Pooka in My Pantry

by R. L. Naquin

  “Oh, my sweet boy, I’m so sorry.”

  I wanted to pet him to give him comfort, but I didn’t know where I could touch him without causing him more pain.

  “Zoey?” Andrew’s shaky voice came from the other side of the car. “Is he...” He couldn’t finish.

  “He’s alive, Andrew.” Finding the right words was so hard. “But it’s bad. Go get a blanket. And get the car. Hurry.”

  Keeping Andrew together helped. I help people. It’s what I do. Falling apart now wasn’t going to save Milo. It wasn’t going to help Andrew.

  People moved around me now, mumbling and offering advice.

  “Someone should call an ambulance.”

  “Do they have vet ambulances?”

  “Don’t move him, there could be internal bleeding.”

  “I didn’t see it before I ran over it. Is it breathing?”

  “Oh my God, what kind of animal was that?”

  The crowd was getting bigger and closing in. I felt trapped and helpless.

  Another voice broke through the noise. “Hey, could I ask everyone to take a step back please? Thank you. Ma’am, we’ve got this. Thanks.” Somehow, someway, Riley was there. The crowd receded and thinned as most people lost interest and went on with their lives.

  Milo shivered, which most surely caused him more pain. He made a low keening, and his breath came quick and erratic. I swallowed hard and pressed my fingers to the soft fur on his snout, the only place I could see that might not hurt him.

  “Zoey.” Riley knelt next to me and put his arm across my shoulders. He was warm and steady. I didn’t realize until then how much I was shaking. “Zoey, he’s broken. You have to let him go.”

  His words were a jumble in my head and didn’t make sense at first. “What? We have to get him to a hospital.”

  Riley placed his hand over the fingers I was using to stroke Milo’s nose, stilling them. “Zoey, let me take him. He’s suffering.”

  I sniffed and nodded. “Yeah. Okay. You can get him there faster in the ambulance. Can I ride with him?”

  His fingers caressed my wrist, and his voice was soft. “No, Zoey. Not as a paramedic. Let me help him move on.”

  I shoved his hand away as his meaning became clear. “What? No! He’ll be all right. Besides, you take humans. This isn’t your job. And he’s still alive. Don’t touch him!”

  I pushed him away and moved closer to Milo, trying to shield his tiny body from the reaper. Riley stood behind me.

  “Animals have souls, too, and his is trapped inside a ruined body. He doesn’t understand what’s happening to him. I can help ease him through the transition. Let me help, honey.”

  I turned on him, my voice clogged with tears. “No. Helping is my job.” The hard knot in my belly softened and warmed. My spine straightened, and a cold calm settled over my shoulders. “Get away from him, Reaper. You have no authority here.” I felt odd, powerful, like a surge of electricity had risen up through the pavement and shot through my body and out my fingertips. I didn’t remember standing up. My hands were stretched toward Riley, and he backed up several feet.

  He stopped when he bumped into Art, who stood about five feet away. Art’s pen had stopped mid-click, poised over his paperwork, and his face was ashen. His gaze was glued to my face. I ignored both men and returned to Milo.

  I crouched down and saw the glaze to his eyes and the quick panting. I really looked at him. Something shifted behind my eyes, and I knew.

  It wasn’t something I could see, exactly, it was more like an extension of my empathy. I knew where the damage was inside. I knew where it was safe to place my hands to gather him up and cradle him in my arms without doing further injury. I knew, if we were quick, we might be able to save him.

  Andrew, his face white and spattered with unwiped tears, appeared at my side with a blanket and a box. Carefully, so carefully, I tucked the blanket around Milo and the arm I was using to carry him. My voice surprised me with its steadiness. “I’ve got him. Have you got the car?”

  He nodded and led me to it, opened the door, and got us settled in the back seat. The useless box went in next to me.

  Before Andrew closed the door, the man whose car hit Milo stopped him. His face was lined with guilt. “I’m so sorry,” he said. He put his hand on Andrew’s shoulder and swallowed hard. “If there’s anything I can do, please call me, okay?” The man pushed a business card into Andrew’s hand.

