by Elle Adams
His eyes widened. “Then why are you telling me?”
“Because you need to know,” I said. “Hellbeasts… they’re dangerous to the dead more than the living. They feed on spirits and souls.”
His eyes widened as the implication sank in. “This beast… it targeted the ghosts at the inn?”
“Seems like it,” I said. “Shelton must have come to town in order to chase it down and kill it. Info on those beasts is classified even among the Reapers, so that’s why he got so uptight about me asking about his mission.”
“You’re sure he’s not the one who summoned it?” he said.
“No.” My shoulders slumped. “Doesn’t make much sense for him to be the summoner, though, because he clearly doesn’t want to be here. Anyway, it looks like everything else was just a distraction, including the resurgence of the old case and even those academy kids and their ghost-hunting mission. There’s no way a bunch of kids summoned that thing.”
The odds of it being summoned without a target, however, were lower than I’d have liked. Perhaps it’d been sent after the town’s ghosts… or even Shelton himself. Someone else, meanwhile, had alerted the Reaper Council. That they’d done so without telling me was kind of a sore point, but it wasn’t as if I was an official Reaper in anyone’s eyes. Harold, as everyone knew, had no intention of doing his job. That left it up to someone from outside the town to come and clean up the mess the beast had left behind. The ghosts were a secondary concern.
“How’d you find out?” he said. “Did you see it?”
“Yeah, it tried to attack my brother by the river yesterday,” I said. “I chased it off using my Reaper skills. Took a lot out of me, which is why I kinda passed out.”
“You worried me,” he said.
“I know.” I looked away for an instant. “I’m fine, though. No lasting damage. If it’d got my brother, it’d be a different story.”
“Is there a reason someone would set one of those creatures loose in town?” he asked.
I shrugged. “There’s a few possible reasons. Of course, it might not have even been summoned here in town. The Reaper might’ve been chasing it for miles for all I know, but the town’s like a buffet for hellbeasts. If it was in the area, it wouldn’t have been able to resist coming here to snack on the ghosts.”
Drew listened calmly. He was taking this pretty well, but as the chief of police, he’d probably seen his fair share of weird and gruesome sights.
“We’ll have to talk to Shelton again,” said Drew. “See if he’ll cooperate with us now that we know what his mission is.”
We. “If you’re sure. This isn’t going to be easy. I sent Mart to tell old Harold what’s going on, if he doesn’t already know, so maybe we’ll luck out and he’ll be supportive for once. He definitely won’t want a hellbeast running around town.”
On the other hand, I couldn’t go after Shelton without turning my back on the inn, which came with its own risks. The beast was still roaming around, looking for spirits to feast on, after all, and if it’d evaded Shelton for this long, then it clearly knew how to hide itself.
“Good,” said Drew. “I think we’ll need his help if we’re to deal with this threat without anyone getting hurt. You definitely shouldn’t go after that creature alone.”
I guessed he had good reason to assume I’d do exactly that given the chance, so I didn’t contradict him. “Hellbeasts can use the shadows to get around, same as me, so it might be anywhere inside or outside the town. I don’t think it’s near the inn at the moment, though. We’d know if it was.”
“Can you track it yourself?” he said. “You drove it off yesterday, didn’t you?”
“I couldn’t kill it,” I said. “I don’t have any proper Reaper tools of my own, so I’ll need one of our grumpy Reaper friends to do the honours.”
“You mean a scythe,” he said. “You can’t get one?”
“It’s not like I can go into Scythes R Us and pick one up.”
A smile appeared on his mouth, vanishing a moment later. “You tried to take it on alone yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Believe me, I learned my lesson,” I said. “I know you don’t like it when I don’t tell you stuff, but being a Reaper is about more than just hunting ghosts. It’s a whole philosophy about not letting anyone in, not accepting help. We do things alone. Hard to break the habit.”
“You don’t, though,” he said. “Not always. You chose to stay here and help Carey with her blog when you could have left town and returned to the normal world.”
“Guess I’m not good at obeying the rules,” I allowed. “Never have been.”
“I’d never have guessed,” he said lightly. “So… what did you want to do? Help Shelton track the beast?”
“If he lets me,” I said. “Also, I have no idea what Faith Murray was playing at, but Allie told me the spell she used was a protective charm against hostile spirits. It wasn’t for banishing ghosts. She was trying to protect us.”
It would have helped if she’d told us that directly rather than vanishing into thin air, but it was beyond me to figure out why she’d even want to use a protective spell near the inn.
“She did?” he said. “Maura… you do remember texting me and telling me she was using some kind of hostile spell on the inn, don’t you?”
“Oh.” I’d forgotten. “You went looking for her? After you found me?”
“We did,” he said. “She refused to answer our questions or plead in her own defence, so we were forced to take her into custody overnight.”
Uh-oh. “You locked her up? Is she still in jail now?”
“She is,” he said. “Like I said, she wouldn’t answer any questions, and besides, I was too concerned about you to check up on her. We planned to question her again later today.”
