Page 1 of Glow

CHAPTER 1

DAN

“It’s just up ahead. Won’t get away this time!” The man’s voice carried in the shadows as the hunters crashed through the brush.

Dan Connor pushed himself to run faster, desperate to avoid being caught or photographed by the men behind him.

Almost there. Just need to get to the cave.

He thought for sure that they were closing on him, but Dan barreled into the familiar cave and the welcoming darkness. In his daemon form, his large, glowing amber eyes adjusted quickly, letting him see the path to his hiding place, and his elongated legs gave him speed.

“I’m not going in there,” one of his pursuers argued from the mouth of the cave. “Go ahead. I’ll make sure the bloggers know what happened to you.”

“Hell, no. No story is worth it,” the second man said.

“We could wait for him to come out,” the first hunter suggested.

“Screw that, those caves go for miles. We’ll catch him next time.”

Dan remained still and silent, alert for a trick. After a while without hearing anything outside, he followed one of the many paths he had memorized through the caves that would bring him out in another part of the forest.

He had secret stashes of clothing and shoes in several offshoots of the caverns for just this situation, and headed for the nearest one, eager to shift and get home without any more complications.

Dan found his stash and took it out of its waterproof bag. Nothing about the clothing would identify him, but being able to change in the dark made the trip back much safer. He closed his eyes and tapped into the energy that connected him to the daemon spirit inside, picturing a return to his human form. The shift tingled all over in a way that defied language, and Dan stood naked and shivering in the darkness.

He dressed quickly, reminded himself to replenish his stash of clothing, and peered carefully from the cave mouth to ensure that no one was nearby. When he emerged, he was just a regular guy out for a walk.

Dan stayed on alert as he took an indirect route back to his house, wanting to make sure he wasn’t followed. Having anyone connect his daemon to his human self would be dangerous, even though he and his ancestors had protected the forest around Dover, Massachusetts, for generations.

That was a lot easier before cell phones and video recorders, he thought as he let himself inside and poured a cup of coffee. Dan let out a long breath and tried to quiet his thudding heart.

Too close. If that keeps up, I’m going to have to move. It’s too dangerous.

Some people who styled themselves as monster hunters just wanted material for their blogs and online video channels, getting sensational pictures and sharing overblown accounts of their run-ins with supernatural creatures. That was bad enough, because once identified, Dan would never be able to shift in peace again.

Even worse were the ones who considered anything supernatural to be automatically evil and necessary to destroy. It wouldn’t matter to them that generations of Dan’s family had helped find lost children, guided stray hunters out of danger, saved missing pets, and chased off truly dangerous wild animals and criminals. To those monster hunters, “different” was worthy of death.

Dan’s grandfather Steve had been the most recent daemon, before passing on the responsibility and magic when he died. One daemon shifter existed at a time, although since Steven had outlived his son, Dan’s father Burt, the mantle passed to Dan less than a year ago.

The world was different for Grandpa Steve, Dan thought. Decades past, thick woods had surrounded Dover, providing safe cover. New housing developments and roads reduced the forests. Electronic recording and tracking devices made it more difficult to stay hidden. The internet loved monster stories, and the pursuit of online fame drove an insatiable thirst for fresh content.

He couldn’t help but glance at his human self, reflected in the mirror as he passed. His daemon form had elongated arms, legs, and fingers, a thin body covered with gray skin, and a large, bulbous head with huge glowing eyes. As a human, Dan was a bit shorter than six feet tall, slender but toned, with dark hair and amber eyes. Perfectly average, except for his secret.

I think we’re rather handsome, Wally, his daemon, spoke up in Dan’s mind.

We have nice eyes, Dan agreed. The gangly body wasn’t as imposing as some of the more famous cryptids who were better known in folklore or the muscle-bound movie monsters.

And we’re elegant.

He knew how sensitive his other side could be.

I wish people could just accept that we’re…different, Wally said.

I agree. It was hard enough to have to hide, and difficult to remember on bad days that needing to stay hidden was because of other people’s fears, not something wrong or bad about Wally.

Dan finished his coffee and poured another cup. Still antsy from being chased, he sat at his computer and logged into the network that connected him with others who also had a “monster” side.

Just got chased through the woods by a couple of yahoo hunters, he typed, not sure who would be online in the Monster Network right now. Feeling jittery.