Thea showed up at the safe house later. “I got him out of town. By the time the kelpie wakes up, he’ll be out of range.”

“Good. Of course, that means it’ll come after me. I need to talk to Bruce.”

Thea nodded, as if she knew exactly who I meant. Maybe she did. “Good idea. He’s one of the few you don’t have to worry about involving.”

“Because he already is.” A flat statement, there, knowing it might well be my fault he was.

“Has been for years.” Thea smiled. “He probably can’t do it, he’s better at divination, but he might well know somebody who can.”

“I’ll talk to him tomorrow. How long do you think we have?”

“A few days. Probably no more than a week.”

I headed inside, headed for my sword. I still wanted to use it on the monster. Or on something. Maybe a spar would get the tension out of me, but instead I touched it once before moving to the fridge to get something to eat.

Cold pizza. It would do. I’d eaten plenty of cold pizza in my time. Had come to almost prefer it over fresh, hot pizza. I tugged out a slice, munching on it even before I was sitting down, leaving the box out for Thea.

She indulged, settling down next to me.

“So, that kid’s a telepath?”

“Something like that. It’s pretty rare. But kelpies feed on magic and psychic abilities. And flesh when they can get it.”

“Poor guy.” I didn’t envy him. “He’ll be…”

“…better off in nowhere, West Virginia. I sent him somewhere he’ll get what he needs. A small town where he won’t be as overwhelmed. He’ll learn to properly shield and with luck he won’t take any more drugs.”

“I suppose it’s lucky he bumped into me.” If it was luck. But no. I wasn’t sure whether I believed in fate, but I wasn’t about to let it believe in me.

I wasn’t going to be anyone’s pawn. Even gods. Which was, yes, the kind of attitude that got a girl smited, but I really didn’t care. If they were going to smite me for not being meek, then they weren’t gods I was interested in. “So, what else is real? Everything?”

“Depends on your definitions of real and everything.”

I freed a hand to swat her. “Gods. Fairies. Monsters.”

“Gods, definitely. Does that bother you?”

“I don’t want to grovel and worship. Anyone.”

“There’s the Old Man.” She didn’t explain and I didn’t push.

Somebody Thea would grovel before, though, was a scary idea. Even more scary than the thought of Mr. Otter showing up.

I pretended great interest in my cold pizza.

Whether the thing was dead or not, we made it to the kid’s house. Such as it was. If there were parents, they weren’t in evidence.

“I’m getting out of here,” he informed me as soon as he arrived. “Out of DC. Take the greyhound, get off wherever.”

I wondered if it would help him. “There are worse plans.” Staying here certainly wouldn’t. Staying here hadn’t helped him so far. “Go somewhere where there aren’t as many people.”

He nodded, heading inside. Thea pulled up next to me, no doubt clued in by her friend. “I’ll make sure he gets to the station.”

“Your friend killed it.”

“Nah. Those things don’t die. She slowed it down. For long enough for it to lose him. Then we’ll work out how to send it back. Need a witch.”

“Is that all we need? I think I know where to find one.” Bruce. I hated to involve him, but I bet he knew somebody who knew how to banish fairies.

“Just be careful.”

I smiled at her. “When am I not?”

“Most of the time.”

I scowled at her, but it wasn’t that serious. What did she expect? I was a kid, for all that I was accusing other people of that. “I’ll make sure it’s somebody we can trust.”

“That’s all I ask.” And then she was offering the back of her bike to the junkie. He accepted, and the two roared off.

He had to be desperate. Taking rides from strange women. But then, Thea was easy to trust. She gave off that air of being a woman who wouldn’t hurt anyone. I now had to get out of the hood without being beaten up for being the wrong color.

Couldn’t blame them, really. They could honestly blame so many of their problems on white people. I put on my best ‘don’t mess with me’ walk and headed back towards the Green Line. It worked, at least to start with, but it kept me from relaxing. My muscles stayed tense.

People did get shot in this neighborhood. Bad things happened here, and very few good things, and at least I was better off than them.

Better people trying to kill you than the sense of no prospects that flowed around me. Small wonder there was violence, and drugs, and kids younger than me getting pregnant. What else did they have?

Nothing, that was what. At least Kanesha was trying. Or maybe she was just luckier. She’d called herself lucky. Lucky to be away from her parents.

I made it safely to the metro, but didn’t really breathe easily until I was on the train.

“What is that thing?” he asked.

