Chapter 55
"Dyson!" Bo called to the wolf as she rushed through the entrance of the Dal.
"I went to a few bars that Kenzi sometime goes to, besides here, and didn't see her."
"She's definitely not here," Dyson shook his head. He raised his hand and nodded at Tamsin, when he saw the blonde walking in right behind Bo.
"Anyone here see her leave or anything? Maybe she left with someone?" Bo asked.
"Most of them are too drunk to talk," Dyson said pointing at the tables that were still occupied right now. "And, Trick couldn't remember seeing her leave."
Bo looked around, trying to find someone that was still sober enough to make a conversation with. Then she noticed a girl who was sitting beside the bar. The young girl was cute, but dressed in a rather simple, almost shabby, outfit. A light grey cloak covered her upper body, with a scarf covering half of her face. The only decorative piece on her, was an large, unusual pendant. It was a gold piece on a silver chain, with pieces of gem stones on it, amber, colored glaze, and some that Bo couldn't name. Resting on the counter right in front of her was something that looked like a long, gold walking staff. At one end of the staff, it had three arcs arranged in a circle that surrounded what looked like a building of some sort. It also had 6 small rings attached to the arcs. It was something Bo had never seen before. But what bothered her was that the girl had a shot glass in her hand, and judging by the half empty bottle right next to her, Bo would say not only did she drink alcohol, she could also hold her liquor really well, but also that she looked like she was way under age.
"Since when does Trick serve alcohol to minors?" Bo whispered to Tamsin, although she knew it might just be the last thing she should be worrying about right now.
"Oh, sweetheart, she's not a minor," Tamsin said to Bo. "She's merely a living thing."
"She's undead?"
"No, she never lived." Tamsin said, "She's a Weapon Spirit."
"What is that?" Bo frowned.
"It means her true form is a weapon. An old, powerful piece, and after many years, the weapon gathers enough energy, and can turn into human form, in this case, her."
"So you mean she's a piece of metal, not a living Fae?"
"Well, I think Weapon Spirits are considered Fae, but I haven't seen one since..." Tamsin said hesitantly, "...hell I don't remember. Anyway, she's a piece of weapon."
"And what weapon might that be?" Bo wondered.
"I guess I'll go ask her if she has seen Kenzi, but how do I talk to a weapon?"
"Treat her like a normal customer in the Dal. If she touches you, scream, and I'll come to rescue you." Tamsin said her voice full of teasing. Bo rolled her eyes at her.
The Valkyrie chuckled and said, "And for your information, her true form is probably that Khakkhara in front of her."
"Khak...what? Is that a real name, or are you stuttering?"
Tamsin sighed, "God, you are such a baby Fae. It's Sanskrit for sounding staff, a.k.a monk staff. Look, do you really want a lesson on ancient weapons right now or are you gonna find your pet first?"
Bo nodded to Tamsin, and then approached the girl. She sat down beside her, and saw the girl glancing at her from the corner of her eye. But she didn't turn around; she just moved her eyes back to her shot glass.
"Excuse me… emmm… have you seen a girl, five two, dark hair, pale blue eyes..." Bo asked, staring at the girl. She wasn't looking at Bo, but Bo knew she had caught her attention. She felt weird talking to her, because when she got this close to her, she finally realized that although the young girl looked very much like a person, she had no living energy within her. Bo couldn't see any aura emanating from her. She was like a black hole in the room, not emitting anything.
"With a Kitsune in her arms?" The girl said calmly, putting her shot glass down.
"Yeah, yeah, so you've seen her?"
"Yes," the girl nodded. "She left."
"When?"
"About an hour ago."
"Was she with anyone when she left?"
"Just the Kitsune."
The girl poured herself another drink.
"Well-" Bo was about to say something, but was interrupted by the Valkyrie. Tamsin pulled her up from the chair and said, "Got her cell phone location. Looks like its located right in the back alley not far from the Dal's back door. Let's go."
"If she got too drunk, and is passed out there again, I'm gonna seriously kick her ass..." Bo said as she ran towards the back door. She forgot to thank the young girl, but it didn't bother the Weapon Spirit at all. She turned to the back door of the Dal, and watched Bo dash out, with Tamsin and Dyson following right behind her. Frowning a little, she tilted her head, blinking, as if she was trying to figure something out. Then she stood up, putting some gold coins on the counter. Pulling her scarf up to cover her hair and almost all of her face, she grabbed her staff and walked out of the bar. Before she left, she turned around and took a last glance at Bo, whispering, "She's quite different than I pictured, Master."
Running towards the back alley, Bo had her phone in her hand dialing Kenzi's number. She almost immediately heard Kenzi's ringing phone when she got outside. She followed the sound, and stopped right in front of a dumpster. She found Kenzi's phone under it, but the petite girl was nowhere to be seen. Bo had been trying to convince herself that Kenzi might just be too drunk to answer her phone, or that she was somewhere she couldn't hear the ringing, but now, finding her phone without her, Bo felt something heavy just dropped on her heart.
"You found something?" Dyson asked, running towards her.
"It's her phone..." Bo said, "Abandoned under the dumpster. Shit, now I'm really worried."
Dyson wanted to say something, but then his attention was drawn by something else. He looked around, sniffing the air.
"Something was here." He said, "Something that smells really bad, like it was living somewhere damp, with rotten corpses..."
"Oh, don't tell me it's a Manticore again..." Bo said, shaking her head.
