“Sorry about all this,” he said, coming across as perfectly reasonable for a slimy green creature. “These little night goblins are running wild these days. Brick is going to have to take a firmer hand with them I’m afraid.”
I blinked at him, nonplussed. “Night goblins?” I said. I looked down into the hole. Ten or twelve of them were clustered around the edge, looking up at me curiously. Actually, in daylight, they were kind of cute, like little pixies with black-veined wings. But when they opened their mouths, you could see the sharp teeth.
“Thanks for helping me get out,” I told the gremlin. “I’m Haley Greco.”
He nodded. “Yes, I know who you are. You’re the sorceress’s granddaughter, aren’t you?” He pursed his ugly lips and shook his head. “You might try watching where you’re going, especially on someone else’s property.”
“Sorry.” I attempted a smile, but it didn’t work. I was still pretty shaken up. “Is the wrangler here? I have a couple of things I wanted to ask him about.”
His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “I’ll go tell him you’re here,” he said. “Don’t try to move around on your own. Wait right here.” He turned and seemed to disappear against the brushy border of the patch where these goblins seemed to stay.
They were still watching me and whispering to each other, their evil little eyes gleaming. I hoped Brick wouldn’t take too long coming out to speak to me.
I brushed the dirt and bark pieces off my clothes and tried to comb the tangles out of my hair with my fingers. Then I realized I hadn’t seen Toto for awhile. In fact, I didn’t know if he’d fallen into the trap with me or not.
I looked at the goblins and fear washed over me. Were these the blood suckers who’d killed all those animals we’d seen that morning? I could hear the river flowing somewhere nearby. That clearing where the animal bodies were couldn’t be far from here.
Where was Toto?
I jumped up, looking around wildly.
“Where’s my dog?” I demanded of the giggling little freaks. Without thinking, I reached down and grabbed one of them, holding him by the wings. He cried out and the others began to shriek, but I really didn’t care. I wanted my dog, safe and sound—and right now!
“Tell me where my dog is or I’ll start pulling off wings,” I warned the others.
“Four feet are okay to eat,” one of them called out to me. “Brick says okay.”
“I’m counting to three,” I said as harshly as I could. “One, two…..”
“Okay, okay,” said the one with a voice like a frog. “I think I know where he is. Look over the next hill, by the pond. They might have eaten him already, though. You can’t blame us for that.”
I dropped the little imp into the hole and began to run. Just as I came over the rise, I saw him. He was surrounded by gremlins and some other creepy beings who looked mean to me. I could see that he was down on the ground, stretched out flat. For all I knew….
I ran harder and cried out, a war cry, a battle cry of outrage and anger. All the little beasties gathered around turned to look at me, startled. Some of them began to scatter, but others were hanging tough. I got up close before I could actually see what they were doing.
And then the fight drained out of me. They weren’t trying to suck his blood at all. In fact, they were feeding him snacks and taking turns getting little pony rides from him. He was having a ball.
“Oh Toto!” I grabbed him and cradled him in my arms.
He looked up and licked my face, then began to struggle to be put onto solid ground. With joy and gratitude, I put him down. He still had on his leash, and I grabbed it. I wasn’t going to let him go again.
“So you see, things are not always what they seem,” a rough voice said from behind me.
I whirled and found myself face to face with the gremlin wrangler.
“I was told you had something to ask me about,” he said, leering at me.
I took a deep breath and steadied myself. He was a scary looking guy. “Yes,” I said. “Two things. First, do you recognize this?” I pulled the knitted cap out of my pocket and showed it to him.
He took it from me and turned it in his hand. “This looks a lot like the caps my gremlins wear,” he admitted. “But it’s not one of ours.”
“How do you know?”
“Ours are different. The pattern is totally different and the colors are a little off. This looks like a human made it. Here.” He reached into his own pocket and pulled out a cap. I had to admit, it wasn’t quite the same. “Sorry,” he said. “Whatever you’re trying to pin on my gremlins, it won’t work. They’re not guilty.”
I took back my cap and grimaced. As I looked around the area, I noticed gremlins were coming in, one by one, to watch what was going on. And almost to a man…er, to a gremlin, they had on caps that looked just like the one he held. And only vaguely like the one I had brought with me. So much for that theory.
“You’re working on the Inspector’s murder, aren’t you?” he said. “You might as well cross us off your list. We didn’t do it.”
“Your truck was parked by the area where he was killed.”
“Yes, my truck broke down. I had to leave it there until I could get Joe the mechanic to come take a look at it. I was at Joe’s house when the man was killed. Go ahead, ask Joe.”
I raised an eyebrow. “His garage isn’t open at night, is it?”
“No, it’s not. That’s why we were at his house and he was making me a ham sandwich before we went over to take a look at the truck. Okay? Like I say, ask him. When we got back to the park, the cops were all over the place. I’ve already talked to Deputy MacAllister about this.”
“I’ve been told you had reason to want the Inspector gone.”
“Sure. I hated the moron. He was against everything we’re trying to do here.”
I frowned. “And what is that exactly?”