“Trouble. That’s why I’m staying with you.” I glanced around for the biker. Saw her, got an acknowledging nod before she tugged on her helmet and mounted the vehicle.

She wasn’t offering us a ride. I knew that. “Where do you live?” I asked.

“You won’t want to go there.”

“I can look after myself. And my white skin.” I offered him a smile. “I’m taking you to safety.”

“That monster’s real, isn’t it? I’m sober. I think I’m sober.”

“Why did you start the drugs in the first place?” I steered him towards the Metro station. Underground, we were safer. It could only get down there in human form, not giant bird or murderous horse. But it would take us a while. We were almost a mile from Brookland Metro by the shortest route.

“To stop the voices. I’m schizo. I couldn’t…I can’t…I still can’t. I tried to tell them.”

“You’re not schizo. It’s something else.” Telepathy? Magic? Both? I didn’t know. “Come on.”

“You and your friend. You’re…you’re…” He fell silent. A moment later the bird swooped. It didn’t touch us, but the wind from its wings was enough to stagger us.

Attacking with witnesses? But there was almost nobody around.

Well, except for Thea’s biker sister, who had been scouting ahead. She turned the bike across the road, the engine rumbling like some kind of predatory beast. I pushed the kid behind me.

“You’re going back where you belong.”

It touched down, turned into the fanged horse, pawing the ground, staring at us. “You don’t know how.”

“I’m pretty sure I can work it out.”

The biker had knives. She drew them, hopping off the bike to walk towards us.

“Or I’ll just let her deal with you.”

It reared, striking towards me with blade-like hooves. I ducked, rolling to the side.

A bit of talent. Hearing voices. The kid was shivering, though…I kept thinking of him that way, even though he was likely older than I was. Older, but weaker.

Then he drew himself up. “Go home,” he said in a weak voice.

Its front end came down, it started to move towards him, teeth bared, bent on destruction.

“Go home!”

And then the biker was on it from behind, darting towards its shoulder. When it snaked its head round to bite her, she thrust a knife into the base of its skull.

It…disappeared. I felt the breath go out of me. “Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me yet. It’s not dead. It’s likely to come back. Get that guy home.”

With that, she hopped on her bike once more and rode off.

I wasn’t reassured. Martial arts wouldn’t save her against guns or monsters, but I also knew the only thing that was going to keep her from poking her nose in my business was for her to get a major fright. Major enough to scare her off, without her ending up in hospital, dead, or grounded for life.

I wasn’t about to set anything like that up. I could pray, if I had any clue who to pray to. After fighting fairies I wasn’t going to dismiss the idea of gods.

Then again, I never really had. But no sooner had I left the group home, than I felt the presence of the bird again.

“Go away.”

I heard its voice in my mind, wrapping around my brain stem. I gave it a bit of a shove, and it withdrew, but the words were still clear. “Let me have the kid and I will.”

“Why is he so important?”

“He’s got some talent. Wasted, of course, washed away by the drugs.”
Talent for? I didn’t ask, instead I gave the thing a massive shove, forcing it out of my mind, turning to walk away. It was still around, but it didn’t try telepathy or whatever the heck that was again.

Telepathy. Maybe that was the kid’s talent. I was, though, going to send that thing back where it came from. Except Thea couldn’t. If she could, she’d have done it. I trusted her that much, enough to be sure she wouldn’t let it stick around if she could get rid of it.

Which probably meant she didn’t know how. I almost seized on that. It was a good reminder that she wasn’t perfect.

Maybe Mr. Otter knew. I had no clue how to ask him about it. He showed up when I didn’t want him, but I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to appear when I did.

Which meant it was up to me.

The kid has some talent. I found myself heading towards the hospital. He was supposed to be being released this afternoon. I could offer to walk him home or something. Give him some protection. When I got there, one of Thea’s biker friends was loitering by the door. Red hair, heavy makeup, chains on her jacket. She nodded to me with a slight, knowing smile, as I headed inside.

They all carried themselves like her, I’d noticed. Sisters under the skin, perhaps. Sisters beyond blood and DNA. Inside, I loitered in the reception area, waiting for the kid to appear. Hoping they wouldn’t, for some reason, hustle him out the back door.

He showed up. Pale, thin, clearly in withdrawal from something. “Hey.”

Sullen eyes turned towards me. “…hey.”

“Relax. I’m just here to make sure you get home. After you passed out I was worried.”

