Mid-Century Monster, page 12
part #3 of Solstice Properties Mystery Series
Since someone in the neighborhood had shot Juan, there was no way she was going to let EEEK come and try to track Chad. “No, sweetie, you get ready for bed and we’ll be home in a little while. Your father and I will be sure to come give you a goodnight kiss.”
“Tell Dad, no slobber. He did that once, and I haven’t forgotten. He can be worse than a Saint Bernard.”
Cin wasn’t going to admit that she wasn’t real fond of Chad slobbering over her when he was in wolf form either. “Okay. He’s going to have to change before he can drive home anyway.”
“Fine. I’ll get ready for bed, but I’ll still be up until Char’s here and going to bed too.” She ended the call, still in a huff.
Even as they got older, the two girls could be little brats at time and were always worried that one was going to get more attention than the other.
20
Cin pulled her small flashlight out of her purse and headed for the steps going down into the root cellar. If Chad or Char had scared the thing under the house, there was a good chance it had been there before taking off across the yard.
The door was open; it had been a couple of days, and she couldn’t remember if she and Marzie had left it open, or closed it the last time they’d been down there. She tended to close doors, particularly ones at houses they were working on.
“Mom, it stinks down here,” Char said just a couple of steps behind her.
“Yeah, it’s part of what told us there was something living down here.” Cin panned her light around, wishing she had RJ’s bigger, brighter light. Everything looked the same way it had when she’d been there during the day light. The only real difference was the shadows felt longer and deeper.
“What are we looking for?” Char had her phone out and hit the flashlight app.
“Not totally sure,” Cin admitted. “Something that wasn’t here the last time I was down here. Anything that will help us figure something out.”
“Other than that thing needs a serious bath, I can’t tell anything.” Char wrinkled her nose. “Seriously, Mom, it reeks worse than some of EEEK’s cooking experiments.”
“Your sister’s cooking isn’t bad.” Even as she said it, Cin knew what her eldest was talking about. EEEK had recently begun trying to find new and interesting food combinations, not all of which were edible, and a few had driven the rest of the family out of the house to find meals at restaurants where the recipes had been tried and tested before being served.
“Oh, come on.”
“Focus on what we’re doing.” Cin headed up the stairs. “We’ve got something nesting down here and need to figure out how to deal with it.”
Char nodded. “Right. I doubt even Dad’s going to be able to drive it off. There’s something holding it here.”
“You’re sure?” Cin stopped just shy of the door. She and her mother had been over the root cellar looking for anything magical. There hadn’t been anything that caught their attention. It didn’t make any sense, unless what was binding the thing to the house wasn’t under the house, but somewhere else.
“Yeah. Rocky and I both felt something magical, almost like a chain or leash tethering it here. It upset Rocky. They don’t like feeling like other creatures are being controlled either by magic or technology.” Char looked up the stairs. “We’d need to be close to it to be able to really see it—”
“And be able to find some way to break it,” Cin finished off for her. “Okay, let’s do some more looking around, see if we can find anything else. Maybe something outside the yard.” Remembering that Juan had been shot somewhere in the neighborhood, Cin wasn’t sure about using a flashlight to check out the area, particularly with Char along.
“I’ve got an idea.” Cin turned off her flashlight and stuck it in her purse. “Do you remember the spell for night sight?”
Char grinned. “Well, yeah, that one’s cool. Are we going to stalk around the neighborhood then?”
Cin nodded. “But we’ve got to be on guard. Someone around here shot one of the reno guys and put his body in the dumpster.”
Char pursed her lips and looked around. “And I thought this was a fairly nice part of town.”
“It is.” Cin visualized the spell for night sight, thankful it didn’t have any physical components and whispered it to the night wind. She closed her eyes and when she opened them, the backyard was an odd mix of shadows and heat signatures. Each blade of grass gave off a little glow all its own. They varied depending on how far along it was in dying for the winter. During the summer they’d have glowed brighter, both with the sun’s remaining heat, and the life force coursing through them.
“This is always so cool,” Char whispered. “I wish we used this one more often.”
“We’re not outside after dark all the time or we might.” Cin headed for the back gate that would let them out into the alley.
There were a lot of ways magic made their life easier. Even little things like better night vision than using flashlights were a plus. But Cin understood how technology was the great equalizer in their world. Magic was limited to people with the right bloodlines. Her family could trace their magic back to ancient Europe, and probably farther if she or her daughters cared to go over and dig through ancient records. But people who didn’t have the gift in their genes had to rely on things like flashlights to see in the dark. Flashlights were also easier even for the magically blessed. If they hadn’t been worried about possibly being shot, the odds were, they’d have relied on the more common form of light in the dark.
“I guess we don’t know what we’re looking for, do we?” Char kept her voice low.
Cin was thankful her daughter understood the need for subtlety as they made their way down the alley. “Hopefully we’ll know it when we see it.”
Not wanting to go peering over people’s fences without having a search warrant, Cin kept them in the middle of the alley. They moved slowly and purposefully down the space that was sometimes full of weeds and other overgrowth, and more often than not, cleared by homeowners who both cared and had the spare time to make sure the back of their properties were as tidy as the fronts.
