"Ah," I said with realization. "She lives on the property with Evie."
"We both do." The girl patted her goats again. "Do you want to see my goats do a trick?"
I really did not want to see that. "Eh, maybe… but I need to find Evie first."
"Oh, she's working," the girl replied easily. She pointed straight ahead of us to a field separated from the houses by a ramshackle picket fence. Off in the distance, I made out a collection of brightly painted boxes that had to be the hives. "The bees are calm in the mornings, so she goes before it's light out."
My mouth tightened in consternation. That had been a full hour or more ago and she hadn't thought to inform me that she was leaving? I snorted out an angry breath. "Am I going to get stung if I go after her?"
The girl glanced at the field and shrugged. "Only if you piss off the bees."
"What pisses off bees?"
She looked at me like I might be a bit simple. "How would I know? I'm not a bee."
"Perfect." I went back inside and stalked over to my bag where I'd left it by the couch. I did not like doing things before I had coffee in the morning. I especially didn't like charging out into bee-infested fields before said coffee, but there was every chance someone had been waiting in the trees for the brilliant marshmallow ninja to exit her house and had jumped her the second she was out of eyesight. I pulled on a pair of army green pants, a white linen button-down, socks, and my white sneakers, and then I ran out of the barn house, shoving on my sunglasses and mentally rehearsing ground rules with Evelyn. Did it need to be said that when one's life was in danger, one did not traipse off to be alone in a field?
When I stalked over to the fence, I found the kid there again, this time holding a bright pink bee hood. She held it out to me. "My suit won't fit you, but you can have the mask."
I stared at the neon mask. "Will that help?"
"I mean, you might not get stung on the eyeball," she replied seriously.
"Well, when you put it that way." I reached for the mask, but she danced it out of reach with an impish smile.
"You have to promise to watch my goat show."
I scrunched one side of my mouth. "That's not very polite." She shrugged like that was my problem, not hers. "Fine." I wagged my fingers. "Let's go, come on, kid."
She handed me the hood with netting over the face, looking entirely too satisfied. "I think she said Albania was swarming, so she might be towards the back."
"Albania?" I asked under my breath as she hopped away. Literally. Like a rabbit. I peered at the hood thing, realizing that it was going to be too small for my head, but as the kid had said, it might protect the eyeballs. I shoved it on my head, walked through the gate, and stalked toward the bee hives. The closer I got, the more of the—not bugsdotted the air, and an ominous droning buzz filled my ears. I tried to give the stacked boxes a wide berth, and I watched where I was walking, trying not to step on any bees collecting pollen in the flower-studded field. A puff of smoke caught my attention, and sure enough, towards the back of the hive collection, I made out Evie's slight build.
As I neared her, I realized this chick really was certifiable. She wasn't wearing a bee suit, just gloves. She had a smoker in one hand and was holding up a frame in the other, and she peered at the crawling, buzzing insects without a smidge of hesitation. No wonder she wasn't afraid of the bloodthirsty crypto villains. She clearly didn't have the fear wire in her brain at all. She set down the metal smoke can and picked up a regular spray bottle. As she sprayed the frame and box, tilting her head to observe her bees, I marched up behind her.
"Are you insane?" I demanded.
She shrieked, whirling around mid-spray and misting me with something floral. I leaned away, waving the air, and she gasped, her mouth popping open in an oval. "You're still here."
"What do you mean, 'still here?'" I grouched. A bee flew around me in interest, and I resisted the urge to bat it away. "Of course, I'm here. We were supposed to—" a bee went for my neck and I dodged it. "We were supposed to talk about next steps." Another bee went for my pec, and I bobbed the other way. "Or did you forget you're in danger?"
Evie didn't seem to be listening to me. Her eyes were fastened on my chest, and then the bright pink mask, and then her green-flecked irises were following the path of several bees. "You should go."
"We've been over this," I argued hotly. Half a dozen bees dove for me, buzzing insistently around my neck and chest, and I tripped back a few steps. "You can't just pretend you aren't the target of?—"
"No, I mean, I sprayed you," she interjected, her mouth stretching guiltily. "With pheromones."
"Withwhat?" I asked incredulously. The bees followed me, picking up numbers and trying to land on my shirt and neck. "Holy fuck, are they attacking me?"
"No, no," she rushed to assure me, putting the frame back in the box. "Just stay calm. They like you, but if you kill one?—"
A bee made it down my shirt and I slapped it. A sharp sting accompanied the smack immediately. "Ow," I gusted out in surprise. "The fucker stung me."
Evie dropped her hands in defeat. "You killed it."
Suddenly, the bees were everywhere. A sharp sting on my neck sent me stumbling back another three steps, and Evie followed me. "Go, Benjamin. Once they sting you, they mark you as a predator." She waved her arms at me. "Back to the house."
My brain went into panic mode. The bees were everywhere, and as I instinctively batted them away, I felt a sting on my hand, on my arm, through my shirt. I yelled in wordless, garbled horror, and then I was running. The fuckers kept pace, and as I sprinted away from the field, I caught sight of a burbling stream to my left. It looked deep enough, at least to my frantic mind. My flight response latched onto it, and I stormed through underbrush and saplings, not another thought in my head except,drown the motherfuckers.I splashed into the slow-moving brook and dove into the cool water headfirst.
