by J. C. Diem
“He’s dead,” Leroy declared. “I bet the monster popped up and scared the bejesus out of him. He probably hit the tree and the creature grabbed him while he was stunned.”
“That would be my guess, too,” Rudy agreed. I nodded as well. It seemed like the most likely scenario. “Will we wait until after dark before examining the area where the truck crashed?” he asked.
That was only a couple of hours away now, so we wouldn’t have to kill too much time while we waited. “It would probably be wise,” I confirmed. Sheriff Callahan would become suspicious if she saw us hanging around the areas where people had been killed or had gone missing. I preferred to remain under her radar. From what I’d heard so far, the folks in Devil’s Peak weren’t welcoming of monsters, not even the ones who were on their side.
Again, we had takeaway before heading out to the latest crime scene. The truck had been towed away, but evidence of the crash remained where the vehicle had run off the road. Broken glass and chrome littered the ground around the tree. The truck had hit the old oak so hard that the trunk had split in half. I took a deep whiff, then grimaced at the rank animal odor that still hung in the air. Not even the smell of spilled gasoline and oil could mask it completely.
“It smells like a wet dog,” Rudy complained, rubbing his nose. His sense of smell wasn’t as acute as mine, but it was still better than a human’s.
“It didn’t leave much by way of tracks,” I said, casting around in search of a trail. I found a few scuff marks and more bent or flattened grass, but lost the tracks half a mile from the crash site. They were heading for the woods, which was too vast for us to search alone. Standing on the verge of the trees, I sent out my senses. If the missing man was still alive, he was out of my range. My gut told me he’d been dead even before he’d been carried away from his truck.
The monster that had taken him was lurking around here somewhere. It was out of range of my senses and was probably already planning its next meal. Like us, it had chosen Devil’s Peak to be its home. That would be a deadly mistake for the creature. This was my territory now. I wasn’t about to allow anything to prey on the humans I was determined to protect.
Chapter Nine
A woman went missing next. Her house sat on the verge of town and was isolated from her neighbors. She was a recent divorcee and one of her friends reported her missing when she didn’t show up for the lunch they’d planned a few days ago. Sheriff Callahan was notified by the dispatcher and raced over there. I paused while stripping one of the old wardrobes back to listen in, but nothing else came through. They’d switched to using cell phones again to try to keep the panic from spreading.
“That doesn’t sound good, honky,” Leroy said to me through the open window. None of the workers could see or hear him as they bustled about, fixing the roof. I was staying out of their way until they were done. Roof work wasn’t on my list of skills. “That’s two people that have been snatched now,” he added. “You need to find this thing and kill it before it strikes again.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I muttered and received a strange look from a carpenter who was walking past me.
“He’s right, lad,” Rudy piped up as he appeared. He hid behind the wardrobe so no one could see him. “We need to track this thing to its lair.”
“The woods are too vast for just the two of us to search,” I reminded him. “How do you suggest we track it down when it can hide its tracks so easily?” Neither of them had a response to that question. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a plan on how to deal with this mysterious creature. It’s hunting range was extensive and it was wily enough to remain unseen by witnesses. The only ones who had seen it so far were either dead, or were missing and presumed dead.
“We have to do something,” Rudy insisted, planting his fists on his hips and glaring up at me. “We’re supposed to be keeping the humans safe and we’re doing a lousy job of it so far.”
“As soon as it’s dark, we’ll head to the missing woman’s house and search for more tracks,” I said to soothe him.
“That hasn’t done you any good so far,” the phantom pointed out unhelpfully. “What good will it do this time?”
I was about to reply when my intuition kicked in and I saw a flash of the future. It was gone so fast that it had been hard to make out, let alone remember. “We’re going to meet someone with the same goal as us,” I said. “He’ll be able to help us catch and kill this thing.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Leroy demanded.
“He’s a fairy,” Rudy reminded him. “They sometimes get flashes of the future. If he’s seen it, it’ll happen.” He turned his attention to me. “Do you know who this man is and where we’re going to meet him?”
“I didn’t see his face,” I replied with a shrug, keeping my head turned away from the workers so they couldn’t see me talking to what looked like thin air. “Yet he seemed familiar,” I added.
“Is he going to be joining our team?” the phantom queried. He wasn’t even able to leave the house yet, but he was already thinking of himself as one of us.
“It’s too soon to say,” I replied. “We’ll know more when we meet him face to face.”
Rudy vanished again, no doubt impatient for the workers to finish up for the day and to leave. Finished with stripping the first wardrobe of several layers of paint, I started working on the second one. I’d already completed the sideboard and dresser we’d salvaged from the attic. By late afternoon, both wardrobes had been sanded and were ready to be freshly varnished. That could wait until tomorrow. For now, I carried the furniture into the newly repaired living room to keep them out of the weather.
The floors and walls were all new and would be stained and painted once the roof had been repaired. We were in no danger of falling through to the basement now. Once the kitchen and bathrooms had been gutted and new ones had been installed, we would be able to move in. I was tired of living in a motel. Even living in the house while it was still being renovated would be better than that.
