Someday, perhaps I'll learn not to say things like "I hope it stays this quiet" or "Everything's going to go smoothly" during times of stress and crisis. Things like that seem to tempt the trickster gods.

It was about fifteen minutes later when I saw Athena's shadowy form emerge into the back yard and make her way towards the back fence. She moved with a sure grace that I was certain was perfectly silent and which made me just a little bit envious.

> I said to her. >

> she replied without stopping, disappearing behind the back yard's big oak tree. >

>

> she replied, a certain hesitancy in her voice.

>

She was silent for a full minute. > she said finally. >

I considered that, leaning against the window frame and looking out into the night. What could cause that? Not zombies. Yeah, they can stink to high heaven, but they're not exactly the subtlest of creatures, and if there was one in the area it would stand out like a sore thumb. And it wasn't likely to stay just one or unseen for very long.

Vampires? There were one or two types of vampire that really were just decaying corpses, and a couple that weren't but carried the scent of decay with them anyway, for some obscure metaphysical reason. But off the top of my head I couldn't think of any that wouldn't have left some sort of physical traces behind them.

Another type of supernatural predator, then. Which didn't really narrow the field at all, unfortunately. There were a lot of different creatures that used scents as markers, warnings and even as a defense in some cases. More than a few of those were energy-eaters.

Even worse, a few of those were shapeshifters. Boggarts, Fetches and Doppelgängers immediately came to mind. I dismissed Doppelgängers without a second thought - if it was one, it wouldn't have appeared as Billy's sister, but as Billy himself. That was their modus operandi, and they were clever but not particularly bright.

Boggarts were fear-eaters, and while that would certainly show up to a diagnostic spell as damage to the Chakras, it too wouldn't have shown up as Billy's sister. It would instead have appeared as something paralytically terrifying to him. They were neither bright nor clever and never varied from that methodology. So I could rule them out too.

Fetches? That was a disturbing thought. Smart, clever, and not so much evil as viciously nasty and completely untrustworthy. Unless you were paying them, in which case they were about as reliable a mercenary as one could ask. Not a front-line fighter, they did mostly snatch-and-grab kidnappings or assassinations. And they were absurdly good at both. Like Boggarts, they were fear-eaters, but preferred a diet of subtle, slow terror as opposed to quick, shocking scares.

I took a moment to slow my heart down and take a few deep breaths. It was amazingly unlikely that this could be a Fetch, or any of the other things that had run through my mind. There was no sense scaring the crap out of myself. "The odds are better that we'll be hit by a burglar tonight," I muttered.

Remember what I said about needing to learn not to say certain things at certain times?

Artemis suddenly rose to her paws, ears cocked, evidently more alert than she had appeared to be. A moment later, I heard the faint tinkle of breaking glass from downstairs.

"Oh, you have got to be joking," I whispered. >

> Athena replied, and I saw her shadow dart across the lawn towards the back door.

Artemis moved for the door, but I hurried forward and caught her collar gently. "Stay here with me, pet. Athena can handle whoever's down there."

She bared her teeth at the door - always an impressive sight - but subsided, settling onto her haunches again. Her tail and ears remained tensed; her fur bristled slightly. > she said a moment later.

"Something other than our probable burglar?" I asked in a hushed voice.

> She looked up at me, confusion on her face and in her thoughts. >

I sniffed the air and smelled nothing unusual.

A thought occurred to me. What if the smell of decay my familiars were picking up wasn't a literal, physical smell, but a metaphysical presence that their senses could only translate as a scent. That would certainly explain why I hadn't smelled it myself until I was on top of the compost heap.

"Can you tell where it's coming from?" I asked.

>

We both turned to look at the window, a magelight appearing cupped in my left hand as we moved.

The thing that hung framed in the window was simply revolting. It's body was sort of spherical, about three feet across, lumpy and mottled in shades of dark brown and black. It had stubby legs and arms that could only be vestigial, and a tiny head. Its face smiled at us with inane, vapid good cheer.

It waved.

