Pyromantic Read online

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

  “Clearly,” Alistair said, and although there was some censure in his tone, he left it at that. Even though I deserved a good talking-to. We were pretty sure everything had been caused by the peryton, but there was still a small chance that Kat, disarming and young looking as she may be, might have been the real culprit, and I had just left my partner alone with her. Stupid. The phone was a portable one, so I dashed back upstairs.

  Luckily for me, all they were doing was talking when I slipped back into the room. I must have made a relieved sound because Alistair said, “All is well, then?”

  “Yeah, fine. What do you want us to do?”

  “Have Katya pack a bag. Quickly, please. She’ll probably want to linger, but I want you guys out of there ASAP. I’m going to call Cade and see if she can stay with him tonight until we can get something else set up for her. Then I’m afraid you’re going right back out. I’d have you wait for the cleaning crew, but it’s going to be a while and I want you guys out of that house.”

  My stomach dropped. “Right back out? Really?” Lock looked over at my tone, but I waved him off. I’d fill him in later. “So it’s as bad as you guessed, huh?”

  Alistair didn’t answer for a moment, and when he did, his voice was gentle. “I’m afraid, Ava, that it’s looking much worse.”

  “Do we even have time to drop Katya off, then?” I could feel the tight grip of panic closing around my chest.

  “Yes. Sid and Bianca aren’t in immediate danger. They’ve backed off for now.”

  “Okay.” I twisted the phone away from my mouth and told Lock to help her get a bag packed.

  “But, Ava? By no means should you dawdle.”

  “You got it, boss-man.”

  9

  WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?

  WE PACKED KAT UP and dropped her off at the cabin. And no, we didn’t just toss her on the front porch. We actually walked her in and introduced her to Cade. Olive patted her down and searched her things, taking her job as security enforcer very seriously. Katya looked taken aback, but then Olive wordlessly handed her a cookie and patted her cheek before disappearing outside to do a perimeter check.

  “Believe it or not, but that’s about as nice a reception from Olive as anyone outside the drove has ever received,” I told Katya. I snagged a cookie and kissed Cade on the cheek.

  We promised we’d be back later. Lock gave her his cell number. Having a lifeline to someone, even a near stranger, seemed to ease her anxiety over staying in a new place.

  New directions and terse instructions in hand, we got back in the car. Well, Lock had those things. My hands were full of water bottles, a thermos of coffee, sliced apples, and sandwiches. Despite our gory state, Alistair advised against changing our clothes. Something about how “it could only help,” which wasn’t reassuring. So wherever we were going, it was going to be messy, and being covered in a fine spray of peryton blood and guts was going to be a plus. Excellent. At least our faces and hands were clean, so we could eat in the car.

  Lock drove and I stuffed my face, pausing to feed him the occasional apple slice or bite of turkey and cheese. I, of course, had bacon on mine and three different kinds of cheese, because fat and grease are very important food groups to me. Lock didn’t feel the same way, which made me wonder about him sometimes. His food preferences definitely leaned toward his dryad heritage, though he did eat some meat, which was clearly a trait handed to him from his human father. You didn’t hang out with the dryad crew unless you planned on being basically vegan. Protectors of the forest don’t like it when you eat animal flesh and keep animals as food-producing slaves. I could see their point sometimes, but man, I love cheese. So much.

  “If I could marry cheese and have dairy babies, I would.”

  “Well, until the day the government recognizes that love, you’ll just have to keep living in sin with cheese. But I support your strange ways.” Lock leaned over and took a bite of the sandwich I held out for him.

  “Do you think Katya will be okay?” I asked. Just because I wasn’t the warm and fuzzy one didn’t mean I wasn’t concerned. I knew what it felt like to have your world implode, suddenly having to take care of yourself. Not something I really wished on anyone.

  Lock swallowed his bite, considering. “I think so. I mean, it will depend a lot on whatever actually happened out at her place. But she’s a frost. They’re a tough lot.”