When they reached the dumpster where Juan had been found, she paused and looked around a little more intently, wondering if there might still be signs around that the police had missed.
“Ah, Mom, is that glow on the side of the dumpster what I think it is?” Char pointed at a spot where a warm yellow liquid had been recently splashed.
Cin nodded. “Probably.”
“You don’t think Dad stopped and did that, do you?”
“No.” Chin chuckled. “I think he went while we were at the hospital. Plus he was chasing something, he wouldn’t stop in the middle of a chase to mark something like a dumpster.” She smiled harder as she wondered how many werewolves spent lots of time marking things around their territory. Maybe, one night, when there was nothing else going on, she’d ask Chad if he indulged in marking things around their neighborhood to let any werewolves, or other shifters who were passing through, know that Cottonwood was his town.
“Then maybe our strange creature stopped here on the way to the house.” Char stared at the spot for a moment longer. “Or it could be just one of the neighborhood dogs.”
“That’s possible too.” Cin turned down the alley. The next little bit was a lot rougher than the part between the reno house and where they stood.
Char pointed toward the open lot as they passed it. “Strange that there’s not a house there.”
Cin stopped and looked at the overgrown space. “Or a fence. I’m fairly sure all the lots around here are owned by someone, and this one, if it doesn’t have a house on it, then it should be part of one of the lots on either side of it. Let’s check it out.”
The weeds were high and starting to dry for winter as they walked from the alley into the lot. The drying weeds, like the grass at the reno house weren’t as bright to her night sight as they would be at the height of summer. Underfoot, years of dried growth crunched as they walked along. The weeds and undergrowth beneath the trees that dominated the lot made it hard to move quietly or easily through the lot.
“Mom, do you think this place would make a good home for something that liked living under the house, but wanted a place a bit more open?” Char seemed a little put off about forcing her way through the thick foliage.
“Might make a good summer home.” Cin glanced back toward the alley. It wasn’t far from the reno. Maybe whatever they were after spent time under the house during more inclement weather and then enjoyed the wilder, more natural environment of the empty lot. That would explain why it wasn’t always under the house. If the magic holding it there was like some kind of leash, maybe it had a long distance it could travel before it was jerked back to the house. That was a particularly evil sort of magic, denying the creature freedom while giving it just enough ability to move around to show it what it was missing.
“Mom, look over here.” Char drew Cin’s attention away from speculation.
“What do you have, Char?” Cin stepped through the undergrowth carefully as to not disrupt any nest of little things that may be living there, and not to tear up her jeans and legs on the briars and thorns barely visible in the strange way the night vision spell showed her the world.
“Maybe a nest of some sort.” Char squatted down and stared. “It’s too big to be a mouse, rabbit, or fox, I think.”
Setting the roll of Chad’s clothes down, Cin knelt next to her. There was a rounded-out ball of twigs, branches, with a few pieces of cloth and even scraps of wood. Then a flash of yellow caught her attention.
“Well, this is interesting.” She reached in and pulled out a hammer. It had RJS engraved on the head just off the claw. “The thing must be fairly strong to have carried the hammer from the reno house all the way out here.”
Rocking back on her heels, Cin pulled out her phone and snapped off a couple of pictures. “Maybe we need to see about getting a biologist to look at these and see what they come up with.”
“A trip to the college?” Char stood and glanced behind them. “Someone’s coming.”
Gripping the hammer, Cin straightened and stared toward the alley as a huge black wolf trotted past them, heading toward the reno house. He took a couple of steps and whipped his head around. A soft growl rose out of him.
“It’s okay, Chad.” Cin kept her voice even. In the past year, going to the equivalent of werewolf therapy during the full moons, Chad had gained a lot of control over his wolf, but there was always a small possibility he could be dangerous, particularly if he thought anyone he cared about was in trouble.
A knowing nod ended his growl. He walked carefully through the overgrown lot to Cin. Rubbing up against her legs, he nearly knocked her over.
She ran her hands through the thick fur of his ruff. The first time she’d done that, it had been much softer than a normal canine. Even after years of dealing with his wolf, she was still amazed by the softness of his fur. “I brought your clothes.”
He licked her hand, then glanced at the roll of clothes at her feet. After a moment he shimmered. To the night sight spell, it was much brighter than it normally was. A glow surrounded him and his fur melted back into his skin and within seconds, Chad sat on the ground, naked.
Char spun around and looked the other way. “Dad, warn me. Geeez.” After a moment, her shoulders relaxed. “Is it just me, or are you getting faster at shifting?”
Cin unrolled the bundle and handed Chad his underwear and pants. “She’s right. I guess I haven’t been paying a lot of attention, but you are getting better.”
Chad slid his jeans up over his muscular legs. “The answer is the same you always give the girls, practice makes perfect.” He fastened his jeans and reached for his shirt. “I’m not nearly as fast as Samuel, the Alpha in Denver. His shifting is like a flowing of water. One minute he’s one form and the next he’s the other. I’m not there yet.” He yanked the shirt over his head and down his firm chest. “One of these days.”
“It’s safe.” Cin tapped Char’s shoulder. “So what did you find?”
