Carson let out a little growl. “If he tries anything⁠—”

  “If he tries anything,” I said, “I’ll put a stop to it. Don’t you go playing hero. One, Penn doesn’t appreciate it when anybody else tries to fight her battles. Two, you wouldn’t last two seconds against Vaurice. My brother’s a full demon, remember.”

  I really wished Carson would let go of his obsession with Penn. Unfortunately, once a human fell under the glamour of a member of the Fae race—whether or not it was deliberate—it was hard as hell to shake them loose from it.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said, but I could tell he knew I was right.

  “Walk softly⁠—”

  “And carry a big stick,” he finished, finally smiling. “I’ll be good. I promise.”

  “Other than what we’ve already discussed, I don’t know what we can do about Mark,” I added. “I guess…Sophia, did you find out anything?”

  “No, I called his friends. I called the hospitals. I called everybody on the list with absolutely no results,” she said. “Nobody’s heard from him in several weeks.”

  “Dante, can you think of anything else?” I asked.

  “I’ll look into his background, though I doubt if I’ll come up with much. He seemed to keep his nose clean for the most part.” Dante scribbled something down on a notebook. “Oh, this is off topic, but I got a note from the Lou—Rowan’s husband.”

  Dante had a stalker who had ended up being committed for observation, and she was deemed potentially dangerous to others as well as herself, so they signed her in for observation. Lou, her husband who was a rabbit shifter, had been unaware of what was going on. But that had happened several weeks ago and I had no idea what was going on with the case now.

  “What did he say?” Sophia asked.

  “She’s being transferred to an anti-magic mental hospital. She tried to blast one of the guards and ended up almost killing him. Apparently, being locked up was the final straw and any pretense she had at being socialized enough to interact on the outside flew right out of the window. Lou’s filing for divorce, and he’s planning to move to the east coast. Rowan blames him, and he’s afraid that if she ever gets out, she’ll come gunning for him. She’s a powerful witch, and so they’re going to hold her indefinitely in an anti-magic zone.”

  “Poor guy,” I said. “Lou really got shafted by her. At least he’s able to file for citizenship now, and he can move on and find someone who loves him.”

  “I wish him the best,” Dante said. “He deserves someone better than Rowan.”

  Lou had married Rowan because he thought she loved him. Apparently, her love had an expiration date and it had led her to new obsessions. Dante wasn’t the only man she had stalked.

  “Well, I’m glad that’s resolved. Just watch who you meet. I know you didn’t lead her on, but you’re pretty magnetic, dude,” I said.

  “I’m going to take that as a compliment,” he said. “So, speaking of people we know, how’s Konstantine doing?”

  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?”

  “What was the sound like?” Orik asked, turning onto Interlaken Avenue. We were nearing Duran’s whereabouts.

  “They sound…it’s like a growl deeper than any you’ve ever heard, and when they shriek—usually when they’re angry—it’s terrifying. I could hear it ripping branches off trees. I still didn’t know what it was. I thought perhaps it was some freak wacked out on meth or something, so I grabbed both my hatchet and my knife, and slipped out of the tent.”

  “I’d be racing to my car,” I said.

  “I was planning on it. But when I got out of my tent, I froze.”

  “What happened?” Orik turned, following the GPS instructions.

  “The moon was up,” Dante said, “and it was full. I could see some things in the dark, and over near the edge of the campground, loomed a huge figure. Whatever it was, it had to be over eight feet tall. Bipedal, it was swinging branches around, slamming them against the tree trunks. I knew then that I had to get out of there. Shifters are strong, but that thing? It could have torn me in half. I snuck over to my car and it saw me partway there. I made a run for it and it chased me. Damned thing was fast—so fast. I managed to get to my car and get in before it reached me. I drove that narrow campground road like a blur. It’s amazing I didn’t kill myself, but I got away. It did manage one big swing onto the trunk of my car, and left quite a dent, but at least I was in one piece. I left my tent and everything else there. I went back there with a group of friends a day later to retrieve everything, but Bigfoot, I assume, had torn everything to shreds.”

  By the time Dante finished, Orik slowed and pulled off to the side of the road.

  “Okay, we’re nearby. I don’t want to spook it. We need to make certain this thing isn’t targeting other park visitors, especially any children.”

  We slipped out of the van, weapons ready. I texted Duran, not wanting the phone to alert whatever was after him. He texted back and, according to his position, he was lodged beneath a couple large bushes, near a stand of fir trees circling a bench. I could see the stand of trees from the edge of the road, and as I watched, my blood ran cold. A shadow of angry energy filled the air. I glanced at Dante, and could tell he was having trouble keeping himself from shifting.

  “You feel that?” I whispered, keeping my voice as low as I could.

  “Oh yeah,” he said. “And to be honest, I do not want to meet what it is.”

  “We can’t just leave it here, though. There are kids in this park. We have to deal with it.” I wasn’t about to leave a monster in a park where there were a ton of kids. That didn’t even count the adults who were around.

  Dante stared at me. “You’re serious.”

  “She’s right,” Orik said. “We can’t leave this thing here. We can get Duran out safely, but that won’t insure that Bigfoot—I’m pretty sure that’s what it is—won’t go after anybody else.”

  The breeze shifted and a sudden waft of foul stench filled the air. Skunk Ape was right. This creature smelled to high heaven. Worse than skunks, actually. An acrid, sulfuric scent enshrouded us and I tried my hardest not to swear. We were still hidden but the creature had to be close in order for us to smell it like that.