  This time we were headed out to the Androscoggin Riverlands State Park, which was about a thirty-minute drive from Currant. Whatever situation Sid and Bianca had been sent out into, it hadn’t gone well. So we were riding cavalry. They would have to catch us up when we got there.

  Androscoggin Riverlands, being a state park, is not technically open after dark. So we couldn’t just pull up and leave the car in a lot. We had to hide the van a ways off and head down a path that led to the river.

  Hiking at night is kinda creepy. Hiking through a forest preserve at night when you know your cohorts are having trouble with some sort of beastie is much, much creepier. We found Sid and Bianca on a picnic table set back from the water’s edge. Or I should say, they found us. They blinked into sight as we started to walk past them. Bianca had been holding a veil around their table, which meant they were hiding. That didn’t bode well.

  Sid waved us over, Bianca grabbing Lock’s arm and dragging him next to her on the bench. I clambered up on the table next to Sid. He held up a finger in silence until Bianca could put up another veil.

  “Talk softly if you can—it will make my job a whole lot easier.” Bianca said it to all of us, but I’m pretty sure she was aiming that comment at me. Apparently she thought I had a hard time with “inside voices.”

  “What’s going on?” I asked. Usually when we got sent in as backup, people were in trouble—either trying not to get eaten by something, or halfway to being eaten by something. That’s how these things tended to go. I was glad my friends—or, at least, my friend and Bianca—were safe, sure, but it was still a bit of a surprise.

  “Kelpies,” Sid said, nodding to the water.

  “Do they usually come up the river?” Lock asked. I could hear the frown in his voice.

  Sid leaned closer, his elbows propped on his knees. “They like being closer to the coastline. If they came upriver, either it was because they were following a food source, or something in their environment changed and they didn’t like it.”

  Kelpies emigrated from Scotland with early settlers, and they can be very nasty. “If something is scaring them out of their environment, I don’t want to meet it.”

  “I think we’re all in agreement there.” Sid perked his head up, listening. My ears aren’t as good as his, obviously, and sadly neither is my night vision, but I didn’t see anything around us right then. And kelpies are kind of obvious. When you first see them, they look like adorable shaggy ponies. Until you get up close, you’d swear that’s all they were. But then you touch their coat, and it’s damp, with the stench of brine and mudflat coming off them in a powerful scent, even if they are nowhere near either. Their mane is actually made of a very delicate seaweed, and some of the older kelpies have bracken and moss on their fine coats.

  If you get even closer and stare them in the eye, you see a malevolent intelligence. It’s not that kelpies are evil per se, it’s just that they find people to be especially delicious. Which is why their teeth are another dead giveaway. They don’t have flat, broad, herbivore teeth like normal equines. Kelpie teeth are jagged and serrated, like a shark’s, perfect for tearing flesh.

  Kelpies spend most of their time in the water. Once they’re submerged, their “hooves” open and spread, revealing webbed, fingerlike appendages. The hard outer shell that looks like a hoof splits into talons. Perfectly formed for swimming and the rending of flesh.

  When I first joined the Coterie, we had to go after a guy who had managed to capture a few kelpies with enchanted bridles. The moron had been using the kelpies for pony rides. M
ight as well cover the kids in steak sauce and strap them to a hungry lion. We didn’t really have to do anything to that guy … except remove the bridles. The three kelpies he’d captured returned to human form and dragged him into the ocean. He never got the chance to be a repeat offender.

  Sid faced the river the entire time we talked, unwilling to lose his focus on it. “They are incredibly tricky beasties.”

  I was starting to see why Sid and Bianca had waited for us. Unfortunately, I was also starting to understand why Alistair thought it a bonus that Lock and I were covered in peryton. We smelled extra tasty—we were bait. “Has food been scarce?”

  Bianca shook her head, her hair looking white in the moonlight. “No. In fact, it’s been a great year for fishing and such. They should be full and happy.”

  “That’s not all,” Sid said, running a hand through his hair. “Kelpies are usually solitary hunters.”

  Lock straightened. “You’ve seen more than one?” Even in the faint light I could tell he didn’t quite believe Sid.

