by Amy Hopkins
Penny looked up at hearing a rustle overhead. Boots’ tiny face peeked out over the edge of the narrow wardrobe in the corner of the room.
"What are you doing up there?" Penny lifted her arms so that Boots could lower herself down safely. "Actually, forget why you're up there. How did you get there?"
Boots gave a frustrated hiss and wobbled her head. Her tail twitched with irritation.
"I'm sorry, my dear. I do wish I could understand you." Penny let the snake wrap around her shoulders, wincing when she squeezed tight. The serpent's behavior concerned her. Boots wasn't normally this clingy. "Are you getting sick?"
The head hovering next to her cheek shook from side to side.
"Are you hurt?"
Boots shook her head again.
"Is it… Boy trouble?" Steele's words were still playing on Penny's mind, though she had done a fairly good job of shoving them back to her subconscious.
Boots head-butted Penny's ear in exasperation, then shook her head for the third time.
"Then I really can't help you." Penny scratched Boots under the chin and felt the snake relax a little. "But I have good news. We’re going on a road trip!"
Boots perked up at that, happily riding on Penny’s shoulders down to the car. When they got there, Red, Amelia, and Cisco were already waiting for them.
"Hurry up, slowpoke." Red turned the key in the ignition and started the Jeep.
"Is this one of Mack's?" Penny asked.
"Sure is," Red said. "He funded most of the equipment for the class."
Although Mack had told his former students they were welcome to borrow his vehicles and take them out on the racetrack any time, Penny hadn't had the chance this semester. She slid into the back seat of the pristine car with a happy sigh, nestling Boots between her and Cisco.
"Hey, Boots." Cisco reached out to stroke Boots, but she wriggled across his lap instead, shoving herself between him and the window. She nosed the button to open it and hung her head out the side.
Cisco laughed, shuffling closer to Penny to give the serpent room. "She's like a big goofy puppy dog."
Penny turned a warm smile his way. "She wants you to think she’s like a big dopey dog. She is a cunning snake though, and twenty to one, she has no interest in staring out the window."
"Then why is she over there?" Cisco asked.
Penny giggled. "She's matchmaking."
She didn't admit it out loud, but Boots had shown signs of being well and truly sick of Penny's pining after Cisco. After their first date had gone so horribly wrong, he hadn't asked her again. Penny was beginning to think she would have to take the initiative. She wasn't normally shy about asking guys out, but things were somehow different with Cisco. She had spent all of six months trying to convince herself she wasn't interested in him and that by the time they started getting to know each other, she would be back living in Australia.
During her second semester at the Academy, she had simply been too busy. Between searching for a job and dealing with life as a hunter of myth and legend, she had no time for romance. At least, that’s what she had told herself.
It's not like life is going to get any quieter, she told herself. The rip in the veil is still tearing, and things are only going to get busier. She took a deep breath and spoke before she could chicken out. "Are you free for an early dinner Friday night?" she asked in a low voice. “I have to be at work by eight, but I thought… You know, a date.”
"No, I've got plans with me girl," Red called loudly from the front seat. He grinned over his shoulder. "Or were you asking another devastatingly handsome man?"
Amelia slapped his chest. "She wasn't asking you, idiot."
"I know that," Red replied with exaggerated patience. “I was being funny.”
“No one laughed,” Amelia pointed out dryly. Then, she turned big eyes toward the back seat. “Well? Are you free, Cisco?”
The object of her attention muttered something under his breath, his face as red as a gnome’s pointed hat.
“What was that?” Amelia pressed.
“I said I’m busy planning a double homicide,” Cisco repeated.
Penny laughed. “Oh, please, let me help. I’ll bring the shotgun if you bring the shovel.”
In the corner, Boots coughed a laugh.
Cisco jabbed a thumb toward Red. “Good luck digging a hole big enough for his stupid head.”
“It’ll be fine,” Penny replied, deadpan. “As long as Amelia doesn’t insist on being buried with her enormous shoe collection.”
“You’re damn right, I do!” Amelia shot back. “And all of my handbags, too. It’ll take you months to dig a hole that big!”
