Raze immediately prowls over to block the creature’s path. Hail stalks after him, his face tightening.
The fae man has complained more than once about Raze’s bloody feeding habits, and he’s been the most hesitant to hurt any creatures even when they’re lashing out at us. I’m not surewhat threat either of them think this puppy-bug could pose, though.
As far as I can tell, it doesn’t even have a mouth, let alone teeth. Its legs are thick but clawless.
I focus on the stout, fuzzy body. “We can let it be for now. It’s not feeling at all hostile—just curious and a little confused.”
We all ease around so that we’re forming a potential barricade between the creature and its apparent destination. If it hurtles into significantly faster motion, it isn’t going to get very far.
But it seems content to amble along, its body swaying from side to side in a way that makes me wonder if it’s sniffing the ground. Does it have a nose?
The question has just passed through my head when the beast’s stout frame spasms. Two more legs shoot out of its abdomen, all of them lengthening, and a sharp appendage juts out of the spot that I guess is its face.
Jonah blinks. “It grew abeak.”
“Along came a spider and sat down beside us,” Mirage says with a burst of nervous laughter.
“How’s its internal state, Peri?” Rollick asks.
I’ve kept my focus on the strange creature through its sudden morph. “More confused and a little nervous, but still no aggression.”
“All right. I’d better see if I can collect this one too.”
The demon strides off toward his own vehicle, an SUV parked next to the sedan we arrived in. Hail’s gaze follows him. “Collect…?”
Rollick’s meaning becomes clear soon enough. He opens the back of the SUV and retrieves a metal contraption that he unfolds into a cage with a jerk of his hands.
Even though I know he wouldn’t be doing the creature any harm, the sight of the metal bars sends a chill over my skin. Hail’s stance tenses.
Rollick walks back with the cage and sets it on the ground several feet from where the creature is currently poking at the ground. “Jonah, I may need a little sorcerous assistance to compel it inside.”
The memory of having sorcerer commands digging into my brain deepens the chill inside me. F- experience, do not recommend.
I peer at the creature, searching for any alternative, and a pang of thin-gruel sensation seeps through me.
“It’s thirsty,” I say just as Jonah is opening his mouth. “It’s looking for water.”
Rollick clicks his tongue. “That might make for a less traumatic capture. Just a second.”
He strides away again and returns with a bottle of water and a dish that looks like it’s probably meant to be an ashtray. Hopefully the beast doesn’t mind a smoky aftertaste.
After pouring some water into the dish, Rollick sets it at the back of the cage. Then he dribbles a little liquid on the ground in a trail that leads close to the creature.
It only takes a moment for the beast to pick up on the moisture in the earth. It veers in that direction, pecking at the ground along the trail until it walks straight into the cage.
Rollick grins triumphantly and reaches to shut the cage door.
As his fingers grip the edge, the creature shudders again. Its spikes expand, its beak jutting to a sharper point, and it whirls around with a harsh shriek.
A jolt of anger jabs into me, jalapeno hot.
“Rollick!” I cry in warning, but it’s not as if the other signs screamed “I come in peace.” He smacks the door shut with a clang.
Light flares from the panels above and below the creature. Metal panels that must be made of silver and iron drop down within the bars, trapping it completely.
Rollick lifts the cage by a loop on its top, his mouth twisting. “I’d mind the shifting moods less if they didn’t always seem to cycle around to animosity.”
Jonah lets out a ragged chuckle. “No kidding.”
