“Blech.” Cyra shivered. “I want to burn it all over again.”
“Are you expecting anyone besides the third wave of basajaunak?” Kingsley asked Austin, looking up from his phone.
The basajaunak peeled away as we neared them.
“No, why? What is it?” Austin asked.
Kingsley paused near the burned body, looking down on it for a moment before glancing around.
“We’ve seen these creatures before. We’ve caught and killed two so far.”
It looked like a small mountain lion, kinda, with tan fur and a feline body. But white hair covered its shoulders and neck almost like a mane, dipping down like a small beard. Two serpentine tails ran from its hind end, covered in a pattern of blue and green diamonds, thick at the base and thinning out to points. Long canines protruded from its jaw, too big for its mouth and sticking out beside the lips.
The feet had three toes each with long black claws, almost like talons.
“They don’t exist in any animal encyclopedia we’ve found,” Kingsley said. “We can’t find their likeness on the internet. They’ve all been slightly different, too—same idea but with hooves or a birdlike head. One was as big as a natural wolf, and the other was like a medium-sized dog. We have no idea what it is. We don’t have the ability to do blood work here, and the vets in the closest Dick town have organized an anti-shifter club because they think we’re the products of screwing animals or something. They don’t believe in magic, so their reasoning for us…can get drastic. We couldn’t go to them about these things.”
“What would they think about me mammy, do ye think?” Niamh asked no one in particular. “She couldn’t choose which creature was the right one fer her, so she rode ’em both, and here I am, two animal forms to me name.”
“They might not be an abomination,” Mr. Tom told her, “but you sure are. An abomination on rational thought and a peaceful existence.”
“A bit of a stretch, that—”
“Okay, okay, settle down before Kingsley changes his mind and kicks us all out,” I told them.
“No way,” Sebastian breathed, pushing through Austin and me and crouching down beside the
creature. “No way! Nessa, come look at this.”
“What is it?” I asked, knowing by his excitement that this had to be something magical.
“Whatcha got?” Nessa knelt beside him. “First impressions—I am very grossed out.”
Sebastian poked at the body before lifting a lip to look at the gums. “A few different animals in this, I think.” He slid onto his knees toward one of the tails, shoving Nessa out of the way. “A reptile was involved, obviously.”
“What is it?” I asked again, scooting closer.
“I’ve heard rumors.” He took out his phone and started snapping pictures. “I mean, we’ve all heard rumors, haven’t we?”
“They haven’t heard rumors, Sabby.” Nessa sat back on her heels. “Is this really what I think it is?”
“Remember I told you once, Jessie—or did you tell me? Mages once tried to create female gargoyles. They took the DNA of a male gargoyle and a mage, messed around in the lab with magic and genetics, and voila: female gargoyle. Except their magic was no more powerful than that of a standard mage—or less, most times—and they couldn’t shift. They also couldn’t reproduce.”
“No surprise there,” Nessa murmured. “Men aren’t known for their understanding of female anatomy.”
“What does that have to do with this?” Austin asked.
“The Mages’ Guild has an interest in creating their own thinking animals,” Sebastian answered,
“what they think of as shifters. But their creations would be within their control. Magically, I mean.”
“Mixing magical human and animal DNA?” I asked, disgusted and showing it. “That’s illegal, right? Doing stuff like that?”
“Highly illegal, yes. Obviously,” Sebastian said. “But who knows what science is doing without people knowing, you know? Looks like the Guild got a hold of some scientists who wanted to experiment, and here we are. This…creature.” He looked up at Kingsley and then Cyra. “Any idea how intelligent it was?”
“It was trying to stalk me, but it kinda…skittered along,” Cyra said. “I thought it was just an animal, not a human driving an animal body, like a shifter.”
“From what I’ve gathered, they’re the equivalent of very smart dogs,” Kingsley said.