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Turning around, he walked back across the lakebed. It seemed to take forever without using something to drag himself along. Once he emerged from the surface, he stalked forward, looking for his friend and the ranger. At some point, he’d gotten off course and emerged about a hundred yards from where his friend waited by the car. The ranger stood next to Tomi.
Cold water dripped from his bones and robes as he walked along the beach. Pulling in a bit of shadow to shroud himself, he made for the ranger. He had some questions for the fae about this creature.
Before he let the shadows slough off, he reached out and found Rory’s life thread. The thread felt rich and potent in his fingers, extending back a long way. The flavor of it felt different than that of a creature from this world, from Earth.
Stepping out of the shadow, Dax pulled hard on the fae’s life thread. Rory squealed, staggering toward Dax.
“Fae, you’re going to tell me what kind of creature this is.”
“It’s just a dangerous beast from the fae realm. It’s dangerous, but nothing special…”
As anger rose in Dax, blue flames appeared in the empty sockets of his skull. “Nothing special?” He increased the hollow, eerie harmonics in his voice. “It steals the soul of its victims by pinning it to their body. It’s a horror.” He twisted Rory’s life thread between his thumb and forefinger, eliciting a scream.
Rory writhed but couldn’t move, gasping air in desperately.
“Dax, I’m sure he’ll explain more fully now that he comprehends where he stands,” Tomi said, as his eyes danced back and forth between Rory and Dax.
He stared at the fae for a moment, letting the flames in his eyes burn hotter for a moment before relenting, though he didn’t let go of the fae’s life thread. “Speak.”
Rory nodded hastily. “It’s a very dangerous animal.” Dax squeezed the thread again and Rory squealed. “OK. OK. It’s—I don’t know the proper translation—but maybe…eater of souls?”
“Why is a creature such as this allowed to exist?”
“They’re carefully controlled. One has never escaped before.”
Dax let the flames return to his eyes. “That’s not what I asked.”
Rory gulped and nodded. “They’re used as a form of execution for the most heinous of crimes.”
“You…you use those things to punish people?” Tomi shivered. “That’s fucked up, man.”
Dax agreed. Death was supposed to be a transition point—a mercy to the aged or the body too damaged to heal and freedom for the soul. To kill someone then rob them of this was truly monstrous. He had no idea how sentient the beast was, but the ones who used it to punish their criminals were truly the monsters.
“It is, Tomi. I could feel the torment in the man’s life thread. The creature not only eats the soul, it feasts on the terror and pain it inflicted on the body and then the soul. To willingly inflict that on someone makes the sentencer just as vile as the creature used to carry out the punishment.” He sighed. “But right now, that thing is in our realm and who knows how many people it has feasted on. Our priority is to remove it from our city. Then we can send our fae friend here packing with a message for his masters.”
He released Rory’s life thread with a shove, and the fae stumbled backwards, falling on his ass. Ignoring Rory’s whimpers, Dax strode up to Tomi’s car and grabbed his clothes. With a quick shift back to his human form, he rushed to put his clothes on. Though he’d shifted from his skeletal form dry, the chill of the water still lingered, raising goosebumps on his skin as he scrambled to dress.
“Good thing it’s dark out, or the glare off your pasty white ass would blind us all,” Tomi teased.
Dax shook his head and raised his hand over his shoulder, lowering all his fingers save for his middle one. Over the years since becoming a human, he’d grown quite fond of the gesture, especially since he wasn’t the most loquacious of individuals.
Tomi leaned on the car over the driver’s side door. “While you were out super skinny dipping, Boudreaux called. He’s off work.”
“Did you explain the situation?”
Nodding, Tomi stepped back and opened the door. “Sure did. At least what I knew at the time. He’s going to check in with a couple contacts and get back to me.”
Dax sank into his seat and caught Tomi’s phone.
“Don’t want to give the cops around here reason to pull me over for a DWB.” Tomi buckled his seatbelt and turned the car on.
“Dee-dubya-bee?” Rory asked as he got situated behind Tomi.
“Driving while Black.” Tomi put the car in reverse and drove away from Redemption Reservoir.
Dax snorted quietly, shaking his head. At least one soul would get a chance of redemption, whatever that was. That had to count for something.
Chapter Six
