Dervishes Don't Dance: A Paranormal Suspense Novel with a Touch of Romance (Valkyrie Bestiary Book 2)

by Kim McDougall

  “You need me to bring blood?”

  “Please. There’s an all-night butcher in Abbott’s Agora.”

  “I know the place. Hold tight. I’ll be there in forty-five.”

  While I waited, I heated the small amount of pig’s blood I kept on hand and brought it back to where Emil lay propped against my couch.

  “Why does a nice girl like you have blood in her fridge?” Emil wrapped his shaking hands around the warm mug.

  “Vampire slugs.” I pointed to their terrarium across the room.

  “Ugh. Disgusting creatures.” He sipped the warm blood and grimaced. “I don’t believe it, you know.”

  “Believe what?”

  “That I can change the world. I don’t even want to change it. All I want to do is live without people cursing me when I walk by. I want to smile and not have children scream when they see my fangs. I don’t understand it. Trolls and goblins can walk the streets, and people barely glance at them. But not me.” He bowed his head and his ridiculous curls fell into his eyes. In another age, he could have been a movie star with his boyish charm.

  “The animosity towards the opji is deeply rooted.” I laid a hand on his arm. The flesh was unpleasantly cool. “Old prejudices are hard to erase, and the attack this past spring brought all those old fears to the surface. It’s not fair, I know.”

  He peered at me from under long lashes. A blood tear dripped down his cheek and he smiled.

  “You’re nice.” His eyes flicked to the pulse at my neck.

  “Drink your blood. There’s more coming, but that will take the edge off.”

  “Why is that octopus staring at me?” He pointed at Hunter, who leaned halfway out of his tank, as if ready to launch himself at Emil.

  “He’s a pygmy kraken.”

  “There’s a difference?”

  I cringed. Hunter leaped, aiming right for Emil’s face. I caught him, and he splatted around my arm. It was like catching a giant snot ball.

  “Sorry about that.” I dropped Hunter back in the tank. “He’s very protective of me.”

  Emil glanced at Hunter, who now pressed all his tentacles to the glass.

  “You’re lucky to have such good friends.”

  I found some old towels to mop up Emil’s mess, then sat beside him. I wanted to be sure he drank all his blood. The critters were quiet again. Emil took my hand in his and I could still feel the tremors running through him.

  To talk him off his existential cliff, I amused him with stories about my foster critters. We were onto the tale of how I tried to re-home Hunter with a nice dentist, but he kept escaping his tank and scaring the customers.

  “The poor dentist developed a nervous tick,” I said. “He couldn’t sit in a chair or pour his coffee into a cup without checking them first. When Hunter disappeared for a week, a hygienist nearly had a nervous breakdown. That’s when they asked me to take him back. He’s been here ever since.”

  Hunter watched us from his tank as if he knew we were talking about him. Emil laughed. He stroked my wrist with his thumb. I felt that it was a gesture meant to soothe him more than a flirtation, so I let it be. His head drooped to rest on my shoulder.

  And that’s when Mason walked in.

  I jumped up, not sure why I suddenly felt guilty. Mason narrowed his eyes and held up a canvas sack with two jars of blood inside. Emil rose and Mason handed him the bag.

  “I think you should leave now,” Mason said.

  Emil sighed dramatically, bowed over my hand like a royal courtier and kissed it.

  “Thank you, milady. I will not bother your sleep again.” He smiled smugly at Mason and left.

  I rounded on Mason. “You have no right to tell guests in my home to leave!” My raised voice caused a flurry of rustling in the cages. Hunter thrashed around his tank, spilling water on the floor.

  “You’re being reckless again.” Mason’s tone was calm, but he loomed over me, big, dark and menacing. Gita poked her head in from the kitchen, then ran to her closet and slammed the door. Jacoby came to take my hand in solidarity and snarled up at Mason.

  “Jacoby, I can handle this. Why don’t you take Errol outside to your house for the night?”

  Jacoby shifted from foot to foot as if undecided. Then he sighed and left with Errol, slamming the door in protest.

