Not Just Another Fae (Vegas Fae Stories Book 4) (5 page)

"I'll be right back," she said as she got up,
chuckling.

A few minutes later she returned. Still smiling, she handed
me a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and I quickly dressed, then followed her out
to the kitchen. Martin and Mal were sitting at the table with Charlie nearby.
Sendy and another female Were stood next to them.

"He's alive," Mal quipped as he looked up from the
laptop he'd been typing on.

"Thanks to you guys," I replied.

Martin stood up as I walked over to the table.

"Thank you," I said, grasping his shoulder. "I'm
sorry about your Weres."

"You have found the vile thing. That is thanks enough."
he replied, a fire in his eyes. "As for Darren and Elizabeth, we will
avenge them, as is our right."

"You won’t get an argument from me there," I said,
walking over to start the coffee before sitting down to join them at the table.
"But this is no ordinary creature and we're going to have to learn more
about it if we're going to take it down. Where's Alf, by the way?"

"Out back, still burning what's left of the stuff,"
Mal said. "He said he wanted to make sure it was all destroyed."

"Okay," I said. Then I turned to the other Were in
the room. Like Jen, she was lithe and athletic, but had light brown hair with
green eyes. "And you are?"

"This is Devon," Martin replied for her. "She
is a tracker and accompanied me this morning."

"A pleasure," I said before turning back to Martin
"So what did you guys find out there?"

Martin nodded toward Devon.

"Not much," she replied. "There were a few
tracks, mostly yours, as were the blood stains. There was no sign of the
creature, but it had rained again this morning. We did recover this, though."
Reaching into a back pocket she tossed me something black and as I caught it I
recognized my cell phone. "I found it out in the desert. Surprisingly, it
still works. It was thrown quite a distance from where you fell."

"It's a Sonim XP7," I replied. Covered with traces
of dried mud, it was still functioning. I placed it on the table. "I got
it from Siegfried and Michael over at the Neptune. It's supposed to be
indestructible. I guess they weren't kidding."

"Tell us what happened," Martin said. "How
did you encounter it?"

I repeated what we'd gone through yesterday, leaving out
only the part about Charlie having some kind of genetic memory. Instead, I told
him we were just searching, as I'd told Sendy to tell him we might do. I
explained that we had not expected to encounter the creature itself. Rather,
we'd gone hoping only to find more clues that the Weres had indeed continued on
up into the mountains.

"So how do we kill it?" Martin asked.

"I don't know yet," I replied. "Let me go get
Alf. He seems to be the only one that knows anything about this thing." I
got up from the table and walked into the backyard, heading for the fire pit in
the corner. Alf was hovering next to it, watching the dying flames.

"How's it coming?" I asked as I walked up to him.
He was buzzing around my fire pit, occasionally stirring the flames.

"Just a wee bit longer," he replied. "There
must be nothing left."

"I'm not even going to ask how you know all this."

"Perhaps you liked me better when I played the common Imp,"
he replied, with a touch of sarcasm, as he turned to face me.

"That's not what I'm saying," I countered. "And
you know it."

"My apologies, Robert," he said. "This Demon's
discovery here is... unexpected."

"Yeah, well... It hasn’t exactly been good for me
either," I replied. "Any idea what it's doing here, or better yet,
how to kill it?"

"No. But why it is here concerns me the most," he
said, turning back to stir the ashes again with a poker I kept near the pit. "Gaea's
warning to your daughter must surely be part of it. And killing it? That will
not be easy."

"That's what I was afraid of," I said. "Come
back to the house when you're finished. We need to figure out our next move."
He nodded. I turned and walked back toward the house. There was something still
bothering me about the creature's attack, something that wasn't right, but I'll
be damned if I could put my finger on what it was.

Martin was waiting for me at the sliding glass door to the
kitchen.

"Is there something else I should know about?" he
asked before I could go back into the house.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm not sure what you
mean."

"Is there a problem with the others that I should know
about?" he asked. "I ask this only because you notified us first. Not
that we aren't allies but..."

