Page 32 of Sins of the Fathers
“Drugs for supernatural creatures?” Grady questioned. “Why?”
“For all the reasons humans take them—medicine and recreation,” Dawson guessed as he finished his task. “Anesthetic for a shifter or werewolf who gets hurt too badly to heal by shifting. Something to give a vampire dreamless sleep to forget the past for a while. I can see some legit reasons—and think of a bunch that aren’t.”
“What are you two doing today?” Denny asked.
“We’re going into the shop for a few hours to make sure everything’s running smoothly, and then we’re taking a drive up to Cherokee. Got a call about some will-o-the-wisp lights and ‘moon-eyed people’ leading hikers off trails and stranding them in the woods,” Dawson said. “A couple of folks fell off outcroppings, and one of them died. Not something we can ignore.”
“Be careful,” Denny warned. “Both the wisps and the moonies are minor fae, but they’re tricky as hell. Better take plenty of salt and iron.”
“Already in the trunk,” Grady promised.
“You sure you’re in the right head space to go after them?” Denny leveled a look at both Dawson and Grady. “They’re known to influence people who are upset, and lord knows, we’ve had enough of that to go around lately.”
“We’ll be fine,” Grady assured him, quickly enough that Dawson glanced at his partner, but Grady’s expression looked sincere.
It should be a simple, straightforward hunt. Maybe he just needs a quick win.
Hunting was a good way to burn off anger and anxiety, and Dawson figured they’d had more than enough of both.
“We’ll be back in time for dinner,” Dawson assured him. “Got some stuff we need to catch you up on. Plus, don’t want to miss your meatloaf.”
“Damn straight,” Denny agreed. “So git. Go do what you need to do and come back here. I think it would help Colt to have you around for the evening—Knox is still sleeping most of the time, and Colt can’t beat me at cards.”
“We’d be up for a few hands of poker after dinner,” Dawson said after a glance to confirm with Grady. “See you then.”
He and Grady climbed into the Mustang and left for Kingston. The morning passed quickly, and by the time he and Grady were finished at the auto body shop, Dawson had assured himself that everything essential had been delegated and covered.
They picked up a bucket of fried chicken and cans of soda from the diner and ate as Dawson drove, with the radio cranked to a classic rock station and the windows open.
“We’re looking for faerie rings near where the sightings were reported,” Grady reminded him. “Mushroom circles, rocks, or saplings in a perfect ring. That’s the ‘home base’ and portal for the fae, so if we make that unusable, they’ll go back where they came from—at least for a while.”
“How do we do that?” Dawson had left the research up to Grady while he strengthened the protections around their house, feeling certain that they hadn’t seen the last of the two extremist groups—or whoever was behind them.
“Put a handful of shiny stones in the center to call the faeries back to their base, then cover the whole ring with powdered iron and holy water,” Grady replied.
“That sounds too easy,” Dawson protested.
“There’s one part I left out. We’ll need to draw the fae out, make them reveal themselves.”
“You mean, attack,” Dawson countered.
“Yes, but not really,” Grady hurried to reply. “They can’t wander far away from their ring. If we spread the iron before we have them inside, then they’re trapped out here with us. We need to know where they are so they’ll be close to their ring when we put the shiny rocks in. Otherwise, they might not hurry back.”
“And they aren’t going to think that the two of us hanging out by their ring is suspicious?” Dawson had the feeling that he wasn’t going to like the rest of the plan.
“You’ll be by the ring. I’m going to draw them out.”
“No.” Dawson’s quick, firm answer drew a frown in response.
“Hear me out,” Grady argued. “Wisps and moonies are most likely to appear to people with a lot on their minds. I think the angst draws them.”
“People with ‘a lot on their minds’?” Dawson echoed. “What aren’t you telling me?” He knew Grady had been worried and upset over Knox, and getting shot didn’t help. Now he wondered if Grady had been hiding darker truths, and he’d been too distracted to notice.
“Grief,” Grady said, turning his head toward the passenger window. “They are especially drawn to the bereaved and depressed, according to the lore.”
“And that’s you? Gray—why didn’t you say something?” Dawson understood the reasons Grady might feel like that, but he felt concerned and a little hurt that Grady hadn’t discussed it.
“It hasn’t been going on for long, and we’ve had a lot of big shit going on,” Grady replied, with a vulnerability in his voice that made Dawson yearn to take him in his arms and protect him.