Just before darkness fell, Rudy and I were on our way to the house where the second victim had been snatched. We passed the sheriff and one of her deputies as they headed back to town. Cindy eyed my truck suspiciously, but she didn’t turn her cruiser around to follow us. As a new resident of Devil’s Peak, I was already someone to be suspicious of. The slaughter in the abandoned barn had happened just when I’d arrived. I was surprised the law hadn’t come to question me already.
“I suggest you park somewhere out of sight, lad,” Rudy said as I drove past the house we’d come to investigate. “The Sheriff was eyeballing your truck a little too closely for my liking.”
I gave him a dour look, but didn’t bother to remind him that I was a seasoned hunter. To him, I was barely an infant. He considered himself to be far wiser and more knowledgeable than most beings even if it was far from true.
Again, I parked my truck behind some trees where it wouldn’t be easily spotted. The leprechaun zapped us both to the backyard of the house we’d just driven past. One deep whiff was enough to inform me the same creature that had snatched the missing man had struck here as well. “It went this way,” I said, motioning towards the field behind the backyard. I trotted over to the fence and vaulted over it.
Rudy let out a curse and teleported himself to my side. He had to run to keep up with me and he was soon panting for air. His kind weren’t known for their fitness or endurance. “A little help would be appreciated,” he wheezed when we’d been running for a few minutes.
Without missing a step, I bent down and scooped him up beneath my arm. He grabbed hold of his hat as I picked up my pace. Relying on my night vision, I leaped over fences that obstructed my path. My backpack was slung over my shoulder and I had to hold onto it with my free hand so it didn’t fall off.
Muttering beneath his breath at being jostled around, my sidekick endured being carried like a surly football until I reached the edge of the woods. The faint tracks and ste
nch of a wild beast had drawn me directly to the trees again. The missing woman’s scent was weak and I could smell blood. I’d moved too fast to see the drops of liquid that had fallen from her corpse. I put Rudy down and he settled his hat at its usual rakish angle. “Finally!” he complained, straightening his rumpled suit.
“Sorry I didn’t move faster, your lordship,” I said wryly. He was about to make a quip when I held up my hand to hush him. Footsteps alerted me that someone was approaching us. “We’re not alone,” I warned him in a low voice. Sending out my senses, I delved the man who was walking towards us. He was clothed in a black t-shirt, black cargo pants and wore a black Kevlar vest. His black boots looked like something a member of the S.W.A.T. team would wear. “He’s human,” I reported. “We know him,” I added in surprise when the guy was close enough for me to make out his face.
“Hold it right there,” the young man I’d met last winter ordered when he finally noticed us. He lifted his assault rifle and aimed it at my chest. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” he demanded. He had short black hair, brown eyes, a solid build and was average height. Most girls would probably find him handsome.
Hooking my thumbs through my belt loops, I nodded cordially. “Long time no see, Harley.” In his mid-twenties, the kid had been a member of a team that had been employed by Spencer Von Hades. When the Alpha Team had found out that their boss was a demon, they’d wisely quit. Only three of them had actually managed to escape from Von Hades’ mansion.
“How do you know my name?” Harley asked suspiciously, finger tightening on the trigger.
“We’ve met, lad,” Rudy told him. “You just don’t remember it.”
“Who are you?” the former Alpha Team member asked, flicking a look at the diminutive creature.
“I’m Jake Everett and the leprechaun is called Rudy,” I told him. The young hunter was unsurprised to learn what my sidekick was. His memory of us had been scrubbed, but he still knew about the mythical and not so mythical creatures that existed in this realm and others. “We worked a job together, but a siren wiped your memories of us,” I explained.
Harley shook his head in denial, but his haunted eyes hinted at inner torment. “If he’s a leprechaun, what are you?” he asked. His rifle hadn’t shifted from my chest at all. He was ready and willing to pull the trigger.
“I’m a half fae hunter.” He jerked in surprise at that revelation. “We’re tracking the thing that’s been snatching people from Devil’s Peak,” I added. “Why are you here?”
“For the same reason you are,” the kid said and finally lowered his rifle. He’d decided we didn’t mean him any harm. “I’ve been tracking this thing for the past four weeks. It’s been moving southwards without stopping in one place for long. This is the first time it’s stayed anywhere for more than a few days.”
“It’s chosen this town to be its lair,” Rudy surmised.
“Are you really half fairy?” Harley asked, assessing me closely.
“Yep. Why?”
“I thought they vanished thousands of years ago. That’s what our team was told anyway.” A shadow crossed his face before he smoothed his expression again. “Who was the siren that wiped my memory? Can she restore it?”
“Maybe,” I replied without knowing the answer. Mirra was the most powerful siren I’d ever met. She was very skilled at manipulating minds. “She’s a friend. I can call her and ask, if you like.”
“I hate having holes in my memory,” Harley replied. “I know something is missing and it’s been driving me nuts.”
“Worry about your holey memory later,” Rudy advised him. “Right now, we have a monster to kill.”
Chapter Ten
“What do you know about this thing?” I asked Harley. He held his assault rifle competently and had a black backpack full of weapons slung over one shoulder. Although he’d left his unit, he still wore the same type of tactical gear that they’d favored.