My heart beat faster at his admission of concern about me, even as guilt assailed me at the idea of an innocent woman being locked in a cell overnight. In fairness, I’d kind of forgotten I’d messaged him about Faith’s antics in the aftermath of the beast’s attack and my consequent brush with death. And if she’d been as belligerent to the police as she’d been to me, then it was no wonder they’d got annoyed with her.
“I guess we should go to the jail and talk to her, then,” I said.
Assuming she wasn’t too angry at her imprisonment to listen to me. This might be awkward.
14
Drew led the way to the police station, through the automatic doors, and into a spacious reception area. The blond shifter receptionist glanced at the pair of us with a puzzled expression as Drew led me into a corridor at the back.
One side of the corridor was dominated by a wide cell cut off by a barred wall. One lone person sat on a bench inside. Faith Murray looked up and shot me a blistering glare, which I had to admit I didn’t blame her for.
“Finally saw sense, did you?” she said.
“You know, if you’d actually told me what you were doing at the inn rather than skulking around in the shadows and dropping herbs everywhere, I wouldn’t have jumped to conclusions,” I said. “What possessed you to take the law into your own hands?”
“That’s rich coming from you,” she said.
Hey! “What’s your problem with me?”
“Aside from the fact that I’m now stuck in a cell?”
Drew cleared his throat. “I hear you tried to pick a fight with two of my staff when they confiscated your wand. That’s not the behaviour of an innocent person.”
She leaned back against the wall. “You have a reputation, Maura, and I knew that if I said a word to you about that thing that’s loose in town, you’d do something reckless the way you did when you drove out our coven leader.”
“You’re one of Mina Devlin’s people, are you?” That would explain a lot.
“I most certainly am not,” she said. “But now Hawkwood Hollow is without a coven leader, and as a result, the town’s defences are weakened.”
“If you’re trying to insult Dre
w and the police’s efforts to keep the town safe, then I really wouldn’t advise it,” I said.
“I think we both know that there are threats that can’t be sniffed out, even by a werewolf pack,” she said. “Invisible enemies lurk in our midst, and we are now without a strong coven to defend us. Instead, the police waste their time locking up the likes of me.”
“I have two people claiming you punched them when they tried to bring you in,” Drew pointed out. “You’ll face charges for that, but if you want to avoid further punishment, I’ll need you to confirm that you were trying to protect the inn using those spells and not cause harm.”
“You already know the answer to that,” she said. “I was trying to keep that abominable creature from causing any more damage than it already has.”
“Why would you cast a protective spell next to the inn?” I asked curiously. “I mean, if you aren’t my biggest fan, why would you want to keep me safe?”
“Who said I only tried to protect the inn?” she said. “If you were thorough in searching the town’s boundaries, you’d have found a number of similar spells. That’s why the creature has caused less damage to the local spirits than it might have.”
But it targeted those two ghosts.
“Did you call the Reaper to town?” I asked her. “I know what Shelton is chasing now, and I might even try to help him find it if he lets me. But I need to know who summoned it and who is on my side.”
“You’re wasting your time with me,” she said. “Both of you. It’ll be back.”
Then we’ll have to find it first.
Drew exhaled a sigh. “Maura, do you want to finish this later?”
I sensed that prolonging the conversation would be unproductive too. “Sure. We’ll find the Reaper.”
Faith made a noise of protest, but Drew cut through her. “I will send someone to talk to you, but if you try to fight my detectives again, you’ll find yourself in trouble. Is that clear?”
Turning our backs on her angry mutters, we returned to the reception area.
“Is there a way for you to confirm if she set up similar wards around the rest of town?” I asked Drew.
“I can certainly send someone to have a look around the borders and check for the same kinds of spells,” he said. “However, I can’t say I like her attitude.”
“Nor me,” I said. “I wasn’t a fan of what she was saying about the coven, either. Also, if she knew the beast was loose in town, why not just tell me? Or Shelton, assuming she didn’t call him herself, that is.”
“That’s exactly what I was wondering myself,” he said. “I’m not sure I trust her word, but I think finding the Reaper should be our priority.”
“Yeah, same here,” I said. “Before the beast comes back. Not sure if Shelton’s in town or if he’s wandering around a field again, though.”
“Me neither.” He walked with me through the automatic doors and out into the street. “We can walk, or we can use your shortcut method, if you don’t mind.”
“I like the way you think,” I said. “Want to take a trip through the shadows again?”
“I’d like nothing more.” He stepped to my side, and my heart skittered at his close proximity as he took my hand. There was more tension there than before now that we both knew there was a small chance we might run into the hellbeast on the other side, but his expression held nothing but faith in me.
I let the shadows of the afterlife surround me and gave the area a quick scan. Seeing no signs of anything hostile nearby, I fixed an image of Shelton’s face in my head, and we stepped through the shadows with no resistance, landing beside the Reaper in an empty street somewhere in the north of town.
“You again,” said Shelton. “What is it this time?”
“I know what your mission is,” I said to him. “Because it decided to attack my brother and me.”
“You what?” he said.
“That hellbeast you’re chasing,” I said. “It attacked my brother at the inn last night. I had to send it packing.”
“You banished it?” he said.
“No, it ran away.”