  In the sudden silence, Mason and I glared at each other.

  “He’s opji,” Mason snapped. “They’re all murderers. You were bitten by one, by the gods! You of all people should know how dangerous they are.”

  “Emil isn’t like that.”

  “Why? Because he’s cute and fluffy, like one of your damned rescues? Or are your feelings for him more personal?”

  “How dare you?”

  “Me? If you had a dick, I’d accuse you of thinking with it.”

  “And if you had a heart, I’d accuse you of being jealous.”

  We glared.

  A stray beam of light caught the storm in his eyes. He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me in. Then he kissed me. For the barest second, I held back. His arms circled me like hands holding a butterfly. If I wanted to flee, he would let me. My fingers twined in his hair, and I sunk into the embrace. His grip tightened. My lips parted and met his, kiss for kiss. His tongue slipped inside me like a whisper of passion held in check, like he could lose himself in me if I opened the door.

  I bit him.

  He jerked back, tasting the blood on his lip.

  “About time you gave in to that,” I said.

  His magic pulled at mine like a bow on a violin. He dabbed at his bleeding lip with a thumb.

  “I suppose I deserved that.”

  A slow smile burned in his eyes. I could forgive him a lot for those eyes.

  “I’m tired of your shit.” I knocked his hand off my arm.

  “My shit?” The word sounded odd coming off his tongue. Not that Mason didn’t curse, but he usually did it in old French. My fist grabbed the front of his tailored shirt in a ridiculous show of confidence that I didn’t really feel.

  “Yes, your shit, Mr. Guardian. The shit that makes you look at me with longing one minute and push me away the next. At least Emil has the courage to take what he wants.”

  That stopped him. He stood back. His eyes were not those of an old man. They were neither hard nor angry. They were lost.

  Leaning in, I held my lips against his ear. “You want me. And it scares the crap out of you.” The intensity of my own desire frightened me too.

  He shut me up with another kiss, this one hard and demanding. An animal groan escaped his throat.

  I ground myself against his rock-hard erection. “Feel that? Part of you is still alive, old man.”

  I wanted to wrap my legs around him, to pull him down to the floor and…

  Cold water splashed us and I jerked away from the embrace. Hunter squirted again, making it clear he didn’t want to witness our mating ritual.

  Mason laughed and leaned his forehead against mine. Water dripped down his face.

  “I do want you,” he said. “But when we make love, it won’t be under the gaze of a dozen jealous creatures.”

  “We could go into the bedroom,” I suggested. We looked through the door to see Kur asleep on my bed.

  “You know, my place is very lonely,” he said. “And I think I heard a thunder of dragons calling out in Dorion Park. Maybe Sunday night you could come over. I’ll make you dinner and we can watch for the dragons.”

  “You can cook?”

  He kissed the end of my nose and the feels went right through me.

  “I can cook. I make a mean Bolognese.”

  “Sounds like a date.”

  “It does, doesn’t it?”

  Chapter

  21

  Two days later, I sat in my office staring at my comput
er. I was supposed to be writing a blog post about my grubber encounter, but the screen remained blank, the cursor blinking with unfulfilled promise.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about Mason. We’d left things up in the air, and now I went over the argument in my head in minute detail, second guessing everything I’d said. I flip-flopped between mortification at being so forward and righteous anger at his behavior.

  When a call came through on my widget, I answered it without checking the number.

  The girl’s voice was hysterical, so I didn’t immediately recognize it. I held my widget away from my ear, then put it on speaker, so Gabe could hear too.

  “The takers! They’re here! Oh, God! It was right here, in the window!” Then came muffled sobbing and the sound of a slamming door.

  Gabe watched the widget with raised eyebrows.

  “Betsy? Is that you?”

  “Yes!” Her voice came in a hiss.

  “Where are you?”

  “In the closet in my room,” she whispered. “The takers came back! They took Maeve and now they’ve come back for me!”

  “Stay on the line. I’m coming.”

