Thinning the Herd by Adrian Phoenix

Author:Adrian Phoenix
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Star

15

SO MUCH FOR THE SECURITY DEPOSIT

Lawrence unlocked the apartment door and ushered Hal inside. The dark apartment smelled of sandalwood and spiced apples. Relocking the door behind him, the Wiccan switched on the lights.

“Please,” Lawrence said, “make yourself comfortable. Tea?”

“No, thanks. Whole milk, if you have it.”

“Sorry, no. Soy?”

Hal shook his head. “Nope. But thanks.” He leaned his catch pole beside the sofa.

“Tea for one, then,” Lawrence said with a quick smile.

Hal walked around the small living room as Lawrence went into the kitchen and put on the kettle. The furniture was simple and natural. Matted and framed pictures of trees—sunlight etching green leaves and rough trunks—adorned the walls; on the coffee table, books—To Be One with the Earth: The Wiccan Handbook; The Witches’ Spellbook; They Walk the Forests Still: A Study of Ancient Gods—incense and burner, and, strewn throughout the room, candles of every color and shape.

No sign of Louis, until Hal peeked in the bathroom and saw the clutter on the counter—black lipstick, black nail polish, earrings and other body jewelry, a jar of Manic Panic, Blue Moon in particular.

“Louis lives with Dezzie,” Lawrence said.

Hal turned to meet the Wiccan’s gaze.

“Most of the time, anyway,” Lawrence said. “I hope he’ll move in with me one of these days.” Light faded from his face as a stark possibility darkened his gray eyes.

“We’ll get him back,” Hal promised. “We’ll get all of them back.” He returned to the living room. “So . . . what’s first on the agenda?”

“It’s not that simple, Hal,” Lawrence said. He smoothed his long honey-colored hair back and looped an elastic band around it. With his hair tied back, Hal realized the sides were buzz-cut—a faux ’hawk.

“Why isn’t it that simple?” Hal asked.

“Because we’re dealing with gods.”

Hal wasn’t sure he heard right. Gods? Fragments of a dream returned to him, uneasing him. Monstrous creatures, neither human nor animal, stalk from within thick autumn-leafed forests and, howling beneath the forever eclipse, hunt human beings and shifters, tearing them apart and tossing them aside.

“Even gods need their asses kicked now and then,” Hal said, voice low. “So line ’em up, wise man, and let’s get to it. We’ve got people waiting on us.”

Lawrence looked at him for a long moment and then he smiled. Shook his head. “The Fool by any other—”

Someone rapped knuckles against the front door. Hard knuckles.

Lawrence’s head jerked around, startled.

Hal grabbed his catch pole, locked his fingers around it. The hair on his arms lifted. Sound tunneled down to just the beat of his heart, slow and steady.

Lawrence walked to the front door. As he leaned in to peer through the peephole, the door burst open. Splinters of wood and metal exploded into the room. Ripped from its hinges, the shattered door fell on Lawrence.

A snarling, hell-eyed beast stomped into the apartment. This one wasn’t a wolf-man, no. This was an elk-man with a rack of antlers two yards wide. It snorted. And stomped in on two hoofed legs, antlers gouging chunks out of the wood-and-plaster doorframe.

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