Page 33 of Hallow Hill at Halloween: Part Two

“Lucky you know what she said.” Jeff smiled. “It was all Greek to me.” Lochlan was unimpressed, but Esme, who Jeff had thought humorless, cracked a Mona Lisa smile. “Later.”

Jeff got as far as the door, hesitated, then turned and walked back to Medusa. When he put his hand on her arm, she looked at it suspiciously, but didn’t move.

“You’re going to be fine,” he said and waited for Lochlan to interpret. “This nice man and his wife will be your hosts for the night. Tomorrow, there will be plenty of time for you to decide what you want to do next.”

As Lochlan finished interpreting, her head came up at the end of the last sentence and the light behind her eyes suddenly switched on. It seemed she liked the idea of self-determination.

Lochlan shared with Jeff and Esme that Medusa thanked him in Greek. Jeff nodded and departed, but stopped outside Esme’s closed door to breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Before he could begin savoring his success, arguably the biggest hunter notch in his personal history, there was a sudden breeze created by the great flapping of wings just above his head. Unalarmed in the way that only a god or Lorcan could be, he watched Bulent land a few yards away.

“Look,” Jeff said. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”

“Don’t quit your day job, bus boy. You’re not as funny as you think,” Bulent said.

“I am as funny as I think. Maybe you’re not my demographic.”

Bulent chuckled. “That’s safe to say.”

“Thought you went on your way.”

“That was my first inclination. Then I realized this was the most excitement I’ve seen this millennium. I mean that I’ve been personally involved in. So, I was curious to see how things turned out.”

“We caught a break. Lochlan knows Greek.”

“So do I, but humans often have trouble understanding me.”

“She’s not human.”

“Hmmm. Sure about that?” Before Jeff had time to ask the obvious question, Bulent was hopping along the cobblestones, wings flapping. In less than thirty seconds he was high above Hallow Hill.

Jeff looked upward. Knowing it was a long shot that he’d be heard, since the link between them had been dissolved, he asked the question anyway. “What do you mean?”

Silence.

Jeff was definitely alone and ready to call it a night. Whatever the gargoyle had been implying, Lochlan could handle. Home was calling.

His little apartment was more than modest, but it was his. It was comfortable and housed the few treasures he’d call favorite things. Just for fun, he shifted into the form of an Australian shepherd to trot the two blocks home. Stopping to sniff a few times along the way revealed all kinds of information he’d never get in biped form.

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