And for a moment, just a moment, I thought I saw Athena clinging to the outside of the window, gesturing to be let in. But my psychic defenses are strong, and I shook it off quickly. This...thing...was our predator, beyond a doubt.

There was a series of thumps and muffled cursing from downstairs. > Athena announced a moment later. >

Artemis hissed and moved, putting herself between the window and Billy. Which is when I realized that he was rising.

My senses felt murky and slow somehow, and I realized that it knew its first gambit had failed. I was under attack.

I pushed back, envisioning my mental defenses as a fortress of iron surrounding my mind and threw up a forcefield around that. Instantly, I felt normal again, though I could feel the thing's psychic attack like a steady pressure around my head.

>

> Athena said at the same time. > The last was delivered with urgency, and a moment I heard the back door bang open and shut.

> I said. >

Artemis had gone up on her hind paws, her forepaws on Billy's chest, trying to push him back to the bed. >

I started towards the window, waving my hand at Billy as I went and murmuring a single word in Gaelic. Sleeping spells are something every Mage learns early on. They're simple, don't require a lot of Anima to cast, and are incredibly useful in a variety of circumstances.

Billy slumped back on the bed, eyes drifting shut again.

> Athena said, >

> I replied, gathering my Anima again, >

>

I released the magelight, letting it float over my head, unlatched the window and swung it open. The smell hit me immediately, like rotting meat. Before the creature - whatever it was - could do anything, I made a downward swatting gesture with my right hand and cried out in Gaelic, "An modh orduitheach!"

I was feeling poetic, okay? I know it was verbiage overkill, but sometimes you just have to. It's not like the exact wording is important so much as the intent behind it. Whatever, it worked. The creature made a startled noise and shot straight downwards, smacked by an invisible wave of force.

I jumped up to the sill, calling "Stay here!" to Artemis, and stepped out into the air. As I started to fall, I said, "Cleití!"

Feather-weight spells are, like sleeping spells, something every Mage learns early on. They too are amazingly useful, and this particular use was a quick and dirty casting that Master Tremane had taught me for times when gravity wasn’t on my side. It wouldn't do much good for a long fall - as the saying goes, gravity is a harsh mistress - but for a two story fall? No problem.

I landed lightly, barely having to bend my knees to absorb what little impact there was, and dismissed the spell.

The creature appeared to have bounced once or twice on impact and was just rising back into the air. Athena had swung out to one side - my right, in this case - as we'd practiced, so we could catch the thing in a cross-fire. It looked back and forth between us, still smiling inanely.

Before it could move, I raised my right fist over my head, extended my index and middle fingers, twirled them in a circle, then brought them down and stabbed them at the creature. A lightning bolt lanced out from my hand and crackled across the space between us.

The creature beamed at me, opened its mouth and inhaled deeply. My lightning curved in its path and vanished into the creature's toothless mouth without a sound. It hiccuped, then belched revoltingly.

"Well, bugger." I thought fast. If it could absorb magic that easily, I was handicapped. Or maybe it was just elemental air magic. It was floating, after all, and my force spell had hit it hard enough a minute earlier.

As I gathered my Anima for a second strike, Athena drew her big LeMat revolver and began shooting. It cracked four times in quick succession, and four bullets flattened against the creature's lumpy hide and thumped to the grass below it.

I followed her small hail of bullets with a gout of blue-white flame, hot enough to sear the grass beneath the creature and make Athena take a step back from it. The creature just continued to smile inanely, though it was now smoking slightly and smelled even worse than it had before I'd scorched it. Worst of all, it seemed quite unperturbed by what little damage my fire had done.

"Let's see how it likes silver," Athena said. She thumbed the hammer on her revolver, then flicked a little lever on the top of it. A second, smaller hammer dropped down out of the normal one and into position to strike the center chamber of her revolver. She aimed, pulled the trigger, and the centerline shotgun shell fired with an echoing bang.

The creature evidently did not like silver at all. At least, I assumed that, based on how the impact of the tightly-grouped silver buckshot caused it to burst with a bang as loud as Athena's revolver. In doing so, it showered us and the ground around us with a clear, syrupy substance that smelled just as horrid as the creature itself had.

