A multicolor neon star flickered, buzzing a sporadic red, blue and green pattern. Flowing blue neon script sputtered Satel. . . Motel. Darlene looked at Vince’s backlit by the security lights, walking toward the motel office, moving like a cat. Her eyes widened. He wasn’t limping!
  As her eyes lingered on his retreating silhouette, Tommy began humming in an atonal but insistent way, reaching toward the neon.
  “Lite,” he babbled.
  “Mama! He’s talking!” said Lili.
  Darlene jammed her foot on the brake. They both gaped at the baby. Enthralled over his first word, both failed to notice the neon star cycling faster, brighter, and buzzing in a rhythmic pattern. ‘lite’ flickered on, completing Satellite Motel.
  Bad sound. Me fiss. Tommy sucked his thumb and closed his eyes.

  “I need not to remind you that their mad god bestowed on them great powers—their ability to appear like us, then shapeshift into monsters nearly impossible to kill. Most diabolically, they learned to mind-speak. As they grew more warlike, they returned to their ancestral lands, merciless to humans resettling in what they dared assume was their ancient territory. They think our God imaginary, and the idea of kings is primitive, even laughable. This, we could not tolerate.
  “Our scholars have partially translated a hieroglyphic in an ancient cave in the Himalayas. They believe a transcendent Winter Child will be born at the sunset of their time to enslave mankind. We cannot dismiss this as mere fable. If this could come to pass, it would be cataclysmic for our kind. These creatures must be exterminated to the last, no matter how weak and human-like they may appear.”

  Fog haloed the streetlights, softened the edges of the buildings as Lili clambered up the wrought iron railing. Her vision was diamond-sharp. A drunk passing by three floors below was visible. She leapt to the drainpipe, from there to the next rooftop, movement a white blur. When she heard Tanya’s hard landing on the roof, Lili sprang catlike across the wide divide to another rooftop, then to the wharf.
  Tanya touched a fresh smear, held it to her nose. Blood. She leaned over, looking for water ripples. Lightning fast, Lili sprung from the water, grabbed Tanya’s ankles, dragged her under. A scream tore from Tanya’s throat, filling her lungs with water. She punched Lili’s stomach. Crawled on the deck gasping for breath. A sharp jerk pulled her under again. Struggling through murky water, Lili sank her teeth into Tanya’s neck. Spasms curved the woman’s body backward when venom sped through her veins.