“Why?”
“‘Cause I’m crazy and care for people, that’s why.” As we stepped outside, the bird circled overhead.

Coward he might have been, but I was sure the kelpie would show up again, sooner or later, in some form or other. For right now, I had a different problem.

Named Kanesha. She seemed suddenly determined to work out what was happening with me, and as the summer went on, I knew I’d have to go back in the fall. Or drop out of school and anything resembling a normal life.

If I could have such a thing. I was pretty sure no force in heaven or hell could grant me such at this point. Except maybe myself, and I didn’t know how.

No, that wasn’t true. I didn’t think I wanted it. Now I scowled at her. She was standing on a corner. Between her and hoodie guy? I wanted to worry about protecting one person at a time. I’d managed to find out that he was going to end up back on the streets. No room in rehab. Plenty of room in jail, but the hospital was managing not to send him there.

In a perfect world, it would have been…no. There was no perfect world. “One person at a time,” I murmured. At least Kanesha deserved it in a way hoodie guy didn’t.

She’d been good to me in her own way and she was in danger because she insisted on still being good to me. She could tell something was wrong and she wanted to help.

I knew I had to cut her off, to be absolutely rude to her, but I couldn’t. Instead, I stood facing her. Our eyes met.

“Jane, whatever’s going on, it’s eating you alive.”

“I…don’t need your help.” I couldn’t say it more harshly than that. I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her even to save her life.

I wasn’t cut out for this. Not this part of it, anyway. Not the telling people to go away before they got hurt or killed.

“Bull. You do.”

“Kanesha, you need to stay out of this and stay away from me.” She was burning my bridges behind me. She was making it so I couldn’t go back. “You hear about what happened to Barry Clark?”

“He took drugs.”

“They kidnapped him, forced drugs on him, and left him like that. To get to me.” It was safe to talk. She was the only one who could hear me. Upstairs in the group house, us the only people there. The first time I’d been back. “As bait. Can you imagine what they might do to you?”

I was envisioning things you only think about happening to females.

“Jane…how well do you know me?”

“Well enough.” I did, though, search my memories. She’d always been the only one to reach out to the white girl.

“I’ve got a black belt in aikido, for starters. Heading further up.”

My eyes widened. “You…do?”

“What, didn’t expect it from a kid from the hood?”

“…no.” I didn’t. I didn’t know what I expected, but my image of somebody good at aikido was, well, not Kanesha, who was short and a little on the plump side. “But martial arts won’t do you much good against guns.”

The presence, though, shied away. We watched the hospital all night, and I was yawning a little. Not Thea…come to think about it, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever seen her actually tired.

But there was no sign of the kelpie. “Still doesn’t want to take on both of us. He’s going to wait until we leave.”

“Looks like it. And we can’t watch 24/7.”

“You might be able to.”
She didn’t immediately deny it. “You stay here. I’m going to get us some backup.” She hopped onto the bike and left. I breathed a lot…less easily. This might well be the opportunity he took. He didn’t, though. Maybe he was tired. Or maybe he’d found some way to sneak past us and we were wasting our time out here.

I didn’t trust for sure that I could sense him. It seemed that I could, but I was uncomfortable with relying on it. Part of me wanted to go inside and make sure the junkie was still there.

The wind shifted and it was raining again. I ducked under one of the trees that grew by the building. Right at the corner, not far from the cross suspended on the outer wall. Perhaps a comfort to some of the patients, it didn’t resonate with me at all.

Probably not with the junkie either. I wondered who would end up picking up the bill. He’d be a charity case, no doubt. Or possibly yet another casualty of a healthcare system I’d been told by more than one person was thoroughly broken.

I found I cared, but only a little. Or maybe I cared in the abstract, not the particular.

And then half a dozen bikers showed up. Half a dozen female bikers. “Pulled in the big guns,” Thea noted. “Let’s go home. You need some rest.”

“I wish I could be as tough as you,” I noted as I hopped onto the back of the bike.

She didn’t answer, and I almost felt she was uncomfortable with the question. What did she know about me?

Whatever I could sense, I was an ordinary girl otherwise. And maybe that thing had been pushing into my mind intentionally. Gunning for me. Or assuming I would know it was there.

Did everyone else know more about me than I knew about me? No, I thought wryly, the junkie didn’t.

Once we got back, I collapsed onto the bed. At one point I dimly stirred. I could hear Thea talking to somebody by the door, but only hear such a mumble in response I wasn’t able to identify the other beyond male. Then the conversation was over.

