Derek almost shot the thing out of sheer surprise alone. Surely he hadn’t heard what he just thought he had. He quickly rationalized that it must have been some cry that only mimicked speech, kind of like how some people taught their dogs to bark in a way that sounded like they were telling their owners they loved them.
“Please!”
Or maybe not.
This time there was no mistaking it. Derek lowered his rifle and backed up, not quite believing what he was hearing.
Behind him, he heard the thud of Danni finally being cut down.
A moment later, Francis was by his side. “Am I hearing things, or did the Jersey Devil just talk to us?”
Derek had no immediate reply to that. They’d faced some intelligent prey before, but none that had actually spoken to them.
He didn’t quite dare lower his gun, not yet. This thing had attacked them, after all. More importantly, it was believed responsible for multiple deaths and disappearances. It was possibly a simple territorial response, but if this thing was smart enough to speak, then that went beyond mere instinct. “Do you understand me?”
The creature nodded.
Derek glanced back at his two companions. Francis merely shrugged, a wide-eyed look on his face. Danni was down on one knee massaging the leg that had been caught in the snare. She looked up at him and shook her head, the meaning clear. She had no idea what to do with this one.
Neither did he. This was way outside of his normal jurisdiction, leaving him and his team in a very bad spot. Doing their job would now potentially be tantamount to an execution, something he most certainly wasn’t okay with. Bringing the creature back with them, however, opened up a whole other can of worms. Their job was to disavow, not confirm.
Then there was Yarlberg to consider. There was no telling what he’d do. He might order the thing put down regardless, or he might call another goddamned press conference and throw it in front of the cameras. And if this creature wasn’t unique, what would that mean for others of its species? Dragging it back with them could easily spiral out of control, leading to the eradication of an intelligent race ... genocide, in other words.
What choice did that leave him with? Could he simply ask it to stop, to try to avoid people?
Would that even work?
Derek wasn’t certain, but as leader of his team, he knew he had to make a decision, and quickly.
♦ ♦ ♦
Danni was unnerved. She’d sensed this creature was more than it appeared when it first attacked her, running off with her gun like a trophy. Being proven right, however, wasn’t quite the win she’d hoped it would be.
She could tell Derek was warring with the same emotions. Francis almost certainly had opinions, too, but he was a team player to the end. He’d go along with whatever Derek decided, trusting in their leader. Danni realized she should, too, but this thing actually speaking to them in English had shaken her. When she got back up, she didn’t even bother to retrieve her weapons. She just stood there, staring.
Now, dead center as it was in the beam of Derek’s light, she got a good long look at it. It truly was like nothing she’d ever seen before. She’d read up on the legends of various cultures in the year since she’d joined the team. Several had tales of chimeras, creatures said to combine the traits of two or more other animals. That was the word that sprung to mind. The Jersey Devil didn’t look like any mythological devil so much as several different creatures thrown into a blender and mixed together: the bipedal gait of a human; skin that seemed to fluctuate between reptilian scales and rhino hide; bony plates on its back; tufts of wiry hair on its head; and more. One of its hands ended in what appeared to be stubby fingers with an opposable thumb. The other lacked the thumb, but had pronounced claws like something you’d expect to see on a dinosaur.
In short, it was hard for her to think of this creature as anything other than an it, despite obvious male genitalia that was vaguely human in appearance.
Almost as if reading her mind, it turned toward her and looked her in the eye, one half of its mouth opening in a mockery of a smile ... or snarl, it was hard to tell which. The teeth within were chipped, cracked, and sharp looking.
The creature coughed, then spat up a wad of viscous phlegm. It was impossible to tell for certain without proper examination, but she had a feeling it was the same gunk Mitchell had been analyzing.
It wiped the back of its hand across its mouth as a thought struck her. Predators were sometimes known to hunt people when they’d been injured. She seemed to recall that was one of the theories behind the infamous Tsavo man-eaters, a pair of lions that killed dozens of railroad workers around the turn of the twentieth century. Supposedly, one had an injured tooth which didn’t allow it to hunt its natural prey.
Was that the case here? If so, that didn’t bring her much comfort. They’d hunted man-eaters before, but never one intelligent enough to rationalize with.
“Derek?” she asked tentatively. “What are we going to do?”
“I’m weighing our options,” he replied over his shoulder. His gun was still trained on the creature, but his posture seemed to lack his normal resolve. “You’ll forgive me if I say this one has me a bit flummoxed.”
“No shit,” Francis replied.
“Danni, I want you to get on the horn with Mitch. See if you can get him to distance himself from Zeist, but in a way that doesn’t raise suspicions. I think we need him to weigh in on this.”
She reached up to tap the Bluetooth earpiece she wore, but then added, “We ... we can’t shoot it. This isn’t what we signed up for.”
To her surprise, the creature turned her way again, its mouth once more opening in a gesture that resembled something between a grimace and smile.
“T-thank you, Sssarah.”
♦ ♦ ♦
“Wait, what did you say?” Danni asked. “I didn’t understand that.”
