by Rachel Gay
Kota stopped in his tracks, so close to the door that he considered bolting before he turned around and said, “Yes, sir?”
“You’ve lasted longer than I thought you would,” Eli said. He used a pair of tongs to pick up a piece of iron and place it within the fire.
“Sir?” It wasn’t the best response, but Kota couldn’t think of anything else to fill up the void in the conversation. As far as he could remember, the man had not said a single word to him before now.
“How is the inn going? Really?”
Kota cleared his throat and managed to say, without too much stuttering, “We’ve done some repairs, but the roof needs work and the place could use some paint. We’ve cleaned everything except for the attic, which the way Erin describes it we’ll need about three weeks and a bonfire to take care of that. The government sent Miles, who you’ve already met, to inspect the inn. I think you can guess how that’s going.”
Eli pulled the iron out of the fire, examined it, and thrust it back in. He retrieved another iron from the fire that had been waiting and placed it on the anvil before picking up a hammer.
“...Your daughter,” Kota said, after swallowing and working up the nerve, “She, er, is doing a good job. With some help and time, Erin really can get the Last Inn running again. Would...Would that really bother you so much?”
The smith brought the hammer down on the iron again and again, molding it with several quick, calculated hits that rang out and hurt Kota’s ears. When the iron finally cooled and the smith had to return it to the fire, Kota rubbed his ears and nearly missed what he said next.
“You really don’t know, do you?” He turned and stared down at Kota. “I don’t know why you’re here, boy, but you don’t have to tell me about Erin. I know exactly what’s she planning. What about you, what are you after?”
“After?” Kota hesitated and then smiled as he prepared to lie through his teeth, but at that moment Erin and Marcus returned with a couple of bags crammed full of stuff.
“I can’t believe I forgot my red shirt!” She smiled at her dad, the first time Kota had seen her do so, and said, “Thank you. You want me to tell Mom anything?”
“You can tell her I’ve got supper handled,” Eli muttered. He tugged on his short beard and returned to his work.
Erin pressed one of the bags into Kota’s arms and said, “I’ll come back next week, okay? Come on, Kota, let’s go before it gets dark.”
She waved and pulled Kota along behind her.
“Do you really need to do that?” Kota asked, pulling his arm free of her grip once they were outside. “You seem to have forgiven your father quickly.”
“Eh, I wasn’t really that mad,” Erin said.
“That was you not really that mad?” Miles said, his eyebrows going up as he stopped leaning against the wall of the forge. “What does angry Erin sound like?”
“You don’t want to know.” Erin missed Kota’s agreeing nod as she led the way down the street, back the way they came.
“Your father is...” Miles hesitated.
“Terrifying?” Kota supplied.
“He would make a good hunter,” Miles conceded. “He has the eye. I’m surprised he hasn’t spotted Kota for what he is already.”
“Say it a little louder, why don’t you?” Kota said, looking around to make sure no one was listening.
“Okay,” Miles said and took a deep breath before Kota shoved him.
Erin laughed a little and said, “You should meet my mom.”
They passed through the center of town and reached the river within a few minutes. It couldn’t be more than a mile from one side of the town to the other, along the main road. A fisherman standing out in the reeds with the water up to the tops of his waders looked up and waved at them.
Kota returned the wave, glad to see at least one friendly face among those of the townspeople who stared and whispered every time he caught their eye. The stares weren’t that much better when they reached the Farmers’ place, where more than one of the workers carried a weapon of some sort and kept shooting wary glances at the forest edge.
Miles whistled and at least one stable hand jumped. “Wow. What happened here? I haven’t seen people this jumpy since that little incident in Rolden.”
“What—” Kota started to ask, but his head whipped around when he caught a familiar scent on the breeze that swept over the farm. It should have promised a welcome rain after a long summer, but the smell of blood marred it. He swallowed and said, “I think we’re about to find out what happened to that horse.”
Entry 18: Back to the Farm
Miles inhaled, taking in the various smells normally associated with farms: the grass, the freshly turned dirt out in the fields where the crops were standing strong and tall, the even fresher fertilizer, the sweat from the workers busy at one task or another. Then there were those not so normal smells: the fear reeking from the animals, penned up in the stable in spite of the humid heat forewarning a storm to come, along with that coming off of the workers, and the scent of blood that laced everything.
The vampire exhaled slowly and opened his eyes to look at a pair of workers who smelled the strongest of both the fear and the blood. “You there!”
The men were both dressed in durable clothing that looked like it had been dragged through a pile of dirt. They turned around and stared as Miles, followed by Erin and Kota, approached.
“What do you want?” One of the men looked Miles over suspiciously, and turned the same stare on Kota and Erin until memory kicked in. “Erin! Is that you?”
“Yeah,” Erin replied. “Jeremy, right?”
He nodded and Miles rolled his eyes before saying, “Good, you know each other. Mind telling me where you’ve been digging, Jeremy?”
Jeremy looked down at his now brown pants and shoes and said, “Oh, that? We had to dig a hole for the horse, all the way out in the waste where nothing grows.”
“At least what was left of it,” the other man muttered ominously. “Butcher wouldn’t even take it for dog food.”
