“They’re in the back, already got a table,” Sherri greeted them when they walked in. “They waited to order, but they looked hungry, so you’d better hurry.”
Liam and the others called out to Justin and Russ as they approached the table. It was shoulder season, with the days growing shorter and cooler, which meant that on a weeknight, most of the diners were locals.
“Thought we’d starve before you got here,” Drew called out. “Come and order before we all faint from hunger.”
Justin was glad to see Brandon and Riley among his friends at the table. Brandon was a moose shifter and a psychic. His partner, Riley, oddly enough, was a psychic immune, unable to have his thoughts read, and not a shifter at all. They had separately taken Justin aside and encouraged him to pursue Scott, despite their differing abilities. Justin enjoyed Riley’s humor and the music he played at the hotel bar on weekends, but he also loved knowing someone else who couldn’t go furry had still found a partner.
Which was, as he thought about it, a strange requirement for love.
“We were nice and saved seats,” Drew teased. He was a wolf shifter, and his partner, Noah, could change into a lynx.
It didn’t take long for the group to order dinner and a round of beer. Justin’s stomach growled, and he hadn’t realized before how hungry he was.
“Looks like we’ve got a nice few days ahead, but then there’s some bad weather on the way,” Liam said after the server took their orders. “Colder temps and rain, maybe some sleet. I don’t mind the cold, but I’m not quite ready for winter.”
Liam’s fluffy red coat kept him plenty warm when he was a fox. Justin didn’t mind the cold, or he wouldn’t have stuck around upstate New York, but he preferred warmer days and bright sun.
“Cold weather is good for library traffic,” Russ reminded his partner.
Justin didn’t normally mind the cold, but a recent knee injury made him feel stiffer when the weather was cool and damp. He and Russ had both been hurt when part of the building collapsed while fighting a fire. Justin knew he was lucky to make a good recovery and hoped that the remaining side effects would eventually fade.
“Not too bad for ice fishing or cross-country skiers,” Drew mused. He was Russ’s younger brother, and the family resemblance was apparent in both their human and wolf forms.
Justin was quiet as he tuned into his weather sense. “I have the feeling we’re going to get more winter weather this year than we have for a while.”
“You’re right more often than not, so it’s worth a lot,” Noah said. “I already have several contracts for winter photography, so I’m not complaining. We’ve had a busy year.”
“Scott said that the old mine in Platt Mountain got bought and is starting up again. Has anyone else heard anything?” Liam glanced around to make sure no one else was close enough to eavesdrop.
“I don’t even know where that is,” Brandon admitted. “But I pick up negative vibes.”
“Old iron mining area,” Russ spoke up. “Sourced some of the purest iron in the world, or so they say. Got used in the Brooklyn Bridge and a bunch of other famous projects. It was a big industry, and then everything shut down and moved out.”
“Scott is researching stories about the mine for an article,” Justin said. “He said he mentioned it to you. Is there a problem?” Justin remembered that according to Scott, Liam had seemed uncomfortable with the topic. Liam always seemed to be in the know, but whether that had more to do with being a librarian or his natural inquisitiveness as a fox shifter, Justin wasn’t sure.
“What did you hear?” Riley asked.
“Mining was big business in the mountains north of here about a hundred years ago,” Liam said. “I looked into it after Justin asked me about the creature you saw in the tunnel. There was lots of money to be made in mining, but it’s a dangerous business, and workers got killed or badly injured. When demand slowed, and it got too expensive to ship the cargo or the deposits ran out, the mines closed up and moved out, and so did the workers.”
“Leaving behind the mines,” Russ added.
Liam nodded. “Which created its own set of problems. They could gate off the entrance or even collapse it, but that didn’t get rid of the mine itself.
“The Platt Mountain mines were some of the deepest in North America,” he added, and Justin hid a smile knowing that Liam’s inner librarian was warming to the topic. “Three thousand feet. It took the miners an hour to get to the bottom of the elevator shafts. It’s not like that can be filled in.”
“Which sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.” Riley sighed. “Probably a minor miracle that a bunch of kids haven’t decided to go spelunking and break in to explore.”
“Down that deep, sometimes there arethingsthat exist,” Liam said. “There are all kinds of old stories about leaving them alone and not letting them get out. But that doesn’t mean they’re evil, just dangerous.”
“Whatever we saw on that VFD call-out a couple of days ago about the ‘monster’ made me ask Liam to help look into the legends,” Justin told them.
“It was seriously creepy.” Drew turned to Liam. “Did you find anything?”
Liam shook his head. “No. Which worries me. Those old mining towns live on in people’s imaginations. There’s a rough romance to it, I guess, although it was a hard, dirty, dangerous business that never paid enough. Still, just knowing those mines are up there, even behind gates and walls, gets people thinking up stories. I’m hoping there isn’t anything behind these creature sightings besides some mutant bears. But I’d like to find out more.”
He paused to drink his soda. “That area is more than an hour away from Fox Hollow, but any kind of industry up there would bring more traffic through the region. Could be good for business, but more traffic also means more strangers.”
Everyone at the table knew what that meant. Fox Hollow took its role as a haven for people with special abilities seriously. Secrets were harder to keep with more people passing through.
