by Zoe Chant
But then he’d meet her beautiful eyes, or kiss her glorious lips, or debate the best flavor of ice cream, and he’d be happier than he’d been in his entire life.
He loved La Puerta, so it was also fun getting to show it to Everly. She was mildly appreciative of the stone arch and historic buildings, but adored the more human and quirky aspects of the town.
They shared a hot fudge and caramel sundae at Ice Ice Baby Ice Cream Parlor & Art Gallery, withstood the owner’s high-pressure sales tactics for her giant mushroom statues made of welded industrial machinery, and listened to her story of how Angel had saved her beagle’s life when he’d eaten part of a toadstool.
They strolled down Main Street and visited all the shops, from the used bookshop where Angel was pounced on by Harry the store cat to the jewelry shop where he bought her a pair of blue butterfly earrings to the candle shop where they closed their eyes and tried to guess the candles by scent.
They had to leave the candy shop in a hurry when Rock escaped from Everly’s purse and made a flapping leap at a sparkling display of rock candy. She was only assuaged when Everly bought her a chunk of glittery mica and a pretty pink quartz heart at the collectibles shop next door.
With every moment that went by, Angel loved her more. What in the world would he do if she went away? Could he leave the animals who depended on him to follow his heart?
He stopped to tie an undone shoelace, and caught a glimpse of Everly’s absolutely perfect ass, displayed to perfection in her tight white jeans. He wondered if it was possible to spontaneously combust out of sexual frustration.
She snapped her fingers. “Penny for your thoughts.”
In my entire life, I’ve never been hornier.
I know this is moving fast, but want to spend the night together?
You’re my destined mate, marry me.
What actually came out was “Do you need to answer that?”
Everly groaned and fished out her buzzing phone. They were on their way to the Pipe & Pudding for a fish-and-chips dinner, and they kept walking as she typed rapidly. Angel kept an eye out for any obstacles, and was ready to catch her if she tripped. But she seemed very used to walking while texting.
She returned her phone to her purse, explaining, “The deep fryer caught fire.”
“Hopefully the Pipe & Pudding’s fryer won’t. Or at least not till we’ve already had our dinner. I’m really looking forward to the fried trout and extra-crispy—”
They turned the corner, and came face-to-face with the sign taped to the door of the Pipe & Pudding:
Out Of Business
"—chips,” Angel finished gloomily. “Dammit, I really liked that place. Now it’s probably going to be replaced by Dieter’s Delight.”
“Special tonight: steamed tofu and extra-soggy broccoli. Sorry, Rock. Looks like none of us are getting fish tonight.” A faint squeak came from her purse. She glanced up at Angel. “Do you think she understood? Or was it just that I said her name?”
“Hard to say. Lots of animals do understand some words. I know people who have to spell out W-A-L-K, or their dog jumps up to go out. Or she might sense that you were disappointed. Anyway, there’s a nice pizza place around here. Nothing there would be good for Rock, but afterward we could stop and get her some—”
BZZZT!
He looked at Everly. She looked at him.
“Not mine,” she said. “I thought you were off tonight.”
“I am.” Adrenaline set him on high alert as he pulled out his phone. “This is either an emergency, or an unusual animal, or—”
She peered over his shoulder as he read the text from Waylon: UNUSUAL ANIMAL EMERGENCY. MEET AT HOSPITAL IMMEDIATELY.
“I can drop you off at Come On Inn,” Angel began as they hurried back to his car, but wasn’t surprised when she gave a scornful snort of refusal, followed by, “Not a chance.”
“Okay, fine. But if it’s something dangerous, you’ll have to keep out of the way and do what I say.”
“Of course. You’re the boss when it comes to veterinary emergencies. Besides, I have to protect Rock. But what… um…” Her voice trailed off as they passed a few townspeople, and she didn’t finish her sentence until they were safely inside his car with the windows rolled up. As he peeled out of the parking lot, she said, “How dangerous do the unusual animals get?”
