Page 29 of Shadow Dreaming

Orik swung his tennis racket, hitting a green one and lobbing it toward the patio. He smiled, and I thought I detected a hint of satisfaction when the coxigan went streaking back, rolling head over heels in the air. It landed on the patio, shaking its head, but then it sniffed the air and froze. I watched as it crawled over to one of the containers and began lapping up juice, like a cat lapping up water.

A cackle brought me back to focus. The red one was taking aim at me again. Why the fuck it had set its sites on me, I wasn’t sure, but it seemed to feel I was the primary target because it dive bombed me again. I brought up the racket, hoping that somehow, my non-existent tennis skills might suddenly appear. As I swung at the coxigan, it managed to evade the racket and it wrapped itself around my wrist and bit into my hand.

The needle sharp teeth pierced deep, and it felt like I’d stuck my hand in a vat of acid. I shrieked, trying to shake it off. Dante rushed over, attempting to pry the creature off of me. It was clenching my wrist with its arms and legs, holding on for dear life.

“You little shit!” I ran over to a nearby tree and brought my arm back, swinging directly toward the trunk as hard as I could. The coxigan gasped, letting go with its teeth, but it couldn’t fly off quickly enough and I slammed it into the bark, not giving a damn whether or not I killed it. The creature let go and fell to the ground. Dante quickly grabbed it up and dropped it in a sack.

I looked at my hand. There was a gaping bite wound there, already festering from the acid. I shook my head as Dante started to reach for it. “We have to catch them all.”

As we turned, I noticed that at least half of them were gathered near the containers of grape juice. Orik was going after another, and Duran was staring at my hand, shaking his head.

“Get the drunk ones in one of the carriers and shut it!” I raced over, scooping up two of the coxigans from one of the containers on the patio. I tossed them into one of the carriers, as Dante added the red one. There were already two of them in there, drinking from the grape juice inside the carrier. Dante slammed the door and locked it.

Five down and…I counted the remaining ones. There were eight left, but one of them was in the other container, and another was lapping up juice on the patio. I took out another package of grape juice concentrate and opened it, spreading it directly on the table. The fragrance was strong, and apparently the coxigans had super scent, because three of the eight made a beeline for it. As they landed on the table, Duran grabbed them—along with the one on the concrete slab—and shoved them in the open carrier, then hooked the door shut.

That left four, still hanging out in a hydrangea bush.

I motioned to Duran. “Go ask her if she has any tulle or a net or something along that order.”

He hurried toward the kitchen door and slipped inside.

Orik started toward the bushes but I stopped him. “Wait. If we can get something like a net we can catch them all.”

They were staring at us, huddled together. I paused, closing my eyes. Reaching out, I tried to sense what they were feeling. A moment later, I felt a wave of fear and confusion. They truly didn’t understand why we were trying to catch them.

“They don’t understand,” I said. “They’re just being true to their nature, and they don’t understand what they’re doing wrong. They’re like cats.” Damn it. Now I understood why we weren’t allowed to kill them. They weren’t like us, nor were they like most of the Fae. The bite on my hand had been malicious, yes, but not all of them were like that.

Duran returned with a macrame wall tapestry, loosely knotted. The spaces between the knots weren’t big enough for the coxigans to get there. Orik took it, then cautiously circled the bush. The coxigans stared at him, uncertain, and the moment he got close enough, he tossed it over the bush. It landed on top of them and Orik rushed forward to make certain they couldn’t escape. I brought one of the cat carriers over and, between the two of us, we managed to scoop up the remaining four coxigans and slip them inside the carrier, making sure the others didn’t escape.

I sat down at the table, staring at the two carriers filled with the creatures. They were all drunk by now, sprawled out on their backs, looking like fat little pixies. But they weren’t pixies, who were problematic as well, but could at times be reasoned with. If pixies continued to cause waves, there were no laws against killing them. They knew better. The coxigans didn’t.

“How’s your hand?” Duran asked.

I held it up. The edges of the bite would were ragged and pus was rising out of the wound, oozing around the raw edges. “Ugh,” I said, grimacing. “I’d better go to the doctor for this.”

“That’s not necessary,” Duran said. “I can take care of that.”

“I’m not human, remember? I’m half-demon.”

He shrugged. “I know enough healing spells to take care of it for you. Once we get you back to the office, I can clean it up.”

Relieved—I didn’t want to take time out to go to the healer’s—I nodded. Being half-demon, I couldn’t go to just any medical facility. My physiology was wired differently.

At that moment, the kitchen door opened and Merry stepped through. “Did you catch them?” she asked.

Orik nodded. “We did, at that.”

“Thank you! How much do you want for the rest of the job? I can go get my credit card.” She started to turn but Dante stopped her.

“We’ll bill you,” he said, which was our standard practice.

“All right.” Looking relieved, she cleared her throat and asked, “What can I do to keep this from happening again? I’m not sure why they picked my yard to settle in.”

I was starting to hurt, and leaned forward, resting my arm on the table. Merry noticed.

“You got hurt!”

“I got bit. They can all bite, but the red ones are the most dangerous. I’m glad you and Moophy managed to avoid getting attacked. As to what you can do to keep them from coming back, well…we’ll be making sure this crew won’t return, but as to others—I don’t know. What attracts them in the first place?” I glanced at the others, but the guys shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll have Carson do a little research and we’ll let you know if we find any answers. Meanwhile, I need to get this attended to.”

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