My head finally cleared about an hour later. I realized it wasn’t just the all-nighter – I’d been running on fumes for days. Thea offered me some kind of tea, which helped. It wasn’t just tea in it, but some other things too. “Who was that?”

“A concerned friend.”

“Did the thing show up again?”

“No. Like I said. They’re cowards.”

The ambulance was there, loading the junkie in. I didn’t want them to see us go into the safe house. So, I started to walk away. Thea followed me. “Good work.”

“I guess it didn’t want to take on both of us.”

“Oh, definitely. Kelpies aren’t the bravest creatures on the whole. I’m surprised it even tried to take on you.”

“I think I pissed it off,” I admitted, brushing back my hair. “But I’d sort of rather have it gunning for me than…”

“Huh. You aren’t shaping out quite like I thought. I thought you were using that guy as bait.”

“Not entirely. I thought about it, decided against it, then the bastard showed up anyway. Offered to tell me who I really was. He really wanted that guy.”

“Then he’s going to go after him again. Which hospital are they taking him to?”

“Providence. Should I have gone with?”

“Nah. They’d have questioned you. Up for staking it out?”

“Why would he be after a junkie?” I turned to face her, my eyes fixing on her almost washed out blues. “I mean…”

“Bloodline, possibly. Or just…those things aren’t entirely sane by any standard. The guy has something he wants.”

“He wants to eat him.” I shuddered. “I want that thing dead.” An admission, that, that I didn’t like. I didn’t want to admit I wanted anyone dead, and as crazy and dark and unpleasant as the kelpie was, he was an intelligent being. Not a thing. Not a disgusting monster.

“They have that effect on one. They’re a very dark fairy. But there might be an alternative to killing him.”

“Sending him back where he came from?” I asked, one eyebrow elevating.
“Exactly. Come on.” She’d circled around to where she’d parked her bike. I hopped on behind her. Still the best way to get around the city, and heading north towards Providence.

Pretty much the closest since they’d closed the old D.C. General. Which had been a good thing and a bad thing. People were still trying to decide which. I really didn’t have…or at least remember…an opinion. She parked the bike about half a block away, and we stood looking at the hospital.

Now I did remember things. I’d spent some time in a room here, while they tried to work out who I was and if my memories were coming back any time soon. Not good memories. Not good memories at all, but they were part of what I had.

And I sensed a dark presence across the city.

I could hear distant sirens, but response times in this part of town sucked. That was, of course, part of why we were here. And then I sensed the bird again.

“Give him to me,” its voice whispered, not human this time, but carrying with it layers and layers of wind and water.

“No.”

“What’s he to you? A mortal junkie. Dying anyway, from poisons he’s put in his own body. Why care about such a thing?”

“Maybe I just don’t want you to get him.” I ducked inside, retrieved the sword. Looked around for a place to hide it when the paramedics came. “Or maybe I just want you to try and take him.”

I might not have wanted to use the guy as bait, but he’d given me an opportunity to take this thing down, the dim light glinting from the blade. It started to rain, water dripping out of the sky slowly, for now, but definite in its presence. Glinting off the blade.

It wasn’t natural rain, I slowly realized, and now the thing was in the alleyway. Except now it was neither bird nor man. It was dark green and smelled of weed and water and it resembled a horse, but with water plants twisted into its mane. “Give him to me.”

“Never.” I moved to stand between the two, feeling a tension between me. The desire to just let the beast take him. The desire to make some kind of trade. One junkie to get this thing out of the city.

The desire to kick its butt. The desire to protect. All of these warred within me but, for now, protect won. The blade was not wavering this time, lifted towards the chest and neck of the…now I knew what it was.

Kelpie. Water horse. Feeder on human flesh and, of course, human dreams. Nightmare.

“Your kind aren’t welcome here.”

“Plenty are willing to invite us in. It’s you who aren’t welcome. Or wouldn’t be. If anyone knew what you are, who you are, it would be you they’d be clamoring to expel. I could tell you the truth. Just let me have him.”

“Bargaining with what I have anyway? You can’t sell me what’s already mine.” Pretending I already knew. Using that pretense, I hoped, to knock some of the wind out of his sails.

“The hard way, then. He lunged towards me, I leapt to the side, the blade slashing his shoulder. He bled salty water, more like tears than blood. The junkie’s eyes were open, staring.