  It was six o’clock in the evening, and Gabe had been preparing to leave for the day, but he said, “I’ll drive.”

  I agreed. His little silver bullet would get there faster than my truck. As we pulled onto the road, I checked that Betsy was still on the line.

  “I’m here.” She sniffled. “Do you think it can get into my house? Don’t they need to be invited, or something?” I didn’t tell her that was an old myth about vampires.

  “Just hold on tight,” I said. “We’ll be there soon.” Then I grabbed Gabe’s widget and dialed Hub. While it rang, I cycled through the list of detectives I still knew there.

  “Hub dispatch,” said a bored voice.

  “Can I speak to Detective Kesik.” I didn’t think he would be receptive to my call, but I couldn’t think of anyone else.

  “What is it?” came the angry voice.

  “This is Kyra Greene. We met at—”

  “I know who you are.”

  I took a deep, calming breath. “Look, I’m heading to Rockland Road off of Talon Street. You know those takers who aren’t kidnapping fae all over the city? Well, they’re trying to kidnap a woman right now. You can either meet me there, or you can hear about it on the late news.” I hung up.

  Gabe whistled. “I love it when you use your executive voice.”

  “That guy just bugs me. I shouldn’t let him.”

  Gabe barely slowed as we navigated around the mound of vegetation-covered rubble that was once a tunnel cutting through the city. No one bothered to clear it or rebuild because a major ley-line artery ran under it and the magic was unpredictable.

  Ten minutes later we turned onto Rockland. It was dark and quiet. A single street lamp shone from the corner of Talon Street. But as we moved further into the residential area, the light faded.

  “That’s Betsy’s.” I pointed to the house with dark windows. “Drive by it slowly and park up the road.”

  Into the widget, I said, “Betsy, we’re here. I’m going to hang up now so the noise doesn’t spook anyone. Hub is on their way too. You just stay put, okay?”

  I got a tiny “Okay” in return.

  Gabe pulled up to the curb and left the engine running. His fancy car was quieter than a sleeping kitten and no one would hear it. But if we needed to get away fast…I hoped we wouldn’t need to get away fast.

  We stepped out of the car and I whispered, “I miss my sword.”

  The blade had passed its first separation test, and I had taken to leaving it in the umbrella stand. Gabe grinned and popped the trunk.

  “Take your pick.” He flicked open the locks on two large black cases to reveal an array of weapons.

  I gave him the stink-eye. “What are you, some kind of superhero daylighting as an office assistant? Are you going to find a phone booth and change into tights?”

  “Ha ha.” Then he looked at me oddly. “What’s a phone booth?”

  “Never mind.”

  He reached for a knife and tucked it into the back of his jeans. “Cross bow or gun?”

  “Seriously, what do you have all these for?”

  “My family is…violent. These were my first toys.”

  “Is that why you work for me? Are you hiding?”

  He flexed his broad shoulders and I realized how silly that question was. Gabe stood out in a crowd. He turned heads where ever he went. He’d have to go to another ward to hide.

  “Not hiding. Just avoiding. So bullets or arrows?” He held up the gun in one hand and the crossbow in the other.

  “I don’t know. Depends on what we’re dealing with. You take the gun. I’ll take the crossbow.”

  We headed back towards Betsy’s house, keeping to the shadows under the maples that lined the street. The air was still. Nothing moved, not even a leaf. Where the hell was Hub? Detective Kesik was difficult, but I’d expected better.

  Gabe nudged me and pointed. He was going around the back of the house. I nodded and moved across the front yard to peer into the living room window. Nothing moved inside. I mounted two steps leading to the front door and tried the handle. Locked. I hoped that Betsy was still hidden.

  The porch wrapped around the side of the house. Some boards looked rotten, and I avoided those as I crept to the far end and peered around the corner. A tall hedge blocked the view to the neighbor’s and made the small path beside the house pitch black. I inched along, keeping close to the house, until I stood on the edge of the backyard. Ahead of me, a garden shed loomed out of the darkness.