“Our plan is foiled.” Cisco sighed dramatically. “I guess I’m free, then.”
Penny couldn't stop the excited grin from spreading across her face.
Amelia couldn't stop herself from pointing it out. "Jeez, girl. You look like a fourteen-year-old meeting her first celebrity crush." Despite their close proximity, Amelia easily dodged the shoe Penny lobbed at her head. "What? I think it's adorable."
"And about time, too." Red changed gears, slowing the car and rolling into a free spot by the side of the road. "But enough of that romantic shite. We've got work to do."
Chapter Seven
Penny was the first one out of the car. She popped the trunk and began unloading Red's equipment.
"Really?" Amelia grumbled as she dislodged an item from the trunk. "They're supposed to be training you up to use the most sophisticated equipment in the world, and they give you a dollar shop metal detector?"
"That's not theirs," Red told her. "And she wasn’t from the dollar shop. Were you, my magnificent lass?” He stroked the machine in Amelia’s arms. “My grandpa used to take me out hunting treasures with Bessie here. Found her at a pawn shop, cost him three whole pounds. Mack offered me some big fancy version, but I don't trust it like I trust old Bessie."
"I take it back, Penny," Amelia told Penny. "Boys are awful. All of them. You should run while you still can."
Penny chuckled. "Too late. He knows I’m interested now."
Together, they headed down to the beach. Penny squinted into the afternoon glare as they waited for Red to set up his equipment. He clicked open the large boxes and pulled out smaller ones, set up a flimsy folding chair, and threw a packet of markers on the ground.
Beside her, Cisco's eyes were locked on the horizon.
"Sorry," he murmured.
"What for?" Penny asked, confused.
His eyes flickered toward her, then back to the scenery. "Making you ask. Look, I can face down the Kraken or fight off an urban legend. When it comes to girls, though, I’m…"
"A bit of a wuss?" Penny asked, grinning.
Cisco laughed and nodded. "Yeah. That."
Penny leaned against him, welcoming the reprieve from the crisp wind. "Then it's lucky I’ve got enough balls for the two of us."
Cisco spluttered and began to protest but was interrupted by a call from Red.
"It's ready! Stop trying to get in each other's pants and come help."
The beach was soon dotted with tiny orange flags marking out the area that Red intended to search for the giant gold-digging ant.
Penny held the clipboard, marking off each sector as Cisco paced back and forth inside of it. The sensor he swept over the sand would penetrate the sand, showing any variations in the density below. Red’s theory was that it would pick up tunnels dug by the ant, helping them to pinpoint its lair.
Nearby, Red squinted into a small tablet screen with Amelia watching over his shoulder. Penny glanced up in time to see Amelia point excitedly at the small display.
"Cisco!" Red called. "Jump on over to sector eight. No, the next one." When Cisco paused, counting off each of the squares they'd marked off, Red groaned. "Fine, sector nine. No, that’s— Just take two bloody steps to your right! That's my boy."
"Hey, I can't help it if you're giving bad instructions." Regardless, Cisco swept
the sensor over the area, methodically working from one end to the other.
"Stop!" Red dropped the tablet into the sand and darted for the pile of equipment beside him. A moment later, he withdrew old Bessie. He kissed the shaft and held it aloft. "Don't fail me now, love."
"I remember when he used to talk to me like that," Amelia remarked wistfully. Still, she grinned as Red ran over to where Cisco had stopped, patiently waiting.
Penny trotted over toward them. "Red, am I supposed to mark off section four? You interrupted Cisco before he finished it."
Red didn't answer, crowing with delight instead as his metal detector squealed loudly.
"All hands on deck!" Red tossed the metal detector aside and fell to his knees, pushing sand to one side with his big hands.
He had already explained that shovels were out of the question. The goal was to photograph the specimen, not to accidentally decapitate it with a poorly placed spade.
Penny dropped the clipboard and joined the small circle and helping to unearth the gold thief's lair. She jumped back when the middle of their small hole began to collapse, the center writhing and wiggling as a creature pushed two pincers up into the fresh air.