“We’re preserving specialized species. I have a charter from the Council and permission to deal in both confined and free range wrangling. We give a home to small folk, the creatures no one wants living among humans. They have to go somewhere, and the way we operate, we give them a decent existence, plus we keep them out of trouble.”
I looked around the yard. We were surrounded by all sorts of creatures now. Gremlins were the largest, wearing their red and green caps. Then came some bat-like animals, the forest goblins, the beautiful fairies and rascally pixies, imps and night goblins, and a lot of other beings I couldn’t name. It felt a little eerie to have so many so close. I was starting to get nervous again.
“You see, the Inspector thought this was all a waste of time. He wanted some species caged and held underground where they couldn’t get into any mischief, others euthanized.”
A gasp spread throughout the crowd.
“I guess you can tell that he wasn’t popular around here. And we probably could have killed him any time. We would have plenty of volunteers who could have eaten the flesh right off his body. But we didn’t do it.” He gave me an evil grin. “We’re just glad somebody did. Have you questioned Bentley about it?”
His chuckle told me he was just trying to needle me, but I didn’t take the bait. “So I guess these little folks are lucky they have you,” I mentioned.
“Damn right.” My statement seemed to strike a chord with him and his eyes blazed. “You witches and sorceresses think you can use my creatures for your own schemes and you don’t think about what happens to them afterward. How they get hurt. Who picks up the pieces. But I’m there. I do what I can for them. And I’ll go after anyone who hurts them. Just remember that.”
I had a lot of sympathy for what he was saying and for these poor benighted little folk by now. But I didn’t exactly want to stay much longer. In fact, I was getting antsy. It had to be an hour since Tommy had dropped me off.
“I’m glad these creatures have a champion in you, Brick,” I said. “I certainly don’t want to accuse you of anything. But I’ve got a problem. My car’s be
en infected by a gremlin.”
“Infected?” He spit on the ground. “We call it invaded. My gremlins are not a disease.”
“Okay, I stand corrected. But I still have the problem, no matter what we call it. What do you advise I do about it? Can you help me?”
Brick actually grinned at me with no touch of malice in evidence. “You bet. Joe already told me about it. That’s got to be my runaway guy, Siegfried. Been looking for him.” He nodded. “That little blue car you have sitting beside the café? I’ll come over later tonight and take care of that for you.”
“Thanks.” I hesitated. I really did want to leave. “I’m sorry I caused such a commotion.”
He nodded. “Next time, give me a call and I’ll come to the gate to bring you in. We won’t have any more falling into traps or almost losing your dog. It’ll be better. You’ll see.”
I waved goodbye to all the little folk, and they waved back, chanting happily at us. Toto seemed as glad to leave as I did, and once we were out on the road, Tommy appeared like magic.
We climbed into the car.
“That was a really weird place,” I said, closing my eyes as I leaned back on the headrest. Tommy stared at me.
“What happened to you?” he asked, taking in my disheveled appearance.
I opened my eyes and looked at him. “I fell into a trap and had to fight my way out,” I said.
“What? No way!”
I shook my head. “Never mind. I don’t want to talk about it.”
He turned and looked at the ranch. “Hey, I see old Brick is stringing razor wire around the place. Guess he’s been having some trouble keeping those little more dangerous creatures he takes care of from escaping when it gets dark. That doesn’t surprise me.”
I had no comment. I was commented out.
He stepped on the gas and we headed back to town.
It took me a good ten minutes to calm down and start evaluating what I’d learned so far. I realized that the gremlin wrangler didn’t have an airtight alibi for last night. He may have been with Joe, but I’d been having some mixed reactions to Joe lately anyway. Still, I was pretty sure Brick wasn’t involved, even though he had motive and he certainly had blood suckers he could have deployed to get the job done. It just didn’t seem to me that it was his style. I could be wrong. If so, I would be back to see him again.
I did suspect that his night goblins were the ones attacking small animals and sucking them dry. And that was probably why he was stringing the razor wire. But that was something Shane ought to be able to deduce from the pattern of the fang marks. If he wanted to. If he didn’t just want to blame it all on Bentley.
I had to say, I was beginning to focus on Rennie more than I’d expected to. She and her non-visible husband had been coming up in conversation at so many unexpected times. And where was she? Her brother’s statement had certainly caught my attention. I turned to Tommy. He might be able to help me here.
“Hey, Tommy, you know Rennie really well, don’t you?”
He shrugged and looked at me warily. “I guess you could say that.”
“Tell me this. How close are she and her brother Gordon? Would you say they would do almost anything for each other?”
He blinked at me, looking slightly resentful that I was asking questions again. “I don’t know. I guess. Rennie has been taking care of him like a mother ever since their parents were killed.”
I stared at him. “In the demon wars?” I asked.
He nodded, then gave me a look that said he didn’t want to talk about it.
And that was okay. I had enough to think over as it was.
Once back in town, I went to help clean up the booth in the park for the night. Monday was a holiday and the festival would still be running, so we had to prepare for morning. Sales had been tremendous and I knew it was not because of anything I’d done. I’d hardly been there all day. But I had a great team and they seemed to be enthusiastic about working one more day, so things looked good on that front.
