Owen handed me my phone. “Twenty-two years.” He ran his hand over his face. “I need to call George. I’ll be down in a minute.”
I patted his knee and then trotted back down the stairs. Meri was waiting for me at the bottom.
“I thought I heard you.” She glanced up the stairs, her brow furrowed but didn’t ask. “I have some news.”
“Oh, good.” I pointed to the bookstore. “We should—” but then I stopped myself. Why was I keeping this a secret? I turned back to the wicches and Grim in the bar. “Have you all heard about the vampire killer in town?”
They looked at each other and then nodded.
“First thing you need to know is it’s not a real vampire,” I told them.
That piece of information seemed to shock them.
One of the wicches raised her hand. “But they were drained of blood and had bite marks on their necks.”
“Yes. And the vampires thought he was one too and were trying to find him. They couldn’t because he’s not a vampire. He’s a pooka, which is a fae—I don’t know—malevolent spirit, a chaos agent. He can shift to look like anyone. Or any animal, for that matter. My great-uncle, who’s a Corey wicche, is also a supernatural historian. He’s been looking into this for us, and it seems like this pooka moves around the world, taking on the likeness of whichever supernatural being is in a place of power, and then terrorizing people and causing messes.”
Grim had slid off his stool, the only one to look enraged. “We have a pooka?”
I nodded and his axe came off his back. “You should have been stopping us at the door to make sure we are who we seem to be. Have you altered your ward to keep him out?”
Uh, shit. “Not yet.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
Revelations Right, Left, and Center
“Do you have the axe the queen spelled for you?” he demanded.
Dave swung out of the kitchen to stare at Grim’s back.
“Yes.” I pulled it out of its sheath.
“Well, that’s good, at least. Press it up against everyone’s skin. See if anyone reacts.”
I held the axe tight against my chest. “It would hurt you and Meri.”
Liam and his friend Dermot were sitting at a table by the ocean entrance. I hadn’t seen them arrive. They must have come in when I was on the stairs with Owen. Liam and Dermot were selkies. Liam used to be a regular until my vicious sorcerer aunt possessed him and forced him to try to kill me. I survived, though we were both hurt. Liam was horrified by what had happened, so he was avoiding The Slaughtered Lamb and me these days.
Dermot waved. “Us too.”
“The blade won’t kill us if we touch it,” Grim explained, his brows slammed down low. “Don’t be daft. The queen wouldn’t give you a weapon that would kill us willy nilly. If we have ill intent against you and try to hurt you, you can fight back with an artifact that has the power to destroy us. She did it to give you a fighting chance against the king’s assassins.”
“How do you know so much about Sam’s axe?” Dave growled.
“Stand down, demon.” Grim didn’t bother to turn around. “You aren’t the only one here to protect her.”
Dave and I shared a look.
“Wait. What? Grim, you were sent to this realm to protect me?”
He shrugged one of his beefy shoulders. “’Twasn’t sent. I was here. Algar said our lady would like eyes on you. I’m just here to observe and help if needed.”
I took an involuntary step back. “You’ve been spying on me?”
“Not spying.” He was clearly annoyed with our questions. “I had started coming here anyway. Algar said that as long as I was here, I should keep them informed.”
“Sounds like a fucking spy to me,” Dave sneered.