Kota, upon a closer look, recognized him as the same man who shot at him the last time he tried to look around the farm. He recognized that grimace and those sharp, bright eyes that thankfully had not helped his aim. When everyone looked at him, Kota realized that he must have made an involuntary sound and turned it into a cough while he tried to remind himself that the man would have a hard time recognizing him as the wolf from the other day.
“What happened to the horse?” Miles asked.
Jeremy looked at Erin.
“What? I want to know too,” Erin said to the unspoken reply and Jeremy shrugged.
“We don’t really know. Probably the same thing that happened to the cows and to those chickens. Something’s attacking the animals, but we can’t find any trace of it.”
“If you don’t count half an animal sprawled over as much field a trace,” the other man said. “At first the only thing left of the chickens was a couple of feathers, and the first cow was nearly gone. Since then, more of the animal’s stayed behind and the results...are messier.”
He said this last part with another look askance at Erin, as if debating with himself over whether to go into more detail.
“Thank you for that,” Miles said. He brushed some hair out of his face and sniffed the air again. “Do you mind if we take a look around?”
“You should probably ask Joe about that,” Jeremy replied. He pointed to a field near the stables and said, “He should be over that way. All of this trouble is making us fall behind with the harvest, so he may not be in much of a mood to talk.”
“Do you know where my mom is?” Erin asked.
Jeremy looked to the other man who jerked a thumb in the direction of the house in the middle of the property and said, “Still in there with Delilah, I would think.”
“Do you two mind if I go talk to her first?” Erin asked. Without waiting for an answer, she started to walk toward the house and called over her sho
ulder, “Meet you in the stables in a few, okay?”
“In a few what?” Kota asked, but Erin just waved her hand and went inside.
“Well, looks like we get to go talk to the boss man,” Miles said. He started to walk toward the field Jeremy pointed out and Kota reluctantly fell in step with him. After they were out of earshot of the workers, Miles asked Kota, “Did what he say match what you saw the other day?”
Kota shrugged. “By the time I got there the crows had already started picking at it, but over half of the cow was gone. I’m sure some of the bones were also eaten or taken, but other than that it wasn’t any ‘messier’ than anything a normal predator would do. Although it would be a lot of meat for just one animal.”
“And did you smell anything unusual?” Miles asked, his voice dropping lower to avoid being overheard.
Kota shook his head. “Nothing at all. I went over the area, but the smell coming off the cow was distracting. If I could have had more time, maybe I could have found something, but...”
“Yes, yes, it’s hard to concentrate when people are shooting, I know,” Miles said. He leaned on the fence around the field and looked out over the rows of crops at the heads bobbing here and there, occasionally looking up at the sky to check on the rolling clouds. “Which one of these is Farmer?”
Kota scanned the faces and found Joe Farmer in the midst of the tomatoes, a basket at his side as he picked those ready to come off the vine with an experienced hand.
Farmer looked up when Miles and Kota approached and straightened his back with a crack that made Kota wince.
“Can I help you?” he asked. “We’re busy at the moment, you see. Got to get all of this in before the rain comes, if we can.”
“We’re here to look into this creature that’s been attacking your livestock,” Miles said. “With your permission, of course.”
Farmer wiped his brow and looked both of them over, apparently not impressed by what he saw.
“We don’t need someone to ‘look into it,’” Farmer said. “We need someone to kill this monster, before it gets worse.”
“Monster?” Kota asked. “Last I heard you thought it was some kind of wild animal.”
“Ah, that’s what we thought at first,” Farmer said, his frown growing more pronounced.
“And what do you think it is now?” Miles asked.
“We know what it is, we saw it the other day when it came back for the rest of its kill,” Farmer said and Kota knew where this was going before he even said, “A great wolf, skinny as a rack, with a blazing mark on its face that glowed like the sun they said. You can’t tell me that was a normal animal.”
Kota tried to keep his face perfectly blank while Miles nodded and solemnly said, “No, I can’t.”
Entry 19: The Empty Stall
With Joe Farmer’s permission to go over most of the farm, so long as they didn’t get in anyone’s way, Kota and Miles decided to start in the fields where the most recent attacks occurred. There wasn’t much to see there, and the way Miles kept sniffing at the rancid smell that lingered in the area just served to get on Kota’s nerves until he suggested they go and take a look at the animals themselves.
“Sure, if you think that would help anything,” Miles said.
The chicken coops were all shut and the vampire tapped on the new lock on the nearest one.
“What, did he think the monster would use the door?”
“Erin said that was one of the things that bothered Farmer,” Kota answered as he walked around the outside of the coop. He could hear the chickens inside, who did not sound thrilled about missing their time in the yard. He checked the other coops to be sure, but even the oldest among them had been well-made and there were no holes he could find or any sign of recent repairs to cover up a break in the defense. “I think even a snake would have a hard time worming its way through these cracks. There’s no way a normal wolf could get in here.”
“It might have just been a normal thief or vandal,” Miles said. He shrugged and pulled at the lock again. “It would explain why they moved on to cows after they put on the locks.”
“Let’s take a look around the barn then,” Kota said.
