“He’s a shifter, isn’t he?” I asked. “A deer this big has to be a shifter.”
“Likely.” Austin’s voice turned fierce. “I’m coming. Don’t move. I’ll be there soon.”
“Wait, but…” Dead air. I hadn’t gotten to tell him the unnerving issue with this animal.
It glowed.
Its body looked like it was shrouded in a sheen of pale blue against the black backdrop.
I grabbed both edges of the windowsill, my phone on the ground, wondering what to do next. Ivy House couldn’t take care of the problem for me, not when she didn’t know there was one. This was up to me and my team.
I could use the defenses, but I hadn’t practiced with them as I should’ve. I’d probably kill instead of trap or maim, and I didn’t feel comfortable doing that. Not until I was sure the creature posed more of a threat than eating Edgar’s flowers. The right thing to do would be to trap it with my magic so I could question it. For that, I’d need to get closer. I wasn’t totally set on magical nets.
What if I spooked it before I could do a magical net, though? Deer could hear crazy well, regardless of whether they were shifters, and I was the world’s worst sneak. If I spooked it, it would know the jig was up. If its intent was dangerous, that would mean it would change its plan of attack. Knowing about the intrusion meant we had the upper hand right now—if it knew we were onto it, it would regain the advantage. I couldn’t risk it.
Flight!
I could head up to the third floor, jump off the roof on the other side of the house, get high into the sky, and follow it when it inevitably moved on. I could find out where it went, and if it changed into its human form, I’d know who we were looking for.
But I had smaller wings than a male gargoyle, and I had to beat them more often, which could be loud, especially if I thought I was falling out of the sky and panicked. It would be smarter to recruit Ulric, small and swift, or Jasper, a great glider.
I chewed my lip, feeling Austin on the move, but he was still too far away. That deer didn’t eat much at a time. It wouldn’t be here for long. I had to get a flyer in the sky right now, or I needed to attack the intruder, hopefully stunning it so I had a chance to get a net or magical binding around it.
I turned around with purpose and immediately screamed. Mr. Tom was standing just a few feet behind me in his house sweats, staring out the window. I hadn’t felt or heard him enter the room. I ignored him so often that it had become commonplace.
“Edgar was wrong—clearly it is a deer eating his flowers,” he said, sneaking toward the window.
“Damn it, Mr. Tom, announce yourself, will you?”
“Sorry, miss. I felt your distress. Is it my eyes, or is that creature glowing?”
“It is. It’s almost certainly a shifter, and it must have a thick layer of magic on it to shield it from Ivy House.”
Mr. Tom knelt next to me. “These are bad tidings. Someone has figured out how to make themselves invisible while on this property.”
“Yeah, and we need to find out who that someone is, not to mention how to prevent it from happening again. If magic can get them in here, there has to be some kind of reverse spell to strip it away.”
“Now you’re thinking like a sorceress.”
“Too bad I can’t do magic like a sorceress.”
“Yet.”
I backed away from the window. “Let’s get Ulric. He can follow it—”
“No time. Look!” Mr. Tom pointed.
The deer, still munching, lifted its head, looking over the gardens. It paused as if in contemplation before walking a few steps, every bit as graceful as a natural deer. It didn’t bow back to the flowers, though its hesitation said it was thinking about it.
“It’s not eating as much as it wants to,” I whispered, watching in fascination, not sure if I was studying it or I was just too torn to act. Go get Ulric, or go down there and try to blast it with magic?
“It’s holding back. Why, I wonder?” I paused for another moment, considering, then forced myself into action. I wouldn’t get any answers sitting here. “I’ll get Jasper, actually. If anyone is good at silence, it’s that guy. Keep watching it, Mr. Tom. Try to figure out what it’s after.”
Jasper opened the door after the second soft rap, his room two doors down from my parents’. Even though I was in a hurry, I didn’t want them coming out and asking questions. They’d just slow everything down.
The door swung open, Jasper’s eyes puffy with sleep and his unruly light brown hair in a halo around his head. He didn’t respond, just waited for me to speak.
“I need your help. Hurry!” I waved him down the hall after me, breaking into a jog. Back at my room, easing in beside Mr. Tom, still crouched at the window, I pointed to the deer. It was working away from Edgar’s position, staring at the house all the while. “Can you get into the air and follow it without being detected?” I whispered.