"That's… What is that?" Amelia squealed.
The appendages were huge, each one the size of Penny's hand. The rest of the ant climbed out of the fallen sand, its oversized legs decked with pretty gold chains and bracelets. It crawled over toward Penny, stopping to vomit out a mouthful of mucous-covered jewelry. Penny scurried back.
Red already had his phone out, snapping pictures of their prize. "Isn't he beautiful?"
"It vomits gold, so I suppose it can't be that bad." Amelia grimaced. "But I expected ingots. Where did he get all that?"
Red got down to his belly, trying to get a better image. “I guess ingots are in short supply on a tourist beach these days. That was probably all dropped by beachgoers, lost in the sand."
Suddenly, the ant’s pincers clacked. It scurried away, kicking up loose sand into Red's face as it ran. "Hey! I wasn't finished, you wee prick."
"That thieving bastard is going for our stuff," Cisco yelled. He took off after it, Penny on his heels.
The ant, its speed seemingly increased with its size, had already reached their small pile of gear. It threw aside Penny's cardigan and snatched up her wallet, waving it in the air before diving into the sand.
"Get him!" she yelled as Cisco closed in on the half-buried insect.
Cisco dove, and so did something else. Penny watched in shock as the winged creature plucked the ant from the sand and flung it across the beach.
"What the fuck was that?" Cisco asked, spitting sand out of his mouth.
"I don't know, but that little prick still has my stuff." Penny turned on her heel, racing toward the fallen ant. The flying beast swooped again, tackling the ant and wrestling Penny's purse away from the insect. It struggled to gain height as its foe clutched at the strap.
Penny snatched at her purse, jerking it away from the strange creatures. “Dammit!” The strap dangled in two lengths, snapped in the middle. The winged Myther shot into the air, spun once, then swooped back down to dive at Penny’s head. She belted it with her purse and it tumbled onto the sand.
"It's a gryphon!" Red exclaimed, appearing beside her.
“It couldn’t have been," Penny said. She watched as it flapped back into the air and let out a roar. "Gryphons have a bird’s head. This looks more like a reptile of some kind."
"Dragon, actually. It's a pixiu," Amelia informed them. She shrugged at the bewildered faces turned her way. "Didn’t you see that chart comparing animal mixes back in Madera's classroom? It has the head of a dragon, body of a lion, and feathered bird wings. Unlike a gryphon, which is comprised of—"
"No time for a biology lesson, Amelia," Cisco panted. "But I think you’re right—they’re attracted to gold, too. Look." He pointed to the beast, which was now digging in the collapsed tunnel made by the gold thief.
"Shite." Red ran toward it, waving his arms and hollering as he went. "Piss off, you bugger! Piss off! I need that gold for my assignment!"
Red snatched and waved at the fluttering pixiu, but it was persistent. It roared at Red and swiped a paw at him until he backed off, then resumed its search for the gold.
A flurry of sand pelted Penny's calf as the gold-digging ant took off to protect its stash. It raced into the fray, darting in between Red's legs and tripping him before leaping into the collapsed tunnel. Sand puffed and undulated as it disappeared into the tunnels below.
"No!" Red howled as the ant disappeared into the sand. "That gold was mine, you wee feathery trollop!” He waved his fist at the pixiu, who flapped away down the beach now that the gold was gone.
"It's okay, Red." Amelia went over to help him up, dusting sand off his face before accepting a kiss from him. "I got pictures of them. Two Mythers in one! It’s not gold, but you should get at least a little extra credit for it, right? And anyway, all that stuff was lost property. You would have had to hand it in to the police in case it was claimed.”
Red brightened and kissed her on the cheek. "I knew I kept you around for a reason." When Amelia raised a threatening eyebrow, he backtracked. "Because you're smart. You're clever, and pretty, and wise. Most of all, you’re far too good for a bastard like me."
She grinned and hugged him. “Exactly."