Staring and recognizing but, I hoped, not remembering. I whirled again, slashing at the beast’s legs as it reared, striking towards me with dull grey hooves. Then, it abruptly turned and fled into the night. Nobody seemed to see it. Nobody but me and one druggie aware of its presence.

And Thea, who was standing in the other end of the alleyway.

The sword came out of its sheath easily as I turned to face the stranger who had come through the door. Either he’d picked the lock or he had a key.

“Whoah. Don’t stick me with that thing, okay?”

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” He wasn’t exactly pizza delivery. Medium skin. Hoodie. I try not to judge by hoodies. I spend enough time around people who wore them to know they didn’t mean anything.

“I…I…”

“How did you get in?”

Grudgingly, he held up what did indeed look like a lockpick. It was a pretty old lock on this place.

“Well, you’d better leave and forget you were ever here. Or I’ll catch up with you and stick you.”

“I…” He had his hands above his head. “Please.”

“Please what? Don’t hurt you? I won’t if you leave now.” I did feel the point waver. It was hard to bully somebody as clearly pathetic as this guy. No older than me, and now he was shaking a little.

“I need money. Need my fix. Need…”

“You don’t need your fix.” I wished I could help him, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t clean drugs from somebody’s system, but maybe something out there could. “Breathe.” I lowered the sword point. “I can’t let you rob me. Not that I have much.”

Thea had most of the cash. We weren’t stupid enough to leave it lying around. But what was with this place and junkies?

“Sword’s probably worth something.” He wasn’t coming any closer to me, though.

“It’ll be in you if you try to take it,” I promised. I hated to threaten him. “Now. Drop the lockpicks. And leave.”

He dropped them, then tried to flee. Somehow, he tripped over the steps, fell headlong. I sighed and put the sword down, moving to drag him out of the building, turning him over. He was barely conscious, his pupils staring.

I did the only thing I really could do. I got him outside, closed and secured the door, then called 911. Kept an eye on him. I hoped he wouldn’t…nah, in the state he was in, he wouldn’t be believed. I flashed back to what had happened to Barry and found myself becoming angrier and angrier. And I could sense the bird’s presence again. If I left this guy alone, he’d be eaten. Nobody would miss him.

Heck, he probably wouldn’t even miss himself. This might, though, be the perfect chance to take that thing out.

Moralities warred in my head. Not using a helpless junkie as bait, in the end, won. And I was totally not giving him his lockpicks back.

He faded off into the darkness, and I felt my heart rate return to normal. What had I done? Pissed him off was the obvious answer. I needed to find out what he was. What would hurt him.

Swords, I suspected, but I couldn’t just wander around with one. This was so much easier in the movies, when people could apparently do such things. Run around with swords and hammers and spandex and somehow be celebrated for saving the world instead of denigrated and arrested.

I had no illusions about what we would do to Superman. No illusions about what people would do to me.

Sooner or later. I knew I couldn’t stay hidden forever, but maybe after we’d dealt with the cult I could go back to pretending to be normal. Keep my head down.

Yeah.

Right.

That was not going to happen, not with unpleasant shapeshifters, crazy guys…and I wasn’t sure Thea would leave me alone either. She had her own expectations. Not quite for me to turn into her, but for me to acknowledge I wasn’t ordinary. She’d given me the sword.

I didn’t go directly back to the safe house. I took a convoluted route and made sure I was on the Metro for part of it. So I couldn’t be observed from the air. Thea, though, wasn’t there.

I sat on the bed, then picked up the sword. Not my sword. Thea’s sword, for all that she was lending it to me. It wasn’t mine. I knew that with the same kind of deep instinct that showed me how to use it. But it was serviceable and I knew it would be proof against the shapeshifter.

If I could come up with a way to use it without being arrested. It wasn’t legal to carry a sword. Thea wouldn’t care about the morality of it. I didn’t care about the morality of it. Just about not getting caught, and what did that make me?

Somebody who wanted to protect others from a threat I was pretty sure no jail cell could contain. What if he could turn into a much smaller bird to just fly through the bars? Or…yeah. There was no way the cops could hold a monster, especially as none of them would believe it was real.

Or would they? There might be cops who had seen enough to know this was real. The door rattled. It sounded like Thea coming back.

It sounded like her, but I didn’t get up to open it, just in case it wasn’t. I kept the sword across my knees…also just in case it wasn’t. Thea was right. Swords were scary.

They were even scary when you were the one using them.

It wasn’t Thea.