by Logan Jacobs
My stomach twisted and dropped, and for a moment, I thought I might puke at what I saw. The thief’s blue eyes spun in her sockets wildly as if she was in the middle of an intense dream with her eyes open. Her body flopped up and down like a fish on dry land, and she made strangled gurgling noises. Then white foam burst up from behind her lips and leaked out over her face a moment before she stopped moving altogether. Her eyes froze and glassed over, and the noises stopped. I tugged on her jaw, and it fell open easily. White foam tinged pink with blood bubbled up and spilled from both corners of her mouth as it elicited a strange hissing noise. I could see a dark hole where her top left incisor should have been.
“She poisoned herself,” Ariette grunted out beside me. She hobbled over, one hand firmly planted around the blade in her stomach to keep it from moving.
As we watched, a shimmer passed over Amy’s body, and her glamour began to fade. The blonde hair on her head shriveled, crimped up, and darkened to a midnight black. Instead of human-like skin that was a light tan color, it darkened and reddened until it was a strange shade of purple-pink. Her full lips all but disappeared, and the teeth in her open mouth became sharp and jaggedly uneven, like a shark’s. Even her facial structure morphed and changed a bit. Her nose receded into her face, and the entire thing became much more recessed, almost like the face of a pug.
When her transformation was complete, the only thing that was reminiscent of the thief I had fought were her tight black clothes. What was left was a rotund, pink, dwarf-like creature. And as we watched, flaps of her skin began to spread apart and then disintegrate into a magical mist. The last few sparks of purple faded from view, and we were left to stare at empty space.
“She was an Albanian Nymph,” Ariette breathed beside me. “That’s incredible.”
“What kind of nymph is that?” I asked as I rolled to my feet. I’d never heard of them before.
“They’re a group of nymphs who are really good with healing. Like soothers of sorts,” she whispered in reply. Her eyes were fixated on the space the dead robber used to occupy. “They have the power to calm and communicate with any living being. There’s only a few of them, and they normally live all the way past the Albanian Desert. Normally they keep to themselves, and they have their own government and everything. For all intents and purposes, they don’t belong to the Seelie or Unseelie worlds.”
“Well, this one clearly was a rebel,” I joked as I looked at the blood that darkened her shirt. “Lie back. Let me heal that.”
“Eh,” Ariette shrugged. “This isn’t the deepest I’ve been penetrated before.”
“Please tell me you meant for that to be a double entendre,” I begged.
“A double what?” she asked.
The elven beauty scooched backward and leaned up against the base of the tree. She tangled her hands into the vines that grew out of the roots of it and looked at me with absolute trust in her ocean blue eyes. I bent my head to plant a soft, distracting kiss on her lips as I wrapped one hand around the knife. With my other, I felt for her blood and prepared to command it all back inside of her, so that she could heal.
Ariette breathed softly into my mouth, and our lips just barely brushed against each other. Her mouth was warm against my lips, but her breathing hitched and quickened as I gripped the knife.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Does it matter?” she sighed, and then she gave me a nod. I slowly and evenly pulled the blade from her stomach and made sure to keep the Fae comfortable as I did so.
I quickly covered her wound with my Hand as it started to gush red liquid, and all of my cells tingled as I pushed her blood back inside and commanded it to clot together. Within seconds, I felt the pressure against my Hand lift as her wound began to heal with the help of her Fae magic.
“We have got to stop doing this,” she joked lightly as the color came back into her face.
“Hey,” I said with a shrug, “at least this one was a tiny knife and not a wooden table leg like at that bank robbery.”
“You got me there, HC.” She laughed, and the grip she had on my bicep loosened just a bit. Our noses brushed as she tilted her head back and took a few deep breaths.
“You ready to move?” I asked quietly.
“Just give me a moment,” she mumbled. “Believe it or not, getting stabbed isn’t as fun as it’s made out to be.”
Her eyes were closed, and one hand softly stroked my chest which sent little shivers of electricity up and down my torso. I sat back on my heels and leaned my body against the tree. Naturally, Ariette’s head fell into the crook of my shoulder, and her lips tickled the bristly hair on my chin.
