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“Alright. My contact is waiting just ahead. So when he comes out, just remain calm. He won’t hurt you, but he’s a wary fellow.”
Dax’s curiosity piqued as he followed Boudreaux into the shadows. For a brief moment, he grew concerned about following a virtual stranger into a dark and largely abandoned part of town at this time of night. But Manman Delphine hadn’t steered him wrong yet, and she’d hooked them up with Boudreaux, who’d been an enormous help previously. Forging forward, he caught up to Boudreaux as he turned down another alley and waited at the line where the light of dim and distant streetlights met shadow.
“Boudreaux?” A high, squeaky voice drifted out of the shadows.
“Yup. It’s me. I’ve brought the people I mentioned.” He turned around. “Be calm and hold still.”
Anxiety seeped in Dax’s veins as he waited to find out why. Squeaks and scrabbling feet drifted toward them until the shadows on the ground undulated. At first one, then another rat poked its head over the line of shadows, raising their whiskered noses to the air to sniff.
After the first few determined it was safe and strode into the dim light, more followed, cautiously approaching Boudreaux then the rest of them. With Rory and Tomi, the rats walked right up to them, even venturing to reach up and prop themselves on the shoes of the subjects of their curiosity. Several approached Dax, but stopped, none coming closer than a foot away.
More rats surged out of the shadows and surrounded them. Tomi, doing his best to stay calm, looked around frantically, though he didn’t move his feet, even a little. Rory seemed delighted by the little creatures, some less than little, chuckling in delight as a few rats climbed up his coat to sniff under his hat. None of the rats breached the halo around Dax, though they didn’t seem to be agitated or particularly scared.
“What a curious trio,” the high voice said. “Very curious.”
A moment later, a short, scruffy man with a scraggly beard stepped into the light. He wore clothes that were too big for him, though they looked in OK repair and didn’t seem too terribly dirty despite the owner looking like an unhoused person.
He pointed toward Rory. “You they like, despite never meeting anyone like you before. Although…” He looked back over his shoulder and paused as if listening, then nodded and faced them again.
“You, they can sense your discomfort and fear.” He grinned at Tomi, a spark of wildness tinting his eyes. “They won’t harm you. They sense no cruelty in you.” He stepped closer to Boudreaux. “You bring me interesting people to meet.”
“I’m glad you approve.”
“But you”—the short man pointed toward Dax without directly leveling a finger at him—“they have a healthy respect and fear of. Usually fear drives them to hide or attack. You, though… They don’t wish to insult you. Very curious indeed. I will follow the judgement of my little friends.”
“I’m Dax.” He laid a hand on his chest then pointed to his companions. “This is Tomi, and that’s Rory. He’s the one who needs the help.”
“You may call me ‘The Rat.’” He chittered a high-pitched laugh that almost sounded like a squeaking rat.
Dax nodded, acknowledging the name. “Please to meet you, The Rat.”
He brought the tips of his fingers together, tapping them against each other repeatedly and chuckling. “Yes. Yes. I like that. The Rat. Perhaps I should refer to myself in the third person.” A rat scrabbled up his pants and sweater to curl up along his neck. “What do you think, my little friend? Should The Rat refer to himself in the third person?”
Dax blinked. It almost looked as if the rat had shaken its head.
“No? Very well. I shall remain in the first person.” He laughed again. “So Boudreaux tells me you’ve lost a little pet, eh?”
Dax held up his hand to stop Rory from speaking. “I don’t know if I’d call it a ‘pet.’ It’s a horror that feeds upon the souls of its kills, and we need to get it out of our city before it gets loose again and runs amok.”
“Amok? Amok, you say? Hmm.” He scratched at his chin. “We don’t like amok. We like tranquility, don’t we, my little friends?”
The thought of amokness sent a shiver of consternation through the horde of rats. A rat, larger than most, pushed its way through its fellows to sniff at Rory, climbing up his leg until it sat on his shoulder, sniffing at his face and hair.
“What now?” The Rat tilted his head, looking at Rory. “Is your lost friend like you?”
“Yes. She is a fae ranger, like me. We are hunters seeking to return this beast to our realm.” Rory reached up and scratched the rat behind its ears.
“Fae? Interesting. Interesting, indeed. Hmm. My little friend says he has come across one smelling as you do. And a creature with a hungry maw that devours.” The Rat and the rat on Rory’s shoulder shivered, the gesture rippling out from them in waves. “I think I know where to look next. There is one who seeks creatures such as your beast and your friend. One who thinks magical beings are things to possess. He is a cruel man, a rich man, a connected man. He is known as ‘The Collector.’”
Chapter Seven
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Tomi called from the front of Boudreaux’s black Sprinter van.
“This seems like the fastest way to get into The Collector’s compound.” Dax lifted his hands to show the cuffs bound around his wrists. He didn’t like being bound, but he wanted to reassure his friend. “These are of no moment.”
“But we don’t know what kind of hardware he has in there. How many goons. He could have magical shit that we don’t know about that could hurt you.”
Tomi’s concern warmed his heart. He was Dax’s only friend, though he felt more a part of the family, especially as much as Mama Adele doted on him, trying to fatten him up or at least take the edge of his “scrawny ass” as she liked to call it. They’d been the first people Dax had met when he landed in Red City to start his banishment. They’d saved each other, and now they were all inexorably linked.