“Honestly, mostly they’re harmless,” he admitted. “It’s probably just something difficult and inconvenient, like the hawk that could break the sound barrier. But it could be something poisonous. Or fire-breathing. We had a flying king cobra once.”
“Yikes.”
“We caught it with a butterfly net and slung it straight back through the portal, like we were playing lacrosse.”
“Was that the worst creature to ever come through the portal?”
“I’d say the worst had to be the invisible weasel.” His hand went automatically to the scar on his forearm. “Good thing vets get the rabies vaccine.”
“Owww,” said Everly.
“Oh, it could be much worse. Bryan ‘discovered’ the weasel. By sitting on it.”
“OWWW,” said Everly.
“That’s the only time I’ve ever seen him lose his cool.” Angel chuckled. “Well, that and when we tease him about it.”
At Vets For All Pets, Waylon and Bryan were at the receptionist’s desk, watching the feed from the portal cam. Angel immediately went to look. The portal was open, but he could see nothing moving in the forest around it.
“We have a problem.” Bryan’s face was pale, and he looked shaken. Angel had never seen him look like that, not even immediately post-weasel. “I got the alarm that the portal had opened, so I went straight to it.”
“Bryan…” Angel began, then gave up. They were all supposed to observe the portal through the cam first, rather than rushing off with no idea of what they’d find, but Bryan was convinced that this lost them valuable time.
“I keep all the gear in my car,” said Bryan. “Nets, tranquilizer rifles, portable aquariums, everything. Anyway, at first I didn’t see anything. Then I found this.” He held up a life-size, beautifully detailed sculpture of a mouse.
“A stone mouse?” Everly peered at it. “Is it like a gargoyle?”
“No, it’s not alive. Not anymore, anyway.”
Angel had a sinking feeling. “Bryan, please tell me that isn’t what I think it is.”
Bryan did not oblige. Instead, he held up another sculpture, this one of a millipede. Then a sparrow. Then a pair of stone butterflies. “There were stone bugs and birds and squirrels all over the glade.”
Angel’s heart sank right into his shoes. He’d worried about this happening for ages, and it had finally come true. “A basilisk. A basilisk came through the portal.” To Everly, he said, “Anything that looks it in the eyes turns to stone.”
“Should you all be watching that cam?” she asked.
“It doesn’t work over video,” Bryan said. “I know because I took out my phone and searched for it that way. It’s a baby, the size of a rabbit, and it’s quick. I only got off one good shot with the tranquilizer rifle before it disappeared.”
“What happened?” Angel asked. “Is it immune to drugs?”
Waylon shook his head. “Its skin is like living stone. Darts bounce right off.”
Angel took a deep breath. “It won’t be immune to me. If I can get my hands on it, I can put it back through the portal.”
Everly clutched at his arm. “How are you supposed to do that without turning to stone?”
The hero never turns to stone, declaimed his unicorn, swishing its tail. We have the strength of ten, because our love is true!
“Um…” Angel said, hoping to come up with an actual idea on the fly. “I could close my eyes and someone could watch it with their phone and direct me?”
Bryan shook his head. “It’s much too quick to be caught by one man stumbling around blind. And I don’t even know where it is. We’d have to start by
finding it.”
“You and I could track by scent,” suggested Waylon. “We could corner it between the two of us.”
“And catch it how?” Bryan inquired. “I can get the general idea of where it is by scent alone, but I don’t think I could grab it in my jaws with my eyes shut.”
Everly’s phone buzzed. She automatically took it out, then stood still, gazing down at it thoughtfully without actually reading the message. Then she turned off her phone and looked up at them. Her face had the cool, calm, competent expression she had when she texted her restaurant.
“I have an idea,” she said.
Chapter 10
“You’re a genius,” said Angel.
Everly gave dismissive wave of her hand. “I just put together your idea with Waylon’s idea and Bryan’s descriptions. That’s all.”