We stood there in silence for a moment. Nothing needed to be said right away. I could sense Athena's emotions running parallel to my own, vacillating back and forth between relief and disgust. We understood one another perfectly.

Finally, with a disgusted sound, Athena shook some of the goop off of her arms and gun. "What WAS that?" She asked in revulsion, slime dripping off her slowly.

I wiped some of the viscous, stinky substance off my face and shook my head. "Aside from disgusting? I honestly don't know. I think we should head home and clean up, then come back and fill in the Fishers."

Athena nodded fervently. "Good idea, Mistress."

Even as she said it, Mr. Fisher burst out of the back door carrying a double-barreled shotgun, his wife close behind him. "What was that?" He asked, "And why is there a man in a ski mask tied up on our living room floor?"

"Or," I said, "We could tell them now."

Mrs. Fisher gasped and took a step back. "What is that smell?"

I sighed. "I'm afraid it's us, Mrs. Fisher. We're sort of covered in what's left of the thing that was attacking your son."

"The man on your floor is a burglar," Athena added helpfully, trying to wipe the slime off of her LeMat and failing miserably. With a grimace and a sigh, she holstered the weapon. > she mumbled to me, >. Out loud, she finished, "You should call the police and have him picked up."

> I commiserated, thinking of what it would take to get the goop out of my hair. "I'd offer to hang around to answer questions, but we should go get cleaned up before it dries…" I trailed off and looked at Athena. Her ears were cocked attentively.

After a moment, she sighed. "Police siren."

A moment later we all heard it, and I sighed too. "Or we can answer the questions now," I said. "I hope they won't mind interviewing us outside. I don't want to track any of this slime into your house."

"Thank you for that," Mrs. Fisher said weakly, covering her nose and mouth with her hand to ward off the stench.

"More importantly," Mr. Fisher added, "Thank you for stopping whatever it was. I'll go meet the police out front and bring them around back here."

He trotted off around the side of the house, breaking open his shotgun and plucking out the shells before going to meet the police.

"Do you know what it was?" Mrs. Fisher asked.

I shook my head. "Not yet. But once I know, I'll tell you."

She nodded her thanks and retreated back into the house to get away from the smell.

The police accepted our story at face value. Fortunately, the presence of the absolutely noxious slime was as good an indicator of the presence of a supernatural predator as if the thing had still been alive for them to see. That we were coated in it was a testament to the creature having been destroyed.

They asked their questions as quickly as possible while still being thorough, arrested the burglar, and retreated from the stench almost as fast as Mrs. Fisher had. They asked only that we send them a report on the event and what the creature had been once we figured it out.

I promised to do so.

By the time they were done, it was a little past four in the morning. Mrs. Fisher was kind enough to figure out a way to tie my bag to Artemis's side so it wouldn't get covered in slime on the way home. We decided to let Billy sleep to regain his strength and set off in search of a cab.

It took us four tries to find one that would take us. Artemis refused to sit in the back seat with us and rode with her head out the window.

So did the driver.

A half an hour later, I was confronted by another problem.

"I hope you don't for an instant think you're coming into MY house with that...that...what IS that all over you?"

I gave Elsie a tired smile. "Not sure, but it smells to high heaven. My eyes have been watering constantly for the last forty minutes or so. We need to shower."

"What you need to do," the girl said, planting her hands on her hips and blocking the doorway as best she could, "Is go around to the side yard. You can hose yourselves down, then come inside and shower off the rest in the guest quarters."

It was the most she'd ever said to me at one time. From the look in her eyes and the thin set of her lips, I could tell she was dead serious. I nodded and held up my hands in surrender. "All right. Come on, Athena."

Athena sighed and nodded. "Yes, Mistress."

Artemis made to follow us, but Elsie stopped her. "You can come inside, Artemis. I'll get that bag off of you."

My still-feline familiar paused just long enough to give her sister and me a distinctly superior look before disappearing into the house. Elsie closed the door in our faces.

I exchanged a look with Athena, who shrugged eloquently. Without another word, we went to hose down.