He bent beside me and then leaned forward, bracing his large hand against the windowsill. Both of us were far enough back and low enough that the darkness of the room would mask what little of us might be visible from the deer’s vantage point. “Is it glowing?”
“Yeah. Looks like a shifter, too. Ivy House can’t feel it. That’s what’s been eating Mr. Tom’s flowers.”
“Edgar’s,” Mr. Tom said.
“Sorry, yeah. Edgar’s. Can you follow it, Jasper? Without being noticed?”
“For how long?” Jasper asked.
“I don’t know, until…you have something to report, I guess. But it can’t know you’re there.”
He stripped off his shirt and jogged out of the room. I felt him heading for the stairs. He’d use one of the third-floor openings in the floor or wall and take to the sky.
“Now what, miss?” Mr. Tom asked, a buzz sounding from his pocket.
I shook my head, needing to do something more. This creature was on my property, and Ivy House couldn’t defend herself. It was on me to pick up the slack. Everything in me wanted to run out there and teach the shifter a lesson. Teach it—mostly likely a him—to invade my space and mess with Edgar’s flowers. Logic had to reign supreme, though. That deer would be back. Haste without planning caused mistakes. Right now we had the upper hand—we needed to keep it.
Mr. Tom swore under his breath. The light from his phone screen highlighted his cheekbones and eyes. “It’s Niamh. The house across from hers has a prowler. She just caught a glimpse before the figure slipped behind the bushes. She’s wondering if she should engage.”
“What is it? Is it a shifter?”
Mr. Tom bent to his phone, typing out a message. I wondered why he didn’t just call, but was thankful for it. Text was quieter and there was less room to insult each other. It would be quicker.
I clutched the windowsill, my mind whirling. I couldn’t be sure the entity at the front was a danger to me, not yet. Could just be a burglar. I had to get ready to move, though, just in case.
“Not a shifter,” Mr. Tom said as his phone vibrated with a new message. “A human form. She doesn’t know what magic it is.”
I paused. “Tell her to keep watching, but not engage. If it is a powerful mage, she’ll be on the losing end of that battle. We need information before we combat this. If it comes on Ivy House’s property, have her text, just in case it has the same spell as the shifter out back.” I pushed away from the window and crouch-crawled to the center of the room. “Come on, let’s get ready to fly in case something kicks off.”
I stood and made my way downstairs, pausing again at the bottom of the stairs. Did we head to the front, or back? Austin would likely approach from the rear through the woods, and if he caught sight of that shifter, he’d give chase. If the entity at the front joined in the battle, we’d need to intercept. If not, and we went to the back to help Austin, we’d leave the front vulnerable.
“Mr. Tom, go get Ulric and Cedric. Have them watch the front in case that prowler heads this way.”
With him dispatched, I made it to the back of the house. Once there, I stripped off my clothes and changed form. Mr. Tom joined me not long after and followed suit.
Minutes ticked by. I felt Jasper invade the airspace, high overhead. The fact that I could sense him in the air made it that much stranger that I couldn’t feel the deer whose hooves were in Ivy House dirt.
“Wee ’aft oo fiiiin du schpell—” I sighed and stopped trying to talk. I was getting better at working around the enlarged teeth and prominent canines in this form, but it was an ongoing struggle. I’d wait to tell Mr. Tom that we needed to find the spell that might allow a creature to walk past magical surveillance undetected.
Although…he had set off my magical tripwire, so there was substance to him. It actually didn’t get past magical surveillance. It was just Ivy House that was blind to it. But why?
“Ook.” Mr. Tom pointed, his long claw tapping the window.
The deer worked around the side of the house as if tracking the flowers. We followed its progress from within the house, moving from window to window, staying well back or within the shadows.
Mr. Tom glanced at his phone, the screen somewhat obscured by his long nails, not lit up. No text message from Niamh. The prowler at the front wasn’t an issue. Not yet.
The deer shifter didn’t eat any more flowers or do much of anything but look. It moved its head like a person might, checking each window, pausing for a long time with its snout slightly raised, looking at the second or third floors. Given my room spanned the back corner of the house, I had a sinking suspicion that it had a special interest in my room.
Edgar’s movements registered. He was creeping along at a snail’s pace, the vampire who’d once been great at stalking prey having lost his edge many, many decades ago. Adrenaline coursed through me. If he wasn’t careful, he’d be the piece that upset this whole night.