Chapter Three
“Have you noticed that there are other people here?” Amanda asked as McCoy returned with his third plate.
“Yeah,” he said as he sat down at their table. “So?”
“I’m guessing a few of them came here to eat. If you leave anything, that is.”
McCoy shrugged and took a bite from an eggroll. “I’m a growing boy,” he mumbled. “Besides, banishing demons takes a lot out of a man.”
“But you didn’t actually banish it.”
“Well, if you want to split hairs and get all technical…”
“And you’re still going back to Shallow Springs. Even after the demon’s warning.”
“It wasn’t exactly a warning. Demons are liars and deceivers. It was probably just trying to rattle me enough so it could escape.”
“And you think it’s just a coincidence that Lyle called right after that?”
“There is such a thing. That’s why they came up with a word for it: coincidence.”
Amanda rolled her eyes and took another sip of her drink. There was absolutely no arguing with Finn McCoy. It was like the old saying about trying to teach a pig to sing. But she was beginning to care for him, deeply, and she did not want him to go and get himself hurt. Or worse.
“Besides,” he said, “I’m going in the daytime. I’ll be back long before dark.”
“Yeah. Think back about six months. That’s what you thought when you came to my house on the lake.”
“Well, there was no way I could have anticipated a water hound.”
Last April, Amanda had come seeking McCoy’s help because she thought something was stalking her. As it turned out, something had been stalking her, and it had damned near killed both of them. Since then, Amanda had moved into an apartment about three miles from McCoy’s house, and had taken a job as a paralegal with a local law firm.
“Maybe I can take off tomorrow,” Amanda said. “I want to come with you.”
McCoy nearly choked on a bean sprout. “Forget it,” he said. “We moved you out of that place for a reason. You’ve got no business going back.”
“And you do?”
He gave her a look, his honest look, which meant that whatever he was about to say was serious, all joking aside.
“People are missing, Amanda. They’re probably dead. It’s been going on for years, but now it’s really picking up for some reason. I need to find out why.”
“But why you?” She was frustrated almost to the point of tears.
“Who else do these people have? Lyle? He’s not going to risk his ass to help them.”
“But he’s willing to risk yours, and you’re just dumb enough to let him.”
He saw that she was worried, and he didn’t want to cause her any pain. He had taken quite a shine to her in the last six months, and he also knew that she felt the same way. But this was what he did, this was what he was. Amanda knew that coming into it, and she would have to make peace with it sooner or later.
“I can’t turn a blind eye anymore,” he said. “Like I said, this has been going on for decades. Probably centuries. I could have done something before, but I didn’t. I’ve been no better than Lyle, worrying about my own hide. But I can’t do it anymore. It has to stop.”
Amanda realized at that moment that she loved this man, and that epiphany caused her both joy and pain. On one hand, she was ecstatic to learn that she could still feel this way about a man after her first marriage had ended in an ugly divorce. But it also frightened her to fall for a man who battled ghosts, demons, and monsters on an almost daily basis. She wasn’t sure if she could handle that pressure.
“Finn,” she said. “I understand why you feel you need to do this. I really do. And I won’t tag along tomorrow when you go to see Lyle. But you can’t keep treating me like some fragile little girl. Not if you want this to work. I’m a grown woman, and I can handle myself.”
“I never said that you couldn’t.”
“No, but you treat me that way. If it weren’t for me, that water hound would have eaten you for supper, remember?”
“Yes.”
“Okay then. I’m not asking to be your sidekick or anything, but you can’t keep me locked out. I know what’s out there now, and I worry about you.”
He started to say something, thought about it, and took another bite of food instead. They sat in silence for a few minutes, and Amanda was beginning to worry that she’d jinxed it, that she should have kept her mouth shut. Finally, though, he looked up at her.
“It’s hard for me,” he said. “Aside from my parents and a few friends when I was young, I’ve never really been close to anyone. It’s not that I didn’t want to. I couldn’t afford to. With all the things I’ve seen…I know it’s selfish, but I’ve always been afraid of letting someone get close and then losing them.”
His words touched her even more, and she had to fight to keep her eyes from misting up. Though she might be setting herself up for pain later on, she couldn’t think of another man she’d rather be with.
“Okay,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. “Enough of this mushy stuff. What do you plan to do after Lyle fills you in?”
McCoy, genuinely relieved that the conversation was going in a different direction, shrugged. ”If I have time, I’d like to visit a couple of the sites where someone went missing. See if I can find anything. We’ll go from there, I guess.”
Amanda didn’t miss the we’ll instead of I’ll, and she smiled to herself. He was trying, God love him, and that was all that she could ask for.
“Do you think these Sluagh are responsible for the all missing people?” she asked.
“I don’t see how they could be. They travel in packs, and they have a pack mentality. There’s no definitive leadership, though. No alphas strong enough to dominate the others. They fight amongst themselves more often than not. When they attack, it’s more of a crime of opportunity. They happen upon someone, or someone happens upon them.”
“And you think whatever’s going on now is more coordinated?”
“It seems to be,” McCoy agreed. “Besides, the Sluagh tend to stick to the more isolated areas. I’ve never heard of them coming in close to town.”
Amanda studied her empty plate. “What about the little girl? Are you sure you didn’t recognize her? She has to fit into all of this somehow.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Like I said, demons are deceivers. They like to mess with you. It’s possible that the little girl has nothing at all to do with this. She may not even exist. Still…”
“What?”
McCoy shrugged. “Just for a second, I thought that maybe I had seen her before. A long time ago, perhaps.” He started to pick up the remains of his eggroll, then decided against it and pushed his plate away. His appetite was gone. “At any rate, I don’t see what she could have to do with anything, unless she’s one of the recent disappearances.”
“Well,” Amanda said, “you’ll find out tomorrow. You ready to blow this joint?”
“Yep. Wanna come back to my place for a nightcap?”
“Is that what they’re calling it nowadays?”
“You can call it whatever you want,” he said, flashing his best wolfish grin. “As long as you show up.”
“Ah, Finn McCoy. You do have a way of charming the pants off a lady.”
“Exactly my intention,” McCoy smiled.
Their waitress, seeing that they had finished their meal, brought their check and two fortune cookies. Amanda tossed her cookie into her purse for later and went to get her car. McCoy took the check to the cashier and paid. While he was waiting for Amanda to bring the car around, he unwrapped his fortune cookie, broke it open, and popped the cookie in his mouth. Absently, he unfolded the small piece of paper with the message on it. He glanced at it, did a double take, and reread the message again.
Soon everything will make perfect sense.
Amanda arrived with the car and McCoy hopped in, wishing fervently that fortune
cookies would be a little more damned specific.