She could hear her heartbeat pounding, louder in her ears than the rumble of the car engine. Her plan involved putting Angel into deadly danger—not to mention Waylon and Bryan. At least she’d been able to leave Rock safely back at Vets For All Pets, munching on some raw meat in an empty cage beside the jewel toads.
“I wish your plan didn’t involve you taking the biggest risk,” he went on. “If there was any other way…”
“Oh, please. It’s much riskier for the rest of you. I won’t be getting anywhere near the basilisk.”
“Yes,” he said, squeezing her hand. “But you’ll be the only one with your eyes open.”
“I won’t look at anything but my phone screen,” she promised. “I’ve had plenty of practice with that!”
He gave a shaky laugh as he pulled up at the edge of the woods. They were the first car to arrive, so they sat inside and waited for the others. He leaned over and kissed her passionately, and she responded in kind. She could never get enough of him—his strength, his tenderness, his passion, his kindness, his courage, his bad horn jokes. His everything.
Despite his body heat and the warmth of the car, she shivered. They’d known each other for such a short time, but it felt like an eternity. If she lost him, it would break her heart.
I love him, Everly realized. I’d jump in front of a basilisk for him. I’d walk away from everything I have, just to be with him.
I’d do anything for him, and be happy to have the chance.
She took a deep breath, trying to decide if she should tell him she was in love with him now or if it would be bad to distract him right when he needed all his concentration.
Waylon’s pick-up truck came rattling up, with Bryan in the passenger seat. Everly supposed the decision had been made for her. Her heart was beating fast as a frightened rabbit’s at the thought of the danger Angel would be in.
“I don’t want to distract you,” he murmured in her ear. His breath was warm and sweet. “So all I’ll say now is that you’re incredibly brave and ferociously smart, and I absolutely trust that you have this.”
His faith in her made her feel more steady. She whispered back, “You’re the best unicorn vet in the whole entire world. You’ve got this.”
They got out and met with Bryan and Waylon. Bryan sniffed the air, his amber eyes taking on that dangerous feral gleam. “I don’t smell it. We’ll have to track it from the portal.”
The moon shone a brilliant white in the night sky, casting enough light that that didn’t need flashlights. Under other circumstances, walking through the woods with Angel in the moonlight would be swooningly romantic.
But it is romantic, Everly thought. Just not in the ‘gaze into each other’s eyes in the moonlight’ sense. What could possibly be more romantic than walking with a man who’s about to risk his life to protect others, and who trusts you to hold up your end of that?
On the webcam, the portal had been barely visible, easily mistaken for a shaft of moonlight between the trees; Angel had needed to point it out to her. In the moonlit glade, she would have probably missed it again if she hadn’t already known where it was. Between a pair of great oaks, the air shimmered silver in the shape of an archway. As the vets had said, a horse could fit through, but nothing bigger than that.
Everly’s foot came down on something small and hard. She bent down, and plucked a stone beetle from the mossy ground. Like Bryan had said, stone bugs were scattered across the forest floor, along with some unlucky birds and squirrels.
Bryan inhaled a deep breath of air, then pointed. “That way. I can track it from here.”
Without another word, he unceremoniously pulled off his shirt and dropped it on the ground, then started unbuckling his belt.
Everly heard her voice rise to a squeak. “What are you doing?!”
He gave her a look like she was the weird one. “My wolf’ll rip this stuff to shreds. If you don’t want to watch, turn your back.”
Everly hurriedly turned her back… and came face to face with Waylon, who had politely stepped behind a tree to undress. She made another turn, her face burning, telling herself it wasn’t his fault that he was a big guy and the tree didn’t hide as much as he thought.
“You guys,” said Angel, exasperated. “She’s only ever seen me shift. She didn’t know you two have to strip.”
“How come their clothes don’t go with them?”
“It’s more ‘how come mine do,’” he said. “It’s because I’m a mythic shifter. We have extra abilites other shifters don’t.”
“Convenient.”
A grizzly bear lumbered into view. Though Everly knew it was Waylon, it was still a little unnerving being so close to the enormous, shaggy beast. His claws dug into the moss like daggers. He gave a soft whuff, then closed his eyes.