“That thing’s fast. I still don’t know what it is.” Chad ran his hand through his hair, returning it to a little sense of order. “It knows this area better than I do. It made for the river, always a block or more ahead of me. If its scent wasn’t so distinctive, I’d have lost it at the first block. There, was some oil and other waste along the river. It used that to cover its scent.”
“So it’s smart too?” Cin held up RJ’s hammer.
Chad nodded. “More than just an animal. What we don’t know is if it started out as something less than it is now.”
“Why do you say that?” Cin glanced back at the nest they’d found.
“Part of that is the scent. At times, it was almost that of a coyote, and at other times it was like a primate.” Chad pursed his lips and shook his head. “I can’t put my finger on it.”
“This nest looks more primate to me, than coyote.” Cin pointed at the ball of twigs and stuff Char had found.
Char cocked her head as she looked back at it. “What if someone used magic to make something new? Is that even possible?”
“Like some kind of Frankenstein’s monster?” Chad squatted near the nest and took a deep breath. “This is definitely its nest. It smells like the same thing under the house.”
“Not exactly like Frankenstein’s creation,” Char corrected. “This isn’t humanoid, it’s definitely animal of some kind. But even then, I haven’t seen anything like it in the magical books. Grandma might know.”
“We’ll ask her when we get home, or tomorrow.” Cin glanced at the alley. “I think we need to head home. If we hang out too long, people might start wondering why we’re here.”
“Or start shooting at us.” Chad stood and looked around. “A couple of the neighbors are up and heading toward the alley. We might be better off heading toward the sidewalk and walking around the block to the cars.”
Cin’s senses, even with the night vision spell, weren’t as good as Chad’s. She nodded. “Sounds good.” For the first time in days, she felt like they were making some headway on figuring out what was going on. If they were dealing with some kind of mixed-up creature, a chimera, they would need to catch it and figure out what to do with it. If it was smart, that was going to complicate things…a lot.
21
“Okay, girls, when you get home from school today, I’d like you to do a bit of research for me.” Cin folded their lunch bags closed. For years she had insisted on making the girls lunch, even when they complained that there was plenty of good food to eat at school and she didn’t need to fix them anything, she’d kept it up. There was just something satisfying about providing her daughters good food.
EEEK heaved and sigh. “Mom, what are you going to do when we’re both gone and you have to do your own research?”
Cin pushed EEEK’s lunch across the bar to her. “I’ll go down into the workroom, pull up the computer and say a quiet ‘thank you’ to the darling daughters who managed to index all the books in our library and get everything in an easy-to-access database.”
“See, EEEK, she’s got an answer for everything.” Char took her lunch and slipped it into her backpack. “What are we looking up, Mom?”
“Two things.” Cin grabbed a paper towel and cleaned the bread crumps and chip dust off the counter. “We need some magical traps we can set up at the reno to trap the creature, and I want you to do a bit of research on chimeras.”
EEEK wrinkled her nose. “What’s a chimera?”
“It’s an animal like a griffon, or cockatrice that’s made up of parts of other animals.”
“Griffon and dragons are cool, but cockatrices are gross.” EEEK frowned. “Why are we looking them up?”
“Not them specifically,” Cin started but then Char butted in.
“You want us to see if there’s any spells on making them. Chimeras.” Char threw her hand up. “I should’ve thought of that last night. Yes, that’s exactly what Dad was describing. A mixing of creatures. Having a name will make looking things up easier.” The alarm on Char’s phone began to chirp. “Come on, EEEK. We’ve got to get going if we’re going to pick up Pip and get you to school.”
EEEK stopped at the door and turned back to Cin. “We’ll do your homework, Mom. But I want to help set the magical traps. It’s not fair to have to do the hard work and not get to do the cool part too.”
“Okay, deal.” Cin gave her a thumbs up and finished cleaning off the counter as the girls headed out. Seconds later the sound of Char’s car starting heralded their departure. Cin was happy with the way her children were turning out. Sure, they might require a bit more negotiation than most kids, but that was good. She and Chad were doing a good job preparing them for life.
Every time Cin wandered the hallways of Cottonwood College she always thought that she hadn’t prepared properly for them. Were there going to be tests, even after she cleared college so long ago? Sometimes the basic fears of life haunted her, even after years of escape.
Earlier in the morning, she’d managed to find a zoology teacher who agreed to talk to her about some of the local flora and fauna. Even with the office number, Cin was still trying to figure out how to locate the room she needed to be in, and there were only another five minutes before she was going to be late for their appointment.
Two more turns and she finally found the room she was searching for. She hoped that two minutes early wasn’t too much. Back during her own college days some of the professors had been so focused on promptness that even being early wasn’t good. But she wasn’t a student anymore, so she knocked on the door.
“Come in,” a man called from within.
Cin pushed the door open and put on her best smile, wondering as she often did how Chad managed to always be so charming. “Hi, Dr. Avi?”
“Yes, Mrs. Kilkari, I believe it was.” A tall gangly man stood up behind a desk that was the only neat spot in the room. It was still piled high with stacks of papers, but the area in the center, where a laptop was open, lay clear of clutter.