Chapter Eight
Penny left her class with Professor Glass the next morning feeling pretty good about herself. He had—perhaps inspired by her choice of weapons the previous day—run the class through a brush up on medieval weapons. Thanks to her recent practice, Penny had come out on top.
That good feeling had been all but sucked out of her by the end of the next lesson.
“This current influx is not ceasing. No, the pantheons of old are passing over at a higher rate. As it has always been, not all of them mean to live harmoniously with us.” Hardwick slapped the board, leaving a smudge right in the middle of a long list of beings from Greek mythology that had recently been sighted.
Everything from the Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes to the Titans themselves had been seen stalking the streets of America, and other continents. Many of them had been destructive, though the loss of life had been minimal thus far.
“Why aren’t the other gods doing something about it?” Kathy asked.
“Maybe they are.” Penny gave the girl a comforting smile but didn’t elaborate.
Her position at Paddy’s meant that she had a rare insight into the many alliances and safeguards the Mythers were attempting to create in order to stem the tide of malevolent entities. Bacchus in particular was invested in making sure that the reputation of the Greek gods remained good in the public eye.
As far as Penny knew, his work to build an alliance of the gods was progressing well. They’d managed to talk down some of the more sentient new additions to the real world, and had quietly dispatched a few of the more vicious ones. All that, however, was information she had been asked to keep quiet.
A bell chimed and the class stood, eager to shake off the direness of the class and take advantage of the short break before they attended the Cybermythology lesson after lunch. It was a mandatory class, so Penny knew it would be full.
Penny rubbed her eyes as she wandered to the Academy dining hall. “Two down, two to go,” she said to Amelia. “Dean March must hate us. Why else would she schedule three mythology classes in a row?”
Despite her interest, the Greek Mythology class had been a dry, factual account of the legendary myths, and a catalog of which ones had been sighted. Even the professor’s warning at the end of class hadn’t been enough to take the edge of boredom away.
“Food.” Amelia nodded at the doorway ahead. “Food will wake us up. And coffee.”
Penny and Amelia made a beeline for the dining hall. Just as Amelia shoved the door open and the aroma of warm Mexican food wafted through, Penny felt a hand on her arm. It was Trevor.
“I’l
l join you in half a sec, Amelia.” Penny waved her friend ahead. “What’s up, Trevor?”
Trevor fidgeted nervously. “I need a favor.”
“Sure. What is it?” Penny waited patiently, but Trevor didn’t answer until three more students had passed them.
Once they were alone, he continued, “I need you to tell Prof Anand I’m not coming to class.”
“Okay,” Penny answered slowly. “Am I giving her an excuse?”
His eyes brightened and he gave her a wobbly grin. “I’m on a case.”
“Oh. Oh!” Penny raised her hand for a high five. The palm that slapped hers was cold and sweaty. “Are you sure there’s nothing else I can help with?”
Trevor shook his head resolutely. “Not yet. Once I get the go-ahead from Agent Crenel—”
“Wait.” Penny waved him down. “He hasn’t given you a mission code yet?”
Trevor straightened. “He’s about to,” he clarified. “I have a meeting with him now. Then I’m on the case.”
Though Penny wondered if his confidence was entirely warranted, she congratulated him. “I’ll let Anand know,” she promised. “Are you coming in for some lunch?”
Trevor shook his head. “I have to prep my presentation.”
“Presentation?” Penny wondered, but Trevor had already darted away. “I think he might be underestimating Crenel’s love of brevity.” The Special Agent was notorious for his loathing of wordy requests.
Brushing off the encounter, Penny hurried to join Amelia in the queue for lunch. The day’s spread was a large tray of paella with corn chips, tortillas, tomato salad, grilled corn cobs, and guacamole.
Cisco was already in line when Penny arrived. He waved at her and gestured to a table where Red was sitting, a pained expression on his face.
“Oh, the poor dear is starving,” Amelia teased. She flashed Penny a quick grin. “You’re gonna have to help me carry his lunch back.”
Since his wolfish transformation, Red’s appetite had settled a little. He still ate twice as much as a normal human, though, and was prone to letting everyone around him know if a meal was running too late for his empty stomach to bear.