Homecoming (A Finn McCoy Paranormal Thriller #1)

  ***

  “I’m going,” Amanda said. “Just like we’d planned.”

  “That was before little nasty uglies started showing up on Main Street,” McCoy argued.

  “All the more reason I need to go. Do you think Lyle is going to have your back on this?”

  “I can watch my own back.”

  “Yeah. Like you did with the water hound?”

  “Are you ever going to let me live that down?” McCoy shook his head in exasperation.

  “Probably not.” Amanda finished tying her shoe and grabbed her jacket. “Are you ready?”

  McCoy was beaten, and he knew it. He didn’t have time to argue. If the Sluagh were slinking around in the town proper, it was only a matter of time before something really bad happened. If they dallied much longer, there might not be a town left by the time they arrived.

  “Okay. But you stick to me like glue, got it?”

  “Your own shadow won’t be able to get between us.”

  “Good. Grab my knapsack. I’ll get the guns.”

  McCoy carried two shotguns loaded with iron slugs. He also had a walking stick made from black rowan, which he had used to kill the water hound at Amanda’s lake house. Black rowan was also called fairy wood, and it could hurt the Fey like no normal wood could.

  He insisted on taking Boo, citing the possible need of its four wheel-drive capabilities. Amanda, though not happy, relented, and they loaded up the truck. It was nearly two AM when they left McCoy’s house; driving at the truck’s top speed, they couldn’t hope to make the trip in less than an hour.

  McCoy wasn’t overly concerned about obeying the speed limit, but he didn’t want to drive recklessly, either. There was little traffic at this time of night, and the weather and road conditions were good, but he still slowed when he saw the occasional pair of headlights approaching from the opposite direction. He didn’t want to get pulled over by the cops. A quick call to Lyle would probably get him out of a ticket, but he couldn’t afford the delay.

  “Shouldn’t you call ahead to Lyle?” Amanda asked as they sped through the darkness. “He may not even know what’s going on.”

  “I’ve been debating that,” McCoy answered. “I’d think Talbot would have already alerted him. If not, and I call, I’m going to have to explain why I was on the phone with one of his deputies, and that’s going to cause tension between all of us. If things are about to get bad, we won’t be able to afford the distraction.”

  “How bad will things get?”

  McCoy shrugged. “I have no idea, to be honest. None of the Fey have ever had the balls to show up in the middle of town. Talbot said he’d seen one. Hopefully, it was just a scout. Even that would be bad, but at least it would be better than a whole pack of them.”

  “And if it is a whole pack?” Amanda asked. “How is word of this not going to get out”?

  “It probably will, at least for as long as it takes for the government to get involved. Then it’s anybody’s guess. My bet would be they’d quarantine the area while they attempted to deal with the Fey. Afterwards, people who saw anything at all would be reconditioned, or else they’d just disappear.”

  “The government would do that?” Amanda sounded unconvinced.

  “You have no idea.”

  “Yeah, and I probably don’t want to. It’s enough that I already know about ghosts and ghoulies and evil fairies.”

  “Yes, it is,” McCoy agreed.

  They grew silent, each lost in their own thoughts as they drove through the night.