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“One and the same.” She pushed back the hood of the cloak and I gasped. Truly, Elder Fae.
Her face was distorted—or at least by my view. Terribly wide at the eyes, it narrowed to a sharp point at the chin. Gnarls dotted her face and neck, like old knots on trees, only created from flesh.
Her features were almost flat—her nose a pale little bump in the middle of her face. Wide anime eyes reminded me of the Cheshire Cat. Her lips were thin, almost non-existent, and when she smiled, bone-sharp teeth, like polished arrowheads, gleamed in a long row across her upper and lower gums. The woman could probably chew through metal with that set of choppers.
She cocked her head to one side, so much like an owl that I felt like a mouse hiding in the grass.
“Vampyr?”
She didn’t seem to be talking to me but reached out and put one long, jointed finger against my arm, then pushed. Hard. A shot of electricity raced through me—unpleasant, to say the least.
“Vampyr.” She seemed satisfied.
“Youch! What did you . . .” I stopped myself. It was not wise to ask unnecessary questions of the Elder Fae, that much I knew from my school days. And why she was shooting energy bolts through me wasn’t of particular interest right now, not unless it promised to prove fatal. “Ivana Krask, I presume.” No questions, just statements.
“Ivana Krask.” She tipped her head to the side again, and the owl I’d heard earlier flew down to land on her shoulder. “I am the Maiden of Karask. What do you want from me?”
Of course! The Maiden of Karask was one of the Elder Fae. She was famous for eating children, luring men to their grisly deaths on the moors, and turning young maids into old hags, but she had one other power that forced its way up from my memory.
The Maiden of Karask was able to vanquish old, powerful spirits. She could move them as wel , dislodging them from one dwel ing to take them to another distant haunt. In days long past, vil ages had offered up sacrifices of young children to her when they had a problem due to ghosts and spirits.
Now, I understood why Roman had put me in touch with her, but I’d have to be very, very careful.
One wrong slip, one misstep in word choice, could be deadly. And it would be a fight to get her to accept prime rib in place of bright meat, as she put it. I also now understood why Roman had warned me never to say thank you to her. It would bind me to her—the Elder Fae considered thank you to be a pledge of debt, even if the bargain had been struck and met.
I sucked in a deep breath. “I have spirits that need dispel ing. I offer you ten pounds of prime beef for one house, twenty pounds if you clear two spots. But there is to be no eating of any bright meat in the area, do you understand? No capturing, no eating, no maiming, no hurting, no claiming. Bright meat is off limits. The beef wil be tender and sweet, however.”
The Maiden of Karask stared at me, her eyes flickering, her irises round and yel ow in the wide curved white that glistened under the stars. She hissed, and the owl on her shoulder hissed. “No, I must have bright meat. It has been too long.”
“The world has changed, old woman. You cannot steal bright meat from humans or Fae or elves.
It is no longer the way, and you must change with it.”
“No—change the world may, but not the Maiden of Karask. I am Elder! I am beyond the rules.”
She straightened her shoulders, and I knew I’d better not argue the point with her or I’d be on her plate.
“Barring discussion. Back to the deal. Ten pounds of prime beef for one clearing. Twenty pounds of prime beef for a second. Are you wil ing to strike the bargain?” I crossed my arms and let my fangs descend to remind her she wasn’t dealing with any ordinary FBH or Fae.
Her eyes glistened with tears, tears I knew better than to trust. “You are harsh, dead girl. You are cruel. How can I keep my powers without the sweet, succulent meat I love so wel ? I am ancient past old and you would deny me my sustenance? Cruel you are, and vicious.”
“Perhaps I am, but this is my truth: Again, I offer: ten pounds of prime beef for one clearing.
Twenty pounds of prime beef for a second. Do we bargain?”
I gazed into those ancient, otherworldly eyes, wondering how long the Elder Fae would continue to accept the modern era. How long before they’d band together and drive their brutal natures through the lands again. They stil had their strength, and if they ever chose to work aligned, they could be bril iant and deadly in a way that creatures like my vampire serial kil er could only dream of.
But this was not to be the day. Ivana Krask inclined her head, and her owl mirrored the movement. “So wil it be. Twenty pounds of raw prime beef for two clearings. Where shal I meet you?”
I gave her the address of the deserted diner. “Here is the first place. I wil meet you there within the hour with your beef. Ten pounds to start, ten pounds when you finish clearing the second spot.”
She let out another hiss and twisted in a way that reminded me uncomfortably of a bug or a spider attempting to get a better view of me. After a moment she held up one hand, and I gingerly pressed my own against it.
“We have a bargain, Vampyr. Now go, and don’t be late or I take it in trade. And since I have never tasted vampire flesh before, it would be a new experience to which I would not be averse.”
And with that, she retreated into the shadows, and I hustled off to QFC—a regional grocery store chain—and soon my shopping cart was fil ed with twenty pounds on the nose of prime beef. One pound over and the Maiden of Karask would be offended. One pound less and she’d take it out of my skin.
Adding a couple extra pounds, wrapped separately, just in case they’d measured wrong, I carried the bags back to my Jag, wondering just what the hel I was thinking. But I didn’t want anybody else in danger, and I wasn’t about to let Delilah or Camil e come with me. As I headed toward the Greenbelt Park District, I realized that my life had become one freak show event after another.