  “What?” I asked, looking between them. “Is that bad? Why is that bad?”

  “You think I’d make something like that up?” Sid’s tone was light, but I could tell he was a little put off by Lock’s question. I’d been around Sid enough to know that he took his job seriously. He approached things carefully but didn’t back down from danger, either.

  “I didn’t mean that I didn’t believe you, just that I’m surprised.” Lock let out a breath and finally answered my question. “If you were swimming and you saw a tiger shark, how afraid would you be?”

  “Fairly terrified. They’re aggressive, aren’t they?” I asked.

  Lock nodded. “Now imagine that you’re swimming and you look down and see a bunch of tiger sharks.”

  “Ah,” I said. “Got it.”

  Bianca stood and pulled Lock with her. “It will save a lot of time if we just show you guys. Walk slowly and softly. No matter what, stay together. If you bolt, it will tear the veil if I’m not expecting it. Try not to talk until we get back to the bench. It’s less work for me, and I don’t want to waste any energy in case we need it later.” With that, she laced her arm through Lock’s and walked off. Sid jokingly offered me his elbow, and I took it. Just a lovely stroll along the kelpie-infested riverfront. You could almost smell the romance.

  They led us around a bend in the river to a marshy area. Lock stopped so suddenly in front of me, the only reason I didn’t bump into him was that Sid jerked me back. Not that I could blame Lock. An entire herd of kelpies was grazing along the water. Well, it looked like they were grazing, but as I peered closer, I could see that they were munching on small fish and frogs.

  “It boggles the mind,” Sid whispered. “Kelpies do not herd. They might share territory, but for the most part they avoid one another except during mating season. But I count ten, all close together.” They moved skittishly, tossing their heads and snorting, two kelpie colts in the middle of their group. Restless kelpies protecting young. Great. I squinted. It was dark and we weren’t close, but it seemed like some of them had strange algae patterns on their coats.

  After we got a good eyeful, Bianca led us back downriver to the bench. We waited to speak until she gave us the go-ahead.

  “I don’t even know what to say.” I plopped down onto the bench, suddenly exhausted.

  “You can see why we didn’t barge in,” Bianca said.

  “I can’t see why you didn’t run screaming,” I replied.

  Lock stared up at the sky, his hands on his hips. “Okay, so we have kelpies acting strangely. Grouping, coming farther inland than usual, but not acting aggressive. Or at least not more aggressive than usual. Has there been an escalation in human deaths around the river?”

  “I looked into it on our way out here,” Bianca said. “No one’s reported anything.”

  “So what does their behavior tell us?”

  I shrugged. Hell if I knew why kelpies did anything.

  “Something is scaring them,” Sid said slowly. “When an animal leaves its territory and there hasn’t been a food shortage, then that seems the most likely reason. An influx of predators, something’s gone wrong in the environment—there’s always a factor. I just didn’t think kelpies were scared of anything. Usually they break down other creatures into two groups: food and that thing I can head-butt to death.”

  “They had the colts in the middle where the herd protection would be the greatest,” I said. “So I’m banking on predators.” While that was great to know, it didn’t actually help us out a lot. After our discussion, it was clear that kelpies usually were the apex predators. With the exception of humans poisoning their environment, there wasn’t much in the ocean that was scary enough to take on a kelpie and was also willing to come that close inland. “Did either of you try talking to the kelpies?”

  Sid and Bianca looked at me like I’d grown donkey ears.

  “Talk … to kelpies.” Bianca spoke slowly, carefully enunciating the words for me. “The very creature we learn not to talk to because they spend their free time trying to drown us and eat us?”

  “Yes, those kelpies,” I said. “Dangerous or not, they’re part of the community and the local ecosystem. If they aren’t actually attacking anyone, then we have to consider them the victims of whatever is going on until we know otherwise.”

  “You’re insane,” Bianca said, her eyes wide.

  Lock crossed his arms. He was used to my crazy. “All right, cupcake, but I’m going in as backup.”