  My heart hammered in my chest. Something moved in the blackness beside the shed. A shadow against the other shadows. I sent out my keening, like a song on the wind, just a gentle nudge to taste the magic of whatever lurked there.

  And what I tasted made me reel back.

  No!

  The shadow lumbered into the yard, heading for the patio door.

  A hand gripped my shoulder, and I jumped, backing into Gabe.

  “There’s a gate on the other side,” he whispered. I can’t get over it without being seen. Did you find anything?”

  I pointed to the patio where the creature was bent to peer into the family room window. It was too big to be human, and it moved with blocky jerks. Just like the gencrew I’d met at the railroad excavation site.

  “What is that?” Gabe asked. I cut him off with a finger to my lips. I had to be sure. I pushed out my keening again and tasted a familiar magic, like burned sugar.

  It was Maeve.

  Just then, she raised a fist and pounded on the window. Betsy screamed from inside. Gabe raised his gun to shoot, but I shoved his arm down and moved us both back into the shadows.

  “Don’t. That’s Maeve, Betsy’s sister.”

  “That thing?”

  “It’s a golem. The takers are snatching the fae to make golems.”

  “How did she get here?”

  “I don’t know. But we’ll need help if we’re to catch her alive.” I looked toward the street. Still no sign of Hub. “Go call Angus or Mason. Get the Guardians here, but be quiet, so we don’t spook her.”

  Gabe nodded and headed back toward the front yard to make his call. I poked my head around the house again. The golem drove a fist through the window, then broke away the rest of the glass. It groaned like a wraith as it tried to clamber inside.

  Betsy was hysterical. I could hear her screaming and crying, and more crashing sounds as she threw things at the monster trying to break into her house. Why hadn’t she just stayed in the closet? By now, lights were coming on in the neighbors’ houses. Just great. I didn’t need more spectators.

  I had to do something, so I raised the crossbow and shot the golem in the butt.

  “
Hey! Over here!” I yelled.

  The golem turned. In the light beside the patio door, I got a good look at its face. Except it had no face, just a general smudge of features—a slight indentation where there should be eyes, a small knob for the nose and a slash for a mouth—all dark red and glistening like wet, unfinished clay. The only distinguishing mark was the symbol cut into its forehead, that stylized “G” I was coming to know too well.

  The mouth opened and a long, mournful wail came out. Then it lurched across the patio toward me.

  Now what? I had nothing to trap it with. I glanced at the garden shed, then ran. Somehow, I had to lure the golem inside the shed and keep it there until backup arrived. I grabbed the door handle and pulled.

  Locked. Damn the gods!

  I turned to find the golem looming over me. It moaned.

  My muscles had flashbacks to the time I fought a rock troll and lost. They seized on me and I stood frozen as the golem grabbed my arm and twisted. The tendons in my shoulder screamed. I hit it over the head with my crossbow, but it dragged me relentlessly toward the house.

  A siren broke the stillness. Hub had finally arrived. The golem didn’t react, but only continued hauling me toward the house.

  Suddenly the backyard filled with piercing light as officers shone flashlights into the gloom.

  “Don’t move! We have you surrounded.”

  I dropped my crossbow. “I’m unarmed. Don’t shoot.”

  The officer shone his flashlight across me and then swung it to shine right into the golem’s face.

  “What the hell is that?” said one cop.

  “Don’t shoot it!” I said, but I was too late. The cop panicked and let off a shot, hitting the golem in the shoulder. It finally let go of my arm. I stumbled back and fell. Pain lanced up my arm as I landed badly.

  The cop kept firing, blasting the golem’s chest, arms and legs, but still it shambled forward.

  “No!” I screamed. It was just a girl! I tried to rise, pushing up with my one good arm.

  A second cop came out of the shadows brandishing a long sword. He was a show-off, dancing around like a ballerina.

  “Stop!” I shouted, scrambling to my feet. He cut off the golem’s arms, then swiped at its leg, cutting deep into the ankle and nearly severing the foot.