He swore. “Of course it did. You had to make life more difficult for me, didn’t you?”
“It’s not always about you, you know,” I told him. “It jumped me after I caught Faith Murray setting up a protective charm outside the inn. Since she refused to actually tell me what she was doing, I assumed she was launching an attack on the local ghosts. Turns out she was protecting them instead, but she won’t admit why.”
“I’m not surprised given the level of chaos you’ve already managed to cause,” he said.
Unbelievable. “I’m not the one who set a hellbeast loose in town. Do you know who did?”
“No.” The corners of his mouth turned down. “If I did, I’d have caught them in the act and called in the council to shake some sense into them.”
“Why has it been so hard for you to track it down?” I queried. “This is a small town. There aren’t exactly a ton of hiding places.”
“I’m aware of that,” he said. “If you know anything about hellbeasts, you’d know they’re experts at hiding inside the shadows of the afterworld to avoid detection. I tried checking the major spirit hotspots, and when that failed, I went back to the site of the summoning.”
I stared at him. “What, that’s why you were at the house?”
The remnants of the summoning spell we’d found had been used to summon the monster that had attacked Mart, not a ghost at all. The image of Carey’s classmates from the academy came to mind, and a chill raced down my back. They’d definitely been meddling with something bigger than they knew, but surely even they weren’t foolish enough to summon a deadly monster from the depths of the afterlife. Right?
Shelton grunted. “As you may have gathered, I’ve got a job to do that doesn’t involve appeasing your curiosity.”
“It’s not my curiosity that I’m worried about,” I said. “The monster you’re chasing has already devoured two ghosts near the inn, and I refuse to let my brother be next. So yes, I’m willing to do anything to get rid of that creature. Even work with you, if you can believe it.”
“I can believe it, but I won’t accept it,” he said. “You’re a rogue.”
“I’m not—” Oh, forget it. “Maybe a rogue’s exactly whose help you need, considering you’re having so much trouble tracking that thing on your own. Don’t you have bait or something?”
“Bait?” He tilted his head. “This entire town is bait.”
My hands clenched. “Are you implying you used the town’s ghosts as bait to lure in the beast?”
“Did I say that?”
Argh. We might have been on the same side, but I still had to suppress the urge to give him a firm thwack on the head.
Drew cleared his throat. “If I might make a suggestion, I’d like to assist with this mission of yours. I assume that since we figured it out on our own, you haven’t broken the Reaper rules by telling us.”
“Shifters can’t see ghosts,” he said flatly.
“But I have the authority to tell you to leave town.” The hint of a growl entered Drew’s voice. “Regardless of your mission.”
“If I leave, you won’t get rid of that thing on your own,” said Shelton.
“Try me,” I said. “I did a decent enough job of sending it packing yesterday. If old Harold let me borrow his scythe, I could deal with it in a more permanent manner.”
“Unless you’re willing to use that brother of yours as bait, you’ll never corner that creature,” he said.
“I didn’t need bait for it to show up at the inn before,” I retaliated. “Also, with Faith Murray locked up in jail, there’s no longer any defences on the place either.”
“You what?” he said. “You want to use your home as bait instead?”
“No, but the beast seems fixated on the place already,” I said. “If we corner it outside the inn, I bet that between us, we could take it down. If you’re willing to let
me help you, that is.”
He was silent for a long moment. “I suppose it’s easier than trekking through the afterworld, hoping it’ll show up, given your propensity for using your Reaper skills without the permission of the council.”
“I don’t use them that often,” I said. “Only in emergencies. I don’t know about you, but I’d say this situation definitely qualifies as an emergency.”
“Yes, it does, but the more you use those skills of yours, the more trouble you draw.” He shook his head. “We’re wasting time. If you want to risk your life, it’s on you.”
“You should know all Reapers are more resilient than most, even me,” I said. “Does that mean you want to come with us to the inn to wait for the beast?”
A moment passed. “I’ll give you an hour. If the beast doesn’t show up, I’ll handle it alone.”
“All right, then.” Drew and I would have to turn our powers of persuasion on him again if time ran out before the beast showed up, but that could come later.
Now all we needed to do was go back to the inn and wait… but there was Mart to consider as well. Maybe I’d send him to hide out with old Harold. Not that I expected the retired Reaper to put his neck on the line, even if he had a scythe where I didn’t and was consequently better equipped to fight off a hellbeast than I was. I’d be reduced to using my bare hands if I didn’t convince Shelton to come and help me.
All the more reason to stay on his good side, then.
Shelton didn’t speak a word to either Drew or me as we walked back to the inn. I hadn’t asked Shelton if Faith Murray had been the one who’d called him to town, though she hadn’t offered an explanation herself. Including how she’d known the hellbeast was in town to begin with, come to that. She wasn’t part Reaper.
The one thing we did know was that the beast had been summoned in that old house, which had also been where those kids had gone hunting for ghosts. We’d have to deal with that part later, because we had one chance to get the beast into our trap. While I preferred not to risk the inn’s safety, I knew I’d feel a lot easier tracking the summoner if we dealt with our runaway soul-eating monster beforehand.