  Andrew’s blank stare slid over the card and he nodded. “I’ll let you know how he is.”

  The stranger let his hand linger for a few seconds, then turned and walked back to his car.

  So much glass and metal, plastic and rubber. I glanced down at the tiny, shivering package cradled in my arms. It had been no contest. The car still looked showroom new, and the little fox barely held on to life.

  The ride to the veterinary hospital was short, yet took an eternity. Every pothole, every turn jostled us, and I did my best to brace myself to keep Milo still. It was the longest ten minutes of my life.

  I held him close to my chest, my arms aching. Andrew’s eyes flickered in the rearview mirror every few seconds, and his breath hitched at odd intervals.

  We turned a sharp corner a little too fast, and I shifted. Milo whimpered.

  “Shhh, sweetheart. It’ll be okay. It’ll be okay.” I was a broken record, humming to him and repeating over and over that it would all be okay. My words were as much for Andrew and me as they were for Milo.

  I lowered my head and pressed my lips to the silky spot between his eyes. “We’re almost there. It’ll be okay.”

  The hospital was empty except for one lady with a small kitten in her lap. The receptionist smiled in greeting when we stepped inside, until she saw the blood-soaked bundle of blanket I held against my chest. The quiet office became a flurry of activity. A doctor came out in scrubs and tried to take Milo from me, but I wouldn’t give him up.

  “No. Show me where to set him down. I don’t want to move him any more than I have to.”

  He hesitated, but the steely calm in my voice forced his arms to his sides.

  “This way. Tell me what happened.”

  Andrew was still shaky, but he’d recovered enough to describe the accident while I concentrated on placing Milo on the table without jarring anything.

  The vet sucked in his breath. “You’ve had quite an adventure, little one,” he said. His voice was calming and self-assured. He let us stay for a few minutes while he assessed the damage, then asked us to wait outside. “I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”

  We were there for hours, waiting, pacing, worrying. Andrew called a friend and asked him to go by to lock up the shop, since we’d rushed out so fast it we left it wide open. At some point, I ran out and got us sandwiches and drinks, but neither of us could each much.

  Aside from the broken leg and tail, and the torn ear, Milo had internal damage that had to be repaired. The vet wasn’t sure if the little fox was stable enough for an operation but without one, Milo wasn’t going to make it.

  And so we waited.

  There wasn’t much to talk about, at first. Mostly, we sat on the edges of our seats, twitchy, hoping someone would come out and give us an update. It wasn’t like a people hospital. There were no magazines to flip through with unseeing eyes, no television blasting some reality show we could pretend to be interested in. There wasn’t much but the sound of our own breathing and nervous shuffling of our own feet.

  After awhile, Andrew broke the silence.

  “I saw what you did,” he said.

  I didn’t know what he meant at first. Then shame washed over me, and I dropped my eyes as I remembered refusing Riley’s offer to ease Milo’s passing. “It was selfish. I’m sorry, Andrew. I don’t know what to say.”

  “No! Zoey
, it was amazing. How could you think otherwise?”

  “I was selfish, Andrew. Riley knew that. He tried to do the right thing, and I wouldn’t let him. Now Milo’s in there all alone. If he wakes up at all, he’s never going to be the same, and he won’t understand, and it’s all my fault.” I covered my face with my hands and cried. It was too much, and I was responsible. “I couldn’t let him go,” I whispered between my fingers. “Andrew, I’m so sorry.”

  Andrew pulled my hands away and forced me to look at him. “Hey, stop it. What you did was incredible. You have no idea, do you?”

  I shook my head, confused. “I told him to go away. He’ll probably never speak to me again.”

  Andrew laughed. It was a hollow sound in the empty room. “Sweetheart, what I saw today beat anything I’ve ever seen before. You lit up like a star. Your aura swallowed up Milo’s like he was part of you, and then blew up like a balloon, actually shoving Riley backwards. What the hell did you say to him?”