I hadn’t failed to notice the beautiful and courageous elven warrior was only ever soft like this in my presence, and it made a warmth spread through my belly. She was comfortable enough around me to let her guard down, and that made me immensely happy. I smiled and kissed the top of her soft blonde hair.
“Alright,” she sighed out, “let’s go. Before we put on a show for the snakes.”
“The baby Cerberus is back over here.” I motioned to the tree where the baby still lay. All three heads were wide awake now, and they panted and shook as we approached.
“It’s adorable!” Ariette exclaimed as she knelt down to unzip the backpack. Immediately, the creature bounded into her arms and began to lick all over her face and upper body. The Fae burst into roaring laughter.
“Hi you!” she said to one of the tiny heads.
It let out a small yip, and the Cerberus’ entire body wiggled and waved in complete ecstasy.
“You don’t get to have all the fun,” I protested as I knelt next to the elf. “You can’t hog the cute little puppy all to yourself. That’s like, totally not cool.”
Instantaneously, the dog leapt from Ariette’s arms to my lap, and I was attacked by three hot slobbery tongues. The puppy licked my face and neck, and I buried my fingers in its soft, plushy fur. Teeny claws scratched at my leg through my pants, but I didn’t mind one bit.
“I bet you want to get back to your mommy,” I said to one of the heads. I stood up and made sure to get a firm hold on the wiggly ball of fur before Ariette and I made our way out of the snake cave.
“Ew, gross!” Ariette cried out when a dull green snake slithered in front of our path, just before the door. “Move, move, move!”
When the tips of the reptilian tail finally disappeared into the dense foliage, Ariette sprinted out of the door. I continued my casual stroll down the path and burst into laughter as soon as I met her on the outside.
She stood about ten feet away from the door to the tent, with her arms wrapped around herself. Her blue eyes were narrowed, and her face was bright red.
“Don’t like snakes?” I called out as I zipped the tent back up, one-handed. The puppy wiggled in my grasp, and I adjusted my grip so my arm wouldn’t be torn to shreds.
“That’s putting it mildly,” she retorted breathlessly. “Very mildly.”
“Let’s get back to Kal and Maaren,” I laughed, and then I wrapped my free arm around her slender shoulders. She leaned into my touch as we walked back to the front of the zoo.
“You rescued her!” Victor exclaimed as soon as we approached. He raced over and plucked the puppy from my arms. The adorable little creature let out a soft whine and stared at me with its soft brown eyes.
“I’m sorry, buddy,” I whispered as I patted her head. “I’ll come visit you though. I promise.”
The puppy’s three heads panted excitedly in unison, and her tail wiggled and wagged in Victor’s arms.
“I think she likes you,” he puffed, red-faced, “I’ll just go put her back.”
He wandered off in the direction of the Cerberus enclosement, and Ariette and I stood and watched the creature’s sad brown eyes disappear.
“I’m the first to admit I’m not an animal person,” Ariette announced. “But I definitely want one of those.”
“I want to know what happened,” Kalista
demanded impatiently. “Where’s the fake Amy?”
“She killed herself,” I explained. “Poison pill. We need to call in a forensic team to comb over the area.”
“Damn, that’s hardcore,” Kalista replied, a little amazed. “I’ll get them over here.” She pulled out her tablet and tapped away at the screen to call in a team.
“Okay, they’re on their way,” the dwarf announced after a moment.
“Most interestingly,” Ariette added, “our thief was an Albanian Nymph.”
Kalista and Maaren fell silent for a tense moment. Then, Kalista turned in an exasperated circle and ran her hands through the short spikes of silver hair on top of her head.
“This is a big fucking problem,” Maaren finally said. Her green eyes were hard, and she had pressed her lips into a line so thin they all but disappeared.
“I thought the Albanian Nymphs were peaceful?” Kalista mumbled. “Why would one of them want to go around stealing innocent puppies away from their moms?”
