Konstantine was an uncle I’d never known I had until the past month or so. He’d shown up around the same time as my father and half-brother, and I hoped to forever keep them separate. Konstantine was my mother’s little brother. Because of the way we met, I felt fate had something to do with it.
“He’s good. Now that his house has been cleansed, he’s been working on fixing it up. We haven’t had much time to spend together, but he’s given me a number of pictures of my mother and grandmother, and he’s working on a genealogy log for me, so I can trace where the family came from. Apparently, my mother’s forebears were Irish in origin.”
It was an odd feeling, belonging to a family group. I felt it on both sides—my uncle’s and my father’s. It gave me some grounding as to my place in the world, but I still felt incredibly distanced from both sides. “Konstantine wants to talk to us about becoming a volunteer researcher. I told him that we could talk to him next week.”
“Sounds good to me. He is, after all, a writer and he specializes in the paranormal,” Dante said. “We could use someone like him on staff.”
“True that,” I said, though I felt an odd reluctance to let Konstantine entrench himself within our midst. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him, but more…I didn’t know what. I just knew that I didn’t want to let him into all aspects of my life just yet. “We can talk next week.”
“I guess, is that it? I have several calls to return,” Sophia said.
“Yeah, I think we’re done. Penn and I’ll go to the temple meeting tomorrow night, Carson—continue investigating, and Orik, help him. Dante—” I paused as Sophia’s phone rang.
“Shadow Blade Investigations. My name is Sophia, may I help you?” she answered. She motioned for us to pipe down, then said, “One moment and I’ll transfer you.” Then, pressing mute, she turned to me. “Duran is on the other line and he says it’s urgent.”
“Put him on speaker, please.” I gestured for everybody to stay in their seats another moment.
When he came on, he sounded frantic. “Kyann—I need your help!”
“What’s going on?”
Duran had worked with Penn in the Crystal Court, and had been dismissed along with Penn. He was working for himself now, reading cards and casting spells out of his house.
“Kyann! I need your help.” He sounded frantic. “I’m over in Interlaken Park, not far from the Seattle Hebrew Academy Middle School. I was out on a walk. Something really big started chasing me. I’m hiding in a thick stand of bushes.” He was panting, the fear creeping through his words.
“What’s chasing you? Duran?” I straightened my shoulders, ready to head his way.
“I don’t know, but it scares the hell out of me. It looks like…this sounds ridiculous, but it looks like a bipedal bear, only bigger. Oh gods, do you think it’s Bigfoot? I know he’s been seen around the area lately. Please, can you help me? I’m afraid he’s going to kill me.”
“All right, we’re on our way. Text me your location on your phone, and for the sake of the gods, do your best to hide. We don’t want you hurt.” I stood, turning to Orik and Dante. “You heard the man, let’s go.”
As we raced to grab our gear, I hoped for Duran’s sake that whatever was chasing him didn’t find him. Because the one thing I knew about Bigfoot—he was dangerous. He was tough. And most spells wouldn’t work on him.
CHAPTER NINE
Orik drove, while Dante and I prepared. I called Duran back on my own phone, and he was still hiding. Apparently, Bigfoot—from the way he described the creature, it couldn’t be anything else. At least, I hoped it wasn’t some new threat. I hung up, not wanting any sounds we made to alert whatever it was that was chasing Duran.
“Have you ever fought Bigfoot before?” Orik asked.
“No,” I said. “I’ve managed to avoid it until now, thank gods.”
“I have,” Dante said. “Well, I’ve never fought him, but I was chased by him.”
“Really?” I asked. I hadn’t heard about this.
“Yeah, it was quite awhile before we met. I was out camping one night, over in the Olympic National Park. I was at the Graves Creek Campground, near the Quinault River. I wanted to get away for awhile, and decided to go by myself.”
Orik laughed. “I know you’re fit and you love the outdoors, but it’s hard to imagine you tramping around the woods in a flannel shirt, with an axe over your shoulder.”
“Laugh now, but I’m an excellent rock climber,” Dante said.
“He is,” I added. “I’ve seen him. So, what happened?”
“I had my tent up, and my fire going. I was heating up some stew over the camp stove—it was actually a grating over the fire, where I could rest a skillet. I was hungry, I remember that, and while I waited for the stew to heat, I ate French bread. Finally, my stew was hot, and I sat down at the picnic table to eat. It was almost dark, and I was debating on shifting and taking a run in my wolf form. It’s beautiful and wild out there, much safer for shifters who want to have a good run in their natural forms.”
“That sounds beautiful,” I said, thinking it might be nice to take a trip there before it was too cold. I could use a vacation and I was pretty sure everybody in the group could.
“It is. Even now, fifty years later, it’s absolutely gorgeous over there. Anyway, I finished dinner and washed my pan, and then made sure my food was locked up in the trunk of the car, in a scent-proof bear container. Always park your car a ways from your tent. So, I go to bed, and I settled in. I slept with a hatchet and a knife near my sleeping bag. In the middle of the night, I heard something outside. It wasn’t a bear—I know what bears sound like. And there was a godawful smell in the air. You know one of Bigfoot’s nicknames is Skunk Ape, right?”
