Page 33 of Teeth To Rip & Tear

Melly spotted me, giving me a friendly wave, but her table was full.

Wyatt and Kaleb found a place to lean at the back of the room, projecting the image of stoic wolf enforcers guarding the perimeter.

It wasn’t more than a few minutes before Dean Hart made his way to the raised platform in the corner boasting a karaoke system. However, Dean didn’t need the microphone to be heard over the room. The second he arrived, a wave of silence followed.

Mitchell stood beside Dean, arms crossed and glaring at everyone in the bar, the opposite of the unserious dork I knew. When Mitchell had sat across from me, I couldn’t imagine him killing a redcap, but the man by Dean’s side was more than capable of ripping apart a monster with his bare hands.

“We have reason to believe that a rogue durrach has come through the Gate and made its way to Locket,” Dean announced. “It’s leaving glamoured trophies through town.”

A roar of outrage lifted the volume of the bar before settling down.

“I have called this meeting to ask everyone if they have seen or heard anything strange in the past week.” Dean continued.

One of the witches lifted their hand tentatively, clearing their throat. “Shouldn’t the wolves know more about this than us? Y’all patrol the woods, don’t you?”

Dean speared her a look. “We patrol the woods, but this durrach is wallering about town. The wolves don’t have a reason to spend much time in town.”

The witches conceded his statement with nods of agreement and murmurs.

“One of the shops on Main Street was broken into last night.” Another witch piped up. “Johnson’s hardware store. Someone took some rope and some of his sugar lumps from the staff office.”

It didn’t surprise me that Darren Johnson counted how many sugar lumps were in his sugar jar. The man meticulously counted every nut and bolt in his store.

“You sure that’s not just kids playing Halloween pranks?” Someone argued.

“The wolves want to know about weird goings on!” The witch countered. “No one steals in Locket. It just isn’t done.”

“What about your Huntsman?” Melly spoke, finally, and though her voice was soft, it silenced the room. “The Huntsman has dominion across all fae creatures, especially those in the Forest of Beasts across the Gate. Shouldn’t you ask your master what kind of durrach can set glamour?”

Dean’s eyes flashed, but he didn’t argue against her words. “We have sent a message to the Huntsman.” He told her, his tone cutting any further inquiry on the subject short. “But it is almost Samhain.”

“It’s a creature that can evade cameras.” Mitchell stepped forward. “That, or its presence, cannot be recorded.”

“We…” One of the female witches stepped forward. I knew her in passing, though not her first name. Her family owned a smallholding on the road leading out of the valley. The O’Dair’s made the best sausages this side of the Holston River. “We found an extra horse in our paddock a few days ago. Without a rider.”

“An extra horse?” Another witch echoed.

Kaleb peeled himself away from the wall, his gaze growing laser-focused.

“Dark as night.” The O’Dair girl continued. “It took some feed and water and was gone in the morning. The dirt was soft and didn’t leave a print on the ground. My little sister nicknamed it ‘smoke’ because it disappeared as quickly as it came.”

“What kind of fae has a horse form?” I frowned, thinking of my grandmother’s journals. Kelpies, unicorns, centaurs? Though I didn’t know much, none of them fit. We were too far away from water for a Kelpie. Unicorns were violent creatures often enslaved by royal courts for their ability to grant wishes. And centaurs? They were a law unto themselves but despised humans above all else. They would never visit the Human Realities willingly, and as far as I knew, they couldn’t set glamours.

“No,” Kaleb murmured to himself, his eyes narrowing. “Not the fuckingDullahan.” He spat the word with a heavy Irish accent that he took great pains to hide any other time. The silver-haired wolf had gone pale as the dead.

Dean and Mitchell, despite being under the watchful eye of every person in the bar, exchanged a loaded look. Mitchell stepped back, knitting his hands together in front of him, his face set in stone.

Whatever it was, the wolves knew what the durrach was. I’d bet my collection of dancing hamsters on it.

“We have another issue,” Dean announced. “Recently, a group calling themselves ‘Humans Against Other Beings’ has grown in popularity. At least one of their members belongs to the Locket police department, and they are targeting people they believe to be less than human. Mallory McGowen, now Mallory Hunt, was attacked at her home.”

The room's attention shifted toward me, and I withered, pulling my head toward my shoulders like a turtle.

Dean continued as if he hadn’t just put me in the spotlight of the town’s supernatural population. “They have guns but little knowledge of the Fae. I would think carefully about what knowledge is public about your creed and try and arm yourself.”

“You think he would target the demons?” A man I hadn’t seen before stood up; his body was made of edges and joints. His skin was sallow, but his clothes were tailored and designer. I knew as much as the next person about demons, and the glowing eyes gave him away. An unnatural lucid green that I clocked even from the other side of the room—his magic held the same neon tinge as it gathered at his fingertips.

“Demons have been in the open for many years,” Dean told the spindly man. “The HAOB will likely be operating on mainstream knowledge. Whatever they can find on Google or hearsay. They will likely use that information to attack you if they suspect what you are.”

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