“This one definitely wasn’t peaceful,” I replied, “but I don’t think her race is as big of a problem. The problem is the fact she poisoned herself to make sure we couldn’t make her talk. That’s some top level spy shit.”
“It does tell us one very important thing, though,” Maaren said thoughtfully. She gave each one of us a hard, long look. “Imposter Amy was the bottom of the food chain. We need to figure out who the hell is on the top. And it starts with figuring out where they took the phoenix and the griffin.”
“Um, excuse me,” Victor’s small voice said from a few feet behind us. We turned on him so fast he jumped involuntarily. The skinny man still held the Cerberus puppy in his arms, and the little creature wiggled around in an attempt to get free.
“What’s up, Victor my man?” Kalista asked somewhat tensely.
“I just wanted to say,” he inhaled sharply, “that unfortunately we can’t keep this puppy.”
“What do you mean you can’t keep her?” I demanded.
“The mother won’t touch her,” he sighed out, his blue eyes full of grief. “Sometimes this happens when there’s too much of another animal’s scent on an infant. She just doesn’t recognize it as her child.”
“That’s a bummer,” Maaren breathed.
The hunter stepped forward and took the puppy from Victor’s hands, but the baby Cerberus leapt from her grasp nimbly and bounded over to me. All three heads licked and nipped at my ankles as her two front paws tried to climb my leg like a tree. I knelt down to hold the little fluffball and realized how much I loved the warmth of the little body.
“Fine,” I said suddenly. “If you guys don’t want her, then I’ll keep her.”
Victor turned a wide gaze to me and sighed with relief. “That would be amazing. We don’t have the funding to build an entirely new enclosure, and it would be a PR nightmare if anything bad were to happen to this little girl, and since you're members of the Seelie guild, this could actually be great publicity.” He stared out past us and waved at the sky as though it were a sign. “Seelie heroes adopt Cerberus puppy from Jefferson City Zoo.” He paused in thought. “Headline needs a bit of work, but you get the idea.”
I really, really didn’t want to think about what would have happened if I hadn’t offered. As if on cue, the middle head of the puppy reached up to give me a slobbery lick up my right cheek, like she knew I’d just saved her from some awful fate.
“You’re going to be my new best buddy,” I whispered to that one set of soft brown eyes.
“Um, excuse me,” Kalista called out, “your best buddy after me, of course.”
“Sure thing,” I joked with a heavy eye roll. “You know we’re a lot more than buddies, Kal.”
The dwarf went silent, and a bright pink flush spread across her busty chest.
“Cute, Milton,” Ariette giggled as she started to walk away. “Let’s get going. I don’t think I drank enough coffee because my eyes feel like they’re about to droop out of my skull. I want to go back home and take a nap before we attack this problem head-on.”
We said our goodbyes to Victor, who rigorously shook our hands and thanked us profusely for our hard work. His red face was full of admiration as he watched us leave.
“I think you should name her Champ,” Maaren said as we climbed into the van. Even though the puppy was in my arms, the others had a hard time keeping their hands off her soft fur.
“Champ?” Ariette questioned as she made a face of disgust. “That sounds like a name for a boy. What about Courage? It’s so much prettier.”
“That’s totally a boy dog name,” Kalista announced as she revved the engine, but she didn’t suggest anything else.
“What about Storm?” I offered as I watched the puppy spin in circles on the floor of the van. Storm seemed to fit her, and the moment I suggested it, she laid down right in front of me and promptly fell asleep.
“I think she likes that one,” Maaren giggled. “She’s certainly got the energy of a storm.”
“Storm it is, then,” I muttered as I smoothed the fur on top of her head. My heart swelled with an intense feeling of love I’d never felt before, and I just knew that this little puppy was about to be my best friend.
As soon as we got back to the guild, we headed into the control room to debrief Danira. Unfortunately for us, Ilias and his team were also in their corner of the room, and all of them shot us looks of contempt as we skipped to the table, happy to have made some progress in the case of the robbery.
“What is that?” Elvira sneered as Storm bounded into the room in front of us. Her little body ran up to the translucent nymph, and Elvira immediately recoiled.