"Oh," I said, shaking my head. "Jeez, Martin.
No, no. To be perfectly honest, I don't even remember doing it. But as you
know, things in my world are a little... complicated at the moment and I think
I just wanted to keep the knowledge of my injuries as quiet as possible. Knowing
that you had a doctor of a sort... Well, I guess I figured you were my best bet
to keep it quiet. Even though I have to tell you, it was Charlie that brought
up the fact that Jen was a doctor."

"I understand," he agreed. "It is a shame we
have to worry about such things. I appreciate your trust in us, and your
hound's as well. Your daughter's rise to the throne has many of the Fae unsure
of your exact position, not to mention their feelings about what you did for
the Lilin. But I have not forgotten what you did for me, and for that you will
always be a friend to the pack. None of my Weres will say anything. But what of
Siegfried?"

"Thank you," I replied. "I was actually going
to call him in a bit, and my daughter as well. We're going to need their help
if we're going to defeat that thing. Which reminds me. Have you discussed the
missing Weres with him?"

"Not yet," he replied. "I would have
requested his assistance today, but your situation put that on hold. Tradition
demands that we avenge our fallen without haste. But in this case, I agree. We
cannot do this alone.

Siegfried was the head of corporate security at the Neptune's
Landing and the defacto
go to
guy for any Fae related problems, not to
mention the direct representative of the Milagres. He was also one of my
closest friends and I winced when I thought of the fact that for some reason I
hadn’t called him for help first. But then again, I hadn’t even called my own
Fae. What did that say about me?

Martin slid open the door and followed me back in the
kitchen to the table where the others sat. Everyone was still there, except
Alf, who was still outside.

"I appreciate what you all did for me today," I
said as I stood next to the table. "I won't forget it." Then I turned
to Martin. There was something I had to say first. It was traditional and had
to be said in public, or at least in front of others, so now was a good a time
as any.

"Pack Master, since ancient times have our woods been
your home and your pack, our allies. I thank you for your assistance today and
in the future, as well as your friendship. As it has always been, so it will
always be." Then I bowed.

"So it will always be," he repeated as he stood up.
Then he bowed back and addressed the two other Weres at the table. "Now
you see why I told you that this Fae was different. He remembers the old ways.
That, and his battle with our enemy, is thanks enough. Now, formalities aside, let
us move on to more important things." He sat down and turned his attention
back to me. "How do we kill this thing?"

"We need more information about this Gallu before we do
anything," I said as I sat down. "Charlie, would you mind seeing if
Alf's about done?"

He didn’t reply, but went out through the doggie door into
the backyard.

"I did a little research while you were outside,"
Mal said, tapping on his laptop. "There's quite a bit about the Minotaur
on the web. But there's not much about these Gallu. There is a reference to some
Sumerian Demons by that name. Some were also possibly half bull. According to
Babylonian legend, some are animal shaped Demons. The Gallu are said to be the
offspring of Hell, whatever that means. Apparently, they dragged people off to
the underworld. There was also a note that you could appease them by
sacrificing a lamb or goat.

"There's also a reference to a particular nasty one
named Asag, who led an army of Rock Demons. He was supposed to be so ugly that
his looks would boil fish alive. He was killed by a Sumerian God with an
enchanted mace. That's about all that's out there. Not much to go on."

"What the hell is a Sumerian Demon doing here?" I
said aloud.

"That is the question, isn't it," I heard Alf say
as he came back in. "Because there is no reason that it should be."

"What exactly does that mean?" I asked.

"Such Demons have not been seen for millennia," he
said. "Their kind and the civilization they spawned faded from existence
long before
The Fall
."

The Fall
was the end of the Fae as we know them from
legends and myths. The High Fae, or the Gods as they came to be called, fought
amongst themselves until none were left. Kind of a Greek and Roman Gods version
of
Ragnarök
, although the Norse Gods seem to have suffered the same
fate.

