“I’m going to go to the hallway entrance and yell if I see it heading towards me.”
From his vantage point on the second floor mezzanine, Luca could see most of the atrium except for the space leading towards the hallway, which was shadowed by the stairs. If the cerastes came from that direction or tried to escape that way, it could be an issue, which was why Macy had instructions to keep an eye out and yell.
“You told me they’re not dangerous.”
“They bite, and they’re strong. They’re generally not dangerous because most things look at them and stay out of their way.”
He was ready to argue the point further, but Macy grinned.
“Just teasing. I’ll be on the stairs. Good luck, honey.”
It would be hard to say that cerastes were smart. They weren’t, not like mammals were or even some of the more clever reptiles. What they were was good at surviving, and that meant they might go hungry before putting themselves in front of something that might eat them. He had been thinking that their particular cerastes must have been pretty hungry to go near that many people in order to take a lunge at some mice, and that made it all the more essential that they get to it sooner rather than later.
Even if it really was going to get drawn in by the drumming, there was a chance that the sight of a human ora panther might send it into flight, so that was why he was taking his position up on the second-floor mezzanine with Macy watching the approach he couldn’t.
He headed up the stairs as Macy started playing the end theme toThe Splendor of Love in Water and Fireon loop. The music filled the air as he shifted into his panther form and leaped lightly up on the rail to walk along it.
That is your mate down there,his panther informed him.
I know.
That is your mate, who you have fed and who has fed you.
I know. I was there for that.
And just hours ago, you had her on the couch, and she let you—
I know. I know. I know. And we can get back to that as soon as we catch this damned cerastes and get it safe.
How silly, playing with snakes when your mate is right there. I should never help you with anything again.
Luca knew that it was an empty threat. His panther was already getting a little sharper at the prospect of a hunt, even if it wasn’t one that was going to end with a good meal at the end. They’d dimmed the lights over the main atrium to make the cerastes a little braver, but it wouldn’t be a problem for him, and he stalked the second floor, periodically jumping down to the floor before easing back up on the railing again.
Below them, the drumming paused and restarted again, and then again and again. The minutes ticked past.
If he were a human man, Luca thought that this would likely be impossible. No human could focus like a shifter could,and no shifter could focus like a panther shifter could. He was calm and watchful at once, pacing the mezzanine while never letting his mind wander. If there was a human on the same floor, they would never have heard him—they might not have seen him, one more shadow in the dimness. From time to time, his awareness of Macy threatened to break through the calm, but then, somewhat to his surprise, that awareness settled in and became a part of it.
He might have thought they would be two separate things, his need and love for his fated mate and his hunter's instinct, but instead they flowed into each other, mixing and mingling together like two streams flowing into the same lake.
She's a part of this, she's a part of me, he thought with awe and then underneath him, the darkness shifted.
Without hesitation, he threw himself over the railing. There was an exhilarating moment of free-fall, and just before he hit the ground, he shifted to his human form, landing as lightly on his feet as he would have on his paws. He ran light-footed to where he had stashed his hook and the livebag, and just as quickly turned to where he had seen the errant trace of movement.
A moment later, he caught sight of the cerastes, the clearest view he had had yet, the enormous serpent slithering between a wading pool that had been planted to look like a local waterway and what looked a lot like rollercoaster for crude wooden cars.
Unfortunately, just as he saw the cerastes, the cryptid saw him, and he would have sworn he caught a glimpse of consternation in its eyes.
No, it’s a cerastes. They are rare and worth saving and every other damn thing, but they are not smart. They are an ancient and primitive species that—
In the end it didn’t matter why the cerastes fled, only that it did, and he barely stifled a growl before it dove under the bunting of a table holding a display on the overpopulation of white-tailed deer in the state of Illinois. Without thinking, he lunged after it, catching sight of it again as it dashed under a display about the process of pasteurization as the end theme forThe Splendor of Love in Fire and Waterstarted again.
He came up under poster asking whether you could reverse the flow of the river (no, but he gave the kid points for ambition), and for a moment, Luca’s heart sank, because even with his senses cast wide, he couldn’t see it. He had lost it, it had made it back into the ducts, he’d failed, and—
Two things registered at once. First, he heard a strange rhythmic thump, and then he heard Macy’s dubious soft call.
“Luca,” she half-sang. “Luca, c’mere, please.”
In a moment, he was turned and running towards the stairway where he had left Macy, and as good as his reflexes were, he had to stop and stare at the picture she made.
