Page 52 of The Mermaid's Bubble Lounge
“I’m sorry,” Clive responded, “but I’m afraid that’s impossible. Would you mind explaining to those assembled about the pooka? I’m not sure my description was complete.”
“Of course, though the information on them is limited.”
Meri says they’re like the boogeyman to the fae.
“I can see how that would be,” Clive responded smoothly. “One of our fae friends told us that even amongst the fae, pookas are seen as a type of boogeyman.”
“Yes,” Bracken said. “Oh my goodness, that is exactly right, so trying to get concrete facts has been quite difficult. I spoke with a relative’s selkie guard. He was willing to shift and give me what info he had. He confirmed that at one point there were three pookas loose in this realm. Members of the queen’s guard were sent to return them to Faerie.”
Not to kill them?
“They weren’t asked to hunt them, merely to return them?” Clive asked for me.
“Oh, heavens no,” Bracken said. “The queen loves and protects all her people. She would never punish them for their nature. They love nothing so much as chaos. Sometimes it’s good chaos and sometimes it’s bad.”
Ask about the feeding on emotions thing Meri said.
“Is it true that pookas feed on the strong emotions their chaos creates?”
We heard scribbling over the phone. “That has always been my theory, but I have yet to find someone to confirm it. There has to be a reason, don’t you see?” More scribbling. “This is very exciting. You know a member of the fae who confirmed this idea?”
“Yes,” Clive said.
“Marvelous,” Bracken murmured while he continued to write a note.
“This person is the daughter of a merman,” Clive said, causing Joao’s eyebrows to raise. “She said a lot of what they think they know about pookas is mixed up with cautionary tales about behaving or the pooka will get you.”
“Yes. It’s fascinating, isn’t it?” Bracken asked, his words coming fast in his excitement. “You used the term boogeyman and it’s a good one. Even the fae are frightened of the pooka. Chaos lacks reason, logic, empathy. One can’t prepare for a pooka. One must only deal with the aftermath.”
“We have a question,” Clive told him. “We’ve been focusing on killings in cities around the world that appear to be the work of our people, but we’re wondering if there have been similarly unexplained killings in cities led by other supernatural groups.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” he mumbled, with the sound of pages flipping in the background. “We’ve had the same thought. I’ve only just started, but I’ve found a few. Lake Okeechobee in Florida is panther country. About twelve years ago, there was a series of hiker maulings. The local claw investigated and found nothing. They said that not only was there no scent of a panther, there was no scent of anything other than the victim.”
Vlad nodded.
“Yes,” Clive said. “The same is true of our current killings. We didn’t pick up on any scent other than the victim.”
Vlad tapped Clive’s arm.
“Oh, and a very faint smell of cat, which we believe is one of the pooka’s default forms. There are also many feral cats around the wharf because of the fishing boats and fish mongers.”
“Interesting,” Bracken mumbled, scribbling. “There are cats all over the world. I wonder if it has become his custom to wear that form, as it makes him easy to overlook. Hmm.” He turned a page. “Here’s another. Newfoundland is run by the wolves. The local pack investigated a string of hunters being killed by wolves thirty years ago. For a while, they assumed it had to be the natural wolves, but the violence of the killings was out of character for natural wolves. The point seemed to be the killing. Wolves, either natural or shifter, would eat the choicest pieces of the victims. They wouldn’t slash and bite just to inflict pain and bloodshed, leaving the good meat to rot. It made no sense and again, they didn’t find any strong scents that led them anywhere.
“Much like your cat scent, they caught the trail of a natural wolf pack, but it was an old one. They hadn’t traveled the area where the hunters were found for weeks. The killings went on for less than a week and then they stopped.”
Bracken flipped anther page. “I’m not sure if this next one fits. They aren’t the ruling supernatural in a city, but I believe it’s connected. In the Amazonian Rainforest, there is a shadow of black jaguar shifters. They’ve ruled the area for generations.”
Joao nodded, though he looked uncomfortable.
“There were some workmen surveying the rainforest for a logging company. Three of them were lost and later found mauled to death. It caused quite a scene. There was a lot of money involved in the deal and a great many protestors demonstrating against the deforestation when the bodies were finally brought out. There was an investigation, but it was hushed up. The government didn’t want other companies to stop their negotiations.”
Again, Joao nodded.
“The odd thing,” Bracken continued, “is that the daughter of the—well, they don’t use terms like Alpha for Jaguars. He was sometimes referred to as the Rei—the little daughter of the Rei disappeared. They never found her body. There was some talk about it being vampires—there had been increased tensions between the groups, mostly to do with the vampires making money off the loss of the jaguars’ habitat. Anyway, the vampires denied any involvement, but the jaguars never believed them. I could be wrong, but the strange chaos amongst humans, vampires, and shifters feels very much like the work of a pooka.”
Joao’s brow was furrowed as he scratched his cheek.
Ask about the stolen black jaguar! Russell and Audrey found a female who had been imprisoned by a vampire. George, Owen, and Alec are taking care of her, hoping she’ll eventually shift and tell them who she is and where she belongs.