Derek had, though, and his eyes opened wide. There was no knowing whether the creature was slurring something else – its speech sounded rudimentary at best – but he couldn’t help but notice the name it had used. It was disturbingly similar to one he’d heard quite recently.
He glanced away from the devil and toward Francis. The big man met his eyes and in them Derek saw he was thinking the same thing.
“A fine name for a woman,” the host of the devil museum had told them.
“Gotta be a coincidence,” Francis said. “It’s just gotta...”
The so-called devil hissed at them, as if its vocal chords were equally in tune with a snake’s as well as a human’s. Derek raised his gun again as it took a step back. “Don’t do it,” he warned.
“Derek...”
“Get Mitch on the horn, Danni. We need full team input on this one.”
There was a momentary pause, but then she said, “Roger that. I’ll let him...”
“I’m afraid I cannot allow our darling Sarah to do that.”
Derek tried to keep his gun trained on their target while he craned his head toward the sound of the voice, hauntingly familiar despite them being deep in the woods.
Ezekiel Lesterfield stepped out from behind a tree, making so little noise that he probably could have walked up and tapped Derek on the shoulder before being noticed. His clothing was decidedly different than what he’d worn at the museum earlier in the day. He was dressed for the outdoors.
Before Derek could make sense of his sudden appearance, however, Francis asked, “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“My family has walked these woods for centuries, long before even old Jedediah and his brood. He was our patriarch in those days, you see. Generations of us have hunted these lands, fished these streams, been born here, died here. Taking that into account, I’m sure you could see why I might be far more justified to ask that question of you gentlemen.”
“Sir,” Derek said, “I’m not sure what you’re doing out here, but I must ask that you leave.”
“Oh, I think not, Mr. Jenner.”
Derek didn’t like the man’s tone. There was something aggressive, almost predatory in his cadence. “I will ask again that you leave,” he warned. “This is an official investigation and we are duly appointed deputies of the...”
“Official? Well, that is interesting. Fascinating, even. However, I am forced to focus on matters more near and dear to my heart.”
“Derek?” Danni asked.
He glanced at her. “Escort Mr. Lesterfield from the area, please. We’ll discuss this with him later.”
She took a step toward him, but Ezekiel held up a hand. “As I said, I can’t allow you to do that, Sarah.”
“Why do you keep calling me that?”
He ignored her, turning his attention back to Derek. “The same way I cannot allow you to continue threatening my dear nephew Noah.”
“Noah?” Francis asked. “The fuck are you talking about?”
Derek, however, was starting to piece the puzzle together. “This...” He motioned with his head toward the creature, now standing knee-deep in the bog. “...is Noah?”
“Yes. He’s a spirited child, but blood is thicker than water, I’m afraid. Now kindly lower your weapons.”
Francis let out a laugh. “Like hell we will.”
“That was not a request.”
At Ezekiel’s words, several hulking figures, almost a dozen in all, stepped out from the surrounding foliage, moving as quietly as he’d been. All of them were misshapen, disfigured in some way – sloping brows, discolored skin, mangled appendages, and more.
Danni let out a gasp, although Derek wasn’t sure if it was the sight of these newcomers or the fact that every single one of them was armed, their weapons all pointed at his team.
Within seconds, they were surrounded. Derek quickly realized there was little chance of reaching cover before being gunned down. He still wasn’t sure what was going on, but it was painfully obvious they’d somehow walked straight into an ambush.
He saw Francis tense and quickly threw him a shake of his head.
“Shit,” the bigger man spat.
Derek lowered his gun and turned to face Ezekiel. “What do you want?”
“For starters,” Ezekiel said, “I would ask that you kindly drop your weapons.”
“Ask?”
Ezekiel turned toward Francis. “Let us not mince words, sir. My kin are not the type to tolerate fools.”
Derek tossed his rifle to the ground, and Francis did the same.
“Radios, too, please.”
The team did as told.
Derek still had his hunting holster and Ruger tucked away beneath his jacket. It wasn’t ideal against these odds, but he wasn’t about to volunteer that information upfront. If they wanted it, let them search him.
Movement from behind caught his attention and he glanced over his shoulder to see the creature called Noah step past him with a huffing snarl.
The rest of the group circled around until Derek and his team’s backs were to the bog. Most of the weapons pointed at them looked old. At least one appeared to be an actual blunderbuss. He wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that half of them fired black powder cartridges. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t work, though. “What do you want with us?”
“With you?” one of the men asked, his voice slurred thanks to the hefty cleft in his upper and lower lips. He let out a laugh and several of the others joined in.
“I’m sorry to say,” Ezekiel said after a few moments, “that we have no use for you and your friend here.” He gestured toward Francis. “We do, however, have a powerful need for Sarah.”
Several things happened at once.
Francis balled his fists. “Touch her and I’ll bury my foot so far up your ass you’ll be shitting toenails.”
“Why do you keep calling me that?” Danni asked. “My name is...”
Before she could finish, one of the men stepped forward and clubbed her with the butt of his rifle, knocking her to the ground.
Francis took a single step toward her just as Derek saw fingers tightening on triggers. He spun toward his friend. “Frank, get...”
Any other words he had to say were lost against the sound of multiple gunshots.