  “I don’t know. I told him something. That he had no authority or something. I really wasn’t planning to say anything. I was more worried about Milo.”

  “Want to know what I think?”

  “I doubt it.”

  “Too bad. I think you leveled up.”

  “I what?”

  “You know. Like in a video game.”

  “When do you have time to play video games?”

  “Everyone should take time to play video games.”

  “Not everyone.”

  “Well, you should. I think you found a new skill. And you’re not going to like this, but I think it has to do with being an Aegis.”

  I groaned. “Thanks, Andrew. Now I’m getting it from you, too.”

  “Seriously. And I think maybe an Aegis might be more important in the food chain than a reaper.”

  “That’s comforting. Everybody’s terrified of them.”

  He shrugged. “I’m just telling you what I saw. Something changed, Zoey. And I think it’s a good thing.”

  * * *

  It was nearly midnight when the vet finally emerged and told us Milo was stable.

  “There’s nothing left to do now but wait,” he said. “He won’t be awake till tomorrow. Go home and get some rest. Come back in the morning.”

  After assuring me he’d be okay on his own, Andrew took me to my car, and I made the long, winding, forty-five-minute drive to Bolinas. Every light in my house was blazing, and it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen Silas since he sank my dinner cruise. I hesitated on the steps to the porch and glanced behind me. Iris stood leaning against the tree at the end of the driveway, and gave me a grinning thumbs up.

  Apparently, I didn’t have a burglar. Security had cleared it.

  I stepped through the front door and the pooka stood, moving from the couch to the middle of the living room. He stared at me, his mouth hung open in a way that would have been comical if he didn’t look so frightened.

  “What?” I asked, dropping my purse and keys on the table.

  “There’s so much blood. What happened to you? Are you all right?”

  I looked down at the front of my blouse, crusty and stiff from cradling Milo. Weary, I brushed the hair out of my eyes. “It’s not mine. I’m okay.”

  “Oh. That’s okay then.”

  But he didn’t look okay, even with the reassurance that I wasn’t dying. “Silas, what’s wrong?” I was not up for this. I wanted to go to bed. Before anything unlucky could happen to me, I dug the gargoyle rock from my bra—it was the safest place for it, and I could be sure of not losing it there—and dropped it on the table. “You look a little green.”

  “I’m just, well, I’m leaving. I didn’t want to go without saying good-bye, but I have to get out of here.” He gestured toward the door, and I realized I’d nearly tripped over his suitcases. “Why didn’t you tell me the Leprechaun Mafia was in town?”

  “I didn’t know it mattered to you.”

  “Of course it matters to me. I owe them a lot of money.”

  I sighed. “Don’t we all.”

  He ran his palm over his face. “Be careful, Zoey. The fact that they’re here means something. Something bad.”

  “I know.” I sighed and looked down at my blood-encrusted shirt. “People are dying and my friends are in danger.”

  “You don’t understand. They shouldn’t even be here. The Board regulates their business. They work out of Sacramento, fronted by a dry cleaners. They aren’t allowed to expand like this. For that matter, leprechauns aren’t supposed to kill people, either.”

  I looked up, startled. “I don’t understand. They’re out of their territory? Why isn’t the Board sending in somebody to stop them? They can spare the manpower to harass me, but a rogue Leprechaun Mafia is good to go?”

  “That’s the question, isn’t it? Leprechauns operate in secret. And they sure as hell don’t go around forcing this level of bad luck on people. The Board would never allow it. Leprechauns are small-luck dealers on the Magic Black Market.”

  “So, what the hell are they doing here?”

  He shrugged. “I have no idea. But if no one’s policing the leprechauns, what else is going unregulated?”

  More questions. For every answer, two more problems cropped up.

  “Somebody’s got to stop them before anyone else gets hurt. Or killed.”

  He moved past me and grabbed his suitcases. “Well, good luck with that. I’ve got to motor on out of here.”