  “Cripes,” I whispered. “Where is it?” I was trying to scan the area from where we were standing. Just as I shifted position, the creature appeared, not ten feet from us, from behind a massive fir. I shrieked as he—it was obviously a male, and naked as a jaybird—backhanded me off my feet. I flew back at least five feet, landing on my ass.

  Ignoring the sudden ache in my tailbone, I crab-walked back, scrambling to my feet as Orik brought out his sword and charged at the creature.

  He swung, managing a sideswipe, but Bigfoot either didn’t notice the bleeding, or didn’t care, because he leaned forward, letting out a growl that was deathly serious—his long fangs and wide mouth reminding me of an angry baboon. And angry baboons were terrifying.

  I kept my distance, eyeing him.

  Bigfoot was big, all right, well over eight feet tall, covered with dark brown shaggy fir that blended into the cover of foliage and tree trunks. He glared at us, his eyes glowing a jaundiced yellow, and he dwarfed Orik.

  “Those fangs could rip you apart,” I said, realizing that the short sword I was carrying wouldn’t do a damned thing.

  Dante backed up, the air around him rippling as he shifted into a massive white wolf. Bigfoot turned, swinging an incredibly large bough at him. Dante darted to the side, but he wasn’t quick enough and the bough caught his flank, sending him skidding to the side. Dante whimpered as blood began to drip from a gash and he limped away.

  Orik charged again, but I knew that wouldn’t be enough. We were all going to get hurt if I didn’t step in and do what I had to do. Nobody hurt my friends and got away with it. And Dante was family—my brother. I inhaled deeply, calling on my powers.

  With a powerful shift, I shed my leash, and welcomed my shadow self.

  “Back, spawn!” My voice reverberated as I leapt forward, my nails growing into long talons, my teeth lengthening. I was stronger, faster, and I reached out to gather the breeze. Arosiens could work with the air element. Now, I stirred the breeze into a vortex, strengthening it as I searched for the core. In my work with Devon, I had learned how every storm had a core—a center that I could take control of. Hurricanes and massive tornadoes were exceptions…still…because they developed their own will. When I found out that storms could become sentient, it scared the hell out of me, but it also made sense.

  But now, I saw the core—a shining diamond-like light. I grabbed hold of it, spinning it into a powerful vortex. As the gusts grew, Orik and Dante backed away.

  “You hurt one of my clan, and you have to be punished,” I murmured, bringing the vortex down to ground it to the earth right in Bigfoot’s path.

  It caught up branches as I drove it forward, one giant weapon of wind and branch and rocks and whatever else it could suck up into its center.

  The whirlwind of dust and air slammed into the creature, the boughs slashing his flesh. I smiled, then I narrowed my eyes and drove the storm harder.

  Bigfoot let out a howl as he tried to get out of the way, but I wasn’t about to let him go.

  “No, you don’t,” I said. “You’re not getting away.”

  There was a sentience behind Bigfoot that was far more than animalistic. He wasn’t evil, per se, but he was chaos incarnate, and he didn’t have a conscience. If he was hungry, he killed to eat. If he wanted something, he took it. If he was sad, he would weep. He was unconcerned by human societal rules and focused only on his needs. The perfect narcissist.

  I gathered the winds even tighter and the vortex became a whirling drill.

  “Again…” I whispered, pointing at the creature.

  The vortex was howling now, drowning out Bigfoot’s shrieks. I directed the twister to knock him off his feet, and when he fell, I brought the point of the vortex down on his center—right on his chest. It drilled a hole right through him, splitting him in two. The next moment, I let go of the storm and it dissipated as though it had never been.

  I stared at the mess and then, feeling incredibly strong and powerful, shrugged and turned around. “And that, takes care of that.”

  Orik cautiously touched my shoulder. “Kyann? It’s time to come back.”

  I glanced up at him, holding his gaze. “I never left,” I said, but the next moment, the shift vanished and I felt like my normal self.

  Orik shivered, but continued to hold my arm.

  Bigfoot was slowly beginning to fade, probably back to his own dimension. When some of these creatures who visited our world died, or decided to leave, they had a natural ability to phase back to their own realm.

  Before he could vanish, I reached down and pried open his mouth, taking hold of one of his fangs and yanking it out. Fangs were easier to break than regular teeth—they were longer and had more leverage. I pocketed it, then watched him fade away. The only thing left to show he’d existed was the fang in my pocket, the destruction of the trees around us, and his image ingrained in our memories.

  Duran came creeping out from the stand of nearby bushes. He was pale and shaken. “I was so afraid he was going to find me,” he said. “What happened to him? I saw you wail on his ass,” he added. “I didn’t know you were a witch,” he said, staring at me.

  “I’m not,” I answered. “I’m part demon. Working with the wind and storms seems to be part of my demonic heritage. But I’ll tell you, I never thought that creating a whirlwind would be part of my repertoire.” I turned to Orik. “You okay?”

  Orik nodded. “Did you know your eyes turn jet black when you’re working with your demonic powers? I mean, completely—whites, irises, all black.”

  “Yeah, I actually do. I can feel the shift when it happens. It’s no longer about bringing out my inner demon anymore. It’s about unleashing the powers that are now always part of me.” I turned, looking for Dante. He came over, limping, still in wolf form. The gash was nasty, and—worried—I knelt down to examine him.

  “He needs help,” I said. “We need to get him to a healer. He’s staying in wolf form because he has more resilience in his animal form, and he heals faster. Help him into the van, please.” I turned to Duran. “Come with us, if you would.”