They wanted to go out for pizza, but I had to track down Rennie, so I had to decline. I went back across the park, since it was still plenty of light and there were a lot of people still wandering around the place. I headed for the mayor’s office, but the building seemed to be empty, so I went on to the Sheriff’s Station. It was buzzing with activity as usual.
I actually caught Shane in his office.
“Hi,” I said, knocking on the open door.
He looked up and gestured for me to come on in. “Good. I wanted to talk to you.”
“Well, here I am.” I sank into the chair across the desk from his. “Have you released Bentley yet?”
He gave me a look that said, “Cut it out, Haley,” but he didn’t say anything out loud about it.
“I hear you’ve been busy today,” he said instead. “Find out anything I should know?”
“Oh, probably. But I’m too tired to sift through it all and find which little tidbits you might be interested in.”
He leaned forward. “I’m interested in you, Haley. And making sure you don’t poke the tiger.”
I narrowed my gaze. “And how do I know which tidbit will do that?”
“I’ll tell you.”
He held my gaze for a few seconds too long and I flinched. But I got him with my next question. “Can I see Bentley now?”
He sat back and stared at the wall. “Not yet,” he said. “I feel I need to warn you about a few things.”
He couldn’t have said anything more guaranteed to set me off, but I held it back. I knew he wasn’t trying to be antagonistic. He really did care about me. At least, I thought so. I hoped so. And he wanted to protect me. Still, deep inside I was rebelling against that effort.
“What do I need to do to prove myself worthy?” I asked, trying not to be sarcastic. “What task do I have to perform?”
He sighed. “This isn’t a video game. This is real life. No one can promise you smooth sailing. And I’m just trying to give you a head’s up.”
I held back the smirk that came naturally after that little riff of clichés. I set my elbows on the desk and leaned toward him.
“Okay. I’m game. Lay it on me, professor.”
He hesitated for a moment or two, obviously trying to think of the best way to approach this. “I know you are good friends with Bentley, and I know you think you know vampires. I can’t disqualify the things you think you know. I can only tell you my opinion. So here goes.”
I nodded, waiting for him to go on, spending a little time admiring how handsome he was with his five o’clock shadow. Rough and ready. That’s what he looked like. For just a second I wished we were talking about how we felt about each other instead of Bentley. I didn’t really want to be here for this.
“Okay Haley, here’s the thing about vampires,” he said. “There are many different types, but you can basically break them down into three classes. At the bottom rung are the newly turned vampires, pitiful creatures running in the shadows, trying to figure out how to feed without getting caught. Most of them don’t last too long. It’s getting harder and harder to hide who you really are at that stage.”
I nodded. I pretty much knew about that. Bentley had told me a tale or two.
“The next rung up consists of the smarter ones, the more wily, the ones who figure out how to blend in with human society. Bentley seems to be one of those.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Seems to be?”
He nodded. “I never take anything about vampires at face value. They have amazing tricks up their sleeves. They do what they have to do to survive. And you can’t blame them. But they still make unpredictable allies. When the final card is dealt, you never know which way they’ll jump.”
That one hit home with me. It was true, I was never totally sure about what Bentley was thinking, what he was feeling. His life was basically so different from mine, how could I know? And that did make him an unreliable partner in any project. I had to admit it, Shane knew what he was tal
king about.
And that brought up another point. Shane was solid as a rock. You could count on him, every time. I felt a rush of affection for the man. I was lucky to have him in my life. I relaxed a little and he went on.
“And there’s something else. You never know what they might do when a prime level vampire starts calling the shots.”
“Prime level? Is that the third class?”
He nodded again. “Prime vamps are the real monsters. It’s a very hierarchical system, and the primes are at the top. Whether male or female, they rule with an iron fist, and they tend to take over whole territories and force their underlings to form armies. A vampire war is something you don’t want to see.”
It did give me a sick feeling to think of. “Worse than demons?”
He shrugged. “Different but just about as nasty. That’s why havens often try to keep vampires out. Some get a pass, like Bentley. At least, temporarily. But don’t count on that staying stable. It looks like your pal has already stepped over the line in some way. Understand that no matter how much one of them might like you in the moment—might even feel real affection for you—it can go up in smoke on the slightest provocation. You can’t count on them. Be careful who your friends are.”
I stared at him. “So as far as you’re concerned, there’s no such thing as a good vampire.”
He hesitated. “I wouldn’t go that far. You hear rumors of primes that have actually evolved into good leaders. But I’m skeptical. I’ve seen too many examples of the opposite.”
I nodded, thinking hard. “What would happen if a prime came to Moonhaven?”
“He’d have to leave.”
“Or what?”
“Or he’d have to be stopped somehow.” He shrugged. “One way or another, I’d have to guarantee that he was harmless to the community. And that would be near impossible with a prime. You can’t talk them out of being evil. You have to eradicate the threat they pose.”
I nodded. I had a pretty good idea of what he was talking about when he said he would have to guarantee it. He was a hunter, after all. It was his job to protect his haven from predators. No matter what it took to do that.
That Old Witch Magic (Wicked in Moonhaven~A Paranormal Cozy Book 2) Page 11