An hour later, scrubbed clean and dressed in fresh clothes, I was sitting at the kitchen table finishing a quick breakfast. Athena was sitting across the table from me with her revolver disassembled on a soft cloth as she carefully cleaned every piece.

Hollis stood leaning against the wall beside the hearth, arms folded across his chest and a thoughtful look on his face. I had just finished giving him a brief rundown of our visit to the Fishers' home.

"It sounds," he said thoughtfully, "like nothing I've ever seen." He smiled wryly. "Congratulations, you've met something new. I rather suspect it was a construct of some sort."

Athena looked up and spoke my mind, as I had a mouthful of oatmeal. "You mean something someone summoned?" She sounded so much like me in that moment that it made me pause and look up in surprise. She giggled. "Sorry, Mistress."

I swallowed and shook my head. "Don't be. That was pretty cool."

"She's on the right track, anyway," Hollis said absently. "It seems precisely like the kind of thing that someone would have summoned. The fact that it burst the way it did when struck with silver and showered you both in some sort of ectoplasm is telling. Some constructs will do that."

"Charming," I said dryly, then took another mouthful of oatmeal.

Athena continued for me, once again perfectly reproducing my voice and thoughts. "Who could have done something like that? Who would have, for that matter?" She finished wiping down and oiling the pieces of her gun and began reassembling it.

Hollis shook his head. "An excellent question. When you go back to talk to the Fishers, do a bit of snooping around and see if you can find any traces of the thing's energy. If it left an echo of itself behind, that could be a clue as to the identity of its summoner."

I nodded and finished my oatmeal, rising. "Thanks, Hollis."

Elsie entered the room with my coat draped over one arm. Her face had a pinched, disgusted look as she held it out to me. "I managed to get all of the slime off of your coat and used one of Master's herbal concoctions to leech the stench out. You're going to smell like lavender for a few days, but I think that's preferable."

I took it from her with a smile. "I'm not going to argue. Thank you, Elsie. I owe you one."

She looked startled, then her pinched expression softened into a smile. "You're welcome, Miss Alys."

I slid into my coat and shouldered my bag, turning to Athena. "Ready?"

She checked the action on her revolver, quickly loaded it and rose as she slid it into its holster. "Ready!"

We made it back to the Fishers' home just before nine in the morning, as promised, to find that the window broken by the burglar had already been replaced. Billy met us at the door...or rather, practically bowled us over when the door was opened, first hugging me then Athena and finally Artemis...before zooming off to play in the back yard. He was still a bit pale, but obviously had back most of the energy he'd lost and was none the worse for his interrupted night.

I ended up standing outside the back door with his mother while he ran around the yard, kicking a ball back and forth with Athena and Artemis. Before coming out I had spoken with them quietly about what the creature had been. Now she spoke without looking at me. "Will he be all right?"

I had already surreptitiously checked his aura and found him already healing nicely, so I nodded. "He'll be fine in another day or two. You can already tell he's feeling better."

Mrs. Fisher nodded. "Unquestionably." She was silent for a moment. "Do you think that...whatever it was, do you think it killed my daughter?"

I sighed. "It's possible. Perhaps even likely."

"What can I do to protect the rest of my children?"

"Before we leave, I'll put up some wards around your house," I replied. "They won't do you any good against humans, but it'll keep out anything unnatural."

She smiled at me then, warmly and confidently. "Thank you, Miss Kinnear."

I returned her smile. "You're very welcome. My employer and I will also do some research to try and figure out what it really was. I'm afraid it didn't leave behind enough of an energy residue for me to tell anything immediately."

"That's all right," she said, putting a gentle hand on my shoulder. "You've already done more than we expected, what with that burglar last night."

"That was an odd bit of timing, wasn't it?"

She nodded. "Extremely. You think it was related?"

"Coincidences do happen, but I think it's worth looking into," I said thoughtfully. "I'll see if the police will tell me anything about him."

"You'll let us know if you find anything?" she asked.

I nodded. "Of course."

I let Billy play with Athena and Artemis for another half hour before we left and headed for home. It was time to get some sleep.