A woman loading a cart with baskets of crops pointed them to the milking shed, explaining, “That’s where we keep the dairy cows.”
“What about the steers?” Kota asked.
“Nah, we have to keep them in another barn. They haven’t been bothered by the monster, just the dairy cows for some reason. We’ve lost two of them already.”
Miles waited until they left her to her work and entered the dairy shed before saying, “See? Who would want to mess with a bull when there’s an easier alternative?”
“I guess that would explain why I didn’t smell another animal around,” Kota admitted. He walked around the middle of the floor, noting the empty stall on the end. “There were so many people around by the time I got there, and I doubt they would have noticed another set of footprints. They were looking for a wild animal, after all.”
“I don’t think so,” Erin said from the door. “No one around here would do something like that. They said something ate those animals and tore them apart! Who would do something like that?”
“You’d be surprised what some people are willing and ready to do,” Miles said. He leaned against the wall of one of the stalls and stroked the head of the cow inside who barely acknowledged him. “I’ve seen much worse, and that’s from normal humans. Irregulars like me and Kota just add more fun to the mix.”
“There’s really not much to see here,” Kota noted. “With so many people on guard now, I doubt whatever or whoever is doing it could go on for much longer without being noticed anyways.”
“You think they weren’t paying attention before?” Erin asked. “Delilah says that they’ve had some of the workers on night patrols for the past couple of days and they still didn’t see what happened. The horse was attacked inside the stable, and they wouldn’t have even noticed anything if it hadn’t screamed.”
“Which building was this?” Kota asked.
“I guess I could show you, if they don’t have it locked already,” Erin said as they walked outside. “I think they said they moved the other horses to another building to keep them from panicking anymore, it’s causing some real space issues.”
The stable proved to be locked, but after a quick look around and a motion to Erin to keep watch Kota climbed through an open window and came out a few minutes later coughing and more than a little green around the face. He refused to talk to Erin about what he saw inside, just that they had cleaned it recently and the smell bothered him. He didn’t stop Erin from trying to look inside, but she could see little for the dark and the only thing she could smell was the strong cleaner they had apparently washed the whole building down with.
Kota walked away to clear his head and spotted Miles coming out of the dairy shed, wiping his mouth. “Oh, tell me you didn’t,” he said.
“What? It was only a little sip, it won’t hurt the cow in the long run,” Miles said. When that failed to wipe the disapproving look off of Kota’s face he added, “It’s better than taking a nip off of humans, but if you’re willing to volunteer just say the word.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then don’t complain so much.” He patted Kota on the shoulder and looked at the device on his wrist when it beeped. “Uh-oh.”
“What’s wrong?” Erin asked, having finally given up on trying to get a look in the stable when Joe Farmer caught her at it.
“Weather report,” Miles said by way of answer. “Thank you for allowing us to look around your farm, Mr. Farmer, but I’m afraid I need to run.”
“What? Why?” Kota asked.
Miles pointed up at the swiftly moving clouds and said, “The winds are changing, delaying the storm, and the sun will be back out soon.”
“That’s some good news,” Farmer said, brightening up for the first time today. “That should give us enough tim
e to get everything ready.”
“Wonderful, I’m sure,” Miles said, his eyes still on the sky. He thumped Kota on the back of the head and took off running, calling over his shoulder, “Race you back to the inn!”
“Ow! That’s it!” Kota took off running after the vampire, his thoughts more on retaliating than on outrunning the sun.
Erin and Joe shook their heads and she said her goodbyes before following them, all three unaware of the other presence that shadowed their steps.
Entry 20: Bad Cow
Kota slowed to a walk once they were out of sight of the farm and let Miles run ahead. There was a stiff wind blowing now, pushing the dark clouds overhead with it. By the time he reached the Last Inn, he could even see the break in the clouds approaching, letting the sun through to heat things up some more before tonight’s storm.
“Hello?” He called as he opened the door, but there was no sign of Miles.
Erin’s brother, Art, started awake and quickly took his feet off of the front desk and sat up in the seat. “Oh, hey. Kota, right?”
Kota nodded, his eyes going to the windows. The boy had opened the shutters and even one of the windows to let in a breeze.
“Is Erin on her way?”
“Yes, she was right behind me,” Kota answered. “Did anything happen while we were gone?”
“Nah. Oh, those traders who were here finally left, but Erin said they’d already settled up.”
Kota wondered how long it would be before anyone else would want to stay at the inn. Miles talked like people would come flooding in any moment, but he probably only said that to get Eli Smith to back off.
Speaking of which, Kota asked, “Did you see Miles come in?”
Before Art could answer, a thump came from in the kitchen followed by Miles muttering dire things at the chair for tripping him up
“Never mind,” Kota said just as Erin walked in and pulled the door shut against the wind. “I’ll just go check on him.”
Erin saw Kota go into the kitchen and bit back her warning about the sun to say instead, “Hey Art, guess who I saw in town today?”
She told him about how things went with their dad while he gathered his stuff together.
“So he’s probably going to be in a bad mood. Again.” Art sighed and ran a hand through his short, dark brown hair. “You know, more than the permanent bad mood he’s been in since you moved into this creepy place. You could have warned me how much the walls creak.”