“Not much,” the kid confessed, scanning the woods for movement. “I know it’s a beast of some sort, but I don’t think it’s native to our planet. I found the bodies in the barn and made an anonymous call to the Sheriff’s Department.” That answered the question that had been niggling at me about who had made the call.
“You think it’s one of the new things that have been cropping up?” Rudy asked.
Harley shrugged. “That would be my guess. Do you know where they’re coming from?”
“We don’t have a clue,” I replied. “No one does, as far as we know.”
“It has to have something to do with the war between that demon and the witch who brought those Grim Reaper things here.”
“He has no idea Von Hades was his boss,” Rudy said, hiking his thumb at the human.
“Who?” Harley asked blankly.
“Oh boy, Mirra might have done too good a job at wiping his memories.” The leprechaun stared up at the kid. “Who do you think the Alpha Team worked for, lad?”
“Someone called the Master Archivist. I never met him, so I don’t know exactly who he was.”
“We’ll catch you up later,” I decided. It was going to take delicate work to unravel the holes in his memory. “Have you had any luck at all at finding this thing’s lair?” The young hunter had been tracking it for a month, so he might have some knowledge of its habits.
“Once,” Harley replied. “But it was already gone by the time I found its cave.” He shook his head at what he’d found inside the lair. “This creature feeds on anything it comes across, but it seems to prefer humans. I found the remains of animals and garbage it had fished out of someone’s trash. Whatever it is, it reeks like nothing I’ve ever smelled before.”
“I’d really like to know where these things keep coming from,” I mused, then gestured at the trees. “We’ve tracked the creature to these woods, but even with three of us, it isn’t going to be easy to search for it.”
“It’s already taken two people,” Harley said. “It isn’t going to stop until we’ve eradicated it.”
“Let’s exchange numbers,” I suggested. “We’ll want to be able to keep in touch during this mission.” Harley fished his cell phone out of his pocket and we exchanged numbers. He looked down at Rudy, waiting to hear his number.
“Leprechauns don’t use cell phones, lad,” Rudy told him.
“How will you contact us if one of us finds the creature?”
“I can lock onto Jake and teleport myself to him if I find it. He can call my name and I’ll go to him if either of you finds it.”
“How will you hear him if you aren’t close to him?” the kid asked in bewilderment.
“It’s a leprechaun thing,” Rudy said with an evasive shrug. “Once we’ve met someone, we can hear it if they mention our name. We can go straight to them by locking onto their mental signature.” That was more information than I’d gleaned from him in the decade I’d known him.
“What’s our plan?” Harley asked, deferring to me as people usually did. My fae glamor tended to make people trust me. I doubted he would normally agree to work with someone he couldn’t even remember meeting before so quickly.
“I’ll veer to the south and work my way north,” I replied. “Rudy can teleport you to the north end of the woods and you can work your way south. He can head to the west and head east. We won’t be able to cover much ground in one night, but we can at least make a start.” Even with a full team of hunters, we wouldn’t be able to search the entire woods quickly.
“We’re not going to try to capture this thing?” Harley asked.
“Nope. That isn’t our job. We’re hunters, not collectors. Once we’ve found the monster, our goal is to kill it.”
The kid smiled a little, then nodded at Rudy. “I’ve never been teleported before, so I’m not sure what to expect.”
“Sure you have, boyo,” the leprechaun said cheerfully. “You just don’t remember it.” He grinned up at the young hunter. “Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.”
; They disappeared, leaving me to chuckle at my friend’s mischievous nature. My amusement died quickly when I returned my focus to our hunt. I went on the move, sprinting hard until I was at the southern edge of the forest, then began working my way northward through the trees.
My senses were on full alert and I sent them out as far as I could, seeking anything that didn’t belong here. Animals and insects abounded. Even the trees gave off a low hum to my fae senses. They almost seemed to be whispering together as I passed through them. I’d become far more attuned to nature and it was strangely comforting to be surrounded by the flora and fauna.
I walked for several hours, pausing every now and then when I heard something disturbing the quiet. It was always a nocturnal animal of some sort and I moved on again. By dawn, I was sweaty and itchy from traipsing through the woods all night. I felt slightly fatigued, but not to the point where I desperately needed to sleep.
My hand moved in a rapid blur to reach for my gun when two figures appeared in front of me. Harley took an instinctive step back, but Rudy merely rolled his eyes. “You’re too jumpy, lad,” he complained. “One of these days, you’re going to blow my head off. Then who’ll be your teleporting puppet?”
“You need to give me some kind of warning that you’re about to appear,” I said, slipping my Colt back into its holster.
“If you expect me to wear a bell like a cat, you’ll be waiting for a very long time,” the leprechaun retorted. “Neither of us found the beastie. Should we head home?”
“We might as well,” I conceded. Harley was blinking tiredly and looked like he needed to crash for a few hours. “Where are you staying?” I asked him.
“At the hotel just outside of town,” he replied. It was the same dive I’d stayed at the night before I’d driven to Devil’s Peak. “Should we meet somewhere before dark?”