“Get it away from me!” she shrieked and leapt up onto the desk. “I can’t have my clothes smelling like a wet dog!”
Kalista erupted into a fit of laughter so bad she nearly fell on the floor, and Maaren turned her back to the scene so that she wouldn’t be rude. I stifled my own bout of laughter as I strode up to the nymph. Elvira wore a look of absolute horror as she stared down at the innocent puppy.
Storm seated herself right in front of the table and looked up at Elvira with six woeful eyes, and she whined a little when I picked her up. I couldn’t imagine how someone wouldn’t want to pet this furball.
“Relax, Elvira,” I sighed, “she’s just a puppy.”
“That,” the nymph replied as she pointed an accusatory finger at Storm, “is not a puppy. That is a beast, and it should be locked up.”
“I could say the same thing about you, you know,” I grumbled as I took Storm away from the corner of hatred and over to the round table.
“Somebody has some issues,” Danira stated with a heavy eye roll in Elvira’s direction. “Who isn’t charmed by a three-headed puppy? You can pet one puppy's head, then pet the other puppy's head, then pet the other puppy's head.”
“That was the best part of my day so far!” Kalista cried. “And it’s only nine thirty. Man, Storm, you and I are going to have some fun playing with that nymph!”
“No, you won’t,” Ariette ordered as she smacked the back of the dwarf’s head lightly. “You just need to learn to ignore Elvira and all her stupidity.”
“I can hear you!” Elvira called out. She had lowered herself off the table but kept her eyes fixated on Storm, ready to run if necessary.
“Oh, I know you can, love,” Ariette replied sharply.
“So, what’s this about?” Danira interrupted as she motioned to Storm.
“There was a team this time. One got away with the baby griffin, but we caught the second one before she could take the cerberus. Unfortunately, the zookeeper said the mother wouldn’t take the baby back,” Ariette explained.
Storm wiggled out of my arms and hopped onto the wooden tabletop so she could trot around in a circle and accept pets and kisses from everyone.
“Did you detain the robber?” Danira questioned, her black eye bright with excitement.
“She killed herself before we could bri
ng her in,” I grimaced as I remembered the image of Imposter Amy’s face covered in foam and saliva.
“And she was an Albanian Nymph,” Maaren said darkly.
Danira’s head snapped in the hunter’s direction, and a flurry of thoughts crossed over her face. “But the Albanian Nymphs are--” the commander started.
“Yep,” Ariette said with a frown, “but this one wasn’t. So either someone found a way to manipulate or blackmail this particular Albanian Nymph, or …”
“Or the Albanian Nymphs are not the good Fae we thought they were,” I finished darkly. Then, I reached out a hand and stroked Storm’s silky ears for comfort as tension fell over the group.
“We need to figure out who’s at the top of the food chain,” Danira stated, and then she rubbed her hands over her tired face. “Alright, take two hours. Nap, eat, recover, and then we work our asses off until we figure out who’s leading these robberies.”
Chapter 7
In the two hours Danira gave us to recuperate, I discovered the only drawback to being a puppy parent.
These little ones were full of energy. To make matters worse, Storm had been sleeping for most of our battle with Amy, so she was rearing to play.
When I got back to my room, I made a beeline for my bed. Storm hopped up and sat on the pillow next to me as I slid under the heavy down comforter and closed my eyes. I was so exhausted by our little three a.m. wakeup call that I was almost instantly lulled to sleep by the sound from the beating blades of the fan off in the corner.
But then, just as I slipped into the heavy darkness of sleep, two tiny paws, with extremely sharp claws, pounced on my face.
“Storm!” I spluttered as I tried to push her off me.
Each one of her heads slobbered over a different part of my face, and we were a tangle of human arms and dog heads for almost a full minute before I managed to sit up and grab her body.
“Relax,” I said sternly, and I tried to ooze dominance as I looked down at the puppy. For a moment, she tricked me into thinking it worked. The dog sat there and panted at me, but then her tiny body erupted out of my hands and leapt back into my lap in a ball of squirming, fluffy fur.