A low growl made the hair on the back of Everly’s neck stand up. She turned and saw the wolf that Bryan had become. She’d never realized how big wolves were compared to dogs; she’d thought of them as wild Siberian huskies. This wolf was a huge gray beast who’d be six feet tall if he stood on his hind legs. His amber eyes looked more natural in his fierce face than they did in Bryan’s.
The wolf also closed his eyes, then turned his nose toward the direction he’d pointed to.
“Just a second,” said Angel.
He bent his head so Everly could help tie on the black blindfold they’d brought (a strip of dog blanket.) Her hands trembled as she wrapped it securely around his face. It was just extra security—he’d have his eyes shut beneath it—but it made her worry about Waylon and Bryan, who couldn’t keep a blindfold on in their animal forms. All it would take would be a single slip, and then they’d be cold stone statues forever.
She turned on her phone camera and fixed her view on its small screen. “I’m ready.”
“Go slow, Bryan,” Angel warned. “Remember, Everly’s got the dangerous job. Don’t make her move her camera fast to keep up with you.”
Bryan whined in what she supposed was agreement, and they set off. Bryan went first, cautiously, sniffing his way through the forest. He could apparently smell trees and rocks, because he avoided them with ease. Waylon went behind him, crashing through the bushes and frequently bumping into things.
Everly followed, guiding Angel, keeping her gaze fixed on nothing but her screen and the ground right in front of them. It was a precarious, difficult, nervewracking way to travel, especially when she knew what awaited them at the end of it. They barely even needed Bryan; she kept stepping on stone millipedes and beetles and ants. Once she had to step over a stone rabbit.
“We’ll have to go back through and pick up all the stone bugs and so forth,” said Everly. “Otherwise people will wonder.”
“Maybe Raelynn will want them,” said Angel. “Or we can pretend we got a deal on them in Refuge City, and donate them to the SPCA thrift store.”
Everly giggled. Despite her fear for herself, Angel, and his colleagues, being with him made her brave. He was such a calm and trusting presence beside her, she had to believe that everything would be all right.
The wolf gave a sharp bark. On that signal, Everly turned her back, tugging Angel t
o turn with her. She switched her camera view and raised her phone, watching the scene behind her. The wolf was creeping up on a bush, sniffing, with the grizzly bear trying to circle around it. But Waylon stepped on a dry branch that cracked with a sound like a gunshot, and the basilisk bolted out from under the bush with Bryan and Waylon in hot pursuit.
“Angel, wait,” said Everly. “They haven’t cornered it yet.”
That was their plan: for Waylon and Bryan to chase the basilisk by scent, and corner it until it was forced to run toward Angel. Then Everly would direct Angel to grab it.
It had all seemed a lot more reasonable and possible when they’d been taking about than now, when the basilisk was zipping around like video game creature and Waylon and Bryan were chasing it without being able to see a thing.
“Left, Waylon!” Everly shouted; he couldn’t smell as well as Bryan. The grizzly veered, setting himself on a collision course with a tree. “More left!”
Waylon barely missed cracking his head on the tree. His heavy paws shook the ground. The basilisk, a creature with a catlike body, a hawk’s body, and a snake’s tail, screeched and leaped aside from Bryan’s lunge at him. With stunning speed, Bryan whipped around, cornering it between him and Waylon. The basilisk froze for an instant, then zipped for Waylon.
“It’s headed between your paws, Waylon!” Everly shouted. “Wait… Grab!”
Waylon brought his huge paws together, but a moment too late. Hissing, the basilisk darted toward Angel.
“Angel!” Everly yelled. “Step left! Turn right! Tackle!”
He followed her directions with preternatural grace and speed. When she told him to tackle, he launched himself fearlessly forward, arms stretched out, blind and utterly trusting. He landed with a thud on the forest floor, clutching the basilisk in his outstretched hands.
The basilisk stopped in mid-hiss. Angel sat up and cradled it to his chest.