but that's not my sector. Faith doesn't make a difference to a demon. It's what you do while you are on earth, what you feel in your heart, the real you, that's what counts. Haha, did you think I would be scared?"
    "Not scared, no. Just wondered if faith did something funny to you."
    "You humans, you really have no clue, do you?"
    "No, guess not. Maybe you can fill me in some time."
    "Sister, you know that's not how it works."
    "Can't blame a girl for trying." I'd learned a lot since I'd had more time to spend with otherworldly Strange, yet there are many things they simply cannot tell. It's more than a law, it's built into their very fabric. They can't tell you what you don't already know about the truth behind reality and what happens next.
    I knew some of this from endless encounters with various creatures over the centuries, but the conversations were always fleeting, usually under sufferance, theirs, so having Mack with me was a real eye-opener.
    They are tied to us, and us to them. We are the reason many supernatural beings exist, but Mack said that there are endless versions of demons, infinite to accommodate infinite species, each with their own versions of afterlife. But he couldn't actually explain it, not how it works, merely confirming what most of us already know deep down—that you need to be a good person underneath all the nonsense.
    "So, what are you cooking?" asked Zeno.
    "Bloody hell, Zeno, you really need to give me a break."
    New house, different species, same old male nonsense.

 
     
     
    On the Case
    It's not that Strangetown is inherently dangerous to live in, although of course it is slightly intimidating. Many Strange from the Rift are nice, friendly folk, just different. But they don't see things the same way we do, mainly because certain concepts are entirely alien.
    Take a demon for example, one of the ones that worked in what I guess us humans would call hell, although most do no such thing. They understand death, in that humans die and then for many it's down to the fiery pits for a spot of torture. Demons do their thing in endless gross and nasty ways that should make you ensure you never end up where they live. They know we die, but they also don't really get it, because some of us end up there.
    They have a job to do so do it, and think little beyond the work. Death doesn't compute, as if we are there then how are we dead? So they can be careless now they are here, not treat frail, tiny humans with the gentleness they need. It leads to problems, mostly of the broken and dead human kind.
    Same with so many other creatures. They aren't mean on purpose, they can't understand the concepts.
    It's the immortality thing, it skews your world view.
    Until recently it was just humans, nothing else. Nobody knew about magic actually being real at all. But then we