"No, it's something else." Dyson said, as he crouched down and checked the pavement in the alley, looking for possible trails left by the thing. He didn't see any footprints, but he noticed something right beside the dumpster. There was paper scattered all around the dumpster that had fallen from someone carelessly throwing their trash away. On one of them, there appeared to be a weird print.
"What is that?" Bo asked, after taking a close look at it. To her it looked nothing like someone's footprint.
"Looks like a hoof print..." Dyson said, holding the paper close to his nose, " It's fresh, and belongs to whoever, or whatever, that was here."
"So that thing left this print..." Bo said, "A horse?"
"If a horse could have left such big hoof print, I would considered it a monster horse." Dyson shook his head, "I'll take it to the tech team, and see what they can find out."
"Whatever it is, did that thing take Kenzi?" Bo asked.
"I can't tell. This smell is too strong; I can't pick up her scent." Dyson said, as he walked away from the dumpster location and tried to pick up Kenzi's scent, but he failed. He shook his head and came back to Bo, sighing.
"Hey, guys." Tamsin's voice came from the lamp pole not too far away from them, "Check this out."
Bo ran to her, Dyson followed. Tamsin pointed out something on the ground to them. It was a piece of feather, covered by the shadow of the lamp pole, almost invisible.
"Damn, the feather again. Is it just me, or does it look like those Dyson found at my place after the break in, and on that dead body in the warehouse?" Bo said, looking at Tamsin.
"Can't tell the difference." Tamsin said, bagging the feather, "I guess some Mediterranean owl has had a visit." She raised her head and turned to Dyson, "What do you say, partner? Put your wolf nose to some use and trace wherever that thing went? If he took that annoying human girl, we find him, we find her."
Dyson nodded. He was about to take off, before they all heard something moving behind the dumpster. Bo immediately pulled her dagger out. Both Dyson and Tamsin pulled their guns out. Bo approached the dumpster slowly from one end, Tamsin covering the other side. They pushed the dumpster away at the same time, and were shocked to see a fox was shivering there.
"Casey." Tamsin said, putting her gun back. The fox threw herself to her, wrapping her front paws around Tamsin's shin.
"That's Casey?!" Bo exclaimed.
"Yep." Tamsin said, "When Kitsunes are in extreme emotional states, they sometimes can't turn back to their human form for a while. Younger ones have a harder time controlling that transformation too."
She grabbed the back of the fox's neck, and lifted her up. "Well, I guess we'll get this bitch home, and you can go full succubabe so she can talk."
After a long time of persuasion, talking, and thirty minutes of Bo's charms, Casey was finally able to turn back to her human form. The poor girl sat on the couch, covered in a blanket, with a mug of hot chocolate in her hand, and she was still shaking. At first she couldn't get a single sentence out about Kenzi. She kept mumbling about the Kitsune killer. How he approached her in the Dal. How she found him charming and funny. How he lured her to the woods and attacked her. Bo and Tamsin had to reassure her that the guy was dead, just to calm her down. Eventually some alcohol added to the hot chocolate did the trick, and Casey was finally able to talk about what she had seen when she was with Kenzi.
"He...he...he took her..." She said, and almost spilled her drink when she said he.
"Who?" Bo tried hard not to sound like she was panicking, but she knew she was. She had this little hope that maybe Kenzi just wandered somewhere else, but now, that hope was crushed. Bo laid her hand on Casey's arm, sending out her charm.
"Who took Kenzi?" She asked.
Casey shook her head, "I don't know. I don't know...there's this...this thing."
"Did you get a good look at him? Or it?" Tamsin asked, "Casey, I need you to focus."
"No," Casey shook her head, " I was...just too scared. It was something big, bulky, and... and scary. It had these red eyes..."
"But, you are sure that thing took Kenzi."
Casey nodded like crazy. She started to cry, and Bo had to comfort her by sending her a lot of charm.
"And... there was this... bird... but... creepy." Casey said, "It kept staring at us."
"A bird?" Bo frowned. She took a glance at Tamsin, and the Valkyrie was looking at her too. From the look on the blonde's face, Bo knew they were thinking the same thing, the feather they found at the three locations, which according to the tech team, belonged to some sort of owl that only inhabits the Mediterranean region.
"Was it an owl?" Bo asked.
"I don't know... but it could have been. It had these glittering eyes..."
"Was there anyone else? Anyone or anything? Anyone pass by?" Tamsin asked.
"I don't know. I don't think so..." Casey said.
"Anything else you can remember?"
Casey shook her head, and downed her chocolate. "Where's Amanda? Can you guys call her and ask her to come here?"
"Sure." Bo said. She knew Casey had probably told them everything she could remember, even if she knew something else, she was probably too scared to talk about it right now. She called the other Kitsune, and twenty minutes later, Amanda ran in with tears on her face. The two girls hugged each other and cried on Bo's couch.
"Alright, let's call Dyson, and see if he found out anything." Tamsin said to Bo. She took out her phone, but before she could call anyone, it rang.
"Was just about to call you, Wolfboy." Tamsin said, "Any good news?"
"I am afraid not." Dyson said, "I traced the scent, and it suddenly disappeared about ten miles away from the Dal, like that thing just vanished in the air. I couldn't smell Kenzi anywhere either. The tech teams are requesting those camera feeds along the trail, but it could take quite some time before they actually find anything."
Tamsin bit her bottom lip, and then she said, "Give me the location where you last smelled that thing's scent. I'll take the succubus with me, and see if we can find anything useful."
"Ok, but don't get your hopes up too high." Dyson said, "I've already canvassed the area, and found nothing."
"Well, how about you come babysit, and we'll go find the little Russian." Tamsin said.
