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The creature had no sense of subtlety and had left a mess of dented cars and broken shop windows in its wake. Police cars dotted the streets, their blue and red lights bouncing off the tight, high walls and casting shadows that flitted and moved at will. The police officers didn’t seem to notice the heavily armed Siobhan and Shane as they moved off the sidewalk and down an alley, following the wreckage towards the northern entrance to Central Park.
“Why would it go to the park?” Shane asked, edging around a large dumpster that had been yanked away from a wall and pushed onto its side. Somewhere not far from the park a woman screamed loudly and a cacophony of car horns blasted.
They were definitely headed the right way.
“Last time it was out must have been hundreds of years ago. It’s probably drawn to something familiar and none of this…” she pointed to the bright lights and skyscrapers, “…would feel right to it. But that’s just my guess.”
She was as confused as Shane by the creature’s real motivations. If it had escaped with bloodlust in mind, why weren’t they following a trail of corpses? Aside from the screaming and the constant noise letting them know they were on the right track, they’d yet to come across any evidence the monster had hurt anyone. It had gobbled up the druids by the gate like they were bacon-wrapped scallops at a fancy dinner party. Yet here, where people numbered in the millions, it had yet to kill a single one, as far as she could tell.
They passed the park gate and into the dark interior of the tree-filled space, streetlights turning the trees into illuminated stained glass but not casting enough light to push away the night entirely. As they moved farther from the loud noise and brightness of the city streets, the constant throbbing at the back of Siobhan’s head began to wane some, but not enough she could ignore it.
She rotated her shoulders and rolled her neck, trying to shake off the aches threatening to steal all her attention. She needed to focus, and it was hard to do that with a tiny demon hacking away at the inside of her skull. Or doing a jig. Whatever was going on in there, it hurt.
Slinging the bow over her shoulder, she held out a hand to stop Shane’s advance. His heavy motorcycle boots weren’t quiet enough now that the rest of the noise of the city was gone.
“So, Red, what’s the plan?”
Siobhan appreciated the way Shane yielded to her wisdom on matters of fae, but even she wasn’t sure what to do with this particular one. She’d never known a fae who could increase its size exponentially. Or one with four legs and a horse’s head, for that matter. She was in over her head.
But she didn’t need him to know that. Two people drowning didn’t help anyone swim to shore.
“You know those big guns you brought?”
“Yup.”
“Point. Shoot.” She pointed a finger gun at him and pulled the thumb trigger.
“Simple. I like it.”
“First we have to find the damned thing.”
Siobhan stopped walking in front of a broken stone wall and looked down a tunnel of battered, uprooted trees and a fresh path of clawed, damp earth. The damage was so fresh the smell of dirt was heavy in the air and leaves were still falling from where they’d been torn apart.
Shane wrinkled his nose and played with the strap on the shotgun. “Doesn’t look promising, but I g
uess we can check it out.”
“What’s the matter, Hewitt, did you forget your white horse and shining armor at home?”
The hunter snorted. “Seems like the horse had a mind of its own. But I could use that armor if you know where I might get some.”
Siobhan took the bow from her shoulder, plucked one of the arrowheads from her strap and squeezed it to create an arrow. After climbing up onto the crumbling stone wall, she held her weapons in one hand and took the AK-47 from Shane so he could follow her up without shooting either of them in an accidental slip. When they were both safely on pseudo-solid ground, she handed back the gun like it had burned her.
“Don’t like the heavy firepower?”
Siobhan wiped her free palm on her pants. “I don’t like weapons I can’t control.”
“I think you could control it plenty fi—”
The sound of a roar echoed down the path, cutting short whatever witty retort Shane had been about to throw her way.
“They’re playing our song,” he announced.
Or at least that’s what Siobhan thought he said. She was already tearing down the path, bounding over fallen branches and dodging snapped logs that blocked a clear line and threatened to cut her if she got too close.
Shane was behind her, ungraceful but fast. Where she had sidestepped, he stomped directly on the debris, causing sticks to crunch loudly under his big boots. Siobhan climbed up on a rock, and Shane came up behind her, giving them a perfect vantage point over a clearing that hadn’t been there before. Trees were felled in a space about forty feet across that looked like a crop circle. In the center of the clearing was the fae, hauling a tree up from its roots and bashing the ground with it like it was a giant mallet. It was making a pained howling noise and would periodically stop attacking the tree long enough to cover its ears.
Siobhan thought about trolls and how sensitive they were to sound. It was possible this fae was similar and the noises of a modern city like New York were proving to be overwhelming for it. That was the only logical reason she could think of as to why it wasn’t on a rampant killing spree, making up for the seven human lifetimes her family had kept it locked up on the other side. It would take one hell of a distraction to put a monster of its size off a mission for bloodshed.
