Wondrous Strange

up actually looked fairly scholarly-even though it was devoted to supernatural sightings and the paranormal.

Black Shuck: a spectral being, doglike in nature, big as a Shetland pony, with fiery red eyes and sharp, venomous talons. Shuck and their ilk, so-called demon dogs, have been known to roam the hills and moors of Continental Europe and, in particular, the British Isles for centuries. They travel swiftly, often without touching the ground, and are frequently considered harbingers of doom. In Faerie mythology, they are often seen accompanying or preceding an appearance of the fearsome Faerie war band known as The Wild Hunt. Shuck were used by the Hunt to track and flush quarry, much like mortal hunting hounds; they would corner their prey, keeping it at bay until the Faerie hunters could make their kill. See also Hellhounds, Gwyllgi (Welsh), Dog of Darkness, Herne the Hunter’s Hounds, the Barghest (Yorkshire), etc…

Kelley switched on a lamp to dispel the shadows in the room. This is ridiculous, she thought, suddenly angry with herself. A horse in the bathtub was one thing, but “demon dogs”? That was just the same kind of silly “ghost story” superstition she’d fought to outgrow as a kid. Kelley closed her laptop and went to sit on the side of the bathtub for a while, breathing the comforting scent of her horsey companion, soothed by his steady breathing. Exhausted by the events of the afternoon and evening, by the strangeness of her encounter with Sonny-at least she could finally stop referring to him as Handsome Stranger-and the unfathomable animal attack, Kelley finally stood and tiredly bid Lucky good night.

XVIII

“The Wild Hunt?” Camina whispered. “Who would do such a thing?”

Sonny looked at her bleakly. “Who do you think?”

“Mabh wouldn’t dare.”

“Auberon seems to think she would.” He shrugged. “And why not? She’s the one who created the Wild Hunt in the first place.”

“But, Sonny-this city is so crowded,” Bellamy protested. “To loose that insatiable, death-mad Faerie war band on an unsuspecting mortal populace here-the carnage would be unspeakable, the death toll catastrophic!”

“And bloodthirsty old Mabh, the Queen of Air and Darkness, would never do a naughty thing like that, now would she?” Heavy sarcasm infused Sonny’s weary tones.

Behind the twins, Sonny saw Maddox standing with his arms crossed. The look on his face told Sonny that he had heard their conversation.

Maddox and the twins exchanged worried glances, then Camina and Bellamy left to continue with their patrol, talking in low voices as they departed.

Maddox was silent for a moment. Then, “Can I give you a piece of advice?”

“No.”

“You stay away from that girl.”

“I said no-”

“Because if you don’t”-Maddox shook his sandy head-“you’re going to make a mistake. And any mistakes you make are liable to have dire consequences.”

“I’m not afraid,” Sonny said firmly.

Maddox stared at him, unblinking. “I didn’t mean for you. I meant for her.”

“Did you see her safe home?”

“I did.”

“Then you know where she lives-”

“Did you hear what I just said? Let one of the other Guards fetch the damned kelpie!”

“I don’t care about the damned kelpie. If it hasn’t tried to hurt anyone yet, then I’m betting it’s safe for the time being. She isn’t.”

“And who’s going to make her safe-you? Look at you!”

Sonny weakly batted away Maddox’s hand and, with considerable effort, thrust his arms through his jacket sleeves, trying not to wince. “Do you honestly think she’s going to be safer without my protection than with it?”

Maddox ignored the question. “You know you’re going to need suturing, right?”

“I hope you’re handy with cross-stitch.” Sonny glared at the other Janus.

Maddox rolled his eyes and shrugged, giving up the fight.

“I’ve a kit at the penthouse. D’you think the others can cover for us for an hour or so while you knit me back together?”

At first glance, there was probably nothing too out of the ordinary about Sonny’s first aid kit. It contained bottles of iodine and rubbing alcohol, bandages, scissors, and the like. Beneath all that, however, was a small bottle of two-hundred-year-old Irish whiskey; long wooden matches in a waterproof box; three pure, rolled beeswax candles; a spool of red-and-silver thread; a small sheaf of dried rosemary, verbena, marigold stems, and mistletoe; a braided ring of marsh grass; a blown-glass phial of coarse sea salt; and a tuning fork, all of which lay on top of several large squares of gossamer-real gossamer. Plus six aspirin wrapped in a tissue.

Sonny downed four of the aspirin, swallowed a mouthful of the whiskey, and lay back on the couch as Maddox went to work on patching up the damage done by the shuck. It was substantial.

“You said you thought the demon dog was sent for her,” Maddox murmured, his mouth a tight line as he concentrated on the job at hand. All of the Janus were trained in basic medicine, and Maddox’s big fingers were surprisingly dexterous.

“It went right for her at the first. And then again after I’d knocked it on its big ugly arse. Why? I was the biggest threat to it. It should have gone straight after me.”

“Unless you’re right about someone having specifically sent it to track her. There’s something about that girl, I tell you. She’s bad business,” Maddox said as he took the red-and-silver thread and pulled a long length from the spool, threading it expertly through the eye of one of the longer suturing needles.

“You don’t know that.” Sonny looked away as he felt the first sharp bite, and the tugging sensation that followed as Maddox began to sew.

“You said Auberon asked about her. That he saw her in your gaze.”

“I don’t know if he was able to get much of a read on her,” Sonny said. “I don’t think he found much that piqued his curiosity.”

“So you don’t think that he might be the one after her, then?” Maddox asked. Tying off the last knot, he crushed a few sprigs of rosemary and verbena between his fingers and sprinkled them over the wounds, both for their antiseptic and their magical properties. Then he covered everything with several of the diaphanous sheets of gossamer.

“For what earthly purpose?” Sonny scoffed. “I cannot see any possible reason for taking an interest in some quirky little teenage actress. No matter how pretty she is.”

“Are you talking about Auberon, now? Or yourself?”

Sonny glared balefully. “Madd…she’s just a girl.”

“Right. A girl with a Black Shuck hunting her.”

“If it was truly her it was tracking.”

“You said it was. Which seems to indicate that someone is planning to awaken the Wild Hunt and set this girl up as their quarry,” Maddox countered as he unwrapped a roll of sterile bandage. “My money’s on Queen Mabh. This kind of thing seems right up her alley.”

“I don’t know, Maddox. I’ve been wrong before.”

“No, you haven’t. And if you are now, well then, that in itself is a worrying thought.” Maddox placed an edge of the bandage over Sonny’s ribs. “Hold that.” He circled Sonny’s chest with the strips of fabric. “You can’t afford to be wrong, Sonny. And you can’t afford to make mistakes. None of us can.” He finished wrapping the bandage and neatly tucked the end in, securing the dressing. “Not during the Nine-Night.”