"That doesn’t really help us," I pointed out. "If
the Fae can still be here after
The Fall
, not to mention the end of the
Empires that believed in them, it stands to reason that they can be here as
well."

"So... What?" Mal asked. "You think there's
some Babylonian Demon world out there like the Fae have that it came from?"

"I don't have a clue," I replied. "But it had
to come from somewhere."

"Excuse me," Devon chimed in. "You said they
were the offspring of Hell and dragged people back to the Underworld. Could it
have come from there?"

"That seems the most likely explanation," Alf
said.

"Perhaps it escaped," Martin said. "I do not
claim to know much Fae history outside our own, but I do remember that there are
many realms called Hell in the Underworld. It is said that most can no longer
be entered, their doorways long closed. But does it matter? All we really need
to know is how to kill it."

He was right, well, about the Hell part, anyway. Dante said
there were nine circles of Hell and even described them in his book. Maybe that
was true for the Christian Hell, but that was just the start. While many
versions of Hell were places of punishment, others were simply places for
people to go when they died. Hades, was a good example. While those that were
judged evil were sent to Tartarus, others simply lived on in Hades, their
memories of their past life erased. The Vikings had their own version, with
multiple places as well. Your path dependent on how you lived your life, and
how you died.

"I concur, Martin," I replied. "And I hope
you're right. Anyway, for now can we agree it's going to take more than just us
to do that?"

"As much as I hate to rely on others," he said. "Yes.
What are you thinking?"

"Well," I began. "I need to talk to Siegfried
and Nikki for a start. But I don’t want to leave this thing unwatched. I'm
guessing here, but it seems to me your missing Weres had to be able to sense
it, or they would have never travelled that far. Does that seem reasonable?"

"Perhaps," Martin said. "They knew the rules
and were not the reckless type."

"Unless they were being chased by it," Jen said.

"Or it led them," Devon added.

"There was no scent of it until it appeared,"
Charlie said, not mentioning his recall of genetic memory when he found the
fur.

"Okay, let's deal with what we do know." I turned
to Mal. "I know it didn’t like my sword's electricity, so maybe lightning
keeps it away as well. We can assume the Weres encountered it on Friday. The
storm didn't move in until Saturday night and there was no sign of it until
after the storm cleared, based on Charlie's tracking. What's the weather look
like for the next couple of days?"

Mal tapped a few keys on his keyboard.

"Looks like we're in for a few more days of wet weather,
until this system moves out," he said.

"What about lightning?" I asked.

"Expected," he replied.

"Then, if I'm right, we should have a few days to work
with," I said, then turned to Martin. "Can you set up a few watchers
to keep an eye out in the area? They'll have to be careful, and I'd recommend
staying on the roads. We still don’t know what draws this thing. There wasn't
any sign of it until it went after Charlie."

"Friday night, Saturday morning sounds about right,"
Jen said. "At least based on the condition of the... the parts you found."

Martin slammed his hand down on the table.

"I am sorry," he said, composing himself. "It
is not our way to simply sit back and watch. Especially since this beast has
killed two of the pack. But we will do this because we must."

"All right," I replied. "Sendy, will the
weather hamper you if I ask you to do a flyover every hour or so?"

"No, my Lord," she replied.

"Okay then. Mal, can you do some more research on this
thing? While you're at it, see if there's ever been any history of monsters in
the mountain areas. I seem to recall some Indian legends up north. Maybe
there's something else we should be looking at."

"Sure thing," he replied.

"Then I guess we're done here," I said as I stood.
"You're welcome to use my place if you need anything. I'll make sure the
wards let any of your Weres in if they need it. Other than that, shy of this
thing making another appearance, let's talk again tomorrow. In the meantime,
I'll contact some of the other Fae and see if they know anything."

When they were gone, I rummaged through my cabinet, settling
on a
Battlestar Galactica
mug that said simply,
Frak
, and filled
it. I figured that was as good a word as any to sum up the way my day was
going. Then I turned to Charlie.