  I didn’t feel very broken up about his departure. “If I’d known it was that easy, I’d have mentioned the leprechauns last week when they first showed up.”

  He paused to pull on a jacket and hat—items I didn’t know he owned. “Look, dollface. I really did come with good intentions—or at least, neutral ones. I needed to know if the rumors about you were true. I guess they are. You’re still alive.” He walked onto the porch and turned to me. “Sorry about the cruise ship.” To his credit, he really did look sorry.

  I nodded. “Safe trip, Silas.”

  “Be well, Aegis.”

  He walked off into the night, leaving me alone with my objections.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I managed a whopping three and a half hours of blissful sleep in my now vacant home before the pounding on the door woke me up. I’m not sure how long it went on before I managed to pull myself from my dreams and stumble to the front hall, ready to slap Silas for waking me up.

  I flung the door open, prepared with a flurry of profanities. Sara stood on my porch with her normally perfect hair poking to one side, no makeup, and her face puffy from crying. An angry scrape welled up along her jaw line and she held a suitcase.

  One side of her mouth lifted in an unconvincing half smile. “Feel like a slumber party?” she said.

  “What the hell happened?” I pulled her in by the arm.

  She winced, and I realized she had injuries I couldn’t see. “Would you believe I had a car accident?”

  “At three in the morning? What were you doing out?” I took her suitcase and led her to the couch, trying to be as gentle as possible. I had no idea how bad she might be hurt.

  “I wasn’t out. I was in bed asleep.”

  Sara’s eyes were glassy, and her voice was hollow. Her story didn’t make a lot of sense, either. I sat next to her and took her hands in mine. They were icey, and I rubbed them to get the blood circulating. “Tell me what happened, honey. Start over.”

  She closed her eyes and swallowed, taking a moment to gather herself. When she opened her eyes, they were clearer, and her voice was more her own. “I was sound asleep. A woman in an SUV fell asleep while she was driving home. Instead of turning at the curve by my house, she kept going and plowed straight through my bedroom wall.”

  I stop
ped rubbing her hands and sat dumbfounded. “Holy crap.”

  Sara nodded. “I woke up to squealing tires, horrible crashing, and headlights in my face.” Her eyes grew wide and her hands fluttered in my grasp. “I didn’t have time to react. One minute I was asleep, the next I was covered in clothes, and my armoire had me pinned to the bed.”

  “It fell on top of you?” I ran my fingers over her arms and made a closer, frantic inspection of her face. I found nothing alarming. “Why aren’t you in the hospital?”

  She shrugged. “I was lucky, I guess. The armoire tipped over and pinned my leg inside with the rest of me outside.” She touched her thigh and drew a line across it with her finger. “Right here. Gonna be a hell of a bruise tomorrow. The crash woke the whole neighborhood, and somebody called 911. I was only pinned for maybe ten minutes. Still, it was pretty terrifying.”

  “Why the hell didn’t you call me to come get you? You shouldn’t have driven here by yourself.”

  “Honestly, I wanted to get out of there. After the EMTs checked me over, all I could think about was insurance and how long it would take to repair all the damage. It was too much. I had to get away.”

  I rubbed my palm up and down her back. “I’ll help you. We’ll make a plan in the morning. Was the driver okay?”

  Sara nodded. “She had airbags on all sides. She had to struggle to climb out from under them all.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “The police must think I’m an idiot.”

  “Why? You didn’t drive a car through your house.”

  “No, but it’s the second time they had to come to my address in eight hours.” She stood up and paced across the living room.

  “Second time?”

  She stopped and examined the mantle above my fireplace. “What happened to that cool rock you used to have here?”

  I waved my hand at her, dismissing the question. “It’s in my room. Why were the cops there earlier?”

  “Somebody broke in.” She ran her hand over the mantle and made a face at the dust. No one had cleaned since Maurice left.

  “Oh, my God, Sara, why didn’t you call me then?”