The demon dropped to all fours and bounded at us like some kinda big cat, clawing up the ground. Danny an’ I scattered, both of us grabbin’ for the knives we shoulda had out and waiting. I switched my flashlight on and she swung toward me, which was kinda what I expected if I’d been thinking it through, but not much what I wanted once I did think it through. I hit the deck and flung the light away. She leaped over me and jumped on it, but she wasn’t fooled enough to try eating it this time. Still, I had time to get the knife out and roll to my feet before she turned back on me.
She pounced and Danny tackled her just before she hit me. His knife cut into her ribs, slicing the ribbon apart, an’ when he pulled it away, she bled starlight. Thick shining waves of it, and drops that hung in the air instead of falling like normal blood would. She screamed a staticky sound, not like a woman’s scream at all. It hissed and rushed an’ made the hairs on my arms stand on end, and it did something worse to Danny, who was even closer. He looked like he was coming apart, like the sound was melting him from the outside in. I snatched up my flashlight as I ran at them, and shoved the thing down her gullet when I reached her. She hacked and spat it back up, but at least the screamin’ stopped and Danny stopped looking like he was melting.
The demon skittered back. She looked less human and a lot less gorgeous, her hair tangled up and the starlight still bleedin’ from her side. It was the mouth, though, that really made her a monster, ‘cause it was hanging open to show all of the ugly teeth and the guts that were made up of magic instead of humanity. Danny scrambled up an’ all three of us started circling each other, me and Danny working two against one.
I guessed she chose Danny ‘cause he was the littler guy. I guessed she figured if she could get rid of him she could focus on me. I saw her planning it before she moved, some kinda little give-away in the way she was leaning played up by the flashlights. She went after him, but I was on her heels, not losing any time to surprise. She landed on Dan with all fours, an’ I grabbed a handful of black hair that was cold as ice, hauled her head back, and slashed her throat.
Starlight exploded out, splashing toward the sky. I got knocked off my feet an’ lay there watching as her hair drifted outta the sky and a million stars she’d eaten went back to their rightful places. When it finally ended, I sat up an’ found out I was covered in strands of hair, ‘cept they’d gone silver and brittle. They broke into snowflakes when I brushed ‘em off. Danny did the same, and we got up with somethin’ like snow angels on the ground behind us.
Him and me, we didn’t say a word going back to camp. Didn’t say a word about it later, either, and after a few years I even started wondering if Danny had been there at all, or if it’d just been me and the starlight demon alone in the Korean night.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Three times in four years wasn’t enough to see your girl in. I kept thinking how much worse it was for the fellas who had wives and kids, kids who maybe didn’t know them at all, and counted myself lucky even when I was counting down the days. Annie came to meet the ship when I came home from Korea, and did it sneaky, too: I didn’t know she was coming until I saw her on the docks, one of a hundred pretty girls waiting for their men to come home.
I stopped stock still an’ stared a while before she’d even seen me, just looking at the way her blond hair had gotten longer an’ her blue eyes were still the same. Fashions had changed too, and I guessed I knew that, but it was different seeing her in a fitted skirt an’ suit jacket insteada the full skirts an’ blousy tops she’d been wearing when I left. She looked grown-up an’ professional, an’ my heart knocked around inside of me like it was tryin’ ta get out. I hadn’t been nervous about coming home, not ‘til I saw her, but I couldn’t get my feet moving now that I had.
She finally saw me and her smile lit up bright as day at the same time she put her hand over her stomach in the same nervous way she had when I’d asked her to marry me. That made me feel enough better that I got my feet unstuck, and met her halfway when she came running. All around us guys were scooping up their girls and spinning ‘em around like they couldn’t contain themselves, and neither could I. Annie shrieked into my shoulder and kicked her feet, both of us laughing when I staggered to a stop and put her down again without quite letting go. “You didn’t say you were coming, darlin’.”
“I wanted to surprise you. A good surprise? Oh, Gary, look at you. I thought you were handsome before, but you’re all grown up now. I hardly recognized you.”
“You and me both, sweetheart. Nurse Annie.” I grinned ‘til I was fit to pop. “Congratulations, darlin’. Wish I’d been at your graduation, but at least I’ll get to see you in one of those saucy little hats.”
Annie laughed an’ ducked her face against my chest, hiding a blush. I put my arm around her shoulders, holding her close and lowering my head to breathe in the scent of her hair. “Your letters always smelled like you. Like daisies. Didn’t even know they had enough scent to linger, doll.”
“I had to look a long time to find a perfume that smelled like them. I like it better than the more cultivated flower scents.”
“Guess that’s why you like me, too.”
She rocked back so she could smile up at me. “You can’t fool me. You’re hiding cultivation under a rough exterior. I remember some of the poetry you’ve quoted me.”
“Aw, shucks, sweetheart, everybody’s gotta pass English Lit if they wanna stay on the football team. ‘sides,” I said, solemn as I could, “what kinda guy can’t call his girl the star to his wandering bark an’ still call himself worth stepping out with?”
“Most of them,” Annie said dryly, then laughed again and tucked herself up against me. “Come on. The car is waiting. I thought we could drive up the coast and I could meet your parents while you’re on leave.”
“Just the two of us? T’gether?”
“Well, I’m certainly not inviting Andy along. I like him fine, but I don’t propose to share a hotel room with him!”
I got kinda dizzy. “You proposin’ to share one with me?”
She dimpled, an’ I spent the next couple weeks in the best kinda haze I’d ever known. I hated to go away from her again, but it was better than the first time, in some ways, ‘cause the war was over. I saw some of the world, even a few places I wanted to bring Annie back to, and the day my service ended, I walked away without ever looking back.
Walked right into a big church, an’ waited there with Danny and Andy and a handful of the other guys from my unit standing up for me, while Annie came through the open doors at the end of the aisle in a burst of sunlight that dazzled tears into my eyes. By the time I could see clear again she was just about at my side, her daddy walking her down the aisle like she’d hoped he could. She was soft an’ pretty and perfect, an’ her Pop looked like another weight was lifting off his shoulders. He never had explained what he’d said the first time we’d met, but I meant to take care of his girl the rest of my life, so I figured it didn’t matter.
I didn’t hear a damned word of the ceremony, nothing except the parts where I was s’posed to say I do an’ I will. I got those parts out, and the rest of it I was just looking at my Annie and feelin’ fit to burst. She was always beautiful, but I didn’t think even Princess Grace could hold a candle to her right then. I said so on the way outta the church an’ she said she’d believe me ‘cause I was better-looking than Prince Rainier III, which happened to be true, so to my way of thinking, we were starting out a fairy tale.