"What do you mean it was an accident?" Alex asked. The door he leaned against shook in its frame. Glass broke somewhere on the other side.
"I'm serious," a dark complected man cowering against the wall of the small outbuilding said. "My sleeping draught boiled over, so I opened the door to let the shop air out a little. Rama wandered in and apparently got into the enlargement potion cooling on the counter."
"What were you doing making an enlargement potion anyway? They’re restricted." The door shuddered, more violently this time, and Alex pressed harder against the wood. Enlargement potions were regulated for a very good reason….
"There's a bit of a loop hole,” the Apothecary said, his voice trembling almost as much as his hands.
"What kind of loophole?” Alex asked.
A sly smile spread across the man’s face and he pointed downwards. Alex felt his cheeks start to burn. Seriously. By now he should know better than to ask.
"Your best seller, I’m sure," Jamie said.
Alex looked up at his partner’s voice. Jamie stood just inside the gate, a huge smile on her face. Apparently she’d been there a while.
The Apothecary’s grin widened. "I can barely keep it in stock."
"This isn't funny," Alex said.
Jamie snickered. "Yes, it is. At least Rama didn't get the finished product."
"I think I might have preferred that," Alex muttered. “You could at least help me hold the door shut.”
“Mike and I are saving our energy in case that thing escapes.” Jamie crossed her arms, leaning back against the fence. “Well, I am at least. Mike’s off marking his territory.”
Sighing, Alex turned to the Apothecary. The man had shifted several more feet along the side of the building, ready to make a break for it. "How long do you think the potion will take to wear off?" Alex asked.
The man shrugged. "An hour. Maybe."
Alex glanced at his watch. They’d been here at least half that and the noise inside the building had deceased considerably. "I'm going to take a look."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Jamie asked.
"Are any of my ideas ever good?"
Jamie backed up several steps. "Be careful."
The hinges groaned as Alex eased the door open a few inches. Cauldrons and broken bottles littered the workroom floor, their colorful contents splattered across the tile. Thin tendrils of smoke rose where one spilled potion touched another. Alex wrinkled his nose at the pungent chemical smell that filled the room. Nothing moved.
"I think the coast is clear," Alex said, pulling the door all the way open and stepping into the room. A ten foot tall peacock stared back at him. "Or not."
The bird cocked its head to the side, glaring at him with an eye as big as a dinner plate. A cluster of iridescent feathers, each as long as Alex's arm, crowned its head. "Easy, Rama," Alex said, stretching his arm out behind him towards the door. His fingers groped at air. "Everything's going to be fine. Just hang in there a little longer and you'll be back to normal. That's a good peacock."
The bird bobbed its head, turquoise feathers glinting in the sun that came through the open door. Keeping an eye on its sharp beak, Alex backed up, fingers still searching. Rama honked and shuffled forward after him. Alex’s fingers touched wood and he jumped to the side, slamming the door shut. "Not a good idea."
Before he had a chance to catch his breath, Alex's cell phone rang. The number on the display didn’t surprise him. "Looks like it’s going to be one of those days," he said to Jamie.
"Hey, Alex," a woman said on the other end of the line. "How's your morning going?"
Alex tried not to grumble as he recognized the voice. Susan. She was bad news...the afterhours albatross of dispatch. Something shattered inside the building. "Wonderful, as usual."
"I needed to talk to you before I left. The incident report is on your desk, but I thought you might want to check it out this morning."
"Check what out?" Alex asked, hoping she couldn't hear him grinding his teeth in frustration.
"I intercepted a 911 call last night. Some woman out near 15th and Harvard claims that a horse jumped over her back fence."
"That's not far from the fairgrounds. Someone's pony probably went walkabout overnight."
"She said its mane and tail were on fire."
Alex took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Because a ten foot peacock wasn't bad enough, now he had to track down a Nightmare. "Text me the address, would you? We'll head there next."
***
"Right over here," the woman said, waddling across her yard.
Alex eyed her choice of pink Hello Kitty pajama bottoms topped with a threadbare NRA t-shirt and tried not to judge her. Lack of fashion sense wasn't a crime. Though it probably should be.
"It came over the fence, eyes as mean as a snake, and its hair on fire. I couldn’t see much of the man riding it, but...."
"There was a man riding the horse?" Alex asked.
"That's what I said, isn't it? If you'd let me finish, I ain't even gotten to the dogs yet."
"Dogs?"
"You think I'm crazy, don't you?" the woman asked. She glared at him, as if daring him to agree. "Those other cops called me crazy."
Alex swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and surveyed the trampled grass around him. Several large divots had been gouged out of the earth. “No, I don’t think you’re crazy.” He knelt down and pressed his fingers into a paw print as big as his fist. Only one dog could keep up with a Nightmare….
"Hey, Jamie, bring Mike over here, would ya'?" Alex called over his shoulder.
"Anything good?" Jamie asked.
"Maybe." Alex glanced at Hello Kitty woman. She'd lit a cigarette and was puffing away, oblivious to the wolf that had entered her backyard. Alex slipped the collar from around Mike's neck and his four-legged partner trotted off, nose to the ground.
"Looks like a mob came through here," Jamie said.
Nodding, Alex looked up at the woman again. She'd pulled out her cell phone and pecked at the screen with one finger, cigarette still dangling from her lips. "At least one Nightmare," he whispered. "And a pack of Hellhounds."
Mike barked at a line of rosebushes that looked like they hadn't seen garden sheers in years. Alex crossed the yard, not sure he wanted to know what held Mike’s interest. Crouching down, he plucked a tuft of black hair from a thorny stem.
"It's a Hunt." Alex said, pocketing the hair. "And I have a good idea what they're after."