  Despite her arguments, I had Bianca drop the veil. If we suddenly appeared in front of the kelpies, they’d bolt. Or stampede us and eat the pulpy flesh that was left over. Neither option really worked for me. I took the lead, with the moon lighting our way. It wasn’t bright enough to fully avoid the mud and marsh water. I was beginning to wonder if my current outfit was going to have to be burned as well. I was really hard on clothes.

  As we got closer, we slowed our pace. The herd raised their heads, their nostrils flaring and taking in our scent. I got as close as I felt comfortable, and waited. After a few seconds, a shaggy gray female stepped forward, flanked by a slightly larger male. His coat was more of the traditional greenish-black you see in depictions of kelpies. Not that I could see their coats well. They appeared to be covered by … something. I squinted.

  “What do you want of us, fire creature?”

  Kelpies may be deadly and tricky and all that, but their voices are something from a dream. Musical doesn’t even begin to cover it. The female kelpie’s voice was like standing on the shore during the sunset and listening to the waves. It was the heady smell of summer sun on the grass and the warm feel of sand between your toes. It was everything good and natural. A voice you could trust. That’s how they get you.

  “I’m not here to cause trouble,” I said. “We haven’t had any reports of an upswing in missing humans or that you’ve been poaching where you aren’t supposed to hunt. Since that would call attention to us all, we appreciate that.” Also, it was gross, but hey, as part of the target food group, of course I thought it was disgusting.

  “Then why are you here?” the male rumbled. Where the female had been a soft breeze on the beach, his voice was a thunderstorm over the ocean. The crash of waves against the rocks and the bracing feel of sea spray on your face. Just as beautiful, but in a different way. Though he must have been a newer import. She sounded like Boston and a trace of something else when I could concentrate past the magic of her voice, but he definitely had a Scottish burr to his words.

  “Yes,” she said. “Why? Have you come to offer yourselves up as our meal?” She tipped her head, and I swear an amused look flitted across her horsey face. “That would be quite delightful, I must say.”

  “We are not on the menu,” Lock said, his shoulder against mine.

  The male kelpie’s nostrils flared again. When he spoke, he sounded a little disappointed. “A green man. Eating you might cause trouble, but I suppose tha
t would simply give you the flavor of forbidden fruit.”

  It’s not like I wasn’t scared. But the thing about a job like mine is that after a while you get a little blasé about things threatening to eat you. After the two hundredth time, it loses its zest.

  “Can we skip the part where you posture and threaten to eat us, and go right to the part where you tell us what has you upriver and together as a herd? My feet are wet from all the water and I’m not getting any warmer.”

  The kelpies’ ears flattened back and they bared their teeth. I guess they didn’t care for my approach. “Look,” I said, holding my arms out. “It’s been a long night full of creatures acting out of character. I had to blow up several peryton earlier because they … well, they started to act like you guys, actually. It was weird. And I’m covered in gore and I’m tired, so believe me when I say I’m not trying to offend you. We just want to find out what’s going on, and then we’ll be out of your hair or kelp or whatever.”

  “We can take care of ourselves,” the female said.

  “You are small and weak.” The male flicked his tail. “What could you do that we could not? You are food. That is all.”

  “Then help us out so we can protect the creatures that aren’t strong like you,” Lock said.

  It was a tactic doomed to fail. You don’t appeal to the better nature of kelpies. They don’t have one. Or at least, they don’t have one for anything that isn’t kelpie.

  “If you don’t tell us,” I said, “we’ll just keep coming back. Only next time there will be more of us. And we’ll be noisy, scaring off all the fish and game.”

  The male snarled. “You wouldn’t.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t want to. I’m basically a lazy person. But our boss wants to find out what’s going on in his territory, and to be honest, I’m not comfortable ignoring anything that could flush out the mighty kelpie.” When all else fails, flatter.

  The kelpies stepped away to confer, and I finally got a good look at their coats in the moonlight. I tipped my head closer to Lock. “Is it just me, or are some of them wearing cardigans?” Lock looked, but his eyesight wasn’t much better than mine.